Gifted

Have you ever thought you were meant for something more? Not something more as in a better job or being a better person but something more as in something profound. I felt that way most of my life until the end of my freshman year in college. On the first day of my summer break from the Florida Institute Of Higher Learning at Homestead, I went to meet some friends down at the marina to go out on my boat for a fishing trip. By the time I got to my boat I had received calls from all four of the friends who had agreed to go with me, canceling on me so I decided to go it alone.

 

As I untied the bout from the dock at Jupiter inlet and set off on my solo deep sea fishing trip, I had the feeling of being watched as I looked around the only thing I saw was a Magnificent Frigatebird. I was use to seeing this kind of bird all the time in homestead but this particular bird seemed to be watching my every move. As I started up the engine on my Rampage 45 convertible " The Infoamus" , the Magnificent Frigatebird flew to sit right above me which I found very strange.

 

I headed out off the coast with a heading of East by Northeast so I could get access to the ocean for my fishing trip with the bird still sitting just above me. As I sat fishing for god only knows how long I noticed that the sun had begun to set so I decided to go below deck and read until I fell asleep. I don't know how long I was asleep before I was awoken by the tossing and churning of the sea but as I came up on the deck, thunder shook the "The Infoamus" and lightning flashed across the sky. The ocean seemed to be one giant living entity the way it tossed and churned. I rushed for my GPS and noticed it had no signal. I hadn't dropped anchor earlier in the day which I realized no was a bad idea. There was no sense in trying to drop it now, it would only damage "The Infoamus". I returned below deck tacking my GPS with me and tried my radio it too was without signal. I looked at my GPS scrolling through the information it had gathered through out the day and pulled up the last location it had recorded before the signal went out. I had somehow managed to drift out past Little Bahama Bank, which had put me in the Bermuda Triangle.

 

I never gave any real thought to the stories of the Bermuda Triangle. I mean come on disappearing planes, boats and instrument failure? I never really believed to much of it at least until that night when I was sitting below deck holding my faulty equipment. I thought about how alone I was, I thought about my friends I had come without, I thought about my dad and right about that time I felt "The Infoamus" pitching hard and it must have caused me to hit my head cause the next thing I knew I work up on a beach with a strange man in something like a loincloth and then I was out of it again.

 

The next time I woke I was in a very elaborate cabin, my head was throbbing, my ears ringing, and my eyes sensitive to light, as I looked around I noticed there was no television, no computer, no electronics at all. There were no pictures of people animals or places, they didn't even have glass in the windows. The bed I was laid out on, of you could call it that, was very hard and I could have sworn it was made out of straw.

 

As I started to sit up a young women about my age walked in with a clay bowl filled with water and a rag. She was about five foot four, with an athletic build, long reddish-brown hair, and tanned skin. She walked over to me and knelled next to the bed which until now  I hadn't realized how low it was she spoke one word to me.

 

She said "Rest" and I knew from her accent she was American

 

And I instantly felt my eyes getting heavy, I tried to ask who she was, but I never got the chance I had fallen asleep again. The next thing I knew I was being shaken awake and a mans voice was speaking to me in a some what foreign accent.

 

"Rise Bellator" he said and from his accent I knew he wasn't American and I began to worry about my safety. I did as he said and start to sit up slowly and as my vision cleared I noticed he was a very large built man with an odd head dress but he to was in something like and ancient style loincloth. Much to my surprise he helped me sit up.

 

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

 

"Where Am I? Who Are You?" I asked picking the most useful questions of those floating around in my head.

 

"All in time" He replied in his strange accent and soothingly wise voice. "Can you stand?"

 

I held my face for a minute. Then started to stretch and check my body for any wounds but found none. I began to stand and found that I not only felt fine but felt better than I ever had in my life. I followed the strange man out of the cabin and had to shade my eyes from the sun light. It took a few minutes but finally my eyes had adjusted and I noticed I was in a small village of log huts, almost what you'd think of in a third world island country from before the turn of the century, but the people who were walking around were of all ethnics and that was only the beginning of the diversity, there were all different kinds of clothes, hair styles, it was like all the years of past and present met in this village.

 

"I'm Kamata" The strange man said to me as we walked through the village.

 

"Where am I?" I asked still stunned by the fact that I was watching a man laying out a set of armor that looked as if it was straight from the middle ages as did he.

 

"On an Island that very few ever get to see" Kamata replied with a smile.

 

At this point I was beyond words and I could have sworn I had just walked by Amelia Earhart, but there is no way that could be true she went missing long before I was born. I saw people in clothes from all through time, hell I could have sworn I even saw some stewardesses from the 70s. After a short walk we came to the largest hut I had seen yet and it looked extravagant. It was raised off the ground on stills by about 4 or 5 feet, and there were all sorts of totems adorning the building. Kamata lead me up the stairs and through the door and into what I can only describe as a throne room and sitting on a immaculate throne was a man who could only be described as a king. The man who sat atop this throne had dressings that were just as immaculate but his expression was not that of a king but that of a very friendly ever day man.

 

The king stood and smiled at me and motioned for me forward. I hesitantly walked forward unsure about how I should act but before I could decide he spoke with such a friendly voice that I was surprised it came from such a high statured man. "Welcome to the home of our ancestors and the home of our decedents"

 

"Our?" I asked utterly confused

 

The king looked as confused as I was after my reply and asked "Whats your name newcomer?"

 

I replied " My name is Leo Griffin"

 

He stood and held his arms out wide "Well Leo Griffin, Welcome to the isle of Tempus, I am Saku." He frowned noticing I was still confused and asked "Do you not know or our Islands?"

 

I rubbed my forehead as I spoke "I don't even know where I am let alone who all of you are, and I'm so confused."

 

He sat back down and thought for a minute then spoke "But you must be one of us, otherwise you would not have made it to our shores."

 

"One of who??" I asked a little frustrated "I've never heard of The Isle Of Tempus"

 

Saku started to relax and watched me as he spoke "Do you not know of your heritage?"

 

Feeling a little more confused and a little less frustrated, I replied with a simple "No?"

 

Saku smiled wide and said calmly "Your a gifted one Mr. Griffin"

 

I sighed feeling my frustration building again and yelled at the ceiling "What does that mean?!?" and then I noticed where my hands should have been, where someone else's hands. Knowing that I'm a white american male of 20, I knew what I should have seen were two white medium sized hands with a high school class ring on my left hand, which was still the but on a pair of black hands. I was beyond words, beyond thoughts.

 

Saku brought me back to earth when he spoke saying "As I said your a "Gifted One" everyone on the isle is, though not everyone can do what you can do. In Fact very few can, its not often a Supreme is born. There are some others like you but they can only change the color of their skin as a whole and can change their features at will. Like I suspect you can but to be able to change particular parts of your body at will without changing the rest of your body is a thing of legends even here on the isle of Tempus."

 

I stood there dumb founded while watching my hands change back. Then I looked back at Saku and asked "What else can I do?"

 

The only thing he said was "I too would like to know the answer to that question