The three Gorons took Link into an open, natural room where all the Gorons were being held captive. They had all curled up and looked like featureless rocks, so Link thought that, for a moment, there was no one in the cell. Wengen, Mürren and Gündlischwand all knew why. If Nekketsu were to come back after they fled, they would have all been punished horribly.

"Link, don't say anything." whispered Mürren, "Just free them before things get ugly. If they know you're here then they'll all go mad."

Link nodded at him in response. Being as slow as he could, Link slid the Master Sword out of its sheathe and aimed it at the lock.

VUM! SHING!

All the Gorons suddenly pulled their heads up in unison as Link severed the lock straight from the bars. With a squeak, the door swung open. Everyone held still from a moment. They could not believe that they were free. Nekketsu was gone and so was their imprisonment.

"Well?" started Link at the silence, "You're free! Run for it!"

…

…

…

Have all the Gorons already escaped and replaced themselves with giant rocks or something? This lot is quieter than a sensory deprivation room!

Oops, never mind! They got up and all began swarming Link, Navi, Wengen, Mürren and Gündlischwand, screaming their German thank-you's at the top of their massive lungs.

"DANKE DIR!"

"DANKE DIR!"

"DANKE DIR!"

"DANKE DIR!"

To an English speaker like Link, it sounded like they were talking about an unpleasantly damp and cold deer, yet it made perfect sense to the Gorons. A few of the young Gorons started talking with Mürren, Wengen and Gündlischwand in German and, after a German response from them all, they joined Link and his team. The others either went off to Goron City to man defences in case any attempts to restore peace failed or they fled from Death Mountain as far away as they could.

Link was left with seven Gorons.

"I think that's everyone!" joked Navi, turning a mix of amused pink and bemused purple. Link's party nodded.

"Now we have to find the Megaton Hammer that slew Volvagia and then get to Darunia in time." Link added on, ignoring the joke. "He's counting on us and we can't fail!"

Link walked past his party and clattered the metal door open. "Are you all coming with me?"

All of the Gorons stayed with no words passing through. They wanted to help Link but a the same time they knew that they might easily get themselves killed along the way.

"Come on!" urged Wengen, "What do you say? Yes or no? It's not too late to go back to the city!"

…

All the new Gorons went red in the face from stress. Still, they said nothing.

Instead, they politely nodded their heads.

"Come out!" boomed Darunia, brandishing his fists in front of his face. His voice was so loud, it shook rocks from the walls and dropped them into the lava with a sizzling hiss. "Didn't you hear me? I said come out, you Hohlkopf!"

"Oh. I hear you all right..." Volvagia snaked out of a pit of lava behind Darunia. "I smell you… I hear you… I see you… I taste you!"

Darunia felt a stabbing pain in his back, causing him to contort forward and cry out as Volvagia sank her fangs into his back once again. This time he leaped into the air and collapsed onto his back to crush the fire serpent underneath it.

CRUMP!

The searing pain in his back suddenly stopped. When he stood up, he looked behind him to see if he had truly outsmarted Volvagia and…

...she had scarpered. She had pulled a Houdini on him. Her teeth were no longer imprinted in his back. He didn't know where they were now, which was somehow even worse.

Whoooooooosh!

Suddenly, Volvagia flew an an arc around the big brother, smoke belching from her nostrils like they were train whistles. "Got you! You'll be my most filling meal yet, you will!" she slithered, elongating her words as if they tasted like chocolate pudding.

"I deny!" Darunia staggered back, the fight having sapped his energy. Every muscle in his body felt like it was about to snap like elastic bands.

Volvagia grinned sadistically, baring her fangs and igniting them. "You DIE!" corrected the dragon. With one terrifying lunge she sank her teeth into Darunia's thick hide, tucking into what was her first meal in almost four hours.

Just a few dozen meters away, a Lizalfos prowled the praying room of the temple, clicking and hissing in circles around the statue in the middle. In his hands, he wielded a silver, heavy hammer with a leather handle.

