Work Text:
It was deep into the throes of winter on Sodor. The holiday rush season had finally come to a close after the first week of January, and many engines were thankful for their workloads easing up a bit. They now had more time for breaks and to rest their wheels a bit.
Murdoch was happy to take advantage of this. He was assigned a long goods train that ran from Brendham to Vicarstown, and had been making excellent time. His driver agreed to let him have a short rest, since they were running so far ahead of schedule.
Murdoch breathed a content sigh, the countryside offering the quiet peace he would always long for. The cool winter air and soft rustling of the tree leaves that hang from branches that stretched out over his line from the field where the base of their trees sat.
All was calm.
Until, Murdoch had been roused from his sleep by light, joyous laughter.
He cracked an eye open and was shocked to see children running and playing in the field beside him.
Murdoch inwardly groaned, frustratedly coming to terms with his quiet being spoiled.
If he looked hard enough, Murdoch would spot a schoolhouse sitting atop the hill in the middle of the field, with the children’s teacher watching from just outside the door. His driver and fireman had gone inside to have a rest of their own, and the teacher offered them both hot cocoa.
Murdoch observed the children, as they ran about the field, making snow angels, building snowmen, and partaking in all the delights snow had to offer. Murdoch couldn’t understand why, for engines snow is only bothersome.
He was surprised, and perhaps a bit alarmed, that the children were playing so close to the fence keeping them away from the tracks. This was Murdoch’s first winter on Sodor, and was unused to seeing human communities be so closely entwined with the railway, both in physical closeness and societal importance.
His thoughts on the matter had distracted him from the present, meaning he didn’t notice what was about to happen right under his buffers!
A little girl had sneaked away from the group of children, and had crawled beneath the fence. She knelt down next to Murdoch, and gathered two snowballs in her hand, and placed one atop the other. She then grabbed a few loose bits of ballast and placed them on the top snowball in the shape of a smiley face. And finally, she stuck two tiny twigs into the sides of the bottom snowball as arms. It was a miniature snowman. The girl could hardly contain her giggling as she quickly placed the snowman on Murdoch’s bufferbeam! She then scurried back underneath the fence, to go rejoin the other children.
Just as this happened, a gust of wind blew by. Murdoch shivered. He looked up to see the tree branches above him swaying from the wind, and soon felt a sudden chill near his buffers. He thought snow from the treetops slipped off onto him.
“Blasted snow…” He muttered crossly.
His crew returned shortly after, and they climbed into his cab.
“It’s time to get moving again, Murdoch,” His driver called, “to Vicarstown we go!”
Murdoch’s fire roared to life, and he soon was puffing away from the field, unaware of a girl laughing behind him.
As he thundered down the line, Murdoch felt himself falling back into the rhythms of the rails, the rolling hills of the countryside flying past as the only sounds that could be heard were the clacking of his own wheels against the rails, and the occasional engine that passed him by.
Though soon enough, Murdoch had to make a short stop for water at Kellsthorpe Road. He rolled up to the water tower, and saw Emily sitting at the station proper, patiently waiting for her passengers to board her two coaches, Dorian and Basil.
“Hullo Murdoch, getting on well?” Emily asks, her voice lowering a little to accommodate Murdoch’s dislike of noise.
“Fine as can be, snow hasn't been much trouble so far.” Murdoch replied, as his tender was being filled with fresh water.
“Oh, I’d be careful down the line,” Emily warned, “I had seen James spin out over a slick bit of rail over by Cronk. Take my advice, slow down a bit over there.”
Murdoch held in a chuckle, Emily’s advice knows no bounds. “Thank you, Emily.”
Emily and Murdoch both fell silent, though Murdoch had the feeling Emily had wanted to say something more, but didn’t.
After not even a minute, he was proven right. Emily kept stealing glances at his front, and as he was about to question her, Emily couldn’t help herself from commenting.
“Although, maybe the snow won’t be an issue with you. Seems you’ve made yourself a frosty friend, haven’t you Murdoch?” She asked in a…playful tone? What was she getting at?
Murdoch was befuddled, “I—my—what?” He asked, completely confused.
Then suddenly, the stationmaster blew her whistle.
“Oh, that’s mine!” Emily exclaimed, “I’ve got to go. Lovely chatting with you Murdoch…and Frosty!” She laughed as she hurried away, even her coaches seemed amused.
“...Did she take on bad coal?” Murdoch wondered aloud, as his driver and fireman returned to his cab once more.
“Nevermind her, if we’ve got to take care and slow down by Crock, we’ll have to get a move on and make up for lost time while we still can go at speed.” His driver commanded, as Murdoch steamed out of the station siding, and was soon back to gliding along the main line.
