Mike had always been the type of guy to help his friends or family out. He had been running Cannabis across the State Border for years. Too many people he knew back home were Cancer Patients, and all of them needed access. Five years ago, Mike had won 10,000 dollars on a Scratch Off and he used the money to start selling Seeds and concentrates to people throughout Texas.
Once concentrates came into play, there was little plant matter remaining and he was able to transport so much more medicine at once.
The year was 2018, Life was quite the pickle for most Texas lawmakers after Colorado decided to Legalize Marijuana in 2013 and Mike had made enough money to save his family from the growing pile of medical bills for his Mothers Treatment. With his help she had taken on a diet of eating an entire gram of Concentrate a day. She was now in remission and the Doctors couldn't find traces of it.
Mike was pleased and was doing one final run. It wouldn't take long for Texas to legalize horticulture, every day that they spent debating to legalize was killing those it would help once it was finally established.. Additionally every other day they lost millions in revenue. With his Chevy pickup loaded down with concentrates, he started his drive down to Texas, making sure to take the route south.
The Raton Pass was always twisty and full of hills, sometimes construction to repair the roads would send you off in random directions through rural roads. The GPS in mikes truck was taking him all over the place to avoid the traffic jams ahead.
"Dammit, this traffic is really getting on my nerves." Mike was annoyed.
He was speaking to his friend Tyler on the phone when he decided to leave the main surface roads and try the tunnel. A sign was posted for a detour, but Mike ignored it and drove through the warning signs. No one was around and it would take much more time, Mike just didn't want to hit any police on his way back home.
In Texas, if you were caught with Marijuana it was one thing, but a concentrate was worse. The cops in many non-legal states were still viciously treating people who used marijuana as a medicine. Mike was completely disinterested in ever going to jail, just who would take care of his mother if he was caught?
"Fucking phone...." Mike tapped on his Phone and lifted it out the window to see what was going on, his Phone had gone on the fritz.
"Please make the next legal U-Turn. Please make the next legal U-Turn." The announcements kept ringing out and the Map went blank.
Mike pulled over and got out of the Truck. He had turned around so many times he didn't even know which was was North.
"Dammit, I can't lose service now... stupid Phone."
Tapping his phone against his palm, Mike hoped he would regain his service but it didn't happen. When he raised his phone up again to see if maybe he could catch service, he thought of something else and stood on his truck.
"This might work."
Standing on the roof of his truck holding his phone up for service, Mike was suddenly under attack by a Large Bird. It looked like a turkey, but he couldn't tell. It knocked the phone from his hand, dropping it from a great height.
"Son of a bitch! Why is my luck so terrible today"
Mike picked up his broken Phone and rushed back to his Truck.
"Goddamn Bird, where the hell did it come from?" Exclaiming loudly in the confines of his Truck, Mike felt a searing pain coming from his Forearm.
Mike looked at his arm and saw a claw mark, the blood was not going to stop without a tourniquet. Tearing some of his shirt off and tying it around him tightly, Mike cut off the blood flow. He wasn't sure where he was, but he had to get out of the area and get to a Hospital after dropping off his Truck.
Whipping the Truck into reverse, Mike tried to find his way back to the main roads, but in Texas many deserted Highways still existed. The Roads were starting to get wet with all the rain lately the ditches had swelled up and take out a few low bridges. Mike turned on his high beams and drove down dirt road after dirt road, but he still couldn't find anything that looked like a house or gas station.
A few times he came to a dead end, and eventually no matter how many times he turned around he kept finding dead ends. Mike stopped the truck and took a dab to calm down. He was lost, he had a bunch of contraband on him and he was running short on gas.
An hour passed by while Mike thought about what to do. He could abandon the truck and reappear later claiming it was stolen or, he try finding his way out. Mike wasn't rich and he loved his Pickup. That old C-10 square-body Truck had left him happy for a number of years.
"Fuckit."
Mike started the truck and began turning around but slammed on the brakes immediately.
"I must be high."
Mike didn't see any road ahead, the Sun was in his eyes while he was turning the Truck around but that wouldn't leave him without a road.
"Where the fuck is the Road!"
Everything around Mike had changed. Thinking about it, Mike could only exclaim further.
"There is no sunlight after dark.... What the fuck was that light."
Mike put the Truck in park and got out. When he stepped down from the Cab, the soil was soft and loamy. It had clearly never been driven on and The Headlights only showed trees surrounding them. There was a tree behind the truck, pinning it in place.
