<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">The stranger couldn't have put him more on edge if he had tried. In the wake of the imagery, Quinlan was left with a nagging ring in his ears, one considerably stronger than that left behind by the man's method of speech. Though after so many years of lacking exposure to their king, he surmised the effect had more to do with shock than anything else. At one point, he had been accustomed to such things. No longer. If prompted, he couldn't have given an accurate count of how many years had passed since the departure of the old "gods" - long enough for him to forget how deeply unnerving they could be.<br/>
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But perhaps more unsettling, more so than even the stranger's bizarre appearance, was that he didn't even know about that which he sought .He looked to Quinlan to tell him, but how did he <i>not know</i>? The notion that the creatures were known to him, but not to the squid-man, baffled him to the point of stunned silence. When he lifted his head, it was to stare dumbly at the man with an expression that was as incredulous as it was exhausted. Not from any physical exertion, only the mental toll that the shock had inflicted upon him.<br/>
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"... In which case, I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you," he murmured at length when at last the ringing ceased and his mind was again his own. "The ones you seek are as elusive to me as they are to you. Though I am... perhaps a touch more conflicted about finding them." Drawing in a long breath, Quinlan pressed his back against the largest of the boulders behind him and settled, pushing a hand through the dark curls falling into his face.<br/>
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"Forgive me," he pleaded, though he refrained from looking up. He had seen the stranger's outstretched hand and some part of him was terrified to take it. "My behavior has been abhorrent. I would argue that my actions in the past few minutes are not indicative of my personality, but..." Though he trailed off, his choice of words made clear his point.<br/>
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It was a few moments longer before at last he blinked his eyes open and, warily glimpsing the other man, finally took the offered hand and moved onto his feet, pausing thereafter to brush grains of sand from his clothes. Only then did he catch the stranger's eyes and, sighing, relaxed his stance at last. "Though I can hardly excuse my approach, I can offer a promise not to bring any further trouble in your direction. Believe it or not, I greatly prefer a low profile to the spectacle I've just made of myself. Surely you will understand my need to pry, but..."<br/>
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Quinlan gave pause, weighing his next query. "You... come from them. But you know nothing of them. How is that so?"</span>