It's always hot inside of the train, but especially at feeding time. The small kobold cranks a lever back, sending a stream of coal chunks rattling down into [i]Sasha[/i]'s gullet, to a purr of general approval. Coleman quietly pushes the lever back into place before she can guzzle too much, and sits back against the hatch to think.

It's not the first time the Knights have dealt with the Flood. And much as he hates to admit it, the Flood is one of the more dangerous threats a Train crew can come across. Hadn't Mister Conagher hammered that lesson home, dozens of times? Approached the mechanics, with their huddles and fireside horror stories and whispered conversations in cramped compartments, and told Coleman that they were mostly true? For all their might, for all their boasting and posturing--and oh, how the effort of saying it had cost the old man--Trains weren't invincible. The overconfident [i]Red Racer,[/i] burst apart when the engine demanded they power through and white-hot boiler met ice-cold flood. The [i]Lord Eber,[/i] left ironically high and dry when the Flood mired their coalbox. Crews shredded by abrupt coral storms, mighty engines overturned and capsized by waves. Crews that approached the Flood incautiously stood a good chance of not leaving. Leastwise, not in one piece.

[i]Sasha[/i] whines beneath him, and he pats one of her steam gauges absentmindedly. Probably wondering why they aren't moving.

And [i]Sasha[/i] is right, he decides, and starts the elaborate dance of the drive levers. They won't get her floodproofed by standing around here, and he's not going to risk [i]Sasha[/i] on a shortcut. One massive steel hand swings down to Jackdaw, an unspoken offer of a lift, and then he's off. Got to be a merchant here, or several, who have the tar and materials he needs. 

[[b]12[/b] on Look Closely.
-Tell me about the Beasts. What are they doing? What will they do next?
-Tell me about the Junk along the lake's shore. How could it hurt or help me?
-What will happen if I act meekly among the beasts?