The first few hours of the trip were uneventful and pleasant as we all got settled in, and the train steamed its way past forest, lake, prairie and town.

Though the towns seemed to be largely abandoned or half destroyed. So, there was a somewhat quieter air to the well dressed passengers in first class. Still, so far as I was concerned, it was quite comfortable and relaxing.

And fast!

Just looking out a window and watching the country fly by was amazing! It was like being on some grand machine out of a fantastical novel. Such speed while we sat comfortably, eating, drinking, smoking, and generally relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

Of course it couldn’t last.

“Well now, bless my soul. Jake Ranger, back from the Frontier, as I live and breathe.” A soft, female voice said from behind the honest to God easy chair I was sitting in. First Class had their own lounge cars, plural, and were worth every penny as far as I was concerned.

Or they had been, anyway. That voice ruined it all. It was a voice I recognized, and whose owner I generally despised.

“Lillianne Lancaster. With you here, I know now that I have somehow made God in Heaven very angry with me, and I must beg his forgiveness with all haste.” I replied with a smile.

“My, but you’ve grown even more eloquent since last we met.” Lillianne remarked with a smile as she sat down in the chair across from me, a delighted smile on her beautiful face. “I wonder why that is? Could it have something to do with the lack of a wedding ring on your finger? I was under the impression you were all set to get married as soon as the war was over. Did something go wrong?”

I studied the woman across from me for a moment before I responded. Lillianne Lancaster was a beautiful woman; with a round face, soft lips, dark eyes, dark hair, and a curvy figure that was obvious even with the sensible traveling dress she wore. The dark green color of her dress contrasted nicely with the slightly dusky skin of her mixed heritage of Northern Europe and Spain.

She was very simply gorgeous, and on top of that, brilliant and as sharp as my new sword.

If only it weren’t for her chosen profession and general personality.

“Barely three seconds in that seat, and already you’ve asked me three questions about my life.” I noted coldly as I eyed her with a scowl. “You’ve certainly kept your edge, Miss L.”

“And you’ve improved yours, Wild Ranger.” She answered back with her charming, if smug, smile. “Oh, what fortune running into you. My dear sister has been hard pressed to write more wonderful stories about the frontier and all the adventures happening out there. The editors are after her to write up more frontier stories as opposed to all the stories from Europe about the wild battles at sea and in the sky. Or their many disgusting monster stories. I do so love being able to help her out.”

“You’re not interviewing me, Lady of Lies.” I stated coldly as I worked out her presence here on this train. “You’re interviewing Halona the centaur. I have not agreed, nor consented to any interview, and will have nothing to do with another one of those with you.”

“Oh, my dear Union Folk Hero, you still have so much to learn about interviews, stories, and women.” She shook her head in mock sadness. “Half of my interview with the exotic Miss Halona will of course, be all about you! How she met you, a Union hero. Why she is traveling with you. Where you are traveling too, and why. And of course, any adventures you’ve had. You see my dear, I don’t need to actually speak with you, Wild Ranger, to be able to have an interview about you.”

“I met her in a spot of trouble, we helped each other out, and she insists on traveling with me.” I stated coldly, even more furious than before. “There’s your interview. The end.”

She just looked at me and smiled even more for a moment.

“I’ve already had the chance to meet Miss Halona. I was already in her car when the Conductor led her inside it. Remarkable woman!” Lillianne smiled in honest fondness. “Did you know, she actually insisted that you not only saved her from starving to death, but that you also single-handedly avenged the people of the town of Sugar Leaf? Something about battling Furwraiths with a cavalry sword? On foot?”

I sighed. I hated dealing with this woman!

“Not to worry, Master Ranger, not to worry.” She continued, as charming as ever. “I understand you’re planning on traveling all the way to New York! What a wonderful coincidence!”

“Coincidence?” I asked carefully, having learned to speak as little as possible when it came to dealing with this woman.

“Indeed! You see, I just so happen to be heading there myself.” She looked at me with a genuine smile. I could always tell when she was genuine, and when she was not. It was a skill that had actually vexed her when we first met, much to my satisfaction. However, now it seemed as though she enjoyed it.

