Hiss of the Steam

Hiss of the Steam Chapter 8 - A Day Off

I woke up still lying next to Amber. Her hand had fallen out of mine and she was still fast asleep.   Which meant.... I grinned and began poking her face.

“Amber, hey.” She began to stir.

“Oy, what the hell?” she said sleepily, brushing my hand away.

I sat back with a triumphant grin on my face. “Guess who woke up first!” 

She just sat there confused for a moment, then bolted up a look of shock on her face. She quickly regained her composure and crossed her arms. 

“This means nothing to me,” she said, turning away, obviously bugged by it. 

“Deny it all you want, Amber; the fact that the laziest person in the world woke up earlier than you annoys you.”

“What are we planning to do today?” she asked quickly, standing up and walking away. 

“Aaaaand the subject changes,” I said, also standing.

Amber sighed and turned around. “Ok, yes, it bugs me. Just remember that you used to sleep until 4PM when we were younger. It would take Gerick two extra hours on top of that to actually get you out from under the covers,” she said with a laugh.

“Oh yeah, how is Gerick?” I asked.

“He’s good, I think he’s about 49 now, and still tinkering.” She sat down at her table and rested her head in her palm. 

“Has it really been that long?” I asked, sitting down next to her.

“For you, I guess. For me, life has been moving way too fast. Not that I’ve been to busy with my gunsmithing shop but still, just life in general.” She sighed and kept talking. “So anyway, what are we planning on doing today? I need a break from all this fighting.” She stretched her arms behind her and stood up.

“Well, I actually don’t really have a plan,” I said scratching the back of my head. “I was hoping you would have some ideas.”

Amber took a moment to think. “Well, we could go to the lake. Maybe we could invite Elliot and give him some of the stolen rum we promised him.”

“Won’t he be working on the golems?” I asked.

“He could use a break. We all could. All he’s been doing lately is making golems.”

So we decided to walk over to Elliot’s workshop. We arrived at the shop and started to the door when a huge wrench came crashing through the front wall causing us to jump back.Holding the wrench was a large bronze golem. We looked at each other and Elliot began yelling and cursing and attempted to give it orders.  

“You bleedin’ idiot! I told you to screw in the bolt! Is that really so hard to do?”