Money is like fish

The fishing wire took some cloth bandages from a satchel at her side and tied them around my knees.

It was very tight. Most likely to quell the bleeding.

"There we go. You should be fine with that."

She stood up and began to walk away.

"Wait!" I yelled.

She paused

"Yes?"

"I've told you my name why don't you tell me yours!" I yelled

"My names Sarah."

And she was gone.

🐖🐐🐖🐐🐖

For the next few hours I just laid there on the beach. There was nothing much to do so my mind returned to a familiar entity.

The darkness. If it weren't for that thing then I would have drowned in the ocean.

But somehow it managed to prevent that. And it prevented my execution. Even when I first died. It brought me back then too.

At first I thought it was because of that thing. The arch homie. But if so why have I only seen it once?

The darkness had to be its own septate entity.

This brings to mind two questions. Why did it help me? And what is it?

I have no idea what it is. I can only sink in confusion in that regard. But…

I couldn't help but think. That the reason it helped me was because.

Because of my greatness! I posses a mind and pontential beyond what the dark could dream of! It was like Craig. Yet another seeker of perfection that scraped at my feet in order to obtain it.

It was just another follower of my greatness.

But it was a follower that I could not respect. When something near death happened it had complete power over me. It made me afraid.

And so.

Having come to a logical conclusion about the darkness I decide to sleep.

It had to have been days since I last slept. Or at least it felt like it had been days.

🐖🐐🐖🐐🐖🐐

"Zzzzzzzzzzz"

"Hey scum bag wake up!"

A boot was driven into my face.

I opened my eyes to Sarah's glaring face. She had a large sack of fish tied onto her back. They were still twitching and held in a net.

"Ha! I knew you'd come back. None can resist my charm!"

This time she kicked me in the stomach.

I could only hold my stomach and cough up blood in response.

"Careful. If you kick me too hard you'll lose your fish." I pointed out

She rolled her eyes.

"Ugh. I don't know why I'm doing this."

She bent down and picked me up in a baby carry.

I looked up at her with my puppy dog eyes.

"Are you taking me to your settlement?" I asked her

She only rolled her eyes in response.

I just grinned. I knew that was a yes.

It was about a thirty minute walk from the beach to the village.

And the village itself was similar to most other villages I had seen. Meaning it was depressing.

Sarah seemed to be the strongest out of everyone in the village. As everyone else was stick skinny and at least an inch shorter than her.

"Do you guys even eat?" I asked Sarah

"Only when the fish are around." She responded solemnly

I gave her a slight nod.

"Ah."

I could assume from that that they either didn't have a way of storing food during winter or couldn't store enough.

"How many people die from starvation each year?" I asked her

She gulped

"Ah. About a third" she said

I could only nod my head sollemly.

Clearly there wasn't enough food.

I opened my mouth to speak again.

"We're here."

Only to get Interrupted

She brought me to a small shack made from tied straw. Is had a rounded roof made from many strips of straw that were tied at the bottom. It was quite short for a house. So short that I don't think most people could stand in it without their heads touching the roof.

But I saw dirt mounds piled quite high around the house so I had to assume that the floor was dug down to make up for the lack of height.

Sarha pulled the straw off the doorway of the house revealing a dugout underground domicile.

I was right

"Mom I'm home." Sarah said.

A woman with a perpetually hunched back, grey hair and face possessing a deep leathery along with many canyons of wrinkles hobbled towards Sarah. Her cane forcefully struck the floor with each step.

Her head snapped in my direction

"You brought a boy home!" She squealed.

I saw Sarah roll her eyes

"It's not like that mom."

She didn't listen.

"I thought that you were gay! But finally my daughter at the ripe prune like age of twenty five has brought home a boy!"

Sarah could only roll her eyes.

"I told you I'm not gay mom." Said Sarah with a hopeless tone.

"Oh I know. But you never bring boys home. So you're gay!" I even felt the urge to face palm at that one

"Anyways why are you holding him in your arms like that? I don't know what you two get up to in the bedroom but carrying your man around In public is just awkward."

Sarah's face grew red at that remark

"I told you mom! It's not like that! He's a random cripple that I found on the beach!" Yelled Sarha

Her mother raised her brows at that.

"How aggressive. Grabbing your man at the first opportunity. I see. I see," She said with two forceful nods.

At this point Sarah's face was beet red. She dropped me to the floor and stomped out of the house.

There was a few seconds as awkward silence as we both just stood in place.

"I guess I teased her too much." Said her mother with a shrug.

I smiled.

"Who cares? Anyways my name's Greg. What's yours?" I asked her while extending my hand to shake.

She smiled back.

"Hello greg. My names gertrude."

We shook hands.

"Well gertrude. I have some questions for you. About the state of this town."

Her shifted from a friendly grin to a slightly confused smile.

"Oh. Okay…"

🐖🐐🐖🐐🐖🐐

She dragged me to a small wooden table with two chairs across from it. She wasn't able to sit me on the chairs on account of me being unable to use my back and all. I would just fall over. That and she was too weak to lift me up. So she grabbed a long piece of wood and used it as a lever to drape my torso over the table.

My legs just dangled off the edge.

"So. What's the economy like. Do you have any other kind of food than fish?" I asked her

She shook her head.

"No. We only have fish. Can I also ask you a question?" Asked gertrude

I nodded

"Ask away."

"What's an economy?"

I swear my jaw almost dropped.

~It's worse than I thought. They don't even know what an economy is. Soon they'll tell me their currency is fish. Actually that's a good question. What is their currency?~

"Do you use the standard gold coins for currency?" I asked her.

"Can I answer your question with a question?" She responded

I swear my soul shattered when I heard that.

"Let me guess…. You want to know that currency is." She nodded her head.

I sighed.

"It's something you exchange for specific goods and services."

She nodded.

"Okay. So it's like fish."

It's like fish. IT'S LIKE FISH. IT'S LIKE FISH!

That's right. The only fucking currency in this ass backward place was fish. And given that they don't understand basic concepts like economy that means they have almost no contact with the outside world.

I was screwed. I would have to wait for a month until my next wish comes around. Throwing valuable time down the gutter that could have been used to take over the world.

~Wait. It's not all hopeless yet. They might have a library. Then I could read for the month. I could gather up knowledge and use that to aid in my conquest.~

So I asked gertrude the obvious question.

"Do you guys have a library?" I asked her.

"What's a library?" She responded