FOOOOOOOOM!

From out of nowhere, a jet of fire scorched the scaled monster, setting its clothing ablaze. Its high squeals drowned in the sea of flames as the shooter slowly walked towards it, his glowing sword swiftly slashing through the inferno and vanquishing the blighter instantly.

Link shook his hand limply to relieve the slight twinge in his hand from using Din's Fire before advancing to collect his prize. "Is this the hammer?" he whispered back at his team of Gorons. All of them nodded, darting their eyes around in case the noise from the fight alerted more guards.

"That… is the Megaton Hammer." said Wengen, stepping out when he was sure the coast was clear. "The King to start all Kings used it in his famous battle with Volvagia the fire serpent! He battered her so hard, she flew all the way out of the temple and into the sun! Now she's back for revenge… against his descendant!"

Link's face wrinkled as the reality set in. If Volvagia was not completely and utterly erased permanently after being launched into the sun, defeating her was not going to be easy.

"How in the name of Din did it survive that?" Navi screeched slowly like a piece of chalk on a board. She was now completely white, but yellow was starting to fade in. "If the heat didn't kill her, the radiation should have been more than enough!"

"Well, it did kill her." Mürren answered, "Ganondorf sacrificed a few Gorons in her nest and… it bought her back somehow. I don't know how he knew about that, but the point is that she's back for Big Brother's hide and-"

Suddenly, Mürren was cut off by a deafening screech from Volvagia's nest. All the children slammed his hands over their ears and squinted as the ground shook. It sounded horrible. Even worse than a knife against a wine bottle.

"-it sounds like she's got it." finished Mürren as he dug his finger in his ear to restore his hearing.

"Look, the rest isn't important!" Link said urgently as he grabbed the Megaton Hammer and struggled to heft it above himself. "We have to save your leader! Come on!"

Link dashed past the Gorons, trying his best to avoid bonking any of them on the head with his new hammer, but it was slowing him down so he bunged it in his bag to relieve it of its weight. All the Gorons stood still for a few moments, exchanging some looks, but Wengen started to run after Link. This prompted Mürren to go after him and, within seconds, all the Gorons were rolling down the temple after Link.

The fighting noises grew and grew as Link ran through the maze that was the Fire Temple. To say that Link was frustrated couldn't be further from the truth. He felt like he was about to burst open. As the sounds of gnashing as screeching got louder, he narrowed it down to a crossroad down at the very south of the labyrinth. The more time they spent in there, the more jittery Navi got, the more sweaty Link got and the more anxious every Goron stopped.

"Where is she?" hissed Link as he arrived at the southern crossroad for the umpteenth time. He kicked the floor in frustration as the sound of biting continued snapping from underneath him. "Don't just stand there!" he exclaimed at the crowd of Gorons, "Where's the exit? We're lost!"

"If I may… We're on the first floor. We're above her." came a voice from one of the Gorons at the back. Link's fist trembled and he pressed his top set of teeth on his bottom lip, producing a frustrated hissing noise. "But all hope is not lost."

Every single pair of eyes turned on this one Goron, who was clearly younger than everyone else. Mürren approached him in his usual calm way. "What do you have in mind? Think it through because there is a lot at stake here."

"I suggest..." started the small Goron, his voice wobbling with fright, "that you pound the ground with your new hammer until we get to soil underneath. Then, we can all dig a tunnel down into Volvagia's nest and help big brother!"

The Gorons all huddled together, whispering in German to each other. Link took the Megaton Hammer into both his hands, ready for affirmation. He didn't even need to be informed when all the Gorons nodded and smiled, Link raised the Megaton Hammer above his head, almost toppling over backwards from its weight, before he smashed it into the concrete.

BANG! SMAAAAAASH!

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Link ran into the face of flying soil as Mürren, Wengen and Gündlischwand pounded through the ground, digging their large fingers into the earth and flinging pieces over their shoulders. All the other Gorons hid behind Link, who was protecting them from the projectiles with his shield.

