He smoked his pipe slowly in the dark of the forest forest. It seemed the world had changed or at least this part of the world had in however much time he had been gone. The green around him felt good actually, better than the smoke and sound and smells of what had been here before. He knew the place he sat had once been at least 50 to 70 feet above ground. He had a clear view of the world as he had faced his fate. It now was maybe 5 feet about ground level. He supposed it had been a little later he might have just awoken underground covered in soil and vines. That would have been interesting perhaps. His former prison sat behind him. He didn’t recall any of the time that had passed, but it had been considerable clearly. It was good they had entombed him as they found him, this moment would have been far less easy without a smoke.

One thing was clear, the city that once sat here was long gone. This was a forest with the sounds of wild life and without the sounds of man. Maybe everyone was dead. That would be strange. He could wander the world as the last of kind among whatever wild life dominated the planet. Maybe ants dominated the planet now. He had always admired ants. Initiative, a desire to stay true to the line of command, tireless. Ants would be ok. It might be roaches though. Not admirable creatures, but definitely a contender to the throne.

Well there was one way to find out possibly. If it worked. Which it might or might not. He looked a the tattoos on his wrists. They had not faded over the centuries or the time since he had them scarred upon his skin. Such were some agreements. He pressed his wrists together and felt the connection between them and he felt his blood react immediately.

“Mighty McSown, I have returned,” he said. “For better or worse. Please come forth.”

There was the smell of smoke and a crackle in the air.

“Welcome back,” said short humanoid figure in front of him. His skin was red tinged and his hair was much much redder. He wore a green suit and hat over his muscular frame.

“How long have I been gone,” he asked.

“Hmmm. I have not keep close track actually. Maybe 7,000 years give or take a few? I haven’t actually returned here since then, kept tabs, but no actually visits I can recall. I surprised they entombed you so intact. I would have cut your wrists off definitely before hand.”

“I think they were in a hurry. I am not a man you want to give extra seconds none the less extra minutes.

McSown smiled. “No I suppose not.”

“Are there still humans in this world? This city seems to be long disappeared into wilderness. Has the world become a green pastoral paradise?”

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“There are. You know how your kind is. They annihilate each other and then rebuild. There are maybe 10 times as many as there were during your time. As I have watched I have seen times in the past thousands of years when there were many hundreds more. They have changed so much since your time though.”

“How?”

“The arts you practiced have faded. They have other means to power and once had many more, but your era was the height of their spiritual power.”

“Are there those that commune with the spiritual realm still?”

“There are. To a small practical extent. There are none that pursue the grand avenues to power you once did.”

He scratched his chin and looked at McSown.

“Ask what you really want to ask,” McSown said.

“What is that?” he asked.

“Do you they remember you?” McSown said.

“Do they?”

“No. The names of you, your allies and your enemies are all forgotten. They recall the era, but as a time of myths and legends.”

“Do I have descendants? Do the others have descendants?” he asked

“A foolish question. Of course there are descendants and of course there are none at all. It has been thousands of years. Empires have risen and fallen. Technologies were discovered and forgotten and discovered again. You have descendants and all those you knew do too, but you are speck of historical dust on their current souls and nothing more.”

“What do you think of the world as it exists now? What will I think of it?”

“You will think they are sweet and relatively powerless. You will find no enemies or allies of you ilk or equal. There have been times since you when formidable heroes and villians wandered the world, this is not one of them. I imagine you will like them in their present state actually in. In general they are practical honorable people. Interesting people they will tell tales of, probably not. There is the potential that exists in all humans I suppose. This lot has not found theirs.”

He smiled.

“What does this smile mean?”

“It occurs to me that it sounds slightly boring here currently.”

“Maybe.”

“I think I will need to fix that. How far is the nears human civilization?

McSown paused and closed his eyes. “Maybe 300 miles?”

“Let’s walk. I wish to see some of this potential.”

“Are you going to try to take the throne of the world again?”

“No, I have little interest in that at this point.”

“Why do you wish to find ‘potential’ then?”

“I’d like to see if I can create some contenders to the throne I aspired to. I think this lot deserves a more interesting world.”