Around the broken base of the waterfall, the mist broke into slow strands as it rolled thick and white over the stones.

The boy watched the rhythm of the fall fade into silence as he stood close to the edge. His two eyes, one light brown and one green, mirrored the water's faint sheen below. Weary and uncertain whether the figure in the distance was real, he blinked. He merely gave up, assuming the babies had left him behind. And the figure was just a large tree. So moved on, enjoying the misty air. 

A man was partially concealed behind a fallen pillar. Impossibly tall, with long, tangled brown hair that is flecked with white. He seemed both enormous and weak, But overall Angelic. Like a flower, the boy had thought. 'He's just a flower.'

Then the man tilted his head, squinting. His lashes caught the faint illumination, long and tremulous. His face softened  almost a smile, before twisting, irritated. While glancing at the little cloaked covered being. He'd hold his hands up within the air, jumping around happily. The man kept staring until he realized that he was not perfect. The boy himself, no. His behavior. Without any delay, he changed all three of them himself as the boy danced around with the weight removed. He appeared to be at released.

For a moment, they both froze.

Then the boy puffed his cheeks, before he had grabbed the boy. And changed him also.

The tall man, equally unsettled, huffed in return  puffing his own cheeks out like a child mimicking him. The boy had remembered he took the babies from him, but why!?

The air trembled between them a strange, accidental truce of irritation and fear.

The two just stared at each other through the mist for a moment. The tall man shifted positions and chose to hunch awkwardly against the broken stone because of his advanced age, which makes. The boy was starting to tremble from a light cold rush.

Now silent and dripping through the empty space like breath, the waterfall's melody reappeared.

The boy's shallow, uneven chest rose and fell. He was asleep. Then, without hesitation or reason, he stepped closer one small, clumsy step after another until the man’s shadow hung over him.

He reached out, placing both hands on the man’s knees, then climbed, uninvited, into his lap.

The man froze. His head tilted slightly back as if unsure whether to move or breathe. His eyes narrowed, not in anger this time, but in tentative disbelief.

With a gentle thud, the boy positioned himself, his tiny hands pressing against the man's chest, and soon snoring. His mismatched eyes half-closed as he leaned his weight into him and sighed quietly, snoring audibly. The young explorer is being gently comforted by the elder. Observing his eyes.

The man's balance faltered as he grunted, a low, sharp sound. With a dull thump, his back struck the stone, and dust rose from the crevices beneath him. He briefly appeared prepared to push the boy away, but his arm moved out of instinct. He was simply being grumpy and annoyed.

He exhaled deeply, a mixture of exhaustion and surrender. His expression softened. His lashes fluttered once as he looked down, then away, into the white haze, growing tired himself. Just examining his darkened eyelids and blotting his nose.

The boy exhaled too, the sound faint and warm. His legs curled slightly, his feet radiating smoke.

The two of them sat there. The man reclined against the fractured stone, his hair falling over his face, tangled white strands glinting faintly in the half-light. He didn't look his age, maybe forty, or late thirties.

The air around them steadied. There were only distant sounds of branches falling, and the mist moved like breath, and the waterfall mumbled. But no birdsong. Not even animals, as well as pedestrians. The sound of the ground crunching underfoot. It would be rare to see another around this area