An Overgrown Trainyard

Salinae took a sip of wheat eksai. Bitter, a bread-y aftertaste. It was the taste of the rural countryside, from the local brewery.

She leaned on an iron fence. Oushiqae stood by her. Nexakii bent down, getting herself another bottle.

Salinae stared out toward the valley beyond the gate. Rolling hills of forest, a warm wind blowing through trees and rustling the nettles.

The sky had a beautiful glow, the trio watching the sunset as they rested.

After a while, Salinae's gaze lowered. She looked down at the bottom of the valley, seeing old buildings and sheds nestled in the overgrown foliage. She could see a rusted iron bridge rising over the treeline, belonging to the end an old railway branchline.

They stood there in silence a long time until Oushiqae finally spoke up.

"Cute little hamlet back there, ey?" She asked, sipping her drink.

"Sure was." Salinae said with a nod, sniffing. "There was like...what, a handful of people there?"

"Was there...?" Nexakii grunted, spitting on the ground. "There was plenty enough buildings."

"You saw how broken down most of them were, though, right?" Salinae chuckled, taking another sip.

"I mean I just figured they were plum outta money or something."

"Nah, nah, we talked to the information office." Oushiqae laughed with a shake of her head. "Can you believe that? An information office at an old hole in the wall like this. Must be one of those real old villages"

"What's the info office say?"

"Jatvsoe pissed off, that's what"

"What?" Nexakii asked.

"What they told *us* is that the houses were build and funded by Jatvsoe railway. You know, for station and yard workers."

"Here?"

"Yeah, don'tcha see? Down there." Salinae said, gesturing to the overgrow buildings. "S'posed to be a trainyard."

She pointed over to what looked like a small break in the trees.

"See? That's where they'd uh...park freight cars and turn the engines around so they could go back up the branch line." She said. Nexakii nodded. The look in her eye told Salinae she was too tipsy to pay attention.

"Didn't know you were so well-versed." Oushiqae chuckled.

"Well I mean...I've gotten familiar enough." Salinae shrugged.

"So..." Nexakii prodded. "...did the info office say what happened?"

"I'unno..." Salinae sighed. Oushiqae mirrored her shrug.

"That's basically the long and short of what they said." Oushiqae said, sipping her bottle, finishing it. "Jatvsoe built all this stuff for the branch line, readied the village for the workers influx and just never followed thought.

"Big waste o' feckin' money, then."

"Buuut...they still own the land." Salinae said, kicking the sign at her feet that read 'PRIVATE PROPERTY OF JATVSOE RAILWAY CO'.

"Oh of course, obviously." Oushiqae laughed. "They'd not reduce their hoard for the world."

Nexakii grunted at that.

"So wait, I don't get it." Nexakii said. "Where's the branchline end now?”

"Huh?"

"Well it was supposed to end, right? But now it's not. So where does it go now?"

Salinae clicked her tongue in thought, taking out her map.

"What're you doing?" Nexakii asked.

"Well they didn't say." Salinae said, unfurling the map, tracing her finger along it. "So...I assume they either went another direction or stop further up the line."

"They didn't say?" Nexakii frowned.

"No, we told you all they said. They didn't really dwell on it much..."

Salinae stared at her map in thought. Nexakii leaned over, sipping her drink to look.

"We're by...Duphimevu, right...?"

"Yeah." Nexakii replied.

"No branch lines out here...how new is this?"

"Your map is a 8T17. No way it's only a 3 year old line." Oushiqae put in.

Salinae stared at the map a moment longer before folding back up with a shrug and a sigh. Just something to mark down later.

The conversation topic swiftly moved on, the three idly talking about what they'd do when they finally reached Duphimevu.

They had plenty of scavenged materials to sell. Salinae had even managed to repair an old SRW Monitor that'd surely sell for a few stones.

Oushiqae mentioned the culture. Very family oriented people those Duphimevu natives. Soft music and no cussing.

There'd be a Rocarius shrine at every street corner and Nexakii would have to be on her best behavior. It was the sort of place that valued itself as being a good neighborhood for honest people. Salinae found that pretty amazing for a port town.

