No Greater Disaster

AN: Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans! To celebrate, I have a chapter for each of my three stories: Brighter Future, Dragons Change, and No Greater Disaster! Hope you enjoy these chapters, and I hope you have a fun day!

Disclaimer: I do not own Raya and the Last Dragon. Ronin is a character I made up.

Chapter 7:

Pengu was brought out of his momentary lull when he heard Raya call out, "We can't stop now. Ronin is still in the keep. We have to keep moving."

He heard Tong mumble something to her, but he didn't catch the words. And as much as he wanted Ronin to pay for what he did to his kind, he couldn't bring himself to move from his spot near the corpses of his fellow dragons. Though he didn't know many of them personally, he still grieved for each of them.

Vaguely he heard the portcullis lifting followed by the sounds of several men running past him into the keep. He bowed his head with a sigh but looked back up when he felt a hand on his neck. Raya stared at him sympathetically with tears beginning to fill her eyes before hugging him. "I am so sorry you had to see this," she said, her voice slightly muffled from where she was resting her head against his neck.

He hugged her back, but his gaze drifted back over to the bodies. "Everyone believes the Druun were monsters, yet even they were not capable of such cruelty," he whispered.

Raya didn't answer, for honestly, what could she say? Eventually, she pulled away, though she appeared thoughtful. "I know this probably sounds heartless, but can't you just bring them back the way you brought Sisu back?"

He shook his head. "No. It takes a great many dragons to perform such a feat. And even if I had help, all of them have had their horns cut off," he explained, to which she appeared confused.

"What does having their horns missing have to do with anything?" she asked.

"Our horns are the source of our magic. Without them, we can no longer use our magic…or be revived," he revealed. "I suspect Ronin knows this," he told her.

She gazed sadly at the bodies with him, and when she spoke, it was to change the topic. "What should we do with them?" she asked, looking back up to him.

"Return them to the water," was his answer.

Raya nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but whatever she was about to say was cut off by a massive explosion. Both of them were thrown away by the force of the shockwave, and he hit the ground hard. He shook his head to clear it, noticing that Raya had fared better than him and was staring at the keep in horror. "TONG!"

She got to her feet, wobbling a bit at first, but then she was able to steady herself. She ran to the keep, but not before ordering him to make it rain to combat the roaring fire. He did as instructed and made it rain as hard as he could. He followed behind Raya after a few more moments and saw, to his immense relief, that she was helping Tong out of the building. He was injured—his clothes were smoldering and he had his fair share of burns and cuts—but he was on his feet, at least.

Raya helped him sit down away from the flames, and he approached the two. Pengu stared at the raging fire for a moment before switching his amazed stare to the Spine Chief. "You are lucky to have survived," he said grimly.

Tong chuckled weakly. "It takes more than that to kill me," he said, his voice a bit raw from the smoke. Then he grew more somber. "If only my men could say the same…" he bowed his head in shame. "I failed them."

"No, Tong," Raya argued. "You couldn't have known the keep was rigged to blow."

"But I should have," he argued fiercely. "I should have known Ronin would do something like this." He sighed. "Once again, he has gotten the better of me."

"We underestimated him…I underestimated him," she confessed. "But now that we know what he's capable of, we won't let it happen again, right?" Tong grunted in agreement after a moment, and Raya smiled at him. "Good. Now let's get you some help."

She helped the Spine Chief up with the assistance of a few others who had come to see what happened. Pengu watched them go before turning his attention back to the steadily weakening fire. The rain was doing its job, it seemed.

As he was watching the flames slowly die away, Raya came up beside him. He looked at her curiously. "He'll be fine," she assured him. "They say he'll be out of commission for a while, but he'll make a full recovery." A moment of almost tense silence passed between them. "Amba wasn't here…was she?" she asked.

He sighed. "No. But Ronin said he moved a lot of the dragons he kept imprisoned here," he said a bit hopefully.

"We just have to figure out where," Raya finished with a nod. She placed her hand on his neck in a show of comfort. "But we will find her," she promised, pinning him with a serious look that made him actually believe that she would keep that promise…no matter what.

Emotion swelled within him at hearing her declaration and seeing the determination in her eyes. Words couldn't really explain how appreciative he was of her help and her constant optimism. He had told her before, but it was doubtful he could have done this alone. He smiled at her with that small, heartfelt smile of his. "Thank you, Raya. For everything."

"Well, what are friends for?" she said with a small smile of her own. "But you should wait to thank me until after we find her," she told him, and he bowed his head in a show of acceptance. "Once the fires are out, I'll go in and search the place. Something tells me Ronin wouldn't blow his keep just to kill a handful of men."

"You think he was trying to hide something from us?" he surmised.

She nodded. "I think it's entirely possible. What that might be, though, I have no idea." Then she turned to face him. "Why don't you go get some rest? I can get you if I find something."

