Microstory 28*: (Excerpt from my novel)

This is an excerpt from my novel, entitled The Last Refuge. Chris and his friends have just met a man named Gavix. They get off on a bit of a tangent once he reveals something special about himself.

“You’re immortal.” Chris’ darkened eyes widened.

“That’s why they call me The Only.”

“You're not the only one, though. So is Peter Fireblood.”

“Yes, but he's different,” Gavix agreed, evidently pleased to hear such a thing. “And I'm sure you've noticed that only certain people are even capable of recognizing how long he's been around.”

“What the hell are you two trying to say about Peter Fireblood?” Cody asked in mild anger.

Chris laughed along with Gavix and pointed at Cody as an example. “I've yet to meet anyone else who sees the timeline discrepancies.” Peter Fireblood is a famous musician who appears to have no single birth date, and is not tied down to one time period. When two people who have a sufficiently large enough difference in age discuss him, they will refer to his history with conflicting or paradoxical information. Neither of them will notice the variations, as if they hear what they expect to hear, rather than what the other is actually saying. It’s like he lives in this sliding timescale that necessarily prevents him from aging. As far as Chris has been able to work out, Peter Fireblood has been famous for centuries, and no one seems to notice this about him.

Cody and Cordelia shook off the last moments of the conversation. Anyone who Chris tries to explain this to will quickly forget what he said and go back to the issue at hand. “Do you know our situation?” Cody asked.

“No idea,” Gavix said plainly. “You’ll have to get me up to speed. I only arrived a couple days ago. I haven’t been to the islands since they fell asleep.”

“Wow,” admired Cody. “You’ve been walking around out there for the last thousand years.”

He laughed at this. "Yeah. One thousand years. Long time.” There was a hint of sarcasm in what he said.