He sat, remarkably, at peace for the vast majority of his self imposed exile. That is, until some noisy, and nosey, human and his experiment of a girlfriend, showed up on his beach. Constantly bombarding him with questions and pleas.

It was a situation he was rapidly losing patience with. Rather ironic for an immortal.

Most of the time, he responded with noncommittal grunts or short responses along the lines of, “Go away”, or “Leave me be”. The Children didn’t seem to want to listen. They were barely a few centuries on in their, pathetically, short lives - they should still have the wherewithal to listen to their elders.

After a few days, he expanded his verbal repertoire to ”I don’t care”.

For all his reticence, the pair were growing on him. The young man was wise, even beyond his years, an incredible feat for a human. The adaptation experiment was also wise, but possessed of a kind and empathetic heart. He had overheard their names on a number of occasions, Col was a young man who seemed to have just barely stretched himself into manhood. The female was named Telira, it was clear to his eyes that she was the progeny of an experiment to blend human and Atlantean DNA to survive underwater and under very high pressure. They were to be stewards of ocean life and maintain it’s balance while fostering evolutionary paths for other creatures. They appeared to have succeeded.

Months had crept by. As had storms, and quiet days. The sea’s bounty was plenty for the three of them, despite his fervent hope that it would somehow dry up and the two mewling children would just starve, silently. It had turned out, Telira was a fine cook. The only cost of the pleasure of her cooking was listening to the pair’s ceaseless squawking. Even if it wasn’t questions toward him, they talked of the world and it’s events.

Though their mouths moved not, their minds were louder than a hurricane. Such a lack of discipline was, and should have been, a great shame to them. Predictably, it wasn’t such a shame, it seemed. It was, sadly, clear that they had no idea he could hear them.

That was blatantly clear from the frank and amorous conversations they shared. Though they had been kind enough to not even mention his lack of an arm and leg, or even that he was rather short. Such polite trespassers they were.

Finally something changed in this unending dance of wills. The young man spoke. Not mere questions, but assertions and comments. “I have watched you all this time. You don’t sleep, you eat at your leisure, and you posses replacement limbs that can’t be made even with the most advanced technologies I’ve seen in the world. You are an Ancient One. You must have been here since before mankind learned to sail, maybe even long before that. Just being near you brings to me the feeling of something beyond my understanding. Like catching a glimpse of eternity.” The boy said this in respectful tones, as one uses when addressing one’s superior.

Feeling the whim to respond and speak for the first time in millennia - his throat was so unused to the action it came out initially as a gravelly base, before smoothing out to a harsh baritone - “Boy, I was old before you or your girlfriend were risen from the primordial muck to be the stewards of this world, when we touched the stars, I was Old when I watched a People die, I was Old when those of us who remained went to war over your worship, I was Old when I hunted the sick bitch who cost me an arm and a leg, and I most certainly was Old when a sadly underdeveloped human and a merwoman washed up on My beach and started pestering me with questions, when all I want is to be alone. So crawl back into the waves and have your flippered girlfriend take you somewhere else, you two aren’t welcome here.” He smiled, smugly, awaiting a fiery retort or outburst.

Instead, the young man remained calm, in complete control, and still spoke with the same tones of respect. “I would ask you direct any further insults to me, I would hate to demand satisfaction from such an ancient being. From what you have said though, you confirmed that you are the one we have been looking for. Some time ago, the Universe made clear to me the intentions of a former associate of yours. She is out, Kerrick, she wants to finish what she started. She mentioned you by name, and accompanied it with a rather unhealthy laugh. Whatever you did to her clearly didn’t help her state of mind. You didn’t happen to stand her up at the altar did you?”

Kerrick flew into rage, unlike he had felt in a long time. His prosthetic arm, a device made for him by Hephaestus, had the appearance of living striated glass of clear and white. Kerrick reached out with this arm and seized the boy by the shirt, lifting him, bodily, up into the air, screaming his rage. Kerrick spoke, an angry rumble that seemed to shake the whole island. “How! She cannot be free, I would feel it! Laicorra must not walk this earth! You know not what that thing parading as an Atlantean can do! Tell me who did this and by Forseti I will end their existence as I have countless others! I Am The Law! I Am The Tribunal! I Am The Executioner!” Still not done in his blinding rage, he tossed the young man aside like a rag doll.

