The Abandoned Island

Triumphant Return and New Faces

Zeph would sail for a couple of hours as, like her previous venture, there seemingly was no map to sodor. So she was going off of her phone and directions to the Isle of Man. Her head would be on a swivel, and she was constantly checking her coordinates, speed, and the likes. Eventually, her diligence paid off as she saw land, and after checking her gps, she knew it wasn't the Isle of Man. It was Sodor.

She bounced happily on her toes but quickly took a few deep breaths to steady her emotions. She was glad she had found it and it wasn't all a fever dream. Despite her eagerness to go as fast as she could, she continued at a slow pace, making sure not to hit anything that may be under waves. As she progressed ever closer, she saw she what looked like Brendam Dock. She assumed it was due to it looking like a dock, and the fact it was on the southern end of sodor. She also noticed there were three cranes on the side she was approaching. Two of them were older models and one as a new one. Despite their age, she hoped she'd be able to use them to lift out her cargo, even if it was one rail at a time.

As she neared the docks, she could see more details; mainly all the tracks and buildings. But the big thing she noticed was that the yellow crane seemed to be turning slowly towards her. At first, she thought she was imagining it, but once it was sideways on to her, she realized it was, in fact, turning. On the side of the big, yellow crane, it said 'Carly' in turquoise lettering. As it completed it's turn Zeph was shocked to see it had a face. She thought only engines and rolling stock had them, but her appearance seemed to shock the crane as well as it looked to be talking, but Zeph couldn't hear any words from the distance.

She entered the harbor and began to adjust the ship to be able to be moored alongside the cranes. She parked the boat and walked outside. Looking up, she saw 'Carly' looking down at her. "Oh, now there is a sight for sore eyes. It really is a person, a lass at that." She smiles down at Zeph. Zeph smiled back and moored and tied up her boat and barge before smiling up at the crane. "Hiya! I wasn't expecting y'all to be non-faceless."

"Oohhh, you know about non-faceless vehicles and such?"

"Yeah, though last time I was here, it was only engines and a little mobile crane." She put her hands on her hips and looked around. "Definitely gonna need to do some work around here."

"Oh? Ya, plan to work? Sorry to say, but the island has been shut down for many years now." The crane called down to her.

Before Zeph could answer, a gruff voice called out up near Carly. "Carly, can you keep your hallucinations to yourself, please? Some of us are trying to sleep."

Zeph perked up as Carly responded, "This one isn't a hallucination, Cranky. There actually is a lass and she brought a boat."

There was some squeaking and groaning as one of the cranes next to Carly slowly turned to face her, then looked down at its eyes went wide. "There really is someone here. Unless we are all hallucinating the same thing."

Zeph rested a hand on her hip and glared up at the crane, "I ain't no hallucination, ya big crane. I came here on a mission, and I'm gonna complete it whether or not you think I'm real or not."

The two cranes figuratively stood up straight and stared down at her. "Definitely real," Carly said. "Yup." Cranky agreed. The girl hmphed and hopped back on the ship and began to grab some things before climbing out and looking up at Carly. "I'll start with you."

"You'll start with me?" She asked, looking puzzled and a little worried. "Yeah, I need to fix you two up." The girl smiles and starts climbing up Carly's ladder with a tool bag strapped to her. The two cranes looked puzzled, but then a third, deeper voice caught the girl off guard, nearly causing her to fall. "What about me?"