Chapter 12: Full Steam Ahead!

Link

"What is with all these metal roads?" Revali asked.

I rolled my eyes, "They're train tracks, birdbrain."

"You're one to talk," he stood up from inspecting them, "What's a train, and once more, why can't we just fly to where the sword is?"

"I suppose you could, but do you know where it is?"

"Do you? Because you only gave us a name, not a location."

I shrugged, "That's all I was told, the Tower of Spirits in New Hyrule. Then he told me how to get to New Hyrule. He also said to follow the Spirit Tracks to get to the Tower."

"We've been doing that for the past hour, and have gotten nowhere! I think you must have hit your head when you fell over the side of the boat."

"It was real! To be honest, I wish you could have seen it too."

"And why is that?"

"Well, for one thing, I knew you wouldn't believe me otherwise as it was a bit hard to believe for even me after I had experienced it."

"Please, can you two please stop arguing and focus on the matter at hand?", Zelda interjected.

"I agree," Mipha said, "And while it may be hard to believe, I see no reason why Link would lie."

"Especially about his own quest." Urbosa finished.

"So what are we waiting for! Let's roll and see where these tracks…"

I interrupted Daruk with an upheld wing. The Master Sword was trying to get my attention again. My eyes widened when I heard what it had to say, then I looked off into the distance to see the exact reason behind it. It was a dark blue contraption riding the tracks right at us. It looked like it had 2 eyes and a mouth, all looking like they were on fire, giving it a sinister look as it plowed mindlessly towards us.

Turning back to the others, I shouted the Master Sword's warning. "GET OFF THE TRACKS!"

Everyone's eyes widened when they saw this thing approaching. But instead of moving, they all stood there like a deer in torchlight. Oh for the love of... I took out my bow (grateful that I had an ancient arrow) and aimed at its "eye". The explosion of the ancient arrow showed a direct hit as it… just kept going like nothing had happened.

What!? No effect!? What the heck is this thing!?

"OFF THE TRACKS, NOW!"

This time they listened to me, all leaping off as that thing plowed right past us.

"What was that?" Daruk asked.

"I don't know, all I know is that it wasn't friendly."

"No time to rest, here comes another one! And it looks even less friendly!" shouted Revali.

We all looked to see another metal monster coming right at us, except this one was covered in heavy armor.

"Well as long as we're not on the tracks, it shouldn't hurt us, right?" Zelda said.

It seemed logical, but it didn't make me feel better. What if they just kept coming? Waiting for us to mess up so they could kill us?

I was suddenly taken off guard by a blasting woot-woot sound that filled the air. It happened again, causing us all to turn to the source. It was another train (at least that's what I thought these things were at this point), but with a familiar-looking Hylian boy was at the controls instead of a flaming "face".

He brought it to a stop with a squeal before looking at us. "Get onboard, quickly!"

Revali

Seeing as this boy was very similar to the other Link we met before, we all decided to follow his directions.

As soon as we were all aboard his little… train, he put it in reverse as quickly as he could. We went around the nearby curve backwards, then he put the vehicle back into forward.

I opened the door to look behind us and saw that the train that had been coming for us was still on us.

"Any idea how to get rid of this thing?" Link said.

"Normally I just try to outrun 'em." the Boy shouted from the front.

That wasn't good enough for me, I took the Light bow out, taking aim as I pulled back an arrow. However, Link stopped me before I was able to release.

"I don't think that's going to work, Revali. You saw what the Ancient Arrow did."

True, but that was an ancient arrow. This is a light arrow. Once more I aimed.

"Whatever you're doing, it's not going to work! Believe me!" shouted the boy.

"And what makes you so sure!?"

"Because I've defeated those things before in the Shadow Realm! We need tears of light, not whatever it is you've got!"

Mipha grabbed my shoulder.

"I think it would be wise to listen to him, Revali."

I sighed and shouted, "Fine!" as I put away my bow.

"Just hang on! I'll lose them!" shouted the boy as the train turned in a different direction.

After a lot of maneuvering, the boy made good on his promise. We were now just literally chugging along. Zelda, Link, Mipha and I went to the front cabin to have a more personal conversation with the boy.

"So are you the Hero of Trains or something?" I asked.

He chuckled and said, "Very funny, but these are actually called the Spirit Tracks, and we are riding the Spirit Train. Want to guess again?"

"You are Link, the Hero of Spirits."

Leave it to my brother, the Legendary Hero to identify a past incarnation of himself.

Link

I had a feeling this boy was another past me. It was actually kind of funny how much I've been helping myself, at least in a way.

"So if you are the Hero of Spirits, does that mean you know where the Tower of Spirits is?" Zelda asked.

"That's where we're heading right now." he said before blowing the whistle to get some cows off the track. "I knew you were coming, the Hero of the Winds told me. I didn't expect the Dark or armored trains to find you so quickly, so sorry I didn't get there faster."

"Why are there so many different heroes?" Revali asked.

"You can ask the Hero of the Sky about that, but as for the naming reason, we have to differentiate ourselves somehow, as we are all literally named Link." said the young hero.

"Was this train built by the Shiekah?" Zelda asked. I smiled as I watched her inner scientist come out as she inspected the machine.

"No, it was actually made by the Spirits of Good, well before my time. I just use it with permission from the Lokomos."

"The Lokomos?"

"You don't know a lot about New Hyrule do you? I don't blame you, no one's lived here for hundreds if not thousands of years. Oh, be ready! We're nearing our destination."

He wasn't wrong, for the train was approaching a tall, stone, tower.

The Hero of Spirits peaked out to take a closer look then breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew, It's intact, that's good."

"Why wouldn't it be?" I asked.

"With the amount of both ghost and dark trains on the tracks, I was worried that someone was trying to free Maladus again. But it looks like the Evil trains are just here to stop people from getting to the tower."

Revali and I exchanged glances.

"Ghirahim." I said.

"No…, What was your first clue?" Revali retorted sarcastically.

We pulled into the tower and dismounted the train. The Hero of Spirits looked up at the long staircase.

"The Lokomo Sword is at the top. But be careful, if there are phantoms, we will all have to be quiet."

Nodding, I looked into my inventory. Thankfully I had 8 sneaky elixirs. I started tossing them to everyone.

"If stealth is what we need, then these should give us an edge."

The rest of the champions didn't know what to think but they all drank their elixirs one by one, all except for Revali, who after sniffing the elixir seemed hesitant to drink it.

"Revali, do we need to do what we did before going into Goron Village?"

His eyes went wide and he drank it so fast he almost swallowed and choked on the bottle.

Zelda laughed and said, "Sometimes I wonder who is really the Older Brother of you two."

I smiled before drinking my own elixir, the first step of preparing for whatever may come next.