Aboda Village was one of the first towns to be settled since the country's founding. This could easily be seen, for the houses in Aboda were made of lumber from the very ships used to bring the pioneers to its beach. One of the houses even had an old mast and sail atop its roof to serve as the town's weather sock. Even though Aboda was one of the first towns of New Hyrule, it remained very small. This was probably due to the concentration of efforts given to establish Castle Town, a city for the royalty to live in. Though small, Aboda remained a significant part of the country's economy with salt and specialty jewelry coming from the beach and custom-made train parts from the resident master engineer, Alfonzo. Even with the town's rich history and exports, Aboda's trademark continued to be based on a creature indigenous to the area, the white dove.
As soon as Link stepped outside a small flock of them landed and started hopping around his feet, looking at him expectantly.
Link chuckled, "Sorry guys, no food today. I have somewhere very important to be." The doves cleared a path for him as he walked forward. It looked to be a very fine day; very few clouds in the sky and a slight ocean breeze. The mailbox was still, so no one in the village had any mail to receive. Looking at the mailbox, Link thought of an amusing idea. All mailboxes in the country had a side compartment attached called a Stamp Station. They were used to mark letters as part of a return address. But now Stamp Stations had a different use to Link. He carefully pulled out his Stamp Book.
I'll do it just to humor grandpa Niko. He'll probably get a laugh out of the story of the fantastic journey where I took a few steps away from our house.
Smiling at the thought of Niko's reaction, Link dipped the stamp into the ink and pressed it onto the page. The orange picture of a beach, the mast and sail house, and a few doves was imprinted on the first page of the Stamp Book.
There's one.
Link had just closed the book shut when he heard the standard Aboda greeting, "Hoy Link!" a man with orange hair walked up to him, "Congrats for your graduating!"
Link nodded, "Thanks!"
"Say, you know what?" the man continued, "I've been wanting to start up a Cucco farm for a while now, but I've had no way to start. And you know how my wife likes the omelettes. When you've become a full-fledged engineer, see if you can find some Cuccos and bring'em back, would ya? It would mean a big deal to me."
Link nodded again, "If I find any Cuccos, I'll be sure to give you them. I happen to like omelettes too."
They shared a laugh and exchanged farewells. Link continued to the station. He had reached the steps to the railway platform when he heard a loud train whistle. A wooden train with a full tender and a passenger car rolled ahead and stopped at Link's position. The engine had the image of a dove painted on its sides.
"Link!" Alfonzo bellowed from the head car, "It's about time you came here! The boiler's all preheated and ready to go! Hop on!"
Link jumped into the open door of the cab. As he took position for controlling the train, he performed the standard ritual for any train taking off from its destination;
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
At the loud blow of the whistle, the wooden train with a dove insignia began its casual acceleration on the tracks.
"Goodbye Link!"
He turned around, looking for the source of the voice. He was very surprised at what he saw.
"So long!" "Good luck!" "Come visit sometimes!" "Bring me back a souvenir!"
The whole town was assembled by the steps of the station for a big send-off. He could see a little girl waving, that guy who wanted the Cuccos, that boy with the blue hat, each one wanting to give the longest goodbye.
As the train reached optimal speed and the people of Aboda became specks in the distance, Link cleared his head and focused on the upcoming rails. Knowing Alfonzo, there would be some kind of special test right before his becoming a true engineer.
Alfonzo shoveled some coal into the firebox and closed its hatch. After checking the steam and water pressure gauges, he turned to Link. "All right, since it's your graduation day, there are a few things I want you to understand."
Aboda Village had left sight a couple minutes ago and the train chugged along at a steady pace.
"Above all, I want you to comprehend the significance of this ceremony. You've already worked extremely hard to earn your right to operate a train, so you don't want to mess this up now. In order to operate as a train engineer in this kingdom, you need to have the approval and audience with the princess. When she gives you your engineering certificate, you will be the youngest train engineer in history. You get all that?"
Link nodded twice. He had heard this speech from Alfonzo before; Alfonzo obviously wanted to review what he thought was significant.
"Now just to experience what being an independent engineer is like, there is something that I want you to do on the way to the castle."
Here it comes, the thing that will make or break my validity as an engineer in Alfonzo's eyes.
"I want you to drive this train all by yourself the entirety of the way to the castle. I'll be the fireman and shovel all of the coal so that you're not all sweaty and tired when we arrive, but you will be the one telling me when to add more coal, monitoring the gauges, looking outside, and steering the train. That's all."
That's all? Really? I expected something new and difficult for me to do. This'll be a piece of cake!
"Don't worry; it'll be a piece of cake." Alfonzo continued, echoing Link's sentiment, "Consider this to be your final exam. Just do what you usually do and you'll do great."
Link felt flattered by Alfonzo's last statement; by saying 'do what you usually do and you'll do great', he implied that Link usually did a great job. Indirect or not, a compliment from Alfonzo was a true rarity.
Alfonzo stepped back and Link confidently took the seat.
Alfonzo just added some coal so the firebox will be good for a while. Water pressure is normal, boiler pressure is normal, steam pressure is a little high, but that's only because of the recently added fuel. Everything inside the train is normal so it's time to check the outside.
Link stuck his head outside of the cab and took a critical look outside. It was a clear day, so no trouble with weather. Nothing on the train tracks that would present danger, that was good. They were on the correct path to Castle Town, even though they had to circumnavigate the usual path.
Because the Spirit Tracks are disappearing… Link frowned.
It was simply inconceivable that they would just disappear into thin air. Why would someone do it? Were they stolen? Destroyed? Who was responsible? It was a complete mystery. Whatever the reason or whomever the culprit, with the Spirit Tracks vanishing life had gotten far more difficult for the citizens of the kingdom. Food, raw materials, people, mail, and other goods were all shipped by train. People couldn't get the things they needed for their livelihood. The economy was in turmoil; prices and demand had gone up, availability and supply had gone down. To Link's bitter disappointment, train engineers were hit the hardest, as they made their living traversing the rails. Many of them either lost their jobs or quit because there was less area for trains to travel on.
It's my duty as a loyal and dutiful engineer to find out how this is happening and fix it.