Dreamers- A Merome, Pooflan, Wroetostar and Minizerk Story

⋖Chapter 2⋗

Josh's P.O.V.

Ever since I had first met Simon, our family groups colliding and forming an alliance at a young age, we had stuck to much the same area. It was our territory, our homeland, the section of land that we knew like the back of our hands and the land that provided for us. We had picked up the old techniques of farming and it provided us with food even though the winter, something most others didn't have.

It was both comforting and comfortable, having security in our lives. We had a nice shelter, built from old world materials and it was stable enough to withstand the wind and the rain. It was our home and it had been for a long time, being rebuilt and expanded with each year, or what we assumed was a year, had passed. Someone had found an old world calendar and had tracked the days, but that was long lost. We had no idea what year it was, what month it was, all we knew was that it was heading into winter, roughly 500 years since the world fell apart.

We were in our early 20's now, roughly. There were no birthdays, no way to track how old we were, but we had been together since about 10 years old. That was when we first met anyway.

Simon smiled and rubbed his eyes as he emerged from the hut, his hair ruffled from sleep. I was standing beside the low crackling fire, which was cooking a rabbit that we had hunted, killed and skinned the night before. Obviously we couldn't completely survive on farmed goods, we needed the vitamins that meat provided. Farming animals wasn't something we were able to do, any animals that had once been farmed had either gone extinct or were too nimble, large or not worth the effort to be farmed. We had fire and farms for crops, but not farms for animals.

"Mornin' Si." I mumbled, smiling as he leaned up against me. He had slept in longer than he normally did but I brushed it off because he was probably just tired. He was tired often, we might have been doing hard labour all day every day since we were kids, but it didn't mean our bodies were built for it. We went to sleep with aching bones and muscles. "How're you?"

"Alright." He sighed. "Still tired."

"Okay, take an easy day today. Weed the crops, water them. Don't exert yourself too much." He smiled thankfully, pressing a kiss to my cheek in thanks. "You sure you're okay though?"

"I'm alright Josh." He breathed, still holding onto me. "I'll be better after a few nights of good sleep."

I kissed the side of his head as I used a stick to pull the rabbit from the fire. He giggled a little and sighed in contentment, just glad to be there honestly. I was happy for him to be beside me, we had security in our little home, we had sources of food, water and heat, and most importantly, we had each other. I had Simon, and Simon had me.

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Simon smiled sleepily at me from where he was lying beside me, his hair mused and his face red. One of my arms was already wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer to me, looking out the small crap in the wall of the shelter so I could see the still rising sun peeking in. It shone over our field of crops, reflecting our hard work over the part few months. Given it was autumn it was almost time to harvest them, but I was just admiring it.

"It's going to be a hard few days of work." I mumbled to the younger boy, and he nodded.

"I know." He breathed. "But we'll make it through. We need to have a supply for winter."

"We always make it through. We have for 20 something years, why would this be any different?"

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Our harvest came in plentiful, bringing in corn, tree nuts, rice, fruit and wheat. Most of our seeds were collected from once farmed plants running wild and we had domesticated them again, tilling our fields by hand and planting them in orderly rows. By the end of autumn, as winter was setting in with frost each morning, we had shelled the nuts, dried the fruit, stored the corn and rice and grinded the wheat down into flour. I did most of the last bit, Simon was exhausted and was in no place to do such work. He did the more menial tasks, ones that didn't require as much physical exertion.

Everything was finally stored in an airtight cave dug out of a large rock and was covered up with dirt and more rocks, making sure nothing could get to it. We would only bring it out when necessary, we could hunt and bake until the full force of winter was felt.

In our lives, we felt stable. We had comfort and warmth, food and shelter, we had each other. Sure Simon may have been feeling under the weather and it was getting cold, but I knew it would be okay. We might have had no purpose in life, just living to survive, but we kept fighting on simply so we could have each other.

Simon sighed happily, leaning up against me as we sat on the edge of the small stream that ran alongside our... property? It wasn't exactly our property, simply a section of land that we had claimed as out own, but I decided to call it take anyway. It was much too cold to dangle our feet in the water like we usually would, so instead we just sat side by side, admiring our hard work.

"Hey Si?" I asked, turning to my partner. He looked up. "Do you ever want more from this? You know, life?"

"How so?" He questioned.

"Well... it's been the same since we were little. Farming, just surviving. Do you ever want more?" Simon thought for a few minutes before replying, although he was still hesitant.

"I... I guess?" He said, a little confused. "I've kind of just always been content with what we've got, cause it's more than what a lot of others have got. I've never really wanted more. We've got food, water, shelter, security and each other. What more could you want?"

"Purpose." I said, surprising him. "I want something more than just... surviving. I want to get people together and rebuild what we had centuries ago, I want to feel like I impact more than just this little area, and just us. I want more."

"Josh... this world isn't what it used to be. You can dream, but that might not ever happen. People are still dying and barely getting through because of a lack of food and you have to realise that you're incredibly lucky to have what you do-"

"I know that Si." I said, already frustrated that he didn't understand. "But I want to give. I want to teach others to farm, I want to progress, I want to build a community and learn to farm animals. I want more, not just this."

Simon sat in silence, thinking hard.

"I don't know what I can say, because I don't think I can say anything. You're a dreamer Josh, you know that?"

"Oh, I know that."