After we’ve been walking for a long time, I start to wonder if we’ve already made this loop more than once.

“Does this look familiar?” I ask Nadir, and his gaze meets mine with an expression that suggests he was wondering the same. We continue walking, keeping our senses open for any signs of what’s coming next.

It’s then I notice a rumble at our feet. It’s faint at first, but after another few seconds, I’m sure I’m not imagining it.

“Do you feel that?” I ask, and Nadir nods.

“Unfortunately.”

We peer behind us, noting a cloud of dust gathering in the distance. Something is coming. Something big and heavy. Nadir’s hand squeezes tighter against mine as we stand paralyzed in the face of uncertainty. We should run. We should do something, but I can’t make my feet move.

A moment later, a horde of massive shapes appears through the dust. Hundreds of antlered creatures stampede towards us, closing the distance at an alarming rate.

“Run!” Nadir shouts. Finally, I stir myself into action and we both take off.

“What are they?” I scream as we dodge through the maze of stone spikes. They don’t seem to slow the animals, which are simply trampling over them, rocks smashing into pieces under their enormous hooves.

“I don’t know!”

Fuck. What does it matter? We keep running, weaving through obstacles, but it’s clear we won’t last long before they catch up. Desperately, I scan the mountainside, searching for some way we can climb up that I somehow missed the other fifty-three times I checked. One of the spikes? But these, too, are all smooth stone with nothing to hold.

Nadir’s toe catches on a rock and he stumbles. I slow my pace to ensure he’s okay and then we’re off running again. Checking behind me, my eyes widen at the beasts right on our heels. They kick up a cloud of dust that once again blinds me to everything.

Suddenly, Nadir grabs me, and we swerve to the right. He shields my body as we both fall, rolling over the ground, thudding against the back of a shallow cave cut into the side of the mountain.

Lying together, we both pant heavily as we watch the stream of animals thunder past our hiding place. They don’t seem to see or care about us as they run.

After a minute, they finally pass, and Nadir’s head collapses against me as we hug each other in relief.

“Are you okay?” Nadir asks.

“Yeah. Gods, you’re fucking amazing, you know that, right?” I ask, framing his face with my hands and kissing him. He tips up an uncertain smile.

“Now what?” I ask. We sit up and I lean against the back of the cavern to catch my breath. “Was this cave here before? I swear I would have noticed it.”