Internally Driven by Ben Burton (best romance ebooks .TXT) 📕

"It's getting dark and I'm hungry damn it. We have to stop and make camp!" Dirk wasn't nearly as motivated to get to the cave as his brother was. This wasn't the first time Drake had dragged him along on one of his treasure hunts. When they were only nine years old, Drake found a treasure map that said that there was gold underneath the schoolhouse's back porch. Dirk was always a little mischievous and the idea of sneaking off to dig under the schoolhouse seemed like a lot of fun. Sure enough, there was a small bag full of river rocks, a couple of animal teeth, and a little horse figure carved out of a branch buried a few inches beneath the porch steps. There were also two broken pieces of gold coins, could have been from the same coin, but it was so worn it was impossible to tell. It was all stuff that looked like it had been found and collected from the nearby woods and the river that were just outside of town. Probably some other little kid a long time ago buried it there and when he got older decided it would be more fun to leave a treasure map to be found than to go back and dig it up. Dirk never really understood how some kid could have buried it there; he and Drake had to rip apart the porch just to get to it. The gold coins weren't even enough to pay for the damage they caused, and their mom was so angry with them they both got whipped every day for the whole next week. But boys never really learn, and Dirk is still getting in trouble and Drake is still looking for treasure.

"Not stopping yet. This is going to be the big one. This treasure is going to set us up for the rest of our lives. And we will be able to find a doctor and take care of mom. We owe it to her not to stop. If we just go for one more hour today, then we will be on schedule to make it there in just four days."

"This is not going to be the big one. This isn't going to be any one. We never find anything worth a crap! Besides, when has the trip EVER gone according to your schedule? We will be lucky to make it there in six days. Something always goes wrong." Drake had never actually found a treasure since that bag at the school house seventeen years ago, if you could even call that a treasure. But, unfortunately, he did find where a real treasure was four years ago, but we got there too late and it was gone, just a few dusty empty boxes and broken pieces of silver from jewelry not even worth a single gold all together. Once, seven years ago we found a bunch of old scrolls and books that had yellowed so badly, and apparently gotten wet, that they couldn't be read and weren't worth anything. After carrying those damn heavy books for over 30 miles, we found out that even the paper was so warped and ruined so badly a schoolhouse wouldn't take them to use for writing practice. At least they fueled the fire one cold night on the journey home. These three "successful" treasure hunts kept Drake going for all these years and Dirk went with him on every single one. Not sure why he kept going. This was the 33rd trip, and Dirk was never sure why he kept going. Maybe it was because he always liked adventure, or because they always found a little bit of trouble along the way. Most likely, Dirk just saw Drake as his younger brother, but they were twins, and even their own mother didn't know which one was born first. Drake asked her once who was older. "That was a long night! And I couldn't even tell you two apart until you grew up and had your own personalities! Hell Drake, you might have been born Dirk, I don't really know, but you are Drake now!" Even to this day, if they dress alike, no one can tell them apart... except their mother. It's not that they look common, it's quite the opposite that makes them so hard to tell apart. Their dark skin make their freckles unusual, and even their freckles seem to be in exactly the same place on each of them. They were each born with a light brown left eye and noticeably darker brown right eye. They were tall, and handsome, with wavy brown hair, and strong jaw lines. Their upper bodies were slightly large in proportion to their lower bodies, not enough to notice right away, but enough to make an onlooker to think they looked unique or "a little off" as they've been told by a few of the drunken travelers they've run into in the past. They both had a handsome smile which always showed up a little as a smirk. In fact, for their very closest friend, they only had one, this was the only way to tell them apart. Dirk's smirk rose a little on the left side of his face while Drake's was on the right.

"All right, fine. Let's find a place to lay down for the night. Just remember when you go back home and start complaining to me about being away too long and not having enough time to work and make money, you were the one who decided to stop early every night."

"It's not stopping early. It's stopping at a reasonable time. If we keep going, we aren't going to be able to get up and get going when the sun comes up. Besides, the town is less than a day away now, doesn't really matter if we get there early or late in the day. The bed is going to be the same either way."

