You're in the woods You don't know how you got there, you are standing on a rail platform, a frog man is laying in the only bench, you can hear the train coming, the clock reads 13:67, there are 53 trains that come hourly according to the schedule board, and if you look up you can see the stars, in your pocket lies 7 golden coins. What do you do?
You go over to the edge of the platform and sit down, you look up at the stars, the frog man gets up and starts sitting with you, he smiles, his mustache on full display, he starts to talk to you:
"Hey, do you ever wonder what it's like, up there, beyond the confides of life and death, capitalism and war, a world free from it, I wonder what it's like, beyond this world, I have hope, do you"
A star shoots by and you can hear the train still, its getting louder
I tell him I try to have hope, and ask which train he's taking
He Looks at you for a moment before saying
"Yeah, so do I, there are numerous worlds out there, and why can't there be a world free from suffering as well, if there's vastness and an infinite time span, I don't see why things can't be better somewhere"
You smile at him and smiles back, he takes his hat off. You ask what train he's riding and he says
"I really don't know why I'm here, much like you I presume, but I hope to catch the next train out of this place, after a few days the decay gets to you, it's nice to have company"
The train gets louder
I ask him “what is the decay?”
"Look around you" he responds "This place is the very essence of decay, the concrete eroding, moss covering the ground, mushrooms spread about, the last leaves clinging to dying trees, this forgotten Hollow is the end that faces all places, the difference is, this world is too young, briming with life and excitement, it shouldn't be like this, it doesn't need to be, something is deeply wrong here, everything decays, entropy will kill us all in the end, but this, this is too early"
The train gets louder still, a leaf falls from a tree and lands in your lap, then for a moment forest is silent, no birds are in the air and no insects are upon the earth, the roar of the train returns with a boom
I turn to the train and tell it politely that I'm trying to have a conversation, could you please quiet down a little? Thanks.
The train suddenly is silent, it slowly and quietly glides into the station and comes to a stop
"Your train?" I ask the Frog Man
He gets up and starts walking over to the now open train doors, he calls over, "you'll want to catch this train now, we may not see each other again, but you have proven kind and I must warn you that the schedule sign lies, the train won't come again."
I take my leaf, and follow him to the train doors.
You get up and run after him onto the train, when you make it on the train, it is full of people but the frog man is nowhere to be found, you make your way to an empty seat and contemplate what the frog man told you"
You see his hat sitting still on the platform before the train leaves, the platform seems to waste away without any life there to sustain it