
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/4943416.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      F/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Godzilla_-_All_Media_Types, Godzilla_(2014), Godzilla_-_Fandom
  Character:
      Godzilla
  Additional Tags:
      Drama, Triassic, Apocalypse, Rape, Angst, Underage_Sex
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-10-06 Updated: 2015-11-11 Chapters: 8/? Words: 10068
****** Godzilla, The Crucible ******
by BrokenStride
Summary
     The Shattering had reduced the world to ash and plunged what was left
     into a post-apocalyptic nightmare. Into that crucible he was born.
     Story takes place before dinosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic
     epoch following the Great Permian Extinction.
     The 2014 movie states that Godzilla is estimated at roughly
     250,000,000. Which lines up almost perfectly with the Permian-
     Triassic Extinction, aka The Great Dying. The planet was nearly
     sterilized. This environment is real and all its animals and plants
     are roughly period.
     Warning, dark fic. Rated adult because later chapters WILL contain
     implied child rape, rape, and underage sex.
     Chapter 1 can be read as a one shot so only chapter 1 will be posted
     on restricted sites.
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant.
***** ch.1 Hell of Hells *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Godzilla, The Crucible
Ch.1 Hell Of Hells
- - -
So gray. So ugly. This world. This hell of hells...
He could still remember vast, green lands and blue skies. A cool, bountiful
ocean. The sun. A beautiful world full of life. Now there was only ash. Food
was scarce. Even standing so close to shore the perpetual, dry wind burned.
The Shattering had broken the earth.
Hearing an especially loud, pained roar he shuttered. The breath caught in his
throat as he held his head, on the verge of tears. Too long. This was taking
far too long. The healers had taken over and thrown him out of the shelter to
make room when she had started shrieking, but that had been over a cycle ago.
Now the smothered sun was bleeding the western horizon for a second time. Claws
dug into his scales as clenched his hands around his scalp. He should be in
there with her. That they had even gotten pregnant in the first place was a
miracle, but now she had to survive birthing. The choice had been hers. At her
age it had most likely been her last heat and their last chance to pup, but
there were risks.
She was too old for this. They both were. They probably wouldn’t live to watch
him or her grow into adulthood, but they had to try. There were so few dragons
left. The precious few pups that had been born since the Shattering all died
shortly after birth, but the world was finally calming, healing. Life was
returning to the land and sea and food slowly growing more plentiful. The skies
were brighter, the wind calmer, and the ocean had cooled.
Just before her last heat there had been a sign she simply refused to ignore.
The winds had stilled for nearly a cycle, allowing the gray sky to clear and
unveil the sun for the first time since the Shattering. The horizon was graced
with a golden sunset and the brilliant blue sky had blackened and shimmered
with stars.
They’d wept.
The ancient was ripped violently from his thoughts by the sound of faint
chirping and his head jerked towards the shelter’s entrance. Instantly he was
marching back. They couldn’t hold him back now, he wouldn’t let them. He should
have never allowed them kick him out in the first place. If they tried now he’d
give them the fight of their lives.
- - -
In the entrance he stayed. Watching. Waiting. She lay on her side, her jaws
slightly parted and tongue slipping out. With her eyes shut it almost looked as
though she was just sleeping. But her chest didn’t rise. Slowly he approached
and knelt by her side. She was too still and as he touched her face his tears
finally fell. Fearfully he pulled her into his arms and held her close, begging
for her to come back and praying that he’d awaken from this nightmare.
A high pitched squeak finally reminded him of why she had chosen this.
Her bright eyes stared up at him through their newborn. The infant was massive,
maybe twice normal size, but he looked perfectly healthy. There were no
deformities, no other abnormalities. Chirping and squeaking the pup reached for
his daddy’s face with tiny hands. He was beautiful. Cradling their little
miracle closer he wept.
Chapter End Notes
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant. Godzilla was a mutant
     adapted to the high levels of radiation poisoning the world in a
     post-apocalyptic landscape and in youth had a much lighter build.
     Dragons also evolved completely separate from reptiles and have
     different traits. Warm blooded, a more mammalian style live birth,
     ect...
***** Ch.2 Morals *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Warning, dark fic. THIS chapter contains implied child rape without details.
Characters are predominantly nameless.
- - -
The Shattering had reduced the world to ash and plunged what was left into a
post-apocalyptic nightmare. Into that crucible he was born.
- - -
Godzilla, The Crucible
Ch.2 Morals
- - -
Their species was on the brink. She didn’t like it anymore than the rest of
them, but they tragically didn’t have the luxury of time. The only females left
were elders. Many couldn’t even breed anymore and the elder males weren’t
producing. This season’s heat was likely her last and there was something
different about this pup that went beyond his size. Somehow he wasn’t being
killed off by the strange energy that was poisoning the world. Instead he was
absorbing it, storing it, feeding off of it and growing abnormally large. Pound
for pound he ate less solid food, his body partially sustained by the energy.
If he passed the mutation onto his pups then their species would be saved, but
with more females loosing heat or dying of old age every season they couldn’t
wait any longer. They had no choice!
He should be old enough by now, the others were just letting morals get in the
way...
- - -
He was trying to balance little stones when the shadow fell upon him. The young
pup looked up at the massive female that stood over him. Something was off
about her. He wished daddy was here, but he hadn’t seen his father in a long
time. Not since daddy got sick. She was making him nervous. Why was she staring
at him like that? Slowly she knelt down next to him and pushed him onto his
back. Something was wrong and he squeaked.
- - -
It hurt, why was she doing this to him? Was he bad, did he do something wrong?
It hurt so much and he tried to get away, but she wouldn’t stop. Would she ever
stop? He tried to fight back, chirping and crying and where was daddy? Why
didn’t he come? The more he kicked the more it hurt, so he stopped kicking. It
felt weird, he didn’t like it. Why was she doing this!?
- - -
Sticking around to comfort the little one after would not have been wise in her
