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Our train was departing in half an hour, and we were all waiting at the station, watching all the other trains and people come and go regularly. A woman spoke over the intercom above our heads, consistently updating us on the arriving and departing vehicles, as well as giving us a rundown of safety measures.

I’d never seen a real train before, they sure were big and loud. They actually made that Chuga Chuga Chuga Chuga noise that you’d expect from them. I loved when they went CHOO CHOO!

*CHOO CHOO!*

Here comes another one!

“Sixteen,” Indena drearily spoke, slouching in her seat.

She’d been counting upwards ever since we got here, growing less entertained with the action the longer she did it. I think she was counting the trains that came by.

“Seventeen.”

Wait, there wasn’t a new train that time. What was she counting?

“Eighteen.”

“Indena…” I tugged her arm. “What are you counting?”

“I’m counting everyone wearing those ugly looking sweaters. They're horrible.”

Now that she mentioned it, I absolutely saw what she was talking about. Those sweaters looked like fall themed Christmas sweaters.

“Did you count that guy with the snow man made of leaves on his shirt?” Yamin pointed to someone in the far away corner.

“You could see what that was?” Indena raised her brow. “Yeah, he was number 5.”

“How about that one?” Marek pointed to someone getting onto a train.

“Number 2. And his sweater fits that position.”

Now I had to know who number 1 was. I hoped he was still around.

“Who’s number 1?”

Indena pointed to Marek.

“Eh?” He looked deeply offended, because he definitely was wearing an ugly sweater and not his usual blue jacket. His sweater had a bunch of leaves and a pumpkin on the front.

By the way, we were all wearing different clothing right now to blend in. Uncle was in a long trench coat, still looking like a mafia boss.

Yamin was in a long fall dress with open sleeves.

Indena was wearing a denim jacket that basically also worked as a skirt, and she had a new pair of black stockings, since her old ones were ripped up.

And as for me, I was in overalls and had this cute hat on. At least, it would have been cuter if I didn’t look like a paper boy.

Samael didn’t like my hat since it took his spot on my head, so he kept trying to slither out from my front pocket to move it. But I couldn’t take it off, since it was mostly there to hide my white hair.

“No, Samael…stay hidden.” I whispered to him. “They don’t let snakes on the train. I already checked.”

“Sssssss…” He wasn’t happy, but he dipped back into my pocket.

I saw someone bring their dog onto a train, why can’t a snake go in? This stinks. This is reptile discrimination!

“Shrimp, how long you had that snake, anyway?” Indena asked.

“Since I was three. Samael was teeny tiny back then.”

“What if he bites you?” Yamin asked.

Samael hasn’t ever bitten me. He came close one time, but that was because he was trying to figure out how to get food out of my hand without hurting me. For an animal, he was really smart.

“He won’t. Right, Samael?”

He popped his head out of my pocket and looked at me, then at Yamin.

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“Ss,” he hissed.

“See?” I smiled.

Yamin and Marek both looked really disturbed watching Samael communicate, they inched away from me on the bench.

“Yalda, did he just speak?” Marek asked.

I shook my head. “No, he doesn’t speak. He’s just really smart.”

“Who would have thought snakes were intelligent?” Yamin shrugged.

It’s pretty common to have talking pets in RPG games. They have high intelligence. I mean, this was real life and all, but maybe magic could make things like that happen.

Hey, I wondered…could I add him to my party?

I tried to invite him, and it seemed not to work…then a new tab in the menu popped up.

“Animal companions?” I uttered. That tab appeared next to the party tab in the USER IDENTIFICATION menu.

The tab gave me a little info on Samael, but it was just his size, weight and his vitals. Everything else in that menu was blank. Oh well.

*CHOO CHOO!*

Another train arrived, and the lady over the intercom said that this one was going to seaport Blue, which is where we needed to be.

We all picked up the small amount of luggage we had and got in the line to board.

The conductor stood outside the entrance, greeting people as they went inside.

