At 11 o'clock at night in a nearly empty train station was a young girl, stood beneath a small canopy of an open air boarding platform to stay dry as rain fell steadily from the storm clouds. It wasn't an ugly storm or a brutal one, but it still rained. It was still cold.

The young girl reached up, tightening her coat around her thin body and watching the empty rails before her with a kind of tension about her.

'I can't believe I'm doing this,' her thoughts quietly repeated for the hundredth time, the girl swallowing against an ever building lump in her throat as she nervously looked down to check her luggage.

Three red bags, one strapped to the top of a rolling suitcase, another sitting patiently on the ground. Three bags was all she had.

She sighed deeply, her breath making a small white cloud as the air turned just cold enough to allow it, its chill bringing memories of home. The train station felt so cold in comparison to the house she had left behind, the smell of rain on the railways in such startling juxtaposition to the smells of the bakery she grew up in. Her fingers tightened on her coat, just shy of trembling as she bit down on her lip.

How could she really be doing this… what was she thinking? Three bags? That's it? Three bags and a bank account with barely enough to get by and she really thought she could just…go. Start a life somewhere so far away. A small village near the sea, a seamstress shop with a 'hiring' sign stuck plainly in the window. A friend she had met on only a handful of occasions but had felt like she had known all her life. A promise of a life with simple joys and miracles, a life on her own… for the first time in her life.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng closed her eyes, taking a shaky breath to steady herself and feeling the sharp chill of the storm in her lungs as she did. She was acutely aware of the ghosting spray of rain water as it collided with the cobbled stone ground, the sound of it the only thing apart from her own heartbeat.

There was only one train left to arrive, and no other passengers to take it. She wondered if she would be the only one on board and if that was some kind of omen, an empty passenger care warning her to turn back and just go home. Or maybe it would be a sign that this really was a moment to decide the course of her life.

She chuckled once, the sound strange when mixed with the rain.

She was scared. To make a decision to just start a new life away from home was… insane. But it was also exciting. Though she was terrified and uncertain she could still fantasize about everything life would present her in her new home. She thought of pale pink curtains and hand sewn pillows, placemats and ceramic eating bowls. They were simple thoughts but they were thoughts of a home she would make for herself, they were images of a place that could be 'home' because she made it home. Living away from her parents for the first time.

Could she really be so bold? Or when the train came would she even get on board?

She liked to think she would but…

When she first heard the rumble of train she thought it was thunder, but as the feeling of the locomotive made its way to the souls of her shoes she felt her breath catch. Her heart started to pound in her ears as she opened her eyes, looking down the dark rainy track to see a bright single light on the face of a great train approaching the station.

One train heading west, with her its only passenger.

Waiting for the train to come to a stop was some of the longest moments of her life, and she wasn't sure if the feeling in her chest was anxiety or anticipation, or perhaps a mix of both. The ground rumbled and the gentle sound of the rain was drowned out by a long jarring sound of steam and brakes, huge rolling pins chugging to a halt in front of her.

'This is it,' she thought, hefting her bags and feeling with one laden hand for the ticket nestled safely in her pocket. 'This is it… Don't be scared. Don't be scared… It's time to live our own life. Alya is waiting for us… A life is waiting for us. I can do this. I can do this.'

Marinette took a long moment to gather her wits, settling the weight of her bags before taking a step forward, shivering in the chill of the rain as it dampened her hair.

She jumped a little when the great door swung open, the heavy metal clanging and the face of a monkey in a conductor's uniform leaning out. She hated to admit that she jolted slightly, not incredibly used to having animals around. The city she had grown up in was very far inland and mostly populated by humans. It wasn't that she had never known them, she had had many animal friends growing up, she just had never met a monkey before. She'd have to adjust though, animals lived primarily in villages and she was moving to one herself. It was incredibly likely that there would only be a handful of humans in her entire community.

"Hello miss!" the monkey greeted cheerily, and even though it was cold and the rain was still falling she felt significantly warmer. It was nice not to be alone.

The monkey lifted a paw, tipping his hat and grinning. "Are you the only one boarding?"

"Yes sir," Marinette answered quickly, fumbling for her ticket and drawing slightly closer to escape the rain in the shelter of the train. "I'm going to uh, Miracle Village? It's far from here."

The monkey whistled, making a strange chuckling type sound to itself as it inspected her ticket, stepping aside to let her board. "That's far indeed Ms.! You'll be on this train for quite a while but don't fret, we've made sleeping preparations like you requested. It's a nice train miss, we'll get you there by tomorrow morning. Let me take your bags."

Marinette tried to tell him it was alright but he was having none of it, grabbing one bag from her arm with his tail and running off with the others wheeled along the ground, urging her to follow him.

She hesitated for a second, looking out the door and into the falling rain not reluctantly, but with a sense of… farewell. That's how she'd describe it, it was like she was saying goodbye.

"Goodbye," she said aloud, her fingers twisting together as she look a slow step after the helpful conductor. "I'll visit soon… after I'm settled."

She lingered only a moment more before taking a deep breath, padding down the hallway after her attendant.

Marinette walked until she found a compartment with the monkey inside, the kind gentleman stowing her bags and happily gesturing to the sleeping cot made up near a long window.

"The door slides shut so no one will bother you miss, not that there is many others aboard at the moment," he chuckled again, paws on his hips. "You're alone in this section but there are some passengers further down so don't be spooked if you hear them walking around. You're the only one going as far as Miracle village but I'm not sure if we're picking anyone up in between. I'll leave you to get settled, but would you like me to come and wake you up by a certain time?"

