Even though I knew it wouldn't be easy, climbing a mountain—or a hill, or whatever it was—had at least felt doable. If I'd known it would be this hard, I never would have suggested it.
The soil where I stepped slipped away beneath me every second, and the enormous rocks blocked our path like walls. The slope was pushing me well past my limit, but the questions in my mind weighed heavier than the pain in my body.
'What were those branches and thrones?'
When a person encounters something extreme, supernatural, they sometimes become paralyzed. The mind rejects the unknown as a defense mechanism.
But strangely, I wasn't afraid. Maybe it was the shock, maybe my brain hadn't yet fully grasped the impossible danger we'd fallen into.
Where were we?
I didn't try to find a name for that question. A place having a name didn't mean it could be understood.
What mattered wasn't where it was, but how dangerous and alien it was to us. And I could feel that down to my marrow.
The earth wasn't familiar. The sky, mesmerizing as it was, didn't make me feel I belonged here. It was as if this world grudgingly allowed us to stand upon it but would never accept us.
At least for now it didn't look dangerous.
Had someone brought us here?
That possibility was unsettling but not shocking. The idea of control being taken from me wasn't new.
What was new was how effortlessly it had been done.
And why it had been done.
Every time my foot pressed into the sliding soil, I looked at those around me.
Poyraz's breathing was ragged.
Hak's gaze kept fixing on a single point.
Hazar walked like an unsteady drunk.
They were struggling.
Not physically, but mentally…
As if their minds were refusing to accept that they were in this world.
This refusal wasn't loud.
No one was screaming, shouting, or directly denying reality.
But you could tell from their eyes; they didn't want to accept that they were here.
I thought this state was temporary.
When a person is dropped into a new place, they naturally need time.
To adjust.
But there was a small doubt inside me.
What if it wasn't about adjusting?
What if some minds could never be at ease in some places?
"Watch out!"
The voice brought me back to myself, but it was too late.
The loose ground I'd stepped on slipped away beneath me. For an instant I lost my balance, as if I'd gone weightless.
Lost in my thoughts, I hadn't been watching the path.
The soil wasn't firm; it was loose.
I felt the price of my distraction in that moment.
A hand grabbed my arm, then another.
When my feet touched the ground, my knees were trembling.
No one said anything.
There was no need to.
I took a step back.
The sentences I'd just been constructing about their minds quietly fell apart in my head.
I had been arrogant.
I was the one who'd made the mistake.
And on this slope there was no excuse for it.
No one spoke.
We just kept walking.
Slower.
Closer to one another…
The path had started to narrow sharply.
Enormous rocks blocked the way ahead.
We had to form a single line.
Poyraz in front, Hak second, me third, Hazar at the back.
The ground began to change. The soil turned first to gravel, then to larger, razor-sharp stones.
The danger of slipping had eased, but keeping balance on these stones was hard.
Hak stumbled for a moment, struck his knee against the ground.
He clenched his teeth, didn't make a sound.
He stood up.
He didn't even brush off the dust on him.
He just kept walking.
A few steps later, one of the stones turned under my foot.
I leaned forward to keep my balance.
At the same time another stone broke loose and rolled down.
The sound was brief, but its echo lingered long.
Poyraz stopped, looked back.
"These stones aren't stable," he said.
Hazar spoke from behind:
"Choose where you step. Don't put your full weight down before you pass."
We went on.
But our steps were no longer the same.
Some of us watched the ground.
Some of us watched the feet of the one ahead.
We kept walking…
Until our path was blocked.
Rocks ten, maybe fifteen meters high had completely blocked our way.
They weren't a single mass.
They were piled on top of one another, with narrow gaps left between them.
Climbing up was possible but dangerous.
Poyraz spoke:
"Let's go around. Maybe there's a passage."
"Let's split into two, it'll be more efficient," I said.
They nodded.
Poyraz and Hak went to the right, while Hazar and I moved along the left.
Hazar was in front.
He was looking into the gaps between the rocks, checking the narrow openings.
Some of them looked like passages at first glance.
But a few steps later they closed off.
"Not this way," he said.
As we went on along the left, the ground grew even worse.
Stones were piled on top of one another.
The gaps were either too narrow or opened downward into darkness.
At one point we stopped.
There was no way forward. There was no choice left but to turn back.
"Back?" I asked.
He nodded.
A few minutes later we were back at the same spot.
The other two came after us.
"No passage," I said.
"Same on our side."
There was a brief pause.
We'd known this possibility from the start, but hearing it out loud was something else.
Hazar spoke:
"There's nothing else to do."
He took the first step.
Then so did we.
The first step was fine.
So was the second.
On the third, the rock shifted slightly.
Everyone noticed it, but no one spoke.
Hazar stopped, slowly drew back the foot he'd put his weight on, and the rock stayed in place.
"Slow," he said, only that.
"Don't get too close to one another."
Poyraz climbed up after him.
Then Hak.
I was last.
As we rose, the gaps narrowed.
We had to slip in and out between the rocks.
