Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #11

Prompt: At one point in their lives, everyone has had to or will have to make a decision that changes the course of their lives forever. What lead them to make the decision and what happened after?

Restrictions: Can be multiple chapters or a one-shot. Word limit for the story is 1500-5000 times the number of chapters, eg. a three chapter story would have a limit of 4500-15000 words. Main character(s) can be either engine or human, OC or canon, and must feature at least one other character in a speaking role, including both human and engine canons. Story should have a clear build up to the decision and a little bit about how it affected the character(s).

Word Count: 6,186 Total, 3,277 in Part 1 and 2,909 in Part 2

Characters Used: Peirce, Lizable, Danielle, Clarabelle, Genevieve (Genny), Bear, Wolf, Rest of the Alaskan Siblings, Icicle, Glacier, The Canadian Engine (unnamed), Peirce's workmates, Durant

Note: Durant belongs to Saberius Prime while other named characters are my OCs.

Along the southern coast of Alaska, in among the picturesque countryside, brand new rail line stood out from the thawing wilds around it and stretched on and on for as far as the eye could see, reaching all the way over to the port in Anchorage in fact. All was still and peaceful in the area, trees stood tall and proud while small animals lazed at their roots. That was until an engine flashed by at line speed of course, towing what was considerably a small train of freight behind him, anything from wood timbers to snowmobiles to food supplies, and needless to say he didn't look especially impressed by anything around him. He surveyed his surroundings with a closed, flat expression even though he was a little curious. He was the first of his railway to come down the new and very long extension after all.
Barely half way down the new line, that had to curve around the preserved forests, the engine was surprised to start seeing life in the middle of nowhere, small huts popping up out of the wilderness and dotted around in small hamlets or tiny villages, even though he knew he wasn't near the road connection quite yet. When the line curved around a hill, he was even more surprised to find a little station up ahead, but infinitely annoyed when his crew brought him to a stop there. Like the line, it was brand new and seemingly nothing more than an interchange, a simple two sided platform with a modest brick building, a huge yard and a large water tower and coal store, although the engine didn't need any of it yet. The line on the other side seemed to wind quickly away from the station and disappeared rapidly up into the mountains through a narrow pass. Not that he could see any other engines here.
""Dei Lucrii". How pun-ny." The engine heard his driver muse, glancing over to the name sign that was on the side of the building.
"Why is it punny?" The engine asked, clearly desperate to leave but his crew had taken to looking around.
"The gods of profit in Roman times." His driver explained.
"Rightttttt." The engine replied with a raised eyebrow, drawing out his word as his mood continued to slip, wheeshing steam out of his sides in irritation as his crew wandered further away.
He wouldn't be left in peace long however as there was soon a whistle sounding as an another steam engine came rolling down the pass at quite a speed, a tender engine like him but painted in black with yellow and golden details, despite what was rather obviously a pair of coaches behind her having lilac on them. She rattled into the other side of the platform almost gracefully, coming to a rather sudden stop but it was like water off a duck's back to her. His crew had wandered far away now, so the engine was stuck.
"Hi!" She chirped, smiling brightly at him. "I'm Danielle."
"Peirce." The engine replied, physically wincing away from her cheeriness, but she didn't seem to notice.
"Are you from the other railroad? The one that goes from the border to Anchorage?" She asked.
"Sure am. I didn't know there were other railroads here."
Danielle giggled at him, which only made Peirce release steam in a huff.
"We've been here for years now." She explained. "We cover all the off-gridders in the mountains."
"Sounds like a lot of work for one engine."
"No, silly, there's twelve of us." Danielle replied, giggling again which made Peirce more embarrassed than anything else. "My twin sister is coming down after me for some of your freight."
"Oh. So the coaches aren't yours I take it." Peirce half stated, half questioned, glancing back at them while they chattered amongst themselves.
"No, they're one of my sister's too. She's in the works being repaired."
Peirce had been about to ask something else to continue the small talk, but he ended up looking back over at the pass as another engine came down, whistling long and loud with a tone extremely similar to Danielle's. She even looked almost exactly the same, only being hot pink where Danielle was yellow and towing some trucks of ore from the mountains this time, enough to make Peirce's crew finally return. The new engine went straight past the platform and into the yard to begin shunting, making Danielle roll her eyes.
"That's my twin sister, Clarabelle." Danielle told Peirce before she spoke louder, calling over to her sister. "Clarabelle, come meet Peirce. He's from the border railroad."
"Hmm?" Clarabelle finally looked over from what she was doing, her eyes landing on Peirce, looking the dark green and white engine up and down a few times before grinning. "Well, hello there handsome."
"Oh god." Peirce felt himself physically wince away from Clarabelle as she rolled over to the platform and he heard his crew snickering in his cab. He had no idea how to deal with the flirting, having worked with all male engines at least on his current line, and so decided to pretend that it just wasn't happening.
"Um, I have some freight here for you apparently, I don't know which it is." He told Clarabelle.
"The snowmobiles and generators on the end. I'll get them so you can get going." She told him, immediately rolling over points before Peirce could protest.
"What are you doing?!" He spluttered as she went across the line in front of him, over the running line he had turned off of to get to the station and around to start breaking down his train to get what she needed at an alarming speed.
"Relax, this is normal around here." Clarabelle laughed from behind him. "It's not like there's anyone coming after you or anything."
"Not that I know of!" He protested, pulling a strange face out of discomfort.
"Then quit worrying!" She laughed, pushing the handful of flatbeds she wanted around to the yard and then returning to put her trucks of ore onto the back of his train. Peirce only grew more horrified when he realised all of the crews were not only going with this but were acting like it was nothing.
Danielle cast Peirce a sympathetic glance when Clarabelle returned to the yard and his train was ready to go.
"I promise the rest of us aren't quite this much to handle." Danielle said to him quietly. "You'll see for yourself soon enough I'm sure."
"Okayyyy." Peirce forced out a reply, very glad when the guard blew his whistle and he could get away from the twin sisters, leaving without even saying goodbye.