He looked down at himself and grimaced at what he saw. His fur was matted with mud and blood, and he felt thoroughly disgusting with the amount of grime on him. And the rain wasn't even helping. Instead of washing the stuff off of him, it was just making it wet, making it run further into his fur. "I doubt I could get any rest with the amount of filth on me," he commented.

She shrugged then smirked. "I wasn't really going to say anything, but you kind of stink, too." He bristled with indignation at her jab but smelled himself, anyways. He almost gagged at the stench radiating off him.

He composed himself as best he could, though now that he was aware of the smell, he was forced to take shallow breaths. "Yes, I believe I do. Do you know where I might wash myself?"

"Unless you want to swim in freezing cold water, we'll both have to wait until we get back to the village," she said with a grimace as she looked herself over. "I'm not too thrilled with the idea, either." She looked back up to the keep and took a few steps toward it before turning and beckoning him forward. "Come on. The fire's gone down enough for us to explore it."

He followed, severing his connection to the magic that kept the rain going. They entered the dimly lit keep, and explored the main room for a little while, but there was nothing there of note as it looked to be used as a dining room of sorts. They saw a kitchen connected to it, and another slightly smaller room for storage, so he concluded that this must be the common area.

There was a staircase going up through an opening to the right side of the room which led to the upper levels where the bomb detonated, but his attention was on the staircase next to it that led down. "Must be the dungeons," he guessed. He looked to her to see what she thought, but she merely shrugged.

He watched her go down the stairs and stop at the door. To their surprise, it was unlocked. She opened it slowly, her blade drawn just in case, and entered. She came back out moments later with a massive grin. "It's an underground river," she revealed.

She reentered the room, leaving the door open, and once the way was clear, he all but sprinted down the stairs, past Raya, and into the water with a massive splash. He stayed under for a few seconds before popping his head above water to see Raya looking off to the side, shaking her head while snickering in amusement. He began wiping the grime off of himself as best as he could while Raya took her boots off and sat down on the bank, dipping her feet in the water. "It's warmer than I thought it'd be," she commented.

While not overly strong, the current was swift enough to was away the mud, therefore keeping the water they were in clean. The room wasn't large, he noticed. Perhaps fifty feet wide, and the river took up the majority of the depth of the room. There was maybe only seven feet of bank on the side with the door while the river itself was close to thirty feet wide—no doubt having been widened artificially. And the water itself was only five feet deep. "Why not jump in?" he questioned her, curious.

"I will," she answered. "When you leave. I'm not taking my clothes off while you're still here."

"Then jump in with your clothes on," he returned simply, as if that was the most sensible thing in the world. "They are already soaked from the rain, are they not?" he asked, coming a bit closer. Without her knowledge, his tail was snaking around behind her just in case she wouldn't come in willingly.

"True…but I'd rather just wait," was her reply. His tail had other ideas. With a surprised yelp, she landed in the water with a mighty splash but popped up quickly and pinned him with a scowl. "Was that really necessary?" He just grinned at her unabashedly, so she splashed him in the face with some water.

He wrinkled his snout in honest surprise before a devious grin slowly began to form on his face. Sensing her impending doom, Raya backed away from him as best as she could, raising her hands in front of her in a placating gesture. "No. Pengu, no. No…nonononono—" she was cut off when he used his tail to send a veritable tidal wave of water at her. After getting nearly half the river thrown at her—she stayed standing to his amazement—she puffed some air out of her mouth and nodded in resignation. "Yep. I just asked for that, didn't I?"

He laughed at her expense, and she glared at him, though it wasn't very fierce and a small smile was playing at her lips. They stared at each other like that for a while—him with his victorious smile and her with her playful glare—until they both broke out into laughter at the same time. He hadn't felt like this in quite a while, he realized. For the past few weeks especially, he had been constantly worried about something or other, but now he was actually having fun and it felt like he didn't have a care in the world. Almost as soon as he came to that conclusion, he noticed Raya smirking at him as if she knew something he didn't. "What?" he asked curiously.

She shrugged. "Oh, nothing. I just realized that this is the first time I've actually seen your playful side," she said.

He cocked his head in genuine confusion. "What do you mean? I have been playful around you before…"

"Yeah," she agreed. "But that was Pengu levels of playfulness," she explained. Then she gestured at him. "This is more like Sisu levels of playfulness."

He chuckled. "And where do you think Sisu got her playful side from?" he said with a smile.

"I don't know," she shrugged innocently. "Jagan?"

He rolled his eyes in amusement. Jagan was the most severe dragon he knew—moreso than even him. And he suspected Raya knew that and was teasing him. "And I suppose your cooking skills come from Chief Benja?" he asked, reversing the playful insult.

