Chapter Five
The blare of a bokoblin horn sounded long before they reached the gate, the lookouts alerting everything for miles around that something was approaching the encampment. The short horned beings were similar to the moblins in skin color and fashion, but we're significantly slimmer and much, much shorter. The bokoblin captain met them at the gate.
"You're trespassing in Snorggle's territory," he said, adjusting his grip on his weapon. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"I am here to reclaim the fairies," Volga stated, shifting slightly on his horse. "I am Volga, the dragon knight."
"The fairies? Why?" Snorggle demanded, somewhat shocked by Volga's disregard for him and his rank.
"My personal benefit."
"I thought, anything else?"
"No. I am here to take the fairies, either hand them over or we will get them through force. Bring me to them and I'll consider leaving your camp standing."
Snorggle considered his options before responding. He wasn't going to let Volga simply take the fairies and go without a fight. Maybe he could trap them in an ice keep and have his soldiers finish them off. Maybe the frost talus would take care of them. He grinned mischievously.
"I'll take you to the fairy keep."
He led the group past several tents to the middle of the encampment. Bokoblin soldiers watched from their respective tents suspiciously, stepping closer to their weapons and whispering among themselves. The camp had been staked around several square ruined walls, poorly patched with makeshift doors and thatched roofs. A handful of the structures still had their original doors but most were wooden and new. Snorggle took them to the largest of these buildings, stopping in front of a locked metal door. Visible through the holes in the wall where shelves upon shelves of bottles of fairies of all colors and elements, there was a vague warmth emitting from the keep that melted the snow around it and prompted the moblins and bulbins, who were accustomed to the snow, to scoot closer.
"You can have them if you can get in," sneered the bokoblin captain. "All the fairies are in there[,] so you can't take down the barrier."
Volga glanced at the bokoblin soldiers taking up positions around them. They had all put on helmets and had their hands on their short swords. He scoffed then examined the door to the fairy keep. There were several large snow capped rocks around the door and an enormous boulder a few yards away, precious stones peeking out of the rock embedded in it sparkling in the sun. An ore deposit, embedded in a frost talus. A transparent box had been fixed to the deposit, a small key visible inside. Volga wondered briefly how they managed to get it there.
He dismounted and limped through the snow towards the talus. When it began picking itself up out of the snow he sprouted his wings, quickly flapping to safety as it stood. The giant ice covered golem smashed one of its arms into the ground next to the nearest monsters, which happened to be the bulbins. The rock shattered upon impact, sending sharp fragments in every direction and coating the closest monsters in ice. The ice was crushed as the talus fell forward, pulling rocks from the earth to make a new arm.
The bulbins who couldn't escape from their frozen prisons were crushed under its massive weight. One of the moblins took the opportunity to climb on its back while it was prone. The large red monster was frozen the instant he touched the ice coated stone. Volga watched from the sky, deciding the best course of action as the attempts of his peons failed. He lowered himself carefully, making sure the flailing stone arms didn't hit him as he tried to get closer to the deposit on the creature's back.
He saw his opportunity as the talus fell to remake its arms again. Bracing his throat to avoid a repeat of what happened with the gorons, he released a torrent of flame as he flew across the talus, melting the ice that coated its body. King Bulbin climbed atop the golem and swung his large battle ax at the deposit buried in its back. He managed to chip at it a few times before it threw him off, its icy aura returning shortly after. The two continued to trade off attacks, Volga's fire breath negating the freezing aura and allowing Bulbin to whittle away at the deposit.
Finally, the talus fell and Volga could retrieve the key from the deposit. He thanked Snorggle with the key in hand and smugly walked into the room. Taking a moment to revel in the warmth he began giving king Bulbin and the remaining soldiers orders. He set them in doorways as a precaution, having not forgotten the armed bokoblins in position around the keep, and selected a fairy. The Bokoblin captain stood there shocked and unable to stop his glowing, winged prisoners from escaping. He couldn't get into the room until a fire fairy was released. The heat was unbearable and the dragon knight had just walked in like he owned the encampment and started handing out fairies.
The surrounding bokoblins were given their orders once Snorggle managed to snap out of his stupor, attacking the bulbins in the doorway. The moblins defended the bulbins, allowing them to help release the fairies once the barrier fell. The fairies could not survive in keeps not of their element. The water fairies especially would not fare well in a fire keep, so Volga was forced to take down the barrier first.
"Let them through and take cover," he barked as the last fairy was released.
The bulbins and moblins stepped aside as the bokoblins charged into the room. Volga flapped into the air, knocking down the closest ones with the resulting wind. When the keep had filled he incinerated the room, burning a large portion of the Bokoblin forces.
"It was a nice change from this cursed mountain." He cast one last mocking grin over his shoulder as his soldiers followed him out. Snorggle wisely chose not to follow.
