So I guess I should give an introduction. I was reading through the comic and when I came onto the story about what happened to the Mora trains I got the idea for this one shot. Warning ahead of time this is the writen equivilent of a doodle.
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The Hjorten Rail
The low rumble of the train’s engine shakes Desi awake. He sits up from his bench, pulling aside the sheet to stretch. He sits up and glances to the machine that had awoken him. The train sits patiently in the station, a small crowd gathering beneath its wide windows. It almost looks like something from a story book, a thing that would have been out of place even before.
Then again everything seems like it was taken from a storybook like here, he thinks to himself as he sits up.
“Awake yet?” a warm voice asks behind him.
Desi turns still sitting to see Ida standing behind him, a cup of water in each hand. He grunts an answer as she hands one of the cups over.
“Impressive isn’t it? They say you won’t even notice the days pass while you ride,” Ida says while sitting down and Desi leans against her.
“Yes you’re proud I get it,”
“You have to be proud of family once in a while. You feeling better about getting on it now?”
“Wish it looked more sturdy,” Desi admits in a low voice.
“You worry too much,” Ida says ruffling Desi’s black hair, a trait that made him stand out or so he was told.
A hold over from his ancestors who were lucky enough to be on a train northward from some forgotten part of the Silent World when the old world ended. And the irony of his paranoia didn’t escape him. But when he looks at the train a knot winds itself in his stomach.
“Desi, you’re getting that look,” Ida says without having to look.
“I don’t have looks,” Desi says. “Just wish your folk could come here.”
The two sit quietly for a minute before Desi shifts to look at Ida.
“Could you make me a promise?”
“Desi it really is safe,”
“Just let me finish. If something were to happen, and you have to chose between risking your life for me, you have to help yourself,”
“Well that’s selfish of you,” Ida says after a moment.
“Of course, if something happened to you your brother would kill me,” he says with a smile.
“The thing is I’d rather face a troll than your cousins,” Ida says, playfully elbowing Desi.
A bell rings across the station and the train doors open.
