Gabriel's Armada

Chapter 5: Training

“No way!” Gabriel said fiercely.

“You wanted to train, didn't you?” Dina retorted just as fiercely.

“I did, but I pictured myself sparring with swords, daggers, shields and knives, not this.” Gabriel said disgustedly.

Dina sighed, thinking she didn't have time to deal with an obnoxious brat such as Gabriel.

“Everyone knows that a soldier doesn't just start combat classes, there are tasks that preceed it, tasks that are supposed to prepare you for it.”

Gabriel folded his arms beneath his chest and looked away, “I don't see how cleaning Zachariah's house is going to prepare me for war. What will you do next, have me scrub the toilets?”

Dina looked around. It was her first day of teaching Gabriel and she was already tired of him. She firmly believed he was an imposter, if not, he was supposed to be knowledgeable enough in the art of warfare.

Instead, he was complaining about simple tasks.

“Look, Gabriel, we don't have toilets here, so you won't be cleaning any. But—”

The rest of her sentence was interrupted by Gabriel's gasp of shock, “You don't have toilets? Don't tell me I have to do it in a chamber pot!”

Dina swore silently. She was getting more and more annoyed with every second she spent with Gabriel, “You won't be doing it at all.”

The shocked look on Gabriel's face was comical to her. Dina guessed James hadn't finished explaining the difference between the physical world and the Afterlife to him.

“Calm down. This isn't the physical world, and this is not your physical body which is burdened with metabolism and all that. This,” She said, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Is your spiritual body. It doesn't hunger, thirst or remove waste products.”

“Holy f**k! That's equal parts great and messed up! So I won't be hungry?” Gabriel asked, fascinated.

“Of course not, we don't even have food lying around.” Dina replied.

“That kinda sucks. I miss food.” Gabriel said, putting on a sad face.

Dina pushed a mop and a wooden bucket lying around into Gabriel's hands, saying, “Here you go. Start cleaning. I don't even know why you're complaining. When Empyrean was still ours and Hosts were still in play, as a cadet, my class had to clean the whole of the city. This is nothing.”

As Gabriel took the bucket, she heard him mutter, “You were just used as free labor.”

She glared at him, “You have five minutes to finish cleaning. And don't think to do it haphazardly, I'll still check to see how well you did it.”

With that she left, ignoring Gabriel's cries of protest.

* * *

Immediately Dina left Gabriel, she walked straight to Zachariah's office. Immediately he saw her, he dropped the voluminous text he was reading and stood up.

“Good morning, General.” He greeted.

“Oh Zachariah,” Dina exhaled, rolling her eyes, “Will you stop with the formalities?”

“Why? You worked long and hard to become a General in the hosts. I think you should be proud of your title.” Zachariah said as he walked over to where Dina stood.

“Even if we are a shadow of what we used to be. The thing is whenever someone calls me General, I remember Ariel. He is supposed to be the general, not me.” Dina said, looking away so Zachariah wouldn't see the tears glistening in her eyes.

She was surprised when she found herself engulfed in a tight hug.

“There, there.” Zachariah said, tapping her back comfortingly with his large hands, “I'm sure wherever he is now, he'll be proud of you.”

Dina nodded and let Zachariah hold her for a few minutes before she broke the hug. She saw disappointment in Zachariah's expression but pretended not to notice.

Clearing her voice to make it sound strong and sure, she spoke, “I actually came here to voice my doubts once again.”

“What doubts?” Zachariah asked wearily as he returned to his chair.

“I don't think Gabriel is the one the prophecy was talking about.”

“What did he do this time?” Zachariah asked, his eyes going back to the text on his table.

“He complains a lot about even the smallest things.” Dina explained.

“Is that all?” Zachariah asked, his eyes still on the text.

“I don't know. I just feel that he's a fake.” Dina confessed.

“Ever since you met him, you've been prejudiced against him.” Zachariah accused.

“Excuse me?” Dina asked, shocked.

“You heard me. You've hated Gabriel.”

“I don't hate him.” Dina objected fiercely.

“But you do,” Zachariah pressed on, “Whatever did he do to you?”

“He did nothing to me,” Dina retorted defensively, “I'm sorry for worrying about placing our fate as the last of the angel race on the shoulders of a spoilt crybaby who thinks the world revolves around him.”

After Dina's rant, silence reigned in the small room for quarter an hour before Zachariah finally broke it, “Dina, I don't think you should be worried about Gabriel. Ever since he appeared here, news about him has spread like a wildfire. People have regained hope that we'll be able to defeat Beelzebub. You should even see the number of people enlisting to join the hosts. Believe it or not, our army is just a few people shy of five hundred.”

“I remember when five hundred soldiers were just a drop in an ocean in the hosts.” Dina reminisced.

“And with Gabriel's help, we'll get back everything we lost to Beelzebub and his demons; our cities and our might.” Zachariah said with élan.

“If Gabriel isn't the one, the people will be sorely disappointed.” Dina interjected.

Zachariah cast her a glare, “Don't be negative.”

Rising from his chair again, he sighed, “I know the past few weeks have been very stressful for you but I implore you to have hope and believe in Gabriel.”

Dina closed her eyes, wondering why Zachariah was so positive Gabriel was the one the prophecy spoke of.

Then, she reasoned that they had no other choice. They had to work with whatever they had, they had no choice whatsoever.

“I know you don't get along well with him but don't let that affect his training. We need him to be the best.” Zachariah continued.

“I don't know how many times I have to say I have nothing against him before you'll believe me.” Dina complained.

“Fine, I'll continue training him to the best of my abilities.” She finally conceeded.

“That's what I wanted to hear.” Zachariah said and engulfed her in another hug.

Suddenly, the door to the room was flung open and Gabriel walked in, his face darkening when he made eye contact with Dina.

Dina noticed his hair was dishevelled and he had dust balls clinging to his robes which were dirty and rumpled especially at the knees.

Zachariah's hands dropped from around Dina and she asked, “Did you just finish? Because if you did, you finished twenty-five minutes late.”

Gabriel c****d an eyebrow and said in that arrogant voice of his that annoyed her so much, “I finished a long time ago.”

“That's great.” Zachariah beamed at Gabriel. Then to Dina, he said, “You see? I knew he could do it.”

“It would be foolish to take Gabriel's words at face value.” Dina replied coldly. She should have asked someone to watch him before she left him, she regretted.

Gabriel looked like he was about to say something hard-hitting before he changed his mind and said in an equally cold voice, “I didn't come here to banter with you. I just came here to ask if any of you have seen James. I haven't seen him since yesterday.”