The Stronghold 3: Mikachi

Don't Ask Gabriel Things

It turns out that I managed to get a few hours of much-needed sleep on the journey as Gabriel did nothing much but chat with students. By the time we rolled up at a hotel in Gesvagon I felt refreshed and Gabriel was a lot less annoying, even if he did smell strongly of sugar.

"Ah, the three golden S-es," Gabriel said, stretching and smiling blissfully once we got off the coach and were stood on firm ground. The hotel overlooked a vast, white-sand beach that met a shimmering ocean with a rippling line. You could go out the front steps and onto the beach but for someone who really didn't like sand that was nothing short of torture.

"What are they, sir?" one pupil made the mistake of asking.

"Sun," Gabriel said, waving at the sky. 

"Sea," he said, pointing to the waves.

"And se-" 

"Okay," I interrupted loudly as Gabriel winked at me. "Is everyone in their groups?" The other coaches had rolled up and hundreds of pupils were assembled on the pavement. I got nods from various other teachers and then had to lead the school into the hotel and try and work out the drama that was rooms. For people to a room was the maximum and there were a few tears as people argued over who was bedding with who but eventually everyone had rooms sorted. Gabriel and I had a room - we were assured there were two beds but I had a feeling that Gabriel would change it, purely to be irritating - and the floor that we were on was possibly the worst. Two rooms contained the gossipers and the 'popular' girls, all of whom got into fights regularly. Two more rooms had the 'lads' and the 'gangsters', kids who thought they were tougher than they were. The other room had some quiet children in it, including Rose, who I had learnt were pretty much golden pupils compared to everyone else. 

"Top floor," I noted. "Right." 

Once we had our rooms and our groups we were supposed to go up to the allocated floors and stop children from disappearing into other rooms or other floors, or even out of the hotel.  They were only allowed to leave the next day when we knew that we had everyone. From then some teachers would be on beach duty, some would be taking pupils into town and some would stay in the hotel. I had a suspicion that Gabriel and I were on beach duty and could feel myself getting steadily more and more resigned to my doom.

"Come on, kiddies," Gabriel said cheerfully, summoning the pupils we needed presumably by magic. "Up we go!" He bounded over to the stairs and planted the idea that a race was a good plan inside the heads of the 'lads' and so they went hollering up the staircase, most of the girls squealing as they ran after them. Rose, her friend Jess from the coach and two other girls walked calmly alongside me, talking amongst themselves.  

"Sir, why is Gabriel so childish?" one girl that I didn't recognise asked.

"Because he's a child at heart," I shrugged. "And eats far too much sugar."

"It shows," another girl whispered and they laughed. My hands balled into fists but I kept on walking, seeming not to notice the cruel remark. Rose, however, did.

"That's not very nice," she snapped at the girls. "How would you like it if someone went up to you and said something like that?"

"Yeah, but they wouldn't," the second girl said, tossing her hair. "We have perfect figures."

"You should judge people on their soul, not their looks," Gabriel said, appearing behind the girls with an expression of hurt and irritation on his face. They screamed and he scrutinised them carefully. "Mm, yes. Crowley will be happy to see you. Say hi to Luci when you're down there."

"Down where?" one girl asked in terror.

"It's best not to ask," I said, speeding up to catch up with Gabriel, who had swanned on ahead. 

"You handled that remarkably well," I commented.

"What did you think I'd do? Turn their faces green and make them the size of whales?" Gabriel snorted.

"Well yes."

"I planned to, but figured that I might get fired," the archangel said. "Not just from this job, from being an archangel. Meddling too much, y'know? But I have a plan for those two. They won't want to go to bed tonight." He grinned and bounced forwards, poking his head into each room to make sure people were settling in properly. Then he reached the large door at the end of the corridor and unlocked it with a flourish, holding open the door for me. I went at a slower pace, ensuring that people weren't killing one another or crying. The four girls who were walking with me went into their room okay and I carried on walking, brushing past Gabriel and entering the room.

"Whoa," I said softly, whistling through my teeth in appreciation. "This is neat." 

The room was large and open plan, more like a full-blown suite than a room. I could see a bathroom off to the left and a living space over on the right. A kitchen filled the left hand of the room as well as a dining space. There were beds separated from the rest of the room by a patterned, wooden screen and they were up and over to the right, just beyond the television. 

"I could stay here forever," I said. 

"Well you wanted to run away and go to another country," Gabriel said. "Just fake your death or something, or just never get on the coach. I might even mess a few minds around." 

"For someone who thinks they may lose their powers you're certainly casual with throwing them around," I said. "Especially in a world where magic is considered evil, and all that."

"Oh, I'm off the radar," Gabriel grinned. "They can't find me or my magic. And anyway, if they did then I'd just blow them out of the water or send them down to Hell." He shrugged and smiled again. "No big deal."

"Are we actually expected down when the pupils eat lunch or dinner or whatever?" I asked, going over to the beds and noting that our luggage had already been moved up. 

"Two teachers per day," Gabriel said. "We're not on food duty until Thursday, I think. And it's Monday."

"The wedding's on Friday," I said suddenly. "What do we do then?"

"Cross that bridge when we come to it," Gabriel said, throwing himself down onto one of the beds and bouncing up and down with a grin. "In the meantime..." He grabbed his pillow and hit me with it. "Pillow fight!"

"Gabe, no, we're adults and teachers," I laughed, fending him off. 

"If I win we sleep in the same bed," Gabriel said, eyes glittering. 

"If I win you sleep on the sofa," I shot back, grabbing my own pillow and bringing it down on the archangel's head.