It had been a very long day today at the Shining Time train station. You loved working there, but sometimes there were just too many people all at once, and today was one of those days. As you drove up the dirt road to your small cottage at the bottom of Muffle Mountain, you rolled your window down so the fresh evening air could refresh your lungs.

Trains were always your most favorite thing ever, so working anywhere near them was a dream job for you. Occasionally, you would even hear a whistle during the night from the nearby railroad tracks. It always made you smile. As you neared your home, you rolled your window back up, and slowed for the driveway turn in. You noticed as you turned into your driveway that the mail had come. Once you got out of your truck, you walked down to the mailbox and opened it. There was a cluster of mail, no doubt that most of it was bills. You briefly scanned each letter, and one caught your attention. It was from Shining Time station, but you didn't recognize the senders name.

You tossed the junk mail into the trash, and brought the rest inside. Your cottage was very old, made of stone, and had few electrical components, and you liked it that way. You threw some logs into the fireplace, and tossed a match in. After a moment, the logs burst into flame, heat quickly filling the room. It was always a little chilly near the mountain. You sat at the table and looked at the remaining letters. Your weekly grocery store ad, a advertisement about electrical appliances, and the mysterious letter from Shining Time station. You opened the letter, and found a single piece of parchment, with golden writing written on one side. You adjusted your glasses, and started from the beginning.

Dear Mr. Anon,
Have you heard about the railroad high in Muffle Mountain?

You frowned. That's all it said. Who would use a perfectly good stamp for one sentence that you couldn't even make sense of? A railroad on Muffle Mountain? There was no such thing! You had gone a decent way up that mountain before, and it was just trees and fields. You tossed the letter onto the table, and walked over to your fridge, one of the few electric things you owned. You pulled out some leftovers from the night before, and began to eat.

As the fire crackled softly, you looked out the window at the mountain. There had always been certain rumors about that mountain. Mysterious railroad tracks that didn't seem to go anywhere, a magical steam engine, and even a disappearance of an older man and two kids. Nobody really knew the mountains secrets for sure, but it definitely had some. All mountains have their secrets.

You chewed your food silently, lost in thought. As you were about to finish, there was a sudden knock on your wooden door. You jumped at the unexpected noise. Who could that be this late? The mail had already come, and you weren't expecting anyone. Hell, the only visitors you ever had up here was the occasional neighbor. You wiped your mouth, and walked to the door. Upon opening it, you discovered that nobody was there. You were about to close it, when the lowering sun glistened off of something on your doorstep. You knelt down to find an extremely small sack, along with what appeared to be a small... kazoo?

You picked up both items, and brought them inside. You eyed the kazoo in the light of the fire, and it didn't appear to be anything special. You then opened the sack, and were surprised. What appeared to be shards of gold were inside, filled to the top. You took out a small handful and eyed it closely. No, it wasn't gold, It was obvious of that. Then, what was it? You glanced at the clock. It was nearing seven. You set the bag back onto the table and stood up. You're job required you to rise early, and you weren't going to lose sleep over a simple mystery like this. You had two days off after tomorrow. You could figure it out then.

. . .

A very high pitched steam whistle echoed throughout the open land, gently waking you from your slumber. As you lay there with your eyes open, you heard it again, and you frowned. You knew every steam whistle of every steam locomotive that ran on this railway, and the one you heard now wasn't one of them. You sat up, and listened, only to have your efforts rewarded with silence.

"Bah." you grumbled, getting out of bed. Maybe there was a new train on the line. You'd ask once you got to the station. You pulled on your work clothes, and combed your hair. You thought of yourself as rough and tough, but you still wanted to look nice.

As you put some more logs into the fireplace, the letter and doorstep gifts caught your eye once again. It probably couldn't hurt to ask at work if anyone knew anything about them. Maybe one of your co-workers was playing a joke on you?

You ate some breakfast, and clambered into your truck. The station was a twenty minute drive, so it gave you plenty of time to enjoy the morning. As you pulled out of the small dirt road and onto the main road, you turned on the radio.

"In other news today, several prospectors and treasure hunters have arrived in Shining Town, those of which believe somewhere on Muffle Mountain is a railway treasure not many know of. It's rumored that there's an abandoned set of tracks up there that the prospectors want to tear up and melt down to reuse elsewhere." the broadcaster said.