opinion. She had to remain detached. It was difficult, but she managed to block
out the pups distressed chirps as she walked away, not even looking back. She’d
have to do this many more times to make certain that she’d been impregnated.
There was no point in going about it half-assed, it was all or none.
Chapter End Notes
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant. Godzilla was a mutant
     adapted to the high levels of radiation poisoning the world in a
     post-apocalyptic landscape and in youth had a much lighter build.
     Dragons also evolved completely separate from reptiles and have
     different traits. Warm blooded, a more mammalian style live birth,
     ect...
     Story takes place before dinosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic
     epoch following the Great Permian Extinction.
     The 2014 movie states that Godzilla is estimated at roughly
     250,000,000. Which lines up almost perfectly with the Permian-
     Triassic Extinction, aka The Great Dying. The planet was nearly
     sterilized. This environment is real and all its animals and plants
     are roughly period.
***** Ch.3 Her *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Warning, dark fic. This chapter contains mention of child rape.
- - -
Godzilla, The Crucible
Ch.3 Her
- - -
Despite their extreme ages he gave her a pup with their first attempt. And the
pup was also abnormally large. The mutation had carried. Other females who’d
been holding back gave in and were soon producing young themselves. The species
was saved. But he never saw his first pup. Or the tenth. He didn’t even know
what an infant looked like. Such things weren’t supposed to be any of his
concern. He became just breeding stock to them, something to be pulled out of
his corner whenever he was needed.
Then they brought her.
Another pup had been born with the mutation. Another miracle. She wasn’t quite
as big, but size was never the issue. She too was thriving on that toxic
energy. An unrelated female to strengthen their bloodlines.
He could smell that she was in heat, but she was so young. So scared. He’d
never questioned them before, but he’d never seen one so small. The only
dragons he knew were elders, but even he knew that even for her age she was
tiny. Her mother must have been the youngest of the elders. The smaller the cow
the smaller the pup and his mother had by far been the oldest. The largest. He
could hurt her. They expected him to breed this? It was madness to take such a
risk. She didn’t even look old enough to survive birthing. And the more she
looked up at him the more he remembered of his own past. Memories that he’d
somehow blocked out were recovered. The pain, the fear. He wouldn’t put it past
them to resort to physical force. No, he couldn’t allow this to happen.
He grabbed her and fled.
- - -
In their desperation to avoid capture they headed straight for the Outlands, a
vast, uncharted expanse of ocean that even the elders avoided. Enemy territory.
This was the realm of the kraken, the only other true race to survive the
Shattering. They were followed for a ways, but the panicked cries at the
surface were ignored and soon faded. With any luck the elders would presume
they were dead. This was the one place dragons never dared enter, but they
wouldn’t survive in open ocean for long. Fear drove them on and their
persistence paid off when they found a massive island with large, sheltered
pools. It was too far removed from the continent for the elders to discover if
the mainland was searched, but close enough that they could escape to the
continent if they were forced. A refuge. It was known that in the Outlands
there was prey found nowhere else. They’d have to hunt in the dangerous waters
to reach it, but at least they had a safe place to eat and sleep.
Life was rough, but they were free. If they were discovered they’d be forced to
breed or she’d be bred to another, but the only other options were older, much
larger bulls. It would be so much worse. And what about him? Would he be
punished or just tossed into some dark cave until the next old cow came into
heat? Fear drove them to keep going, but they were free.
There was a beauty to this strange region. The winds were so much calmer,
allowing them to see the sun and stars, things almost never seen back at the
colony. Sometimes when they were resting they would just stare at that
beautiful sky.
Chapter End Notes
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant. Godzilla was a mutant
     adapted to the high levels of radiation poisoning the world in a
     post-apocalyptic landscape and in youth had a much lighter build.
     Dragons also evolved completely separate from reptiles and have
     different traits. Warm blooded, a more mammalian style live birth,
     ect...
     Story takes place before dinosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic
     epoch following the Great Permian Extinction.
     The 2014 movie states that Godzilla is estimated at roughly
     250,000,000. Which lines up almost perfectly with the Permian-
     Triassic Extinction, aka The Great Dying. The planet was nearly
     sterilized. This environment is real and all its animals and plants
     are roughly period.
***** Ch.4 Emptiness *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Warning, dark fic. This chapter contains mention of past child rape. Future
chapters will contain underage sex.
- - -
Godzilla, The Crucible
Ch. 4 Emptiness
- - -
For a long time she was so scared. Scared of the world. Scared of him. But she
was smart enough to understand that something was going to happen back there,
something very bad, and he gave her credit for that. She had no idea what,
though. They hadn’t touched her yet and he envied her that innocence, that
naivety. She knew that they couldn’t go back and she clung to him, rightfully
more afraid of the world than the over-sized, angry bull pup. But he felt
wrong. Sick.
Once she grew comfortable around him it became so obvious that she’d been
raised with other pups; the playfulness was a dead giveaway. The world had
finally settled down enough that a few sickly pups had survived without their
mutation and she had lived with them, but now he was her soul target.
Irritating and even infuriating him were games to her. He’d never had to put up
with such behavior before. It was so easy for her to get under his scales and
she loved it, lived for the simple joy of driving him mad. He had no time for
such things if they wanted to eat.
He taught her what little he could about hunting and clashing, all things they
both should have been taught long ago. It appeared that they had intended for
her to be his female equivalent. Breeding stock. Nothing more, nothing less.
She couldn’t fend for herself and he barely knew the basics, but in teaching
her he was advancing his own scant knowledge that much faster and two pairs of
eyes were better than one. He needed her as badly as she needed him.
- - -
Together they struggled to haul their prize ashore, almost giddy with
