Anori moments heaped together like rocks in a caldera:

“The trail just fucking vanished.” Ethan had turned around, oblivious to the blood streaming down his thigh.

“I’m too old for this shit.” She grabbed at Apollo stupidly. “I’m not letting my cat, my longest fucking relationship that I will ever have, fall down into a fucking death like this. It’s such fucking bullshit.”

She missed her next grip and slipped forward, losing everything in her head, suddenly connected to nothing, about to fall into nothingness, and swung horribly on the rope and banged her face into the cliff. “You are the misunderstood adventurer, is that it, Ethan? You’ve sailed around the world looking for yourself and found cold and misery instead.”

He unwrapped the paper from another sandwich. “This spot is perfect. Maybe one of your iguanas will wander in.”

Dee was happily tired, oddly so, looking out over the volcano, thinking that life had ended or might go on forever.