In some places you couldn't get through without turning sideways.
Another stone shifted. This time the sound was clearer.
Hak stopped: "This isn't good," he said.
Right then one of the stones higher up slid downward.
Slowly at first, then faster.
"Watch out!"
The stone rolled down a few meters, then another, then a few more.
The sound rose; they were coming down on me and Hak.
The rolling stones passed around us, some heading straight for us.
I grabbed hold of the rocks.
My fingers throbbed with pain, but I didn't let go.
There was a moment of silence.
"Crack."
It didn't take me long to understand. Something was falling from above.
Or rather, someone.
A large chunk of rock had struck Hak's shoulder. He'd lost his balance and was falling…
He was about a meter to my right. So he didn't come down right on top of me.
I had to catch him. No—I had to catch him.
As Hak's body was flung through the air, for an instant—just an instant—another voice spoke in my brain.
'Can you hold on here while trying to catch someone?
Can you bear the weight of a falling person?
What if you fall too?
Let go. He'll be a burden.'
Before these thoughts could finish, my body had already decided.
I stretched out my arm and caught the fabric of his jacket as it whipped through the air.
A moment of hope…
"RIP!"
The fabric naturally couldn't bear the weight and tore instantly.
Hak and I locked eyes. There was no fear in his eyes; there was a strange, empty bewilderment.
And he rolled down.
The sound of impact… that dull, sickening sound echoed among the rocks. Then silence.
"Hak!!" Poyraz's scream tore his throat.
I looked down despite myself: a body, a body lying on the ground…
Hazar said, "Let's go down."
I looked down: Hak wasn't moving.
"I'll go down, you two climb up," I said.
Poyraz turned instantly.
"Don't be ridiculous, I have to go down too. I need to see him, I have to look at him."
"We don't all need to go down. You're higher up. Coming down is too dangerous for you. It's easier for me."
He clenched his teeth, didn't answer, but he'd accepted it.
The ground was still shifting.
Going down was as dangerous as going up.
But I didn't think about that.
I turned and grabbed hold of the rocks.
I started to climb down.
"Tunay!" Hazar called.
There was fear in his voice.
"Climb up," I said.
As I descended, the sounds grew muffled.
The gaps between the stones widened.
With every step the stones shifted slightly.
Since I hadn't climbed very high, going down took little time.
I'd reached the place where we'd split off to search for a passage, and Hak was there too.
When I came near Hak I knelt down. His face was turned to the side. His eyes were closed.
The stone that had struck his shoulder lay beside him.
Blood was slowly seeping into the cracks between the rocks.
"Hey," I said.
My voice came out lower than I expected.
"Can you hear me?"
No answer came.
I put my hand to his neck.
There was a pulse.
It was irregular, but it was there.
I didn't pull my hand away; I felt his pulse a while longer.
Then his chest began to rise and fall faintly.
"Hey," I said again.
This time from a little closer.
"I'm here."
His brows furrowed slightly.
He tried to get up but gave up.
His lips moved.
"Loud."
His voice was almost a whisper.
"What?"
"Too…" he said, screwing up his face. "You're too loud."
He cracked his eyes open.
His gaze was blurry, but he could make me out.
"Don't move," I said at once.
"You took a blow to the head."
For a moment he closed his eyes.
Then opened them again.
"Up…" he said.
He didn't finish the sentence.
"If you go up now you'll fall. The ground is still shifting. We'll go up. You stay here."
His gaze hardened, but he didn't object.
"All right, I'll wait. If it's safer here."
I stood up and looked above.
They were still waiting.
I shouted up to Poyraz: "He's all right! But I can't move him. You two climb up and look around, find a safe place. I'll check on him and come!"
Poyraz hesitated, but Hazar pulled him by the arm. They kept climbing.
I shifted his head into a more comfortable angle.
I took off my jacket and tucked it underneath.
His breathing eased.
I grabbed hold of the rocks again and started to climb up.
They kept climbing too.
This time we were slower.
But more careful.
When I cleared the last rock, the ground suddenly leveled out.
There was wind, we were at the summit, and we were exhausted.
Hazar and Poyraz had already sat down on a rock.
Hazar took a bottle from his pocket and began to drink.
Poyraz was still looking down: at Hak.
I, meanwhile, was looking at the horizon.
The sun was rising; morning had come…
In the place where it rose—the side I assumed was east since that's where the sun came from—there was a lake.
And to the east of the lake, to our north and to our south, a dark green sea wrapped around three sides.
To our west, a wide mountain range covered the whole terrain.
All around, many hills like the one we'd climbed.
A flat expanse shaped like a circle.
Its center was empty.
No smoke, no movement, no trace of settlement.
As I looked, a strange feeling rose inside me.
Not because it was far away, but because it was too empty.
The distance between the lake and the mountains was greater than I'd thought.
But there seemed to be nothing in between.
No road, no track, no sign left behind by anyone who'd gone there.
That such a vast area could be so silent had unsettled me.
In that moment I'd seen a dark shape far away.
I hadn't paid attention.
I should have…