Shale let that sink in. She'd been holding this back for a while, not wanting to scare them off, but she wasn't lying. To her, it was the one and only truth in her world. It was her truth. It was a matter of time they learned. Though Shale could tell that none of the others enjoyed learning this, their expressions ranged from shock, sadness, anger and in Skarloey case, quiet contemplation. They were all quiet as Shale began repacking the remaining snacks. She counted. Less than half had been eaten but she'd have to find more since this wouldn't last more than another day, maybe more if Shale skipped a meal. She definitely didn't feel like going back into the town after the incident with those twins and that stray hooker.

'The world ain't slowin' down for ya, kid. Ain't gonna stop ta pull ya up either, not people like us. Just something we gotta live with.'

She had to break the silence eventuality. Suddenly, she broke out in a string of hard coughs that left her shaking for a moment. Shale cleared her throat and brushed a hand back against her forehead and found it oddly damp. "So, yea. My old base's got some useful stuff there, so any of you blokes wanna help me out?"

They looked to each other. She noticed Rusty hesitate, but he sat up eventually. "Here, I'm willing to assist."

"Kay." Shale sat up, clearing his throat again. This cough came out of nowhere, why now? "Thanks, any other volunteers?"

The engines looked to each other again. Shale didn't expect any of them to sit up again so she just set of. "Whatever. It ain't much, can't be that hard." Though the fact that everything was up in a tree would indeed make things harder. But she'd manage, she always had.

"Shale!" She turned to see, no surprise, Edward running up behind her. "May... May I also assist? I'm sure I could help load cargo. And I would like to see your old shed."

She smiled, glad to see Edward was still willing to follow along. "Sure Eddie, still feeling alright?"

He simply nodded but the smile remained. She saluted of to the others. "So, yea. We'll be back in bout an hour. Give or take." And with that, she led the others back to her old home.

Shale admitted that she was only vaguely sure as to where it was. Though it wasn't so hard to find if you bothered to look up. Shale followed the tracks back to the old narrow gauge shed. She rubbed at her elbow subconsciously, she could still remember falling into their. Come to think of it, wasn't that old laboratory close by? Shale made a mental note of that along with remembering to keep Edward away from there. Shale walked around the edge of the valley and broke through the brush, ignoring the stiff branches smacking against her.

She looked down to see a faded dirt path layered with trampled leaves and foliage. The laboratory was behind her so she made sure to set forward, occasionally looking up to watch for any sign of her platform hanging within the trees. The tree it hung from was a pine, oddly sturdy, and she had built it up rather high.

As it came into view, Shale could see the large shadow it cast onto the ground and once she looked up there it was. "So, Rusty was it? Do you mind waiting down here? I'll go and collect everything up there."

The scruffy haired boys took a moment to a moment to squint up at the tree Shale pointed at. "Wait." Rusty realized. "Your going to climb that?!"

Shale had already turned to start climbing. "Yea? So?"

"Well I mean," he took another glance up the tree. "Isn't that dangerous? What if you fell?"

She rolled her eyes once she turned back to the trunk of the tree. "Nah, I've been doin' this for a year. Haven't died yet." She left out the part being the one time she did fall. A stray branch snapped and she didn't manage to grab onto another in time and despite landing on her feet she fell backwards and was left picking out fallen pine bark out of her jacket for weeks. But other than that, she'd never had any injuries. Nothing major at least.

She pulled herself up onto the closest branch and after getting a stable footing, grabbed the next branch and set her foot on the one below. Shale had a path among the branches and thus, never had much trouble. Each of the branches supported her weight which wasn't much to begin with. It didn't take much time for her to reach the first platform. Other than some stray droplets of water or a small puddle, everything looked the same. As if nothing had ever changed. She pulled herself up and walked around before taking a seat near the edge where the branches cleared enough to let the sky peak through. Shale was struck with sudden nostalgia, same patch of sky from the same morning she met Edward, same patch of sky where she spent her first night alone. She frowned and shook her head, she didn't think of herself as the sentimental type.

Off the top of her head, Shale knew the tarps that hung around adjacent trees were filled with spare jars of food, old news papers and books she had stolen, coils of rope, a folded square of hole-ridden fabric along with various odds and ends.

