Dinner For One

"Stop the fire!" Colin and Jordan threw in the buckets of water that were handy. Jackie watched for the opposite of the tunnel to stop the train in time before they completely exited. Slowly the train came to a stop and gave a low whistle as the stove cooled.

"Mr. Acurn!" A voice, faint over the whistling could be heard and the fast pace running made the echo return as a three man band, complete with flutes, drums and trumpets.

Colin, Jackie and Jordan all looked over the side of the engine and searched for the voice, Colin on the bottom, pushed there by the competitive Jackie and pushed further down by the inner diva of Jordan. Unfortunately for the young adults the echoing made the running feet seem to be on the right side of the train, when really, the mermaid, clad only in a makeshift dress from a coal bag, appeared on the right side.

She laughed which made all three impromptu conductors jump. She had a tinkly laugh, like a small waterfall crashing over small rocks down below. "If you're all going to act like a couple of sea horses, we will never be able to save the train! Dumbfounded, they looked at the mermaid. She was covered in dirt, ash and her entire upper body was red, as if it was sunburned. Her legs, longer than her arms stretched gave her an Amazonian Princess appearance; however, they were whiter than the stars. Her matted short hair, trimmed for travel stuck up around her head in a strange fashion, were not at all affected by the abuse that her body had gone through to catch up with the engine. Her breath was not labored and no sweat dripped off her brow, but it was her eyes that caught the most attention. She may have been able to pass as a normal human, but her eyes were pink, the delicate pink of the inside of a conch shell, accustomed to both light and the darkness of the ocean, which was key in saving the souls on the train.

Jackie recovered first, her father had taught her to never stare at a mermaid, especially when she was only clad in whatever she could find. She snapped Colin's slack jaw closed which was suspended just over her shoulder and straightened up. "How can we save the train?" she asked. "There are 300 persons on board, men, women, and children and none of them know that there is a dragon perhaps above us ready to munch down on our bodies for dinner. My father," she motioned toward her father still in the chair that he died in, "once told me that you and the dragon are sworn enemies. Does this still ring true?"

Farther down the tracks, and still within the tunnel the passengers began to grow agitated. Something had set the caboose on fire.

"Fireworks!" One yelled, "Someone must have dropped a lit match..."

"Someone deliberately set a fire..."

"Dragon!?"

"Maybe there were explosions in the back and there was an accident...?"

"Who said anything about a dragon?"

"Could be fireworks, although the centennial was just days ago..."

"The company really should have a rule about lit cig's..."

"DRAGON!"

The panic set in again, and all aboard rushed toward the engine, desperate to be as far away from the still burning caboose as they could. Deep in their hearts they knew only a dragon could produce that much fire and burn an entire caboose down to the tracks. All that was left was twisted metal, the running board and the locking wheels. Somehow they had survived the inferno.

A voice came on over the intercom, it was Colin, who, just hours before still believed himself to be a boy, but now he had become a man. Unknown to him he had developed a deep voice, and for the past few months he used it unintentionally to help those in need. And this was one of those times. He instructed the mass to move carefully to the very front of the train, leaving the last eight carriages empty. “What can be left behind should be left behind. Family is important, and precious," He reminded the passengers, "Things can be re-bought, the most important part is that we all have survived with no fatalities."

The mermaid had run from the engine back to the carriages and checked the empty carriages for people. Her eyes could also detect the occasional beating heart, down to the smallest minnow. Fortunately, all had heeded their warnings and moved to the front of the train with no problems. She ran ahead to begin the next stage of defeating the dragon.

The dragon retrieved a fairly large rock from the apex of the mountain and used it's snout to push it down the hill toward it's lair. Tonight it would feast well, better than it had in a long time.

Next Time: Education for Dragons