A/n: This chapter has been revised.
Disclaimer: Blah.
Chapter 26: Medallion of Fire Part 6
Volvagia's screeching shook the whole room, breaking through the party's eardrums and seeming to pierce straight into their brains. It looked wholly unamused by its new visitors, and if Darunia's condition was anything to go by, it had done everything but make Darunia feel welcome. After glaring at the party for another minute or so, it flew straight down at the ground, disappearing into one of the many wholes scattered around the floating island they were on.
"Okay, this thing is totally going to make us its bitch if we don't figure out what to do." Aya turned to the rest of the party, pulling out her sword.
"Yeah, pretty much." Navi said, fluttering close to Link's head, waiting for the opportunity to attack.
"Just make sure Darunia is safe." Kurama turned around to their unconscious friend.
"I'll stay back here and guard him." Katara took a step next to Darunia.
"I'll help." Aya turned and nodded. Another scream from the dragon tore through the area and it popped its head out of a different hole, flipping its long mane around. It dug its claws into the dirt and breathed fire at the nearest person, which was Link.
"Ah!" Link stumbled back, but Joey harshly grabbed his shoulder and pulling him back before putting his hands out and absorbing most of the attack for the hero.
"I've got the fire, Link!" Joey yelled over his shoulder. "Hit that thing with the hammer!"
"Okay!" Link ran forward with a speed unseen from him and threw his whole body into it as he smashed the hammer down on the dragon's hard head. It screamed in pain, clutching its head with his claws and flipping its head around dramatically. It sank back into the hole but emerged a few seconds later and flew into the air. There, it started circling around and screaming, dropping rocks down on the ground.
"Stupid thing!" Link smashed the hammer at a rock as it was falling down, crushing into smaller rocks so that it wouldn't crush Darunia's helpless body.
"This thing's constant screeching is giving me a headache!" Katara commented.
"I already had one in the first place and this isn't helping at all." Aya growled. "I have no idea how Darunia's staying unconscious for all of this."
"It's coming back down!" Navi warned as the dragon slithered back into a hole. It repeated the same process, popping out of another hole. This time, Link expected it to breathe fire and as soon as Link saw the dragon come out, he smashed the hammer into its head. It came back out of its hole and began curving around the group, breathing fire. Then it rose in the air again and began dropping more rocks.
"This thing definitely has a pattern to it." Navi turned to Kurama.
"Yes, even more so than Phantom Ganon." Kurama nodded. "But it is virtually impossible without that hammer. The armor around its head is almost impossible to penetrate otherwise."
"Damn thing!" Joey had barely enough time to turn around and block another wave of fire with one hand, this time directed at Darunia and the two guarding him. "Link, throw that stupid hammer to me!"
"Gotcha!" Link hurled the hammer across the group.
"Take this, you stupid bastard!" With unusual finesse, by Joey standards, he caught the hammer with his free hand and broke through the fire wave with incredible strength, completely catching the dragon off guard. Before it could even comprehend what was going on, Joey had beaten it upside the head again with the hammer, stunning and allowing Joey more time to hit it a few more times. In this time, Katara had launched a wave of ice needles at it, which it hissed at.
"Go Joey!" Link cheered while the dragon rose back up in the air and repeated the rock-dropping move. Link jumped out of the way of a few rocks before Joey tossed the hammer back to him. Kaori sunk back near where Katara and Aya were, deciding her arrows weren't really that effective against the huge dragon.
"Ha!" Link smashed the dragon again.
"Kat! Get over here and hit it with some of your ice crap!" Joey yelled over his shoulder.
"It's not crap!" Katara ran forward, leaving Kaori to help guard Darunia. Link, this time, had knocked it silly, leaving Katara and Kurama plenty of time to attack it with a flurry of hits.
"Hey! It's getting weak!" Navi called out to Link. "If you put your all into it, you can get it with this hit!"
"Okay!" Link readied the hammer in front of himself. Joey watched as the dragon slipped back into its hole and scanned over the island, waiting.
"Over here!" Kurama pointed to a whole close to him. Joey turned to the redhead and skidded in front of him at the last minute absorbing most of the fire from its breath. Link ran up behind the creature and smashed the hammer into the monster's head with so much force, he knocked himself to the ground in the process. The dragon, clutching its head with one claw, fell limp to the ground, dazed. Kurama formed his vine sword again and launched another attack with Katara. Before the dragon could get up from the attack, though, Link had recovered and smashed the hammer down on the monster's head one more time, allowing Katara to get in one more wave of ice needles in. Finally, the monster let out an ear piercing scream of pain and rose out of its hole.
