Chapter Ten-The Jackel and the knight

 

 

 

Chapter Ten- The Jackal and the Knight

 

Two days later….

 

 

“Well this has been an interesting weekend.  Almost tops the time me and Sahen went to Las Vegas.”  Gawain said to himself.  He was sitting on the steps outside of the mansion twirling a cigarette in his hands.

 

“What is that?”  He jumped a bit as Sapphire came up beside him and sat down.  He looked at her confused.  “This?”  He said holding up the cigarette.  “No, what is a lost veg-is?”  He burst out laughing at this sentence.  Trying to stop laughing he looked at Sapphire but the expression on her face was too much and he fell back down laughing.  “What is so humorous?”  Sapphire asked. Once he had recomposed himself he explained.  “It’s Las Vegas, it’s a city in Nevada that people go to spend all their money.”

 

“Why would you want to spend all your money?  What do you get in return?”  Sapphire asked.  “You’re kidding me right?”  He asked

“Kidding about what?”  She asked still puzzled.

“How about I just take you there sometime?”  He said holding his palm up that had the cigarette in it.  She snatched it out of his hand and snapped it in two. 

“What did you do that for?”  He asked. 

“Smoking is bad for you; it took me three years to get X off of them, well not that they make any difference to her.”

“What do you mean?”  Gawain asked.  Crap I have to stop thinking out loud. She thought.

 

“Oh…I just mean that…oh never mind.”  Sapphire said getting frustrated.  “I’m just not used to talking to people this much.”

 

“Ah that’s ok.  Don’t you have friends and stuff?  My sister talks for hours to her friends.  I can never get anytime on the phone.”  Gawain asked.

 

“Only X and we don’t usually stay in one place long enough to meet anyone.”  Plus I’m a big blabber mouth and the last time I let it slip X had to kill him, which was harder than I would have thought for her.

 

“Wait X is you only friend?  How did the pair of you even meet?  You seem like two completely different people.”  Gawain said. 

 

“X… I don’t really know.  When I was twelve and my father were on our way to the brothel when a bad sandstorm picked up we got separated. When I woke up there was X just hovering above me.  Ever since we’ve worked for the Mo-”

 

“Brothel?!  Why were you guys going to a Brothel?!”  Gawain yelled and stood up.

Sapphire didn’t flinch.  “I was going to work there.”  She said like it was nothing.

 

“You were...going to work at a brothel when you were twelve!?  What about your father!  Your mother?!”  He yelled.

 

“My mother had disappeared and my father didn’t have enough money to feed us…so we both agreed it was for the best…”  Sapphires voice trailed away and she looked towards the forest.  “There weren’t a lot of options where we lived.”

 

“Where is this so called father of yours?  My fist would like to have a word with him.”  Gawain said anger blazing through his eyes.

 

“Dead I guess?  They never found a body, but we never had a proper burial either.  The only one I have is X she’s been there ever since.  I suppose the closes thing to a father I have is Jenkins.”  She said getting up.  Gawain quickly grabbed her wrist.  “I’m…I’m sorry.”  He muttered well looking away. 

 

“I think I’m going for a quick walk.”  Sapphire said smiling then started to walk to the forest.  “There not mine…”  Gawain called out.  “What’s not?” she asked looking back.  “The cigarettes there my fathers, I’ve been trying to get him to quit ever since my mother died.”  He said as a look of sadness crossed his face.  Sapphire turned and walked into the forest and Gawain sat there waiting for her to come back.

 

  After about twenty minutes of her being gone he started to get worried and decided to go in after her.  “Sapphire!”  He called out in to the dense trees.  He spotted some foot prints on the ground and started to follow them. A few minutes following them a set of what looked like dog prints joined them.  Oh no.  He thought to himself and broke out to a run.  “Sapphire!  Sapphire!”  He yelled.  Suddenly a loud shriek pierced the air and he pushed forward faster. 

 

He came up to a clearing and spotted a small jackal like dog sitting on a large rock he was watching a girl-wait that’s Sapphire and she’s about to fall off a large rock- oh s**t that’s a cliff!  He ran as fast as he could and brushed her shoulder as she fell off the edge.  “Gawain?”  She said confused. 

 

“No!”  He yelled lying down so he could look over the side for her.  He was surprised to see about five metres down was a shirtless Sapphire treading water and looking up at him.  He face immediately turned red and he flipped on his back and panted out the breath he was holding.  “Arfuff!”  He looked up to see the dog staring at him.  “Oh shut up!”  He said angrily at the dog.  “Gawain!  Are you ok!”  Sapphire yelled up from the water.  “Uh ya, I’m fine!”  He yelled back.  “Why don’t you come in?  The waters nice!”  She asked.

 

He snuck a quick peak, and then quickly averted his eyes blushing.  “No I think I’ll just stay up here.”  He said getting up.  Where you’re not half-naked.  He thought.  “Oh but the waters fin-ugh.”  Sapphires sentence was interrupted.  “Sapphire?”  He called over.  But no answer came. 

 

He looked over the side of the cliff but couldn’t see her anywhere.  “Come on Sapphire!  Where are you?!”  He yelled out.  A growl came from beside him and he turned to see the angry face of the dog.  “Ok, ok!  But if this is a trick I swear to god.”  He said taking off his shirt revealing a four pack.  “Well here goes.”  He said cannonballing off the edge. 

 

There was a big splash when he hit the water.  When he finally broke the surface he called out for sapphire again, but there was still no answer.  He felt something touch his leg and then was pulled under the water.  When he broke the surface again he could hear maniacal laughter coming from behind him, suddenly something latched on to him from behind.  “Forward my stead!” Sapphires voice yelled. 

 

“That’s it!  I warned you!”  He yelled.  “Warned me about what?”  Sapphire asked between fits of giggles.  Before Gawain pick her up and tossed her back into the water.  “Eeeee!”  She shrieked.  When she came back to the surface she let out an exaggerated gasp.  “What is it?”  He asked finding a rock to stand on in the water.   She clasped her hands together and batted her eyelashes.  “Oh it’s just the way the water is dripping of your gorgeous brown hair and cascading down you shirtless tan chest.”  She swam over to him and continued well twiddling her finger along his arm. “So gamil”  She said.  He tensed at her touch.  “And look at your big strong arms.” She said before bursting out in another giggle fit and falling back into the water.  As she started to sink Gawain picked her up in his arms.  “What are you doing?”  She said looking at the devious grin on his face. 

 

“Oh nothing…”  He said.  Then thru her up and she splashed back in to the water.  He started to laugh until he didn’t see her come back up.  A flash of concern passed his face.  “Sapphire?”  He asked.  He looked up as he heard a faint giggling from above to see Sapphire standing at the top of cliff.  “How did you?”  He started.  “How did I get up here?  I guess you’ll have to figure it out!”  Then she turned around and disappeared.  “Hey!  Wait Sapphire!”  He called out swimming to small the shore and clawing his way up thru the branches.

 

Eventually Gawain found his way back up the cliff and looked around for his shirt and Sapphire.  Finally he gave up his search and started back towards the mansion following the footprints back.  Muttering curses he spent twenty minutes following them in seemingly circles before he saw the mansion and Sapphire sitting on the steps.  “Hey.” He muttered to her.  “What took you so long?”  She asked trying to stifle a laugh.  “Meh.”  He replied walking past.  “I’m going to go check on Sahen.”