Rainy sat alone once again. He started to feel more and more homesick as time wore on. He had to admit that this feeling was eased while he was with his friends, but his feet still longed to walk upon the moist surface of Nimbus, his eyes longing to see Raindrop peak once more. But then he reminded himself that he hadn't been home in a little less than a century, and he wasn't so sure how his welcoming would go. This thought brought about yet another, even if he did go back, who would be there to greet him? With Ravis and all of his other homeland friends gone, his parents both passed, and any close relatives long dead, would there be anyone there that would even care that he was coming back? He sighed deeply and shook off his weariness. Because of his dreams, he had stopped sleeping so much. This was the second day in a row he had had without rest. He reached a hand up to his right shoulder with a small smile. That smile was quickly wiped away when he realized that Crux was not there sitting on his shoulder.
"Kai is taking good care of her, I know it," Rainy thought to himself. He started to think about how nice it was before the wars had started. No cursed dreams, surrounded by his friends, playing with Crux, taking classes at the academy, and spending time with his father. Rainy stopped thinking and opened his eyes, and noticed that his vision was blurred. He looked down at the floor of the car he was in and heavy drops fell from his eyes to the floor below. His head fell into his hands and he began to cry. He hadn't felt this alone his entire life. He tried to stop the tears, but they just kept coming and coming. Through the window to the next car, Prism and Mazzic watched. When Rainy looked up and wiped his eyes a final time on his cloak sleeve, he noticed them in the window. He quickly turned from his normal shade of light blue, to a more violet one as blood rushed into his cheeks. Mazzic went the other way into the next car, but Prism came inside and sat down next to Rainy on the bench.
"What's the matter?" she asked with a rather curious but concerned look on her face.
"I...I just feel so....alone..." he said trailing off. "I miss my friends, my family, and Crux."
"You have friends here though, you shouldn't feel alone," she replied.
"Yeah I know," he said with a shrug. "It just seems that most of the people on this train don't even know who the hell I am, let alone knowing anything about me."
"It'll be alright, people just need time. You'll see, in no time these people will know who you are."
"I suppose you're right," he said feeling slightly better.

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The next morning after having a horrid dream, Rainy got up out of bed and got breakfast. It really wasn't much, he wasn't that hungry to be honest. When he got dressed and arrived in the main room he found it strangely empty. He decided to pass the time with some cards. He played some solitaire for awhile and then got bored of it. He began again to think about the old times, when he was actually happy. He missed those times. Slowly people began to come into the room and started to talk, or stare out the window, or play cards. Around midday, Kaye asked him if he wanted to play a few hands of poker with him. Rainy thought about it for a second, then with a smile he said, "Well considering the results the last time you played poker with someone, I think I'm better off with solitaire for now. Thanks anyway though." Kaye shrugged and then went and asked Mazzic. Rainy waited for Mazzic to jump out of his chair and start to strangle Kaye for asking, but instead Mazzic accepted. Rainy shook his head and chuckled to himself, some people never learn. Rainy looked up from his solitaire a short while later and noticed a small group of people sitting around and talking, they were laughing about something. Prism saw him and gave him a wave to come over. Rainy got up out of his chair and shuffled towards the group, slightly nervous if nothing else. He sat down next to Pris and listened to the rest of them tell funny or interesting stories about things they had done or seen.