Unfortunately, Shale had no idea what held what. And after untying one of the tarp bags to check it's contents (some old dented pots with a rusted handle, why did she steal this?) she decided it would be better to keep everything a mystery and just load it down. Though not all the bags were tied to the same branch and Shale had to climb onto other branches just to untie some. All the while regretting why she chose a pine tree as her base.

She was in the middle of reaching for a particularly far our branch when the lower one supporting her foot snapped. Shale gave a low yelp of shock and struggled to get a good grip. She was left scrambling to grab onto another branch and catch her footing, thankfully not falling. She felt oddly short of breath and coughed several times again.

"Shale? Shale are you feeling alright?" She heard Edwards voice float up faintly. Her nails bit into the palms of her hands as she tried to curb the noise.

"Fi-" she took a moment to clear her throat again. "I'm fine. Just give me a sec, I'll get everything down." She pulled down the last bag before gathering them all into a small pile before tying each bag together again and slinging it over her shoulders as she began to descend.

She had to glance down occasionally to make sure her footing was solid but other than that, it wasn't as hard. Rusty looked up and reached to grab at the bags. "Here, Shale, here. Please, I can take this."

She looked down and noticed him reaching out. So she unslung the bags and Rusty managed to catch both. "Alright I'm gonna have to make a couple more trips. Maybe three or four, give or take. Sorry I'm keeping you two here, probably isn't the most exciting."

::::

Rusty watched as Shale began climbing back up again. He had a feeling that it'd take longer for Shale to gather everything given how she was still damaged.

He frowned slightly, feeling bad and wanting to do more. Though he doubted he'd be much help in climbing up the tree. He didn't trust himself to keep his balance, let alone know where to place his footing. But he looked up the tree to watch Shale scale it herself. Rusty noticed how Edward was watching as well, he felt himself wanting to comfort his friend if it helped to ease the concern of his face. Neither were aware that they shared the same thoughts surrounding what Shale had told them. Rusty hadn't expected to be shot down so quickly, granted, the idea was incredible far fetched but he did believe they had some sort of obligation to help. Be it big or small.

Edward had slumped against the trunk of the tree and slid to the ground. He brushed up a hand against the hair that had fallen against his face. Rusty crouched over and took a seat beside him. "Edward? Do you feel alright? What's wrong? Talk to me?"

He heard his friend sigh. "I'm sorry but... would it be alright if I said no?"

"That's valid, you don't need to talk if you don't want to." Rusty leaned against the tree. He just noticed the unique smell it gave of. He stepped up for a moment and plucked a small cluster of needles. They were long and thin, slightly waxy but very pointed at the tips.

He absently traced the needles and let his mind wander back to what Shale said. Rusty let the silence stretch on. Shale climbed down again and this time, Edward stepped up to catch the sacks.

Once she climbed back up, Rusty turned to Edward after a quick glance up into the tree. "Edward, why do you think Shale was discouraging our idea?"

"Hmm?"

"About our friends, the other engines and machines." Rusty explained. "I don't mean to speak ill behind her back but she does unfortunately have a point. Just because we don't have any resources or information doesn't mean we can't find it all yourself. Falcon had a point, we may be the only ones who can do anything. We should at least try."

Edward gave a weak smile. But his face was still turned down. "True, True. Though I've begun to wonder if there is anything of them left to find. And if their is, would they still remember us? Or would they fear us for our new bodies?"

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that." Rusty mumbled. "Though it is fairly obvious that we aren't completely human."

"Heh, true." Edward gave a faint laugh.

They were both broken when they heard another string of loud coughs. Edward immediately looked up to see Shale sitting on a branch a few feet above, coughing hard with two sets of bags slung over her shoulders. One of them slipped over but as Shale noticed and made a failed attempt to catch it. Thankfully both Rusty and Edward were roughly below where it fell and managed to catch both bags before they crashed.

"Shale? Shale, we can just come back at a later date." Edward pleaded. "You seem to be catching a, what do humans call it?"

"I think it's a cold." Said Rusty

"Yes, a cold. Anyways I doubt anyone else will take these anyways. We could always return later."

Shale silently berated herself but shook off their advice and set down the second bag. She began climbing again but was stopped when she felt someone grab at her heel.

