Wind... Trees rustling... birds chirping and fluttering away on tiny wings...

These were the sounds that came through as Thomas tried to wake up from sleep. It had been a deep sleep, if the slurring thoughts and heavy feeling hanging over him was anything to go by.

The wind, the trees, the birds... it was all very soothing, very peaceful... very wrong.

He should not be hearing the trees rustling, nor the birds fluttering in their branches, nor the soft whispers of wind, because he should be in Tidmouth Sheds. The fluttering of wings- if there were any- were supposed to echo and clatter against the metal trusses and ping against the glass ceiling. The wind should rattle against his plating, and send small pieces of ballast tumbling across the ground, and the trees should be much too far away to be heard this way. Tidmouth Sheds rested in the center of a railway yard, and it wouldn't be productive to have trees cropping up in and around the rails where an engine might get scraped or caught on their branches.

He took in a deep breath of air, and his senses came to the conclusion that the air was somehow wrong as well. The air was sweet and clear, hinted with strands of wet grass and blooming flowers, perhaps even the smell of approaching rain. But something- Thomas had yet to determine what- was missing from it. Something that must've always been there and thus Thomas wouldn't have noticed until it was suddenly gone.

The air was clear, too clear... Smoke. That was what was missing! With the perpetual and ever-moving traffic of engines to and fro across the island- even at night- there was always the ever-present, lingering scent of coal being burnt and sent out from the engine's fireboxes and smoke stacks, and now... it was gone.

A flickering of light filtered across his eyelids, and finally, he was able to open them and peer out...

...his eyes were met with sunlight filtering through the leaves of the trees above him.

That certainly explained what he was hearing, but now the question remained of where he was and how he got here. He was certain he had been stationary in his place at Tidmouth Sheds when he went to sleep, and it was rather hard to move an engine without that engine knowing about it. Excluding steep hills and no brakes, there was very little way he could have just... rolled all the way out here, right?

Wait- he was looking at the trees above by simply looking forward, he would have to be resting on the back end of his tender and facing upwards himself to be doing that!

Some part of him twitched, something that seemed too far to his left to be a part of him.

Thomas turned his head to look around- but wait, how could he turn his head? He could only move his eyes to look around, he didn't have a head to turn...Right?

He tried it again, and then Thomas gasped! He could move and look to the side further than he ever could before! Turning his head, he could see tall grass waving to the side, bending in the wind, as well as a long, metal shape leading away from him. Blue and red metal... like he'd seen in his own reflection. It kinda looked like a blocky arm... and then the hand at the end twitched, and he felt it.

It was his arm. He had an arm!? He turned the other way; he had two arms!

Fizzling fireboxes...!

He had a head, arms, hands! Did he have legs and feet too? He would have to move up to see, did he have a body? Of course he did, his head and arms had to be attached to something! And if so, then he would be laying on his back, much like he'd see the children doing during the winter to make snow angels on the hillsides.

But while engines also had bodies of a sort, they most certainly did not have arms and legs.

I'm...I'm not an engine anymore...!

He looked to his arm and hand again, trying to move his fingers again. One, two, three... each one slowly curled up and into a fist, then unfurled flat again... he needed to find his legs, if he had any.

As if his new body seemed to know what he was trying to do, there was a sudden, sharp jolt that shot through it. It hurt, hurt enough for him to go flying upward to fold over itself. He'd expected folding oneself over in half would've hurt more, but instead the metal folded under itself like it had been designed to bend, and now that he was sitting up, he could see he did in fact have legs, ending in large, blocky feet.

He had a head, arms, legs, hands, feet, plus a body and neck to hold them all together. What was this? A dream? Was he a passenger, like Sir Topham Hatt? No. He looked at the trees, they were still as small as they should be compared to him, and his body was still made of metal. He wasn't a passenger, but then... what was he?

His surroundings seemed familiar, but also quite foreign. He recognized these types of trees, bushes, grasses, but the air still felt too still... too empty. Where was the whistling of engines passing by on their way to deliver or collect their loads? Where was the faint hum and clacking of wheels on rails? Where was the smell of soot and coal smoke wafting in the air?...

...Where were the other engines?

"...Hello?" He called out into the trees, "...Is anyone there?"

Only the sound of birds chirping and fluttering wings answered him. Even his own voice seemed strange- it was still his voice, but it seemed to have a hum to it, a vibration that buzzed in his head.

"Where am I...?"

