The Sands of Time - II

They'd searched for him, way back then. They'd read every obituary, waiting to see his name, but it never appeared. So they went and looked for him, but he too had left, a few years after them. He'd asked to come with, but they'd said no. They couldn't watch time take its toll on him, it was always so painful to watch. They'd searched for years, but eventually they'd known he was gone, and that they would never know when and where.

They'd docked at some station, the name didn't matter, all that mattered was they had coffee and a place to sit. They sat and watched the people moving through the station, something they had less chance to do these days, spending so much time alone in space. Each trip bringing them to some new place, all filled with new people and new cultures.

Humanity's expansion into space seemed so sudden compared to all the time they'd spent before. Once confined to a small rock, now they sprawled though space, driving ever further from home. It left them in awe.

They sat sipping their coffee as he entered the cafe, a rather beautiful man, one they'd seen before. The look of recognition flashed across his face, that's when they knew it was him. After getting his coffee, he asked if the seat across from them was taken, they replied that it wasn't.

They watched him laying there smiling at them, regaling them of his journey. The places he'd been, the things he'd seen, the kingdoms he'd watched fall, and most of all, the wonderful people he'd met. They listened to it all intently, wanting to remember every bit of it.

They had planned to journey to some of the outer edges of inhabited space, a journey that would take a human lifetime to complete. This time they had accepted his offer to join them, a companion unlike any they had had before, one who could weather the sandstorm that was time.