anticipation. Spirits were so high that she’d managed to goad him into a
competition, playfully growling and shouldering and thrashing their heads as
they clamped their jaws and dug in on all fours. He’d never played with her
before. It was so unlike him, usually he’d snap or even swat at her to keep her
away. He just didn’t like being touched.
These soft creatures disintegrated so fast after death, but this one had been
old and weak. It must have passed just hours before they’d discovered it. It
was too dangerous to stay for long and they ate fast and butchered the rest.
They couldn’t take it all with them, but what they’d towed back would feed them
for weeks. Now they just needed to get it on land.
They needed this, needed it badly. Perhaps they could have taken more if they
hadn’t been so weak with hunger. Now out of the too warm salt water it wouldn’t
break down nearly so fast and there was nothing to steal it from them or to add
them to the menu. They had time. They could rest. Recover. They took it far
inland and filled there shrunken stomachs.
He’d even let her snuggle while they’d slept.
It had felt strange, sleeping against another, but sometime during the night
he’d awoken to find her gone. There wasn’t anything unusual about it, she’d be
back soon, but he had felt so empty. Cold inside. It reminded him too much of
before. As a pup he had always been shoved away and slept curled up and alone.
When she returned he surprised her by wrapping her in his arms and hugging her
close. He never wanted to feel that emptiness again.
Chapter End Notes
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant. Godzilla was a mutant
     adapted to the high levels of radiation poisoning the world in a
     post-apocalyptic landscape and in youth had a much lighter build.
     Dragons also evolved completely separate from reptiles and have
     different traits. Warm blooded, a more mammalian style live birth,
     ect...
     Story takes place before dinosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic
     epoch following the Great Permian Extinction.
     The 2014 movie states that Godzilla is estimated at roughly
     250,000,000. Which lines up almost perfectly with the Permian-
     Triassic Extinction, aka The Great Dying. The planet was nearly
     sterilized. This environment is real and all its animals and plants
     are roughly period.
***** Ch.5 Helpless *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Warning, dark fic. Contains suggestion of tentacle rape. Future chapters will
contain underage sex.
- - -
Godzilla, The Crucible
Ch.5 Helpless
- - -
The female always loved playing with little animals. Keeping infant prey in the
pools had started as a novelty, but if they could raise the infants then they
wouldn’t have to hunt the adults in open ocean. She managed to grow some to
breeding size in one pool and now she was trying to hatch their eggs in
another. It would be so much safer and easier to just gather crawlers for them.
The idea of “breeding” their prey hadn’t exactly thrilled the bull at first,
but it was hard to not be amused watching hopeful males displaying to win the
fleeting affections of picky females. The breeders seemed happy, isn’t that
what mattered?
But they needed something much bigger than the pools if they wanted to
eliminate the need to hunt. Prey didn’t breed fast enough to feed the elders,
the old dragons ate too much, but it could work for them. There was the lake,
but that was all freshwater and they found out sea animals couldn’t survive
there. That left the coves. The smallest cove could work, it had the narrowest
opening. It just needed to be walled off to trap in the animals. They had been
breaking and placing stone for nearly six moons now and they still weren’t half
way done.
A tiny one wrapped a little tentacle around her claw and she held out a piece
of a crawler as a reward for coming for food. Ever so slowly it took it from
her fingers and glided away, nibbling on its prize as it slid effortlessly
through the water. The infants were so cute and she loved to play with them. A
welcome distraction. She hoped the bull would be returning soon. It always left
her on edge when he went out alone, but he didn’t want her hunting anymore.
They’d seen too many kraken tortures and mutilated corpses and he feared more
for her safety than for his own. Making her stay to work on the dam was an
excuse to keep her on land, but it made her so angry!
She should be the one hunting while he worked on the dam! The walking tree
trunk was better at breaking and moving stone and she was faster, quieter, more
agile, AND smarter about picking her clashes, but did he listen!? He was always
letting his dick get in the way of common sense and attacking things that were
far too big, then he’d come practically crawling back, ego wounded, all bruised
up, and carrying small prey because he was too injured to catch anything
larger. They’d be starving if it wasn’t for the mutation. Watching him trudge
ashore like he was bracing for a beating would actually be funny if it wasn’t
setting them so far back. The dam could have been finished over a moon ago!
They could be eating from the cove! Would he never learn?
She wanted to go off hunting while he was out one of these cycles, just so when
he returned she could rub it in his snout how much more she could catch in less
time, but what if he came back early and she was gone? He’d probably go crazy
tearing apart the island searching for her, then rush off thinking she’d been
taken by kraken or elders. Actually she really didn’t want to know the horrific
scenarios that lunatic could come up with, they’d probably give her nightmares.
She just couldn’t put him through that.
With a sigh she tossed the last piece of crawler into the pool, grinning as she
watched the little tugging war that ensued.
-Back to work...-
Getting on her feet she started heading back to the cliff , but a distant,
strangled roar chilled her blood and she looked to the shore, heart in her
throat. The bull was stumbling in the surf.
Mad with panic she rushed to help him, but the sight that met her eyes. There
were so many deep bites and bits of his gills were ripped loose and hanging
from his neck. And his mouth... he was salivating kraken blood! A shaking wreck
he collapsed in her arms, too exhausted and unbalanced to move another inch. It
had taken everything he had left just to reach the island. He couldn’t even sit
up.
Panicked and crying she struggled with his larger size and pulled him to her
chest, tucking his head under her chin and holding him close, his budding
spikes digging into her thigh. Weakly he tried to push her away, the poison
making him delirious, but she purred to him and he calmed down. His head was so
hot against her neck, a very bad sign. She wanted to check under his tail,
she’d seen things torn inside out that way, but he would probably drown if she
let him fall over. All she could do was comfort him and keep his head above
water. She never felt so helpless.
How had he escaped? He looked like he’d been mauled by a colony!
-What happened to you?-
 
