Well we come to the end of our King of the Railway adaptations for Sodor High School. After this one within a couple of weeks or so will be a new chapter written by guest writer 'SF64Rules'.

Sodor High School: Thomas & Friends

Written by: ThomasZoey3000

Based on the Railway Series by: The Rev. W. and Christopher Awdry

Based on the Television Series by: Britt AllCroft, Hit Entertainment and Mattel

Episode 37: Lost Relic Found

Based on "King of the Railway: The Movie" by "Andrew Brenner"

Millie yawned as she opened her eyes the next morning. The early morning sunlight shone through the windows of her bedroom, and bathing her in it's warm light. She stretched and called out, "good morning father," but she was surprised this time to not be greeted by her father; Stephen. Usually he's always there to say good morning to her, but this time, there was no one at her door.

"Maybe he's sleeping in," she thought to herself.

She climbed out of bed, stretching a bit more as she went over to her dresser for a nice set of clean clothes. Today, she figured on a royal blue shirt, light purple skirt, and light yellow socks. As she was getting these out, she heard a knock on her door.

"There's my father."

She called out for the person to come in, but to her surprise, it wasn't her father, it was her grandmaster; Sir Robert.

"Millie, has your father come by to see you?"

"No, I thought he was just sleeping in," she answered. "Why is he not in the kitchen, or at the museum?"

Sir Robert shook his head, "no he's not in either of those places. I even called the museum and asked if he was working on the Rocket, but no one's seen him."

"Well maybe he's getting groceries and just didn't tell us or leave us a note, you know?"

"Hmm, maybe. I'll give him a couple of hours to report in." And with that, the Earl turned and went off. This left Millie to go get herself ready for her hard day's work.

What they didn't know was that Stephen was inside Ulfstead Mine, and in spite of his best efforts to unblock the enterance way, he was no closer to getting out.

"Is there anyone out there! HELP!" he cried. But there was no reply from outside the mine.

"Oh bother and blow, I guess I'll have to find another way out of here."

With that thought on his mind, Stephen set off into the dark mineshifts. Though luck wasn't really on his side as some tunnels were blocked with fallen stones, and others had no way of crossing over to the other side. Not even a set of tracks, which looked like they had snapped years before. Leg step after leg step, the tunnels kept leading him nowhere, and worst was to come. The batteries in his torch were running out of energy, and soon he would have no way of finding his way out.

"Oh why didn't I bother packing more batteries into my bag last night," he thought to himself. "Then again, I had no idea the enterance way would fall in on it's...OUCH!" he cried as he tripped over something. He checked to make sure he didn't break anything, which thankfully he didn't. He looked behind him and saw that he hadn't tripped over a rock, it was instead an old wooden chest.

"Eh? What's this doing down here?"

Thankfully, he did bring a spade with him, so he was able to dig at the dirt all around the chest. Finally, he could lift it out. Curious as to what could be inside, he broke the lock off and opened it. What he saw made his jaw drop open.

"Wobbling wagons, I don't believe it..."

At the Castle, work was continuing on as normal. Rosie arrived on board her motorbike at around the same time as the Earl and Millie arrived, "good morning Ms Rosie, have you by chance seen Stephen?"

"Not really, but I only just got here myself."

The Earl and Millie asked around if they had seen Stephen, but no one had seen him. They even checked inside the museum itself, but there was still no sign of him.

"Where could my father be?" Millie asked.

"Now don't fret Millie, I'm sure he's fine," said her grandfather. "Maybe he's with Dalton and his family." He pulled out his mobile phone and called the family, but soon hung up after getting the answer, "they haven't seen him since last night."

"It's not like him to just disappear like this, especially with not telling us why."

The Earl had to admit Millie had a point there. Usually he would leave a note if he was going out, so why not this time? Either he was planning a surprise, or something else was at play here. Sighing unhappily, he dailed another number into his mobile phone, "hello police, this is Sir Robert Norramby, and I like to report a missing person."

Meanwhile, back at the Brighton house, Emily was thinking the same thoughts as Sir Robert while Annie did her fingernails, "these are going to look smashing once I'm done, don't you think Emily?" But Emily didn't respond. "Emily?"

Clarabel waved her hands in front of Emily's face.

"I think she's lost in her own world right now, so you won't be getting an answer out of her just yet."

Emily sighed, "sorry girls, you were saying?"

"I was asking about your finger-nails. What were you thinking about that could leave you distracted?"

