Tales from the rails

Sodor

Rhys was crying in his shed, he was still upset from earlier that day, everyone was, even Ryan, whom hated Dan. Engines rolled around him, working hard, and whistled at him, feeling bad for the engine, they had no idea how he felt through this. At night, the control walked up to him. "Hello sir." Frowned the engine, he stared at his buffers. "Hello Rhys, how are you feeling?" Rhys sobbed, " I-I-I'm mad sir, at myself, I-I caused this!" The controller stared at him, "No, you didn't! You just got caught up in this, the last person to blame is you! You are a hard worker, worthy of this railway, it's all Z's fault, he took control of Dan, and he is the one to blame!" Rhys looked at the controller, blankly first, but then stopped crying, "Oh thank you sir!" Rhys felt the weights of guilt fly off him, he felt as though he could levitate! "Now than Rhys, Dan has to be taken somewhere off the island. He must go to island of Sodor! We don't have the ability to repair him here, so he must leave tonight." Rhys stared, he heard his brother had been lived there, but now he could see for himself! "Now Rhys, you can't do this by yourself, so I am sending Sally with you!" Rhys looked at the real tender engine whom was behind the controller. "Hello Rhys, I'm Sally. I hope to work with you more." She spoke softly, like a mother talking to a newborn.

Eddie had loaded Dan on a flatbed and gave them a coal truck for the journey. They were fitted with headlamps and D&D crests which meant they couldn't be scrapped legally. "Good luck you two!" Said Eddie as he left for his shed. "Well Sally, are you ready?" "Ready as I'll ever be!" The two slowly set off from the yards. A little ways down the mainline, Steve was shunting, there were some fuel tankers on the train and the little diesel noticed the headlamps coming. He honked his horn loudly as a passing hello. Rhys and Sally whistled loudly though the night. "Long live the night train." Said Steve quickly to himself, he noticed some bogie vans sitting in a siding. They were green, they had letters in them, but they were old and heavily weathered down so it was hard to see in the dark night. Steve attached them to his cars and set off the Levi station.

On the mainland, it was raining, thunder clapped in the air, The engines raced onward, faster and faster. Rhys was silent and Sally was starting to get bored. "So how long have you been on the railway?" Rhys was silent for a bit, then he said quietly, "A few months now." He spoke quickly. "Oh, that's nice." Rhys rolled on faster and faster, there was one thought racing through his mind "Come on, I have to save him, I HAVE to save him!" He rolled faster and faster. He clanked along the way, thundering down the track. "You know, a tense engine is liable to crash." Rhys looked back, Sally's eyes looked odd, they were purple. She had a face of concern, so Rhys began to slow, then, he looked ahead. There was the Sodor Rolling bridge, it was losing down, so Rhys began to charge on! The rails were lowered as Rhys rolled over them. He whistled loudly and charged faster. He saw a station in the distance, the lights were on, Rhys and Sally screeched their brakes and the two stopped. Rhys was out of breath, next to him was a blue engine, he had six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome. "Well hello there! Another E2 I see!" Thomas smiled as he looked at the engines. Then, he looked at the train they were pulling and was shocked! "W-What happened to him?!" But Rhys was too worn out. He tried to speak but was cut off by another engine, "Thomas, you don't even greet them properly! Sorry about him, I'm Rosie, and this is Thomas." "I'm Sally, and this is Rhys." Sally had her eyes back to normal at this point. The tarp on Dan had flown off and covered the coal truck, Dan was sleeping soundly though.

The two engines rolled into the sheds there, suddenly, a big green engine rolled into the yards, it uncoupled from it's train and rolled over to the sheds. The train stunk, like fish. "Yuck, what is that horrid smell?" Rhys said with a disgusted look. "You get used to it." Said the engine, he was 4-6-0 black 5. "I'm Henry, who are you guys?" "I'm Sally, and that's Rhys. A pleasure to meet you Henry." Henry looked at the pieces of rolling stock they had brought in. First the brake van, then a coal truck, and then a flatbed, they had put a tarp on it, but Henry could see the engine's face. "What's wrong with him?" He asked after a long pause. Rhys looked down, so Sally answered. "He was in a horrible accident, we're taking him to the works here, ours hasn't been able to fix him." Henry looked at the engines, and then the consist. "I'll take him for you, then you guys can go home, I have to take some metal to the works anyways, it's no biggie." He said, looking at the little engines. Rhys looked surprise, "What?! Y-y-you will?!" The big engine smiled, "Of course I can, You get to go home, your friend gets to the works, and I get to show off, so it works out for all of us!" Rhys and Sally cheered, "Oh thank you Henry, you don't know how much this means to us!" "No problem at all," said the big engine, and the three soon went to sleep.

The next morning Rhys awoke to Sally sitting in front of him on the turntable, facing him. "S-Sally, what are you doing?" He asked, sleepily. "I've been waiting for you to wake up, so we can go." She said as she backed up to grab what remained on the train they brought, Henry and Dan left. "Rhys, come along." She said as the shunter fastened the coupling. Meanwhile, Dan had woken up. "Failed, huh? I feel that." Said Henry. "I guess, but tankers exploding isn't really a fail, he ha- COUGH COUGH COUGH." Henry looked concerned, "Hey, don't give up Dan. I want to see you fail."