Time

The locomotive walks the whole earth. It is a train with infinite cars. Those in the end will never see the beginning and those in the beginning will never see the end. Save for the conductor. He has been with the train when it was one car and he remains with it now, it it’s never ending glory. His ride began 1809, 5 years after the train’s first invention. He wasn’t a wealthy man, but he saved up enough to buy an engine. He knew in time he’d buy cars and could bring passengers to pay it back.

The man feared death. As his time drew closer, he began to devise a way to live longer. Modern medicine could do little to keep him alive, but witchcraft could. He lured a group of young witches to his train and kept them there. He forced them to teach him magic, to make his life eternal.

Every year he would add another car. Each car was left in a time loop. The engine in 1809, the cart after in 1810, the cart after that 1811 and so on and so forth. His passengers had heard rumors of an immortal train. Fearing death as well, they boarded. They were allowed to move about different cars and they did. Being immortal came with it’s draw backs. Sure, they could watch time pass. The seasons moved by as the train moved on. Leaves change colors on the turns of corners and just as quickly as they came, they fell to make way for the snow. But December 31, everything is reset to the beginning of each cart’s respective year.

While passengers can move car to car, they will be stuck if they stay longer than a day. They will also begin to age if they stay, rendering them mortal. Those who visit carts from the past will age backwards until they cease to exist. With the changing of society, many chose not to visit the past anyhow. Because of the trains length, no one has seen all the carts. There are those who have tried, of course, but they pay the price.