Volvagia Is Reborn

Fear hit Darunia's expression when he realized I was being completely serious, that I was prepared to resurrect the beast that once terrorized his people. Despite that, he said, "We will fight. We will win."

"Rayne, capture and imprison them, bring them to the temple by any means possible," I ordered. "I will be prepared for your arrival."

"Brothers, attack!"

The Gerudo rushed around me. I was swallowed by the chorus of swords sliding gracefully from their scabbards to attack and make their enemy bleed. "Remember, we need some of them alive to offer the dragon," I yelled, over the sound of grinding steel, as a reminder to my unit.

I wished to hang around and fight the battle with them, but I had important responsibilities to handle. It was time to give temporary command to Rayne, and trust I had trained her well enough to lead when I could not be there. I did brandish my sword to help me maneuver my way between the Gorons who tried valiantly to stop me. I headed to the secret passage in the chief's room behind the statue.

What? You thought the Gorons and the hero were the only ones who knew it existed?

I only needed to push the stone statue enough that I could squeeze through with my leather bag. I immediately began to sweat because the moist heat of the lava was drastically different from the desert and the valley. I crossed the bridge, and in no time I was at the entrance of the temple.

I moved quickly inside, to the left, and crossed over a bridge to the next room with a round platform in a pool of lava. There was one opening in the center where the rushing lava below struggled to rise through.

I widened the opening of the bag along the rope and reached in, expecting to find a scale, or a claw, or a tooth. No, I found scales and claws, and teeth, and a horn. How Ganondorf managed to recover all of these pieces was beyond me, and made my mind hurt to try to imagine. I laughed, because I had underestimated how truly incredible he was.

I opened the scroll next and read the words. The incantation was easy, but I possessed no magic. I had no idea how he expected this to work.

I took a deep breath and read the incantation loudly, using all the air in my lungs to make my voice heard by the goddesses. My words echoed around the room, against the lava streaming into the room from the ceiling and through the walls, and hopefully out of the mountain's crater. One by one, I dropped all eight scales, all five claws, all three fangs, and the horn into the lava pit before me.

The parchment I held burned at the corner, but the fire was not red, it was purple. My eyes widened, but I dared not release the scroll for fear it would ruin the spell. The ink shined a golden light, and then the words disappeared from the paper. The last of the scroll disappeared in a puff of lavender smoke. I wondered if Ganondorf had imbued the paper with the necessary sorcery to revive the dragon.

I worried, because nothing immediately happened.

Suddenly, the platform rumbled violently. The lava boiled and bubbled over the large hole in front of me and spilled across the platform. I stepped back and instinctively wrapped my fingers around the hilt of my sword. I needed to be prepared for anything. The intensity of the boiling lava rose and fell for several minutes before it finally settled. I released the white knuckled grip on my sword and approached the hole in the platform as the lava receded. What remained left me speechless.

A brand new dragon lay on his side, staring at me with huge, round green eyes. I knelt and scooped him into my arms. I was worried his scales might be too hot to handle, but he was only slightly warmer than me. "You better grow quickly, because I have quite a few snacks for you to eat," I joked. My kind tone was rewarded with a gentle nuzzle of his snout. I cradled him just like a baby, but he was more like a toddler dragon than an infant.

"You must not revive Volvagia!" shouted a voice from behind me. The dragon used my arms to jump into the air, and hovered there as if by magic. I twisted around to find a Goron stood in the doorway. In the blink of an eye, Volvagia darted through the air and collided with the Goron. I only needed a glimpse of the spraying blood to know what horrors awaited the dragon's victim. I turned away, leaving the Goron's screams to haunt my nightmares.

The screams died to groans, and then silence fell, except for the sporadic munching and snapping of Volvagia enjoying his first meal. When he returned to me, I held my arms open and welcomed him like a mother. "I bet you are going to need a nice nap."

The way he yawned was adorable. His mouth opened wide, and with only four sharp, tiny fangs and nubs for the rest of his teeth. I figured he must have only eaten what he could swallow without chewing. Most of the corpse still lay there. Volvagia's eyes slowly closed, and I placed him gently on the platform, by the lava hole, to sleep. "I'll be back tomorrow to check on you."

And that was how my almost daily visit to Death Mountain began.

Before I could exit the hot room filled with lava, Rayne appeared. She stopped short, barely managing to avoid the corpse as she bounded in to check on my progress with the dragon. The sight must have been worse than I imagined, because she turned and backed away. Her entire torso lurched forward and she gagged to fight the vomit threatening to explode from her mouth.

I waited until she was done to come near, or else I might have lost it too. We left the room, and it was only once we returned to the central chamber that she was finally able to ask, "How did it go?"

"Better than I expected," I admitted. "Except, I'm not sure if he was supposed to be an adult, or a child dragon."

"By the look of the Goron, I'd say you have a child on your hands. A full size dragon could eat even the biggest one of them in two or three bites."

I nodded idly, my thoughts distant. "I can only assume this is how it was meant to happen. I'll just have to care for him until he's older."

"Aw. What a great way to practice for a real child," she joked.

It was no laughing matter though. I helped Volvagia grow and learn. I provided comfort when he was scared, I gave him direction when he was lost, I even scolded him when he did wrong. He truly was my own child. What prevented him from leaving the mountain? Well, at first it was difficult to keep him from following me home, but I returned every day until I earned his trust, to know I would always be there. He did escape one day, but once he learned the environment was much cooler than the comforting heat of the lava, he decided to stay in his temple.

Like all children, he grew up too fast. He went from a child, to a teenager, to an adult in just months. Our bond never broke, and eventually it became mutual. I turned to him for solace or guidance on many occasions.

Eventually, as I mentioned, we were tested.