"I think you did it." Navi stopped, watching the dragon's behavior with concern. The dragon was grabbing and clawing at its head is it flew around in messy circles, screaming. Suddenly, the dragon stopped screaming and began melting away from the tail up, its skin melting and burning off while dusty chunks of its bones dropped to the ground piece by piece. When that had stopped, its head dropped right at Link's feet.
"Finally! Joey got to show off his awesome fire moves!" Joey pumped a fist.
"Well, at least you finally did something." Katara teased.
"Yeah. And when The Joey does something, he does it two hundred percent!" Joey smirked, so overjoyed with his performance in battle that was willing to ignore Katara's sarcastic jab. "Did you see all that fire I was blocking left and right? Dragon didn't stand a chance."
"Your were amazing, Joey!" Link held his hand out for a fist bump, which Joey eagerly returned. "You were sooo awesome. That dragon was a wimp compared to your fire! You really are like the sun!"
"Damn straight I'm like the sun." Joey crossed his arms. "Bright, fiery, and totally badass."
"Right." Katara groaned.
"It's dead. Right?" Link bent down and poked the dragon's head.
"I would hope so, after that display." Navi remarked. "And quit touching it. That's gross."
"What's gross?"
"Touching a dragon's nasty ass skull after its skin literally just burned and melted off its bones." Navi explained. "You're probably touching nasty burnt chunks of dead flesh or something."
"And that's bad, right?"
"Terrible."
"Darunia's gone." Kurama said bluntly, breaking the conversation.
"WHY IS DARUNIA GONE?" Link whined loudly. "Why did he go away after all of our hard work and stuff?"
"The blue portal." Navi turned.
"That portal has never looked so amazing before." Aya let out a huge breath of relief. "I'm ready to be done with this hellhole and I know Kurama is absolutely on board with that notion."
"In so many ways do I agree." Kurama said calmly, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"I feel like I'm going to melt. And I'm ready to get this uncomfortable tunic off." Katara agreed.
"Link, stop poking that stupid dragon skull and get your butt over to this portal before we leave you behind!" Navi threatened. Link jumped up like a scolded child and ran over to the portal, shoving the hammer in his bag as he did so. The rest of the party took one last look around the dragon's lair before stepping into the portal and letting themselves get encased in the blue portal's crystal.
"Brothers and sisters!" Darunia's loud voice snapped them all out of their portal-induced stupors. He was standing on the red platform in the Chamber of Sages. It seemed that becoming a Sage had at least healed him of his injuries and he looked none the worse for wear. He had his hands on his hips and his mouth curved into a wide, happy grin.
"Oh." Link didn't seem happy in return. "So, you're the Sage? Just like Kurama thought."
"Would you believe it, brothers and sisters?" Darunia seemed excited in contrast. "A big, loud warrior like me is the Sage of Fire! I never would have dreamed that! Not in a million years!"
"Does this mean you have to stay here in the Sacred Realm and watch over Hyrule, like Saria did?" Link looked off to the side.
"Of course." Darunia nodded his head. "Such is the life of the Sages. But, why do you seem sad, brother?"
"I won't get to see you anymore." Link frowned.
"I would like to make up for lost time, I suppose." Darunia agreed. "And the last thing I want to do is leave my son…my people…hanging like that, but this is a huge honor! To become the Fire Sage to my people is a huge honor. And, while we may never live under the same circumstances anymore, I will always be here to help you, brothers and sisters. Let me do my best to make it up to you."
"You're a tough cookie, Darunia." Aya said from her platform. "I wish I had half the strength you did."
"You all are very strong, brothers and sisters. Had I known what fate had in store for you back then…" Darunia trailed off. "Do not worry about the bad things. This is a fortunate turn of events for both of us. I will be the honored Sage of Fire and help you from here in the Sacred Realm now. And now, through your hard work, you've freed another Sage! Another step of your journey completed."
"Okay!" Link seemed to cheer up a bit.
"Now, take this medallion, brothers and sisters!" Darunia lifted his hands in the air, conjuring a red, glowing orb that formed into a shiny red medallion that fell into Link's hands. Link held in up in the air for a second, letting the light bounce off of its surface.
"Thanks, Darunia." Joey lifted a hand.
"No…Thank you, brothers and sisters." Darunia smiled again. "If not for you, my people would have been lost to the dragon. And we… we would have been destroyed. You have saved my people once again. We will forever be indebted to you. Please, return to Goron City and have that huge party we talked about. I will be there in spirit. And I will be very upset if you don't go through with it!"
