The Orenian station was an unsightly mass of metal beams and lumber. No thought of decoration or form had gone into the making of the transport hub and instead, much like the majority of governmental buildings in the far north and away from population centers, the government had tried to cut corners in any conceivable manner. Such as the buildings themselves.
The Orenian station was the glorified name for what was in truth, a shack-like ticket house made of a skeletal structure of steel beams and walls of rough-hewn timber. And a planked boarding platform built to house roughly 20 people comfortably. Sadly for Cozis because of the constant export of lumber and the import of goods such as grain from lands further south. This lead to an excess of fifty people currently cramming themselves onto the platform.
Cozis waited in the roiling mass of people in line for the ticket booth, waiting patiently as waves of tweed and cotton jackets pressed up and pushed against him, suffocating him in a sea of mass produced and uncomfortably itchy fabric.
Cozis reached the front of the line just as the tell-tale booming of projectile enchantments came into earshot.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
They thundered onward, the noise becoming evermore oppressive as Cozis let his current worries be washed away as he marveled at the power of modern enchantment.
Cozis was broken out of his daydream by being shouldered near to the barred window of the booth by an impatient traveler it was at this point that he opted to stop gawking at the train like a hick and instead buy his ticket and get on the damn thing.
Cozis peered through the rusted iron bars at the elderly and heavily lined face of a man. He had short blond hair and a graying, blonde beard signs of strong northern descent. The man raised a large bushy eyebrow at the boy in front of him after about five seconds of uninterrupted staring.
Cozis flustered and stumbled on his next words in embarrassment. Damn Cozis! Get yourself together. He chided himself before finally speaking.
"Uhm, 'ello my name is Cozis, Cozis Matroshka. I would very much like to buy a ticket to the capital." He spoke in his northerly accented voice. The bearded man just chuckled at him before handing Cozis a small stub of coarse parchment and then holding his hand out for payment.
"Tickets a buck fifty." The man drawled in the central continental accent that Cozis had always found rather off-putting and unattractive. He then handed the man 1.5 republican marks before heading forward to the train platform.
The wooden walkway creaked under Cozis's large frame making him question the integrity of the structure on which he now stood.
The booming grew louder and louder as Cozis used his large body and intimidating looks to jostle his way to the front of the platform, eager to get first pick at the cabins.
The bronze behemoth that was a modern-day train thundered into the station trusting the enchantments written along its sides to arrest its forward momentum.
The doors slid open with a satisfying shunk sound and Cozis and the other passengers began to board. Modern trains were shuttles of wood and steel coated in an outer layer of bronze. This was because the steel would act as the strong basic framework for the machine whereas bronze is a metal famed for its unmatched ability to hold enchantments, thus being an ideal building material for the metal monstrosity.
Trains ran along iron rails, propelled forward by great and intricate enchantments written along the back of the train. The basic premise was that there was one set of enchantments whose purpose it was to suck in air and then compress it for further use. After this, the air would then be transferred to another set of enchantments and then expelled suddenly, eliciting a jump in forward momentum and the stereotypical 'booming' sound that people had come to associate with travel.
Cozis walked the wooden halls of the train looking for an unoccupied cabin, his roaming eyes catching one in the next hallway over. Cozis never liked traveling with people as he had found that they hated silence almost as much as he loved it, filling the peaceful air with unneeded jabber and ruining an otherwise pleasant mode of travel. As such a very determined look passed over Cozis's face when he met a pair of girls walking toward the same two-person carriage, he was heading for. They locked eyes and the race was on.
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It was a race of both politeness and cunning in equal measure as they both jostled for position while taking care not to run and cause a scene on the crowded train they were forced into an awkward looking powerwalk. They both reached the door at the same time and yet another game started to form from the grave of the old one. This time Cozis was to fight for his life in a match of verbal combat.
"Thank you, sir, for opening the door for us, but we can take it from here." Spoke a young and beautiful northern girl, with bountiful curves and cascading blonde curls as she gestured for him to open the door for them. Cozis's polite smile wavered for a second as they played the gentleman card on him, they were good. But Cozis was better, and he had a trick still up his sleeve.
"I am so sorry to have to ask this cabin of you fine ladies but I need it for my sister. She's sick you see, the pox. I had to come up here to afford enough for her medicine and I have it with me." He said gesturing toward his trunk. "But as you can see the trunk is quite cumbersome and would take up the remaining room in this cabin, bar that required for myself of course, and as the medicine is delicate and precious in equal measure I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving it in the baggage compartment. So please I ask once more. May I have this cabin?" Covis asked in his weakest voice, attempting to imitate a person who had been forced into hard labor.
The girl's previous triumphant expressions fell at this and they were all too happy to forgo their chance at comfortable travel in the face of this man and his ailing sister. The result was a foregone conclusion and about ten minutes later Cozis was alone in his cabin being lulled to sleep by the slight rocking of the train and the voice of the conductor informing everyone that they were headed toward the capital of the Northern Republic.
Cozis drifted off as he watched the beautiful vistas of a snow-covered north flash by at amazing speeds, his measured breathing fogging up the glass of his compartment.
Thud!
He didn't know how long he had actually managed to sleep for before being rudely awoken by a loud thud that rocked the train. Cozis shook himself awake and then sleepily observed his surroundings, searching for the offending object or person that had deigned to ruin his peaceful slumber.
His search was in vain as he found the cabin exactly as he had left it before drifting off. Empty. He shook his head once more in annoyance before leaning against the fogged glass window in an attempt to sleep once more.
Thud!
Hell and all its demons, where in the blazes is that noise coming from! He raged internally at his predicament. The trip to the capital was at the least five hours from Orena and that was without any stops. In the middle of winter while the tracks are still partially frozen and the train has to travel at cautious speeds he could expect a nine or ten hour-long journey.
It was at this time that his window began to clear and he caught a glimpse of the outside. What he saw shocked him.
For there, running adjacent to the train was a smaller, sleeker mana powered vehicle. And currently extending from its body toward the train were several long gangplanks and on these planks currently, balencing precariously were several men wearing the burnt orange uniform of monarchistic rebels. They were armed, they were angry and as Cozis had just then realized, they were robbing the train.
"They're robbing the train" He muttered in disbelief before yelling out to the greater area in case no one else had noticed. "The train is being robbed!"