To Disturb the Harmony~Chapter 10

We hopped on the train heading for Washington DC with only a few minutes to spare. Aisling had run off to a gift shop in order to grab something. Meanwhile Kimi and I had gone to grab some food before the trip. We lost track of each other for awhile until Aisling found us and we ran for the train.

“What did you get anyway?” I asked looking at the small bag in her hand. She placed her backpack on the overhead rail and reached her hand inside the bag, pulling out a simple cap.

“It is a New York hat,” she said as she traced her hands over the lettering. It was a dark blue hat with the words New York on it. It didn’t seem very special as far as hats go, but it was better than the I Love New York t-shirts or hats that tourists always bought.

“Why did you buy a hat?” Kimi asked. “I thought you had one already.”

“I get a hat whenever I go somewhere interesting. It is my own little way of remembering where I have been and where I haven’t,” she explained as she placed the hat on her head. “I must have at least ten different hats back at the cabin, and even more at home.”

“That’s a lot of hats,” I said as I just imagined where she kept them all. I had maybe three or four hats total, one of them being the official Camp Half-Blood hat that they give you with the t-shirt.

“Hey, everyone collects something. I’m sure you guys have something that you like to collect,” she said as she waited for us to answer. I thought about it and realized that I didn’t really collect anything. I looked over at Kimi and it seemed she was about as interested in collecting as I was.

“Oh, you two are so boring,” Aisling said in a huff before leaning back in her seat with her arms crossed. I heard a small growl of agreement come from the bag above my head.

“You didn’t,” I said. Aisling’s eyes went a bit wide and her face turned a light shade of red.

“I did,” she said as she dropped her head, hiding her face behind the New York cap.

“Don’t worry,” Kimi said. “There are only about 3 hours before we arrive in Washington, all we have to do is make sure Nala stays quiet.”

“Oh, she must be hungry. She slept right through breakfast,” Aisling said before pulling her bag down and grabbed some food out of the front pocket. She started placing handfuls of food into her bag and I looked down the aisle to see the conductor checking tickets.

“Hurry up,” I told Aisling. Then placed one more handful of food in the bag and zipped it up.

“You know pets aren’t allowed in this car,” said a man passing by. He had a kind of older look to him, possibly a man in his 50’s who was leaning against the empty seat next to me. He went to sit down in his chair, but the car rocked and he fell forward into Aisling before jumping back and landing in his seat. “Sorry about that, you know how unpredictable these trains can be.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Aisling said as she waved her hand. She then pressed her hands together and bowed her head. “Please don’t tell the conductor.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to keep my things too far away or out of my reach. You can't trust anyone these days.”

“So where are you heading?” I asked him.

“I just kind of travel around, going from one place to the other with no real plan in mind. I rolled into Penn Station from Buffalo and before that I was in Pittsburgh,” he explained as he recounted his many travels. Kimi and I were mildly interested, but Aisling was sucking it up. Eventually the conductor reached our seats.

“Tickets please,” he said as he looked at us. The man pulled a ticket from his pocket and handed it to the conductor. He looked over it and handed it back to the man. “Thank you sir.”

“No problem Mr. Conductor,” he responded before turning to us and giving us a wink. “Well, I’ll leave you to your journey. Have fun on your trip to Arizona.”

“See you later,” I said to him and he got up and walked down the aisle.

“Tickets please,” the conductor reminded, so I pulled out my ticket and handed it to him. Kimi did the same, but I looked over and saw Aisling reaching around in the pockets of her jacket, he backpack, and even her jeans.

“Hold on, I know I have it somewhere,” she said as she fumbled around. The conductor looked impatient as he started tapping his foot on the floor. Aisling then looked up over her seat and looked at the guy sneaking away and he held up his ticket, winking back at us. “He took my ticket!”

Aisling shot up, pushing the conductor out of the way and running down the row of passengers. Kimi and I jumped up to follow and we started running after the man.

“Sorry,” Kimi said as she ran passed the downed conductor and followed after me. We chased down the old man he just kept laughing and I noticed that none of the other passengers seemed to be paying too much attention to him.

“I think he is some kind of monster,” I called ahead to Aisling.

“Let’s find out,” she said and she pulled a charm off her bracelet. It slowly morphed into some kind of axe that I had never seen before. We chased the man into some kind of baggage car before Aisling got close enough to hook the head of the axe in front of his leg and pulled back. It didn’t phase through him, meaning he wasn’t a normal human. I watched as he fell to the ground and tons of things fell from his jacket including watches, earrings, and a ticket. He quickly started scraping up everything off the ground and it all seemed to be pulled into his jacket.

“What are you,” I asked it, pulling my sword from my pocket and pointing it at his face.

“I’m just a humble Kobalos,” he said with a smile. “A trickster spirit and thief extraordinaire.”