The Abandoned Island

New Friendships

It had been several hours since Zephyra had run from the engine shed and back to the station. She had cycled through pacing around the room, mumbling to herself, shaking her head; all in an attempt to tell herself it wasn't real. She was just crazy and imagining it, but at the same time, all she was doing was proving to herself that it HAD happened and that it WAS real.

By the fifth hour, she had given up and was just sitting on the floor, nibbling on some trail mix. Unless she was dead, which she definitely wasn't, there was no way that those engines HADN'T been real. And what worried her more was, what if any and all vehicles on this island were...non-faceless? That brought in all new worries and questions. Though as her nerves calmed, and she hugged her knees to her chest, she began to feel bad. Thinking back to what they had been talking about before her stomach made her presence known was rather sad. It seemed like they were put in the sheds at some point and just forgotten about for years upon years. She couldn't blame them for being excited when she showed up, and she had been very rude by just yelling and running away. Squeezing her legs tighter to her chest, she sat there in silence before taking a derp breath, then sighing heavily. "I hope I don't regret this..."

With that, she got up, grabbed her backpack and her bag of trail mix, and headed back outside. Thankfully, it had stopped raining, but there were still dark clouds, and it was a little breezy. She stood there on the platform, gazing over towards the shed whose doors were still ajar. She didn't hear any loud arguing that had died down several hours prior, but they were probably still awake. She slowly climbed down from the platform and softly walked back towards the shed, gripping the straps of her bag tightly as she closed the distance. As she got closer, she could hear them talking, and when she was within several feet, she heard them reminiscing about times before. About people they had worked with or met, about good times, fun trains they pulled. Zephyra couldn't help but listen in, and as they went on, it made her feel worse for how she acted. They were just people in a different form, yes it was very, very strange, but it wasn't their fault.

Just as she got up off the ground, ready to enter, she heard Sir Handle sigh, "I'm sorry I scared our visitor off. They probably weren't bad, and I snapped out of impatience."

"It's ok, youngster. We all make mistakes. Maybe one day you can make up for it." Duke said, clearly showing how wise he was. Zephyra couldn't help but smile and nod in agreement as she creeped closer. She was still terrified, but she was going to surpress it.

"I...I agree... Mr. Duke," She said as she entered, walking in between him and Rusty but not walking past their sides. Everyone went silent, but not for long as Peter Sam quickly piped up, "You came back!"

She meeped softly at his yelling but nodded. "Y-yeah...I...I won't lie...I'm terrified, but... but I'm holding it together for now."

"Well, we appreciate that," Skarloey said from the front. "I'm sure you have many questions, and we'd be happy to answer them." He continued.

"uhhh..y-yeah...I... I think my first question is also one I don't want to ask..."

"Do we really have faces?," Peter Sam asked.

"I... yeah... how did you know?" The young girl asked, quite surprised.

All the engines chuckled a bit. "It is a common question asked when someone approaches us from the rear. Yes, we do have faces. I'm sure it'll still be scary for you, seeing as it's your first time meeting non-faceless engines." Peter Sam said kindly.
"I see...well...ummm...ok...I'm...I'm gonna walk forward" Zephyra shook heavily as she slowly took one step, then another, and another till she was in front of Duke and Rusty, but hadn't turn to face them yet. Taking a few deep breaths and stealing her nerves, she spun around and faced them, looking between Duke and Rusty, both of which had warm, kind smiles on their faces as if she had been friends with them for years. She suddenly let out a long breath she hadn't realized she had been holding before falling on her butt.