Simone grabbed Shayn's waist more firmly as Judah sprang forward in a desperate attempt not to fall. The mountain underneath them was cracking as it grew. They were on an extremely unstable ledge.
She closed her eyes as she held on as tightly as she could, trusting that Shayn's grip on Judah would hold them in place. Her knees pressed into the large cat's sides, trying to keep her seat.
Shayn's hand, which she just realized had been laying over hers, left, and a chill took its place.
Running swiftly around and down the side of the mountain, Judah struggled to stay ahead of the shifting earth. It was a nigh impossible task, and the unsteady descent would have reduced Simone to a panic if not for Shayn's presence and Judah's swift recovery from each fall.
It became something of a rockslide as the hill broke completely apart, and the trio were leaping from boulder to boulder to avoid being crushed. Simone could feel, more than see what was happening, as she continued to refuse to look.
Her cheek pressed into Shayn's muscled back, feeling the tension there as he worked to keep them mounted on the best chance of their survival.
How had she suddenly woken up to such danger?
There was no avoiding it, no escape, she simply had to hold on and trust. Trust was difficult for her, but when there was no other choice…
Shayn inhaled sharply, and the light filtering through Simone's eyelids changed. She opened them a bit reluctantly, and saw that the part of the hill blocking them from the sun's rays had broken away, revealing a deep chasm on the other side.
A chasm that the rockslide was disappearing into at a rapid pace, bringing the humans and cat with it.
"Hold on tightly," He repeated over the roar, and Simone recalled their escape from the bandits, when he'd uttered something similar just before their horses jumped a fallen log in their mad pursuit of freedom.
This was no fallen log.
A strange sound and a warble of light above them gave notice that the portal accompanying this earthen shift was opening. Simone had no time to consider what additional danger might bear down on their heads in mere seconds.
Above and below, they were surrounded by terrible choices of what to do.
Judah changed his course, sprinting directly down towards the deep rift in the earth.
"What–" Simone's words were cut off as two rocks smashed together near her, and she got a faceful of the remnants. Her mouth and eyes were filled with the dirt and small pebbles the collision released, and she sputtered and blinked.
Her reaction would have been to brush it away with her hand, but letting go for even a second was not an option. She spat what she could from her mouth as tears streamed out of her eyes, trying to clear the debris from them.
She buried her face in Shayn's back to avoid the same happening again.
He didn't speak, leaning back as Judah continued his sprint downward. What was left of the animal's energy reserves was likely being spent quickly, but it was clear what the intention was.
Would his six powerful legs be enough to jump the gorge?
She didn't know, and couldn't look to see when they would know for sure. She felt, rather than saw, when the leap was coming. Judah's stride changed slightly, angling for a better purchase before the cat made a grunt of mighty effort.
Suddenly, his stride was no more. They were airborne.
How long it lasted, or was going to last, Simone couldn't begin to guess. It was terrifying and felt like slow motion. Could Judah secretly fly? She didn't think so, but something within her held out hope for a miracle. The gorge had seemed impossibly far and wide, with no place to land that she saw short of reaching the other side.
Shayn's body language was the nearest thing she had to a marker of time. His breath held, his heartbeat rapid against her cheek.
Finally, she felt the twinge of tension increasing as he braced for landing.
Or prepared for death in the bottom of the chasm.
The world suddenly careened to one side in the darkness of her dirt-filled, closed eyes. Her knees squeezed into Judah as her arms gripped Shayn so tightly he might not be able to breathe.
If she was about to die, it wouldn't be alone. She wasn't letting go, no matter what!
The roar of the rockslide was behind them, but there was another scramble as Judah grasped something, his claws struggling to find purchase. Gravity pulled against Simone with a cruel inevitability.
She wanted to cry out, but the dirt in her mouth as she inhaled made her cough.
Caught in a battle between the pull and tumble of the rocks downward and Judah's feverish efforts to pull them up, Simone felt for a moment as if the war for survival might be a lost cause.
At last, the rumble began to subside and the trio's momentum seemed to increase forward. Judah's body relaxed beneath them while air rushed downward.
"Poor Creature, I'm sorry I left you behind," Jarnsaxa's whispering voice made the sudden movement upward make sense to Simone's mind. She had picked them all up!
They came to rest on solid ground and the humans tumbled off of Judah's back. Simone realized she was still wrapped around Shane's waist, for he turned in her arms to hug her.
No, not to hug her. His hands framed her face, his thumbs wiping away the dirty tears that were still flowing from her stinging, blind eyes. Finally, the pain subsided enough for her to blink away the remaining dust and try to gain her bearings.
Her panicked heartbeat began to slow as her vision cleared. She found herself staring into Shayn's serious, concerned green eyes, his hands still on her face, her arms still around his waist.
There was an urgent question in his gaze as he searched her eyes, brushing away another tear. She blinked again, freeing another, and he caught it again, brushing her wind-whipped hair back from her face lest it, too, get in her eyes and irritate them further.
She swallowed, her mouth dry from the dust, the coughing, and the panic of the harrowing ordeal.
The moment stretched. The concern in Shayn's expression shifted into another emotion that she couldn't pinpoint. His eyes wandered across her face as he brushed back another strand of wayward hair.
"You're not hurt," He whispered, somewhere between a question and a statement, and she shook her head the barest amount in answer. "I'm glad."
The green in his eyes darkened, and Simone realized the sun had dipped below the horizon. Behind his head, up in the air, the portal still shined, large and terrifying as it was beautiful.
Shayn shifted to see what she was looking at, and with a swift movement, pulled Simone behind him as he turned and drew his sword to face whatever terrible thing might come through from another world.
The shift was enough to finally dislodge her stiff arms from around him, and Simone brought up her hands to wipe the rest of the dirt and moisture from her face as she nervously watched the portal.
The ground shook again, but it was Jarnsaxa and her son standing up.
"Fear not, little humans," She whispered, "I came to see if this would be a portal home, but it is not. Nevertheless, I will not make you fight what monster comes through. Hugi and I will deal with it if we can, or take you with us when we run if we cannot."
Shayn hesitated before sheathing his sword and reaching out to take Simone's hand. She tried not to act startled by the action.
"Can you see now? I don't want you tripping if we need to run," He glanced towards her, and she hesitated. Would he let go if she nodded?
"I can run," She replied with only a small cough, but didn't slacken her grip on his hand. He didn't pull away. Touching him was calming, somehow. The panic of what was happening, and all that had happened, was muted while she gripped his hand.
She was fairly confident that his adventures in the wilderness had never included anything like this, but somehow she felt far more optimistic about getting through it with him beside her.
They both faced the portal now, waiting with bated breath as it undulated in the sky above the broken mountain that had preceded its appearance. It was enormous. Perhaps not quite as large as the one that had let the giants through, but clearly big enough for something of similar size to appear.
Simone's eyebrows drew together as she watched. How long would it last? How much opportunity did a monster need to come through?
The portal began to brighten, the edges becoming ill defined, and hope bloomed in her that it would dissipate without pomp or circumstance or new arrivals to their world.
She was wrong.