"Alright, we'll party extra hard for you." Joey did a thumbs up.
"Bye, Daruina!" Link yelled as their vision went black. Once their vision came into focus again, they were at the center of Death Mountain Crater. When they returned to the Goron City, they were immediately swept up into a wild series of festivities.
A week later…
The party had barely any time to register what had happened in the Fire Temple before they were swept up in a crazy series of parties, dinners, and all around craziness. The Gorons had flourished back to life, even if Darunia hadn't returned. Goron Link had the hardest time accepting his father's absence, but becoming the Fire Sage appeared to be a huge honor in their culture, so they accepted their leader's absence with a special kind of grace. While the festivities raged on in the party's honor and in Darunia's honor, they had worked on reassembling their governmental structure in the background so that things could keep moving in Darunia's absence. On top of that, though, they had provided the group with plenty of music and food and dance, more than all of them could take. Link had practically danced himself into a coma. Joey ate himself into an absolute stupor. And while Aya and Kurama had sat out of the festivities the first couple of days, they enjoyed everything else twofold to make up for their absence. The Gorons had taken heed of the party's diets and had accommodated their human guests accordingly, but they had pulled out the best rock sirloins for themselves, just to celebrate the occasion.
The Gorons had also offered to fix up everyone's damaged outfits, specifically those of Aya and Kurama, whose had been badly damaged in their fall. Beyond that, they also readily tended to their wounds. Now, in the middle of the night, they were all six sleeping in a big chamber in tucked away in a quiet corner of Goron City, which was as comfortable as the Gorons could make it for them.
"They all look positively exhausted." Navi laughed to herself, sitting up in the next she'd created on the nightstand from Link's hat. She looked at her partner in the bed next to her, sprawled out gracelessly with one arm hanging over the side of the bed, the blankets bunched up practically under his chin, one leg curled up, and a bare foot hanging over the edge. He was a tangled, drooling mess. His hair was every which way and he had his mouth wide open, tiny snores escaping his mouth. In this state, no one would ever be able to figure out he was the legendary Hero of Time.
The rest of the party didn't fare much better, she decided. Joey was sprawled out face first on this bed. However, he was so tall that the bed wasn't big enough for him. While the blankets completely covered his top half, including his head, it didn't cover the bottom half of his legs, which stuck out and hung over the end of the bed. The girls all looked much better. Katara was laying on her back, so still and delicate looking that she seemed like a sleeping princess. Aya was curled up in a little ball under her blankets, taking deep breaths in her sleep occasionally. And all she saw on Kaori's bed was a little bundle of blankets. She assumed that under them somewhere was a Kaori. And Kurama was just sleeping on his side, the most normal looking of them all.
"I hope the rest of the temples go by better." Navi said aloud, leaning back in her nest. "I wasn't expecting any of that to happen. I don't want to almost lose everyone like we almost lost Kurama and Aya."
Not only had she begrudgingly grown attached to the loud band of kids, she'd also never been told by anyone, neither the Deku Tree nor Sheik nor anyone, really, what to do in case they did lose one of them. She had no way of knowing if the whole thing would work out if one of the Spirits or Link died.
Navi lied awake in her nest in restless thought until, at some point, a Goron servant that had been tending to them poked her head into to let them know it was morning. In the deep mountain walls of Goron City, it was impossible to tell what time it was otherwise. The servant's appearance had woken up Kurama, who was sitting up in his bed before Navi had a chance to even comprehend it.
"Good morning, Navi." Kurama turned and smiled. He rubbed some sleep out of his eyes. "Are you alright? I thought I heard you talking to yourself last night."
"Nope." Navi reassured waving her hand. She got up, stretched and started flying a few laps around the room. "You were just so tired; you were hearing things, Red."
"Don't tell me you've taken to Joey's nickname for me, too." Kurama lifted an eyebrow.
"Eh, I can't really call Link bud. And Katara is pretty easy to call Kat. And for some reason, Red just sticks." Navi teased. "Besides, I have my own nicknames for Link. Like 'idiot'."
"He'd be heartbroken if he were awake." Kurama looked at Link. "I guess we start our usual morning routine."
"Yeah, we better get everyone ready before we even bother discussing our next objective. It's not as if Joey will listen until he's eaten something." Navi said dryly. "And it's not like Link ever listens in the first place."
"Good point." Kurama stood up from his bed. He took the liberty of shaking the girls awake before going off to get himself ready. One by one, the girls went off to do the same thing.
