Moving Along Remastered

Chapter 27: Train Delayed

Moving along chapter 27: Train Delayed

A/N: In loving memory of Ankoku Yokohama, who lost their battle with stomach cancer. You were a great person, man. All of the fandom will miss you. Me included.

My back was aching pretty badly when I woke up. Sitting on a narrow train car seat will do that though. It took me a moment to even remember how I'd gotten here. After ForestHome burned down, I walked the rest of the way to the closest town for safe refuge. Both of us had suffered some minor smoke inhalation, but we hardly noticed from the aches and light burns on the rest of our bodies. There we spent several days recovering from what had transpired. Amelia wouldn't say anything to me. Only eat and sleep. Once we were ready, we made our way to the train station that'd take us to Brightfur. It was further than I'd expected, taking a little over a week just to get there. We ran into a few lizard ambushes along the way. Nothing I couldn't handle. When at last we'd made it to the station, which resided in the town of Marie, I could finally feel myself begin to rest easy. At last I'd be reunited with Erick and Sirine, and Amelia with her parents.

There had been enough cash in my bag for the both of us to get a ticket on the next train to BrightFur. Amelia got the window seat. I'd have to thank Erick for that one later. Hopefully he and Sirine hadn't waited too long for me to catch up. After that first week, I stopped counting the days altogether. All it did was make me miss them more and remind me how long Roxy was waiting. 'I really need to get back on track,' I sighed to myself as I thought this through, 'Zuboi hasn't been a very patient lizard. Who knows what'll happen if I take too long?' He had already burned an entire forest down.

I ran my paws through my head fur in an attempt to relax myself, to no success. Perhaps only Ziro and Erick had that talent. Either way, I was barely functioning mentally. All I could think of was making the LOS pay. Add that to having to watch over a broken hearted snow leopard and you had yourself quite the train wreck. Pun intended, I guess. At least this train car wasn't as packed up as I thought it'd be.

There were maybe six or seven other Furs in the fairly medium sized train car. All of which were busy with their head in some form or technology or another. I guess some things didn't change between different worlds. The transfer of information via Internet was no different. Some people hated the fast growing technological world, but I liked it. Everything felt more connected, calming even. That said, I didn't hear so much as a whisper of the fate of Furcity. At least it kept everyone's eyes off of me. I quietly relaxed in my seat again once my head stopped spinning.

"Finally awake huh?" I flinched and turned in my seat to face Amelia. She was staring out the window with an unchanging expression on her muzzle. "At least one of us can get some rest."

Guilt immediately coursed through my veins at the coldness of her statement. "Yeah, I haven't really slept in days," was all I could really manage to say. All I received in return was an emotionless huff that was barely audible. I waited for her to say anything more, but only got more silence. Things couldn't go this way the whole journey could they? "Amelia I-"

"Found this in your bag while you were asleep," she cut me off and held up a picture in her left paw. It was the one I'd taken from her house before we'd left. I'd forgotten I'd even taken it given what had happened between then and now. Seemed so long ago. "Why did you take it?" This was the most she'd said in over a week. Her voice was still sore sounding from the fire.

"I was curious about the blacked out part," I admitted, eying the bottom right corner of the picture that was scribbled out. "I was going to ask, just forgot. I'm sorry I took it."

She didn't answer for a long while then finally answered, "If only sorry actually did something," she dropped it back into my bag and turned to face me. There were dark circles around her eyes that were plainly obvious due to her light colored fur. Only contempt could be seen in her gaze. "If only sorry brought the Furfolk of ForestHome. If only sorry kept me from helping you when we first met." Her ears folded back in regret.