"Oof," she laughed. "Now that's harsh." He chuckled along with her, closing his eyes for a moment, though his amusement quickly changed to curiosity when he felt something brush through the fur on his neck. He looked over to see that Raya had grabbed a brush and was brushing the grime and knots out of his fur. Upon noticing his curious and mildly surprised stare, she shrugged noncommittally, though he noticed the small blush on her face. "Thought you might need some help," she answered in an attempt to justify the situation.

He watched her for a while, and he had to admit that having his fur brushed felt good. She didn't go past his shoulders, but that was alright. He could take care of the rest by himself. Actually, he could have groomed himself without her help, but he wasn't complaining. She started on his left side then did his right. No words were shared between them, and as the minutes ticked by, he could feel a new emotion swelling within him.

It was only when she started on the front of his neck, forcing him to look up with his eyes half-closed in contentment, that he discovered what that emotion was. It was affection. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times in dumbfounded realization, as she continued to brush his neck.

He was beginning to develop feelings for Raya.

He glanced down at her for a moment—long enough for those feelings to swell momentarily—then released an exasperated exhale. He had absolutely no idea where these feelings came from as they seemed to have come from nowhere. Yes, he thought of her as a friend. Yes, he appreciated that she was willing to help him. Yes, he enjoyed spending time with her. And yes, her determination was the only thing that was keeping his hopes alive at this point.

"Done," she said, bringing him out of his thoughts. He looked back down at her and then at his fur. It was immaculate once more…well everything above his shoulders, at least. "Mind giving me a few minutes?"

He nodded and left without a word, going back up to the common room and sitting down somewhat heavily. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his snout in frustration. This was absolutely not what he expected—or needed—to happen right now. His priority was to save Amba and then it was to stop Ronin. Any personal feelings—towards Raya or anyone else—would only complicate matters. Which is why he planned to ignore these feelings and hope they would eventually go away.

Grooming himself only took about ten minutes, and by that time Raya had apparently finished and was walking back up the stairs to join him. "Now that the fun's over, it's time to get back to work. Let's go check out the upper floors."

He nodded, and the two of them went up to the second floor. Whatever used to be here was just…gone. It wasn't because it was all destroyed by the explosion, no; it was simply not here anymore. The entire floor was stripped bare of anything and everything. "It seems they knew we were coming, after all," he said grimly.

"They must have known for days," she agreed. "Hopefully, there's something we can use on the top floor." With nothing else to do but go up, they made their way up to the third and final floor. It was here that the bomb went off, and Raya whistled at the devastation. "Watch your step. These floors don't look too stable," she cautioned.

The top floor seemed to be Ronin's personal quarters judging by the décor. Splintered remains of a bed, a dresser, and a few other pieces of furniture lie scattered about amidst the debris. In the center of this room, there was a large hole in the floor which indicated that that was the epicenter of the blast. A lot of the stone in the room was blackened with soot and the wood was charred, but the damage from the fire didn't seem to be too bad, actually.

He noticed another door, iron-reinforced and sturdy, and went to open it. It was locked. "Raya," he called. She looked to him, and an understanding passed between them. Ronin must be inside. Why else would there be such a sturdy door up here if it wasn't used as a panic room? And since he wasn't anywhere else in the keep, he must be inside.

Raya tried to kick it open, but it still wouldn't budge. "He may be caught like a rat in a trap, but it's a pretty sturdy one, I'll give him that." She ran out to the balcony, and he watched her curious as to what her plan was. "Hey, you three! Grab that big beam and get up here!" she called down. A couple minutes passed before three Spine warriors walked in carrying a large, wooden support beam. It looked heavy, and Raya's plan suddenly made sense. "Watch your step," she told them, and they nodded, carefully navigating their way to the other side of the room. "We think Ronin might be inside this room, but it won't budge. Would you mind helping me break it down?"

They looked between each other with large grins and nodded once more, hefting their makeshift battering ram. They couldn't go very far back due to the hole in the floor, but it was far enough. It took longer than any of them expected, but after almost ten minutes of pounding away at the door, it finally gave in.

When the contents of the room were finally revealed, but he and Raya were stunned silent. It looked to be Ronin's personal study with a large desk, several bookshelves which made up a small archive, and a chest with more than enough gold to make this raid worth it. But what was in the room wasn't nearly as important as what wasn't in the room. "How is this possible? We saw him reenter the keep, and there's no other way out! How could he have gotten out without us seeing him!?" Raya fumed.

For Ronin wasn't here.

AN: So where did he go? The answer will be in the next chapter, so stay tuned!

Also, a lot of Pengu x Raya fluff! And now Pengu realizes that he might see her as a little more than a friend... Like always, leave your thoughts in a review. I may not respond to most of them, but I do read all of them-including guest reviews.

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22