SHANKAR AND THE POACHERS

Based upon "Tiger Trouble" by Becky Overton

Originally written May 20, 2019

There are many tiger sanctuaries in India; these are places for tigers to live in peace and protection from hunters who want to stuff them or sell their fur for coats. As such, there have been many signs placed around the area that read "NO HUNTING" in both English and Hindi. But even with the ban on tiger hunting, there are always those who think they are above it.

One afternoon, Noor Jehan was pulling a luxury train known as the Tiger Safari around these sanctuaries. Sometimes, she pulled this train whenever she wasn't at the head of the express, but on today's run, the peace was about to be disturbed…

BANG! BANG!

"Oopar mahaan relave!" exclaimed Noor Jehan. "What was that?"

"That sounds like hunters!" exclaimed her driver. "They know they're not allowed to hunt here!"

But before more could be said, there was the sound of breaking glass followed by a few panicked screams and the sound of a buzzer in Noor Jehan's cab.

"Someone's pulled the emergency cable!" she cried. "We'd better find out what's wrong!" As she slowed to a stop, Noor Jehan had a nasty feeling that one of the passengers might have gotten hurt. When the guard went down to see what the problem was, her instinct proved correct.

"Some windows on the coaches have been shattered by stray bullets," the guard reported to Noor Jehan and her driver. "One of the passengers has also gotten some cuts due to broken glass and needs medical attention!"

"We better report this to Miss Charubala," said the driver. "I don't think she'll be very happy about this. Blasted hunters! Don't they know that their actions can hurt others?"

"Sadly, some people do not," Noor Jehan sighed as she set off again, upset that what had started out as a lovely day quickly turned south.

"If there is one thing I will not tolerate," Charubala said firmly, "it's people who deliberately break the law and harm others in the process; be they person, animal or engine. I shall be informing the police of this, and they will ensure that it never happens again."

"If Barbara Regaby were here, she'd make sure those criminals were brought to justice," said James.

"She's a few weeks away and seven hours behind," sighed Ashima. "I don't think she'd be able to sort this out."

"The police here will get them," Shankar said firmly; by now, he had returned from filming his movie scenes. "But still, why can't those pesky hunters leave them alone? They know they are not allowed to hunt, but they do it anyway."

"According to what Percy said from his trip to China," said James, "it's because tigers are 'exotic and majestic', and… ugh, they just want them for 'trophies'." He groaned. "I… guess it's the same for tigers here too."

"Unfortunately, you're right there, James," Shankar sighed.

"Acting above the law," groaned Coran. "It's infuriating! And animals are completely innocent of human crimes…"

"Still, there is little we engines can do," said Rajiv. "We can't apprehend poachers."

Following the shooting incident, the police began to patrol the sanctuaries from a safe distance. This way, they would be able to stop potential lawbreakers, and not risk disturbing the tigers in the process. Thankfully, this tactic soon put an end to the gunshots. But I'm sorry to say that it wasn't the end for trouble just yet.

A few days later, Noor Jehan overheard James telling Rajiv about the engines he and some of his friends had rescued from the Steelworks near Bridlington.

"…Merlin has joined Derek on airport traffic now," he was saying. "He's a bit… eccentric, but he's honorable and very confident."

"And he has three funnels?" gasped Rajiv. "I've never heard of anything like it!"

"He claims it makes him invisible," James remarked, "but we all know it doesn't work."

"I wish the tigers could make themselves invisible to poachers," sighed Noor Jehan. "That would save a lot of trouble."

"Or any animals for that matter," said James. "Poachers shouldn't exist at all!"

"Don't worry," assured Noor Jehan. "Security makes sure that poachers never board the Tiger Safari."

"Well, that's a relief," said James.

"I suggest you two keep a close eye out though," said Noor Jehan. "Poachers could be lurking everywhere."

With that, the engines set out for their jobs. Rajiv picked up some passengers, and was about to depart when he felt something else couple to the back of the train.

"That's odd…" he said. "I could have sworn I had two coaches already… Ah well, it must be my imagination." With that, Rajiv set off.

Meanwhile, James had just delivered a goods train and was on his way back to the yards.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to see the tiger sanctuary for myself," he said. "A little sightseeing never hurt anyone."

As luck would have it, as James rounded a bend, he spotted a tiger with three cubs through the brush. He looked at the tiger family, and the tiger family looked at him.