Chapter End Notes
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant. Godzilla was a mutant
     adapted to the high levels of radiation poisoning the world in a
     post-apocalyptic landscape and in youth had a much lighter build.
     Dragons also evolved completely separate from reptiles and have
     different traits. Warm blooded, a more mammalian style live birth,
     ect...
     Story takes place before dinosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic
     epoch following the Great Permian Extinction.
     The 2014 movie states that Godzilla is estimated at roughly
     250,000,000. Which lines up almost perfectly with the Permian-
     Triassic Extinction, aka The Great Dying. The planet was nearly
     sterilized. This environment is real and all its animals and plants
     are roughly period.
***** Ch.6 The Old One *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Warning, dark fic. This chapter contains torture and rape. Suggestion of past
child rape. Future chapters will contain underage sex.
- - -
Godzilla, The Crucible
Ch.6 The Old One
- - -
The sun was just starting to get a little low. He needed to get ashore before
the twilight hour. Dark time was kraken time. His catch wouldn’t do them any
good if he got himself killed. The hunt took too long and he’d been too
stubborn to come home empty handed.
-Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid!-
Now he was nervously racing the sun, his claws sunk in the shark’s head and
swimming belly to belly with the corpse to reduce drag. The dammed thing was
longer than him, even tail included. A real trophy. He’d clashed smart for
once, the proof was in his hands. But it was still stupid to not give up
sooner. One of these cycles he really was going to get himself killed!
-Can I do nothing right!?-
Sundown was still a ways to come, but it still frightened him. He had time. He
needed to just calm down and stay aware. Better to swim a little slower than to
not sense the attack.
Following his own advice he took up a less frantic pace, lazily pumping his
gills and expanding his senses.
But something was stalking him. Dread, sorrow, despair. Negative emotions began
to suddenly creep into the back of his mind without reason and he panicked,
dropping his catch and bolting for the safety of land.
Kraken fed on the mind by terrorizing and torturing their victims on a level
that went beyond the physical, but they also enjoyed committing unspeakable
acts upon the body. There were survivors back at the colony who had been too
damaged to think for themselves. They could grow gargantuan and the little ones
had a way of tangling up their prey that could render animals so much larger
than themselves helpless. It was like they were built for killing dragons. The
last thing he wanted was to clash with one of those abominations.
But as he was heading for the island he realized he was leading it strait to
the female. He tried to think of where else to take it, but it was too late.
Everything happened so fast. His ankle was grabbed before he even saw it.
Thankfully the kraken was just a pup itself, only half his size, but it was
still trying to wrap him up and immobilize him. He bit its tentacle and it
wrapped his head, its beak raking his jaw to the bone in its desperation to
escape him.
He was forced to let go and it escaped, but adrenaline was pumping and the
young bull lost himself in the fight, taking chase and heading deeper and
further out to sea. The pain in his jaw, his enemy’s blood on his tongue, he
couldn’t be more thrilled! Clashing with that little kraken had been the
closest he’d ever come to pitting himself against another bull and it felt damn
good! This wasn’t prey, this was a combatant!
Then,
FEAR
It echoed in layers, building fast and nearly overwhelming him as his stomach
roiled. The waters ahead darkened and his target vanished into the fast
expanding black cloud. A projection! His sight was being blocked! Only older,
larger kraken had the ability, but it felt like there were many. The pup had
fled to the safety of its colony!
Heart pounding wildly, he spun and the cloud was nearly upon him by the time he
had managed to reverse course. All he could do was swim hard. The black water
slowly overcame him, engulfing him, blocking his vision and other senses.
He and the female had witnessed kraken torture many times, but the worst was
when they were little. A squad had swarmed an old rogue cow probably visiting
the Outlands for better prey. It was a cold reminder that no water was safe in
the Outlands, since kraken usually stayed in open ocean and the attack had
occurred at a cliff base. They’d been hiding from the cow when the kraken
struck. All they could do was hide under an overhang and wait for them to leave
or risk capture. The creatures had spent cycles torturing her to death from the
inside out so close to them, slowly tearing up her body while her innards were
meticulously removed through her shredded vent, stopping only to revive her.
They had thought they’d gone unnoticed, but kraken fed on the distressed mind
the way the mutation let the pups feed on that toxic energy. Seasons later they
realized the true horror of their situation, that the kraken had been purposely
torturing that poor cow right under their snouts just to terrorize them. Their
minds were being fed upon the whole time. For so long afterwards they’d had to
comfort each other through nightmares that left them crying and thrashing in
their sleep and so very often she would wake him so he could wrap his big arms
around her and make the bad dreams go away. They hadn’t slept alone since.
As the memory of that torture played over and over in his mind something
grabbed his tail, yanking him back, halting his momentum with painful
abruptness as his spine was jerked.
His limbs and tail were tangled as his neck was wrapped so he couldn’t bite. He
twisted and writhed, fighting against them as they bent him around painfully
and wrenched his body in ways it wasn’t supposed turn, his muscles and joints
straining at their limits. His neck had just enough give that he could still
pump water past his gills and breath, a sign that they wanted to drag it out.
The projection was all encompassing. Couldn’t see, couldn’t hear. Couldn’t
smell or taste. He could only feel...
Smaller tentacles were worming along his sealed gill slits and trying to find
the edges, but he had to open them to breath sometime. There were others though
around his vent that scared him more and he found the strength to struggled
harder. He felt something snap, but he couldn’t tell where. He was in too much
