Late afternoon sunlight flooded the interior of the train as a curious looking blue and white cat roamed The interior of the second car, red irised eyes flickering over the chattering animals crowding the various benches. With a soft sigh, He proceeded to the first car and immediately stiffened with surprise. Sitting alone a few benches in was something he had rarely seen: a human. They were a rare species, Only a handful left in the world, So naturally his curiosity increased. Quickly thinking of something to say that would break the ice, he approached the stranger. "Hey! My name is rover. Can I bother you for the time?"

A young girl sat with her hands folded in her lap and her short legs swinging gently back and forth as the train chugged on. She smiled as she blinked the sunlight out of her eyes and tried to get a good view of the scenery racing by. This was an exciting new chapter in her life. Moving out on her own was something she'd looked forward to, but even as she watched the world around her change, she felt a bundle of nerves growing in her chest. What would this new and strange place be like? What kind of interesting creatures would she meet when she arrived?

Her internal monologue halted when a blue and white cat approached her and spoke up.

"Oh! Um, it's about 3:30 in the afternoon, I believe." She gave a friendly smile before remembering she should probably give him her name. "My name is Lacey. It's very nice to meet you, Rover!"

Rover look simply delighted that the girl had responded to him, quickly casting his gaze down at his watch to compare the time with what he had been told. "why thank you! Lacey was it? Pleasure to make your acquaintance! I think it is almost time to replace my watch, it keeps slowing down on me." And with that he quite deliberately stepped forward and took the seat across from her, Settling back into the cushion and giving his long tail A twitch. "I hope you don't mind if I sit here. I promise I won't fall asleep on your shoulder and start drooling on you or anything..." He chuckled, not about to tell this girl that he had once done just that.

After a moment in which he squinted into the sunlight and tried to not look excited to talk to her, the cat finally turned his yellow and red eyes back onto Lacey and suddenly tilted his head curiously. "so, Lacey, where is it that you might be heading? Anywhere I might know?"

Lacey giggled at Rover's odd promise. This cat seemed friendly enough, even if he was a little scatterbrained. She turned her body in the seat so she was facing him as she talked.

"I'm heading to a town called Seaglade. To be honest, I don't know much about the town, myself, so I don't think you'd be familiar with it..." Admitting she was so clueless about a place she was heading to live in was a bit embarrassing. It was certainly unusual, but she had been in a hurry to find a place to live and the name of the town had come up in conversation before.

An understanding nod began to bob his head for a moment before her words finally sunk in and a thoroughly startled expression blossomed onto Rover's face with a small pop as his mouth fell open. "Y-you mean that you don't even have a house to live in yet? Wow." He blinked once. "That's gutsy."

Allowing a thoughtful expression to cross his face, he finally seemed to come to some conclusion and reached into his pocket, Withdrawing a couple pieces of folded paper. "Seaglade sounds a little familiar, but you're right, I don't know much about it." He admitted, unfolding the paper and beginning to Peru's the contents. "I have a couple of Maps here. Maybe one of them is the town you're going to. Let's take a look!"

The first map he held up showed a fairly symmetrical town, it's River cutting an almost perfect diagonal from left to right with a sandy beach fringing the southern edge. The second map showed an almost staircase shaped pattern of the river starting at the top right and flowing left, then down, then left again in a longer line, then down, a short left, and then down into the ocean, Bisecting a long crescent shaped beach. And finally the third depicted a winding serpentine river that flowed from almost the exact center of the northern side of the town and made a curvy S shaped pattern before emptying out into the ocean at almost the exact center of the southern edge, Also bisecting it's beach which was contrarily Straight with only the most minimal of curves.

"is it one of these?" Rover asked hopefully, silently praying that it was, because he didn't have any other Maps.

"I know it's a little silly," Lacey admitted with a soft blush. She was just truly desperate for a place to live.

When Rover brought out the maps, Lacey looked them over carefully. It was certainly strange this feline had these maps stored in his pocket, but she was grateful because one of them seemed to jog her memory about what she'd heard of the geographical nature of the town. Lacey could recall her mother talking about the snaky river of the town and the straight beach. Her eyes locked onto the third map.

"It's that one!" she said with excitement, pointing at the map with the serpentine river. "I'm almost positive it's that one." Well, she hoped it was that one, anyway.

Pulling the maps back to himself, Rover studied the map she had indicated with interest, blissfully unaware of any of her uncertainty. He was simply glad that the maps had come in handy when he picked some up at the train station. "I see." He mused thoughtfully as he studied the twisty river. "Well, It looks like a nice enough place."

