He simply held out his hand, too, but open. And magic set into the child’s palm a single, smooth stone, the kind perfect for skipping on a river. The child’s eyes went wide with joy, and the magic watched as the boy turned and cast the stone, and it skipped all the way across the river, causing ripple after ripple after ripple through the world. And when the child turned back to thank the young man, he was gone. And as the boy reached down to take up another pebble from the bank, it drifted up into his hand. As if by magic.
