A/N: We will explore Lady's abilities a little further in this chapter. A little bit of gore in this chapter, just a fair warning. Anyway, on with the story!
The next morning, Lily woke up, and noticed she could no longer feel Lady's soothing warmth. She sat up, and looked around. Lady was nowhere to be seen. Where could she had possibly gone? She reached out to Lady.
Where are you? Lily yawned. The sun was shinning in the mouth of the cavern, but the treasure was too far back to reflect the light. It would help keep Lady's hoard hidden.
I'm not very far away, little one. I'm catching you breakfast for you two. Lady replied, and quickly withdrew. Lily, and Patch brought snacks for the trip, but this was fine. It might be best to save them for emergencies anyway. Almost half an hour later, Lady returned with a buck dangling from her powerful fang-lined jaws. She dropped the deer onto the cold stone floor, and inhaled deeply. Her underbelly started to glow brighter from the fire rising within her, and Lady unleashed a blast of flame onto the lifeless body of the deer. She was cooking it for the two humans to eat. She had already eaten two deer before she caught this one. She needed to feed in order to have energy to hunt, or use her magic. She cut off the stream of fire by snapping her jaws shut, and she immediately started to tear the buck into smaller pieces for the humans to eat with her claws, much to Lily's dismay. Patch was relatively fine with it. His father must hunt if he is used to seeing something like this. She offered them each a piece, so they could eat. Lily seemed to have lost her appetite, but she ate a little bit. It was better than eating nothing. Once the humans had their fill, Lady snatched up the deer carcass in her jaws, and swallowed it whole in a single gulp. No point in letting it go to waste.
This was difficult for Patch to comprehend. There was so much he, and Lily didn't know about Lady. He doubted even Burnett knew she could shape shift, but he took care of her since she was a kit, and he was the most knowledgeable about her. However, even he seemed to know about Lady's true power. Lady seemed to notice him trying to put the pieces together, and laid her large head before him on the ground, and looked at him with a beautiful golden eye.
"Something is eating you, Patch. What is it?" Lady asked him. Lady was very in-tune with both humans, and engines alike. It was like she could sense something was amidst. She had a deep connection with the island itself. She was Sodor's guardian.
"Does Burnett know about your powers?" Patch raised an eyebrow at her. Lady smiled, baring her fangs. He took that as a yes.
"He is aware of this ability, but he is unaware to my true power. The other steamies know as well. Restoring the Magic Railroad, and shape shifting is only part of my power. You are not ready to see me at full power, child, neither is Lily. You will need to be able to understand how powerful truly am before I show you just what I am capable of." Lady blinked.
"Why do you think we're not ready?" Lily asked. Lady looked at her. Typical Lily. She was wanting to push for answers, rather than wait. It would be better off if they never see her at full power at all. Her blood lust would spiral out of control, and not even Burnett would be able to control her. Her true self would be unleashed.
"I feel you are not ready to see me like that. You need to understand how powerful I can be, then I may show you, Lily." Lady replied. She laid down on the cold stone floor. The fire inside her quickly warmed up the cool floor.
"Come on, you two need your exercise, and there is a place you two may find to be more comfortable that I know." Lady gently beckoned them to climb onto her back. The two children grabbed their bags, and climbed onto her back. She noticed Lily had picked up some gold while she was on her way up. As much as she wanted to snarl at her for it, Lily, and Patch needed money for supplies if needed. She stood up, and slithered out of the cave. The sun was warm against her metal scales like hot coals. It was an excellent day for flying, but she couldn't be in this form in broad daylight outside the quarry. It would raise the alarm for the diesels. Lady pushed off the cliff side. The narrow gauge engines grew excited at the sight of her, and greeted her. Lady would have returned the greeting with a roar, but it would most likely deafen the two humans that were on board. She glided down to land, and landed on the tracks. Her thick muscles absorbed the impact. The ground cracked under the force of the impact. It could easily be fixed.
Lady laid down to let the humans climb off her back, before she transformed into her true self. She noticed a fuse box siting next to the foreman's office, and she couldn't resist. Lady approached it, and looked it over to find the best angle to reach it. Lady opened her powerful jaws, and sank her canines into the thin steel shell that protected the fuses.
"Lady!" Lily was alarmed when Lady sank her teeth into the fuse box, but to her surprise, Lady was unharmed. Instead, Lady started to absorb the electricity. The lights in the office flickered, and nearly went out, but Lady was careful not to cause a blackout for the whole quarry. After what seemed minutes, Lady released the fuse box. The shell was destroyed, but the fuses were still in tact. She was able to put enough pressure on the fuse box to get past the thin sheet of metal surrounding it without damaging the fuses. That would have taken a great deal of self control.
"Why did you do that, Lady?" Lily had never seen Lady do this before. Burnett had placed the fuse box from Lady's shed out of Lady's reach, and now she knew why. Lady would absorb the electricity, and cause a blackout for the whole town.
"I need energy to fuel my magic. Electricity is just raw energy, and a fuse box is like an all-one-can-eat buffet. I can absorb as much energy as I want. I just have to be careful not to cause a blackout." Lady chuckled. She must have been the cause of several blackouts before. That explained quite a bit. Especially the one when the power was out for almost a week. That was miserable, but Burnett spent quite a bit of time at Lady's shed. She thought there was a generator there, but he came back empty handed. He must have been scolding her for causing the blackout.
"So, are you good now?" Patch asked.
"Yes, for now, I'll have to absorb more energy later on. Come on, we need to hurry before the diesels start moving around." Lady gently urged them to climb into her cab. The diesels needed to warm up in the sun before they could be able to move quickly. They still had time to reach their destination without being spotted.
Back in Shining Time, Burnett desperately called the police. Lily had gone missing. She wouldn't leave out of the blue like this. There was one place he didn't look: Lady's shed. Hopefully, Lady just called for her, or Lily was just visiting Lady. When he looked inside the shed, he was shocked to see Lady was gone. That meant only one thing. Lily took Lady to Sodor. Lily was in grave danger. If a diesel found out she was Lady's Rider... he shuddered at the thought. He ran though the tunnel that led to the magic railroad, praying Lily, and Lady were somewhere safe.
Please be safe... Please be safe.. Burnett prayed.
A/N: So there you have it, magical engines can absorb electricity if no other energy source is available, and Lady has caused multiple blackouts in Shinning Time, which led to an earful from Burnett. The next chapter is already in the works, but until then, see ya later!