You almost immediately stopped your truck. You had a feeling in your gut, and it wasn't a good one. Something told you you needed to get your ass up that mountain and find whatever it was others were looking for way before they did.

You did a tight U-turn, screeching your tires all the way back up the street. You quickly barreled into your driveway, quickly shutting off the engine as you pulled out your cellphone. You dialed the station as fast as you could.

"Hello, it's Anon. I'm going to be absent today. Something VERY important has come up. Yes, that's fine. Thanks, I appreciate it." you said before hanging up. You were rarely absent from work, so it was no trouble for you to miss a day now. You just couldn't shake the bad feeling in your gut.

You already kept several survival tools in the back of your truck in the event of a breakdown, so now all you needed was some food, and you'd be good to go. You grabbed everything out of your fridge, which would be enough for about a four day outing.

After packing your food into insulated bags, you locked your cottage and got into your truck, which was always ready for an off road trip. Just as you were about to set out, something caught your eyes. A scrap of paper that you don't remember ever being on your dashboard. You cautiously picked up the paper, and opened it. It looked like a very old map of some sort, showing all of Muffle Mountain, and the surrounding area. You figured out where you were just fine, but the part that interested you were these lines that started from one of the nearby fields, and led about two thirds of the way up Muffle Mountain, and then disappeared.

You decided to start from the beginning of the line, and follow it on up. The field it started from was not far away, so you drove your truck down the road until you spotted the field. This particular field had been abandoned for years. The previous owner had died, and had no family, much like yourself. You're family had all died, and you just lived up in the country because you enjoyed the quiet, simple life.

You drove your truck to the center of the field, and stopped. You pulled out your phone, and used it's compass feature to figure out which direction was correct. The map showed the line going west, so that's where you went next. You should have figured that out without the compass though. West was the direction of the mountain from the field. As you drove on, you noticed a set of tire tracks that had already mowed down some of the dead corn. You decided to follow those, and the minute you did, you got a new feeling in your body. It felt... tingly?

If you didn't know better, you'd say some sort of magic was in the air.

As you drove on, the high pitched whistle you heard when you had woken up this morning rang out through the air again, but this time, it seemed louder. You stopped your truck and listened. If you really listened, it sounded like it was coming from the direction you were heading... the mountain.

You continued onward for quite some time, until the terrain had gotten steeper. Your truck was equipped with lifted suspension and mud tires, so it had little trouble getting up the mountain, at least for now.

. . .

You had followed the map for half an hour, leading in a straight line up until this point, where it just stopped. You got out of your truck, and looked around. You didn't really see anything out of the ordinary.

Wait... what was that?

As you scanned the area, you noticed something sticking up out of the ground about five hundred feet away. You got back into your truck and drove over to the object. Once you were near, you shut off your truck and got out to inspect whatever it was. Once you got close enough to see it clearly, you were dumbfounded.

A pair of railway buffers? With a small section of railway track that was built directly into the side of the mountain? What the hell was this? Why was it here? They weren't building a tunnel through the mountain, as far as you knew.

As you approached the end of the track that went straight into the side of the mountain, you tripped, and you accidentally kicked a small stick forward, and it... disappeared right into the side of the mountain?

What was this? You kicked the stick, and with a small shower of multi-colored light, and a train signal sound effect, it was gone. You stood up straight and took a deep breath. Clearly the higher altitude was messing with your brain.

You went back to your truck, and looked at the map again. This was the exact spot where the line stopped. This must have been what it was talking about. You leaned back in your seat and your eyes wandered to the gold written letter. You picked it up again, and noticed the words were different now.

You held it up again, and read the new sentence.

It's time for an adventure. You know what you must do.

In all honesty, you were about to toss this paper out of your truck. Seriously, you were surprised you weren't as freaked out as you should have been. Living alone for so long must have dulled your senses. You looked back at the buffers again. You quickly got back out and picked up a rock. You threw it at the side of the mountain, only to have it vanish in the same way as the stick.

"Time to go on an adventure." you muttered, looking at your truck. You sure as hell weren't leaving it here, so it was going to have to come with. You got in and started the engine. As you slowly inched it forwards, you took one long look at the view from the side of the mountain. Just in case you weren't coming back, you wanted to clearly remember your world. With the scenery in your mind, you looked back at the side of the mountain. Your truck was now sitting on the railroad tracks. You took a deep breath, closed your eyes, and pressed the gas.