"Wow…" he gasped quietly. "Congratulations, Mrs. Tiger." The little cubs eagerly batted each other with their paws, and James smiled. "Wait till the others hear this…"

Suddenly, the mother tiger and her cubs were scared away by a loud horn. It was Shankar.

"What was that for?" asked James. "I was trying to look at that tiger family!"

"Sorry, James," said Shankar, "but there's a reason tigers are so hard to find. It's because they want to be left alone to avoid being hunted."

"Oh…" said James, sounding disappointed. Just then, Rajiv bustled in with some coaches and a flatbed.

"Wait a minute!" he cried. "This isn't the way I was supposed to go!"

"Oops," said James. "I must have forgotten to have the points switched back. Sorry, Rajiv."

"Hold on," said Shankar, looking back at Rajiv's train. "Since when did you have a flatbed along with your coaches?"

"I… huh?!" Rajiv's eyes widened in surprise. "Ugh… maybe Coran shunted it there by mistake."

"What is even on the flatbed?" asked James.

"Oh," said a voice from inside the coach, "that would be our luggage."

"Indeed," said a second voice. "We came a long way to India to see many beautiful sights."

"Seems like a lot of luggage for two passengers," remarked James. Just then, the three engines heard a soft growl.

"What was that?" asked Rajiv.

"Er… that's my stomach," said the second passenger. "I haven't had a chance to eat yet. Oh, I heard they do lovely curries in India; do you know where the nearest restaurant is…"

"Hmm…" James eyed the loose tarpaulin suspiciously. "Rajiv, try moving forward a bit."

The royal engine did so, and it was just enough for the sheet to blow off. Underneath it was a large metal cage, with a tiger inside.

"You were right, James!" cried Shankar. "Those men aren't tourists; they're poachers!"

The rest of the passengers on the train gasped in shock; some of them started to shout angrily at the two men.

"Let's get out of here!" the first poacher told his colleague, and they jumped from the coach and raced away as fast as they could. The engines' crews set to work, freeing the tiger from its cage.

"But what do we do about those poachers?" asked Rajiv. "Those scoundrels will rue the day they got me involved in their crime!"

"Leave those poachers to me," insisted Shankar. "You and James go back to Varkala and fetch Miss Charubala and the police."

James and Rajiv hurried away, but with a lingering question on their minds – how did the flatbed get attached to Rajiv's train in the first place? Shankar didn't have time to question that though; he saw the discarded tarpaulin and got an idea.

"If they want a tiger," he said to himself, "we'll give them a tiger."

Meanwhile, the poachers had stopped running so they could catch their breath.

"I think we lost them," said the second poacher, "but we lost our bounty as well!"

"Shh!" shushed the first poacher. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Listen!" The poachers went silent, and then, they heard a large growl.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked the first poacher.

"Another tiger!" gasped the second poacher; he and his colleague looked through the brush. "And it's a big one to boot!"

"Jackpot," the two men grinned. Fortunately, they still had their nets, or they would have run away from the tiger.

"Tallyho!" they shouted, charging towards their prize, but they didn't watch where they were going, and before you could say "Hare Krishna", one of the poachers tripped a vine which caused a large net to fall on them from above.

"Drat!" cried the first poacher. "Trapped by our own net!"

"And whose idea was it to use it to trap such innocent creatures?"

The poachers looked up to see that the "tiger" they'd tried to catch was actually Shankar, disguised in the orange tarpaulin.

"You're not a tiger!" cried the second poacher. "You tricked us!"

"We didn't come here for cosplayers!" exclaimed the first.

"Tiger hunting is against the law!" came a voice. Nervously, the poachers turned to see James, Rajiv and Coran return with Charubala and two police officers.

"I can't believe you tricked me into shunting a flatbed with a cage onto Rajiv's train!" snorted Coran. "Luggage, my tender!"

"You two are under arrest," said the police chief.

"No, no, this is some kind of misunderstanding!" protested the second poacher. Before long, the police had taken the poachers into the coach. Charubala, meanwhile, had some stern words for Coran.

"I am most displeased with you, Coran!" she scolded. "While you didn't realize you were working for poachers, you knew full well Rajiv has limited pulling power."

"I'm sorry, ma'am…" sighed Coran. "I thought… he was still being too big for his buffers, so I shunted the flatbed to teach him a lesson."

"Even after he saved Noor Jehan and I from a serious accident?" cried James. "You've been here much longer than I have; surely you've seen Rajiv's good side from time to time!"

