"Somehow, I highly doubt that." Vincent said.

Ezra lifted his arm pointing limply. Then beamed.

"Look."

Vincent turned to look, and his eyes widened immediately. They both sat in stunned silence.

"Is that..." Vincent said. Unable to finish his sentence.

Ezra nodded.

"Yes, it is."

Thick veins of gold shown in every direction within the cave. Sparkling clumps dotted the dirt beneath their feet.

"Look," Ezra said as he brushed the soil away to reveal a golden shimmer.

Vincent and Ezra clawed at the earth in boyish, gleeful frenzy. This was it, the end of a long journey. After the countless months and years of planning, searching, suffering and sacrifice, they had finally found the impossible.

It was a dream, a myth. Nothing more than a tale told to the poor downtrodden souls who needed something to hope for. And yet, here it was. In all its splendor.

Glittering glorious gold.

They unearthed a single large nugget and stared in reverent awe for a timeless moment. Letting the wonder and promise wash over them.

"All that work," Ezra said slowly. "All the blood sweat and tears..." He shook his head in disbelief. "Just to find itty bitty rocks."

As they stared at the majesty before them, the golden light of dawn was just beginning to rise over the mountain tops and it entered the cave like a heavenly beam, reflecting on the precious metal underneath it, creating an ethereal atmosphere.

Ezra held the golden nugget gingerly as if it were the most fragile thing on earth. Then slowly brought it under the single shaft of light, cutting through the darkness.

The light fractured, scattering around the room, casting tiny spotlights across his features.

It was simple ore, but it was so much more than that. It was the substance of dreams. Pure potential in tangible form.

"On the one hand, you're right." Vincent said. "On the other hand, my friend. You couldn't be more wrong. You know what I see when I look at this?"

He didn't wait for a response.

"I see... everything. Everything we’ve ever hoped for."

Vincent paused for a moment, overwhelmed. Tears gathered in his eyes.

"We did it brother. We actually did it."

He paused, letting it sink in.

"No more wondering if we'll be able to make the next payment. No more wondering if our wives and children will be taken care of. No more wondering if our children will have the education they need to live a better life. No more worrying if you're going to have enough money to pay for the medicine your Ma needs. No more struggling. No more scraping by and barely making ends meet. No more being at the bottom of life."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

With this, Ezra could no longer suppress the overwhelming feeling building in his body. Tears gathered in his eyes as well. They both blinked rapidly, attempting to obscure the evidence of their emotion.

"I reckon you're right Vincent. We did it. By golly we actually did it."

Vincent pulled off his hat. "Yeehaw, we did it! We hit the big time. We struck it rich."

Ezra pulled off his hat as well and they danced around whooping and hollering. Or at least they danced as well as two bruised and battered men could. Their dance looked more like drunken stumbling, but it was done with passion and joy.

Then they embraced, clapping each other heartily on the back.

"Mighty fine work partner," Vincent said, as he shook Ezra's hand.

Ezra nodded in acknowledgment.

"Indeed, Mighty fine work partner."

They both collapsed on the ground, still reeling from the adrenaline. They were elated as they stared at the beauty around them. Stuck in a daze. They were overtaken by a surreal feeling that somehow none of this was real and they'd soon wake to find themselves back in a familiar place, having dreamt it all.

They sat in silence for a long time. Both expecting the moment to suddenly disappear, but it never did. They were still here. The gold was still here, and it was theirs for the taking.

"Well," Vincent said with a sigh. "With sunrise underway, I reckon we better get headed back to camp."

Ezra nodded slowly, a distant look in his eye.

Vincent tried to speak, but found his throat dry. He cleared it. Then tried again. "What about the gold?"

Ezra answered slowly. "Let’s hold off on bringing anything with us. It'll still be here when we get back."

Vincent grimaced, uneasy.

"Why?"

Ezra didn’t respond.

"What if we come back and someone else has found it?"

Ezra gave him a look.

"Vincent, please. I want the gold just as much as you do and I don't want to leave it behind, but how are we going to carry it back safely?

We can barely carry ourselves, let alone load up on gold. We need to travel as lightly as possible if we’re going to survive.

Let's not get paranoid. We only stumbled upon it ourselves by accident. We can cover it up and It'll be here when we get back. Just waiting for us to scoop it all up. Plus, we’ll need picks anyway to get to the real stuff."

Vincent took a deep breath, his anxiety subsiding a small measure.

"I guess you're right. We better get back and report to camp. The boys will be excited to hear the good news!"

Ezra stopped cold.

"What, what are you talking about?"

Vincent looked back at him confused.

"We need to report back to camp and let the foreman know what we found."

"Oh, no we aren’t. That is the last thing we're going to do."

"What are you talking about? That's procedure, you know that."

"Procedure, procedure, procedure. Why do you always have to be such a stickler?"

"Some call it rigid; others call it honest."

Ezra’s voice caught in his throat.

"I'm honest... What I mean is, we don't really know what kind of take we have here. This could just be a fluke. I mean, we don't even know if this is real gold yet."

"I know real gold when I see it. And I know you do too."

"Don't be so sure. We want this more than anything, right? It's the whole reason we're here now, but sometimes that can blind people. Even men with experience that know when they have the genuine article, have been fooled before. We need to know for sure."

"Well, they're gonna ask where we've been and demand a full report."

"Look, Vincent, I'm not talking about lying. All I'm saying is, we don't want to be made a fool of, do we? Imagine if we went to camp telling everyone we found the take of the century, only to have everyone get riled up, come out here and find that it was all a sham. We'd be a laughingstock. The ridicule would never end.

Vincent was silent. His expression changed as he considered Ezra's words.

"If we gave them false excitement and got their hopes up like that, only for it to turn out to be nothing, they'd hate us for it. I'd have strong feelings myself, if I was given false hope like that. Wouldn't you?"

Vincent meant to argue, but hesitated. "You make a good point."

Ezra smiled. "I knew you'd see it my way brother."

Vincent held up his hands.

"I agree that we should check it out. We don't say anything until after we find out if it is a legitimate find. All right? Just to make sure we aren't giving inaccurate information. Then we give an honest report. Right?"

"Of course," Ezra said, relieved. "That's the plan."

He took the single golden nugget and tucked it away in his pocket.