The Abandoned Island

A World Turned Upside Down

Unlike the previous morning, this one wasn't filled with birds chirping and a cool breeze. Zephyra woke up gusting winds and pouring rain. Even with the bad weather, she crawled out of her warm sleeping bag and relit the small fire she had had, having to fight the weather to get it started. With a lot of effort, she did, though, and slowly bolstered it into a bigger fire. One that would warm her up as she cooked herself some breakfast.

As she sat there, sipping on some water, she planned out the route she would follow on her phone with the picture she took of the map. It wasn't going to be a great day. "If i stop here for lunch, the forest should give me some shelter from the weather. If nothing stops me, I might make it to Crovan's gate by dusk, rest in one of the buildings, and explore the next day. The Steamworks sounds interesting. Maybe there are engines there that need to be fixed. Well, that can wait till tomorrow, first I have to get there." With that, she put her phone away, stamped out the fire, cleaned up all of her stuff and trash, and headed out into the storm once more.

Despite the horrible weather, she thanked her lucky stars at it was a relatively smooth walk/jog throughout the day. Nothing blocked the tracks, and she made good time. Occasionally, she made train sounds to entertain herself before resuming her focused hurry to the next station.

"I'm hoping they had an express for this island because walking this is NOT fun...well I guess it is fun because it is all new and beautiful, but doing it every day would get tiring. ugh... I'm talking to myself again. I need to stop that." She tapped her own head, trying to and without a doubt failing to remember that, but it definitely helped make the day go by faster. As without realizing how far she had walked, she saw buildings in the far distance, denoting that she was almost there. Seeing what was definitely a station, she picked up the pace with renewed energy and nearly ran there just as the sun was setting in the sky.

As she entered the edge of the clearing, she suddenly got nervous. In the back of her mind, she knew if something happened, no one would know. It was scary, even terrifying, but also exciting. She was discovering things that had been lost to the world and discovering what once had been here.  Approaching further, she spotted the station but was now confused as it looked like there were two different sets of tracks. Obviously, she had to investigate, and sure enough, there was a narrow gauge line that was also there. Checking her phone, she groaned lowly. "Yep, I didn't even see that. That is what I get for being in a hurry." Checking the time she sighed. "Need to get indoors now." She hurried over to the station platform and climbed up, her footsteps loud in the cold air, before she ducked inside the station proper. Never even hear several voices talking and bickering to each other.

Instead of going into an office, this time, she would set up camp in one of the waiting rooms, heating up an MRE and munching thoughtfully as she looked around. So far, all the station buildings themselves were very well made and sturdy, but that made sense if they had trains going past every hour of every day.  When she finally finished her meal and layed back in her bag, she thought about what she saw before entering the station. The little narrow gauge lines seemed in much better condition than the standard gauge, they were still rusty and the sleepers were rotted, but the rails were still there, they weren't swiss cheese, they might even support a trolley or something heavier. She'd have to look to see if there was one, but for now, she fell asleep, full of hope for tomorrow.

The next day wasn't much better. The wind and rain had died down slightly, but both were still making sure the visitor knew they were there and a force to be reckoned with.
She definitely respected the weather, even if it went against the forecast that her phone was telling her, then again, she was on an island that the maps didn't show. She was finishing her breakfast as she tried to figure out what would be best. Should she go explore the town, or maybe the SteamWorks, or go explore the narrow gauge area. All of it was very exciting, and she wanted to do it all at once, but she was just her. Pondering her options, she decided to go check the little narrow gauge buildings first as it was quite early in the morning, by the time she finished exploring them it would be brighter out, relatively speaking, so then she could head to the steamworks. She quickly cleaned up and packed up before unbraiding her hair. Just do it all over again. Placing her conductors hat on her head, she left the relative warmth and comfort of the building to go back into the angry outside.