The bulbins were in a celebratory mood. They gathered a dinner, which Volga had to cook again, then ran off into the surrounding snowy woods leaving the moblins and the dragon knight at camp. Their loud rambunctious whoops could be heard ringing through the trees for sometime before a rumbling in the ground began. The moblins looked down at the shaking earth beneath their feet as Volga flapped into the air to see what was going on.
The bulbins were easy to find higher up on the mountain building huge snowballs then sending them rolling down the slope at the bokoblin camp. The atmosphere thinned out at that height, so Volga lowered himself, landing suddenly next to King Bulbin.
"What are you doing?" he asked, startling the large bulbin.
"Celebrating!" declared the king once he'd recovered. The bulbins pushed another snowball down the hill. "We were going to try riding a bear, but couldn't find any, so the next best thing was throwing snowballs at the enemy," he explained as the boulder-sized snowball crashed into one of the walls surrounding the bokoblin camp and knocked it down.
"We can hear you all the way from camp. You probably scared all the bear away."
Bulbin was silent.
"Right, the moblins are leaving in the morning. Collect yourselves if you'd like to go with them," Volga said before flying back to camp.
Having completed the Great Fairy's task, Volga realized he no longer needed the monsters he'd gathered. He stopped briefly to retrieve his pike from camp and to thank the monsters for their assistance then took to the air once more, heading for Hyrule Field. It was much faster traveling alone. Volga could fly the distance instead of riding alongside the group, cutting down travel time significantly. The only thing that slowed him down were his sore shoulders, unused to flying as the only mode of transportation. They would be protesting greatly the following morning, he was sure.
He made camp in natural caves along the mountains and made it back to Eldin in a matter of hours. He stopped in his domain for the night to warm up and make sure the lizalfos and dinalfos hadn't managed to destroy anything too important while he was gone. The dinalfos that was left in charge had managed to keep the peace and, after collecting a bag of rupees from a pot, Volga headed for the fairy fountain. Nearly halfway across Hyrule Field, Volga heard a somewhat familiar, though far too jubilant, laugh behind him. He turned and landed, now face-to-face with the Great Fairy.
She hovered over the ground playing with a large jar, one finger on the lid as she leaned it back and forth before spinning it around. Volga suddenly understood why Impa and her soldiers were on edge when they last met. The jar held a dizzy-looking, green clothed hero who was trying to keep his balance. Volga stifled a laugh at the sight before greeting the Great Fairy.
"Thank you for freeing my fairies," she began. "I didn't truly believe you'd do it, given your recent affairs with the dark sorceress and your general disposition. I was just about to let him go on the condition that he'd rescue my fairies when you showed up, willing and able to do just that."
A few fairies appeared, floating around Volga's broken leg, sore shoulders, and wolfos bite. The areas warmed slightly as the fairies healed them. Once healed they disappeared and the Great Fairy continued.
"Don't you think this is a fitting punishment for our young hero? Leaving my fairies to the fate the bokoblins had for them is quite worthy of some sort of punishment. Of course I won't hold him here forever; someone's got to keep the peace in Hyrule and he is chosen by the goddess," she sighed, her finger caressing the lid once more. "Oh well, I think he's learned his lesson. Where shall I let him go?"
Link pounded desperately on the glass, getting a Volga's attention. He made several gestures indicating he would like to be left near or in Hyrule Field.
"The Gerudo desert may be fitting," Volga offered, maintaining eye contact with the Hylian. "Your fairies were in that frozen wasteland, leave him to trek through the desert heat. One extreme to the other." He grinned innocently at Link's indignant expression.
Impa, having noticed the Great Fairy appear outside her fountain, felt the need to investigate. She took two soldiers and traveled to the location, only to find the Great Fairy simply chatting with the dragon knight.
"General," Volga greeted with a grin and a slight tip of his head when he saw her.
"Volga. You appear to be here alone, yet I believe you wise enough not to travel as such. Do you think so highly of yourself that you believe you need no protection, or are your reptiles keeping the hero busy?" she accused, crossing her arms.
Volga thought the accusation out of place, Link was in the very large and hard to miss bottle behind him. He turned to find said bottle had disappeared.
"Your little hero is safe general," laughed the Great Fairy. "I'm sure he'll be wandering home in a few hours. As will the dragon knight, untouched by you or your company," she grinned.
"Of course, I didn't realize you had sent him away on an errand." Volga's barking laugh and the Great Fairy's giggle cut her off. She glared daggers at Volga, who stood there like a teacher's pet, smirking back at her. "Don't take your time, dragon knight."
Volga resisted the temptation to walk slowly back to Eldin. After all, he could use his leg properly again, but there was no real reason to antagonize the general. The Sheikah were formidable and knowing the truth about Link's disappearance longer than she would, would be reward enough. He gave Impa a final condescending look before sprouting his wings and jumping into the air. His injuries were finally healed and negotiations with the gorons underway; Cia's war on its way to becoming nothing more than an unpleasant memory. With a feral grin on his face and warm air currents beneath his wings, he headed home.
~End~