IT'S BACK! I have finally updated this story! Super sorry it took so long. For those who don't know, Freak was put into a mental hospital. So I have been writing alone with some additional outside help from authors of this site. I own nothing, but my OCs. On to the chapter.

Oh! And before I forget, check out the poll I have up and vote. It's for this story. If you don't vote, I will not continue.

Chapter Eight

~Luke~

In the early hours of morning, Luke stared up at the ceiling thinking about that horrible dream he had that prevented him from going back to sleep. It felt so real and vivid, like he actually felt that pain. Luke shook his head. It was just a dream. But seeing Michael Lockwood in that dream stirred up some old memories he hadn't thought of in a while.

He smiled a bit at himself, then sighed.

Meanwhile, Mark was snoring softly and drooling slightly. His ear twitched, then his leg, mumbling in his sleep a bit. His ear twitched more, a sound filling it. Alert, his eyes snapped open. The creature bolted up, listening and then sniffing the air. A panicked expression crossed his face and he leapt from the hammock to a small hole in his 'fortress'. Peaking through, his eyes widen at the sight of the conductor entering through the door with a small, black bundle of fur with a leash around its neck. A Scottish terrier. A dog.

"Oh no." Mark whimpered.

Luke was so deep in thought that he yelped in surprise when Mark jumped onto his chest. His jerking movements caused the trunk which he was sleeping in to tip sideways a bit. "Wha-?" Mark quickly slapped his paws over Luke's mouth.

"Shhhh! They'll hear you," Mark whispered so low that Luke almost didn't hear him. The teen frowned and sat up, picking the marten up by the scruff of his neck above his scarf.

"Who?"

Both swirled their heads around when they heard the faint sound of a man talking. Luke dropped Mark, who landed nimbly on the chest's side. He looked back at the critter.
"Who's that?"

"It's Donald Duck!" Mark whispered harshly, grabbing Luke's shirt collar. "The conductor, who else! And he has a dog with him! If they find me, or you, we'll both be kicked off this train!"

"They don't like hobos, then?" Luke sat up, Mark scurrying onto his shoulder. "They wouldn't just throw us off while we were still moving, right?"

The critter pointed a clawed appendage at his face. "For humans, no. But for little guys like me," then his face was in Luke's, grabbing the sides of it, "YES!"

Muffled, the dog barked from the other side scaring the marten so that he froze. Turning his head left to right, Mark leaped off Luke's shoulder and started gathering stuff into a mini-sack. As he scampered around in a silent panic, the creature spoke in a low voice. "You have to hide me! If that dog catches my scent, I'm dead meat. I can't get kick off. Not again. It's only fair that you help me since I helped you."

"You haven't helped me," Luke said simply.

"Hey, I'm helpin' you by finding your family, aren't I? So the least you can do is hide me in your bag and lock yourself into that chest. Don't get caught while you're at it." With that, he crawled up into Luke's bag and zipped the flap closed.

Luke just stood there for a second before he went to hide, but not in the chest. There was no way he could fit in that small place. He was cramped up enough just by sleeping in it. No, he'd just sneaked out the back compartment door and wait out there untill the conductor was gone. He carefully moved around the cargo, the conductor's back to him. Just as his hand grasped the handle, he turned to see that the dog started barking frantically and tugged at his leash, trying to charge at the intruder. To make matters worse, the conductor also spotted him. "Hey! You there! Who are you? You're not authorized to be here!"

Acting quickly and on the thrill of just getting caught, he yanked the door open and stepped into the open night air, wind blasting into his face. After shutting it quickly, Luke flattened himself against the door and he looked down. The tracks blurred below him as the train speed along them, metal clunking and churning in motion. Gulping, his right hand patted around until it gripped a hold of a metal bar which belonged to a built-in ladder. He hopped onto it and climbed up onto the roof.

Meanwhile, the conductor swung opened the door and rushed into the other car compartment with the dog in his arm, not noticing the foot that disappeared over the roof.

Luke latched himself as tightly as he could to the roof, gripping the metal safety bar until his knuckles turned white. Air rushed past him like a giant fan in a small place, stinging his eyes to the point he could barely keep them open. Immobilized to the spot, Luke lost track of time until he heard something behind him unzipped. "Why aren't we in the chest and inside the cargo cart?" Mark yelled, his claws clinging into the fabric.

"Yeah, the conductor saw me, so I ran up here," Luke hastily explained, starting to feel vertigo creeping in.

"What!" Mark shrieked, "Do you know what you just did? Now they'll be searching the whole train for you. Which means we gotta split up."

"How would that help?"

"I won't get caught with you and I get to stay on the train."

Luke stared at the furry creature with his mouth hanging open as he climbed over his shoulder and started to carefully make his way over the roof. Then words spewed out of his mouth in a rush that made Mark stop and look back. "You're just gonna leave me here! You can't just do that!"

Mark just waved him off, gesturing that Luke should climb back down the ladder. "Just go back into the cargo cart! If the conductor still finds you, at least they'll wait until the next stop to throw you off! Me, I won't be so lucky! Tell you what, if you're not caught I'll come back! But if you value your life, get off the roof!" With that, he started to go again.

Luke, not knowing what he was doing, started to follow him. He crawled along the cool roof, his hands clammy. It was like moving across a frozen lake that was speeding past the ground, the risk of falling making his heart pound crazy. He only got a few inches covered before a voice called out, lost to the roaring of the engine and wind. Then it called out louder.

"STOP!"

Luke turned back to see another conductor, this one a bit bigger than the first one and red in the face, coming up from the ladder.

'Guess dog guy called for backup to check the roofs or something.'

