The Goron chieftain stands in the way of the path to the Fire Sanctuary, but when he hears what Link’s done for his people, he moves out of the way so Link can pass. The way to the Fire Sanctuary is full of enemies that want to eat Link – Like Likes and Fire Babas. As with the other sanctuaries, Link finds a stamp station along the way. The final test involves more of those statue heads and a puzzle involving the story interpretation of the statue arrangement. As with the other Lokomos, Embrose knows why Link’s come to visit and teaches him his part in the song needed to restore the tracks.
Before Link and Zelda head to the temple, Embrose hints that they may want to talk to the villagers for tips on dealing with the monsters on the mountain. The chieftain says there are three locks, and monsters have taken the keys. The other villagers give tips for dealing with the monsters. They’re good at running away, but if Link approaches them head-on he should be able to take care of them. They also dislike loud noises, particularly in a pattern probably best described as “choo choooooo.”
The Dark Trains are gone from the Fire Realm, don’t appear at all in the Ocean Realm (Link has to fight off Pirates there instead – fortunately without the boarding party encounter), and sometimes don’t appear in the Snow or Forest Realms (and Link sometimes has to fight Tanks – basically land pirates – instead). On the other hand, when they are in the Snow Realm, one of them is replaced by an Armored Train, although like all the evil trains it stays in its little area and only bothers Link when he goes up there.
Now that Link has a freight car, there’s a bunch of people Link can help out by hauling stuff. Starting in Goron Village, there’s one Goron who’s unable to return home because of a lava spout, so he needs Mega Ice to bring to him. Someone in Castle Town wants fish, and there’s a merchant in Papuchia Village who sells fish, so Link hauls the fish. A guy in Aboda Village wants to raise cuccos, so Link buys some from a guy in Castle Town and brings them to him. Whittleton needs iron to make new axes, and the Gorons sell it. The Anouki need wood to build a fence, and that comes from Whittleton. (They also need the bridge worker to actually build the fence.) Ferrus sends Link a letter asking him to pick him up from one of his photography expeditions, and asks to be brought to Aboda Village to meet Alphonzo. (He’s disappointed to learn Alphonzo doesn’t think of himself as a legendary engineer, but a legendary swordsman.) And Steem wants something to decorate his sanctuary, which turns out to be a giant vase sold by the Wise One in Papuchia Village. (It being a vase, Link can’t help himself and destroys it after going through the trouble to deliver it safely. Steem is understandably upset, so Link goes and gets another one. Chastised, he lets this one live.)
All this work adds up to seven new Force Gems. The new tracks have two new warp gates, connecting the Fire Realm to the Forest and Snow Realms. There are seven new rabbits Link can catch: four in the Fire Realm, and one each in the other three. The one from the Forest Realm brings his total to ten, and he now has one of each type of rabbit, and both of those accomplishments earns a treasure from Bunnio. (There are five types of rabbits, not four – one that Link caught in the southern Fire Realm is actually a Desert Rabbit. Although everything in story is pointing to the Fire Temple as being the last dungeon, there are a bunch of signs that it’s not – a fifth type of rabbit, Link at 12/16 hearts, the stamp book at 15/20, two empty inventory slots.) Oh, and speaking of the stamp book, Niko rewards Link for getting 75% done by letting him change outfits between the guard’s outfit/Hero’s tunic and his old engineer clothes.
The Force Gems have opened two new stations in the Snow Realm. First, in the northwest corner, there’s Snowdrift Station. This has a minidungeon, with five crystal switches across a narrow gap and a warning that hitting them in the wrong order will cause a person to “fall into darkness.” There are four staircases, each leading to a challenge for Link to overcome that leads to a tablet with a hint for the correct order to hit the switches. With all the hints, a bridge appears for Link to cross to a final challenge: fighting four Mini-Freezards in a small icy area, which quickly becomes chaotic with how they bounce all over the place. Defeating them leads to the reward: an ultra-rare Alchemy Stone treasure.
One of the challenges at Snowdrift Station was a maze with icy floors, which was a good preparation for the other new station, Slippery Station in the northern Snow Realm. The main feature here is a huge icy maze, with three challenges; the harder challenges have longer sections of the maze to complete. The trick is to learn to corner quickly by rolling, and thankfully rolling is much easier in this game than in Phantom Hourglass. The prizes for completing the three challenges are 300 rupees, a rare treasure, and another Alchemy Stone.
Next: From big tracks to little tracks.
