garp waits. and waits. watching as the oceans change. islands rise and fall. hearing the rumble of the earth. and he waits.
then when he thinks that the world has passed and that his time has come. the earth turns. islands long gone rise back up and its people live. then it falls and another rises. all civilizations long gone.
so he waits. and watches. feels the wind change shape, as vegetation grows over him. the sun sets and the moon rises. day after day, year after year and he waits.
and when he first spots the sail of a marine ship, he knows he's home. somehow he has gone back. and he waits.
he watches as the ship sails past, sees the young soldiers bustle along the deck.
a day passes. a week. a month. a year.
when the seagulls cry overhead, he is awake. he tears himself free from the tree that was his home, untangles the vines that kept him safe and faces the morning light.
he feels lighter on his feet, as if he had taken a short nap instead of the millennia it truly was. his hands are soft, no calluses etched in from his decades of service, the creak of his bones no more. if he were to look at his reflection, he was sure that his hair had returned to its original inky black rather than the ash gray it should have been.
he walks, down the mountain and past the beasts, laughing when the leaves bend to kiss his skin.
he sits by the ocean, waves lapping at his feet, breathing in the salt air. and he waits.
the night falls, the moon shining its brilliant light on the shore. and garp moves.
he bends wood with his hands, weaves strips of bark to hold it together, intertwines large leaves into his sails. watches as the green spreads, covering the entirety of his vessel.
garp pushes the boat onto the rocky waves, swimming farther out before lifting himself onto the boat. and he sleeps, covered in the foliage of his home island, the island that allowed his rebirth.
and he sets sail for the unknown. 50 years of being a marine gone. this time.. he'll see what newgate was so adament on protecting. this time, his family will come first. even when that stubborn son of his picks a fight with men far more powerful than him.