pain everywhere to narrow it down. The ones at his neck found their way in,
wrapping around the delicate bones. They quickly tightened and there was a
sharp snapping, his vision turning bright red as he roared out what air was
left in his lungs. As he came back to his senses he realized that one of the
tentacles was at his vent, trying to get in as his tail was pulled up and he
was spread out backwards to make it harder for him to stay tucked. It brought
back bad memories and his mind was lost to the fear.
Then a strange warmth ran along his spine and all activity ceased instantly. A
low, rising hum was breaking through the projection, the black water slowly
clearing. He could see them now and if possible his fear grew. His own warped
reflection back-lit and bathed in a pale blue light was staring back at him
from the black eyes of nearly a dozen kraken. They were so big, but the little
one was right in front of him. The light was growing brighter and they seemed
confused, nervous. A hot pressure was building inside of him, almost burning
him, rising from his sternum to his throat and suddenly it was like an
explosion went off in his chest. It released in a stream of bright light
shooting from his mouth and hit the little kraken in the face, grazing at least
three more as his head whipped back from the force of the blast. They let go
and fled, leaving him and their pup.
It had all been so fast, so horrible, and suddenly nothing. He curled in on
himself, shaking hard and feeling small and scared and violated and he just
wanted to die! He was back at the colony, trying to hide in his dark corner
after some old, fat cow had just finished with him, waiting for the next to
drag him into the light.
But nothing happened. Slowly his senses came back to him and he remembered
where he was. His legs and tail remained tightly tucked, but he tried to relax
and calm himself.
He was so tired. So weak. It hurt so much to just pump mouthfuls of water past
his damaged gills. They had been ripped up badly and he could feel them
flapping about like pieces had been torn loose. Slowly he gasped, breathing
like a beached shark and feeling like he was drowning. As the adrenaline wore
off he could feel the bites and see and smell his blood in the water. And that
taste. Stupid! He’d bitten the little one! Kraken blood and flesh was
poisonous! His vision was already starting to blur just slightly.
Then he noticed the little kraken was still there, staring at him. Tired,
fearful, wounded. He actually felt sorry for it. Felt sorry for a kraken! The
poison must be getting to his brain. After everything that had just happened to
him he almost wished there was something he could do. Who was he kidding, this
close to its colony it would be found soon enough.
The colony? He needed to get away from here! They might come back!
Focusing on his own needs he turned and started to swim back, but the sight of
another young dragon startled him and stopped him cold. A heavily muscled beast
of a bull pup. Its neck was almost wider than its head. The other pup was also
bitten up and pumping water hard, just staring, but it was making him nervous.
Even wounded as it was if it wanted to clash he’d be done for, especially with
how dizzy he was starting to feel. He had no time for this, he needed to get on
land. But it looked so familiar... A dim memory surfaced, an ancient face
coming to focus. His father! This pup looked like his father! Was this a
brother? He didn’t have time for this. Or did he? He was so confused. Tired. A
wave of dizziness hit him and he shook his head, but when he looked up he saw
that the other pup was mimicking him perfectly.
Slowly it sank in just what he was seeing and his heart nearly gave out. It was
too much and his eyes tried to roll as he teetered on the edge of
consciousness, his reflection briefly fading. The massive, black eye stretched
more than twice his length in every direction, tail included. An elder kraken.
An “Old One”.
There was nothing left in him and he just watched his reflection as he waited
for whatever was to come next, completely at its mercy. His reflection looked
so pathetic, so scared, the ocean swallowing his tears as his mind raced with
memories of all the kraken tortures he had witnessed over the seasons. He
didn’t want it to ever begin, it would be dragged out for hours if not cycles,
but why was the creature just drifting with him? Staring at him? The
anticipation alone was tearing up his mind and he hugged his head, crying
harder by the minute and pumping his torn gills frantically as he slowly curled
in on himself. If this continued he was going to pass out.
His mind drifted back to his time at the colony. The horrors he had endured at
the hands of the elders had in some respects been very much like kraken
torture. -Please,- he begged inwardly. -Haven’t I suffered enough?-
- - -
This little dragon was... Infected.
Damaged.
The more he lingered the more it projected.
Bad memories. Very bad memories...
This was abominable. Unconscionable beyond clemency.
Sickening...
He didn’t care their excuses, there was no repentance for this. Had the once-
noble dragons truly fallen so far?
But then, who was he to think such things... Kraken no longer seem to care for
the values of old.
Greedy young. Fat and full and still they gorge. No restraint. No remorse.
There was no reason to kill it. Just more senseless death. More needless
suffering. More, more, more...
He could still remember a civilized age, when kraken traded with dragons for
red land meat. Before the Shattering nearly sterilized the world.
How he missed those cycles. Was he truly the last?
The rogue Old One brought the wounded little kraken back to its colony,
allowing the dragon pup to believe that he had gone. From afar he watched,
worried that it might be too weak and delirious to reach its island home.
Possibly dying. Whispered encouragements and directions kept it on course. At
first it seemed confused by the foreign thoughts, the poison twisting its mind,
but slowly it made its way to shore where a smaller pup rushed to its aid.
These rogue pups were common knowledge, he’d just never seen them himself
before. So young. Far too young to be on their own. Such a tragedy that they
were safer here in kraken territory than with their colony.
At first sight he had honestly believed that he was being visited upon by the
young-again spirit of an old and very dear friend. Faded memories of a better
time had resurfaced, carrying with them the swelling hope that the young dragon
had come to guide him to the next life.
The pup just looked so painfully much like its father...
 