Peirce was glad to roll back into his shed that night, and even more glad to find only one other engine in there. He was awake and immediately started interacting with Peirce as soon as he got in, but Peirce didn't care in the slightest.
"How's the new line?" The other engine asked, a strange looking Canadian engine whose accent never dulled.
"Nice enough I suppose." Peirce verbally shrugged as his crew began to drop his fire. "Long and peaceful. Except for those mountain engines."
"Mountain engines?"
"Yeah, the ones that apparently serve a load of off-gridders and mines in the mountains. I only met two but they were crazy enough, god knows what happens on that railroad with twelve of them."
"The Kojak Benally guy." Peirce's fireman answered the Canadian engine's puzzled look, although it only made Peirce confused instead.
"He runs all the mines in the mountains. He's quite an entrepreneur." The Canadian engine added.
"If you admire him so much, you can take the freight down there instead then and I'll deal with the stuff along the border that I'm meant to." Peirce huffed, but his crew exchanged a look. "What?"
"You do know you have been assigned there permanently, right?" His driver prompted.
Peirce clearly pulled a face of some kind as everyone else around him started to laugh.
"You'll get used to them, Peirce." The other engine soothed. "And you'll only have to encounter any of them once each way."
"I think any further encounter will be enough to drain my sanity." Peirce grumbled.

