Railway of the Wilderness

The old railway hadn't seen a train in twenty years. With the rise of transporters and hovercrafts, grounded transportation had been deemed limited and inefficient.
For why would anyone want to waste away their time stuck on the ground, traveling at speeds that would make a snail laugh?
And so the trains had been transported to museums or scrap yards, depending on their worth.
Without trains, the railway was without a purpose. They were left to be reclaimed by what wilderness remained, abandoned and soon forgotten by the humans who had built them.
For twenty years, the wilderness worked to claim it. First the tracks, the metal and wood roots that sprawled across the land like a weed.
Then came the capture of each station that was near a wild place. If it had been possible to claim those stations that withered within the cities, the wilderness would have done it.
But it wouldn't do to tip the hand, and so those were left alone.
The humans never noticed, so enthralled they were with the sparkling wonders of their newest technological feats.
That suited the wilderness. It took the time of inattention the humans so foolishly offered, and learned how beast to use its newest resource.
It wasn't easy, but the twenty years proved fruitful.
When at last the time of trial came, the tracks rumbled.
The roaring wasn't from a human engine. The ground didn't tremble beneath the onslaught if an iron engine.
No, the wilderness had taken time to infuse the once human railway with its own magic, so that the ancient beasts of its domain could finally roam once more.
If any human had been around that warm summer night, they would have fainted at the sight.
As it was, the scarlet dragon released a triumphant burst of flame as it streaked down the tracks with its wings tucked close against its body and with its claws glistening with the magic of the wilderness which flowed between the beast and the railway tracks.