Chapter End Notes
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant. Godzilla was a mutant
     adapted to the high levels of radiation poisoning the world in a
     post-apocalyptic landscape and in youth had a much lighter build.
     Dragons also evolved completely separate from reptiles and have
     different traits. Warm blooded, a more mammalian style live birth,
     ect...
     Story takes place before dinosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic
     epoch following the Great Permian Extinction.
     The 2014 movie states that Godzilla is estimated at roughly
     250,000,000. Which lines up almost perfectly with the Permian-
     Triassic Extinction, aka The Great Dying. The planet was nearly
     sterilized. This environment is real and all its animals and plants
     are roughly period.
***** Ch.7 Dreams *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

I’m worried that the story is getting wordy and dragging. Any opinions would be
greatly appreciated.
Warning, dark fic. Mention of past child rape. Future chapters will contain
underage sex.
- - -
Godzilla, The Crucible
Ch.7 Dreams
- - -
He was laying helpless on his back, staring up at the ceiling of an all too
familiar cave. The air was cold, damp, and reeked of a heavy musk that chilled
his blood. It felt like his skin was soaked in that stink. And his body. There
was nothing that didn’t ache. The left side of his mouth hurt so much. He must
have tried to resist again. Why couldn’t they just let him rest? An enormous
shadow fell upon him and he choked down a sob as tears stung his eyes. Their
eyes met and he shook all the harder. Cold eyes. His heart thumped heavily at
the sight. He wasn’t a person to her, he was a tool to be used as needed. He
didn’t move as she knelt beside him, fearful that anything he did might set her
off. He didn’t want the right side of his face to feel like the left. His chest
ached as his heart pounded harder and harder until it felt like it might burst
and as that massive hand reached for him he chirped.
With a faint gasp he startled awake, shaking allover. His eyes were wide but
they didn’t focus on anything, he was still trying to escape the residual
sensations left by the dream. Over and over he told himself that he wasn’t at
the colony and closed his eyes as he forced himself to relax, but a few tears
still slipped past clinched lids. That dream had been too real. But it was
still just a dream. Just a very bad dream.
As he calmed he realized that he couldn’t feel much of anything, his mind
drifting in a warm haze, but gradually his senses cleared. His head, his
joints, everything hurt. Everything. And it was getting worse, making it a
little harder to breathe. There was a sharp pain in his jaw running along the
left side, probably why his mouth hurt in the dream. The reek of old blood hung
heavy. Something moved against his chest. Shaking, shifting, pressing down.
Something heavy. The sound of crying reached his ears. Soft crying. But why
would the female be crying? And what was on his chest?
Opening his eyes again he found that they were slow to clear. The full moon was
floating on a sea of stars as thin wisps of cloud drifted past like morning
fog. He looked down and there, laying on his chest, was the female. The little
cow was on her knees beside him and laying over him as she lightly sobbed into
her arms. Why was she crying? He tried to remember how he was hurt, but just
trying to think was giving him an even bigger headache and he groaned. Suddenly
her head shot up with a loud squeak, eyes huge. With all her crying and moving
around on top of him he was bound to wake up eventually, so why was she so
startled? Letting his exhaustion and some pain surface he took a little breath
and softly huffed it to ask what was going on. But she just stared back, too
shocked to do more. He tipped his head to show his confusion and gave a little
grunt. -What’s wrong?-
She lowered her head as more tears fell, grimacing as she fought breaking down
allover again. Then she pressed a flat hand over his heart and cupped and
flattened the palm repeatedly in a throbbing motion against his chest. -Your
heartbeat.- The throbbing slowed and her expression melted as she curled the
hand into a fist. -It stopped.- And she lunged at him, burying her face under
his jaw as she sobbed, absolutely inconsolable.
It was his turn to stare in shock. His heart had stopped? It would explain the
dream...
But seconds later her crying snapped him out of the daze. He tried to hug her,
but a shooing pain radiated from his left arm and he bit back a chirp, his
vision turning red. For a moment he just focused on breathing as it throbbed
and dulled. He did Not want to chirp now, she’d start s/mothering him. It took
an effort, but he managed to lift the right arm over and around her, purring as
he cupped the back of her head. She must have been so scared.
The worst, he decided, was the chirping. She started instinctively chirping
like a distressed infant between sobs. A primal sound pulled at the heart. That
they could even still make that cry was a humbling reminder that they were
still so little. Just a moon ago he’d squeaked off a few when she dropped a
boulder on his foot. She’d panicked and s/mothered him, refusing to let him do
anything for himself for a week.
Tears soaked his neck and seeped under the slits to sting his wounded gills as
she keened and chirped and pressed into him like she couldn’t get close enough,
uncontrollably bawling her eyes out. It didn’t look like she was going to calm
down anytime soon and he wanted desperately to do something, anything to make
this better. It almost didn’t feel real, had his heart really stopped? He
blinked at the thought. That’s it! That’s what she needed!
Gently he nudged her and she refused to let go, grabbing his shoulders to
prevent it, but a deep growl made her stop and she lifted her head just enough
to look at him like she was trying to figure out what she had done wrong. He
hated that skittish, just-slapped look. It was just another reminder of
everything they ran from. Eyes softening he pushed at her shoulder, guiding her
further down his chest. Then pushed and pulled at her leg and side to move her
fully on top of him and into a more comfortable position. He didn’t want her
sleeping on her knees like that. Pulling her head back down he pressed her ear
over his heart. In silence she listened, finally calming as he stroked her
cheek with his thumb, the sound of his heartbeat reassuring her that this was
real. That he was alive and everything was going to be okay.
The poor thing looked exhausted as she fought sleep, still silently crying, but
so much calmer. No doubt she had been ripping her scales out fretting over him.
Stretching his neck down he nuzzled her brow, purring as he softly chittered
and warbled in odd pitches, calling to her. To break up the long hours of
silence or help himself sleep he used to mix, twist and string together calls
into whatever sounded nice, at least until someone barked at him to stop. A few
would listen with this strange expression, but mostly it was a good way to
instigate a beating when he was feeling rebellious. After the escape he called
to her when she couldn’t sleep or had bad dreams. Slowly her eyes flickered
shut as she finally passed out. He continued to call and stroke her face as she
slept, guarding her dreams as she so often guarded his.
Letting his head fall back he stared up at the sky.
He felt so guilty as he tried to remember what had led to this. Had he done
something stupid? Again? Was this all his fault? Probably. Maybe she was right
about him hunting alone, but she couldn’t be more wrong about her going off on
her own. He tried to tell her more times than he could count. She thought he
was just being an arrogant bull using the dam as an excuse to keep her on land.
But out there size really did matter. So many times he’d just barely looked
large enough to deter an attack. It wasn’t just speed and agility and stealth,
sometimes you needed to appear too big and tough to be worth the effort. If she
only knew how many times it saved his hide...
And what about all the times where size wasn’t enough? She wasn’t the fastest
thing out there and she certainly wasn’t the strongest. Lately she was just
assuming that he was attacking oversized prey. Well, he did. Often. But not as
often as she thought and she would not have come home from half of those
clashes. Just the idea of her out there alone scared him out of his mind. Maybe
they should be working as a team again. At least then he would be with her and
he wouldn’t have to worry anymore about her getting frustrated and running off
while he was away. And a few close calls might wizen her up. It would shorten
hunting trips, increase their catch, and give them more time to work on the dam
together as his arm healed.
But how could he keep her from hunting while he is laid up? He couldn’t! There
was enough food on the island for half a moon and it felt like he would
probably be hunting again long before that, but she wouldn’t dare harvest her
precious breeders. He had to admit to being a bit attached himself, but their
needs had to come first! At least once the cove was producing there would be
too many to stay attached to them all. That little brat was going to hunt and
come back waving around her catch like she had something to prove, but he
already knew that she was the better catcher! It was never about the catch! It
was about coming home alive! Why couldn’t she see that?
He looked back down and for a long while he just watched as she slept, the moon
illuminating her in a silver glow. Did she know how beautiful she was? Gently
he nuzzled the back of her head, his eyes drifting shut as he breathed deep her
scent, calming his own frayed nerves. He nearly died. Tears pricked his eyes as
he mulled over the implications. With only one of them to feed she could have
eaten from the pools until she finished the dam herself. She could have
survived, but she would have been out here all alone on this island. No one to
chase away the bad dreams. No one to play with. Slowly driven mad by season
after endless season of absolute solitude.
The headache was throbbing heavier the more he thought about it and he gingerly
rested his head back, eyes not seeing. He couldn’t see much of anything anyway
and he hoped it wasn’t permanent. The moon was so bright, he should have been
able to tell where on the island he was, but all he could really see was her
and some ferns close to by. They were nurturing and spreading plants allover
the island so that didn’t narrow it down. Last he remembered he was bringing in
a shark and nervous about the time. Shit, his head was killing him... And it
didn’t help that the muscled up cow was sleeping on top of him. She wasn’t
light as a leaf, but she was warm and safe and he wasn’t willing to give up the
comfort of feeling her weight and breath on his chest.
In spite of everything a genuine smile escaped him and he held back a laugh
when she shifted around to get more comfortable, a cute little snort breaking
loose as she started lightly snoring and drooling on him.
He didn’t want to think or feel. He wanted to sleep away all of the pain and
the sadness and confusion.
He wanted good dreams.
Chapter End Notes
     I’m worried that the story is getting wordy and dragging. Any
     opinions would be greatly appreciated.
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant. Godzilla was a mutant
     adapted to the high levels of radiation poisoning the world in a
     post-apocalyptic landscape and in youth had a much lighter build.
     Dragons also evolved completely separate from reptiles and have
     different traits. Warm blooded, a more mammalian style live birth,
     ect...
     Story takes place before dinosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic
     epoch following the Great Permian Extinction.
     The 2014 movie states that Godzilla is estimated at roughly
     250,000,000. Which lines up almost perfectly with the Permian-
     Triassic Extinction, aka The Great Dying. The planet was nearly
     sterilized. This environment is real and all its animals and plants
     are roughly period.
***** Ch.8 Restless *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Warning, dark fic.  Mention of past child rape.  Future chapters will contain
underage sex.