Salinae, too, pointed how how the villagers here seemed to be from Duphimevu. All very polite and preferring every question be followed up with a 'please'. She found it quaint, if a little imposing on her hard and fast way of talking. When in Duphimevu...

As they talked, the sun continued to descend. The first stars appeared in the sky. Not really feeling up to leaving yet, Salinae just kicked on her lantern so they could continue their conversation. The wind was picking up, an a low howl could be heard echoing across the valley.

"Man, listen to that wind." Salinae sighed, holding a hand out to feel the breeze between her fingers. "North Illamini's got some real nice weather."

"Well sure, in Summer." Oushiqae laughed. "Mind we don't get caught in the white north when winter hits, ey?"

The pair of them laughed, listening as the wind came and went, ebbed and flowed...became clearer...and clearer.

Oushiqae and Salinae's laughter quieted. Nexakii squinted, setting her bottle down.

"I'm hearing thing..." She muttered. Salinae and Oushiqae leaned in.

The howling wind, the ebb and flow...it wasn't the wind through the trees.

It was a train whistle. Low and gutteral.

Salinae's mouth hung open. She listened hard. In the air, she heard the rhythmic pumping of steam pistons. The faint screech of iron wheels.

"That can't be..."

The valley down below had grown dark, the forest turning into a pitch black void. No light broke the abyss...for a while.

Then, they saw a flicker. A faint, growing glow. They couldn't see anything concrete, but they recognized what they did see:

It was the lantern light of a train unseen, shining betwixt the trees, the chuff and screen of the engine deep in the forest.

The light faintly lit the trees, moving and casting faint shadows as it glided from the bridge to between the buildings.

Soon, they heard the chuff of steam pistons ease off, the wheels screeching to a halt. The light stayed on far below. If a train was down there...it was only idling for now. Salinae could just barely make out a shape by one of the buildings.

"So...what, was that just a lie?" Nexakii muttered, her face lightly illuminated by the lantern. Salinae shifted, stroking her chin and looking deep in thought.

"I mean, I guess so? But who's supposed to be running the trainyard?" Salinae asked, shaking her head.

"Place certainly still looks abandoned." Oushiqae said. Salinae grunted, reaching in her satchel and taking a spyglass.

"Oush, there's no Seer Radio towers, right? We're not hallicinating?" Salinae said, lifting the spyglass. Oushiqae grunted, shaking her head 'no'.

Salinae looked down at the valley, down at the mysterious light amid the forested shipyard. She could see a few strangely clad railworkers holding lanterns, slightly walking about the train.

"Uh...looks like a JRC Song of the North model..." Salinae muttered.

"What's the number?"

"...none..." Salinae said, in a voice that betrayed her own confusion. "...wait, none...? It just looks like they painted over whatever the number used to be...in black, it's all-black livery...kind of sloppy."

"Sloppy?" Oushiqae questioned.

"I find it hard to believe proud old Jatvsoe Railway would have a sloppily done black train on their pristine railway." Nexakii grunted. "Those pompous passengers would balk at ugly machinery, wouldn't they?"

"I mean, yeah" Salinae said with a frown. "Not that anyone's out here.

The three were silent, Salinae sweeping her spyglass.

"I see...one freight truck. All black painting. I think there's another but the trees are covering it." Salinae sighed.

She watched as the workers walked up and down the train, shining their lights on each of the cars.

She could see the cargo but couldn't properly make it out: black masses sat in the freight cars. They looked like...

"Coal." Salinae said. "I guess they're just bringing coal out here."

"Coal?"

"I'm assuming." Salinae shrugged, lowering the spyglass with a sigh.

The three of them stood there, curious. The sun had long gone down and disappeared. The three knew they probably should have gone back to their in a while ago, but they found themselves too captivated by the mysterious freight train on the abandoned branch line.

At last, Oushiqae sighed, stretching.

"All right, that's enough fun for today." The cow woman sighed. "Let's head on back to the inn."

"Right..." Nexakii replied, spitting. She bent down, taking the lantern, following after Oushiqae.

Salinae laughed to herself, looking down at the light of the train below. Just something neat to cap off a calm night.

She lifted up the spyglass once more, peeking down at the workers.

One of them took a long black back from the freight car and slumped it over his shoulder.