“Hello, little miss.” He tipped his hat at me.

I sheepishly waved at him.

“This is her first time on a train,” Uncle mentioned. “She’s a bit shy about it.”

“Oh!” He pulled out a small wallet-like thing and took a pin out. It was a winking cat face with the words 'I rode the train!' on it.

“Thank you,” I said. He tipped his hat again in response.

I was going to pin it on my hat, but then I had an idea. Instead, it got passed over to Uncle.

"You can wear it," I said with a smile.

"Er..." Uncle allowed me to pin it on his coat. "Must I?"

"Yeah." I nodded. His trench coat was so boring, so this added a splash of excitement. It looked cute on him too! "Wear it for me."

"Alright. But just until we get off the train." He patted me on the head and gestured for me to move up the steps.

Once we were inside the train, I wasn’t very impressed with my view of the interior. I was too short to see over the seats!

Uncle put me on his shoulders, now I could see everything. The train was really fancy looking, and all the people were chatting each other up, seemingly happy to be on it.

Uncle picked one of the rows of empty seats with another pair of seats facing back at it. He let me sit by the window.

A little bit of latent excitement started to well up in me, and I was really curious to see how a train would feel once it started rolling.

Before Yamin stepped aboard, she paused and turned back to look at the train station crowed.

“Oi, sparkle face, you gonna make me stare at your butt all day?”

“Oh…” Yamin moved up, letting Indena get to the top of the stairs. Once they were both in, the doors closed. “Sorry, I just had a weird feeling.”

“What’s that?”

“I just…should we really be leaving?”

Indena audibly scoffed, then folded her arms. “Can you make up your mind? You wanna’ save your town, right? Besides, that’s what the Shrimp wants to do, and I’m sticking with her.”

“Yeah…”

“Plus, that stupid witch has it out for you. So you’ll probably want to stay with me. I’ll protect you”

“Yeah…”

“Yeah, yeah yeah…take a seat.” Indena ordered.

“Sorry, thanks.”

“Whatever.”

Now everyone was together. It felt nice to be traveling with the whole party. I was kinda worried though that Yamin and Indena were going to have some problems though.

“Are you two going to get along?” I probed. “Because if you don’t, I’ll have them turn this train around.” Actually, that was impossible. I couldn’t turn a whole train around even if I was Hercules.

Indena was about to say something, but then Yamin spoke up first. “We’ll get along.”

“Yeah, we will, Shrimp. Don’t worry,” she spoke, sincerely.

That was good to hear. I didn’t want anyone fighting while we were all scrunched up here.

The train *choo choo’d* again, then I heard the wheels below us start chugging.

I peeked out the window and noticed the train began to move.

Once it left the station, its speed increased dramatically. Within minutes, we were out of the urban area and into what looked like a forest.

Everything on the outside was a big blur at these speeds. It was crazy that we were going so fast!

“She’s mesmerized.” Yamin leaned forward and rubbed my back. “I remember my first train ride. I was so scared, and I had motion sickness.”

“I take trains to work every day, so it's normal for me,” Marek said, putting down some drinks for everyone.

“I’ve never been on a train,” Indena commented. “Why pay for it when you can just walk around a city?” She shrugged.

Marek was quick to explain that public transportation wasn’t just for lazy people, but also for people who didn’t want to become athletes in order to travel from place to place.

"Convenience is important," Marek stated. "Plus, it took years of toil and politics to get as many rails in the country as we did."

“Where I came from, everything was in walking distance. Besides, people are too fat and lazy nowadays. They need to get the exercise.”

“Indena…” I growled. She’s being mean again.

“Fine, sorry. But at least I care about people enough to want them to be healthy.”

I think she had the right goal, but maybe not the right motivation.

While they were talking, I was really getting soothed by the quiet chatter and the train noises. My body still hadn’t fully recovered from the last few days, so my systems were recommending I take advantage of the peace and rest a little.

I decided to close my eyes for a little nap…