Chapter 1: Theodore the wizard engine
The island of Sodor is a busy island, where engines chuff and puff; heave and haul; and do their best for Sir Topham Hat's railway. One of the youngest engines on Sodor is Percy. His traditional job is to pull and deliver the mail. Percy loves waking up very early in the morning or staying up late in the night to deliver the mail. No engine knows better the job than him. Nevertheless, he is the most innocent engine on Sir Topham Hat's railway. Sometimes engines make fun of him or try to scare him by telling scary stories.
One night, the engines were settling down after a hard day of work. James was looking forward to tell a scary story to scare Percy.
"Dare, for a scary story guys?" James smirked
"No, James," Thomas frowned, "You will scare Percy again,"
"Percy is a little scary engine," teased James, "He gets scared of everything,"
"Just cut it out, and let an engine sleep," groaned Gordon annoyed
"Just not for today James, I have to deliver the mail in the night," pleaded Percy
James sniffed disapprovingly
"No one is going to be scrapped for telling a scary story for one night James," said Emily sarcastically
"Ok, then," said James, "I need to pass the time until I get sleepy; I am still wide awake,"
"Except for me!" groaned Gordon chuffing inside the shed to get some sleep.
"What about talking about something fantastical?" proposed Henry
"Are you serious Henry?" asked James sarcastically
"What about we remember old and happy moments like the time we rescued Hiro," said Thomas
"I remember that time, it was wonderful," stated Emily
"Or the time Thomas discovered Luke, the blue mountain quarry engine," said Edward
Thomas laughed "I remember that time I did a foolish of my self trying to run in narrow gauge tracks,"
The engines laughed too and Gordon giggled inside the shed.
The engines kept chattering until late on the night. When the engines were asleep, Percy steamed away quietly so no one will wake up. Tonight, Percy have to take some mail to Ulfstead Castle. He loves going to that castle because he meets with his friend Steven, with who he has a very good friendship.
As soon as Percy collected his mail cars in the shunting yards, he puffed to Ulfstead Castle. While he chuffed through the countryside, Percy remembered the time when James tried to trick him and Steven into believing his story about some Phantom Express. He giggled about it because James ended up believing his own story and got freaked out. He was so busy remembering that moment that he didn't notice that the points were set up to a abandoned branchline. He kept on puffing unaware of what was happening.
Some time later, he started to notice that the line he was puffing on, looked nothing like the one to Ulfstead castle.
"Where am I?" he wondered looking around.
It was dark and spooky. The tracks were rusty so Percy had to puff slowly. The shadows of the tree branches formed in the ground scaring Percy.
"I wish I find my way out soon," he wished.
He suddenly heard a distant voice.
"Hello? Is somebody there?" the voice asked
Percy didn't answer and kept on chuffing. Suddenly amongst the trees and the woods, he heard the voice again.
"Hello?"
Percy flinched, he was very scared. He wanted to chuffed back and find his way back but he didn't. For some reason, he kept on chuffing following the voice.
"Is somebody there?" the voice asked.
Percy can feel it closer. He chuffed on slowly until in lamp shone brightly at a siding where a weird-looking engine was. It was a rectangular-shaped engine with a long, thin funnel. It had a square face and a thin, sharped nose. Percy was amazed, the last time he saw a stranded engine was when he and Thomas were rescuing Hiro from scrap.
"Hello? Who are you?" the engine asked
Percy just stared at him with wonder; he didn't dare speak.
"My name is Theodore, " the engine introduced himself.
"My-my name is Percy," said Percy slowly
"Cool, nice to meet you Percy," smiled Theodore, "What are you doing out at this time at night?" he asked
"I'm suppose to deliver the mail, but I got lost," replied Percy
"Oh, well you'll have to wait until morning to get out to the main line. It's not safe to chuff in the woods at this time of night,"
Percy just stared at hm.
"What are you doing here stranded on the woods?" he asked, "Are you going to be scraped?"
"What? No, of course not. I've been living in here for hundreds of years. That's why is weird to have an actual working engine chuffing through this area," replied Theodore
"You broke down in here and never found again?" asked Percy
"No," replied Theodore, "Look, Percy is it?"
