Human!Thomas and Friends: The Island of Aranearum

The Guilt

On the island of Sodor, all of the engines on Sir Topham Hatt's railway are busy. Gordon pulled the express, Percy delivered the mail, James was delivering crates to the docks, and Thomas was just arriving at Vicarstown to pick up some passengers to drop off at Maron Station. His whistle echoed loud as he slowed to a stop. Once they were all in, he set off down the track. On the way there, he passed by Gordon on the express line.

"Good morning, Gordon!" Thomas called with a blow of his whistle and a wave out from the cab.

"Morning Thomas!" Gordon shouts in return as he barrels down the track past the other smaller engine.

The blue engine arrived on time at the destination and let off his passengers, sir Topham Hatt was there waiting.
"Ah Thomas, once you have dropped off your coaches, I need you to pick up some empty carts at Brenden Docks to take to the Quarry. They need more slate to ship."

Thomas smiled. "Yes sir, I'll get to it right away!" The young man smiled in delight.

Sir Topham Hatt gave a nod and went on his way, that was when Thomas noticed a woman he's never seen before, she had long black hair, a dark pink shirt that was tucked partially in some black jeans and had dark boots. She couldn't possibly have gotten off any of the coaches, she had no luggage, and was walking away from him.

"Excuse me miss? Can you tell me your name? I've never seen you on Sodor before." Thomas called out to her, but she only sped up and quickly fast walked out the station going around the corner, this left him puzzled, and quickly exited off his train to try to catch her. "Miss wait?!" He jogged forward only slightly to where she disappeared out of sight and stopped. "Miss?" He looked around, peering around the corner of the wall but couldn't see her, she was gone.
"How strange, why did she run from me?" He spoke to himself, scratching his head but he had to get to the docks to get those carts, so he returned back to his engine, with a whistle away he was off.

But she was watching him from afar behind the building, once he was out of sight, she got on a horse she had hitched to a nearby tree and sped off to get home to avoid any more interactions.

Once he dropped off his coaches, on the way to the docks, he couldn't get that woman out of his head, her interaction was odd, he's never had someone run from him before.
"I know she heard me call, she had to! Could I have startled her by mistake?" All his questions were left unanswered. "I do hope I see her again. Maybe I could ask the others if they know her." This brought a smile to his face and continued on his way down the track.
When arriving at Brenden Docks, he gave blows of his whistle to alert those of his arrival.
He backs up to the carts and attaches and makes his way toward the Quarry to be loaded with slate.

On the same railway, James was just huffing through with a special delivery to Arlesburgh Harbour. He hung partially out the cab to feel the wind in his hair and admire his bright crimson engine in the sunlight, blowing the whistle just for his own amusement. As he looked ahead and the sights around, he spotted someone on a horse riding the road that was next to the track, a woman, dressed in black and pink. He gave another pull of the whistle to get her attention.

"Heey miss!? Does that ride come in a color just as good as me?!" He snarked but only to see her speed up, this made him smirk and to get his engine speed to match hers. When the woman noticed this, her mount was at full gallop, but James easily was able to keep up. So she did something he never expected, she veered off to the left through a fenced field, causing him to apply the brakes to a pain staking slow stop, and stared as she disappeared in the distance. "What in blazes just happened...?" He rubbed his temple at the encounter, but shook his head to forget about it, and puffed back on the track, he had a job to do. "That was weird."