So...Arctica is kind of...Redo of a story that was inspired by something that happened in my neighborhood, one week when I was housesitting while my folks were on vacation while taking an evening walk around my neighborhood I saw three police cars around a certain house before this walk I had just woken up from a long nap so I asked what happened, the officers answered that someone had died in that house, later I asked one of the neighbors and they told me it was a friend of the family a young woman who was alone in the house when she died...Anyway I made a story about a Mizzer Humanimal an Arctic Wolf named Jenny...I got rid of that story because I later regretted writing a story even if it was only inspired by the event and didn't bare any resemblense to the actual event other than the main character was a young woman like the person in question...I had a feeling using a neighbor's tradgedy like that might result in...Bad luck...Putting it mildly but the ideas I made in that story like a family of wolves being perfume tycoons I kept in my head
Arctica stopped her story and turned to look at Don (At this point the two Anthro Animals had found another large and twisting tree to take shelter in for the night) Don was scowling and his strong arms folded across his plastroned chest.
"This is the parts I said the night before were too painful..." Arctica said ruefully "You...Probobly think I'm the monster I look like now right?"
"Well..." Don said Arctica could hear there was the slightest bit of testiness in his voice, he was working to keep his emotions under control after what he had just heard "...Obviously I don't like what I've just heard...But I'll wait...I reserve judgement until I hear the end of the tale."
That alone made Arctica feel slightly better, he was tough but he was fair, Arctica knew too many of Mizzer's Humanimals judged on frivolous things like apperence and even the Native Slave Humanimals probobly would not have waited until the end of the story before they passed judgement."
"It was at that moment..." Arctica said "...That I at the very least realized what deep trouble I was in...Myrtle now had nothing her holding her back from telling all the other slaves I was planning to tattle on them and when they also saw I had just wounded a fellow Slave , that would give them double reason to kill me for being a traitor! I was in deep...Droppings and I knew it..."
FLASHBACK
Arctica hadn't yet realized her the slight growth in her claws and fangs...She only realized what she had just done and in fear for her life, began to panic...She ran down the opposite flight of stairs Myrtle had just went down...As she ran down Arctica heard a familiar sound she had heard many times on Mizzer but realized she had never heard when she came to Planet Viola Strierra...The sound of a train whistle!
Coming to the very end of the stairs she suddenly found herself in an underground train station! She was baffled as she was pretty sure she had been to this part of the underground many times before and never saw this train station before...She didn't realize that these were magic fairy trains and you only find them when you need to find them...
For a moment she simply gazed doumbfounded, she was beginning to get the inkling that she had seen no trains on this Wrangler Planet because Wranglers had no need for trains, most of the humans here traveled by flying cars, sometimes they would drive their cars on the ground if they driving for pleasure and not because they had to go somewhere.
Then Arctica stopped when she came to a train that was colored red white and blue, the colors of the American flag (All right the 'white' part in the middle was actually silver the train was a silver train painted with red and white stripes, but Arctica was able to infer the lack of color was meant to imply the white of the American flag) Arctica realized now as did most Mizzer Humanimals, that Mizzer was supposed to be the continuation of America after humanity at large decided to return to feudalism after the Great Dying with the Humanimals as the new Serf Class and they reason they called themselves 'Mizzer' as opposed to something like 'New America' was not to arouse suspition fat lot of good all that did in the end!
Anyway as she was admiring this train that reminded her of home, two creatures stepped out of the train, one was a tall Polar Bear wearing a train conductor's uniform and the other was a cub wearing a T-shirt and backwards baseball cap and carrying a skateboard.
Of course Arctica naturally assumed these two bears were Humanimals because they were bipedial animals wearing clothes...But if she had looked closely she would have noticed both bears were glowing in a way that Humanimals don't
"Young Wolf-Girl." The Conductor Bear said "You are in a great deal of trouble..." He didn't sound angry, he said it like he was just telling her the facts...Arctica trembled
"You have not only injured a fellow Humanimal..." The Conductor Bear said "...But when the Humanimal Elders find out what you were planning...They will kill you...Tear you to pieces with claws and fangs...They will not have mercy on you because you're a teenager, for most Slave Humanimals at 14 you are an adult in Humanimal Society."
"Are you going to kill me?" Arctica could barely squeak out
"No." The Conductor said "Because I'm not a Humanimal."
"What?!" Arctica obviously because of the sheltered upbringing of the Mizzer Humanimals they had come to believe that Humanimal...Which is short for 'Humanoid Animal' meant any sapient Anthropomorphic Animals because that was the only kind of Anthro Animal they ever saw, they had no reason to realize they were merely a fancy 'make' of Anthro Animal kind of like every Mercedes Benz is a car but not every car is a Mercedes Benz.
"How can you not be a Humanimal?" Arctica asked
"You are soon to learn that Humanimals are not the only animal people in existance." The Bear Conductor said "I am much older than every Humanimal...Your race has only been around for five thousand years."
Arctica's jaw dropped "How old are you?"
"That's enough about me." The Bear Conductor said "The reason you're here is because you can no longer stay among your own people after what you've just done, no one ever comes to this magic train station unless they need to find it...I am a Conductor of the Twilight Express, a train that takes people to other dimenstions, other universes...My Nephew Tony...(He lay his giant furry hand on the cubs head) helps me by keeping the train free of gremlins.
Gremlins, Arctica vaugley remembered watching cartoons where gremlins were like tiny little goblins that caused accidents.
"I am doing you a favor." The Conductor said "I will take you to another universe to spare you your near certain death sentence."
"Oh thank you! Thank you Sir!" Arctica got on her hands all fours and bowed protrating herself before this seemingly most merciful bear, if she hadn't been so desperate she would have immediately asked 'What's the catch?' but as she was beginning to turn into a monster another unfortunate drawback is she was becoming a little stupid.
The Cub Tony led her onto a car and to a nice plush seat, she was the only passenger on this train.
The train slowly began to pull out of the station into a deep dark tunnel.
"So...Uh..." Tony said "Any idea where you'd like to go?" Knowing full well what her answer was be
Arctica could only think about how much she wanted to return to Mizzer a place with a culture like 20th century Earth...
"Take me to a place like Mizzer..." She said drowzily before her elelids closed and she succumbed to sleep...As she did her claws and fangs grew even longer
Tony winked at his uncle, it was clear from the start they had plans for Arctica...
So here we come to the thing that inspired this story, the USA Network's Cartoon Express from the 80s to the Early 90s with in the 90s the 80s Ninja Turtles were featured in the bumpers as passengers on the Titular Train, it was these bumpers in the 90s that fetured the host Polar Bears the Adult Driver of the Train whose name I'm still not sure of think because I haven't been listening to the clips well enough and the Steretypically 90s Cool Kid who I'm pretty sure is named Tony whose job seems to be to antogonize a green catlike creature I'm pretty sure is meant to be a gremlin, but anyway in my interprtation these Bears are Fairy Creatures themselves in Native American Folklore Bears are for obvious reasons powerful characters in the stories often leaders of the animals or simply authority figures who dole out punishments to those who misbehave and obviously Arctica knows on a primal level a single wolf is no match for a polar bear, also fairies being tricksters who reward or punish mortals is also a thing in European Folklore most commonly in French Fairy Tales like Diamonds and Toads