"I… sometimes forget that in all the chaos," sighed Coran. "I'm sorry, Rajiv."

"It's okay," smiled Rajiv weakly. "Besides, I do need a reality check from time to time…"

Charubala then turned to Shankar. "That was a rather smart plan, Shankar," she said. "If it hadn't been for you, those poachers would never have come out of hiding."

"Think nothing of it, ma'am," smiled Shankar.

"And James," continued Charubala, "you and Rajiv both caused a bit of trouble over a movie role…" James gulped nervously. "…but you made up for it by helping to recover some stolen goods and stopping those poachers. So all in all, you have been a really useful engine." James felt happier upon hearing this. "And, I have more news. With the workload slowing down, and Abiar returning to service soon, you'll be going back to Sodor in the morning."

"Oh, I can't wait to see all my friends back home," smiled James. "They won't believe what we've been through here!"

"But right now," said Shankar, "let's go home and bring these poachers to justice." With that, the cavalcade made its way back to Varkala.

The following morning, James was getting ready for his journey to the docks, where a ship bound for Sodor would be waiting for him. Everyone who could make it was at Varkala station to say goodbye.

"We hope you can someday come back and visit again soon," said Charubala.

"And you are all welcome to come visit Sodor if you ever find the chance," said James.

"Tell Thomas I said 'hello'!" called Ashima.

"Oh, I'll make sure to pass it on," chuckled James. "And Rajiv… I'm glad we were able to become friends. And winning the Best Dressed Engine competition twelve times in a row… that's an accomplishment."

Rajiv smiled at this compliment. "I think Emily more than earned her victory over me in the last show. Have a safe trip back to Sodor!"

Everyone whistled and tooted goodbye to James as he puffed away out of the station and into the distance.

"Pity he's heading home," sighed Rajiv. "I was just starting to enjoy his company."

"Well, it'd be difficult to handle two Rajivs 24/7," joked Coran, and the others all laughed, even Rajiv himself.

A few weeks later, James was back once again on the Island of Sodor. While he was happy to be home, when the other engines told him about recent events…

"Addison Darnell was here?!" he gasped. "And Arry's dead?!"

"I'm afraid so," sighed Thomas. "She's gotten a lot more powerful since her teen years, James."

"I… I saw a newspaper article, but… everything was in Hindi, so I couldn't read it." The red engine bit his lip. "I should have been here to help!"

"James, that wasn't your fault," insisted Percy. "You left Sodor before the invasion happened; none of us could have known Addison was going to attack."

"Besides," said Gordon, "we managed to stop her. And… granted, we lost Arry, but everyone else got out alive."

"And we have some new recruits," added Rebecca. "Henney and Ali for our railway – well, Ali's joined Bert at the Ironworks, but you get the idea – Silver at the Skarloey Railway, and Ellie at the Arlesdale Railway."

"We've had to help them feel welcome in their new environment, James," said Nia, "like you all did for me and Rebecca. And now… you can do that too."

"I guess you're right," sighed James. "That is the best thing we can do right now."

"James…" said Emily, "before we go to sleep, could you tell us some stories about what happened in India?"

"Well… okay!" he grinned. "Oh, before I do, Emily; Rajiv finally gave his congratulations to you for winning the Decorated Engine parade."

The other engines blinked in shock. "I take it we missed a lot too," gasped Emily.

"Indeed," chuckled James. "So, anyway, Ashima was at the docks when I got off the boat…"

THE END

Author's Comments

At long last, we've finally finished with the remastering of James and the Engines of India! Tiger Trouble is the best out of the India-centric episodes of Series 22, although, if I'm being honest, the bar wasn't particularly high to begin with. Out of the four rewrites, this one greatly differed in how James and Rajiv's dynamic went; in the original, they were still at each others' blastpipes, but here, they're more amicable with one another, and Coran, still sore over Rajiv's behavior in the previous story, tries knocking him down a peg, only for the same thing to happen to him. It really helps to make their final goodbye feel earned. And of course, we get James' reaction to Addison Darnell's invasion at the end; suffice it to say, this won't be the last the Sodor engines hear of her.

We're already past the halfway point for season two of The International Railway Series, so here's what to expect next from it:

- An untitled original story based on Sodor

- One Little Slip-Up (a rewrite of Thomas Makes a Mistake)

- The Two Express Engines (Book 10)

- Shankar's Makeover (a rewrite of the same episode)

- Nia the Sudrian Engine (Book 11)