She's been gone too long. He poked a stick at the fire, tiny sparks flew as oxygen fed the flame. Outside, a storm flashed in the west and sent cold winds as advance troops. He wrapped a pelt around his shoulders. Even warm days chilled his bones. He was in his mid-sixties, but his stooped and gnarled body felt much older. All his muscles were like a stripped bolt, overtightened and soon to pop.

Paradise wasn't without its price.

Gone too long. He glanced at the cave entrance, only dark and the distant lightning. In the flashes, their sculptures were illuminated, scarecrows made of tree limbs, animal bones, and feathers. Sentries baring teeth in bleached skulls. Not to scare away the devils, nothing scared them but spears. No, this served an entirely different purpose.

He would need to go out there. A new wave of heat burst from the invigorated flames. He stood to leave, only to see her silhouette enter the cave.

He smiled. "I thought you might not make it. I was about to head out there."

"Coming to save the day?" She asked. She yanked off the heavy fur draping and dropped it on the ground. She gently lowered herself near the fire. The wild aged her as fast as him, but in the dancing light her beauty stilled his breath.

"What are you staring at?" She asked.

"Oh, you know."

"Dirty old man," she laughed.

"Did you leave your message?" He asked.

"I did. Loud and clear."

Outside, the cry of the great birds. Not eagles or condors, something larger, with a screech like a rabbit dying in a trap. Dark shadows the other people hid from, omens that the devils were near. The smell hit them. Then they saw the eyes, red in the firelight. The figures huddled at the cave entrance. Massive creatures. Shaped like men, but that is where the resemblance ended.

"They followed me," she sighed.

"Don't see our friend with them," he said.

She tried to breathe only through her nose, keeping their foulness from her tongue. They were fleet, agile creatures. Silent. Intelligent. But damn did they stink, a blend of rotting flesh and piss.

"Hey!" he called. "Haven't we buried enough of you? You can have our bones when we're gone and that's all you're getting."

The one with the largest eyes, the ones that burn even without a light to reflect in them, screamed. The shrill cry, louder even than the great birds, shook them. Another bellowed, a deep sound that rattled their ribs.

"Yeah, yeah, add our bones to the pile, assholes."

"Don't piss them off, I'm too tired to fight," she said.

"I don't believe that for one second," he said.

The creatures disembarked from the cave, leaving the couple alone with the wind and rumble of the storm.

"Finally," he said. "A little privacy."

"At least the worst of them are gone now. Along with the birds," she said.

"Into the thicket?"

"Yes."

"Gonna be complicated now."

"No, it wasn't ever, was it?" She asked.

"You're right. It was always just us."

"Truly, paradise."

"Add a little wood to the fire, I'm too tired," she said. He leaned a few larger sticks together over the flames and curled up next to her on the animal skins scattered on the ground. He grabbed her coat and pulled it over them, and brought himself closer to her. He rested his head against the back of hers, and breathed her in. She wiggled herself against him, trying to close any possible gap. He took her hand, and she turned to look at the wedding band, glinting black titanium.

"I wonder if thousands of years from now someone will find this and be thoroughly confused."

"No one will ever find us. No one ever did."

She rested her face against his chest. She breathed him in as well. There was just them, only them, in this forgotten place.

Paradise is not without its reward.

"What if this is our last night?"

"If it is, goddamn if it hasn't been a great ride."