Sol's Shine and the Kingdom of Terra

Chapter 22 Off The Rails

Yvonne and Nico heard the steam engines roar to life and Ferocious Fenrir making strides along the land to make its way towards the Kingdom of Fire. The first thing Yvonne could think of was to make a run towards the train. "Where are you going?!" Nico called out to her. "My home is going to be under attack or probably already is! I'm not just going to sit by and tinker away at a bunch of junk!" But as soon as Yvonne stepped through a shadow, Nico pulled her through and she ended up back where she was. "Stop. I already gave you what you wanted." Yvonne gave Nico a serious and fed up look.

"You don't understand. There was more stuff like that black box under the tree of Sinnel. You're the only person I've met that can help understand what any of it means. If you go out there and get yourself killed I'm never going to-" "Never going to what? Understand the past? You already saw everything you needed. Leave me out of your selfish endeavors!" Yvonne took off running again, this time she ran to avoid any shadows with her only worry being her own. Although with her own shadow, Yvonne doubts Nico would try to pull her through there because of how fast she was moving and that Nico could just get his hands stuck if her shadow moved away from them.

But Nico didn't need to necessarily chase her down. With one step through the shadows, he was already on the train, the place Yvonne was heading. Knocking out and throwing every dwarf off the train was as easy as stepping on it. Before the train could pick up speed, leaving the station, Yvonne finally caught up to it only to find herself in front of Nico once again. "You're not going to stop me. Get out of my way elf!" Yvonne tried to kick him out of the way only to see him retreat in the dark again. "What makes you think you can stop me either? I need you alive."

To avoid stepping into the shadows and being taken off the train, Yvonne stood on top of the train cars instead of being inside them. She climbed a ladder that led to the top and felt the wind brace her face, showing how fast the train was going at this point. She made adjustments to her hair to make sure it wasn't just blowing in her face. When Yvonne was done with that, Nico came up from the other side of the train car. "You're really going to do this? Why would you bother getting yourself involved?." Nico said to her. "Are you that dense?! The Kingdom of Fire is my home! Of course I'm going to be involved. Although I guess you of all people would say something like that since you deserted yours!" Yvonne tried to speak over the howling wind and the train tracks as well as Ferocious Fenrir who trembled the land as it sprinted towards the Kingdom of Fire.

"You know why I did it. But that doesn't make the other four kingdoms any less guilty." Nico tried to make his way to her but Yvonne just jumped to the other train car. The elf decided to look past Yvonne to where the conductor was, the only dwarf he hadn't thrown off the train as of yet. "I should have started with him." Yvonne could tell where he was looking and understood what he meant. Although it wasn't the conductor that concerned her, it was the brake or lever that would slow down the train.

Before Nico could retreat within the shadows, Yvonne came back onto the train car Nico was on just to dropkick him. The impact was especially hard with one of Yvonne's legs being made of metal. Nico almost fell off the train when he rolled to the edge. Trying to get himself back up, he held the side of his torso where he got hit the hardest but was now kneeling down on one knee before eventually fully standing back up. "I would have thought that someone like you would find it too much trouble to keep pursuing me at this point." Nico was paranoid but he found what Yvonne said to be true apart from one thing.

"I haven't been searching for the truth for this long just to throw it all away. You saw what I saw from that black box. Someone like me? You don't know anything about me. You're making a mistake if you think I don't have any ambitions." Nico said to her as he was backing up just to jump in between two train cars essentially escaping Yvonne's point of view. Yvonne tried to look to where he fell just to not see anyone there.

That was when she heard several clicks. Looking towards the front from where she stood, she realized that Nico had separated every train car and the one Yvonne was on was already slowing down. She picked up the pace until she could reach the front with her making bigger leaps to the next train car every time. When she eventually reached the front, the conductor's scream could be heard from beneath her and the dwarf was thrown off the train with ease.

Either one of two things were going to happen now if Yvonne didn't act soon. Nico could pull the brakes, stopping the last train car to a halt or she would attempt to stop Nico just for him to pull her through the shadows again. The train she was on was her only hope of catching up to Ferocious Fenrir. Whatever was about to happen in the next couple of seconds, Yvonne had to make sure she was quicker and smarter than Nico Gideon. Sparks started flying from beneath the wheels and Yvonne could tell that her time was just about up. Yvonne jumps down from the roof of the last train car to finally take action again.

Yvonne pulls the door open to see Nico pulling the lever that would brake the train as hard as he could. "Nico!" Yvonne went in to sock him in the face just for him to stop pulling as hard as he could just to dodge and grab Yvonne's arm, faking her out. He tried as hard as he could to pull her through another shadow. The only thing Yvonne could do in that moment was to hold on to anything that would prevent her from being pulled through all the way. That thing just so happened to be the lever that was next to her.

"Not today!" She cried out as she held onto the lever, though at the angle it was set at, she had accidentally made the train accelerate. When she eventually managed to break free from Nico's grip, Yvonne managed to pull herself out of the shadow she was being pulled through with Nico still stuck on the other side. "Where are you now!" Yvonne called out. She waited without an answer.

She looked outside the back window to realize that Nico's shadow magic was just now out of range. He stood under a stone pillar's shadow in the distance, watching Yvonne get away on the last train car. The only thing Yvonne could do now was to look ahead. She knew she had to get off eventually but the train she was on was still going to help her out with some distance traveled even if her trek through the kingdom of Fire still had to be on foot.