He was hidden here in the trees and the clearing for now, but he wasn't an engine anymore- would he frighten any passengers that might be nearby? He couldn't sit here alone forever though, what was he to do?

Here he was pondering walking away when he hadn't even figured out how to stand yet.

His arms creaked as he moved them, examining his hands and moving his fingers back and forth again against his palms. There was something in his vision as well, moving shapes and symbols that came and went.

Systems operating at seventy-five percent.

That was what the symbols said, but how did Thomas know that? He'd never seen them before!

Strenuous activity not advised. Casual activity permissible.

He hoped walking didn't count as strenuous.

There was more creaking as he moved his legs, putting one under him, and then the other planted to try and push upward. He didn't know how he knew to move them this way, but he did. He wasn't prepared for how much force he put behind the shove however, and so not only did he get up onto his feet, but he stumbled forward, thumping into a tree trunk. His vision scattered into lines of colors for a moment and his head felt like he was spinning in circles.

Mild blunt force trauma to the helm. Caution is advised.

"Right..." Thomas hissed, grasping onto the trunk of the tree until his vision fully returned. Leaves were scattered by his crash, still floating down to the ground below. He heard an chattering and peered up just in time to have a nut ping off of his head, thrown by a squirrel who seemed quite irritated at the little blue... thing, being there.

He really needed to figure out what he was, if not an engine.

He stood up straight, carefully moving one foot in front of the other, and watching for other tree branches so he didn't run into them. He moved forward, step by step, until he had left the clearing and made his way into the denser part of the woods.

He supposed it would make sense for this place to be unfamiliar- the trees were thick and packed close together, and the branches hung low and heavy with green leaves of summer. This was not the place for a rail line unless intense work was to be done to clear it, so he would never have seen it before.

"Hello?" He called again. Again, no answer.

He found himself approaching a tree directly in front of him and stopped. It was an obstacle, it was in his way... what should he do?

Thomas felt stupid asking himself such a question, but all of this was new to him! Before, if he were to encounter such an obstacle blocking a rail, he would be stuck, unable to move forward and being forced to pull backward without any view of who or what was approaching behind him until he found a junction to change rails from!

But he was not bound to the rails anymore, so the best course of action would be to go around the tree... He just had to figure out how to move sideways.

"Okay, okay." He whispered to himself, "You've got this, just... pick up your left foot... move it left..."

His left leg rose up slowly, moved over and then went back down, and the rest of him sort of slid in the same direction. There, now the path was clear.

No need for backing up a mile, no need for a junction and his driver having to change tracks for him-

There was more chattering, and then he felt not a nut, but the entire squirrel land sharply onto his head. Startled by the sudden landing, his body stiffened up, and as he fell backwards, he heard a very loud and distinct whistle ring out through the trees... his whistle.

Mild blunt force trauma to the helm and mild trauma to the outer extremities detected. Caution is advised.

Thomas groaned, rubbing his head as the squirrel took off once more, leaping onto a tree trunk and scurrying away into the branches, but Thomas wasn't really thinking about that. His hand felt his head, finding a small cylinder above his eyes- his whistle. He wasn't an engine anymore, but he still had his whistle?

Just to be sure, he blew it again. Yup, that was his whistle.

And then he heard another whistle, distant but audible, coming from beyond the trees. A small peep of a whistle that he knew all too well...

"Percy!?"

He sent back two more blows, and got one back, a little louder, which meant his best friend was a little closer.

"Percy...! I'm coming, Percy!" He hollered, "Just keep whistling...!"

He turned and limped, one foot after the other, through the trees, dodging branches and hopefully any more squirrels...

Then he heard the small voice and another whistle.

"Thomas? Thomas, where are you!?"

"Percy! Over here!"
Thomas pulled free of the edge of the trees, wincing at the brightness of the sunlight without their shade.

"Thomas!"
Thomas felt the ground thumping in rapid footsteps, and his eyes adjusted just in time to see a flash of green before a pair of arms wrapped tightly around his body. "Thomas, thank goodness...!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!"
Thomas stumbled as he lost his balance, but quickly regained it after a moment. "Percy...!"
He moved his arms to hug his friend back, "Where are we? What's going on?"

"I don't know, but I woke up like this and was all alone and I'm just happy to see you! I've never hugged you like this before!"

Thomas smiled a bit, "Me either, Percy... But it's nice... Have you seen anyone else?"

"No, but I found an old rail line we can follow! It might help us find out where we are!"

"Alright, but we'll have to be careful..." Thomas peered out over the hills and scattered trees ahead, "We don't know what's out there..."