In a Weary World

Chapter V: The Capital City

It sat beside the train station's platform, big and black and billowing smoke. Had she not known what it was she would have been afraid of it. Even now, knowing what it was, she was still unnerved by it. The smoke rising from its funnel reminded her of the smoke from a dragon's mouth immediately before it breathed fire. The puff-puff noise its engines made sounded like the breaths of some giant monster.

Hjalmar, blissfully unaware of Solvej's thoughts on the train, viewed it with awe and wonder. In his hometown, far out in the country, such machines were as far removed from everyday life as a country on the other side of the planet was from the town. And now here he was, seeing a train for the first time!

Once aboard, Hjalmar took a window seat and peered curiously through the glass at the platform outside. Solvej settled herself in the seat opposite, clutching the edges of the seat so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

With a piercing whistle, an abrupt jolt and a chug-chug noise, the train began to move. Solvej's hat, dislodged by the movement, slipped half off her head. Since putting it back in place would require letting go of the seat, she let it stay that way.

Fields, houses, roads, rivers, all whirled past the windows almost too quick to be seen. At one point the train roared and clattered its way past a large lake in a valley.

"I hope this contraption doesn't disturb the nökur[1]," Solvej remarked, speaking for the first time since getting on the train.

Hjalmar tore his eyes away from the window to gape at her. "Nökur? They exist?"

She nodded with a grim sort of smile. "Oh, almost every fairy-tale creature exists. The nökur don't like too much noise; they say it disturbs their music."

"Do they really--"

"Draw those who hear them to their deaths? Foretell drowning? Yes." Solvej's tone forbade any further questioning.

Hjalmar tried anyway. "But--"

"Would you expect a wolf to act like an eagle?" Solvej interrupted.

Hjalmar gaped, baffled by this inexplicable remark. "Of course not!"

"And would you expect a mouse to act like a duck?"

"Certainly not!"

"Then," said Solvej, "why do you expect something that is not human to act human?"

With this she seemed to consider the conversation done. Hjalmar was left to wonder what on earth she'd been talking about.

~~~~

The train station in Inbur, the town they had left, had been small and quiet, with only a handful of people around the place. The train station in Therlund, on the other hand, was large and noisy. Crowds of people milled around, chattering until the station resounded with their voices. Porters rushed hither and thither, carting luggage on or off the train.

There was so much to see that Hjalmar couldn't concentrate on any one thing. He spun around, gazing with amazement at his surroundings. Colourful patterns cast on the floor by the sun shining through the glass roof; people getting on or off trains on different platforms; posters on the walls proclaiming where each train went and how much a ticket cost...

"Well?" Solvej asked with uncharacteristic waspishness. "Are we going to get anything done today or will you just stand there with your mouth open?" She scowled suddenly. "Oh, shut up."

"I said nothing," Hjalmar protested.

"I didn't mean you."

There was no one else she could have been speaking to, except a porter busily engaged in stacking suitcases on a trolley further down the platform. Hjalmar shrugged and put it down to Solvej being Solvej.