- - -

Godzilla, The Crucible

Ch.8 Restless

- - -

Somehow he managed to feel even shittier than the last time he woke up.

It felt like someone had twisted him up, crushed him into a ball, and then
repeatedly thrown him into a cliff face until his outsides looked like his
insides.  Damn was he sore.  

Shifting his weight a little he determined that he was stretched out on his
chest with his arms reaching past his head.  A typical basking pose.  Something
heavy was leaning into him.  It shifted a bit too and he realized that the
female was laying against him, stretched out along his side with her cheek
pressed to his shoulder.

Her presence was a comfort, but just how long had he been lying here...?  As if
to answer his question his stomach gurgled and ached slightly.  Oh.  Great.  It
must have been quite awhile for his insides to start filling with air.  He
needed to walk it out, preferable downwind of the female, but there was no way
he could walk and he hoped nothing too embarrassing happened with her so close
by.

He tried to humor himself imagining the little cow bursting forth out of a
brown cloud at a sprint, coughing, eyes tearing, and cupping her snout, but he
was too miserable to find humor in much of anything.  Besides, stuff like that
they did to each other when they were younger.  They were more mature about
such things now.  He paused at that thought.  -Yeah, mature, right...-  She
would undoubtedly stink him right back if it was within her power and he
couldn’t just run away.  Suddenly he imagined himself coughing, eyes tearing,
and cupping his snout, laying trapped in a brown cloud as the evil brat laughed
down at him.  The thought was nearly enough to get a full laugh out of him and
he actually snorted.  She really would do it, too!  But the distraction didn’t
last long.  He still felt like something stepped in and scraped off on hot
gravel.

As he became more aware he breathed a little deeper.  The air was slow and damp
under his snout and his head was in the shade in spite of the hot sun warming
his chilled body.  Dappled light was reaching his closed eyes.  Leaves and
fronds.  She had taken him to a basking clearing in a green.  One of the
patches of heavy plant growth they were nurturing.

These places...  Greens.  Greens had an almost a magical ability to calm the
mind and body and he took a slow, deep breath of the clean, moist air, all
tension leaving as he slowly released it.  Even his pain seemed to lessen.

The lake was already surrounded by trees and plants that they suspected somehow
weathered the Shattering there on the island, but the island was so big that
they hadn’t discovered it hidden among the rocky hills until their fourth
season.  Everything else had been next to desolate.  

They had been nurturing what few plants there were already scattered about the
island, spreading their young and collecting more plants from the mainland.  It
was amazing how much better plants did on the island than on the mainland.
 Maybe it was the different types of plants somehow helping each other or the
cleaner rain or the gentler winds, it could have been any number of things they
could come up with, but everything began to grow so much faster and stronger.
 Greens sprung up and filled out.  The air was cooler and moist, the wind
tamed, they had shade.  The few mother trees already present even looked
healthier, their young thriving.  They continued to spread plants to help them
along, but the greens were spreading on their own now.  Little by little their
home was being slowly transformed from a barren expanse of rock and dry dirt
into a lush haven.
Eventually the island would be covered in mother trees, but the massive, tall ferns grew so slowly that they couldn’t possibly live to see it.
His stomach grumbled again and the pressure from laying on his belly suddenly
turned painful.  Slowly rolling onto his back he could feel his stubby little
spikes digging into the moist soil, wincing at a sharp pinch in his side and he
looked to see what it was.  A leaf.  She had bled one of the tall mother trees
to make dirt paste to cover an open wound.  The leaf kept it from rubbing off
too fast.  They only did that when they needed to stop the bleeding.  He found
more leaves.  But how had be been wounded?  He still couldn’t remember.  Was it
his fault or had he been targeted?    He’d come crawling home far too many
times after attacking something he had stupidly convinced himself was too old
or sick to fight back.  His tail would get handed to him, but did he learn?
 There was no point in deigning it.  He was an adolescence bull.  By definition
a clash-hungry, knuckle-brained, spitfire who just couldn’t stop pitting
himself against over-sized prey.

Simply put, his dick did the thinking.

-One of these cycles you’re going to get us killed,- he thought, mildly humored
that he was actually beginning to think of his dick as another person.  But the
way it kept taking charge, literally sending him teeth first into the
stupidest, most one-sided clashes, he sometimes wondered if it had a death
wish.

His mouth twitched as he realized what he’d just thought.  His dick having a
“death wish”.  There was enough sexual tension between him and that pretty
little cow to light up a thunderstorm.  Honestly he couldn’t tell which of them
was hungrier.  The looks, how she sometimes moved or positioned herself when he
was looking or touched him...  A couple of times she had literally sneaked up
and pounced on him.  They had gotten as far as mounting.  Many times.  But she
always pinned and groped him and his stupid memories always surfaced and gave
him panic attacks.  Suddenly thinking that he was being fondled by some bloated
elder was a pretty effective mood killer.

He shuttered.  That was just about the last thing he wanted to think about, so
he looked back at the leaves and thought back to the hunt.  

Resting back his head he closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath,
releasing it slowly, allowing the green to work its magic.  All he could
remember was bringing in that huge shark.  The sun was getting just low enough
to make him nervous so he was swimming a bit frantically.  Then he... dropped
it?  That was new.  Something tasted bad, then there was darkness.  A bad
taste?  He looked back down at the leaves.

Gingerly he pulled up the edge of one, his eyes widening and his hand shaking
at the sight of the kraken’s bite.  Kraken poison.  He’d bitten a kraken.  He’d
survived clashing with a kraken.  Even he wasn’t stupid enough to antagonize a
kraken.  It was a terrifying thought and he twisted his tail and rolled his
hips a bit, but it didn’t feel like anything had happened down there and his
racing heart slowed.  He must have escaped or fought it off before it could do
anything to his vent.  Or did it simply let him go?  Sometimes they just toyed
with their prey for awhile and then let it go.  It explained how his gills had
been ripped up without tearing off the covers.  So he was tortured and
released?  It was very possible.

Maybe this wasn’t his fault after all.

And kraken poison caused memory loss.  Among several other little un-
pleasantries, his gurgling stomach reminded him.  Their first moon they had
tried to eat a washed up corpse and they both got horribly sick.  They spat it
out the moment they tasted it, but female nearly died.  Before that they hadn’t
know what a kraken looked like, but they had seen kraken victims at the colony
suffering the same symptoms.  Dizziness, confusion, blurred vision, severe
joint and muscle pain, and it stuck to your tongue and turned it black and made
everything taste bad for cycles...  The list went on, but the killer was how it
weakened the heart.  It explained why his heart stopped.  The effects could
linger for awhile, he would have to go easy.

Great, now he was even more depressed...  He didn’t want to think about this
shit.  Glancing over at his would-be mate and he sighed in mild frustration.
 Shook up by the constant flood of bad memories he felt an overwhelming need to
feel her warmth, but she looked so peaceful.  He wasn’t going to disturb her
just so they could cuddle and rolling back over against her might wake her up.
 She went through a lot the other dark and he wanted her to just keep resting.

Needing something to physically do to stop his head from racing around he tried
to see if he could sit up, just to test his limits.  But his vision flashed red
and he gingerly settled onto his back knowing that he had stupidly done some
damage or at least set himself back.  It had felt like he was being ripped
apart, like every joint in his body was shrieking “NO!” and he faintly chirped
and whimpered through clenched teeth.  -Damn.-  He hoped she didn’t hear that!
 A hand settled on his chest.  -Shit!-  He didn’t know he was crying from the
pain until she was brushing the tears from his face.

