Excerpt: The Returner Story

This is a tale of one man returning. What was strange was that he did not return in any human lifetime, but in very vast time intervals he would then suddenly reappear and leave after making a mark. This was strange to many because he did not seem to have died any time after that, nor did any of the records say that he was an old man, but rather, this man was a young looking man with black hair which changes in style if the territory of human beings require it to be.

But it was not being in different time intervals that mattered the most but what the Returner had done that changed on how the world lived up to this day. The plagues of Kiliman, Gorgen, Olipolo, Antior, Mij, even the Crimson Death at the Elanda Continent, and many other ones that were not recorded but were said in traditional stories telling of a man who appeared and disappeared. There were also many tales about him as a ghost among the people, and some with him being a savior to them. But the records said this one thing about that one man.

He did not claim to be an angel or a deity or a god. He was just himself. It was not important if other people would not think that he was a human because he did not grow old or get any sign of white hairs on his head. Even if no one thought of him as a human for the test of time would not reach him and he never aged a day. He was always known to be a young man with a beautiful face, and graceful movements with no sign of deterioration.

As a historian on supernatural belief, I had gotten the funds I needed to travel to different countries in different continents just to learn about what this man had done to influence them. They were forgotten to all these people, but to the elders who knew much about the history of their forefathers and their ancestors, they would tell stories about how one man stopped the plague that had been ruining their crops. He was given many names then, and the name “Plague Hunter” was given to him. But as I researched further in the national libraries of even more countries, this man did not just stop plagues, but he even tracked down supernatural happening around the area, a “Ghost Hunter”.

He has been through a lot in other people's minds. He was branded a witch, or a sorcerer, or a wizard, even a necromancer by people who are so called specialists on the subject. But no one could lay a finger on this man, because he had not done anything wrong to gain such titles. In the medieval times, there was a story of a man who returned but when the people accused him of being a witch and tried to get him to burn at the stakes. But in the end he became the hero of the town who rejected him because he had saved them from a terrible fate that would have ended their way of living. Not a witch, not an animal, not a beast, not even a demon or a god. He was just someone who could not be touched by people. People had been writing about him for a long time. I want to learn more, even if I have already learned a lot about this man's stories. I bet there are even more legends about him, what he did, and how he got the name “Returner”. Aside from God who influences everything, this man had to be the most influencial person ever but is pushed back to as a local legend in some and ultimately of all, forgotten. The returner has been a small dot in all history but is connected with multiple dots around it. Here, I end my introduction on my studies, and I will pursue further in translating all of the records I have found. All this, about a timeless man who appeared and disappeared, and returned without a word.