Spires of Infinity by Eric Allen

there anything else you can tell me about the Spires,” he asked.
    “Well,” Sam said, absently scratching beneath one of her breasts. “I’m not sure really. There’s stupid kiddy stories about the Spires being a sort of doorway.”
    “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