Nervously opening his eyes he found her staring back.  He almost wished that he
hadn’t looked.  Wide, fearful, watery eyes met his.

-Shit, she heard, she’s going to s/mother!-

Then his stomach gurgled again.  Loudly.  His face burned with shame as he
tried to hold back, but a high-pitched, long, wilting little whistle emanated
from under his tail and her expression twisted up at the bizarre sound as
he deflated.  It just didn’t seem to want to end, growing louder and deeper by
the second as some of the pain diminished.  Maybe trying to sit was a good
thing, just not next to her!  Finally it eventually petered out.  They just
stared at each other for a moment.  Then, embarrassed out of his mind, he
flashed her a bright, broad, over the top smile.

Instead of barking at him in disgust she snorted, stared, then broke up
squeaking and gasping so hard she couldn’t breathe, leaning on him for support.
 He tried not to laugh, laughing hurt, but the sight of her fighting for breath
with tears rolling down her face as she slid down his side was too much for him
and he fell apart with her.  Tensions had been so high and he just couldn’t
stop no matter how much it hurt and another little chirp squeaked out.  But
then she ran her hand up his chest.  Softly.  Sensually.  It shut him up almost
instantly and he couldn’t have been more grateful.  She really knew how to get
his attention.  

The residual giggles were still bouncing them both as they panted for breath
and she leaned over him until their snouts were almost touching.

She gave it a little lick, both grinning, the tip of her tongue still sticking
out in invitation.  -So you want to play.-  Tipping his head he parted his jaws
and she copied the action in the opposite direction, sliding her tongue against
his as they cautiously interlocked their teeth.  They held each other close,
raking claws over scales as they twisted and rubbed their tongues together.
 Faster, harder, deeper, it wasn’t enough.  

“Throat fucking” he called it and it always left him hot and hard under the
shield scales, almost painfully so.  Like so many things it was discovered
while innocently playing.  They were wrestling and found out sliding tongues
felt good when it turned silly and they started licking each other faces.
 Thinking of how the uptight adults would probably shriek over it just made it
feel even better.

Then a hint of blood brought an end to their activities.  Carefully they
untangled.  She’d nicked his gums.  Not that he cared, but it was a limit they
imposed on each other to prevent infections.  If blood was drawn they stopped,
no matter how little.  Slowly they untangled their jaws, both mournful of the
loss, tongues sliding as they pulled away.  

They both knew that he wasn’t in any shape to try anything more strenuous.
 Besides, this was too nice a moment to ruin with a panic attack.  So she
settled down half on top of him, tangling their legs and resting her head on
his shoulder as she pet and rubbed his chest soothingly.  If she kept that up
she was going to put him to sleep, no doubt part of her master plan.

He was still embarrassed as fuck and felt like complete shit.  More so after
trying to sit and all that stupid laughing and he wondered how badly he just
hurt himself.  But as least she wasn’t s/mothering him.

He felt tired too.  He did too much too soon.  Sleep would help.  But now that
she was there and warm and laying against him he didn’t really want to sleep.
 It felt nice.  Taking a deep breath he unleashed along, loud, jaw-cracking
yawn and she giggled, nuzzling his neck.  Softly she ran her hand down his face
from brow to snout, closing his eyes, then tucked her muzzle under his jaw and
went back to petting his chest.  -Sleep.-

Mercifully it wasn’t long before he lost consciousness.

- - -

It was such a relief to watch him drift off and she listened to his breathing
even out and slow.  Seeing him mindlessly stumbling in the surf and drooling
black and bleeding from a dozen places had been terrifying.  But it was nothing
compared to when his heart had stopped.  For three cycles she had fought to
keep him alive.  She had tried to keep him calm, but he was out of his mind and
didn’t know what was happening.  And the nightmares...  He was even panicking
in his sleep.  She hoped he wouldn’t notice the bruises she received trying to
hold down.  

Her eyes teared up and her lips trembled as she slid across him so she could
rest her ear over his heart, careful not to wake him.  She needed to hear it.

Lately she’d been so mean and giving him such a hard time over the stupid dam
and stupid hunting and, just, everything felt so stupid now!  He was just
scared.  For Her!  Why couldn’t she have just met him halfway?  Together they
were safer and they worked well as a team, catching more and larger prey than
either ever could alone.

And maybe if she was there with him he wouldn’t be laying here now.  He loved
to blame himself.  Thrived on guilt.  But maybe this was her fault.  

That chirp that woke her up.  It had spooked her real bad.  She’d thought he
was having another nightmare and was going to start thrashing.

He’d gestured once that when he chirped she didn’t mother, she smothered.  She
hated to admit it, but it was true.  From then on they referred to the way she
overreacted to his chirps as s/mothering.

A sad little smile curled her lips as she thought of how they’d both simply
forgotten everything for a moment and just laughed.  They hadn't been laughing
very much lately.  It felt so good to let go.  The smile turned briefly feral
and she snorted as her eyes narrowed.  Yeah, let go.  He certainly let
go alright.  There was no way that she was going to let him forget that.  She’d
get him back some cycle when he least expected it.

But then he laughed so hard he chirped.  If tongue fucking, as he liked to so
crudely gesture it, was what it took to shut him up then so be it.  She had to
do something to stop the idiot from hurting himself.  What a wonderful world it
would be if all of their problems could be solved with tongue sliding!  With a
grin she decided that she’d have to remember to tell him that one later.  But
they got carried away and he couldn’t exert himself like that.  His heart
stopped just last dark.  When she snapped out of it she’d panicked and drawing
blood was the only thing she could think up to make him stop immediately and
willingly.

At least now he was resting.

She couldn’t sleep, but it felt nice to lay against him and just bask as she
listened to his heart.
Chapter End Notes
     2014 AU. “Dragons”, Godzilla’s species, weren’t always so big, the
     largest growing no heavier than an elephant. Godzilla was a mutant
     adapted to the high levels of radiation poisoning the world in a
     post-apocalyptic landscape and in youth had a much lighter build.
     Dragons also evolved completely separate from reptiles and have
     different traits. Warm blooded, a more mammalian style live birth,
     ect...
     Story takes place before dinosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic
     epoch following the Great Permian Extinction.
     The 2014 movie states that Godzilla is estimated at roughly
     250,000,000. Which lines up almost perfectly with the Permian-
     Triassic Extinction, aka The Great Dying. The planet was nearly
     sterilized. This environment is real and all its animals and plants
     are roughly period.
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