All of a sudden he heard, "How about you Rainy? Got anything interesting to say?" Prism gave him a wink and he thought for a moment, then began to talk about the trouble he used to get into with Ravis. Before he got into his actual past he decided it would be a good idea to talk about Nimbus itself. As it was, Nimbus was very very old, and had been around for many many millenia. It's surface had been at first a large ice covered mass. During the thousand years it had got too close to one of the nearest stars, the ice began to melt and land began to form. A long while after, his race evolved. They were a special breed of yoshi. Hailing (no pun intended) from Nimbus meant that life, at least in years, was everlasting. He told them of the legend of the Sleet Twins. They were the first pair of twins to be born on Nimbus, as conicidentially they were identical twins. They had been extremely advanced in all areas of study. They went through school at a very fast rate, finishing the academy study by the time most would begin. Oddly enough, their personalities clashed a lot. Alt (short for Altitude) Sleet was kind, while Storm Sleet was the direct antithesis, always seeming to be in a bad mood and being mean to others. After the academy they had trained together under Master Snowfall and had created their own weapons, each enchanting them different ways. Alt had imbued his with a charm that would help him to defend others against attack, calling it Guardian. Storm had enchanted his with a charm that would help him on the offensive and heightening his attack, calling his Slayer. The brothers began to grow apart, seeing eachother less and less. Alt had a reputation for being the Defender of the weak, while Storm had grown one of being a Agressor to all in his way. The brothers had their final meeting one day, they were aruging over a situation. Alt watched Storm kill a woman ane her child because they didn't move out of his way on the road. He was not able to contain himself and after minutes of arguing, he attacked his sibling. Alt was the more skilled of the two brothers, so Storm had found himself more on the defensive. The enchantments on the swords dulled the skill of both as they were being used for an opposite purpose. After an hour of battling they both stopped and with a final running thrust they killed eachother with the swords. The elders at that time had taken it as a sign that the weapons were both blessed and cursed to their owners and had decided to seal them away in the Twisting Forest. They built a strong temple with both swords guarded by strong monsters and a maze of trials before the holding room; one for each. Eight of the nine elders volunteered to guard the guard the temple until, or if, they ever neede Guardian and Slayers again. Since then no one had been in the Twisting Forest, and many enchantments and hexes had been placed over it to ward away a stray highwayman or pilfer.
After the legend he moved on to other things. As the day wore on, his stories involved much more explaining. Instead of jumping around he started from the beginning. First he told them about his life when he was small and he and Ravis would get caught doing stupid things all the time. Putting frogs in the inn's dressing drawers, getting chased by the barmaid with a broomstick, and running through Farmer Hailstone's fields were some of the stories he told. Though everytime he said the names of his friends he winced slightly, he was happier than he had been the previous day. He moved on to telling them about life in the academy and how Teacher Nimbo used to teach them lessons. He was the best teacher in the whole school because his class was fun and students actually learned something, though the administration would get angry with him for showing magic by demonstration. One time he nearly wiped out the whole school because he had made the wrong hand gesture and instead of a warm sunny day feel, he had gotten a hurricane. He laughed aloud for this peticular story because he was in the front row and saw the look on the teachers face when it happened. As he moved on, he told everyone how while he was at the academy he was also training with Master Snowmelt (Son of Master Snowfall) to be a ranger. When he was telling this story, he brought out Defender and Avenger for the first time since he had come out on the train. Defender shown a soft blue hue, while Avenger looked as if it had just been thrown in a firepit. He explained how it took him a long time to enchant them. Under the supervision of Headmaster Front he had worked hours and hours to get the enchantments right, and had gone through many different components before he had even been able to cast the spell. They all seemed to be at least somewhat impressed with it. He began to speak more quietly when he started to talk about the Thunderclap Wars. Adding in the part about the spells becoming so powerful that two of the continents of Nimbus were lost to the sea and hadn't been seen since.
"Yes, I remember well when I was in the ranks of the army wading through the field towards our final destination, the Dark Lord's Castle. There he captured us and..." he stopped talking briefly.
"What's wrong?" he heard someone say to his left.
"Nothing, nothing. I just can't talk about that part of it for the time being, it's a tender subject. I will tell you this, Ravis and the rest of my friends were lost there. I may tell you the details of what happened there at a later date, but for now I will move on."
And indeed he did move on to speak of his father's passing and the vision. He began to get the most excited when he spoke about his days traveling after the vision. When he had finally ended his story up to the point where they had picked him up, most of the day was already gone and night was beginning to set in. He looked up, and noticed for the first time that a few more people had been listening than he thought. Everyone began to file out of the common room towards their own to lie down for the night. Rainy headed for his and just before he got to the door, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to face CR.
"This Nimbus legend you spoke of, is it true?"
"From the way the elders describe it, it would have to be. Also seeing as how no one has been in the Twisting Forest since the time the elders vowed to eternally guard it, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be."
"I think that your tale deserves some consideration. Perhaps we should visit this Nimbus of yours, it couldn't hurt could it?" he asked.
"No I don't think so bu--" Rainy was cut off.
"Great then, we leave soon for Nimbus."
Rainy turned and shrugged. Oh well, guess he would have to deal with his past eventually. He lay down on his bunk, feeling lonely without Crux. At this point though, he was too tired to feel too lonely and he rolled over into a quiet slumber.