The young man got up, unperturbed and stately, as if nothing of the sort had even occurred. “I do not have the answers you crave, only the knowledge that you are the only one who can put her back in the prison you fashioned for her, deep in the mountains. All that we need, is to wait on one more, to find his way here. He is one who has been reborn, quite a few of those cropping up about now. Still, I rather think you’ll like him, he is quite the odd fellow, still wearing a dress if I’m not mistaken.”

Kerrick took a calming breath, something about this boy just wasn’t right, too calm, not enough passion or fire in his blood. “I was once an enforcer of law among my people, it was my job to hunt the corruption in our species. This woman is the worst of the worst, putting her away was the best I could do, even doing just that cost me an arm and a leg. Hell, I might even be a source of some of your human sayings. After all, its not like you’re the only sorry fuckers to wash ashore here. My apologies for my rage, it was unbecoming of me. Then again, so was all your constant chatter. I can hear the telepathy, too, you know. So let’s get yours and the fish stick’s names.” The young man quirked an eyebrow up at the mild insult.

Kerrick sighed deeply, “Damn it, I’m trying to be polite. Give an old sour racist a break. I remember a time when both your species were in its infancy. Ironically, your species’ could be called Laicorra’s children. She is the one who advocated the advancement of what would be humanity and the creation of the young lady’s ancestors. The only good thing she has probably ever done.”

This time, the young man looked shaken, “We aren’t children of God? What of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Forgive my shock, you have just overturned any theological belief I’ve ever held. To be fair, my name is Col, and the wonderful lady over there is named Telira.”

Kerric looked at Col through narrowed eyes. Col knew he was telling the truth and didn’t bother to question. A rare gift. What other gifts was he hiding? Besides the very loud telepathy. “I met the halfbreed you call Jesus. Interesting fellow. He showed up here a long time ago, in fact. He spent too much time with the Nature Harmony to my liking. Made him come off as a pansy when he wasn’t in the middle of a temper. Of course he didn’t say half of the shit they give him credit for but that’s how time and memory work with your short live species. I am called Kerrick by the way. Who the hell are we waiting for again?”

Col looked perturbed by the challenge to his faith, but he set it aside and pressed on. “I never gave his name, just that he is reborn. He was once Merlin in fact, though he goes by Callan now. He doesn’t even know he is coming to us. The Lady over there is quite devious and sneaky, she got on board the boat he got on and altered the sail plans to bring him in spitting distance of us.”

Kerrick made a sound dangerously close to a laugh. “Tell me you’re not a voyeur. You are, aren’t you? Damn, you probably really have seen some strange shit, haven’t you? At least tell me you’ve never watched me take a shit. Oh, and no, I didn’t leave her at the altar. She was far too bookish, for one, and she was an absolute fucking psycho, for two.”

Telira walked out of the sea, and up to the two men, with several fish threaded on a branch. Speaking aloud, for the first time, “I am being mentioned so much, even the fish are beginning to gossip. It is nice to finally hear you, Mister Kerrik. I feared time had rendered you a miserable grouch. I was right, of course, but it’s pleasant to know I wasn’t completely right. I believe I have dinner for everyone, since you seahorses were busy blowing bubbles. Should I make the campfire too or would you two like to contribute more the blustery winds?” Her smile was infectious, even bringing a smile to Kerrick’s weathered lips.

Kerrick quickly covered it up with a cough, however. He didn’t want to damage his reputation, after all. “You kids can come with me, it’s about time I acted like a host and let you parasites into my home.”

A short walk revealed a sinkhole that seemed to stretch down for miles. At its bottom was a forested grotto that thrived due to a naturally occurring luminescence of mineralogy and biology. It painted the area in shifting green and blue hues. Col and Telira were both awed by the sight, for neither had seen anything quite like it. It was a unique place that hummed with energy. A house seemed to grow out of the rock wall. It was of the same glassy material as Kerrick’s synthetic limbs. Yet it had a grey quality to the clear and striated portions, as if it took strength from the stones it grew from.

Kerrick let them in the front door. The home was well furnished, with handmade objects and furniture of all kinds. The look of disbelief and awe on Col and Telira’s faces prompted an amused snort from Kerrick. “You didn’t think all I had after so long here was just a beach and some blankets, did you? Let’s get the fish frying and have a nice meal. I’m all talked out for the time being, so let’s just hope you lovebirds have something else to do while I pray the cross-dressing asshole doesn’t keep us waiting too long.”