“What kind of doorway,” Gabriel asked, interest suddenly piqued.
Sam shrugged. “I dunno. My mother didn’t do much storytelling when I was
little. Maybe to other worlds, or times. Who knows really? Now wait a minute! You’re playing dumb but you already knew that, didn’t you? Maybe you really did come from another world, or maybe you’re just an idiot that has a soft spot for kiddy stories and you want to use the Spires to go somewhere else because this world sucks cock like a two bit whore.”
To be honest the thought of using the Spires of Infinity to return to his own world hadn’t crossed Gabriel’s mind until she brought up the possibility.
“That’s it,” he cried, jumping to his feet. “That’s my ticket out of this hell hole nightmare! Thank you god! I know my way home!”
Sam gave him “the look”. Every woman ever born knew “the look” from the
cradle, even women like Sam, who were basically dirty old men with breasts. It could say everything and anything a woman wanted it to, and in no uncertain terms. He was an idiot. He was a child. He’d forget to breathe if she wasn’t there to remind him. “The look” said it all. And they always seemed to shoot it at you when you hadn’t done a single thing deserving of it.
“Men,” she said disgustedly.
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Oh quit complaining. You get me home and I’ll
freaking drill you until it leaks out your eyes if you want me to. We did have a deal, didn’t we? You’re not backing out of it are you?”
Sam intensified “the look”, but Gabriel had been on the receiving end from far scarier women than she. Her pitiful powers were useless against him.
Sam glared at him for a few seconds before looking away.
“Women,” Gabriel muttered. What in the hell was she so angry about! He’d
been hoping that he’d found the universe’s first sane woman, but apparently the search continued.
“There are still two hours before second day,” Sam said sullenly, getting to her feet. “Get some sleep or you’ll be dead in the saddle.”
With that she stalked back to her bedding and lay down with her back to him.
“What is wrong with her all of a sudden,” Gabriel asked. “I say I’m going home and suddenly she’s got a stick the size of Montana stuck so far up her ass it must be causing sinus pressure.”
“Really,” Mister Mittens asked with a laugh. “You’re really that blind?”
“Blind? What? You’re a cat! God, would someone start making sense already!”
“If you’re too stupid to see it,” Mister Mittens said as he began prowling his way to Sam’s side, “I’m not about to tell you. Oh no, it’s far more entertaining this way.”
“Stupid little cat,” Gabriel grumbled to himself as he walked back to his bedding.
Chapter 10: Teven and Altima
“All right,” Gabriel pulled his cathor alongside Sam’s, “I don’t know what I did to piss you off, but whatever it is, I’m sorry.”
Sam fixed him with a flat golden stare. “And what makes you think I’m pissed at you?”
“Come back when your training is complete, young Padawan, your Jedi mind
tricks have no effect on me. A blind man could see you’re pissed. I can’t read your mind. If I don’t know what you’re mad about, how can I make it better?”
Why did he even care? Normally, he wouldn’t, but the way she’d been glaring at him and refusing to speak all day had him feeling a little odd. He was not normally one to give half a damn about the feelings of other people, but as the day wore painfully onward he found that her sullen silence was really getting to him.
Face twisting in frustration, Sam made as if to strangle her reins. “I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at me. Now leave me alone!”
Shrugging, Gabriel let his cathor wander away from hers. The strange way that the beast moved had taken quite a bit of getting used to.
Sighing, he wondered how things had come to this. They were acting like
married people in a sitcom with this silent argument. He’d apologized hadn’t he? So what was her problem! If there was one thing he could say for certain, it was that he would never understand women. He could manipulate female jury members with ease in the courtroom, but you didn’t really need to understand women to manipulate them like that.
Muttering bitterly, Gabriel watched the red sunlight twinkle through the jewels implanted in the backs of his hands. He’d been practicing with them quite a bit, and he was really getting the hang of the gunfighter one. He’d messed around with the field log a bit, using the instruction book to record a few knife fighting moves just to amuse himself with, but it seemed rather useless otherwise. Though, he could see how being able to record everything you see and hear with a single word would be useful to a law enforcement official. It would have made his life a freaking nightmare back in the courtroom. He supposed that it would be a good idea to record some more moves onto it, in the case that he found himself in a situation where his life depended on them. So far, he’d seen little more than red sand, purple grass, and dusty little hick towns, but if Sam was to be believed, there were many dangers out here in the wastelands. That they hadn’t run into any of them yet was testament to her skill as a guide.
“Wingless,” Gabriel whispered, activating the gunfighter jewel. A strange
sensation flowed into him, like a broken pathway in his mind was reconnected. A floodgate seemed to open, and all sorts of information about caring for guns, types of guns, ammo, how to aim, everything that a gunfighter would need, merged into his thoughts. It was not exactly pleasant, but at the same time it felt strangely good, like working a long unused muscle. Probably the best part about it was that when he used the Sa’Dhi, the nagging voice of his father, telling him he was worthless and good for nothing, vanished from his mind completely.
When the time limit expired, all of that knowledge would flood out of him as
though it was never there. Try as he might he wouldn’t be able to remember any of it, and when he tried to use any of the skills that had come so naturally with the jewel activated, the results were laughable at best.
Drawing one of his pistols in the quickdraw fashion from old westerns, Gabriel aimed along the barrel. The sight at the end had been filed off to keep it from snagging when it was pulled from the holster. With the Sa’Dhi active, he didn’t need it to aim. It was more a matter of sighting down his arm, using other points of reference and intuition.
Until the jewel’s effectiveness expired, Gabriel practiced sighting different
objects on the horizon, and drawing and reholstering each of the pistols. He was almost up to two hours now. Extending the time limit was just like leveling up in an old school RPG video game like the ones he’d spent hours of his childhood playing to escape from his father’s abuse. In his opinion those were the best video game adventures, before 3D
graphics and “fresh” innovations started spoiling them.
In those games you had to use your skills against monsters to gain experience, which made you stronger. If you hadn’t fought enough foes by the time you got to the dragon at the end of the dungeon, you were screwed. You’d have to go back and level up your character to make it strong enough to win. He’d always liked to fight everything along the way to make sure his character was strong enough to win the fight at the end.