The Sudrians: The Warclaw Collection

Gabriel's Freedom

It had only been a week and the display had been a great success, with people flocking all around to get a good glance of the last Warclaw in the world; no less the prototype as well. Passengers had increased on the island and the engines travelled with bigger and longer trains. Some didn't mind, but others did and were getting more annoyed by Gabriel's presence. It got quite bad, so Henry was ordered to leave the display early and help with the trains again.

Gabriel even though didn't show it, felt a little lonely.

But at last, one morning, he received a familiar visitor walking up to him. "Morning," called Stephen cheerfully, a cup of coffee in his hand, "I've noticed you draw in the crowd."

"I do, don't I?" said Gabriel in bemusement, "I don't know why though."

Stephen gave a slight chuckle at the Warclaw's remark. "You must be wondering why I am here then."

"Yeah I am," Gabriel replied, the controller hadn't come to the displays since they'd opened and so if he had come now to see him, something important was going to or had happened.

"Well... displays have been cancelled for the foreseeable future," replied Stephen.

Gabriel's eyes widened a little. "Why?" he asked instantly, "did something happen?"

"Too many people came that's what happened," replied Stephen, "your display was quite a success, not only did tourism boost up by 12 per cent over the week, no incident has occurred which involves you. The council and military have both agreed that you can now go and run enthusiast trains from tomorrow!"

The jaw dropped after a few seconds of stunned silence. Gabriel could not speak for a good while, finding it hard to process what Stephen had just informed him.

"I can pull trains?" he said, "passenger trains?"

"Of the sorts," replied Stephen smiling brightly, "enthusiast trains have been around for only a few years now but I think we can fit you into our timetables so to help boost your reputation. But may I ask... are you okay to go through this? We do have regulations made by the council to deal with this, just to take precautions, documents were sent to me last evening."

"How long is it?"

"About 6 pages," admitted Stephen, "took my night to read it."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "That's nice of them," he said.

"They're not bad," replied Stephen, "just a few things that we just need to do, some of them are even seen on enthusiast trains anyways or are just making preparations for you on them."

Gabriel huffed. "I'm guessing I have to be accompanied by another engine then?"

Stephen nodded slowly, making Gabriel growl a little annoyed by it. "Who's the lucky engine then?"

***

Bear growled worriedly as he pulled the coaches into the platform. Stephen had plonked him onto a train that was to be pulled by Gabriel and he wasn't too sure about the run. He wasn't worried about his safety, he knew all too well that sixteen coaches between him and the Warclaw were safe enough for him. He was more worried about the passengers than anything. With a claw freely on top of the Warclaw, the passengers were at high risk. But with a coach in front with soldiers from the S.R.F. on board, Bear felt he would've been a lot tenser otherwise.

Enthusiasts and other, many people soon came eagerly boarded the train, some waited with cameras and notebooks on the platform and at last, they got their wishes to become reality as Gabriel rumbled backwards and reversed onto the train as smoothly as he could. Photos were taken and notes written down. Gabriel felt very on edge and a little shy, but he said nothing and looked ahead on the line, waiting to head out. The hydraulic diesel didn't say anything either and just waited until it was time to leave.