Trips up and down that line came and went, much to Peirce's continued disappointment, and the longer he was out, the more of the mountain engines he met. As well as the twins Clarabelle and Danielle, there was their older brothers Ace and Bertram who were like jocky chalk and nerdy cheese, and their mass of younger siblings; calculated Edrick, motherly Fallon, aggressive Genevieve, quiet Harlon, imaginative Irenia and the younger set of twins Jacques and Ken whom Peirce had met once and found their pranking ways worse than Clarabelle's flirting. However, until one particular day, he was yet to meet the engine who had lilac stripes that matched the coaches that Danielle brought down that day, since Genevieve's coaches had bright purple stripes like she did.
On that day, on his way back to the Canada border from Anchorage, Peirce found himself sat in the platform at Dei Lucrii, in the rain no less, waiting for a train to come down to pick up some crew. Peirce could see a plume of steam making it's way down towards him, running late of course, and he could only guess who it was even if none of the options especially pleased him. However, the whistle that came roaring down to him was just a little higher than any of the others, and curiosity overtook his weariness.
The engine that screeched to a halt with the coaches Danielle brought down when he first met her did indeed have lilac stripes just like them but was also the smallest of all of the engines on that railroad, and also currently red in the face and breathless from the rush.
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" The engine gasped, the handful of crew members she had brought down soon transferring to Peirce's train. "I came as fast as I could, but there's mud slides everywhere. I hope you didn't have to wait long."
Silence fell for the moment it took Peirce to realise he was staring at the smaller engine, which only made both of them turn red and redder respectively.
"N-No, no, it's fine, these things happen." Peirce replied with a small laugh.
"You're Peirce, aren't you? Everyone has been talking about you." She continued, although quickly added. "W-We don't know any other engines around here. It's quite exciting."
"I am. I guess you're Lizable, your siblings talk about you plenty too." Peirce lied a little on that last part, he had managed to get a glance at her nameplates as well.
"We're all close on our railroad." Lizable blushed deeply with a shy smile. "What's your railroad like? They said you had workmates, not siblings."
Peirce felt himself stiffen a little at the question. All the engines on the mountain line spoke so fondly of each other, but try as he might, he just couldn't see the majority of the other engines on his railroad in the same light.
"They are right. I don't have any siblings on mine." He answered after a moment, when Lizable started to look particularly concerned. "We're all from different places, our owner brought us together just for his railroad."
"Do you not get on with them?" She asked.
However, Peirce didn't get to answer that one as his driver interrupted with a rather pointed cough.
"Sorry, I won't keep you any longer." Lizable apologised gently. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow?" Peirce questioned as his crew climbed into his cab.
"This is my regular train now." She explained with a shy but rather proud smile.
"Tomorrow then." Peirce agreed, before whistling and setting off back towards the border.

Peirce found himself in a good mood when he rolled back into his shed that night, finding only the Canadian engine there just as it had been when he first went down that line, and he was quick to pick up the incoming engine's mood easily.
"What's up with you? You're never this jolly." He questioned as Peirce reversed into place beside him.
"Nothing is up. Just had a good day." Peirce answered.
"Went a day without seeing those mountain engines did you?"
"No. He met another one of them." His driver answered. "He gets on with this one."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, she was nice. And rather normal too, in her own way." Peirce answered, finding himself smiling to himself as he thought about the lilac striped engine.
"So, it's a she, huh?" The Canadian engine pushed further, only for Peirce to shut down with a scowl.
"All I'm saying is that she's the least crazy of the lot." Peirce grumbled. "It'll make the route a lot easier if she's all I have to deal with at Dei Lucrii."
Nothing more was said verbally, but the Canadian engine and Peirce's crew exchanged a knowing look as they prepared him for the night.

