Monica Eliza Burnside,daughter of Jeremiah Burnside ( US Army Engineering Corp)
had been born in Jan 1 1844 and thus had barely turned
18 when the off worlders came to Washington DC
America was in crisis after the Confederates had fired on
Fort Sumnter months earlier
signalling the beginning of the War.
Nobody knew when the War would end,not even Monica with her
witchy powers.
When handsome slave owning Prince Damon
had bought a Southern Plantation earlier
it had conflicted Monica
as she loathed slavery.
However those Princely eyes of Damon's
had melted the young Northern
witches heart.
The problem was there was a War on now
which meant that
Prince Damon was now
technically the "Enemy"
However since
Monica' Burnsides dad was friends with the recently
elected President Abraham Lincoln
she often went to the White House to ask for advice
from Honest Abe.as some called him.
So this fine day Monica took Prince Damon
(as a toad) to the railway station at
Sutter Gulch
and walked up to thee ticket booth
to purchase a ticket
one-way to
the Nations capitol.
The clerk behind the wicket cage looked at her
suspiciously
as he knew witches had a habit
of turning their
friends and family into toads
so that they could all ride the
expensive steam trains with only one passenger
having to pay train fare.
So the wise for his ways
ticket clerk asked Monica to open
up her carpet bag to prove there were no toads hiding in there.
There weren't.
The bottle was there but it was empty.
Where had Prince Damon gotten off to?
Well Monica wasn't going to get the chance to answer
that question because
the sound of the steam whistle announced
the arrival of the
4:15 from Sutters Gulch to Washington Track 6
So Monica scooped up the bottle,picked up that carpetbag and dashed up onto the
iron bridge that spanned the 10 track station.
She ran along to
the stairs for
Track 4
and soon was on the gravel that sat beside the tracks that the 4 15 was
huffing and steaming on.
The Conductor checked her ticket then led her to the inside of the passenger railway car,where
Monica was seated opposite
four mangy looking men wearing cap n ball Navy's.
"All Aboard Last Call" shouted the Conductor before closing the
doors and the 4 15 pulled away from the Sutters Gulch station
a worried Monica wondering where
Prince Damon was.
Where toad Prince Damon had been was clinging to Monica's hair,hidden from sight but
as soon as they had both entered the railway car\he had let go,fallen to the floor and hopped
off to some private corner where
he used the spell Monica
had taught him before hand to turn back into
handsome Prince Damon,mysterious Count from
Translvannia.
He got up,fully clothed in that
coat,cloak and black trousers popular in
Transylvannia
picked up his "dogshead" cane
( the one with the secret weapon in it_
and headed back to Monica.
Monica was glad to see him again
but those 4 mangy men wearing guns sized
up Prince Damon with their eyes.
"You one o dem undead fellows?"
asked one
obviously thinking Damon must be a vampire or possibly a werewolf
but the Prince Damon
assured them that
neither would he turn into a
big hairy beast under the Full Moon
nor turn into a bat and suck blood
And so the 4 15 got to the Nations capitol and both Moica Burnside and Prince Damon
Damon dodged around what seemed endless
parades of blue uniformed soldiers
and buckboard wagons bringing in supplies
to the War Munitions Department,
The two went straight to the secret back door of the
White House and
Present Abraham Lincoln
top hat and all
let them in and eagerly
shook hands
with Prince Damon
of whom he had heard so much
Prince Damon,had after all,just freed all his slaves a month earlier
and was a sensation in the
newspapers for that early
bit of emancipation.
However Honest Abe wasn't here to be member of the Prince Damon fan club
but to give him
and Monica a secret mission of
importance to the World.