Last Update: 11/21/08
A green-purple locomotive slowly chugged its way through a rolling green hilly countryside. The engine dragged five cars behind it. Clusters of fuzzy faces looked out the windows.
Car three's interior sported a modern design. Stainless steel framed the booths, tables and window frames. The ceiling held overhead compartments, lights and air conditioning fans. Televisions could be folded out from the wall paneling.
Animals occupied most of the booth seats. Up front in the first row, a monster and a chinchilla sat together. Across from them sat an Irish sheepdog and a bufo frog, dressed in Hawaiian shirts. Behind them was a cat, an orangutan, a cairn terrier and a compsognathus.
On the third row, there sat a rat and a Tasmanian devil.
Across from them sat an ice blue colored dragon in a black tank top and baggy brown pants. His dark blue wings sat folded behind him as he stared out the window, lost in thought.
Uncle, he thought. I never knew him. He stared at the letter in his claws. He included me in his inheritance. Why? I never knew I even had an uncle before. A glass tear rolled down his cheek. It hit his dining table with a loud click, bouncing over into the seat across from him.
He looked out the window and saw a steep hill overlooking a lake. The train passed by it and through a forest, coming to a wide open prairie, with rolling grassy hills and lavender wildflowers.
A fuzzy black and brown tarantula the size of a microwave oven suddenly popped popped up in the chair across from him. "Hi!" it said. "I'm Shy-Lob, Shy for short. What's your name?"
"Tri."
"Tri! A nice name! Tell me. Where are you heading to?"
"Walt Cockroach World," said Tri.
"Oh! What brings you there?"
The dragon shrugged. "It's a long story."
The train suddenly stopped. A fog rolled through the train, then disappeared.
"Whoa!" said the tarantula. "I wonder if we're doing repairs or something."
Tri looked around. All the passengers aside from himself and Shy-Lob had vanished.
"What's going on here?" the tarantula asked.
"Not sure." Tri stared out the window. Nothing could be seen in the thick white fog.
"What do you think? Want to just sit tight and wait for the conductor to start off again?"
The young dragon didn't move.
"Right. Great idea," said the spider. "Let's just stay here and wait and not go out into that nasty fog outside."
"Yeah," said Tri. "That sounds fun."
"Chess!" Shylob exclaimed with grinning mandibles. "Fun!" He climbed the wall and brought down another box from the luggage compartment. "Whee!" He opened the box, setting a series of Darkwing Duck themed chess pieces out on the table. "Do you want heroes or villains?" he asked.
"Villians," said Tri.
Shylob turned the table around so those pieces faced the dragon.
Tri moved a henchman duck pawn forward from the center. Shylob poked at his Launchpad figure thoughtfully, then moved a Honker figure forward from the left side of the board.
As Tri was moving Liquidator diagonally into the spot in front of Morgana, the whole train shook violently.
Tri heard muffled whooping and hollering. He leaned forward, staring out the window.
The fog cleared and he could see a pack of giant rabbit-like creatures galloping like horses up towards his section of the train. On their backs sat various animals in breechcloths and feathered headbands, armed with spears and bows. Colorful warpaint marked their faces and the bone breastplates that hung over their bare chests. They hollered and screamed as they came near, shaking everything in the cabin.
A squirrel with a blue feather in his headband nocked an arrow.
Crash! A second later, a flint arrowhead jutted out the window, broken glass flying all over the table and the game pieces.
"Great," Shylob groaned.
The train rocked, the ground beneath rumbling like an earthquake.
Smash! The blade of a crude flint axe burst through the window.
"Crude," said Tri. "All I wanted was to find out what my family member left me, and now I've got these things attacking me!" The dragon pulled the axe out of the shattered window, breaking it further. He raised the weapon, wound his scaly arm back, and launched it back at them through the hole. "Get lost!"
The axe missed, flying off into the field. The creatures, sensing danger, nocked arrows and sent a shower of them into the room.
One arrow hit Shylob in the leg, knocking it off. He screamed.
The creatures jabbed Tri again.
"Jump!" the spider hissed. "I'll help you through this!"
In a panic, he jumped out of the train window, landing on the back of the giant rabbit beast. The critter squealed in protest, kicking up its hind legs until Tri rolled onto the ground.
The giant bunny jerked on the primitive leash it had been tied to, and it snapped. The creature bolted off into the wilderness.
Tri saw the squirrels looking down at him with anger, shouting at him in their odd language.
If you want to add to the story, or start your own, Please e-mail the Game Master at akktri@iname.com with your questions.