"So, do you know how I can beat Volvagia?" Link asked any of the Gorons behind him, "Should I know anything before I go in?"

One of the Gorons raised his hand as if he were in a classroom. "Sir?" he uttered nervously.

"Yes?"

"I think I know. When she pops her head out of the pools of lava in the arena, that means her exoskeletal helmet is vulnerable for you to hit with your hammer."

"Thank you, kid. You're really helpful, you know that?"

The Goron boy was about to smile but he was interrupted when red and orange colours exploded into everyone's eyes and the ground vanished from below their feet.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Everyone clattered to the rocky, jagged island in a lake of lava. It was like a rockslide. The big boned Gorons nearly landed clean on top of Link, who would have become a pancake if they had.

"Owwww..." he grunted as he got up and dusted himself off, "Is anyone hurt? Are we all OK?"

"A few baddies..." huffed Gündlischwand, "but I'll live."

Another Goron was looking left and right, his expression slowly going from pain to… emotional pain. When Link looked with him, he knew exactly why and started to feel the same way. Darunia was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't fighting, he wasn't waiting, he wasn't even laying in a heap on the floor.

There was a small pile of brown rocks laying like shards of glass in a ring of smoke imprinted into the ground, though.

"No." said Link, expressionless. "No!"

By now, all of the Gorons had noticed the absence of their leader. Three of them stayed silent in shock but the others began calling.

"Darunia!"

"DARUNIA!"

"Big brother!"

"Darunia..." Navi whimpered as she watched all the Gorons search every inch of the platform for their leader. The walls were invisible, shrouded by dark shadows. Not even the lava lit the room fully up.

As all the Gorons screamed and searched the room, Link knelt on the floor, facing the ring of ash. "Your service was admirable." he said to Darunia, putting his fist over his heart. "You served us all well. Thanks, brother."

"He did his best, Link." whispered Navi. She landed on Link's buckling legs. "He stalled Volvagia long enough so that she could not eat any more Gorons and he succeeded."

"But what about this lot?" Link asked her, his tone equal with hers. "We're trapped with no way out."

Navi turned her head to all the children. Instead of mourning, they were gathering at one of the many little pools of lava on the island. They were all watching the bubbles.

The bubbles that were only appearing in that one specific spot of lava.

The bubbles that were getting more and more violent.

Eventually, the surface of the lava started rising like a cake in the oven.

"Boys, watch out!" Link drew his sword and ran at the congregation, which split them all up and drove them away from the pool. Suddenly, the magma surface burst open. Lava hissed through the air as Link defended himself against it with the Hylian Shield. All the Gorons looked in terror as a long, thin serpent broke the surface of the lava. It was red with a solid, white underbelly. A majestic travesty of fiery hair flowed off the back of its head like a golden waterfall and it had an exoskull. It had tiny hands lower down on its body and, while no one could see it, its tail was sharpened like a machete.

"It's her!" breathed one of the Gorons, his teeth clacking in terror.

The Searing Serpent of the Sea of Smoke and Steam,

VOLVAGIA.

"Well, is it my birthday?" whined the dragon. Her eyes slitted with satisfaction. "First a big Goron comes along and was the best meal I've ever had and now he's bought all the puddings around!" Grinning insanely, Volvagia lowered her head to be eye level with Gündlischwand and disturbingly traced her scales and head around him like she was an affectionate dog. "Oh, you should have seen his face! You should have heard the crunching! You would have loved it!"

Gündlischwand began trembling as Volvagia rubbed herself against his chin. Now he was the dog and she was its sadistic, vicious owner. All the other Gorons didn't dare speak at the risk of being turned into a rock rotisserie. Even Link didn't draw the Master Sword in case she hurt them. "Look at that, your very last king, your very last big brother. Just like your very last hope… it died."

Volvagia continued nuzzling herself all over Gündlischwand's back, prompting him to curl himself up into a ball, like how a person would hide under their covers. "Accepting your fate. Good boy. And goodbye."

