A gentle breeze blew through the tent as Ingo sipped on his tea. Not much ran on these tracks, and short of his maintenance as a warden, his schedule remained simple and straight forward. His biggest concern was the odd fracture in the sky, and the reports of Lord Electrode's frenzy recently. Such a derailment would be problematic if it reached his Lady. Still, with Galaxy Team helping, he had little concern things would be solved. Despite their... interesting methodology with Pokemon, they had proven effective engineers more than once. A soft knock brought him out of thought, as a shadow loomed in front of the tent. "My Warden?" Ingo smiled. His favorite stop of the day approached his station. "Lady Sneezler, right on schedule." The impossibly tall sneezler stood, claws on her hip. "Well of course. You wouldn't allow it any other way." He set the tea aside. "A well maintained car requires a strong schedule." She snickered, hefting a wicker basket sitting outside onto her shoulders. "You and your strange words." Ingo knew not where the words came from, only that they mattered a lot to him. They were one of three things he kept from before. Dawning his back coat and hat, he stepped outside into the cliffs. the landscape stretched on for miles, a clear view to nearly anywhere in the Highlands, most of the great mountain, and some of the Icelands. "How fair the kits, my Lady?" The sneezler rolled her eyes, "Beligerant as always. The eldest's poison has come in, and he keeps forgetting that." Scooping up the Warden, she leapt down from rock to rock, making her way quickly down the cliff face. "You should come see them again. They miss you. Ingo nodded as he was set back on the ground. "Indeed, it's been too long. Must see how my passengers are doing." Sweeping is vision across, he gestures to the north. "I believe I saw someone near the Icelands. We should go check on them." Lady tilted her head. "Any reason? Or just your keen sense of time?" Ingo shrugged, an unusual gesture from him. "A sense. Always good to check the engine over before a problem occurs." Lady nodded, and took off, Ingo following behind close. Approaching the pass, something was off. Ingo was nervous, and if he was nervous, so was she. "This passenger is on the wrong line..." His strange words again, but she understood. Whoever this human was, she had fallen the same way he had. "She seems very out of place, more so than you were." Lady was being quite, unsure exactly what his plan was. "Yes, very. I'm surprised we got a chance to see her, must have just recently disembarked. Quickly, bring her up here." She nodded, "right away, my warden." Verifying the basket was secure, she slid down the cliff, claws embedded just enough to slow her decent safely. The small human had not noticed her approach, and made only minimal alarm when scooped up and tossed into the basket. She *could* have asked, but even in times like these, she felt it was far easier just to catch humans off-guard. "Wah! Who did that?! Hello? I promise I'm not trying to invade, I'll just go!" What an odd human. Lady shrugged, shifted the straps a bit, and began climbing back up to where Ingo awaited. --- The basket was dark, and smelled slightly of bread. Whatever had grabbed me, I was not prepared to fight it. Clearly I had tread into someone else's land. A small slit gave view to the outside. We were going up... a lot. Had I been snatched as food? Something to play with? Whatever it was, I could hear it's claws sink into the rock with a steady rhythm. Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. It made a soft growl and purr, and I could feel the basket hulled onto the ground. A man, in a strange black coat and hat, opened the top and peaked in. "Hello there. Seems you're on the wrong track?" His voice was genuine, but his words strange. Vaguely familiar. "Y-yeah, I think so. Sorry. I'm not actually sure where I am." He gave a chuckle, offing a hand, which I accepted. "Hopefully Lady wasn't too surprising? She has a habit of derailing people's expectations." A chitter, almost like a chuckle, came from a creature standing next to him. Nearly a foot and a half taller than either of us, it had light blue fur, with a mask of dark blue over it's face. A *massive* feather cropping from it's left side, starting just above a yellow gem set in it's forehead. But it's most intimidating feature was it's huge red claws. Larger than the foxes of the iceland. Despite it's intimidating appearance, it was smiling gently. "uh... o-only a little... I suppose." He chuckled, lifting his hat up a bit. "Understandable. Well, my name is Ingo. This is Lady Sneasler. Might I have your name?" Right, my name... my... name. I shook my head, mostly to try and clear my thoughts, but the result was the same. "I... don't remember." No amount of digging came up with even a hint. Tipping his hat further, he gave his head a scratch. "I see. An unfortunate route for a passenger like yourself to be taking, but I suspect I know a station that could help." More strange words, now getting a bit further from my limited knowledge. "There is a small village just down the line there," he gestured to a small river, which wound it's way through a plane, and right up to a wooden fence. "Jubilife Village. Setup by a group calling themselves Galaxy Team. The city itself might be a bit... unwilling to accept new cars, but I have been assured that the professor there is very interested in helping people when he can. I myself would have gone if not for my duties as a Warden." He leaned up to... Lady Sneasler. I struggled a bit to recall the name, but it seems I could at least develop some amount of long term memory. He leaned up and gave her a smile. "This one rerouted my car, and I've been set on this track ever sense. Not that I mind it." The creature giggled, and chittered at him. "Yes, indeed my lady. Still, had I the time, I would be more than excited to assist the professor, and I suspect he would be enthused to have a new challenge." I gave a curt nod. Less than enthused humans seemed like a bad start, especially given what happened earlier that day, but if there was a professor here, I had to take the chance. Surely a man of science could help me work out what happened. "Thank you... Ingo? Warden Ingo. I'll be sure to check it out." The creature snickered, a look upon her face that had me worried. "Of course. And it seems Lady is offering to take you there now." I swallowed. "Offering? or... telling?" He laughed. "Ah, well spotted. Indeed she is more... insisting than suggesting, though if you truly wish to take the route yourself, I think she can be convinced to remain at the station." Looking back over the path, I sighed and slumped my shoulders. Seems I would be luggage again. -- [Prev](./Chapter%202.md?v) | ~~Next~~