Over the weeks that followed, with one season rolling into the next, Peirce did indeed frequently meet Lizable at Dei Lucrii, most days in fact, and often found himself disappointed when he was met by Genevieve or one of the others instead, which certainly didn't help any impression the two had of each other. Even when the rains started coming in at an odd time of the year and threatened to wash away parts of his route, it didn't dampen Peirce's enthusiasm to go down the line.
One night, the rain was particularly heavy, leaving Peirce stuck at Anchorage for hours longer than he should have been and left him to run back home in the middle of the night with nothing but a head lamp and the rails for guidance. At least, that's what he thought until he approached Dei Lucrii and saw another light, too bright to just be a station lamp and too high off the ground to be a fire or a discarded hand lamp. He silently wished as he slowed to a stop at the station and found himself beaming as he rolled in.
"Lizable!" He smiled as he stopped beside her. Peirce could barely pick her out due to her black paint, but the smaller engine was sat in the yard with her head lamp shining brightly in front of her, her two coaches sat on the opposite side of her and the only line further away from his own running line.
"Shh!" Lizable was quick to try and get him to be quiet. "I've only just got them to sleep."
Peirce glanced around her to see that her two coaches, Wolf and Bear, were indeed asleep but didn't seem to stir when the two engines started to talk.
"What are you doing out at this time of night?" Lizable continued after a moment.
"Ship got delayed in Anchorage because of the rough waters. Had to wait for it, it's got some parts for the others." Peirce explained quickly. "What about you?"
"The pass collapsed with the rain. I couldn't get going in time to try and make it through." Lizable sighed, looking at the mentioned pass but it was too dark to see that far.
"What about your crew?"
"They went up the mountain to try and get help."
"They left you here alone?! In the dark?!" Peirce questioned, although Lizable just shrugged it off.
"There wasn't much else they could do. They left a little while ago, they should have alerted the others by now."
Even in the dark, Lizable was clearly able to see the face that Peirce just pulled as she tried to soothe him, but thankfully Peirce's crew was having none of it either, climbing down from his cab to check the engine over.
"You're freezing!" Peirce's driver protested, but Lizable just looked sheepish. "They shouldn't have left you like this! On your own on a rail line near hungry wildlife and who knows who else!"
"I-I'm fine!" Lizable continued to protest. "I've got Bear and Wolf here and you can't stay here for the night."
"She isn't wrong. They need the parts." Peirce's fireman argued gently, although his driver was soon arguing again.
Peirce found himself torn. The others did need the parts, quite desperately in some cases, but he also felt extremely drawn to the possibility of staying with Lizable for the night. He thought as the others argued, trying to find a reason to stay, to argue that he couldn't get home either as his desperation to stay only grew. He glanced down into the light from their head lamps, but saw only stones, mud and rails, his line and Lizable's line and the points that connected them. A plan formed within seconds, Peirce suddenly jerking back over the points he had just come over in order to talk to Lizable and heard the satisfying sound of truck wheels crunching on ballast.
"Peirce!" All three of them confronted him at the same time.
"I thought I saw something in the light! It went towards the station!" Peirce lied. Even though his fireman gave him a suspicious look, Peirce's crew soon grabbed the torches and went to investigate the station.
"Why did you do that?" Lizable hissed to him. "Your workmates need those parts!"
"They can wait until morning." Peirce replied gently. "And I'd rather spend the night here anyway. With you."
Even in the dim light, Peirce could see Lizable turning bright red and slipping into a stunned silence. It didn't last long as his crew soon returned and shone bright torch light deliberately into their faces.
"So, when are you two getting together, huh?" His driver asked, looking initially irritated but sharing a smirk with his fireman when both of the engines spluttered in surprise. "Come on, everyone on our railroad knows it and you're just about as good as hiding it." He added, referring to Peirce and Lizable in turn.
"But we're from different railroads!" Peirce protested.
"So? My wife and I are from different countries." His fireman replied. "I spend most of the day out here with you all and she spends most of the day sewing clothes for other people."
"How do you cope being away from her for so long?" Lizable asked with a look of sympathy.
"We both have little things that one of us gave the other. Like my watch." He answered, flashing his watch to the two engines. It seemed simple enough, but well loved with engraving on the leather straps that Peirce couldn't make out.
"We're engines. We don't have things to give each other, unless you count freight or coal." Peirce answered.
"Good job I told my wife about you two then." He retorted, producing two small ribbons from his bag, one in Peirce's dark green and another in Lizable's lilac. He handed the dark green one to the driver and began climbing on Peirce's front, tying the lilac ribbon in a neat bow around his lamp holder, the fireman doing the same to Lizable with the dark green ribbon. Silence fell again, Peirce's crew disappearing behind him to uncouple the engine from the now derailed train while the two engines gazed softly at each other in an affectionate, unspoken admission.
Nothing needed to be said as Peirce rolled himself into the line next to Lizable, his crew making camp in his cab and the engine wheeshing a little steam at her as he came to a stop in the peaceful night, their head lamps continuing to shine out into the darkness like lights from lighthouses.