Prologue - Dear Friend
Dear Professor Hershel Layton,

"Hello old friend, how have you been?
Me? I've been pretty good to say the least.
On my trip to Germany, I found something utterly magnificent!
Words can't even begin to describe how strange yet beautiful this artifact is, but this isn't the only reason I've contacted you.
Recently, in Barcrombe some odd things have happened.
Things such as trees walking, stones magically being thrown at you, and water turning red.
I contacted you so one, you could come and visit me and two, you could get to the bottom of this.
Thank you."
Signed, Charles Linesburrow.

P.S: Please bring the Wine Jewel. It will greatly assist us.

"The 3-o-clock train for Barcrombe is leaving in four minutes! I repeat the 3-o-clock train is leaving in four minutes!" the conductor called across the station. The chatter of the people carried through the stuffy station. It was early September and the summer heat lingered throughout the early days of the month. Three people entered into the station after grabbing their tickets. A man in his 30's with a tall silk hat, a young boy in a blue sweater and hat, and a young girl with her hair tied back in a ponytail. The man walked towards the conductor with the other two following behind him.

"Excuse me." He began. "Is this the train heading towards Barcrombe?" The conductor looked at him and nodded his head.

"Yep, good thing you guys got here in time!" he smiled and helped them inside the train. The three of them walked towards their cabin. The cabin was at the back of the train which may or may not have been a good thing. While they passed other cabins and peeked inside to see who would be staying in them although it was unbearably hot and muggy, making it hard to breath. "Are we almost there?" the young girl asked. "It's very hot in here." The man looked at her. "Don't worry Flora, I believe we are very close to our cabin." Flora nodded and looked forward again.

"Oh look Professor!" the boy pointed. "I believe that's our cabin." The Professor looked where the boy pointed.

"Very good observation Luke. That is in fact our cabin." Luke looked very proud of himself and opened the door. The room was in fact, a bit lackluster. While their train cabin to Folsense was quite pleasant and nicely ventilated, all this cabin had were two highly uncomfortable seats and flowers that had wilted from lack of care. There was a window which could open though it was quite difficult and made this awful screeching noise when you tried to open the thing.

"Oh." Flora said when they first opened the window. "Fresh air!" Luke cried as he looked out the window but the smoke and steam from the trains immediately wafted into the train causing him to sneeze. "Let's...close...the...window..." he managed to say between coughs and sneezes. After closing the window with an equally as awful sound, Flora and Luke looked at each-other before asking the Professor. "Where are we going?!" The Professor looked a bit startled by the sudden question but then smiled. "Well, if you really would like to know, I suppose I should tell you."

(Three days earlier)

Professor Hershel Layton, an archaeology professor at a local college was sitting in his office sipping on a cup of tea when a letter came in. "It's for you Professor!" Rosa called. "Oh?" he got up from his chair and walked over to get the letter.

"Uh-huh but the weird thing about it is there's not return address on it." She explained while handing him the letter. "Hm..." he said as he opened the letter while walking back to his seat. While reading through the curious letter, he thought about going to visit his old friend. Charles and him were friends back in college though they did go their separate ways after that. Layton went to become a professor at Gressenheller University and Charles went to lead a dig team in other European and Asian countries.

Last time he had written to him, he had mentioned finding a crimson red stone. He nicknamed it the Charles Jewel but the team rejected the idea of naming it after him. They settled on the name, The Wine Jewel after they got too drunk to drive back to camp. Layton was highly confused when he received the letter but when he looked inside it, he saw a small red jewel. A small chunk from the Wine Jewel was inside. He kept the small jewel on his desk among different items.

After finishing reading the letter for the third time, he realized that perhaps it would be a good idea to pay a visit to his old friend. He grabbed the jewel off of his desk and bid Rosa farewell. "Should I cancel those classes?" she asked but Layton was too far down the hallway to hear her. Rosa shook her head. "When will he learn."

"So we're going to visit a friend of yours Professor?" Luke asked. Layton nodded his head. "Indeed we are. Charles loves collecting things so we might find some interesting things there."

"Like what?" Luke asked. "Ooooh! Maybe something like a jade necklace." Flora gasped. "Based on what you've told us, it doesn't seem like Charles collects that kind of stuff." Luke adjusted his hat. The countryside passed them by as the train continued to chug along its path.

"Hm, maybe but I still hope we get to see some fancy stuff!" Flora clasped her hands together at the thought of some shining jewels or a silver and gold sword. "Where is Barcrombe?" Luke asked, still curious about their new adventure.

"It's a town that's known for their strong knowledge of history and machines." Layton explained. "Charles always liked when we went up there because of their museum. In fact he's donated to it on several occasions." Luke nodded his head. "This place sounds very interesting."

The rest of trip was the same as always: they got lunch in the lunch car, Luke got food poisoning, solve a few puzzles on the way, among other things.

While they did think the trip was going to be relaxing, they were wrong. So very wrong.

A/N:

Hello! I hope you enjoyed the prologue! I'm American myself so if I got anything wrong about Britain, please tell me so I can try and fix it :)