Of course, by the time she reached the bottom of the stairs, the clanging had stopped. But she wasn't about to give up now. Elle held up the torch, mindful of the ceiling but trying to see as much of the tavern basement as she could. There was nothing down here but old crates and mildew. She moved the torch from side to side, walking forward slowly, more shuffling than stepping in her caution.

Her toe tapped against something, and she lowered the torch to look at the floor. There were two thin parallel lines stretching across the stone floor. Elle knelt to take a closer look, poking at the lines with a finger. They were made of metal, and there were many even tinier pieces of wood, like flat toothpicks, bridging the gap between the long metal lines. She traced the metal with her hand, and eventually came across a little stick, pointed straight up out of the floor. Next to it was a round sign, and she had to get down close and squint at it to read the tiny, scratchy writing in the flickering torchlight: RAILROAD CROSSING.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said. Just then the clanging sound began, louder than it had seemed from upstairs. The little stick began to bend on a hinge she hadn't noticed before, lowering to a ninety-degree angle. She turned her head, and there coming towards her on the track was the tiniest of trains, a fat black rat sitting astride it.