Once upon a time....

Gregory was pissed, not long ago, his only concern was his lousy grades, then the thing with the fire started, and finally, everything got out of hand. For more than half a year, he was sitting on this island, and he hadn't found out a damn thing. He was still in the dark about Marcos, the man with the tattoo, and the third amulet. Today, he was in a particularly foul mood, because today was Leyla's birthday. To be precise, her seventeenth birthday. It truly sucked; he still had no idea how to get rid of his immortality. He couldn’t stop thinking about the poem they read in school last year; "Dying feels like it could not happen to you until it happens to you." Back then, that sentence sounded kind of pathetic, but now things looked different, and if he didn’t find out soon what to do, in one year she would be eighteen and then …

Moreover, Keanu didn’t even listen to him, he was obviously absent-minded and had other stuff on his mind than his misery. He continuously looked over to some distant table. Anyway, he seemed to be distracted by something or someone and was absolutely not into talking to him.

"Hello there, are you listening at all bro? Sometimes, I think you just don’t care that I am doomed to be eighteen forever, because I can’t find damn Marcos nowhere." Keanu didn’t even look up, his eyes were set fascinated at one of the more remote tables and then the guy got to his feet, muttered something sounding like - I'll be back - and then he was gone. Gregory remained frustrated on his chair. Damn, he desperately needed someone to talk to, unload his frustrations and skyping with Leyla was out of question, he didn’t want to unnecessarily burden her with his misery on her birthday. Aiden and Shane came to his mind spontaneously, but Shane was at an intermediate examination and was therefore quite tense and Aiden was at a basketball tournament. Crap, without thinking any further, he dialed Mikiel's number. Who would have thought last year, that he’d ever consider changing a friendly word with Mikiel? Absolutely no one, and least of all he himself. Now things had changed, and Mikiel was something close to a father figure, or at least a patient older brother. Strange enough but true. They were living in some sort of residential community since Gregory had been brought more dead than alive to the island. Keanu had always been there for him, but he was more the moody kind of brother for Gregory. Mikiel, on the other hand, was always the quiet, patient one, even if it hadn’t looked that way, when they first met. Thinking back, he smiled to himself, Mikiel had tried to kill him with a fireball back then. Even, if he wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. The Milan were masters over water and earth not fire. Back then, Gregory thought that a Vulture had settled within the Milan community, but the story was much more complicated than that, as he learned from Mikiel later, when they became friends. A story that literally left him and Keanu both speechless. Gregory confronted Mikiel, trying to corner him with his knowledge that he had been able to control fire. Mikiel kept stubbornly silent, for a while until one evening when Gregory was desperate once again, because he didn’t get any further in his search for the amulet, moving from one dead end to another. The story about Marcos, the mysterious man with the tattoo, he wasn’t able to find a solution which brought him to the brink of despair and made him provoke Mikiel with his knowledge about the fire until it broke out of him. Marcos was Mikiel's stepfather!!! Who would have thought that possible? Moreover, he apparently was some sort of stepfather like, - once upon a time stories-. A mean, bashful and sneaky kind, treating his step-son like dirt. For years, Mikiel accepted his fate and Keanu was his best friend, then the tragedy had happened when Keanu put the northern part of the island to ashes with his uncontrolled power and his parents were killed in the fire.