Chapter 8: Everybody loves my baby. She Gets…
There was a whirling color of hazelnut smelling water that thrashed about in front of Gabriel's face. It floated in the air for a little while as he was inclined by an invisible force forward, up off the air. At first, it was as if they were in space: no air, no nothing, just floating at the mercy of gravity… until suddenly wind flashed Gabriel's face, and he crashed face-first on the black ground, into the hazelnut water.
He was very sure he was dazed and beaten out of his mind: he couldn't even see the blackness in front of him because it looked so damn blurry. The water's sour smell stung his nostrils as he got up, wet, uncomfortable, and hot from his fight with the "demon". "Am I dead?" he said, hearing his voice echo off the wall and then recoil once again on its own echo. He was surprised at the distance the echo seemed to cart off. He was actually more surprised that someone actually answered his question.
"No, not yet" retorted an ethereal, distant, distorted voice. "Who said that, who are you?" Gabriel asked, twisting around on his spot, looking around for whoever said that, "I am… your worst…" the voice rumbled back. Gabriel couldn't understand it too much because it sounded so distant… he was hesitant on saying what he wanted to say…
"Where are you?" he said, avoiding the other question. His voice collided with the other person's voice, making it completely incoherent. "Are you carrying a weapon?!" Gabriel screamed at the top of his voice… "No" the voice said, actually sounding very close… Gabriel, however, still couldn't see who it was that said it… he decided that his efforts were futile, and finally said that dreaded command he had wanted to avoid: "Come closer…" "Right here" someone said… uncomfortably close.
He jumped. The voice came directly behind him… right there, standing as though nothing had happened, was a girl… a beautiful young woman, in her teens, in a stunning gown, and with a cold, uncharacteristically sad face. "Why is such a treasure as you so in sorrow?" Gabriel was unresisting to say, "I have lost someone…" she said, sounding very morose, "lost someone? In here?" Gabriel said, raising his arms to show the girl the darkness surrounding them.
"No… he has left me, and I haven't seen him for such a long time" the girl said. "I see… so, can you tell me how I can get out of here?" "No... Sadly, no… I fear that we've both already strayed too far into a mess neither of us can comprehend" the girl said.
Gabriel stared into her deep, green eyes… and, spontaneously, he said "beautiful…" "What did you say?" a delicate voice swam through Gabriel's head as he pulled his eyes open. He was staring up at a standing Talim's submarine-green eyes and upside-down face. One of the many rosaries Gabriel carried about with him (this was a wooden one) hung from her neck, tickling his face slightly.
"Ah, Ms. Talim…" Gabriel groaned, getting up in a crunch of his back. He felt Talim's silky, lush hair brush against his face as she reverted to a kneeling position behind Gabriel. "Did you rest well?" she asked, rolling up the blanket he had been laying on, "A little bit…" Gabriel said, wrenchingly standing himself up as his back crunched and crunched, as if he had been stiff as a board for months.
"How long was I knocked out?" Gabriel said, staring up at the star-lit sky, deducing Talim's answer: "Several hours, we traveled a couple of miles into some woods. The Moondymond brothers went ahead of us to the nearby pond to wash up after Cassandra dragged them through the dirt" Talim said, pointing down into a nearby valley. "The whooty-whatty who, what did you say?"
"Cyrus and Tobias Moondymond, the two men that we knocked out?" she explained, "Cassandra beat them silly before they spat out their names, although she couldn't get much else out of them". "I see… who is who?" Gabriel said, "Cyrus is the tall burly one and Tobias is the one you fought. Are you hungry? I have some salted meat in a backpack… somewhere…"
Gabriel nodded, throwing himself on the ground, wishing he slept again. The dream he had had trailed from his memory already. As he heard Talim clatter about, he thought of the monastery, and how far he must be right now. "I've never traveled like this before… Roma is so close to the monastery's town, I actually remember the dirt road to it. I miss it already…" he said…
"That's typical of a whiny punk church boy" he heard someone rant in Latin. Cassandra popped her head into his vision, suddenly stuffing a salted steak into Gabriel's mouth. Gabriel's mouth watered once the salt grazed his tongue. He worked it down in one bite, not wishing the salt to sting his drying mouth. "I see you're still as charming as ever, madam Cassandra" Gabriel said, staring at the sky as Cassandra's blonde hair swished through the air as she walked over to where he deduced the packs were, "ah, go sodomize a bible, church boy" Cassandra remarked.