Lava slobbering from her mouth, Volvagia shut her eyes and unhinged her jaw on the trembling Goron, but footsteps pounding over made her shut her mouth and open her eyes. Link almost took Volvagia's head clean off with the Master Sword and he would have done if she hadn't reared out of the way. The Master Sword landed with a numbing smack in the igneous rock, sending a hum up Link's arm.

"Shut up, you fibbing weasel!" Link panted, red in the face. He pulled the Master Sword out of the ground and pointed the tip at the draconian dragon. "You're lying! You're trying to dampen my spirits! Darunia didn't die! You're too weak for him!"

All the Gorons looked at Link with jaw-dropped shock. Some of them backed away and began to climb down the ledge to wade in the lava, sensing Volvagia's anger to be so great that it would create a blasting eruption that would envelop the world. A few ran behind Link to help him stand his ground. Volvagia glared a burning hole straight through Link, sending Navi inside Link's red hat.

"Deny and defy all you want, Hylian… Your sworn brother is gone whether you like it or not. The question is… will you follow him?"

"That's a stupid question!" Navi screeched, still under Link's hat, "Of course he's not! Where will he follow him too?"

"Why, to the afterlife, of course! Where else?"

As she argued and bickered with the dragon like an old wife, Link's eyes started to drift down to Volvagia's body in the little lava hole. It looked like she was slowly lowering into it. The lines on her belly slowly got lower, each one hissing down the hole.

Don't ask him how, but Link knew exactly what the dragon was doing and dove sideways just as a sharp tail burst out of a hole right behind him and almost cut off his head. Volvagia frowned in frustration as she started to cleave the air with her tail in a vain attempt to end her new foe. Link drew the Master Sword with the Hylian Shield and began duelling with the troublesome tail. Volvagia knew of the Master Sword's power, so whenever Link retaliated she withdrew her weaponised tail.

"You really should mind your own business and let me turn these Gorons into toast!" Volvagia hissed as her head completely sank beneath the lava. Lowering with her, the point of the tail vanished with a plop.

Link took out the Megaton Hammer before he ran to check on his team. "Is everyone safe?" he called down the edge of the platform.

"No one's hurt?" added Navi. She flew down to the sea of lava below, where all the Gorons hid. One Goron raised his head towards her.

"No. We're all fine. Us Gorons are unharmed by lava so we can hide down here until enough of our energy is built and then we can all join you and finish her off!"

"So..." Navi flew around the Goron's head, turning gold with inspiration and making it look like the Goron was wearing a halo. "What you're saying is that..."

"He's saying that he is WEAK and needs to laze around in order to get anything done!" The Dragon's rasping voice slashed through the air once again, along with her. She burst out of the lava directly under the Goron, knocking him into the air. Before she was out of range, he threw his hand out and seized her singing mane. Volvagia hissed and spat as her hair began to get pulled straight from her exoskull. "Daaagh! Stop that, parasite! Let go!"

But the Goron was not in a listening mood. Even when Volvagia managed to throw him off, he lashed out with his hand, slid it down her thin body and stopped it entirely when it reached the hilt of her tail. As she thrashed around the room like a broken streamer, the Goron began to climb back up her body until he reached her head again. He cracked his hand into a fist and threw a haymaker at her, ringing an almighty crack throughout the cave and getting a scream out of Volvagia. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! Why, you little…"

"Hammer boy!" the Goron called down to Link, not knowing his actual name. He was almost sent flying clean off by a sharp turn but he grabbed Volvagia's head and hung on, covering her eyes and smashing her into a wall.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

"Throw up the hammer!" he yelled. Rocks started to dislodge from the ceiling and assault the floor. Link held his shield upwards like an umbrella, flawlessly deflecting all the rocks. They all shattered into shards on contact, causing the Hylian Shield to start glowing red. He had heard the Goron's order but the Megaton Hammer was really heavy. He needed her to dive and pass him in an attempt to hit him so that he could pass the young Goron the hammer but she still lagged out of reach.