“You and I and Miss Halona will have all the time in the world to get to know each other.” She relaxed into the seat, eyeing me like a starving predator. “In every fine, minute detail.”

“Wonderful.” I stated coldly, finishing off my drink and standing up to leave.

“You know I hear they’re making a play about you in the theater in New York.” She remarked as I turned to leave. “Something in the same vein as Davy Crockett. All about the Wild Frontier Hero who brought peace and citizenship to the Beastkins. Among other things. I imagine young Mister Gale and his family would love a pair of tickets. He did seem to admire you so much.”

I turned around and glared at her, suddenly furious.

“He admired a character in that damn book! One you and your sister made up!” I snapped. “You attached my name to that cursed, doppelgänger you and she invented and passed off as the truth!”

“Oh, did we say or print anything untrue?” Lillianne asked, raising an eyebrow in mock confusion, all while meeting my gaze evenly and even defiantly. “What, pray tell, did we lie about or make up?”

“For starters, how you exaggerated my contributions to the jobs that needed doing.” I snapped. “I was part of an army! I had superiors and subordinates! I was not some lone gunslinger idiot hero looking for glory and trying to take on beastkin warriors and flaming giants all on my own!”

“Oh please!” She replied, sounding both amused and angry in the way that only women ever really pull off. “You were the one who ‘dueled’ that tiger warlord, and through that wild fight, which everyone only loosely calls a duel, you were able to bring the beastkin clans into the Union as citizens!”

“There were ambassadors there, merchants and tradesmen. The clans already wanted to join up to improve their prosperity and gain freedom and a better system of laws to live under!” I pointed out, annoyed how she and her sister had made me out to be some ridiculous hero out of legend, and ignored everyone else’s work because it wasn’t exciting enough. “All I did was have a brawl with some striped idiot that was too hot in his own vinegar.”

“That brawl, as you put it, got half a town wrecked.” She replied with a raised eyebrow. “We exaggerated nothing about that battle, for that’s what it was. And it was only after you won, spared him, and freed his slaves that the other clan heads and warlords decided that the Union was a better deal than what they had going for them already.”

She smiled another genuine smile as she looked at me, which caught me off guard in the middle of our argument. Or well, my rants and accusations against her and her damn sister. I was working my way up to the real issue though.

“And that ridiculous nonsense about me charging a tribe of attacking giants? What was that other than a full on lie, Miss L?” I pointed out darkly, remembering the shit everyone had given me over that article, and how long it had followed me around ever since. “They had driven the local beastkin clans out of the mountains and towards the local towns and fort. They were the ones charging us!”

“I was there for that terrifying battle.” She replied quietly, her eyes suddenly looking very far away. “I recall how you led a charge into them on horseback, with your calvary unit and local militia volunteers. If I remember right, that’s what broke them.”

“I wasn’t charging them!” I snapped incredulously. “I was attacking their War Chief! Dropping that son of a bitch would ensure that they didn’t have any real leadership left on the battlefield. Just their terrible size and strength, and the speed and reach that their size gave them.”

I shuddered as I remembered that terrifying sight; dozens of men and women, each the size of a small tree, at the least, with spears the length of a train car, sprinting at us. The sound of their footsteps was like hearing a thunderstorm roll across the sky, and their battlecries had turned brave men into terrified children. All of that was combined with the knowledge of why they were there: to eat people.

It had been horror the likes of which I’d never faced, and I’d faced howitzer cannons on a horseback charge!

“It was either strike a blow against them, one that mattered, and strip them of coordinated leadership while putting some courage back into everyone.” I looked back at her with a set expression. “Or it was watch our little rag tag army fall apart like a house of cards before a little breeze, with them making us into little human pigs for them to hunt down and feast on.”

She seemed almost spellbound by what I was saying. Almost like she was reliving it herself. Then again she’d picked up a rifle and fought alongside everyone else as well. I reminded myself. She was there for it, so maybe she is. I know I try to forget about it.

