The Dream

The road

My eyes barely open, I feel a scorching heat and dry nostrils of sand. For a few moments I feel an urgent need to vomit, but this sensation quickly disappears, and I try to open my eyes more and notice what is happening around me. To begin with, I distinguish only a few abstract forms of warm colors: yellow, orange and red. I try to straighten my back and rotate my head, then I discover more clearly what is around me, I am in a rocky desert and the horse on which I am tied carries me with slow steps through a canyon that winds through some impressive rocks that seem to have been eroded for millennia.
Asking where I am would be the next step I would like to take in this situation, but I feel so confused by the heat that the little energy available I concentrate to sit in a balanced position on the horse's back, and before I can point my whole body in a vertical direction,  Another horse carrying a man dressed in Bedouin clothes approaches me, recognizing some elements of the tribes that have adapted so well to the ruthless living of the desert. He wore a kind of white tunic and long to the ankles of his feet, on top of which was a brown robe, on his head he wore a cloth that protected his head from the heat of the sun, and at his waist was a belt on which a dagger was hung.
-You woke up just before you reached your destination, you slept a lot my friend! He tells me with a big smile.
-But how much sleep did I get? I asked completely puzzled.
- All day today and last night no one managed to snatch a word from you. At one point I wasn't sure if you were asleep, fainting, or dead, my companion said with a laugh I couldn't decipher if he was sarcastic or even serious about thinking I was dead.
- And how long have we been on the road?
-Stay! Stop the caravan! My companion shouted to those who were in front of us. Listen my friend, I tied you up and bought this horse to help you reach your destination safely. I don't know exactly why you were in this state most of the way, but now I can untie you and we will take a little break before reaching the city between the rocks, from there you can manage on your own because you are not a child.
- In the city between the rocks? I ask myself, completely astonished and confused by the fact that in this arid landscape there can also be urban settlements.
- Yes, you really wanted to get here, and I promised you that if I had the opportunity to go with the caravan in this direction, I would take you with me.
I don't get to ask for more information that another traveling companion, also dressed in Bedouin clothes, but more tattered, approaches us and hands me a bellows of water, then turns to my companion and asks:
- Do you really want us to spend the night here? There is little left, and we will be able to rest in the city of stones without fear of bandits who live their lives in these places and who take every opportunity to rob merchants, pilgrims or dream seekers like your friend.
- I just told you to stop, I'll untie Teodorus and then we'll set off again to spend the night in a safe place. As for your remark about the dream seeker, I would recommend that you measure your words very well, otherwise your next destination will be in the nearest slave market, where I will sell you to the most obnoxious master.
- I apologize, Master Ibrahim! My old, sharp tongue has been sitting dry in the desert for too long. I will keep the caravan ready; when you give the order to start again, we will be ready to go.
With a bow, Ibrahim's servant breaks away from us and turns to the front of the caravan, where he gives some firm directions to the other fellow travelers. Meanwhile, my friend Ibrahim pulled out the gilded dagger from the girdle and cut the strings that kept me tied to the horse's saddle. Now I could straighten my back and neck, and the water offered by the old servant cooled my mouth, which was as dry as the diffusely shaped rocks around me.
- Do not hurry my friend, surely you will have stomach distressed from the lack of food and the difficult road through the rocks of these lands. Sometimes I even wonder how these people managed to live in these conditions and build such a city that will leave you speechless.
After a short pause during which my trusting and cheerful friend looked immersed in thoughts without finding the right words, his gaze crossed the top of the rocks surrounding us and his eyes rested on a fixed point in front of the caravan. It seemed that something or someone was waiting for him there, in this city of rocks that, according to him, I wanted so much to visit, but about which I remembered nothing.
- Come on Teodorus, shouted the fellow traveler to me, you can drink water while we move.
Ibrahim's horse was set in motion again, and after arriving in front of me the owner of the caravan turns his head towards me and with a sly smile urges me not to waste any more time:
- You didn't suffer much on the road to miss tonight's dream!