"Stephen. He doesn't seem like the kind of person that would take off without notice, yet he does seem like the kind of person who can handle himself in any sticky situation. So why would he be missing now?"

"Beats us," the sisters said in unison.

Emily sighed, "there has to be a reason...unless...That's IT!" she shouted, which made Annie jump and spill her nail polish all over her shirt. "Opps, sorry Annie."

"It's fine, though I was hoping to get the polish on our finger nails, not my shirt."

Thomas heard the shout and came into the kitchen, "What's it? What's going on in here?"

"Thomas, when we were at the castle last night, didn't the Earl make mention about missing King Godred's Golden Crown?"

"Yeah, but what's that got to do with anything?"

"Well, what if Stephen's gone out looking for it? I bet you that's why he's left no note, he probably wanted to surprise his father with the crown upon his return."

"It's a good theory, but the thieves left little to no evidance of where they hid the crown, so where would he go to look?"

At first, Emily wasn't sure how to answer the question, then another thought came to her head, "I think it's time to pay another visit over to the Castle. We'll find our answers there."

After asking Mr Brighton to take them back to the castle, they went to the Earl's office. Thomas was confused, but soon he and everyone would understand.

"Sir Robert, how many maps do you have the area from the previous years?"

"About seven of them, including the one drawn up by...children? Hey wait a minute, where is that one?"

"I thought so."

Thomas stood at the doorway and spun his hand around as if to say; "can you explain eveything to us, cause I'm not getting it."

"Well it was a guess, until Sir Robert confirmed the loss of the map. Stephen must've looked at it and realised, it probably wasn't drawn by children, but in fact could've been drawn by the thieves, and after hearing the disappointment from Sir Robert, he probably decided to make this his mission to find the crown and bring it back to the castle."

"So my father could be where that map was leading to?" Millie asked.

"I'd say it's highly likely Millie."

"But that map never lead anywhere," said Sir Robert, "so where would he know where to go?"

Emily gave an encouraging smile, "thankfully, I think Stephen left us a clue on your desk." She and Sir Robert looked at all the maps, and soon they figured where he would've gone, "Ulfstead mine."

"It's amazing how I came in thinking I would follow the map, yet all I needed to do was to trip over the darn chest. Mind you, it'll mean nothing if I can't get out of here."

"Got to keep going," panted Stephen. He was getting weaker with every step he took in the mine. He was a following a tunnel in the hopes of getting out, "at least this tunnel isn't flooded or blocked, maybe...Oh NO!" he cried as he reached the end of the tunnel. It had taken him around a loop and now he was back at the enterance way, which was still blocked.

Sighing unhappily, he turned around to go look down another tunnel, but his energy was almost gone. He had no choice, he had to stop and sit down for a bit. He checked his food-supply and to his horror, he was dangerously low. Same with his water supply.

"Nobody knows where I am, nobody knows what I'm doing, and I can't get out on my own. What am I going to do? HELP!"

His voice echoed down the tunnels and around the mine, but it soon returned to him with no reply.

Outside the mine enterance way, Thomas, Emily, Mr Brighton, and the Earl had arrived to find the enterance was blocked off.

"It was a good theory Emily," Thomas said kindly, "but according to the latest map of Ulfstead Mine, there's no other way in, and this enterance way is completely blocked."

Emily sighed, "I thought for sure he would've gone in there."

"Well the police will find him sooner or later," sighed Mr Brighton. He turned to his old friend, "he'll come home Robert, don't you worry."

They turned to leave the enterance of the mine, when Thomas noticed something. Something that didn't look like it had been around when the mine shut down.

"Is this is a fire-cracker?" he asked.

"Yeah it is," nodded Emily, "and by the looks of it, it hasn't been here that long. Maybe these were used to knock down the roof and block the enterance way."

"Which means Stephen's could've gone in there." He got to his feet and called as loudly as he could, "STEPHEN! ARE YOU IN THERE!"

Inside the mine, Stephen heard a muffled voice that sounded familar, "it's Thomas, he's out there? Thomas! I'm in here!" but his shouting voice didn't sound loud at all. His throat was nearly dry.

Thomas and Emily heard nothing.

"Maybe the fire-cracker was used recently, but Stephen's not here," sighed Emily.

They turned to leave. Stephen pulled out his water bottle and drank down the last of his water, then taking in the deepest breath he could, he shouted, "I'M IN HERE!"

This time, Thomas and Emily heard him.

"It's Stephen!" Emily cried, "that was his shout."

"Stephen!" Thomas called, "don't worry, we'll get you out of there!"

