lozff23 The Legend of Aryll: Seagulls follow Link wherever he goes on his train, restoring the Spirit Tacks. He reminisces with Zelda about why they follow him so.
Link closed his eyes for a moment as his train sped along the tracks, puffing contented little poofs of smoke up into the air. His hands were slick with grease and charcoal from the engine fire, but he couldn't imagine a place he'd rather be. Above him, just out of the smoke stream, came the peal of a seagull.
Link looked up excitedly and saw that a small flock had joined him, winging along beside him, the same little white birds that alighted from the tracks at almost every station he'd had to stop at.
Clearing his throat, he attempted a little seagull cry in return.
"Eaw! Eaw!" he tried.
"Eaw! Eaw!" came a reply, higher and thinner against the wind, fighting the sound of the engine.
Link laughed. He'd always loved seagulls—
"What are you doing?"
Link jumped and quickly grabbed a handhold to keep himself on the train.
"Oh, uh, nothing, Miss Zelda—"
"We you talking to the gulls?" she asked, her pale eyebrows arched up in her translucent face.
Link looked down and away. Zelda grinned.
"Excuse me, miss," he apologized, and quickly climbed up the ladder which allowed him to see over the train to get a view of the tracks, and cool his blushing face. Spotting a rotund cow lounging in their path a ways off, he yanked the whistle cord and Zelda flinched. The strident noise was endurable inside the cabin, but out here, where Link was, not quite as much. He clomped back down in his heavy boots and composed himself.
"Yes, yes I was talking to the seagulls," he said.
Zelda looked at him like he was crazy. Link cleared his throat and did his best seagull impression once more.
"I bet you can't do that, your highness."
Zelda continued to look at him skeptically. Link climbed the ladder and made sure the cow had moved. It had.
"Link," Zelda began, "Is that a common skill in Aboda village?"
"No, your highness, I'm the only and the best," he grinned.
Zelda nodded slowly, carefully watching the seagulls as they flew around the train. "I don't think I've ever seen quite so many seagulls gather around a train before."
"Me neither, miss. Alfonzo always said they've always gathered around where I am, even when I was little."
"I wonder why that is," Zelda mused, watching the birds fly overhead. Link climbed the ladder again to scare yet another animal from the tracks. The lazy cows quite enjoyed the sun-heated metal of the spirit tracks.
"Niko says it is because the Lady Aryll finds favor in me."
"Lady Aryll?" Zelda asked. "Wasn't she the sister of the Hero of the Winds?"
"Yes, your highness, and it is said that she was so carefree and so pure that seagulls flocked about her prison cell when she was held by the evil King Ganon at the Forsaken Fortress, and seagulls would take up flying next to her brother when he sailed to free her, as if to encourage him," Link said, wiping his hands on a grease cloth. Zelda watched the sky above them, where the gulls soared ahead, sliding above as their pace fell behind but flapping forth as they caught a lift.
"Aryll was one of my ancestors," Zelda said. "My great aunt."
"So the Hero of the Winds and Queen Tetra were your grandparents, Princess?"
"Yes, they were," she looked down from the sky again, her specter dress flapping in the wind. "I knew Queen Tetra when I was very young, but the Hero of the Winds had already passed. His battles aged him and he died before I was born."
"I am most sorry, your highness. And excuse me." Link climbed the ladder again to startle another sleeping bovine from its napping place. Within moments he dropped back down onto the metal that connected the engine to its car.
Zelda smiled. "My mother used to tell me that the Hero dies young to make room for the next one to be born. When were you born, Link?"
"September 19th, in the 88th year of New Hyrule, your highness."
Zelda smiled. "Just as I thought. Nine months after the day my grandfather passed away." She paused to watch the birds again. "Alfonzo was right," she said, "Lady Aryll does find favor with you."
Link grinned. "I always knew it," he said. "I think the birds told me," he said with a mischievous grin.
AN: Anybody else out there have a seagull impression? Yeah! * high fives * I used to have a really good one, but now it just sounds like a laser gun.
Some slight edits were made to this on 7/31/15.