Rising Shards

“A story?” I asked, my voice coming out very shaky. “Sure, yeah.”

The train rattled a bit on a gradual turn, making me lean way too far to one side. It felt like my right shoulder and upper arm were about to get singed, but the train leveled with a clunky thump.

“Alright, so you know how I watched that show Trian the Train when I was little?” Oka asked. “Because of the tapes that had episodes of that and Pajama Lara Buttonfelt together? And also still watch sometimes after you showed me how to find it online?”

“Uh huh.” I said. “Does this train remind you of it?”

“Well, that’s the funny story,” Oka said. “I remember watching one of the stories in the show that was kind of like this. About a train going over like a lava pit instead of a hot…ocean? It had the same rocks though like this.”

“Oh yeah?” I said. My voice was weak, but I wasn’t trying to sound rude or anything, I wanted to hear it.

“And on the show, they used model trains, right?” Oka said. “And I remember getting so scared at one part because they used a face they never used before.”

“A face they never used before?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Oh! Like, they have a few set faces they used, like a happy one, a sad one, angry, jealous, you know, the basics,” Oka said. “They had a train almost fall into the lava and they had this horrible red face for just a few seconds. I remember I was crying when I first saw it. Then a teacher took the tapes away after that.”

“That’s terrible,” I said.

“Yeah,” Oka said. “I watched it again recently.”

“Was it as scary as it was before?”

“Yes,” Oka said. “I didn’t cry this time though. So. There isn’t really a moral to this story.”

“It helped pass the time, that’s good!” I said. “And hopefully now we’re close to being done.”

“We’re just about there,” Kiki said from the car in front of me.

“Great!” I said. “Really? And you were listening to all that?”

“Apologies if that was private,” Kiki said. “You two seem very pleasant together.”

“Thank you,” I said.

The train rolled to the end of its line without incident. Getting off was maybe the most terrifying part, as the wobbly everything about the train meant I had to leap to the side to land on the stone ground. Oka helped me to my feet. Past the hot water, the rocks we stood on were surprisingly at a comfortable temperature.

Kiki pointed to a metal hatch in the rock wall.

“Through this door is a brief tunnel, and past that is the Ice Thunder Canyon,” Kiki said. “If that wasn’t clear given nothing else is around.”

“Aw, I was gonna say something to that effect.” Kalei said. She whistled after kicking the door lightly. “Pretty sturdy. Good for keeping an Ice Thunder Canyon in or something. Sure wish we all had our bloodsabers.”

“Well, we have this one at least,” I said, holding up the Kathron sword.

“Zeta, when I give the signal, you toss that over to me, got it?” Kalei said. “If we have a big fight, we should all share it.”

“I hope we don’t,” I said. “I hope we can just find this thing and smash it. And not see any of the drones, big stupid giant guys, or…J—"

“Oh yeah, forgot you had a bunch of fighting already,” Kalei said. “That sucks. I wanted to fight the drone things. I still don’t believe you cut anything’s leg off, sorry.”

“Well, I did.” I said. “Will it take long to walk all this way, Kiki?”

“It may take as long as thirty-six turns, if I had to guess,” Kiki said.

“Man, that minivan in a can would be nice here.” Kalei said. “That could save us a whole five turns or so.”

“You know what else would be nice?” Aira asked. “If we could all have that picnic to charge up.”

My stomach grumbled in response.

“There’s a vote in my favor!” Aira said.

“I’d be surprised if you had any votes against,” Oka said.

“I suppose now would be a better time to eat than when we’re really in the canyon.”

“Here, I made sandwiches, and it’s a bit mushed but there are some crispy energy bars. I have water bottles too if anyone forgot theirs.”

“Thanks Aira!” I said. “You really went all out, I just brought…chips.”

We all sat to eat. All the void adventuring we were doing did take out a lot more energy than I thought, I devoured my food, then felt bad (and slightly embarrassed) as I watched Kiki watching me eat.

“Do Exumi eat?” I asked her.

Kiki nodded. “I’m not hungry now though. I had a large meal earlier.”

“Ha!” Kalei said. “Zeta uses that excuse every time she gets food she’s too scared to eat. My mom gave me a Jercruible hot dish for the class, and Zeta was all ‘Ohhh I can’t, I had suuuch a big breakfast…’”

“Shut up…” I said. It was completely true, but I couldn’t just say that.