"But how? It'll take us forever to get these rocks out of the way."

"Not unless you have a front-end loader friend. Go up to the castle with my Dad and get Jack, we'll start digging away down here." Emily nodded and went to get Mr Brighton. The Earl meanwhile came over and started helping Thomas, but the rocks were difficult to move for the two of them alone.

"We need extra help," Thomas groaned.

"And help is here old friend," said a familar voice. Thomas turned and gasped to see Mr Hiro and his family.

"Mr Hiro? What are you doing here?"

"We came out to get some photographs of the area, but that can wait. Come on Koyuki, Kids, let's help out."

The three young members of the family; Yuji, Sakura and Yoshida didn't argue with their father. They all ran over to the rock wall and started to move as many rocks as they could.

Mr Brighton drove as fast as he could until he drove into the castle grounds. Emily jumped out and ran towards Jack, "Jack! We need you and your front loader!"

"What for?"

"Stephen's stuck in Ulfstead mine and the enterance is blocked."

"Right, this is a job for Jack."

Hearing that Stephen was in trouble, Rosie ran over and offered her assistance too. She and Emily rode in the bucket of the front loader all the way to the enterance way. Upon their arrival, they found Thomas, the Earl and Hiro's family had removed quite a few rocks, but the wall was still thick with them.

"Stephen! If you can hear us, we got some serious help!" Thomas called. "Our friend Jack brought his Front Loader!"

But there was no reply from Stephen.

"Everyone get back!" shouted Jack, "I'll take care of this in a jiffy!"

His Front end loader roared into life and it's bucket charged at the wall. It scooped a large amount of rocks and once it had enough, Jack backed it away and dumped them out of the way.

"He's probably thirsty in there," said Sir Robert, "does anyone have any water or some kind of drink we could give him?"

Sakura reached into her backpack and pulled out a water bottle, "I was saving it for later, but I think he could use it more than me."

Mr Hiro smiled, "that's my little girl, thinking of others instead of herself. You're definetly one of us."

It took five minutes, but at last, the enterance way was opened up. Rosie took a good look at it, "that ceiling isn't going to last very long. Jack, do you think you can support it with the bucket?"

Jack nodded and moved the bucket of his front loader towards the ceiling of the mine.

"It won't last forever, so we better go in there and get him."

Together, Thomas, Emily and Rosie walked into the dark shaft of the mine. Rosie carrying a light with her while Emily held onto Sakura's water bottle. Thomas called out, "Stephen! Where are you?!"

There was still no reply. Stephen couldn't respond, his mouth was dry.

The trio took a guess and went down one tunnel, which was the correct one, "STEPHEN!" they all cried and ran towards their friend. Emily opened the water bottle and helped Stephen to drink it down.

"Thank you Emily, and thank you everyone for coming to help. Guess it's safe to say I'm no miner."

"I would say no to that as well," said Thomas, "but then again, neither am I." And he shuddered remembering a couple of mine experiences.

"Are you hurt?" Rosie asked. Stephen shook his head. She sighed happily, but then looked firmly at him, "you know you had everyone worried right?"

"I know, but I didn't plan on staying in the mine over night. I was hoping to find King Godred's golden Crown and be back in time for breakfast. Guess I was wrong, cause there was a small explosion and the enterance way caved in on me."

"Speaking of which, we got to get you out of here before the roof gives in again and leaves us four trapped in here."

Emily and Rosie helped Stephen to his feet, but before they moved, Stephen looked back, "can you bring the chest with you Thomas? It's really important!"

Thomas didn't need to be asked twice, he picked up the chest and carried it with him.

At the enterance way, Jack was growing concerned, "that roof is going to cave in again, they better hurry soon, or we'll really need heavy machinery to get them out."

There came a rumbling sound. The roof wasn't going to give in, it was giving in. Rosie, Stephen, Emily and Thomas ran as fast as their legs could carry them. At first, it really did look like they were going to be trapped in there, but by sheer luck, they got out and just in time. Jack drove his loader back and everyone watched as the roof caved in again.

Thomas took in several deep breaths before finally speaking, "I think...it would...be best...to leave...that mine...alone for...now on."

"I...have to...agree with...you Thomas," panted Rosie.

The Earl walked up to his son and gave him a big hug, "oh my son, you had Millie and I worried. But I'm glad you're safe."

Stephen sighed happily, "me too. Me too."

They all went back up to the castle and that's when Millie finally got to see her father, "I thought I'd lost you too," she sobbed, and she ran up to him where he embraced her in a hug.