Marinette quickly waved her hand, smiling at his kindness but shaking her head. "Oh no it's alright I have an alarm. We're arriving at 8?"

"Yes!" he confirmed, stepping towards the door, his tail twitching with his almost overwhelming positive energy. "We're never late! Except when we are, hehe!"

With that he bounded out, bowing and tipping his hat again before sliding the compartment door shut and leaving to go about his work.

Marinette looked after him, staring at the door for a second before giggling quietly to herself. If monkeys were all so energetic she could imagine herself getting along with them fine… she wondered if any lived in the village.

She shook her head, black pigtails swaying with the force as she turned to face her cot, jumping slightly when she felt the train start again with a great rumble.

"Hope I can sleep through that," she muttered to herself, not bothering to change at all just draping her coat over a nearby seat and kicked off her boots.

"I can't believe I'm going through with this…" she whispered to herself, crawling into her sleeping space and trying to get settled as the train started with a lurch.

The cot was warm and watching the rain connect and slide down in little rivers down the window was relaxing but… she still felt that twisted anxious feeling in her chest, the compartment feeling overwhelmingly dark and empty.

This had all started with a message. And to think she was actually doing it…

About two weeks prior Marinette had been working in her family's bakery when her mother had come down into the store front with an amused expression on her face.

"Alya is messaging you," she said with a laugh, rolling her eyes at something. "Quite a bit in fact. I'll take over for you if you want to check it, she is being rather insistent."

She hadn't gone upstairs expecting a hundred different messages from her friend Alya, each one a different variation of her name demanding to be acknowledged.

Alya had been her best friend for years, the two of them meeting online in a chatroom and sticking together online in one form or another for years. It had been just the year prior when they had met for the first time, Alya taking a trip inland to visit Marinette specifically. After that they had been together in person a handful of times but always with Alya being the one to make the trip, never her. Marinette had never done it on purpose it had just always worked out like that, though Alya had always spoken highly of the village she had moved to once she moved out from her parent's house that was also farther inland.

It was an animal village, and Alya had always wanted her to visit it. Marinette had thought about it but had never had the money, she'd been saving up to make it out for Alya's birthday when the messages had started.

To put it simply Alya was urgent because of something that had come up in her town, something she figured would be of interest to her designer friend online.

It was a job at a place called 'Sable Sisters'. According to Alya it paid well, was exactly what she had always wanted to do, had amazing co-workers, etc. etc. But the main thing she was excited about was-

"Alya: It's here! In my town! I know you're going to think I'm insane but you've been talking about moving out. I know your parents wanted you to work in the bakery but that's not what you want! You want to design and make clothes and you can TOTALLY DO THAT. You should take the job! YOU SHOULD MOVE HERE."

Her immediate response had been, "Are you freaking crazy," but it had eaten at her. Alya had always talked in glowing terms of the small beautiful village, telling her its lore and all about her life there. Alya herself worked as a reporter and journalist for newspapers in neighboring slightly larger cities, but she mostly worked through online channels so she was always home. She had so much to say about the people (or rather animals for the most part) who lived there and… she had always made it sound so amazing.

And now there was a job there, and Alya had always made pointed remarks about the spare bedroom in her house.

A small house near the sea… in a village far from home. With a job she had always wanted, living with a friend she loved so deeply and almost never got to see.

And… it stuck with her. Every shift at the bakery, every errand and every family dinner it was on her mind. And once Alya had recruited her parents on the endeavor and got them completely on board it was impossible to escape. Her parents were excited, they wanted her to pursue design, they wanted her to live her own life. Going on such a grand adventure was exactly what they had hoped for with her, she deserved the opportunity.

She just had to be brave enough to go for it.

And now lying in that small cot as the train shook gently around her she wondered if this is what brave was. Alone in a cold train compartment on her way to a village so incredibly far away… is this what brave was?

Marinette closed her eyes, listening to the white noise of the train as it rolled through the night. She clutched her phone close to her chest, too anxious about sleeping through her alarm to let it go. She wasn't even sure if she would sleep but…

She pulled her head beneath the covers, curling up slightly and trying to calm her pounding heart.

This was a good thing… she was moving out. She was going to live with her friend until she could get a place of her own, or maybe she would just stay there. She didn't even have that much planned, the only thing she had was a job, somehow procured through an over the phone interview and glowing recommendation from her best friend.

Sable Sisters… she had heard of it before from Alya. She loved their clothes, they were all handmade and beautifully designed, but Alya always preferred the clothes Marinette mailed her. She wondered if the other villagers would agree… she didn't know how to make clothes for animals. She'd probably have to use thicker material for animals with sharp spines… maybe different cuts for one with wings. It had seemed like such an intriguing challenge but now she was just intimidated, her addled brain looking for any excuse to make her panic.

Marinette clenched her jaw, closing her eyes and forcing herself to calm down. She was already on the train, all the arrangements had already been made. She was starting a new life in a new place whether she liked it or not, and she was going to rise to the challenge and she was going to be amazing. She could do this, and she was going to. There was no reason for her to lay there in fear, because she had Alya. Alya was going to be there for her but even if she wasn't she was more than capable. She could, and she was going to. She kept repeating that to herself, saying it over and over again to herself as she lay in the dark.

She could… she could.

Hadn't Alya always said it was called Miracle Village because it was a place where miracles happened?