After the immense jolt of speed sent them backwards, the door to the conductors cabin became a small landing point for every single Himalayan engineer and the two lanky princesses.

The roar of the engine sounded like the end of the universe, it pounded through Ahzila's face and left her immobolized. Every squeak and creak from their metal coffin sent her heart rate abuzz. She could imagine the walls ripping apart like a sardine can, she could hear the shouting from the scared passengers behind the door.

One last eruption of noise filled the cabin, before the roar subsided. Part of her wondered if she had died. But the weight of gravity shifted, and she felt sensation in her hands once more.

Slowly, the pile of cats over Ahzila’s face fell to the floor, and then she fell with them in one big heap. Moggie struggled to reach up to a control panel, one fat paw over the next, until he was staring outside the windows.

Ahzila gasped. The lights in the cabin were out because the power was sent to the engine, yet outside was a blackness covered in tiny lights.

Pillars of lights that stretched towards the ceiling, strange and square structures that were filled with delicate and colorful electric ribbons. And above that, a billowing layer of soft and fuzzy gasses suspended around their spires.

“Where are we?” Ahzila gasped, “This place is huge!”

“Don’t be stupid girl, it’s Earth. And we’re heading straight for it!” Miranda hissed.

Like a flying snake, their train vaulted through the sky. Hurdling towards one of the tall pillars and picking up speed on their descent, Ahzila realized that the monolith was actually a building of apartments.

There was no point in ducking behind the controls or covering her eyes. Instead, she watched herself barrel towards certain death—and then go straight through it. She saw a mix of strange alien rooms, a mosaic of so many different colors and styles whipped by the windows.

Moments of humans eating dinner, watching television, clinking glasses, hugging friends. Each fell through her and she felt nothing. The first time she ever witnessed humanity, and she witnessed a thousand human moments more rapidly than her mind could process.

“What?” Ahzila gasped. “We went through it?”

“We’re still in a space between inter-dimensional physics.” Moggie explained. “We are undefined, we are not perceived, we do not yet exist: That means we do not inhabit their space until we leave this train.”

“I do not care!” Miranda growled, “Tell me who is doing this to my train!?”

To answer her question, the brakes squealed, coasting through more buildings, trees, and fences, until it stopped in front of a rather boring little building. Rain pounded from the sky, but none of it hit the glass.

A streak of lightning crossed the clouds, and before Ahzila finished asking “what’s tha-” the crash of raucous thunder took the air straight out of her chest.

“...How can the train brake without any of you lot steering it?” Miranda asked breathlessly, who was promptly ignored.

Moggie grabbed the intercom and started to make an announcement.

“Alllll aboard! We’ve arrived at...” He paused, checking one of the few working monitors, “Main street…?”

“Sh!” Miranda hissed, plucking up the Himalayan by the scruff of his neck and whisking the intercom away, making sure it was properly turned off before continuing.

“When your train has been taken over by politics, we don’t welcome those politics on board!” She said harshly.

“Maybe someone should check it out, then?” Asked one of the other engineers rudely, peeling back a few panels on the wall with a screwdriver.

“We’re going to be busy fixing the engine and wheels.” Moggie reminded her, wriggling out of her grip. “...Sure hope we got enough spares.” he said under his breath.

“Of course not! We’re staying on board.” Ahzila gasped, pointing out at the scenery which just erupted with a flash of light that covered the entire cloud ceiling.

The thunder crashed again from a place she couldn’t pinpoint, and she felt every follicle on her body twitch. “We’re staying undefined! Do your job and get us out of this cursed place before we all come back with Kingdom Madness like some Laquem!”

Miranda covered her eyes with one hand before she let out a very intense sigh. She weighed her options. While this was a terrifying turn of events, it could also be an opportunity.

“No, we’re not staying aboard. We’ll scope it out.” Miranda decided. “Come, Ahzila.”

“What?” Ahzila asked, grabbing Miranda’s shoulder with a shakey hand. Even through the gloves, her clasp was cold. “Are you crazy?”

“This is our job, Ahzila. Most of the kingdom has no magic to speak of. You are one of the best, and so am I. It is our duty to protect our kingdom.”

“Yes! Protect them from cats in Avurn, so there is no point in going to Earth-”

“Now put up your hood. Can’t have humans recognizing you.” Said Miranda, whispering a spell so the hood of Ahzila’s coat buttoned up and folded gruffly over her face.

Ahzila really didn’t know or care about human politics and always felt like the Earthern cats spent way too much time fussing about them.

 However, she kept on her hood because Ahzila held the keys to her future, and all Ahzila wanted a was to be on time for her teaching certification test once this was all over so she could get a different damn job.

“We’ll show you out, Princesses.” Said Moggie, who whistled for some of his team to escort Ahzila and Miranda to the train’s emergency exit. 

They left from a passenger cabin, and so when the two Himalayan engineers opened a pair of metal sliding doors manually, all of the passengers, including the cats on fours leaned out in horror.

Everything was wet.

Ahzila looked down at her clean barefoot feet and then back at the wet asphalt.

“What a waste!” Said one passenger “Can you imagine the utility bill those humans pay!”

“I hate this.” Ahzila moaned as her pawpads hit the pavement outside.