Stephen whispered a quiet 'Shh' to her as she cried, "it's okay Sweetie, I'm not going anywhere, and I promise from this day onwards, I will never go on dangerous adventures like this again."

Emily was curious about what Millie just said, but decided now wasn't the best time to ask.

Mr Hiro spoke with Thomas, "we're getting close to the one year anniversary when you and Emily helped me, and here you are, still helping people. You all got good hearts."

"Thank you Mr Hiro."

"Now my son," said the Earl, "I hope you will keep your word, however I'd like to know, did you find what you were looking for?"

Stephen smiled, "I sure did, it was dangerous, but worth it in the end. Look in the chest for yourself."

Thomas gave the chest over to the Earl, and opened it. He and everyone around him gasped, "King Godred's Golden Crown. Oh my word, this is a great find."

"You actually found it," gasped Millie, still with some tears in her eyes.

"I found it by accident," and he explained about how he came across the chest in the first place. "Guess the map wasn't that helpful after all."

Mr Hiro was quite in awe of the crown, "my family and I have heard stories about that crown, we even spent our first few years searching for it in the hopes of giving it to a museum, but we never found it."

"It sure is beautiful," smiled Sakura, "it's just as beautiful as the stories describe."

The Earl turned to his son again, "Stephen my lad, when the castle is finally opened for business, I would like you to show your important discovery with everyone."

Stephen gave a small smile, "actually I will not. I rather have my own gem right here show it off," and he gave Millie another hug.

"You mean it father?"

"Of course," he nodded. "Your mother would agree with me if she was here."

"In that case, I'll do both you and Grandpa Robert proud."

After more than a few weeks, the castle was finally opened to the public. Everyone who could came to the celebration, even James, even though he was stuck holding onto cruches.

"I'll never get used to these things," he grumbled.

"Then watch where you're going next time," snickered Spencer.

Gordon glared at him, "watch your tounge Spencer, or I'll race you down the hill after these events, and I'll wipe that smug look off your face."

Gordon recieved a little nudge on his left side and found his new friend Caitlin there, "I might want to take you up on that offer, if only to shut old loud mouth up."

"I'll beat you two easily."

"We'll see," smirked Caitlin.

Gordon smirked himself, "okay, now I really do like this one." He then noticed she was whispering to Connor, who nodded. "What was that about?"

"Oh just asking Connor if he wants to put Spencer in his place. You still in Gordon?"

"Always."

Percy jumped as he saw a suit of armor walk up to the podium, "Thomas, Emily, it's moving all on it's own, like a robot."

Thomas and Emily laughed, and even more so when the visor was moved up, revealing the Earl's face, "I wouldn't say it moves all on it's own Percy," chuckled Thomas.

They went quiet though as the Earl began his speech. He talked about how proud he was of everyone's efforts to reopen the castle, and for his son Stephen for helping with the work to the Railway museum, "with luck," he added, "we'll be able to add more engines and rolling stock to make it bigger and better than ever before."

"And now ladies and gentleman, I like to introduce my grand-daughter Millie as she has something special to share with you all."

He stepped aside and Millie stepped forward, "thank you Grandfather and thank you everyone for coming here today for the castle's reopening. Though for a while, it looked like our grand opening would be missing the key important piece, that was until my father found the very object in Ulfstead Mine." She brought up the chest and opened it, "King Godred's Gold Crown!"

The crowds started cheering and stared in amazement at the Golden Crown.

"It will be here on display here in the castle," added Sir Robert, "along with the many other pieces we have found over the years."

As the crowds cheered again, Millie looked over to Thomas and Emily and mouthed the words; thank you.

After a few more speeches, crowds of people went into the castle to begin their tour. But not Spencer, Gordon, Caitlin and Connor, they were getting on their bikes.

"First one down and back up again will be the winner," said Caitlin. "Last one will have to wait for the rest of the group to have their look around."

Gordon looked worried, that was until Caitlin said, "stick close buddy, we'll make sure it's Spencer who's last."

Gordon nodded and with a shout of 'Ready, Set, Go!' They were off. James watched on in envy, "I wish I could join them, instead of having to spend the rest of my summer with these stupid cruches and repairing the station."

Sakura was at the castle with her entire family. As they were about to enter, she spoke to Thomas and Emily, "first you save my Dad, then Misty Island and now this, whatever adventures are you two going to get yourselves into next?"

"One can only guess," they said in unison and blushed in embarrassment upon realising what was said.