In a small remote and empty village hidden in sandy dunes a young man could be seen working hard on fixing a patched up green net over a small vegetable patch, the green plants out of place in such a desolate desert with its softly glowing berries carefully being checked by the young man.
"Phew, finally fixed, that should keep them mostly safe from the sandy winds, just a few more hours and you should be ready for harvest. Then I can sell your berries, get a fortune and finally live comfortably! No more worries or problems." He said happily day dreaming of a future surrounded by beautiful women, alcohol and wealth in one of the top capital cities.
Shaking his head he rushed over to the well and drew some water, his arms thin but muscled from farm work matching his athletic swimmer like build, compact muscle making up his entire body barely contained by his torn and tattered shirt.
"One more watering and I can go get my final supper in this dump. From tomorrow on its the high life, good food and being served by beautiful girls." He said excitedly, brushing some sweat and reddish-brown hair from his face practically licking his lips as he made his way to the plants, gently using his fingers to splash some water over them before carefully pouring it over the soil, there roots slowly rising out the ground like white spikes gratefully drinking up the offered water.
"I honestly thought I was being cheated back then but you really are desert gem berry bushes." He said happily lightly rubbing a berry with a finger, its pattern shimmering like ripples over water.
"Just a few more hours to go, I just need to have supper and by nightfall you should be ripe and ready for harvest. Then I can take you all to the to the traders and become rich!" He exclaimed making his way to an almost collapsed house, its door hanging lose and windows cracked and destroyed, inside a rickety table and chair sat with what looked like a stone block with a handle on top sitting next to them with the rest of the rooms other than a set of stairs layered in dust.
Making his way over he slowly pulled the handle of the block upwards, with a low hissing noise the lid slid up showing a blue glow and a small bowl of what looked like noodles. "Finally, finally I won't need to be stuck eating only the cheapest of ration noodles but rather decent food after tonight, steaks and fish and delectable poultry and vegetables will soon be what I get to have instead!" He told himself practically drooling at the thought before being slapped back to reality by the bland and dry tasting noodles.
A few hours later, having managed to force down his meal and deciding to take a rest till nightfall he was woken up by the sound of something breaking.
Groggily he looked around before heading out to investigate, only to find the merchant who sold him the seeds and 2 larger men destroying his netting and stealing his newly ripened berries.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing! Those are mine! You can't just come and take those! At least not without paying for them!" He yelled as he stormed over, his anger at the chance of losing any kind of rich future overriding any form of fear he should have been feeling in this kind of situation.
"Tsk, I must commend you brat, never thought they would actually grow and yet I was right to have you watched, a real return on my investment for sure and they happen to be min. Who would believe a dust muncher like you over a respected and reputable merchant like me afterall." The merchant taunted, his large gut jiggling and causing the chains and necklaces around his neck to jingle and clang together as he began to laugh.
The young man yelled seeing red and lunging at the merchant after as soon as he left his home only to receive a meaty fist to the face breaking his nose and knocked out a bunch of teeth before sending him flying onto his back.
The pain snapping him out of it as he clutched his face. "I will get you for this, I'll kill you!' He swore glaring as best he could through slowly swelling shut eyes.
"Tsk, nothing but trash, take him away, kill him properly and dispose of the body. Even if his all talk, I don't want to take any chances. You really should have just kept your mouth shut brat, maybe just maybe you would have had a chance to act on your threat. The thing is I never got to live this long by leaving people who threatened me alive or untouched, I tie up my loose ends quite neatly." The merchant said before he finished plucking the berries, ripping the now bare plants from the soil and tossing them onto the young man.
"Leave the plants with him when you kill him, a final gift he can take with him to the afterlife hahaha."
Without a word the large figures each grabbed one of his legs and began dragging him into the village center as the merchant left.
"Look, we can work this out, I don't know what he pays the 2 of you but help me get those berries back and we can split the profit 3 ways. It's bound to be far more than what you're currently getting." He tried to reason.
"Can't do that, even if we did it would ruin our names, no one hires those who can't keep their word or betray their employer." The first one said well the other nodded along.
"Even if we make 3 times what we're being paid it won't help if we can't find decent work afterwards due to a tarnished reputation, short term gains can't match long term investment." The second one added.
"And this is decent work? Threats and murder!" The young man bit out incredulously as they begun to pull out rope from a sack, securing his arms and legs together without care for his struggles before tying rocks to him.
"Well, it's not entirely honest but work is work and we need to listen to our boss. If we don't then we don't get paid. We are rather sorry about all this but I do hope you can understand, we all have to make a living somehow." The first told him strapping and tying a few more rocks before the second dragged him over to the well.
"Can't you just let me go then? Pretend you offed me, I disappear and no one ever sees me again?" He asked hopeful, trying to reason with them.
"Again, can't do that. If the boss found out we would be in trouble and circles back to tarnishing our reputation and all that not to mention if you did come back and kill him we would be held responsible for not managing to keep him safe by following his orders, which in turn would affect our families if any of his buddies decide to take action or worse, previous employers throwing our work into question and wondering if we did, in fact follow their orders. If there's honor among thieves then you must know even lackey's, guards and hired help also have their own honor and codes to follow young man." The second replied as they carried him over to the well.
"Now we're actually being quite nice since we figured you where dealt a bad hand by life and he didn't tell us what condition to leave you in so we aren't going to butcher your body or feed you to beasts, instead we're going to dump you in the well and have you sink down to your watery grave. Please don't haunt or curse us, we're just doing our job to feed our families." The first said clearly regretful, his eyes showing it through the mask on his face as the second brought out some incense sticks.
"I'll even be burning these to wish you luck in your next life as an offering and I'll even leave a silver coin here for you so that you can pay whoever carries you over. Hopefully it helps you enjoy a better life next time." The second said, lighting and letting the incense burn well giving a little payer before placing the coin under the incense.
That was the last thing the young man saw before falling down the well, the rocks tied to him dragging him down faster and splashing into the water as they dragged him down with an incredible speed.
His thoughts cursing the damn merchant, wishing for revenge and oddly having the images of the life he wanted slowly slip away as flashes of his own hard life began, from growing up in the slums and his small family of other children, being kidnapped by a devil and sold in across various bordering merchant towns before managing to escape, his slow buildup of wealth doing odd jobs, seeing the various strange immortals that slowly began showing up including the eccentrics who ran around in there underwear and pestered him for jobs before seemingly disappointed when he gave them blank looks before ending with him buying the seeds with the money he had managed to save up at the merchants slick words followed by spending a year and a half, constant trials and difficulties to grow the plants now strapped to him out in the middle of the old ruins of a village to keep them secret and safe where even the odd immortal people almost never ventured into due to how little existed there.
"God damn it." where the last words to leave his lips in air bubbles as his consciousness slowly left him well finding his final thoughts to be 'damn, how deep is this bloody well.'