"Shale, ple-"

Instinctively she kicked the hand off and began climbing again. Though she didn't look down to see Rusty had a hurt expression. He sunk back down against the tree while Shale grappled the last two bags and flung them over her shoulders. Though she had to pause and sit at the edge of her platform to catch her breath while restraining herself from coughing again. She gritted her teeth as she descended one last time, jumping down once she was a third of the way to the ground.

"Kay, thanks for catching these. Guess we're all carrying one." Shale adjusted the fabric slung over her shoulder and began walking again. The engines both looked to each other before copying Shales motions and followed her back. Her legs were sore from the climb and she felt a sharp pain forming around her rib cage but she just ignored it and kept walking.

"Shale?" Rusty stepped behind. Shales pace had begun to slow and both of them slowed their own. She noticed this but still tried to keep her speed with theirs. "Shale, how many times must we ask you to rest? We can take your load if you need to."

"Guys I'll ask for help when I need help." Shale said. "It's just a cough, nothing serious. It'll just go away in a day or two."

Rusty frowned. This girl was almost as stubborn as Falcon on a bad day, perhaps even Duncan. He did admire her persistence but it would be best for her in the long term if she did rest. But Shale managed to keep her pace for the rest of the walk.

:=====:

Once they got back to camp, Shale dumped the bags by the fireplace. She'd worked up a bad cough and felt a hard stitch in her side forming. All the while Rusty and Edward insisted on her resting. So she did, reluctantly taking a short nap within the cabin.

Meanwhile, some of the other engines had taken some of the books and gathered inside and sat in a circle as they read. Each of the engines were paired off, Skarloey with Renneas and Rusty with Duncan. They had set the books in the middle of their loose circle and would flip through each of the pages and occasionally would trade one book for another. They all read in relative silence, except for the occasional question as to what a word meant or a offhand comment.

Though Duncan suddenly flipped his book shut and threw it down at the pile, causing them to scatter. Rusty went to gather everything while Skarloey stood up to scold him.

"Duncan, at least try to be gentle with these. These books aren't ours and we have to return them eventually." He stated.

"Something's wrong, isn't it Duncan?" Renneas closed his own atlas, bookmarked with a fallen leaf. "It's about Shale, isn't it."

Each of them went quiet again. Duncan simply folded his arms and leaned against the bench. "Yea, that's it. It all her talk 'bout being careful 'nd stayin' hidden. No way are we gonna stand and take everything those damned human throw at us while they take everything. It ain't fair."

"Not saying I don't agree-" Rusty started

"So what?" Duncan yelled. "We're just gonna sit on our flabby arses while the rest of our friends are turned to scrap?"

"Duncan." Skarloey stood up and grabbed at his arm. "Restrain yourself. Rusty wasn't even finished speaking yet."

The volatile engine yanged his arm out and sat on the bench. Arms still crossed but he made a sharp 'go on' motion with his head.

Rusty cleared his throat before he continued. "What I meant to say is that while I do agree, we don't know where to start. Finding Edward was a rather large stroke of luck for us and Shale. We need a place to start searching, somewhere they may be containing the others."

"That's easy." Duncan butted in again. "Their probably keeping 'em close to where we used to work. They wanted us to keep doin' what we did so we should start there."

Rusty didn't enjoy the interruption but continued. "True, but we don't have any exact locations. We'll need to find some sort of map. And even if we do, if they're still engines, where would we hide them? This is what we should ask before we go through with our plan."

Skarloey and Renneas glanced at each other before the former stepped up. "I am proud of how meticulously you've thought this through. Though what about Shale? I doubt she would agree with this plan."

This time, both Rusty and Suncan raised an eyebrow. "And you don't?" Rusty asked quizzically.

"No, of course I want to help our friends." Skarloey claimed. "It's just… I don't know how Shale would react to us scheming behind her back." A part of him was also just generally concerned for her. She was so young to be on her own, he didn't believe it was healthy. Granted he had no bases for that assumption but he still didn't like the idea of her raging of.

"Bah." Duncan waved a hand dismissively. "If it comes down to it we could probably just give her the slip."

"But what about Edward?" Rusty asked.

"Oh." Duncan was suddenly very interested in the grain of the floorboards.

"Edward does seem to be somewhat attached to Shale. I don't know if he'd be willing to split away from her."

"But we're his friends to, wouldn't he wanna go with us?"

"We are his friends, Duncan." Skarloey said. "But so is Shale."