"I guess I'll do just that" Gabriel grunted as he stood up and headed for his pack, where a portable bible contacted his hands. He opened it up on the Psalms, suddenly inspired for a little romance since his vague memories of his dream.
"Are you just going to sit there?" Cassandra said, shouldering a dirty bag of what looked like clothes. "We were going to the pond for a little bath. Would you like to accompany us?" Gabriel heard Talim's voice say, followed by a "Huh?!" from both Gabriel and Cassandra. Gabriel's increasing pulse allowed him to react in a second, thinking 'God, absolutely, Screw this' whilst simultaneously slowly getting up, trying to keep a façade of uncharacteristic male calm, dropping his bible, and saying "if you insist" in a very casual voice.
Gabriel had bathed before with women, including Gabrielle and all of the other little girls at the monastery, and had read and learned plenty on… you know, anatomy. His most memorable experience had been when he was reading the bible whilst bathing in the stream near the monastery. A very busty Roman woman and her husband and kids had stopped for a break in the stream. The woman caught glance of Gabriel, smiled, and then gave him a little wave with her fingers. He did the same, and then re-focused himself on his bible. A fond memory for a... you know, humble or whatever priest-in-training.
Still, he knew the girls wanted to avoid exposing themselves to him: both undressed underwater (though Talim said it was to start up the washing of them), and Cassandra made damn sure the only thing Gabriel could see of her was either her fuming head or her neck. Talim, though, seemed to want to do the complete opposite: to make damn sure Gabriel saw everything of her. One example was when Gabriel was undressing on land (he decided to keep on a pair of briefs for decency's sake). Talim rose out of the water in order to grab a raking board from her pack.
Gabriel got a complete look at the most exotic bodice he had ever seen. Talim's wet honey-yellow tanned skin was smooth and shone like the sun. Her chest was toned perfectly, showing that she was very physical and active. Her breasts were plump and perky, and the nipples brown and visually succulent.
It was clear she was from a humid jungle land from a place like India or the Philippines. Wherever she came from, it was obvious it was in the chasms of the deepest Orient. Her bushy pubic hair hid anything else from Gabriel's prying eyes. Once she turned around, he made sure he didn't catch glimpse of her buttocks, knowing that it might drive him to the point of nervous breakdown. Already he was trying to conceal his arousing. He tried to blow off the heat in his face, and he turned around so Cassandra wouldn't notice the bulge in his briefs.
She didn't seem to mind Gabriel's brief glance at her. As soon as Talim turned back, and Cassandra was focused on her, Gabriel stretched his undies, pushed his penis down so as to look non-erect, and wrapped a piece of cloth around it to hide it further.
'I gotta let you know, Lord…' Gabriel thought, taking a deep breath, 'I regret this… I slightly regret this… I slightly regret it, but I still regret it…' Knowing Cassandra might make a fiasco out of him if she saw, he tried walking normally instead of the waddle the held-down jumba might force unto him as he descended into the cold waters of the pond.
Suddenly, he noticed something very uncomfortable: Talim and Cassandra were eyeing his torso… his ghostly, emaciated excuse for a torso. "My goodness… you're so… skinny" Talim said, looking at Gabriel's slightly disgusting, skeletal appearance, "do you eat much?" "Sure, though you have to understand, it's only a simple monastery" Gabriel said, "the church doesn't pay us much, and the grazing grounds for the cattle were diminishing over the months I was around" "It sound like you've been through hard times" Talim said, looking honestly concerned, "That's life, I guess" Gabriel assured her, not wanting a consolatory hug.
"Explains the fact of why you can become camouflaged in the snow" Cassandra joked, snickering. Gabriel felt his face grow hot as Cassandra opened her mouth again: "that Moondymond wretch is actually more attractive than you. You should have glanced at their horns, too." Gabriel shook his face (in disgust and in disbelief). 'Makes you wonder just how much better women are to men in reality' he thought, contracting his face as he tried not to imagine what Cassandra had just said.
"Don't mind her" Talim said, a sad, understanding smile on her beautiful face. "I don't mind her…" Gabriel said, unconvincingly. He was sure that Talim didn't believe him when he grew tired of Cassandra's snickering and drifted off to another part of the pond, intent on finding out his location and what was new during the time of his extended nap.
