The spirit of travel

Strange, I thought to myself, this didn't seem like the end of the line, but we're not moving anymore. This line of the TradeRail System was supposed to go a few stops further than this, but with not even an announcement, it had been sitting here for over half an hour, unmoving. And I was the only person left aboard. Everybody else had disembarked, off to do their shopping, eating, or... perhaps lovemaking, I wouldn't judge. This was New Kabukicho Station, after all.

I wasn't ready to get off the train, though. My destination was still a couple more warps away. I elected to do something I would never do, under any other circumstance - I pressed the "Call Driver" button.

Meow, it replied.

"Uh..." Suddenly lost for words, I asked the speaker the first thing that came to mind. "Are we going anywhere?"

Meowwww, it insisted.

I had wondered if the driver had stepped away to take a break and not informed anybody, but the only way to check was to look in the driver's compartment myself. The door was already open. Sitting in the seat, flicking her tail to and fro, was an average-sized calico cat, wearing a navy blue uniform jacket and hat, with golden filigree around the trim lines, and a bright red necktie. She stared up at me, then lifted a front paw, as if to ask for a handshake.

I could only oblige her, as I grasped her paw gently and shook it once. "Good morning," I greeted. "It's nice to meet you. Where's the driver?"

I am the driver, I heard in my mind, while my ears only detected more meowing, with a hint of a trill to it.

I knelt before the...driver?... and examined her uniform in more detail. Printed on the cap, in similar gold to the trimming on her jacket, were the hiragana characters for Nanatama. She leaned forward and bonked her head against my nose. "Pff," I snorted, not expecting feline affection today. "So you're Nanatama."

That, I am.

"You drive this train?"

I drive many things. The train is but one portion of them. Her words had reached my ears as a prolonged purr, as she stretched and rubbed her face against the backrest of the driver's seat. Trains, destinies, both move along rails, do they not? They switch tracks at predetermined points, but continue ever forward, to whichever variation of forward one wishes.

I was still pondering how she might reach the controls, but I had a more important question. "How do I get to my stop? I'm a few more warps down the line..."

You are certainly putting a lot of faith into a cat to lead you onwards. It felt as if she were chuckling at me as she stood up on her hind legs. Fortunately, you seem to have noticed that I am somewhat more than a cat.

"The locals had said something about the old patron spirit of travel. Are you...?" I left the question open for her to complete however she wanted.

Tama? Well, Tama the seventh. A line of Eternal Stationmasters. Tama still exists in her shrine, of course, back down in the Old World. Out here in the cosmos, there is always yet more ground to be covered, more offerings needed, more wayward peoples in need of protection along their travels. And this TradeRail car serves as my shrine.

"Offerings..." I reached into my coat pocket for something that a cat would want, and settled on a small wrapped candy. "Sorry, I don't have a lot, but..."

Don't worry about the things that you don't have, Nanatama reassured me. What you do have is something shiny and crinkly. She reached for the candy in my hand with a few errant swipes of her paw. I mean, take the candy out first. I don't need the sugar.

I shrugged, popped the butterscotch disc out of the plastic, and straightened the wrapper out as much as I could, before handing it to the Eternal Stationmaster.

Excellent, the little feline spirit of travel trilled. Now please have a seat and hold on to something - by my blessing, you'll get where you're going.