Suddenly, an announcement pinged over the intercom and the conductor stated, "Approaching our next stop at Seaglade Station. Next stop, Seaglade Station."

Rover looked shocked by the announcement and the amount of time that had passed, quickly glancing out of the window as the train began to slow down. "We are here already! That was fast." His eyes were bright with excitement as he looked back at the young girl sitting across from him. "well, I wish you the best of luck in your new home Lacey"

Lacey looked out the window behind her as the announcement rang through the train. Her eyes were straining to see any part of the town up ahead, to catch even a glimpse before she had to get off the train, but she still couldn't see much of anything. She turned back to Rover and mirrored the excited expression on the cat's face.

"I'm so glad I got to meet you, Rover," she said. "Thank you for keeping me company!" The train suddenly jerked them in their seats as it stopped completely. Standing up and brushing off her skirt, Lacey started to head for the front of the car. She stopped once to turn and wave over her shoulder before heading the rest of the way out of the train. The monkey conductor greeted her at the station exit, verbally confirming that this was, in fact, the town of Seaglade. Taking a deep breath, Lacey took her first steps onto the town pavement.

Sunlight blinded her for a moment and she had to blink it out of her eyes before being able to take in the sight before her. From what she saw, the town seemed pretty normal.

"I wonder what I'm supposed to do now," she muttered to herself. She hadn't really thought about what would happen immediately after exiting the train, but now she felt extremely awkward, just standing in the afternoon sun all by herself and glancing around in worry.

As the train slowly built up speed and pulled away from the station once again, A lone passenger having disembarked and walked out the front door, several figures perked up with interest and quickly moved forward.

The first to speak, her voice low and pleasant, was a white she wolf with a brown stripe running up the top of her muzzle, Fluffy brown fur spilling out of her pointed ears, and a pair of bright light blue eyes. "Hey, is that her?" She whispered to a light blue squirrel by her side, His own orange eyes focused on the newcomer.

"she said this was supposed to be her train." Murmured A black and silver fox on the wolf's other side, pink nose twitching with interest and silvery green eyes bright with excitement.

"then why isn't anyone talking to her?" Queried an light orange and yellow otter, His dark blue eyes concerned.

From between him and a snow leopard with pink and black spots suddenly stepped A bright yellow dog, Her hair tied back with a ribbon adorned with bells that jingled with her every step. She blinked her large dark brown eyes, Appearing to be slightly apprehensive but kind. Lifting her voice, she called out to the small crowd. "just like we practiced! One, two, three!"

"WELCOME TO SEAGLADE!" The group of animals suddenly shouted, clapping their paws together.

"i'm so glad you could make it Mayor!" The yellow dog stated happily and she took another step forward. "and exactly the time that you said you would arrive." She continued with a brilliant smile, completely unaware that she had the wrong person.

Lacey stood nervously as the animals gathered around her. She didn't know whether to introduce herself or...be afraid. They were all so colorful and interesting! It was nothing like what she'd ever seen in her hometown. She smiled sheepishly at the quickly growing group and watched as they all seemed to be whispering to each other about her. Was she wrong about this place? Had she somehow gotten off at the wrong stop? Sweat poured down her back at the horrifying thought.

Suddenly, they were all shouting their welcome and...clapping for her! Lacey was astonished. Still a bit confused, her smile turned warmer and she let out the breath she'd been holding as she realized she was in the right place.

"Thank you all so much for the warm welco--wait, what?" Did that dog just call her the mayor? Lacey laughed nervously and shook her head, putting a hand up in front of her. "Uh, no, I think there's been a mistake. My name is Lacey and I just moved here."

once again, the yellow dog blinked, Looking somewhat perplexed. "Umm..." She put a paw to her mouth as she studied Lacey. Then suddenly, she began to laugh, The sound bright and cheerful as the bells she wore on her ribbon. "oh, stop joking around!" She said cheerfully in between bursts of laughter. "You know exactly who you are. , Of course were not mistaken. Like I said, you arrived exactly when and how you told us you would be arriving.."

Lacey was still very confused, but she didn't say anything this time, figuring it was best not to make herself seem foolish at the very moment of arriving in her new town. She simply nodded in agreement and gave a small smile to the dog. Perhaps there had been a mix up, and perhaps there hadn't. Who could tell how things were run in this whole new world of animal villagers? Lacey knew there would be time later to sort out the details after she had shaken off the initial shock, but right now, there was a pressing issue on her mind.

"I would just like to know where I'll be living. You see, I'm not very good at planning, so I didn't pick out a house before I got here...Is there anyone I could talk to about that?"