"But if we get there early, we can grab some food and still have time to make it to Brekken by the end of the day."

Brekken was too far to get to in two days, unless you had a horse, but taking a horse to Brekken would just earn you a stolen horse. And Drake and Dirk only had one horse between the two of them, so that wasn't really an option. Drake always thought it would take less time to get places than it did. Maybe he just thought they would run the whole way, or that they never needed to stop to eat. Dirk never really bought into it, and he knew by now that when Drake came to him and said "I found a treasure, and it's only four days away..." what he really heard is "I found an adventure to nowhere that's only twelve days there and back..." That would be twelve days away from home, away from work and pay, and away from their mom. But it was also twelve days away from the normal, mundane life of fixing leaking roofs, doors unhinged by drunken husbands, and barn walls that had holes kicked in them by spooked horses and donkeys, That was quite appealing, so they would plan it out, and sure enough, a couple months later, they would be packed up and on their way again.

The decision had been made, and Drake knew it. He would have kept fighting to go a little further, but Dirk would have just made camp and forced them to slow down. He really knew this before they left, and he knew that four days would be damn near impossible, but he knew his brother well, and he'd have to push the pace some if they were ever going to get there. Dirk enjoyed the journey a little more than Drake did, and he would stop at every river crossing to grab a drink and try to catch a fish, at every cliff overlook to take in the view, and at every town to eat some local dishes, and flirt with some local waitresses. "I hear water to the east." That was all Drake needed to say. The brothers had been in this situation more times than they could count, and they knew what each other were thinking. That would be the last statement uttered by either one until the sun woke them in the morning. The two hiked through thick underbrush and wood, slowly at first being careful not to show significant signs of travelers heading off the main road. That would only invite robbers to come looking for someone easy to ambush and kill where they wouldn't have to worry about someone coming down the road, or even cleaning up the mess. They ruffled the leaves and were careful not to break and branches or fallen limbs. A true tracker would still have no problem finding them, but the typical outlaw would just pass by without a second glance.

They hiked for twenty minutes deep into the woods and found a small stream, only about eight feet across and probably two feet deep at its center. They looked at each other and continued downstream for another fifteen minutes be be sure they were sufficiently away from the road. Adding thirty minutes to a hike was a small price to pay to not be at the the streams closest point to the road. That was a lesson they only had to learn once when another traveler, innocent enough, was looking for some water early one morning. They startled each other, and both Dirk and the traveler drew a knife. Things escalated from there, and within five minutes, Dirk and Drake were packing as quickly as they could and left the traveler to bleed to death by the stream. It would be on another adventure seven months later when the brothers were having a drink at a local bar when a stranger buys them a round of drinks. When they turned to see who it was, nothing more could have surprised them than the apprehensive face of the traveler Dirk had stabbed the year before. The drink served its purpose well which Henard had said he bought them to show he wasn't looking for revenge or harm. Of course the obvious questions came up. Henard explained that he was just a thirsty traveler and was not looking to rob or hurt anyone, and that he was as surprised to see the brothers as they were when they saw him. He saw the stream first and was looking down trying to get the cap off his long empty canteen and rushing toward the stream that would quench his thirst not noticing that there were other people in the small clearing, or he would have obviously gone up or down stream to not disturb them. Dirk claimed that Henard had drawn his knife first, but of course, Henard said he only drew his knife when he saw that Dirk had drawn one on him. He was weak from thirst and assumed he would not have a chance if he turned and ran, and was too delirious to talk his way out of the situation. After the fight he was really just as happy to be alone with a running river as he was distraught that he had been stabbed in the side, arm, and shoulder. He explained to the brothers that his uncle was a skilled healer, and he knowledge of bandaging and local healing plants were what kept him alive. I took him four days to recover enough to make it back to the path where a passing traveler was kind enough to let him ride his horse to his home in the nearest town. "How do you know we won't