Thinking that he had driven off a cliff then survived miraculously with his truck in tact as well, Mike was elated.
Random thoughts kept creeping into his mind.
'Am I dead?'
'How the fuck am I going to cut down these trees?'
'Where in the hell am I?'
Quickly gathering his things, Mike yelled out in grief while he packed his backpack.
He only had some concentrate, his pipe, a torch, a few cans of butane and the seed packs. The Bottle of water he was drinking was long since gone. Thankfully he didn't throw it out the window in frustration. When the sun rose in the morning, he got out of his truck again and started walking east.
"I should eventually find a road, even the longest swath of land in Texas is about the size of a county.." Mike was hungry, thirsty and eager to get laid.
Tramping through the forest like brush, he started to see trees he couldn't identify before he eventually found something he couldn't dismiss. In front of him as he was walking was a 1,000 foot chasm.
"There was nothing like this in Geography class" Mike took a step back.
The cliff-side was fed by a slope that he was standing on. The gravel under his feet felt like they could slip at any moment and Mike was terrified. Pulling himself up the slope again to gain some distance between him and the impending fall, Mike took a deep breath and turned over to look at the sky.
In the distance he could see what looked like a dog in the sky, but as it drew closer he noticed it was rather large and more importantly someone was riding it.
Mike rubbed his eyes, before questioning his sanity.
"I'm delirious from dehydration?.. but its been less than a day."
The sight of the flying Dog was not the only thing that surprised him. The Rider, was not Human.
Swooping down from the sky, the Beast nearly caused Mike to fall back down the slope when it came near him during its descent.
"Who are you?" The Rider asked with a dignified voice.
He stared at mike with intending eyes and brandished a weapon, it looked like sword but was shaped more like a hook.
"I'll ask you one last time, Who are you?" Raising his voice the Rider bellowed one last time.
"Mike, My name is Mike. What the hell are you? I'm a human" Mike quietly responded
Mike tried to reconcile in his heart that he was dreaming but the details were just too great.
"A Human" The Rider took off his helmet.
Two large German Shepard like ears stood atop his head. The Rider jumped off his mount and order it to sit. As he walked around Mike, he kept poking and touching his clothes to see what Mike was wearing. It didn't look like the clothes he wore gave him much protection at all.
"A Human is a strange name, My name is Troeg"
"What are you doing here?" Troeg asked with a stern temperament.
Mike looked at Troeg and did his best to pretend its a dream.
"My things got stuck in the woods, I cannot go any further i had to abandon them briefly to scout ahead. When I came to this cliff-side, I saw you. I don't even know where I am" Mike explained.
Troeg wasn't sure what to believe at first but He was guarding this area, so whatever he chose would be okay.
Calling out to Mike, Troeg had him mount the back of the beast. Mike had never ridden a horse, but this beast was a lot bigger than a horse and it was flying just a few minutes ago.
"You say you lost your things in the forest? Can you remember where?" Troeg flew them in the opposite direction of the canyon.
It didn't take long to spot the truck from the air, Mike pointed and they landed nearby. Troeg was fairly confused about what he was looking at.
"What manner of Cart is this? Its wheels are perfectly straight and so shiny, We don't even have armor that shines this nicely. Where did you say you were from again?" Troeg had some questions.
"I'm from Texas"
It just came out like a habit, Mike felt a little happy yelling it out.
"What was pulling it?" Troeg kept inquiring like timid onlooker at a car show that didn't know any better.
Mike was sure he was dreaming still, so He gladly opened the hood and started to explain. Seeing the lump of metal, Troeg was at a loss for words.
"Its got over 300 ponies in that little block." Mike laughed a bit Mike was laughing, but Troeg's face lit up like he had just heard the greatest thing in the world. Mike opened up the door on the passenger side and let Troeg sit down for a moment on the seat before he went to the other side and took the keys from his pocket to start the truck. When the motor came alive, Troeg Jumped.
"What is going on." Troeg was in a state of shock.
Mike revved the motor in response to Troeg's outburst, turned off the truck. He told him about how he got lost and ended up there. He explained that if the truck wasn't stuck in these trees and it was on a flat ground it could go incredibly fast.
"Troeg, If can you help me get my Truck out of here I can let you see what it feels like to go fast in this thing!" Mike tried to convince Troeg with some action.
