When Worlds Meet

That fucking sandstorm was on my heels, and my horse wasn't going to take much more of this heat. The wind was picking up all around me, and I could feel the bits of sand being thrown around collide with my face. I had to find shelter, or else poor ole Johnny wouldn't make it, and I'd be stuck in the middle of that monstrous mountain of sand being whipped around at a hundred miles per hour. The road was beginning to narrow as we approached a small hill, and, as the sand began to pervade throughout the tiny valleys of salt, a sign began to show. On it, I could barely read "Redmond's shop" and beneath it "Quarter Mile North". I was headed North, and I could use a refill on my water and stock up some more on my food supplies, so I gave Johnny a kick on the hind, and our pace began to get faster. My half-empty chests and sacks started bouncing on his lower back, and I could tell it was putting more pressure on his hind legs, so I grabbed a spare piece of rope and tied it all down so it'd stay in place. As I finished knotting the rope I took a glance at the massive clouds of sand still close behind me.

"That store better be there," I muttered. Because if it wasn't, me and Johnny were as good as dead.

That quarter mile, which should've taken about ten minutes by horse, felt like an hour. The sun seemed to grow bigger, and it's rays growing hotter with it. I could feel poor Johnny sweating like a whore. I took what was left in my water canteen and poured a little on his neck, then let him drink the rest. He needed it more than I did, plus, I had the wind keeping me somewhat cool. His strength began to wane a few miles back anyway, and I still had my sack of gold medilliums, a coin so rare that there was rumored only to be a few left in the world, but I proved that wrong of course.

Back when I was just a boy, no older than 14, my father told me of an old mine, back before the storms, where they mined for gold, and a deliverer came to pick up a load of freshly pressed medilliums, then the storms came, and it's rumored there was a whole chest still buried away in that mine. One medillium is equal to 136 gold pieces, and gold is valued as much as life in these parts. Silver is the main currency here, for when all the nickel's and dimes from the pre-storm area were quickly melted back down and replaced with silver. Tons and tons of silver. Gold was soon implemented into the market, but not as much of it was produced.

And when our little town was sacked by raiders, we quickly hightailed it into the desert with all we could carry, and fortune was with us one day, as when we took shelter in a cave from a sandstorm it turned out that was no cave, but the mine from my fathers story. We used nearly half of our new-found treasures to buy ourselves a comfortable living quarters in a walled town, and by that time I was starting to become a young man at the ripe young age of 18. Yet, even with the protection we bought, the townspeople, along with their mayor, attempted to rob us blind once they knew all our money was medilliums, but a bartender who we befriended warned us of the impending danger, and we left the night before they planned on sacking our home.

But, fortune decided to abandon us, as that town was the last in a near 100 miles. And with the little food and water we had, we attempted to make it to the next safe haven. One by one, my family dropped dead of starvation, dehydration or exhaustion until it was me and my father. We were just ten miles from the next town, and it looked like I was going to be the only one who would make it. My father then entrusted me with the last provisions we had, as well as the medilliums, that I could continue our family legacy.

And here I am, once again on the run from the town that saved me, and now wants me dead for my gold. I bought Johnny at a cheap price with some silver and packed my things before I was chased outside the town fence's. I could hear all my silver and medilliums rubbing and hitting against each other, and I grinned to myself knowing how lucky I was to own medilliums worth over 2,000 gold pieces when added together.