Volink Week 2018 Prompt
Disclaimer: I do not own Hyrule Warriors.
Author's Notes: All right, here we are for Volink Week 2018 being hosted over on Tumblr. If you're interested in seeing more fan content, be sure to head over here and check out the Volink tag for everyone's contributions. The fandom has died down quite a bit, so I'm not sure how much may be there, but hopefully interest will pick up again.
I'll be doing something a little different for this prompt collection. Normally for these fan week events, I wait under the week is over with and then I post all the pieces I did at once on FF and AO3. But this time, I'm gonna post a piece on each day. Posting every day for a week, huh... that'll be a new experience for me. *embarrassed laughter*
As always, thanks for reading.
-o-
Day One: Dragons Treasure
-o-
Volga has heard the snide remarks whispered among his dragonkin in the grand meeting halls and in the hot spring bathhouses throughout the Incandescent Valley. They say that his treasure hoard, once so grand and wide that Death Mountain glinted gold at sunrise and sunset, has dwindled so small that its entirety can be contained in single treasure chest. They say that Goron and men alike freely take satchels and pocketfuls of gold, jewels, and rupees from his stores in Eldin Caverns. There is truth in their bile, Volga must admit. He knows not what becomes of his treasure while he is away, traveling and battling alongside the Hero with the Hyrulean forces in tow.
However, these remarks are more than mere insults. By dragons' honor, their whispers are grave accusations and their words demand consequences. A dragon's hoard is their strength, and a dragon that cannot protect its hoard is insignificant in dragon society. Volga is not weak, and he is not insignificant, but his reputation has been challenged, and he no longer possesses his grand hoard to properly counter the accusations. His titles and distinctions can be rescinded. His territorial claims are in jeopardy. Volga is a disgrace.
Volga does not fear his borders being breached and his lands invaded by his inferior, power-hungry dragonkin. His army of Lizalfos and Dinolfos that remain back home are strong and, more importantly, they are loyal to Volga alone. Should his forces fall, however, Volga can reclaim his lands himself. He will be more than happy to show his fork-tongued skeptics why the blood of Volvagia has claimed dominion across the Eldin Mountains for ten thousand years.
What his dragonkin fail to realize is that the mass and quantity of his hoard does not determine Volga's strength. Volga has not lost his treasure—he has simply redefined his parameters of what his treasure is. He does not care if the Goron take all of his gold and jewels, though the dragon knight did not want a human to claim the last of his material wealth. Volga has his treasure. It is the Hero himself.
After all, is treasure not what is most rare and precious to its beholder? Volga has had gold, jewels, and rupees, and he can rebuild his wealth with more gold if he so desired. There is only one Hero, however—when a sorceress doesn't render the fabric of time and space that is, but otherwise his statement is correct. So if anything were to befall his Hero, well...the war would end with Volga standing alone amid the wind-borne char. Such a fate will never come to pass, however, as Volga always protects his treasure.
His dragonkin would scoff at his claim that the Hero is his treasure. Humans have no value, they would say—to which Volga would mostly agree. But where they have only seen beauty in the glint of a piece of gold or the luster on a gem, Volga has seen the beauty of Link's smile beaming with relief after a long, hard-fought skirmish. Volga is not sure which is brighter the white-yellow sunlight caught in Link's blond hair or the sound of his laughter bubbling in bellyfuls, but Volga knows that gold is dull and uninteresting when compared next to either.
A rupee only possesses a finite number of facets but Link does not share such limits. In fact, he does not possess limitations. Every day, Volga sees more in Link than he saw the day before or day before that. Volga has seen Link pick himself off the ground time after time as enemy captains swarm him—the determination in his eyes never yields no matter how battered and bloodied his body gets. He has watched Link's fingers flutter across his ocarina as he plays a sprightly tune from his village and then watched him wipe away his tears for a village the Hero prays still exists and remains undisturbed throughout this war. Much as he hates to admit it, Volga has seen the dumb face Link makes when he slurps up noodles and his filled cheeks resemble the discomforting fairy man's red balloons. These moments he shares with Volga are why Link is his treasure, and Volga's dragonkin will never understand their value of their worth.
His dragonkin can keep their stagnant hoards of gold and rupees. Volga has felt more happiness with Link than he ever felt sitting among his towers and mountains of gold and jewels.