Blackness, pretty much all I could see was blackness, I quickly came to the conclusion id lost conciseness when we went through the portal. It took what felt like an age for me to wake up but eventually each one of my senses returned to me. When I finally opened my eyes and retrieved my glasses, I found myself on Thomas’s cab floor, my overalls covered in coal dust. I slowly pulled myself back up and staggered to my bag to find some water.

“Alright back there dude?” came a familiar voice, I think he was a bit shaken in all honesty but he was hiding it very well. I dropped down from the cab still shaking a little and made my way over to Thomas (when I say that I mean his face, just to avoid confusion) as I walked towards his front I checked him over for any damage, he seemed to be fine. Finally I stumbled over to him and leant on his left buffer, holding my head a moment to stop it spinning.

“Yeah… im fine… I think…” I said still feeling a bit weird after the jump from one reality to the next. “What about you?” I asked “been a while since you’ve done anything like that, you feeling alright?” Thomas simply let out a sigh of steam and smiled.

“Never better!” he announced looking all smug, I just laughed at him. Now my mind was up to speed, I rather important question popped up.

“Right, first off” I began, taking a look around “where the hell are we!?” I asked with a bit of sharpness in my voice. “And second of all, why the hell do you look more cartoony than usual?” it was true, he really did look more like animated than usual and for him that’s saying something!

“Wait what!?” he replied slightly confused.

“I mean it, you look like you’ve been animated like twice over!” I chuckled “here let me go get a mirror out of my bag and you’ll see what I mean” I walked back over to the cab and jumped up to find my bags were slung about on the floor after the jump. I soon found my overnight bag and pulled out my old travel mirror and went back over to Thomas and showed himself to him. “See for yourself” he stared and kept staring for rather a long time. Finally, after a good minute he simply said

“What the actual hell?” his big face was full of confusion, surprise and just general ‘the f**?’ I chuckled. He soon stopped staring at himself and turned his attention to me, in all the confusion and getting knocked out I’d forgotten that if Thomas looks different, then there was a good choice i would too. “Well, to be honest mate you don’t look any better!” he said stifling a laugh at my now animated human form “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this colourful!” no longer being able to hold his laugher Thomas burst into that cute giggling he does. I glare at him but soon I realise there’s no pint getting angry as I flip the mirror over and take a good look at himself, I had indeed, turned into a very colourful animated human. My skin becoming very radiant and eyes that shone bright, even my coal-black overalls had a brighter tone.

As I looked over myself, cogs in my head started to turn and the overall look of me and Thomas started to ring bells in my mind, I quickly started to look at our surroundings, something I had neglected to do thus far, we were in a valley on what look like a very old unused line of track. The mountains towered above us and where covered in snow and ice and the rock was a light grey in colour, this in turn rang more bells in my aching head. I decided it was time for some exploration.

“Well, I think it’s time we went and had a look around” I said walking back towards Thomas’s cab “what you reckon?” he simply replied with a smile and a long whistle which seem to echo through the valley. I clambered up to the cab, once again secured all my luggage, brought up Thomas’s fire with a few shovels of coal and took my position in the cab, leaning out the lift hand side with hand on the regulator. “Now, please can I drive this time?” I begged.

“Ha-ha oh alright then” said the little blue engine, I beamed and threw forward the reverser, took of the brake and with a smile on my face I open the regulator. Thomas responded like he always did, quickly and smoothly. Steadily we puffed over the creaking track and made our way round the corner.

What we saw, when we turned that corner, made my blood run cold and Thomas’s axels shake. Rolling green hills, huge forests, massive mountain ranges. Everything was bright and colourful, like it had been taken straight from a child imagination. But, that wasn't what surprised us, it was the fact that bellow us on the huge expanse of land was a town that looked ow-so familiar... looks like inter-dimensional travel is harder than i first thought. Next Chapter: Chapter Three Estimated time remaining: 25 Minutes