“And you’re mad that we focused on that in the story?” She asked, sounding almost confused. “You just said you charged them. Perhaps to strike at one in particular. Okay, we never knew that. But even so! You led a charge against attacking giants! Which inspired the rest of everyone else there to fight for all they were worth. Which is probably the only reason any of us are still alive. What part of that is incorrect?”

She narrowed her eyes and eyed me carefully, a sudden small, curious smile playing across her lips.

“What’s really been bothering you about all this? Why so angry that we simply told your story and let everyone know you’re a brave hero?”

“Because you did not simply ‘tell my story.’ You made me out to be this larger than life, ridiculous figure that I am not.” I answered, furious. “I was dragged into a half dozen brutal situations by people begging me for help. Because I was some big damn hero in their minds! One lunatic led his gang to take over a town and hold its children hostage, just so he could force me to have a ‘grand battle’ with him.”

She blinked in surprise, and sudden keen interest. “A whole town?”

“Somehow he learned I was passing through, and he led his gang to attack the next day. Captured the local school house, and held the children and teachers as hostages. Said he wanted to have a ‘grand battle’ in the town itself with me. The sheriff was dead, so it was just me and two deputies against nigh on a dozen men.” I growled as I remembered that mess, and what I learned afterword. “We won, though I was the only one unscathed. His gang broke and ran, what was left of them anyway.”

“And he challenged you, specifically?” She asked, confused. “Why?”

“He wanted to be a legend.” I stated coldly before fixing her with a stare. “Know where he got that stupid idea?”

“Somehow I think you are blaming me for this.” Lillianne stated, frowning.

“Oh, you and your sister.” I replied, grinning with no mirth. “After he was dead, we found a bunch of copies of those damn dime novels on him! All of them supposedly about me!”

“You can’t seriously blame us for what one fool did!” She protested.

“I was dragged into two other, separate gun fights by outlaws looking to make themselves famous by challenging the Wild Ranger to a duel.” I stated coldly. “People have sought me out to either beg for help or to try and kill me because of that damn nickname! So yes, I can and do blame you and your sister for that endless trouble you have heaped on me, Miss L!”

“And these poor unfortunate souls that came begging to you,” she asked, sidetracking me suddenly. “Did you help them?”

I blinked, confused. “Well, they needed help, and the local law was either dead already or not willing to risk it.”

“So, you helped them?” She asked, raising her eyebrow again, suddenly looking amused, which annoyed me. “You saved whatever they needed saving from whatever threat, danger or monster that was threatening it?”

“Well, yes, but that’s beside the point!” I snapped, confused a bit on why she was so suddenly, and genuinely, amused and even impressed by my answer. “It was a job of work that nobody else was willing or able to do. I did it, and lived through it, barely, and we all got on with our lives.”

“Most other people would call that heroic.” Lillianne pointed out quietly, almost softly.

“Most other people are lazy and want someone else to do the work for them!” I replied hotly. “I ain’t no hero! Stop making me out to be one for people to hand all their troubles too! I have more than enough problems of my own!”

“Such as the lack of a wedding ring?” She asked, again catching me off guard. “I remember her name you know. And how deeply you were in love with her. I recall how you planned on marrying her as soon as the war was over and your term of service was ended. Yet here you are, alone. Or you were up until a few days ago with the addition of your new travel companion. Whom you also rescued.”

“My life is no longer your concern, nor that of your sisters.” I stated firmly, bringing this conversation to a close. “It never really was. And considering the mess you and she made of it, it never will be again.”

Having vented at her, which, in true fashion to dealing with her, had not quite gone the way I wanted it to, I suddenly felt very tired.

According to the schedule, the train was going to be stopping and resupplying at several water towers, and then continue on, essentially nonstop all night. I suddenly wanted to just lie down and sleep.

“Good night, Miss L.” I told her, working to regain my manners, such as they were. “Good luck with your interview with Halona. Do better with her than you did with me, and treat her with some care.”

I turned and started walking out, done with the conversation.

“I shall.” Lillianne called behind me. “Good night, my dear heroic Wild Ranger.”

I twitched when she said that damn name, but kept walking. Enough was enough. I’d said what I wanted to say. More or less. Now I was ready to rest, and get on with my life.

Even if I did have to share a train with the damn woman for the next few days.