August had lost track of how long it had been since the incident.
All they knew was that they needed to get away from where they were, they needed to abandon the only thing they had ever known in their lifetime. They watched it all burn to ash and dust, what was once it's own little self-sufficient colony reduced to dysfunctional land, what was once everything to August was left as absolute nothingness. Now, August was beginning to understand how their mother had spiralled down so quickly after the death of their father, now they were beginning to understand grief, because they were mourning over this loss. The more they travelled, the more the land before them would get more and more foreign and the more they would begin to feel as if the world was empty.

A part of themselves found that idea rather appealing. There was a whole world out there to discover and claim, there were endless fields of grass to roam and mountains to hike, but another half of August was petrified of the idea of an empty planet earth, because that would have meant they would truly be alone. For eternity. That they had spent and used up all the company they would ever have in life.
If that would have been the case... Perhaps August would have joined their mama and baba.

By this point, they were. After weeks of travel and seeing nothing but abandoned villages and empty homesteads, August was starting to believe that perhaps their theory of an empty, unpopulated earth was true. Their food rations had been used up and their energy was dwindling, death was creeping up ever so slowly within the heavy hoofsteps of the mule which carried the hermit into the mountains. The equine's gait began to hobble as snow started to coat the floor - a substance August had never seen or felt in their life. If it had been any other day, they would have been fascinated and eager to feel and really discover this strange new product, but their vision was beginning to blur and their eyelids began to feel awfully heavy. Their body was hidden behind a soot-covered blanket and it was shaking violently, by this point they weren't even holding to the reins. They were letting Moose take their groggy ass wherever the hell he wanted to go, it wasn't like they were going to find anything anyways. A few more steps and Moose stumbled over stone, with their body so weak and so malnourished, August did not have the strength to keep themselves up upon the back of the mule. Their body flopped over, falling from their mount and into the snow below. The impact forced a pained groan to escape from them, the combination of that and the loud [i]thump of August's harsh landing spooked Moose so that he strafed aside. No longer did August have the willpower to pick themselves back up so they just... laid there.

Hope was no where to be seen for them.

The atmosphere was unforgiving, even for the lost souls of the mountains. In their loneliness, the harsh winds beat against their bodies like an intruding stranger pounding against a locked door, its embrace wrapped them and shook them to the very core. Moose did not once stray from his owner. Snow was beginning to collect within the fluff of his massive ears and within the hairs of his muzzle. The wind was so ferocious the mule's eyes were tearing up as a reaction to the harshness, forming ice trails that froze alone the ridge of the animal's cheekbones. They had their head low, breathing overtop of the mound that was his owner in a guardian-like stance.
August let their eyes shut for a second as their temperatures dropped and they began to shiver underneath their bear skin blanket, their senses numbed away from the world to the point that the distant footsteps of incoming visitors were ignored along with their cautious voices. It was not until they felt a prod against their sides their eyes finally bolted awake and they jolted reactively to the contact, forcing Moose to take a step back as the light sound of a yelp escaped from them.
They didn't blink for the longest time once their wide brown eyes locked themselves on Brendan. They stared with their hands clinging tightly to the bearhide blanket that covered them, the fur frosted with snowflakes and rustling against the wind. This was the first person they had ever seen in their life that was not their mother, father, or a storybook character. After weeks being convinced they were the last human alive, that the closest thing to humanity they could get was from corpses and paragraphs in a novel, there was one in flesh and blood with a pulse, lively eyes, flushed cheeks and all that made one human. It was only an instant, but immediately August could not seem to get their eyes off the boy - they presumed he was a boy, their father was a much bigger, deeper-voiced man, and they knew he was an adult. This one had to be younger. [color=#7989A2][b]"I-I -" This was such a shocking situation to be in and such a revolutionary experience they were left completely void of words. Their mouth just hung open, teeth chattering from the cold before yet another yelp escaped from them as a warm hand pressed up against their freezing cheeks. Their head craned over to face Hayley - a woman. A woman other than their mother. Their first woman, and then, Tomorrow, their first man.
Once again they were in shock of how diverse these people around them were, that they had managed to come across not one, but three [i]living human beings and they were nothing like they had ever imagined. Their eyes were all of different shades and of different emotions, each stare breathed a specific sort of energy. Their skin were flushed with beating blood behind a pale sheet of skin that coated their bodies, a shade they had never seen before, and colours on the flesh like no other. They looked over towards each person, any kind of comprehensible english was lost to them as they were trapped in awe.
For a few minutes they just shuddered and stared, their mind sent in a spinning whirl until finally, they swallowed back a lump in their throat with a quiet gulp. "You're all.... Real." They laughed at their own voice, already embarrassed over how idiotic they must have appeared. Though, all of a sudden, a wave of emotion crashed against their body and they felt their eyes begin to water and a cry daring to release itself. August clasped a hand over their mouth to prevent this from happening, sobbing into their palm.

They weren't alone anymore. 

Everything around them seemed to spin in a mad whirl when a helping hand from Tomorrow pulled them onto wobbly, unstable feet that took a moment of stumbling before finally planting themselves firmly against the snow-burdened mountainous terrain. Shock still had its ceaseless grip around August's throat, making their mouth awfully dry and their chest heavy with speechlessness as their hitched sobs were silenced by their palm. Here they were, surrounded by people of a different shade that they had only seen in pictures and novel descriptions, here they were with other human beings, a situation they had dreamed of since early childhood. here they were at this present moment finally freed from their life-long isolation and yet they could not muster to say anything other than one liners and silent cries. [i]Who are you? Who are you? The boy they had first met kept on pressing, words like a broken record. It was the second time that the question actually seemed to click in the hermit's brain and they let their hand lower from their lips and head drop, as if ashamed of their late reaction. [b][color=#7989A2]"August." They finally said, clinging tightly to their bearskin blanket as teeth chattered madly behind their words. "August Negasi." They took a few steps forward then, their frozen feet crunching through snow, the pressure sparking the sting of paresthesia to kick off within the soles of their steps, causing them to wince with every one.
It was then they finally noticed the smaller stature of Jeremiah following closely behind it's owners steps. They did see dogs before - they had one in the past, a big, powerful white dog, the name it had was forgotten as he died when August was just a child, but a dog like this... They had never seen before. "Dog." It was almost an instinctive reaction to label the animal once it was identified, and saying it reminded the hermit that they too had a companion with them. They twisted their head around to send a glance back towards their mule, his big, donkey-ears pressed back and nostrils flaring in protest against the stranger that had his reins and the strange dog that tagged along.
"Hey, Moose, it's okay, boy." They would call back to their aggravated steed, a shivering hand reaching out from their hide blanket to let the overside of their curled fingers brush over the muzzle of the animal. There was frost accumulating over the fur of his ears and the hairs of his chin, they now noticed how ice had taken the place of tears and how snowflakes settled upon the coat and lashes of the mule. A pang of guilt struck August's stomach then and they sent a worrisome look towards Tomorrow. [color=#7989A2]"Does he have a place to stay? I don't want him to stay outside."