The next day, Falnii and Hejema came down to have breakfast with Wilson and Emma. Emma looked to Falnii as she sat down. “Your Majesty?” she asked with care. “How did you sleep?”
“…Not very well,” replied Falnii. “I had nightmares about my home. Nightmares about the Final War. Seeing him again…” Falnii shuddered, then steadied herself. “…I saw Yulduk last night.” Hejema’s eyes goggled.
“Th…the Dark Revenant Father?” she gulped.
“The same.”
“Hoo boy!”
“Revenant?” asked Emma. “As in a zombie?”
“Zombie 2.0,” corrected Hejema. “In the Realms, while Zombies are just mindless beasts that don’t remember anything and are still decomposing, Revenants remember everything about themselves when they’re brought to life. Their soul is returned to their original corpse, and they can take in mana through the air to continue living as they once did. Only old age can kill them.”
“Or a restricted spell known as Ensakunde,” supplied Falnii. “But, given that I personally sent his soul to the place of eternal torment and he got back out with the Author’s help, according to Megumi, Optimus, and Arsha, it’s safe to say that that spell won’t work.”
“Right, he’s most likely got a body like mine,” muttered Wilson.
“…Do you think he stole Mike’s roof?” asked Hejema.
“And the Blister Twins’ roofs too,” recalled Emma.
“…You know, it’s a possibility,” mused Falnii. “He likes to get his hands dirty. It inspired the troops under his command during the Final War.”
“Well, we’re gonna stop him!” declared Wilson. “We won’t let him torment you!”
“…I need to tell the Small Controller,” resolved Falnii.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here and recover?” asked Emma.
“I DO want to stay, but the railway’s under threat of an enemy after my head and we need all the help we can get. We’re telling him when we get to work.”
They arrived at the sheds as the Small Controller was ready to give out the assignments. “Ah, right on time!” greeted the Small Controller. “That will perfect! Now, everyone-”
“Sir,” interrupted Falnii, “I hate to interrupt, but we’ve got a big problem, one that the four of us believe is linked to the roof thefts.”
“You have a lead?!” asked Mike. “Who did it?!”
“This is gonna sound weird, but I need to tell you what I learned last night.” Falnii then told everyone what happened and who Yulduk was.
“…Interesting story,” remarked Mike.
“Mike!” hissed his green friend, Rex.
“You seriously expect me to believe that a glorified zombie’s stealing roofs?!” argued Mike.
“Mike, enough!” snapped the Small Controller. “Given what the Skarloey Railway went through two days ago with an enemy of their visitors coming back from the dead, it’s not entirely implausible.”
“What can we do to help?” asked a yellow engine with a tall funnel, Jock.
“Right now,” replied Falnii, “we need a constant look-out for him AND the Lords.” She was feeling a little better now that someone outside her circle of friends offered to help.
“Well, we have numerous opportunities to spot him on today’s jobs,” remarked a blue engine with a tall funnel, Bert.
“Speaking of which,” said the Small Controller. He then assigned everyone their duties.
Rex and Falnii were on wool-delivery duties. Rex looked a little more cautious than one would normally be allowed. Falnii didn’t understand it. “Okay, I’m nervous because of Yulduk coming after my head,” she said, “but why do you look so nervous? It’s not like you’re herding the sheep.”
“It’s not that,” explained Rex. “I just had a bit of an accident during the first wool delivery of our railway. I was boasting, you see, saying that this kind of job would be easy, but I reckoned without a man named Willie dawdling and spilling his load of wool onto the line. He tried to warn me and I tried to stop, but the trucks pushed me forward and I ran into the load, getting myself knocked onto my side. The cleanup took no time at all, but I was teased ruthlessly for my boasting. Oddly enough, that accident boosted the railway’s reputation. Still, these days, I’d rather not be so careless about wool deliveries.” Falnii grinned.
“You know, I had something like that,” she remarked as they got underway. “This was during the first days of the Final War. Apparently, there was some trouble in casting the strength-enhancing spell, Taravimday. I couldn’t understand how anyone could have trouble with that simple spell. All you do is thrust your wand at yourself or someone else and call ‘Taravimday’, then the person would have the strength of ten Trolls and Dryads for an hour. Apparently, it was the wand thrust that people were having trouble with. I offered to demonstrate with the Orc in charge as my target. During the demonstration, however, things went a bit wrong. I thrust my wand at him and…well…I THOUGHT I said ‘Taravimday’. But, given that the Orc in charge was a sheep, it was painfully clear that I said ‘TaravimBAY’, the target to sheep transformation spell. I was never so embarrassed in my life. They got him back to his Orc form and he told me to find someone else to demonstrate Taravimday instead of Taravimbay. I did and then hid in Arsha’s quarters on the Endeavor for the rest of the day.”
“Oh dear,” sympathized Rex. “I’m sorry that…” he trailed off when he saw something moving behind the bushes near the line. “Hang about!” he said. He then called to the person. “Hey! You’re way too near railway-!” Yulduk then sprang out of the bushes and ran along the line!
“AFTER HIM!” shouted Falnii. Rex increased his speed and Falnii drew her wand. She then swung it across her front and fired a magic blast. Yulduk rolled out of the way and threw a small fireball at them. “CANURTO!” shouted Falnii as she held her wand in a reverse grip and thrust her hand forward. A large stream of water then spouted from the grip of the wand and doused the fireball. Yulduk took the opportunity to sneak away, out of Falnii and Rex’s sight. Falnii hissed in irritation.
“Yulduk was by the line?!” yelped Bert once Rex told his fellow engines about the incident at the end of the day.
“What was he doing?” asked Blister I.
“Well, we’re not too sure what he was doing before we arrived,” remarked Rex, “but he was certainly trying to roast us after we made it clear we saw him.”
“Are you all right?” asked Jock.
“Believe it or not, we ARE all right. Falnii’s magic saved us AND the wool.”
“Thank goodness for that,” sighed Sigrid.
“That still begs the question,” remarked Mike, “of what he was doing there in the first place.”
“Scouting,” said Falnii to her team outside the cottage at the end of the day. “It has to be scouting. He won’t send his troops into a battlefield he doesn’t know about.”
“Another commander who cares about their troops,” remarked Wilson, remembering the reports of Team SKR.
“The councilors of the Realm Trinity Empire all cared about their troops. That’s what made the Final War drag on for so long.”
“We need to find him,” declared Hejema. “We strike at their base of operations-!”
“We go right into a hornet’s nest. No, we have to maintain our position here on the railway. He needs to make the mistake of coming after us, not the other way around.”
“…You’re sure about this?” asked Emma.
“Positive.”
“…Well, if you’re sure, then we’ll do as you suggest,” said Hejema. “You coming in?”
“Not yet. I’ll be with you shortly.”
“All right. But please be careful.” Falnii’s teammates entered the cottage and she looked out beyond the fence.
“…I know you’re there.” Yulduk came out from the bushes. “Ah, there you are, right on schedule.”
“Tattling on me?” chuckled Yulduk.
“You know what Dr. Borg said about information. It’s one of the few things our side ever agreed with her about.”
“So, we ARE alike in some respects. We know how people are interdependent.”
“Indeed.”
“…Well, I think I’ve seen enough. I’ll see you again, but it won’t be as pleasant as tonight.” Yulduk then vanished. Falnii sighed, thinking about how to stop Yulduk.