The Abandoned Island

The Steamworks

This morning, Zeph woke up early and crammed down some breakfast before switching into new clothes and hurrying out into the morning air. Seeing the engines still where she had left them, she walked over, them all slowing waking up as she approached. "Good morning, everyone!" She said cheerfully.

Sir Handle chuckled, "Who are you? I don't remember meeting someone so cheerful before." He teased. Zeph stuck her tongue out at him. "It is easy to be cheerful when scary blue monsters aren't in the darkness!" The other engines laugh as they all fully wake up. The young girl sighed as she went about oiling all the engines, all the hinges, and the turntable again; letting the engines enjoy the sun rise. When she was done, she pat Rusty's side. "Guess it's time to put you all back. Rusty, may I borrow you to go explore for a bit, please?"

"Oh, uh... yeah, that seems fine." He was reminded of her asking for his help last night. The other engines put up no argument, as it made logical sense, but Peter Sam was suspicious and intrigued of her motives but said nothing for now. Spending another hour or so, Zeph and Rusty were able to shunt all the engines carefully back into the shed. She said goodbye for now to her new friends and shut them inside before climbing back in Rusty and slowly maneuvering him onto the line for the Steamworks, driving him slowly towards it.

Once out of earshot of the sheds, Rusty asked the obvious question, "So what did you need help with?"

"Weeeellll. I sent pictures of all the paperwork I found in the office to a friend of mine to look through. While he is still working on something, he did find some much MUCH needed supplies over here at the Steamworks."

"What kind of supplies?" The little diesel asked as they approached the massive building. "Diesel and oil for you, your cranes were being repaired, AND there were new narrow gauge rails inside." Zeph grinned as she hopped off of Rusty, rwading towards the doors. The little diesel stared in surprise. "You don't mean..." "Yep! We are gonna replace all the bad rails on your line. Well, ok, the worst of the bad rails, but you understand what I mean." She grins. Rusty couldn't believe what he was hearing. This young girl wanted his help to fix up the railway.

She walked over to the massive doors of the steam works. "I'm gonna get these open, and we'll grab everything. ok?"

"y-yeah." The little diesel was almost speechless as he watched the girl disappear inside. This was definitely a tall order, especially with it being just her, but he couldn't help but want to help her with everything he had.

Inside, it was dark, but Zeph had spied solar panels on the roof, so she hunted around for a light switch. It took her ten minutes in darkness till she found it. Flipping the switch, she was immediately blinded by the bright lights of the workshop, but what made her shoot up straight was several groans. Her heart almost lept from her chest, but then remembered the little Skarloey engines, so she calmed down and looked for the sources. She found a pair of groans in the back where there was a little steam engine and what looked like a small wheeled crane, but what surprised her most was the standard gauge engine that was sitting nearby. It was a blue Furness Railway K2, with a number two on its tender. All three of the vehicles groaned as the lights woke them up from their sleep. Deciding to be polite, Zeph stepped in front of the large standard gauge loco and looked up at it. When it finally woke up and its eyes slowly focused down at her, she immediately felt safe. This engine had the same feeling as Duke, of being old and wise.

"Oh, well hello Miss" The engine looked around a bit, looking puzzled. "Uhhh, may I ask why you are here?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you and your friends, I wasn't aware anyone was in here when I entered." She said a little sheepishly.