There was blood everywhere, but Hunter was sure none of it was his. Reasonably sure, anyway. Almost positive, in fact. Almost.

They'd lost Nenia after the first explosion; she was somewhere beneath the rubble, but it would take too long to dig her out. They didn't have time- Rethen didn't have time. Hunter, on the other hand, was expendable- and he knew, with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, that Rethen was fully aware of that fact.

"Hunter-" the deity's eyes were glowing; all around them, the walls groaned. "Hunter, I can't stay here. I-"

"Save it, Rethy. Just shut up and go, I'll try to find Nenia and get her out of here." There was blood everywhere; whose was it? Nenia had been right beside them, until the blast had separated them...

Rethen's golden eyes turned black, and his ears flattened to the sides of his skull. Hunter's vision blurred for a moment; Rethen was losing control of his shape. "Hunter, don't you dare. I'm not leaving you behind."

"And I can't follow you where you need to go, Rethen." The light brightened; he flinched. All at once, Rethen was a boy again, too skinny; then he was a girl, slender and pretty; for a moment, he was an old man, stooped and weary. Then he was a boy, but with scales sprouting from skin, silver-green and luminous. Then he was a dragon, huge and imposing, a wall of scales and power and ancient, ancient wisdom reaching up...

Hunter's gaze followed the expanse of Rethen's god form. The tips of his folded wings disappeared into the shadows around the ceiling; another blast rocked the ground and sent dust and gravel pouring from the walls in cloudy rivers. "Oh..." He'd never seen Rethen like this before; Nenia had, when she'd woken the child-god from his slumber, but that was long before they'd ever met.

A claw bigger than he was curled into a fist, sheathed in ruby light. Hunter...I have no need of this, where I must go. Keep it safe. You trusted me not to break yours- now I beg that you not let mine shatter. The claw opened and Hunter could see a gem there, a ruby the size of his two fists together. Take it, please, and hurry.

He practically had to climb into the dragon's claw to grasp the gem; there were mountains smaller than Rethen right now. The gem sparkled in the light from Rethen's eyes; glinting from a million facets, Hunter could see a tiny golden spark in the heart of it. "Rethen, what is this?"

My heart.

Hunter understood all at once- but it was too late. Rethen unfurled his wings and disappeared in a shimmer of incandescent light. He stared at the gem, feeling that sick sensation in the pit of his stomach deepen. The walls rumbled again, and he nearly lost his balance on the rubble. "Shit. Shit. This is not good, not good at all...damn you, Rethen Willowmarch, now is not the time to be doing this to me..." He stuffed the gem into his pouch and scrambled across the broken rocks.

Another section of the cavern collapsed when he nearly tripped over a scaly hand. The scales were silver tinged with pink- fish blood. Nenia. Hunter began to unearth the buried Seaqueen, praying to the only god who'd ever looked out for him- Rethen. He prayed desperately that they hadn't run out of time.
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*blinkblink* Oi...funny how these scenes are so much less awkward in my head...*sigh* Rethen's a shapeshifting dragon god, Nenia's a fish person and Rethen's adopted mother, and Hunter's an ex-rentboy-thief-con-artist turned adventurer. Don't ask me how they ended up together, because I couldn't really tell you. Don't ask me what's going on here, either, because I haven't worked out any plot for them...