Immobilized to the spot, Luke watched as the guy steady himself on the roof, preparing to go after the stowaway, when he stopped. Fear and shock crawled across his features and he scampered back, hurriedly climbing down the ladder. Luke quirked an eyebrow, confused by the sudden behavior of the conductor. Then he yelled out in surprise as something latched its arms and legs and tail around his neck. "Mark?" Luke spoke out loud, looking down at the trembling creature. "What's wrong?"

Mark pointed a single clawed finger skyward. "That."

Luke gazed upward and gasped. Flapping through the puffy smoke from the train's engine, was a giant beast that somewhat resembled a black and purple scaled dragon.

"What is that?"

"The gwythaint. One of the Horned King's pets," Mark whimpered, hiding himself into the boy's shirt with his head poking out. "And it happens to have a taste for little guys like me!"

The gwythaint dove down and swooped at them, claws extended. Luke rolled out of the way, the talons tearing through the roof instead. But that movement proved to be fatal as he started to slide off the side. Crying out, his hands fumble around to grab onto something. His hands gripped the edge of the roof as his body went over, hanging on for dear life. Remember when Mufasa was clinging to that cliff with trampling wildebeests below him? That's exactly what Luke was feeling as he glanced down at the rushing ground, knowing instantly that if he let go the chances of survival were slim. He tried to get a foothold, but it was in vain as his feet keep slipping off the side. Mark was digging his claws into Luke's skin at the back of his neck, freaking out and screaming in terror. "I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I don't wanna die!"

Luke's life flashed before his eyes in a rushing blur like the train, his clammy hands were losing their grip on the tin rail, his ears were filled with the pounding of his heart and Mark's screams and breathing was growing difficult as the little fur ball on his back was squeezing his thin arms around Luke's neck for dear life. Despite sweating like crazy, he felt an icy chill inside him like snow was blowing through his blood. It all felt like his dream, that dream where everything just changed so quickly to being bad, where he saw his father changed into some kind of monster. It made him feel like time reversed him away from being an athletic teenager back to a scared little kid who just wants his father to hug him and say that everything will be all right. But it wasn't going to happen. As the gwythaint dove towards him, a shrieking cry emitted from its mouth that sounded like nails scratching a chalkboard. Luke squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the claws that would soon enclose around his forearms and carried him away to who knows where.

He waited. And waited. Then Mark cursed.

Luke opened his eyes to see Mark staring at him with his jaw wide open, shock and disbelief in his eyes. Furrowing his eyebrows together, Luke glanced over his shoulder to see... that the Gwythaint was fleeing. Wait, what?

It was flying away to the place where it came from, crying out in terror. The thing that was trying to snatch up Luke had burn marks searing its flesh. Soon it was a fleck on the horizon before disappearing completely.

Luke blinked. What just happen?

Then he saw blue light faintly emitting from his hands.

"AHH!"

Luke was so shocked that he lost his grip. And by some miracle, he didn't get sucked under the tracks. Instead, he found himself rolling wildly down the railroad's slope, kicking up dirt in his wake. Everything spun around in his vision like a whirlpool, pain erupting wherever his skin made brief contact with the ground. Then his descent came to an abrupt halt when his body flung into bushes, the sudden weight making the branches snap.

Moaning, he sat up weakly, wincing as he did so. Caressing his midsection, Luke glanced up the hill to see the caboose disappear as the train whistled. All that was left to see was the tracks and the faint pink tracing along the horizon. Remembering that light coming off himself, he glanced down at his hands. There were minor tears and scrapes, but no blue glow emitting off him. Lifting his hand in front of his face, he examine it, turning it this way and that, palm up and palm down, as if it was foreign to him. What was happening to him?

Then a thought popped into his head.

"Mark."

Was he-did he got caught under-?

"Down...here..."

Luke looked down to see a crushed Mark underneath his legs.

.oOo.

"You're a bloody GLOW!" Mark, who was pacing back and forth, shouted at Luke. "No one thought that this would have been some valuable information!"

Luke watched in silence as Mark left off some steam, and at one time he swore he literally saw a puff of white steam escape from his ears.

"What's a glow?" Luke was confused by the word Mark called him.

Mark didn't seem to hear the question and kept on pacing, his eyesight set directly in front of him. "I'm gonna KILL that weasel of a rabbit!" He shook his fist in the air. "And YOU!" He abruptly turned towards Luke. "After all I did for you! Helping you get on the train and you didn't have the decency to tell me exactly what I was dealing with! YOU COULDA GOTTEN ME KILLED! Mark's furry face had turned red from all his fuming.

"How was I supposed to tell you when I didn't know myself!" Luke defended, getting a bit miffed. "Why was I glowing back there? What was that?"

Mark stared intently at the human before him, a challenging look appeared across his face. "You mean you really don't know?" he asked in disbelief.

"No," Luke answered exasperatingly.

"Well, I'm not that surprised. Your lot isn't that smart," Mark replied thoughtfully. Luke furrowed his brow and frowned at his remarks. "You see kid, in our world, humans from the Other Place glow when they feel intense emotions. When you saw the gwythaints and experienced fear, you lit up like lights on a Christmas tree on the Fourth of July. You follow me?"

"No..."

"I must say, I've nevere heard of a Glow actually able to cause pain."

Luke stared at him blankly.

"Point is, you glow," Mark said, "and that makes it easy for the bad guys to spot you out in a crowd. Which means, if I hang around here any longer, I'm as good as dead."

Mark trotted over to Luke's backpack and pulled out his own knapsack. Swinging it over his shoulder, he started for the tracks, but first he turned around to say one last thing to Luke.

"Good luck finding your family, kid," and with that he began his journey to the next town. Luke shouted after him, but Mark kept going, disappearing into the rising sun.

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