The seam widened beside the pit's fractured rim, showing containment stones before another pulse blurred the checkpoint beyond its edge. Juna held Hajin's elbow while he tested the ground, finding enough soil to carry their weight beside the turning light.
They reached this spot from the ravine below, following the creek back past the abandoned gear.
'Same broken roots, same ugly light, and recognizing it does not make it friendly, so careful.'
"That," he announced, keeping his free hand well clear of the threshold, "looks about as welcoming as a tax collector, but I can see the post through it."
"Then stop admiring it and walk."
Juna tested the next foothold with her own weight before letting his follow, ears pinned against the hum.
Her grip tightened beneath his elbow as his weight wobbled toward the light, "And walk properly, do not give that opening a heroic fall to remember you by."
"Heroic falls are my specialty."
