A short way into the Snow Realm, the Spirit Train passes a gate with a Force Gem keystone. Shooting the Force Gem causes Zelda to read the instructions, telling Link to blow the train’s whistle as he approaches the gate. This teleports him back to the Forest Realm between Whittleton and Castle Town. There are more of these gates, but they only operate in linked pairs, so as quick travel goes, it’s probably the least useful the series has seen since Ocarina of Time. It’s useful enough to be better than nothing, but there are a lot of train trips where there aren’t a pair of gates where neither gate is so far out of the way it’s better to just go direct.
As the Spirit Train nears the available stop in the Snow Realm, Link has a chance to catch the fifth rabbit. The available stop is the Anouki Village, so either the Anouki weren’t confined to the Ocean King’s world or they found a way into Link’s. Outside the village, there are Icy ChuChus that freeze Link he doesn’t stun them before attacking and Wolfos, as well as the fifth stamp station. In the village, there’s a Song Stone that teaches Link the Song of Discovery, which will unearth secrets. As the Song Stone blasts off, it leaves behind a treasure chest with a potion.
The leader of the Anouki Village, Honcho, offers to help Link if he helps them with their problem. He wants to put together a village watch, but a lot of the Anouki are particular about who they’re paired with. Link has to talk to each of them, find their preferences, and then return to Honcho to draw up the pairs. Once it’s settled, Honcho lays out the deal: The only way to the Snow Sanctuary is a tunnel, and that tunnel got overrun by a giant monster. Before braving the tunnel and monster, Link heads back to Rabbitland Rescue, where Bunnio rewards him with a heart container for catching five rabbits.
The monster in the tunnel turns out to be a Rocktite, a giant Tektite that takes about a gajillion cannon hits to kill. Even after it’s dead, Zelda doesn’t want to go back there ever again. The path to Steem through the Snow Sanctuary is filled with monsters. There’s a store here with a heart container for sale – a little out of Link’s price range for now, unfortunately – and a stamp station. After entering Steem’s cave, Link has to find a path that doesn’t put him in the statues’ line of sight. Finally, he meets Steem, and has to play another duet to restore the tracks to the temple.
Steem warns Link that the areas near the Forest Temple have been hit by blizzards lately; if Link tries to go that way, he’ll be blown back to the entrance to the rail maze leading to the temple. The Anouki know of a guy who might know the solution – Ferrus, who lives in the other new section of tracks, off to the east. There’s a new enemy on these rails: Sir Frosty, an evil snowman that throws his heads at the train. There’s a train station over this way, Wellspring Station, and though Ferrus isn’t around at the moment, he’s left a map with the locations where he’s trying to get pictures of the Dark Trains. There’s also a note with a hint about the warp gates.
At one of the spots marked on Ferrus’ map, Link finds the man railside taking pictures. Ferrus is a rail enthusiast – he recognizes the Spirit Train on sight, and knows who Link is. Everyone else is too spooked by the recent disappearance of the rails and/or appearance of the Dark Trains to run their trains, but Link… well, there’s a reason other Links have been associated with the Triforce of Courage. Ferrus says the blizzard makes the approach to the Temple difficult, but there’s a path that’s protected by the spirits that should let him get there. He shows Link a map, and once Link blows the dust off, he knows the way. He can catch a rabbit near the entrance to the maze.
The Snow Temple is filled with icy floors, which of course means sliding block puzzles. A central sliding block puzzle has three bells on the blocks, and once they’re in place Link needs to play tunes on the bells to open the next door (first one bell, then two bells, then all three to open the way forward). Link gets a boomerang en route to the second bell which helps play the longer tunes. As in Phantom Hourglass, the boomerang can drag fire around, including the new icy fire which can freeze a path over water. New and returning enemies in the dungeon are Mini-Freezards (terrestrial Octoroks covered in ice) and the aquatic Octorok-like Octives, whose rocks can be blown back at them or can be stunned with the boomerang. As with the Forest Temple, there’s a stamp station here.
There are no Key Masters here; getting the Boss Key requires lighting torches with the right kind of fire in a single long boomerang toss. Those skills will be useful for the boss, Fraaz, Master of Icy Fire. Fraaz is a giant bat-like creature who puffs up with either fire or ice and then spits the appropriate attack at Link. He has an alternating phase where he splits into two bats, one fiery, one icy. The boomerang is of course the key – at first there are torches Link can use to throw the type of fire at Fraaz isn’t using to stun him (or, for the twin phase, the opposite type at each to make him recombine). After the first couple phases, those torches get destroyed and Link then needs to rely on the remnants of Fraaz’ attacks. After five total phases, Fraaz is defeated and the Spirit Tracks connecting the Snow Temple to the Tower of Spirits reappear, restoring another block of levels.
Next: A torch to light the way.