To make the horror worse, she could feel the slush of ice crawl between her toes. It was so flooded, that she was standing in a puddle half an inch deep. Miranda followed, less bothered by the ground and more bothered by the earthy smell of a wet parking lot.

“You been down here before?” Ahzila asked, surprised that Miranda could be so cool-headed, even around this sheet of gushing water soaking through to her robe.

“A few times, yes. I have to.” Said Miranda. “We can’t make enough food in Avurn so we have to coordinate with traders. However, I usually don’t come in quite these same circumstances, and no where near cities.”

Miranda gave Ahzila a flashlight, “I want you to use one of these for light. No magic, do you understand?”

“One of the battery lights? Do I look like a commoner?” Ahzila asked. “Why do you even have one of these?”

“I don’t. I loaned it from the Himalayans. They keep these under the seats in case of a crash, which you would know, if you read the crash pamphlet.” Miranda sneered.

“Fine, whatever.” Ahzila hissed, clicking on the flashlight and tracing the ground, expecting to be blindsided by a group of West Sector terrorists or, even worse—a gang of Potion Cats.

But instead, there was nothing unique about this place except for a few standing street lamps and the fascinating smell of crisp sleet hitting the oils of the street.

The ground was black and cracked, painted with a foreign square pattern of white lines. A few small trains were parked near the building, and Ahzila recalled from her reading that humans drove their own personal trains. However, she couldn’t recall what they were called.

“Kerps.” She muttered.

“Close. They’re called cars. Like a ‘train car.’” Miranda sighed.

“Oh! How quaint! But who set off the fire sprinklers?” Ahzila asked, focusing her light upward, and noticing that her beams never hit the ceiling above her. “It’s getting everywhere! Isn’t that expensive?”

“This is rain, girl.” Miranda told her, rummaging through a trash can for clues.

“Rain?” She asked. Ahzila had read about it in books, but was never able to put much of an image to the concept before now.

“It doesn’t need fire to fall from the sky.” Miranda answered, pointing up.

“What an indulgent and ridiculous place!” Ahzila hissed, “Must be a nightmare for their kingdom to lose all of this water! Who is going to mop this all up and put it back up there after it’s done?”

Miranda ignored her as she leaned over to pick up a few soaked boxes. “Nothing here but fast food.” Miranda sighed. “I don’t understand. Who abducts an entire multi-dimensional train and then wants nothing to do with it!?”

Ahzila didn’t respond. She was too distracted by finally recognizing what was over her head.

A gaseous space that was larger than anything she had ever seen in her life, depositing literal tons of water in drops at her feet.

 As if it didn’t matter. As if she didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. She was so small. So alone. So afraid.

Wind buffeted her side; A harsh new feeling, and a force so powerful and constant with no logic or empathy to it’s movement.

It carried a cacophony of smells, all of which were so alien and intense, she felt her eyes water.

“Is that…sky?” Ahzila asked, a tremor in her voice. “And it just goes up forever and ever? It’s so...”

A mew from the distance made her look away from the existential terror and back to the streetlight. She pointed her flashlight into the face of a small one-eared brown tabby that was pacing back and forth between them and a long jacket under the streetlight. 

Ahzila suddenly got a guff of blood, noticing that the girl’s paws were filthy with it.

“I demand you tell me what is happening here at once!” Ahzila hissed at the girl.

Misty ignored her and meowed long and harshly.

Ahzila only remembered a few Earthern dialects from her school days, and what Misty was hissing sounded so archaic, poetic, and obscure that it felt like old Shakespeare on her ears. She could not decipher it before Miranda interrupted them.

“Don’t bother, they can’t talk. The Earth cats are stupid. They have no magic at all.” Miranda answered, stepping up to Misty and blinding her with her light.

“If something here wanted to talk to us, they had their time.” Miranda decided. “Clearly, we scared them off. Didn’t even have to pull out your little knife, hmm?”

They turned their back on the girl and returned to the train. Enough repairs had been done to bring back the lights and power doors, thankfully. This meant they could take the door directly to their private cabin where they wouldn’t have to answer any questions.

As the door closed behind them, Ahzila heard it stall.

She spun around, and there was Misty, dragging something in a bloody coat.

Ahzila and Miranda had removed their hoods, and Misty saw them clearly now in the light of the train.

“What type of monsters are you!?” Misty cried.

“Ah! The alley cat speaks English...” Ahzila hissed. “...rude English...”

“Well, Miss….Ahszzziiiii?”

“Ah-Zeel-ah Vluh-mane.” Ahzila sighed, pointing to her finely printed collar that the girl could barely read around her neck.

“And who do you think you’re fooling, with that scratched on collar you got there…” Ahzila kneeled down and pulled at the collar around the girl’s neck. It was nearly impossible to make the name out. “...Misty?”

“Are you supposed to be some sort of cat?” Misty hissed back. “Who do you think you’re fooling in a dress!?”

****

(I usaully put my footer here, but because I didn't want to sacrifice art, but feel free to leave a comment, cat emoticon, follow, or like because this is part of the Tapas AF Tourney (official name btw lmao) and they judge a lot based on activity. Also make sure to check out the other authors who are putting out some great titles!)