Troeg got out of the truck and closed the doors before he started waving his hand. In a moment, the truck was gone.
"What the fuck!" Mike blurted out.
"What an odd expression, 'What the fuck', what does 'what the fuck' mean?" Troeg was calm and collected, but Mike was not.
"It means, what the fuck did you do with my truck!" Mike was confused and at the same time mystified by the disappearance of his truck.
"Its inside my bracelet. We can take it out when we get back to the city." Troeg motioned for Mike to get back on the Mount.
Mike didn't have any recourse and decided it was better than dreaming about his truck being stolen. Reluctantly, he got atop the mount and held onto Troeg. The beast didn't have seat belts, even Mike's truck had a lap belt.
The flight was something else, Mike and Troeg had originally stuck to the ground to find his truck fast. Now that the two of them were in the air, Mike felt like he was flying. It was a feeling that most people on Earth would feel if they were in this same situation.
"How much further!" Mike yelled out.
Troeg looked to the horizon and replied. "About an hour!"
The wind blew through Mikes ears until they were red and numb, he long since lost his hearing form the rushing winds. His cheeks were bruised and dry, but the feeling of being in the sky was just inescapably grand. Mike didn't even notice the pain after a while and just enjoyed the scenery. Never in his wildest dreams had he dreamt of something like this.
Landing in the city, Troeg walked with Mike to magistrate office.
"Why are we going here?" Mike asked politely.
Mike couldn't help but feel small in comparison to the Dog-men he'd been seeing since he entered the city. They simply stood much taller than him, He felt so out of place.
"I am the third son of the Lord of these lands." Troeg reintroduced himself and politely pointed to the emblem on his chest.
"Our Clan has been looking for an Alchemist or Magician for some time, I feel you're more than qualified with your ... What did you call it... 'Truck'.."
He continued by bringing the truck out of his spacial ring and then he said "Elder Po, please take a look."
Mike's head was about to explode. 'Alchemist? Magician? What the fuck, Where the fuck am I? His face went black and then he remembered that he had dabs in his back pack. Walking over to a table, he pulled out his Concentrates, torch and pipe to take a break and calm his nerves.
When the rich aroma of the Essential Oil Extra of Cannabis wafted into the room, a mild smile crept over mikes face. He could feel his tension slipping away, the potency of the Plants he had used to extract the Concentrates were at new records. He had even bought seeds to make sure that he could have them in the future, everything was looking bright, but then he found himself in this dream that didn't seem to end.
"What is that smell?" Elder Po could smell the medicinal efficacy of the Oil Extract.
"This is some Dabs I had made before I started on my journey." Mike had no reason to lie in his dream.
Unfortunately, it only served to back up Troeg's claim that Mike was indeed an Alchemist or Magician.
"Please allow me to examine your medicine." Elder Po was like a Cat pawing at the table.
Mike had no reason to object, he passe the torch over and explained the process for inhaling it.
"This medicine calms the heart, releases tension in the body, and helps digest. Many people use it for its healing purposes because it can reduce scar tissue, aide in the building of an appetite and create a peaceful mind so they can sleep." Mike sounded like a brochure, but he didn't care.
"Such a remarkable Herb, What is it called again?" Elder Po was curious, fanatically even.
"Its called Cannabis. It grows several meters tall in the right conditions and the flowers are used to produce this oil. You can directly eat the plant itself, or remove its medicinal properties and reduce them into an oil like substance. Some people even smoke it or put it into their foods. The plant grow quickly, Its matured in less than 4 months with regular light." Mike was starting to feel proud that he had paid attention to his growers.
"Where can I get more of this plant to study?" Elder Po was not going to let it go, he grabbed Mike's Arm and shook him a little.
"ELDER PO!" Troeg's voice boomed out into the room.
Elder Po shirked backward and apologized. Mike wasn't bothered by it too much, although he could have done without the arm grabbing.
"I have seeds in the truck, If I'm to be your alchemist.. I need everything. Land, Water, Nutrients, Lab Equipment, Security, and Books on your Alchemical processes." Playing the game felt better than watching it happen, So Mike took it upon himself to try it out. It was only a Dream, so what were the consequences.
Troeg stopped Mike carefully and said "Mike, Becoming the State Alchemist will bring you prosperity, but if its not brought to us.. your Head will be."
Taking a deep gulp, Mike followed Troeg into a doorway.