"Link! Move it!" Navi's snapping voice was almost as powerful as Volvagia's jaws and rightly so, as a giant, glowing boulder was engulfing Link with its shadow. He only just narrowly avoided landing straight in one of the many lava holes as he dived to evade it.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Quickly leaping back up to his feet, Link pulled the Megaton Hammer back out as Volvagia finally shook the Goron off of her, knocking him to the floor. Raving, foaming lava at the mouth, Volvagia twisted to block Link and then spewed a jet of fire straight at him and Navi. Link quickly picked up his hat and slammed it back on over Navi before standing at ease to take the jet of flames…

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

…

…

Much to Link's surprise and bewilderment, nothing happened to him. He didn't feel anything! It felt like someone had simply turned a hair dryer on him. The one thing the blast of fire accomplished was heating up the Megaton Hammer until it shone red like a glowstick. Link's clothes saw no difference either. They hadn't melted, they hadn't hardened, they hadn't even gone black. Not even his face was flambéed. It was the Goron Tunic, coming through for him again.

"No!" screeched Volvagia as she sat coiled on the floor like a snake, reeling her head backwards. "Can't move!"

Breathing that jet of fire had weakened the dragon to the point where it could no longer fly. She tried to draw her tail from underneath her coils, but she was stuck with it. Out of breath, terrified, angry, all of it was beginning to catch up to her as Link winded up for an uppercut with the fiery mallet before a smash of exoskull filled the air.

Volvagia shot upwards from the force of the blow and her natural weakness to the hammer, hissing in a raspy scream all the way.

CRAAAAAAAAAASH!

The ceiling shattered as the dragon hit it, busting a hole in it before limply falling down back to the floor.

Link looked up at the spinning serpent as it weakly wobbled down towards him before his eyes shifted to the giant hole in the ceiling. Readying the Megaton Hammer once more, Navi's voice screamed from his cap. "Mash her with your mallet, Link!"

Link was more than happy to oblige. The hammer trailing red in the air, he uppercutted with it once more, the weight of the hammer almost taking his arms off.

CLANNNNNNNNNNNNNG!

With the last hit, Link blasted Volvagia straight out of the temple through the hole his last battering had made. She spat, screamed and howled like a banshee as she steadily got smaller and smaller. All the Gorons climbed out of the lava and watched with Link as their mortal enemy got smaller and smaller until she was the size of a pumpkin.

Then a lamp.

Then a drawing pin.

Then a bread seed.

Then… nothing at all.

She didn't stop travelling there, obviously. No one could see it, but she went all the way into space, still spinning. Her screams cut off as she entered space and spun straight at the sun. She was the cunning fire serpent that could literally live in lava, but the sun was just too hot. The temperature, the radiation, all that was just too much for her to take. The second she touched its fifteen-million degree fire…

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

...she perished in the biggest flash of light Link had ever seen. It was so big that he could see it blinking in the rising sun. It was so big that it took over his entire vision.

It was so big that it sent him straight out of his dimension once again, like when he stabbed the portal to the Gap Between Dimensions.

Kakariko Village, 5:21AM. Few people were awake, but one soul hardly got a comfortable night of sleep.

He had ginger hair, a ginger beard and wore a white shirt with a pair of shorts and sandals. Why couldn't he sleep? Not only because someone had nicked his ladder when he nipped up to the roof to clean under the tiles and he had to sleep up there but because Death Mountain released a belching eruption, trailing fire and smoke into the air. The volcanic rock completely covered the fiery ring around the top, spewing hot, cauliflower ash around it.

"What in the name of..." the man muttered. He got up and held his hand up sideways above his eyes like a sun visor to see what happened, but when all the mess cleared…

the fiery ring was gone. It had turned back into its peaceful, relaxing cloud halo. Volvagia, the bane of all Gorons, was overthrown.

Really, REALLY overthrown. Thrown so hard that she went all the way to the sun.

Quote of the Day

"The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers."