DRAGON'S BROOD II (Kirishima x Bakugou)

Chapter 8: Destruction

Bakugou's PoV

When I woke up the next morning, I frowned briefly, confused, before I remembered where I was. A movement caught my attention. Red had half lay down on me, his legs crossed with mine, his arm wrapped around my chest. The half dragon had buried his face in the crook of my neck and his red hair fell over his eyes like a silky curtain.

I smiled and stroked a strand from his forehead. When we returned from the forest to the camp yesterday, Telana had asked us with a mischievous grin what we had done. The half dragon blushed so hard that it didn't need any more words. I smiled as I thought back.

Red blinked sleepy and his long dark eyelashes tickled my neck. He looked up at me sleepily and noticed that I was awake. A little tired smile lay on his lips. "Good morning," he whispered quietly with a rough morning voice before leaning up a bit and giving me a little kiss.

I closed my eyes briefly and returned the tender gesture before also leaning on my elbows and forcing Red to move away a little. I looked around the camp. The fire had long since burned down and between the blankets on the other side I spotted copper-red hair. But I didn't see Taran anywhere.

"Where's Taran?" Red asked when he also sat up.

But before I could answer, the key keeper came back from the forest. Asking, I raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I just had to step out for a short time. And unlike you, I mean exactly that."

Red blushed again. It was kind of cute that he was so embarrassed.

---

After a short breakfast we set off again. We left the Kuma behind us and moved along the mountain range to the east, where the village was located. We left the green and tree-lined area around the river and the plain became more and more barren.

I carefully scanned the landscape in front of me. The affected village was tiny and was practically not marked on any map, but should be easy to find if it was not hidden in the foothills. We rode for some hours now, so it couldn't be far. My gaze wandered to the left to the mountains and I squinted my eyes together when I noticed a small plume of smoke. I stopped my horse.

"There," I said calmly, pointing to the smoke that was barely visible in front of the sunlit mountains.

We pushed our horses and galloped towards the gap between two hills behind which we suspected the affected village. But what we saw behind the small mountains caused the blood to freeze in our veins. We stopped our horses and stared in horror at the image of destruction right in front of us.

The houses of the inhabitants were destroyed. Most of the wood had been burnt and the remaining was blackened with soot and fragmented in a way that showed great force. The cobblestone was torn open and the stones scattered in all directions. And then there were the corpses. Men. Women. Children.

I felt my hands begin to tremble as the images from my childhood flashed in front of my eyes. My village, similar to this one, but much bigger, had been destroyed in the same brutal way.  Hardly anyone but me had survived, not even my parents, whose murder I had to watch with my own eyes. If the dragonslayer had not been All Might and had not killed the raging dragon, I would have met the same destiny. All this had been the reason why I had so ambitiously pursued my training and so bitterly hated and hunted the dragons. Throughout my time as a dragonslayer, I had never seen such destruction again, as I had always managed not to let it get this far in the first place. And now, after all these years, I stood here. My knowledge had expanded, my views had changed and yet I felt the deep-seated despair of that time and the hatred rising up in me.

"Are you all right, Bakugou?" I heard Taran ask behind me. Only then did I realize that I got off my horse and was slowly approaching the scene of destruction. The key keeper put a hand on my shoulder to hold me back.

"Let go of me," I hissed, but noticed my voice trembled slightly. Taran took his hand off my shoulder and lifted it up defensively.

"Red?" I asked quietly. He was immediately next to me and pulled me a little away from the others before embracing me. I closed my eyes and buried my face in his neck. I took a deep breath and the familiar smell slowly calmed me down. Little by little I stopped trembling.

"Better?" he asked and stroked through my blonde stubborn hair, soothing me.

I nodded slightly and detached myself far enough from him to look into his worried eyes. "I just had a flashback."

"I know," he replied gently. "I didn't expect to find anything like this here either."

"I hate being so weak," I growled with my teeth clenched.

Red pulled his eyebrows together upset. "You are not weak. Not at all. I don't know anyone who's experienced something you have to deal with every day, so don't blame yourself." When I didn't answer, he took a quick look to the side. "Didn't it say that we should ask people questions? There is nobody left here after all."

I frowned. It was true. My brief breakdown had distracted me too much to notice, but the information from the Order did not match this degree of destruction. After all, a messenger from that village had been sent to the Order to report the attack. It was said that some houses had been destroyed and there had been casualties and deaths, but most had survived.

I completely detached myself from Red and stepped towards the entrance of the village. I looked over to the small plume of smoke that had shown us the location of the village. A deep crease had formed between my eyebrows as I bent over and rubbed some of the ash between my thumb and index finger.

"It's warm," I whispered and looked over at Red, whose eyes widened. The insight could be read on his face: There had been another attack, not so long ago.

"We should go and tell the council," Telana said nervously.

But before anybody could answer, we heard a deep growling roar through the village. The dragon was still in the village and it probably served no purpose to storm away as it would have no trouble catching up with us.

I stood up and instinctively drew my sword. Taran did the same and pushed Telana behind him. Red, on the other hand, passed us by. From the corner of my eye I noticed the serious expression on his face. Even if I didn't like it, this was his fight. The half dragon stood in front of us, still in his human form.

The loud rumbling of the dragon and its heavy steps came closer. We were all holding our breath when the dark green dragon finally came around the mountain, which had blocked our view until then and also had shielded us from his eyes. The long snake-like neck shimmered in the sun as the dragon turned his angular head in our direction. Dark green eyes fixed us as he stared hostilely at us.