On The Empty Tracks Of Sodor (GOTP AU)

1. A Lot of Things Change-

Wind... Trees rustling... birds chirping and fluttering away on tiny wings...

These were the sounds that came through as Thomas tried to wake up from sleep. It had been a deep sleep, if the slurring thoughts and heavy feeling hanging over him was anything to go by.

The wind, the trees, the birds... it was all very soothing, very peaceful... very wrong.

He should not be hearing the trees rustling, nor the birds fluttering in their branches, nor the soft whispers of wind, because he should be in Tidmouth Sheds. The fluttering of wings- if there were any- were supposed to echo and clatter against the metal trusses and ping against the glass ceiling. The wind should rattle against his plating, and send small pieces of ballast tumbling across the ground, and the trees should be much too far away to be heard this way. Tidmouth Sheds rested in the center of a railway yard, and it wouldn't be productive to have trees cropping up in and around the rails where an engine might get scraped or caught on their branches.

He took in a deep breath of air, and his senses came to the conclusion that the air was somehow wrong as well. The air was sweet and clear, hinted with strands of wet grass and blooming flowers, perhaps even the smell of approaching rain. But something- Thomas had yet to determine what- was missing from it. Something that must've always been there and thus Thomas wouldn't have noticed until it was suddenly gone.

The air was clear, too clear... Smoke. That was what was missing! With the perpetual and ever-moving traffic of engines to and fro across the island- even at night- there was always the ever-present, lingering scent of coal being burnt and sent out from the engine's fireboxes and smoke stacks, and now... it was gone.

A flickering of light filtered across his eyelids, and finally, he was able to open them and peer out...

...his eyes were met with sunlight filtering through the leaves of the trees above him.

That certainly explained what he was hearing, but now the question remained of where he was and how he got here. He was certain he had been stationary in his place at Tidmouth Sheds when he went to sleep, and it was rather hard to move an engine without that engine knowing about it. Excluding steep hills and no brakes, there was very little way he could have just... rolled all the way out here, right?

Wait- he was looking at the trees above by simply looking forward, he would have to be resting on the back end of his tender and facing upwards himself to be doing that!

Some part of him twitched, something that seemed too far to his left to be a part of him.

Thomas turned his head to look around- but wait, how could he turn his head? He could only move his eyes to look around, he didn't have a head to turn...Right?

He tried it again, and then Thomas gasped! He could move and look to the side further than he ever could before! Turning his head, he could see tall grass waving to the side, bending in the wind, as well as a long, metal shape leading away from him. Blue and red metal... like he'd seen in his own reflection. It kinda looked like a blocky arm... and then the hand at the end twitched, and he felt it.

It was his arm. He had an arm!? He turned the other way; he had two arms!

Fizzling fireboxes...!

He had a head, arms, hands! Did he have legs and feet too? He would have to move up to see, did he have a body? Of course he did, his head and arms had to be attached to something! And if so, then he would be laying on his back, much like he'd see the children doing during the winter to make snow angels on the hillsides.