“You said there wouldn’t be any large ones.” Zeen squeaked, her head turning to gaze into the howling torrent.

“Well I was wrong!” Larvines yelled back.

He always did that, temper flaring to that of a drunk whenever the realm dared prove his judgments wrong.

“Now get me that damn potion,” he growled.

‘I need to find new employment.’ She thought for the tenth time that day. Hurrying, her hand tearing through the pack, she found and grabbed the vial worth half of their savings.

“Got it,” she voiced, nearing him as he reinforced their protective shelter.  The thin layer of light the only thing keeping them from being minced across the rumbling hall.

Half climbing on him, she uncorked the vial, and carefully helped him drink the contents.

She hurried back once the last drop was down, and Larvines began to shiver. His eyes were the first to glow, turning as bright as the light coming from the staff on the ground. The rest of him changed soon after, a figure of blinding light.

A gesture from his shield hand, and their shell expanded, pushing back the whirlwind, and slamming into the Screecher. The other hand, holding aloft an orb she made sure never to look directly at, tripled in size.

She turned away completely when he moved to throw it, hands pressing over her eyes, and body against the floor. She waited out the destruction.

The ground trembled, the realm wailed, she counted her breaths, going up all the way to thirty. Only then did she dare move, looking around and spotting her partner, he was breathing heavily and on his knees. Everything around them was a glowing, molten mess, as for the beast, there was no remains.

Grabbing the pack, she scampered over to him, pulled out a lesser potion, and once again helped him drink it.

She held him after, cold shivers taking him. “No more deep diving.” She voiced as she rocked him back and forth. “We’re too old for this.” Well him, but it caried the same effect, she went where he went, and he didn’t have the strength for these expeditions anymore.

A weak sigh came from him, followed with an accusation. “You’ll leave me.”

She tightened her grip, then relaxed, it was his form of flattery, that fear of losing her.

“You know I’ve had plenty of other reasons to leave you.” She voiced, taking comfort in the routine of their banter, and doing her best to ignore that his shivering’s weren’t dying down. She held him closer, and used one hand to pull out another vial. “But here I am, your faithful carrier.”

Many would say foolish as well, for falling in love with such a… prickly man

He scoffed, but didn’t rebut her claim, instead he held her tighter as well.

“Always here,” she whispered and forced him to drink. “Even to the very end.” A personal vow she had told him years back, when she was still naïve, and overly eager to join a group that traveled the depths.

“But that end is not today,” she added, coaxing him to drink more. The shivers continued. “Not today,” she hissed, forcing him to drink it all.

She held him tight, repeating the phrase, then half cried when his shivers ebbed.

Breath shallow, but even, he forced out. “Alright, no more deep dives.”