"Yes," asked Percy shyly
"Ok, then," started Theodore, "Look, I'm a wizard-steam engine built by wizards hundreds of years ago. I have magic powers,"
Percy's eyes were white with wonder. "Magic powers? Isn't that only exists in fantasy story books like Harry Potter?"
"Who's that?" asked Theodore
"Oh, a novel series for children written by a famous British writer called J.K Rowling," replied Percy, "I've heard librarians reading it to children in books fairs; the stories are very cool," smiled Percy
"Well, I haven't been out in the daily world since 80 years ago," said Theodore sadly
"That's sad, that happened to a friend of mine, called Hiro. My best friend Thomas and the other engines tried to repair him by ourselves but it didn't work then we told Sir Topham Hat the problem and he sent him to the Steamworks to get him fixed," said Percy cheerily
"Who's this Sir Topham Hat?" asked Theodore
"It's the railway controller," replied Percy, "He makes sure that all of his engines are really useful, and don't cause confusion and delay,"
"Interesting," pondered Theodore, "It sounds like the man that wanted to scrap us wizard engines just because we have magic powers,"
"Well, it can't be him, Sir Topham Hat is fussy but has a great heart," stated Percy "Besides, Sir Topham Hat isn't that old,"
"Well, I hope because thanks to the person who wanted to scrap us, I'm here stranded," frowned Theodore
"But if you are a magical engine, why don't you just poof out of there," asked Percy
"Because engines magic powers don't work the same way like magic powers on human wizards," replied Theodore, "Our powers to poof from one place to another only last twenty years after if we don't get repaired when we broke down, after that lapse of time, we can only blow magic dust to another engine by sneezing to another engine through our funnel, and that makes the working engine besides inherit our powers," said Theodore, "In my case, I couldn't poof where I wanted because dirty water from a storm blocked my engine and put out my firebox, I couldn't puff or poof anywhere, eventually I broke down and since I was alone with my driver and fireman no one ever found me again and my magic mechanism died," lamented Theodore sadly, "Now I only have magic dust in my firebox, which I sometimes sneeze when an animal crawl into my firebox,"
"What happened to your driver and fireman?" asked Percy
"I don't know, they went for help and they never came back again," replied Theodore
Percy was amazed. He never heard a story like this before, he wanted to tell the other engines and Sir Topham Hat, but he didn't know if Theodore wanted too.
"I'm very sorry you've passed so much time in here Theodore," said Percy, "It must be awful to be here all alone with nothing to do,"
"Well, I pass my time remembering my friend and my victories against my enemy, 'The Black Puffl'," smiled Theodore
" 'The Black Puff?" asked Percy
"He was a wizard engine who always had envy of me because I had more power than him and can do my work better than him," replied Theodore, " When we didn't had nothing to do, we race through the entire island and do a lot of different kind of contest like shunting cars, pulling the longest and heaviest trains, etc. I remember the last time I saw him, he stole some coal cars from me and hid them, making me arrive late with the deliveries, even though I poofed near every station, I arrived late,"
"It sounds a lot like Diesel or Diesel 10," stated Percy, "Those two diesels have envy of the steamies and always want to be better than us on everything," he frowned
Suddenly a little squirrel crawled to Theodore's cab and into his firebox.
"Oh no, not squirrels, there crawling up in my firebox," panicked Theodore
"How does an animal affects an engines like your kind so much?" asked Percy
"We *sniffs* wizard engines are prone to sneeze when a little animal steps on our magical *sniff* dust in our fireboxes *sneezes*,
A black dust burst out Theodore's mouth. It landed right into Percy's half opened mouth and funnel. Percy suddenly felt sleepy and everything went dark.
Theodore gasped "Oh no, Percy wake up!"
Theodore stared at the sleepy Percy, he realized what he had done.
Okay guys! So this is my first Thomas the Tank Engine fanfic. I had the idea of introducing wizardry to the Thomas universe so I decided to write fanfic! I hope you like it guys.
