Confusion was the most common thing August had been experiencing over the past few weeks, but as his brow dropped at the feeling from a sight off in the distance, he had never felt it as strong. Sitting on a calm river bank with an entire stack of rocks to skip, his mind couldn’t even begin to comprehend how the figure in the clearing across it looked like he was only about ten feet from him, when it was easily over a football field away. Granted, his mindset was more in the terms of ‘close’ and ‘far far’, but the question in his head would’ve been the same either way.

Why no small?

The man should’ve barely looked the size of his fingernail, just like the people surrounding it. It was almost as if he could see through them, but his mind must’ve just been playing tricks on him. There was just too much to process out here. Could it’ve just had enough? That must’ve been it. He was just seeing things.

Accepting it fully, August chuckled to himself, shaking his head at the crazy thought as he flicked a stone into the river, watching it bounce across the surface. Considering he could only count on his fingers, he lost track before physics finally had enough with it, drawing it under the peaceful current and vanishing from sight. Already completely distracted, he smiled merrily as he grabbed the next rock, planning on spending the next few hours trying to get one all the way across the water, as was his ritual.

After two however, a spontaneous swelling pride suddenly struck him, sending him head over heels with joy the instant he spotted one of his stones strike sand of the far side. Utterly overwhelmed, he jolted to his feel so quickly that he almost fell back on his butt from a lack of balance, which was only crippled by how his legs had fallen asleep a half hour ago. Even still though, he didn’t care if every muscle in his body was passed out, he had celebrating to do!

Bolting off to the nearest tree, August leapt into the sky towards the bark, shoving off it easily, gaining another vertical step before jerking up his open palms. Snapping them shut on a branch about fifteen feet off the ground, he shoved off the trunk and twisted his body to that of a young child on swing, kicking his feet to add to his momentum. The branch bark scraped against his palms as his entire body twirled around it, but the moment after his hands and torso were parallel with the ground, he released it, tucking his body into a flip as he flew over it. Upon his descent however, he uncurled his body, catching the branch with his feet, locking them together at the start of his shin and heel just before his falling weight violently yanked against it. Withstanding it though, August beat his chest in triumph as he swayed suspended upside down, letting out one of the first sounds he learned to mimic as a child. Victory echoed through the woodlands as he howled at the top of his lungs, absolutely brimming with an unfathomable sense of joy.