The Lost Prince - Scomiche

Chapter 2: In the Dark of the Night

By the time the sun began to set, Mitch was sick and tired of sharing a tiny train compartment with "his royal highness." More like his royal pain-in-the-ass!

Every statement turned into an argument, mostly about the cat that Scotty had snuck onto the train. Mitch bristled at Scotty's smug confidence, but he couldn't insist that Scotty ditch the cat... at least, not while he was still pretending that the boy might be royalty. Despite the physical similarities, it was obvious to him that the young man was nothing like the sweet boy he had known years ago. He could see that he and Kevin had a great deal of work cut out for them.

After yet another argument, Mitch took a breather by walking from one end of the train to the other. He ground his teeth in frustration. The blond teenager was exceptionally good at riling him up and he didn't understand why. It should have been easy to ignore the prattling of a thoughtless young man, but Mitch couldn't push the boy out of his thoughts.

As he neared the luggage car, he could smell the burning coal that powered the steam engine. He wrinkled his nose. It was easy to see why the dining car was at the other end of the train. Mitch turned around and began his leisurely stroll back to his shared compartment.

The porters lit lanterns along the train corridors as the sun set outside. Mitch moved around one of the porters and opened his compartment door, glaring as he discovered that the annoying feline had stolen his seat by the window. Scotty lazed in the other window seat, meaning that both seats had been claimed by aggravating, annoying creatures.

Mitch strode forward. "Shoo, shoo!" he yelled at the cat, trying to reclaim his seat and earning a swipe of claws for his trouble.

"Hey, stop bothering Mars!" Scotty complained.

"He's not paying for a ticket. He doesn't deserve a seat, much less a window seat!"

"A hero always gets what he wants."

"Yeah? Well... Mars is a stupid name."

"No it's not!" the other man retorted, sticking out his tongue.

"Yes, it is!" Mitch tried to move the cat once more and discovered that it was impossible to lift a cat that had sunk its claws into the thick fabric covering the seat. With a long-suffering sigh, Mitch gave up and took the empty seat next to Scotty. He glanced across the dimly lit compartment to find Kevin giving him a slight smile while the former Jack added another mark to a tally on a small piece of paper. "What's that?" Mitch asked irritably.

"Just keeping track of the number of times you were bested by a feline."

Scotty laughed. "You're gonna need a bigger piece of paper."

Mitch rolled his eyes. "Shouldn't you be checking our travel papers before we reach the border, Kevin?" He would have gone himself, but Kevin was better at gauging when bribery was an option and the right amount to bribe.

Still chuckling to himself, Kevin tucked the slip of paper into his bag. He grabbed the rest of their papers and slipped out of the compartment.

"We're close to the border?" Scotty asked, his earlier mocking tone replaced with a sense of wonder. He pressed his nose against the window and gazed out at the snowy countryside. In the dusky gloom of twilight the hills and fields outside were bathed in various shades of dark blue.

Even from his aisle seat, Mitch took a moment to appreciate his last glimpse of Spades. "Yes," he replied, "but it's probably too dark to see the white line that marks the border."

"Really?" Scotty's eyes widened. "I thought that was just on maps!"

Mitch managed to keep a straight face for five seconds before bursting into laughter at the young man's gullibility.