"WAKE UP!" Navi screamed in Joey's ear after taking a huge breath. She smirked in satisfaction as Joey let out a slew of curse words and fell to the floor.
"Holy shit Navi, did you have to do that?" Joey said, getting up off the floor and rubbing his behind.
"Yes. You're impossible to wake up otherwise." Navi said. She repeated the same thing on Link. Link, however, did not scream or fall off the bed. It took several times yelling in his ear before he even stirred.
"Oh, no, Saria, that's not what a chicken is." Link mumbled in his sleep. "No, they have claws. They're….yeah. Peanut butter is really good on that, isn't it? You have….the best taste in food."
"Link." Navi sat on his chest, crossing her arms. "Link…LINK WAKE THE HELL UP."
"Feet?" Link finally opened his eyes. "Oh? Navi?"
"Yes." Navi looked at him with a stern expression.
"Do we have peanut butter? Because I had the best dream about peanut butter."'
"Unfortunately, we don't." Navi said. "I didn't understand half of what you were saying, though."
"My dream was great." Link sat up, stretching. "I discovered that chickens are evil and taste really good with peanut butter. And Saria and I came up with best recipe for peanut butter covered chicken with onions and potato soup!"
"Sounds….Positively gross." Navi stuck her tongue. "Just get up and put yourself together, you big dope."
"Does dope have anything to do with-" Link started.
"Whatever you're about to say, no dope has nothing to do with it." Navi responded in a dry tone.
"Okay!" Link threw himself out of bed. After they all got ready and ate, they decided it was best to gather their supplies, which the Gorons had willingly filled for them, and head out. They would never leave Goron City if they didn't since it had been so welcoming there. They decided to discuss their next objective on the way off the mountain.
"I could have stayed there." Joey put his hands behind his head. "Those Gorons really do know how to throw a killer party."
"They love dancing!" Link threw his hands in the air. "I love dancing!"
"I'm glad they were so welcoming to us." Kaori put her hands behind her back while they walked. "It was really sweet of them."
"It really was." Katara turned.
"I mean, I felt kind of bad that they had to find real food for us to eat since we couldn't enjoy their rock sirloins, but whatever." Aya waved her hand. "I trust that it was delicious. Enough of them told me I was totally missing out by not having a piece of rock sirloin."
"So, what's next on our list of things to do?" Joey turned.
"Can it involve alien turtles?" Link turned. "The dream I had last night about Saria involved those, too."
"No." the party collectively answered, much to Link's disappointment.
"The water sage was next, right?" Kurama turned.
"It was?" Joey stopped. "Oh yeahhhh. It was. I think." Joey looked deep in thought.
"The blue platform is right after Darunia's in the Chamber of Sages. And the whole thing about the temples that Sheik spouted to us when we first met him said that a temple in a vast lake was right after the one in the volcano." Aya pointed out.
"So, water." Katara nodded. "Where do we go? The Zoras?"
"They're the only ones who could have the Water Sage. And the only ones who would know where the Water Temple is." Navi explained.
"Presumably, the Water Temple is in or near Lake Hylia. It's the only major lake we have, I think." Kurama said.
"Pretty much." Navi said.
"So we get to go swimming again?" Link seemed excited. "I loved swimming! It's so pretty and awesome and fun at Zora's Domain! And we can get some peanut butter along the way!"
"Sure, if it'll shut you up about the peanut butter." Navi said in a cranky tone.
"I hope the Zoras are okay." Kaori looked off to the side. "I mean, after what Ganondorf has done to everyone else has me scared."
"I guess we'll just have to see for ourselves." Kurama shrugged his shoulders.
"If we buy peanut butter, can I buy glue, tape, a green apple, rocks, staples and a cup?" Link asked as if this were a perfectly reasonable request.
"Why?" Aya turned.
"Dream Saria told me to." Link said as if it were normal to request such a strange array of items. "She said we could use it to resurrect the God of Breads and Smoke. Or something like that. She said it was really important."
"No, Link. We're not buying…whatever you just asked for." Navi grumbled. "Just…Just keep moving!"
"Okay!" Link didn't seem that deterred.
The party continued down the trail, talking casually and listening to blabbering on about the increasingly bizarre dream he had about Saria, which, as he explained more, grew to involve rain dance rituals, guillotines, and the cow aliens Link seemed terrified of. Their next destination was going to be Zora's Domain, and none of them knew what it would have in store for them.
A/n: Not much to say here. Just expanded on the chapter to make it longer. Not much else.