Later on down the line, just before Cronk, Murdoch was stopped by a level crossing. He came to a halt, and soon heard the puttering of a traction engine.
It was Trevor! He was pulling a hay cart, though instead of being filled with hay, it was filled with children. The villagers of Cronk organized a winter festival, and Trevor was brought over to give children rides.
Trevor made his way slowly across the crossing, though while doing so, the children saw Murdoch’s snowman and began to point at him and cheer. Murdoch winced from the sudden noise.
“Oh, how wonderful Murdoch!” Trevor exclaimed, “How lovely of you to join in the seasonal fun! The children are overjoyed!” He chortled, as he finally cleared the crossing.
Murdoch could only stare ahead of him. He left the crossing feeling more confused than before.
“Is something going around…?” He mused to himself. He had never been one for holidays or festiveness. So what were Emily and Trevor talking about?
Murdoch had ample time to think this over while his journey slowed around Cronk, but he came up with nothing. He only hoped the issue would be dropped.
Though it wasn’t long before he would be confronted with this again. He was stopped at a signal. The signalman told his driver that Sonny was coming up at a crossing with a local passenger train, filling in for Percy. Murdoch was content to be solitary again, until Gordon had come up beside him on the track next to him.
Murdoch didn’t intend on greeting Gordon, though he also wasn’t expecting Gordon to scoff at him either.
“Is there a problem?” Murdoch asked, annoyance seeping into his voice.
Gordon rolled his eyes, “Pah! I expected better of you Murdoch. It isn’t dignified for big engines to take part in silly human nonsense. ‘Festive’ little novelty frills have no place on proper engines.” He sneered, refusing to even look Murdoch in the face.
Murdoch glared at Gordon, but said nothing. By then, Sonny and his coaches had passed the crossing up ahead. The signals changed to green, and Gordon promptly huffed away from Murdoch.
Murdoch only grunted in irritation, before Gordon’s words really sunk into his smokebox.
“Human nonsense? What is going on?” His confusion only fueled his irritation.
Murdoch scowled as he started off again, hoping to make the rest of his run a short one. Preferably without any more engine interactions.
Thankfully for Murdoch, he had no other run-ins with other engines commenting about “frosty friends” or “festivities”...until he had reached Vicarstown.
He pulled into the station, relief washing over him as his work finally concluded. This relief was short-lived when he heard chuckling.
Across from him at the opposite platform was Henry, with a goods train behind him and a wide grin on his face.
“Emily was right, a frosty friend you have indeed!”
Murdoch could only groan in defeat, “Have I gone daft? Is that what it is?”
“You have if you haven’t noticed what’s sitting on your buffer beam.” Henry snarked, and Murdoch was wholly unamused.
“I swear to everything on this island, if none of you will give me a straight answer on this I-”
“That won’t be necessary, Murdoch,” His driver called, his own voice riddled with humor.
“Take a look at what we’ve found!” His fireman guffawed, as the two of them walked further up the platform so Murdoch could see them unobscured, what with his smoke deflectors.
His driver was holding something small and white in his hand, with twigs sticking out the side and a sloppy smiley face stuck at the top. It almost seemed mocking.
“A…snowman?” Murdoch asked, voice hollow with bewilderment.
“Yes, a snowman!” Henry barked with laughter, “You mean to tell me you didn’t know you were carrying around a lump of snow?” He chortled.
“You couldn’t have noticed, Murdoch,” His fireman said, in an attempt of comfort, “It was sitting on the outside of your smoke deflectors.”
Light bulb.
“No wonder I couldn’t see it!” Murdoch exclaimed.
All of this hullabaloo over a snowman. This was stupid. This was ridiculous. So inane that a snowman was the cause of all this grief. It was so nonsensical even…that Murdoch didn’t have it in himself to be cross. All he could do was laugh. And laugh he did.
Murdoch’s booming laugh was deep and loud, even managing to startle Henry a little.
“Oh, what a trick!” Murdoch said, between bouts of laughter. He had believed his crew had put the little snowman there, though neither of them had the heart to tell him that they had no idea where it came from.
“So what will become of the wretched thing?” Henry asked, jokingly.
This gave Murdoch pause, and after a moment of pondering, he began to giggle once more.
“...I like the little thing now. I think Murdoch’s Frosty Friend is here to stay.” He replied, with more humor in his voice than Henry thought he was capable of.
“You truly have gone daft, you’re talking in the third person!”
Murdoch ignored Henry, instead looking at the little snowman, where his driver placed it to where he could see it.
“Here to stay indeed.”