first post part three

I awoke from my nightmare with a start, the last of the daylight crept through the gaps between the haggard dwelling where perhaps a family once dwelt. I shook off the last of the realism of that nightmare i so commonly found myself in. were it truly a dream i would have easily passed through it without any sense of emotion. this nightmare left me aghast at all the things i knew to be real and true but yet so lost in the tangle of so many years as a nomad that even i could hardly remember. just glimpses of the past, wide windows of insight through the lost days of a once great civilization. I decided that i would continue through the last of my journey in the falling sunlight, after all it was cooler in the evening. I gathered my belonging and stepped out the door, back into the red sands still warmed from the sun. I knew the general direction of where i was going but i would rather have a more precise manner to find it. if only i had a wristwatch, i would rather have a compass but in these hard time we can only hope for the bare basics. I began to move through the terrain that in a lost life i would have known well. the sun was setting in the east and i needed to go north, i set my path off the sun and made my way through the red wastes toward my destination. i walked till the sun fell low over the horizon, just as i considered bedding down for the night i saw the shadow of the low walls of the town. it was small in the distance but i figured i could make it to it before the darkness of night swallowed the last rays of the sun. the tail end of my journey was slow and uneventful.

I neared the city walls and saw the braziers out from lighting the way into the village. I knew of this town, a small hole where the bare ness-cities could be found. I thought to myself what i had to trade for room and board. my last venture proved to be less fruitful then promised and my informant had taken the last of my previous salvage. I made my way towards the gate, a port collus had been set in place to repel any bandits that dared try the guard of this township. at the gate was a single sentry, he stood leaning on a large spear and looked rather haggard from the heat of the desert.

"who goes there" the sentry bellowed into the twilight.

" a wary traveler looking only for room and board good sir" I replied

"come forward and let yourself be known" he replied and i followed his instructions. the man was old and wearing leather that had seen too many hot desert days. He eyed me with suspicion and finally asked " do you know of our town?"

"No", I Replied " but i have journeyed long and hard through the desert and would much like to rest with a full roof and a full belly"

"if you come to start trouble stranger the y'best be off" he bellowed

" i have no need for more troubled times, as i have seen many over the years I've been alive" i replied. He nodded and waved his hand to the wall and the gate lifted. " down the road on the left is a tavern, they'll have what you seek be it room, drink or whore" he said in a haggard voice only a dweller of the desert could posses. " i thank you sir and have long days and pleasant nights" I replied as i started forward. I cleared the gate and worked my way down the main road. I heard the chatter and clatter of the tavern before i even neared it, a fiddle played a lively tune and every voice seem clad in cheer and drink. I neared the batwing doors, a peered in. It was a full house with drink in every hand. candles and a fire in set the place dancing the glow of the flames. the way the light flickered across the floor boards sent a shiver down my spine. Too much like home or the last memories i had of it. I pushed my way into the barroom and in and instant the world stopped and stared. I did not blame them as i was a stranger who came in the depths of the darkness into their quiet and cozy home. they did not know the blood on my hands and the sorrow in my heart by then felt it in my presence.

I made my way though the tangle of tables to the barkeeper, the room remained silent as death. somewhere in my subconscious i heard the fabled pin drop. " good evening sir" I said as I looked to the barkeep. a large man dressed in a rough shirt and dirty apron leaned over the bar with one hand beneath the counter and the other posted on the heavy bar.

"so who you be, coming into our town in the dark of the night" he said with an thick accent i could not identify. his light blue eyes flashed with suspicion and intrigue. " only a traveler who is looking for a full roof and a full belly" i replied in an un interested tone. from somewhere in the back of the tavern someone yelled " we don't take kindly to outlanders such as yourself". I turned to see a group of angry locals moving across the bar. I hadn't intended trouble when I found myself here in the far reaches of my journey, but yet that black cloud of trouble found me yet again.

" y'best defend yourself" the barkeep grunted over my shoulder. " i ha vent the people minds and heart while they be on the drink" I weighed my options carefully, I had a large knife and my long time partner, my pistol. I had no desire to shed anyone s blood, only to shock them back to a docile mood. this left my options slim to none, I secure my pistol and raised to towards the leader of the mob. His eyes grew wide and he shrank like a cold cock. the mob reacted the same and began to disperse. I pointed my pistol skyward and said a silent prayer, Today was not your day to leave earth, be be warned you may never see such a day again. the last of the drink addled mob dispersed from the tavern and the lead settled back into his beer. i turned to the barkeeper and restarted our conversation

" i fear i ha vent much to offer, as i said i am a traveler, a nomad more likely" i took in a breath of the yeasty air and began again " but what i have in my pack may well be all the payment i could offer."

"Id take no payment from a man with such a dandy piece o' the past as that" he said eye wide and shimmering in their cool iced tone. " y'may board for the night free o' charge, the drink and meal m'haps will be bargained for" He pause for a moment "what trade d'ya hold good sir?" he asked with a curious but cautious glint in his eyes

"I am a man of many trades and trials, I make way in the world rooting out the lost things of the world" I replied, the taste of the sentences in my mouth was still as unpleasant as ever, but a man with no honor or pride left could taste any manner of word without a second thought.

"so a man of the artificer disposition, what bring y' to our far off town" he asked pleasantly." I was told tales of many lost things in this region and out sought to recover them" i replied, the bitterness of my own words tasting like bile in my own mouth.

"t'would seem y'are to late for such a venture, Near a month ago some religious sech gathered all the lost things they could find and took then far towards the mountains, Into the depths of the red narrow" i said with a calm tone " i wouldn't be trifling with that lot of zealots, they still hold many ways of the old world and know many things that have been lost to most"

" i suppose i owe you at least a thank you for the information and a bigger thanks for the room" i said with all the false cheer i could muster. " i think i should be off to sleep, i have yet to rest under a full roof in many a day and the sleep could do me a bit of good" " tis only the best for one who still holds the old ways to heart, many a man has forgot the old ways existed and still many more fear then as the devil himself." the bar keep put a key on the counter, "tis the first door on the right, up the stairs" he gestured to a rough set of stairs on the other side of the bar. " i would fear the townfolk, they were full of piss and vinegar, and m'haps one too many beers, they'll be right as rain in the m'ornin"

" again, you have my thanks, pleasant days and pleasant nights good sir" I said through the best smile i could muster. i turned away from the bar and made my way up the creaking wood stairs and into the plain room. the bed was composed of a hammock hanging from the rafters and a few frayed wool blankets. i would be more than enough for me. I seated myself on the floor. i drew out the pistol i had held onto for so many years and dropped the cylinder open. only a single bullet remained, the only bullet this weapon had seen in many years. i removed it from the chamber and studies the words scrawled on the side, they read" when my true judgment comes, let me pass by my own way." I was glad i didn't have to waste this round, twas the last of the rounds from the old days, hollow at the point, the copper head and brass case still bright as the day it was made. it was a solution to a problem in its own right, perhaps a problem i have yet to face or perhaps a long lingering problem long overdue in payment. This notion always occurred to me, every night i would think of all the problems, mine and that of this once great world, and wonder if i was really a part of it any longer. i rolled the cartridge through my fingers, feeling every wayward adventure i had found myself in since the days of old and even before that time battling with the demons inside my head, i was my own worst enemy as i had found. you best be off to bed, i thought to myself, the mood find you again and you know what you truly desire and what you must do to attain it. i climb into the hammock and was dead to the world, i dreamed deeply of the shimmering darkness and the shadow of flame dancing across the ruins of a city, after that i was dark and silent.