Off the Right Track

Althea Eventide ❆ Fairy Tail ❆ D-Rank

Althea trudged through the Desirio desert, a light but tattered cloak shielding her from most of the sun rays.  She trudged wearily through the sands, the wizard’s breathing was heavy and she couldn’t help but wonder why she had even gotten to the middle of the desert.  Her sandals were becoming more and more sand-filled, causing Althea to take them off, prefering to walk in hot sand rather than have sand in her shoes.  She prefered to move without shoes anyway.  There’s supposed to be a train somewhere around here…  But all Althea could see was sand.  Lots and lots of sand, probably enough to even fill Mercurius, which was by far the biggest building she had ever seen.  Well, that was until she saw the desert.  I guess this is an adventure in its own right. She thought, But I wish I knew where I was.
Suddenly, an idea flashed through Altea’s mind.  Stopping her trek, the wizard took a deep breath, “IS ANYONE THERE?”  She waited for a moment before sighed in disappointment and continuing her journey.  But then the sound of a train echoed throughout the desolate plain, causing Althea to curiously look around for the source.  But it seemed that the sound was only getting louder, meaning that the train was coming closer, and fast.  Then Althea saw it: a dark line floating oddly in the sky.  She ran towards it, kicking up dust as she did.  As she came closer to it, the wizard identified it as a train track.  She took a moment to investigate it in awe, Althea had never seen a floating railway.  I wonder if they have these anywhere else.  She eventually arrived to just underneath the mysterious tracks, already feeling a cool wave of relief wash over her as she saw an incoming train too.
But something struck her as even more odd than the floating tracks, it seemed like there were people on top of the train, which was actually pretty dangerous.  “HEY, GET OFF THE TRAIN!  IT’LL HURT IF YOU FALL!” But due to their reactions, it seemed like they hadn’t heard them.  Deciding she’ll just have to get closer to them, Althea backed up a few steps before making a running jump onto the passing train.  Almost slipping right off when she landed, Althea managed to stand on her legs and begin approaching the figures.  She had jumped a bit too early and was closer to the front of the train than them.  But when Athea heard the sound of gunshots ringing through the air, she hurried up the pace.  Now those people really needed to get off the top of the train.  After all, someone could get shot, and there was no helping you if you get injured in the middle of the desert.
But as she got closer to them, Althea realized it was the people on the train that had the gun, not that she necessarily even knew if they were people.  The trio of them all glowed odd colors and seemed almost transparent.  They were shooting at a similar creature riding a--Althea’s eyes lit up when she saw it.  A mechanical horse.  “So cool~!” She marveled at its complex joints and narrowed glass-like eyes as it galloped at the equal speed of the train.  “I want to ride it…”  But at the moment it was being shot at by those energy guys, which was actually rather rude of them.  Right off the bat, she started the encounter off with manifesting and shooting snowy projectiles right at the trio.  Althea grinned as she found that each one was hit by four projectiles.  Now turning their gun barrels to the young girl, the transparent entities began shooting.
Managing to doge the dangerously close shots, Althea’s eyes widened as she saw the hole created by the entity glowing purple.  She decided she really didn’t want to get hit by that, a spear manifesting in her hands.  She used the weapon to slash widely at all three entities, all but the slender one managing to get impacted due to their figure.  Althea noticed that the one glowing pink had collapsed, confirming that these things could actually be defeated.  The entity glowing purple began reloading their rifle, and the wizard saw it as the perfect moment to strike.  But, she was intercepted by the one glowing blue.  Bearing her spear, Althea accepted him as her next opponent.  Before the entity’s hand could pull the trigger, she rushed to its side, striking the shoulder supporting their minigun.  The weapon dropped with a clang and Althea was free to deal two quick blows to the entity’s chest.  But by now the last entity had reloaded their rifle, aiming it squarely at Althea.
Moving before things could get out of hand, the wizard created a smokescreen for herself.  She rushed towards the entity, spear aimed towards their chest.  But, the creature seemed to predict Althea’s movement, using the rifle as a blunt object to whack the wizard off the train cat.  She almost fell of the machine in the whole, but managed to precariously grab onto a window ledge.  Heaving herself across to the other one, Althea moved deftly before exploding upwards, pressing her spear into the entity’s face.  Then, she slashed it five consecutive times, moving as quickly as she could.  The entity  fell off into the sand, unmoving, and then evaporated into the air.
But suddenly, the train ceased its moving, coming to an abrupt stop.  Althea eyed the car, stomping on it a few times in attempt to get it working.  “H-Hey, the train can’t stop working now!  I have to get out of this desert!” Laying down with her back against the train, Althea thought of what to do next when the sound of steel hooves became audible.  Sitting up, she spotted the entity and mechanical horse from earlier, grinning and offering the pair a friendly wave, “Could you give me a lift?”