Ice on the Tracks

[Puzzles]

Redford and Ray.

“I hate the snow…” said the man leaning over the rail of the caboose of the Mainlander. The sounds of the twisting winter filled the air as the steam powered locomotive barreled through the night. It didn’t matter how long it had been since William left Barragon the cold still made him despise his homeland. As William Wilder watched the frozen tracks disappear he thought back the cold nights of family farm and wonder how life would have been there now.

Mr. Wilder was on his was to sell off three Goliath warhorses to respective nobles of Knife’s Edge. It wasn’t normal for the Wilder Ranch to travel such distances just to peddle off such a small number of horses but to Mr. Wilder’s surprise he had been offered a lager sum of gold a head than asked. William wasn’t a man to stick his nose up at a hefty profit so with great haste the stable master and a few of his farm hand booked first passage to the snowy nation across the sea. With his caravan first having to travel across the ocean and next an entire nation before reaching the boarders of the frost covered country they couldn’t pack to heavily.

It had been nearly three weeks since William and his farm hands saddled up their steeds and begun their adventure, they had to transport a total of seven warhorses on this journey so they knew from the beginning this would be a large task. Now that the majority of the journey was behind them William and the others tried to relax aboard the Mainlander and wait out the rest of their travels. The accommodations of the locomotive were minimal but at least they kept the cabins warm for their customers. It was nice and the regular passengers enjoyed it as they sat bundled up inside but William wasn’t a regular passenger. He stayed in the caboose with his mighty animals as they braved the fridge air rushing though the holes in the ceiling.

“Sir you’re going to catch a chill,” Daddle said as opening the sliding train door out to the rear of the caboose. “Come back inside. Anything is better than this.”

“Yeah,” William said as he noticed the frost forming off the end of his moustache. He turned to friend and smiling not letting her see how much he hated the snow. William treated his friends like he treated his horses, he was their leader and leaders never show their weaknesses. “How are the girls doing?”

“There all doing fine, Kanaan and the others are all huddled up and eating their hay.” Daddled answered as the two walked into the train car and she slams the door shut. Inside the caboose were seven different stalls each only barely large enough to hold one of William’s goliath mares. At the very end of the line was Kanaan, William’s most faithful companion and best friend. She was an old girl and mother to many of the horses William trades. Kanaan was large than all the other horses thanks to her being a full Hallowmane from across the sea. Her breed was large and strong which made them renowned far and wide as aggressive warhorses.

“Do you know how much longer until we reach Knife’s Edge? I don’t know how much longer I can stand this waiting.” William said as he leaned into Kanaan’s stall eyeing up his might grey steed.

“The man at the last station said it was about a four hour ride, but with this weather it’s going to be a bit longer. And that was only about an hour and a half ago. “She answered.

William sighed as he lost himself watching Kanaan munch away to her snack. With each powerful mouthful she would look up though the grated side of the train car. It might have just been the horse’s imagination but she was watching something in the darkness. William saw this in her, as he did whenever she was focused like she was now. It wasn’t anything to be worried about now, but something had her occupied. It was all Mr. Wilder needed was to get caught up now in some kind of trouble. But in any case there were many others riding this train and many others that feel the same way. It wasn’t any secret that his horses were worth a lot of gold and it’s not like you can keep seven gigantic horses from drawing a lot of attention. Only time would tell and luckily there was a lot of time to kill on this cold dark night.