We ran out to the landing and looked over the edge. It was at least a thousand feet to the floor of the valley. We could only see several hundred feet down in the dark, but it was several hundred feet of cliff face that was conspicuously monsterless.

"Nice," I said to Joy.

"We need to go. Now."

"You don't think that did it?"

"Did you hear anything hit bottom?"

"No," I said.

"Neither did I," she said. "We had better get going."

[...]

"Don't be ridiculous, it would take a man on a fast horse a half hour to make it around from the other side."

"But what if it didn't fall all the way? What if it climbed back up?"

"That would take hours. Come on, Joy. We could be miles away from here by the time he gets here from the other side.

[...]

I pulled her aside and looked down. Sure enough, the beast was looming in front of the iron door, waiting to grab the edge in its claws and rip it open as soon as we threw the bolts.

-Lamb, Chapter 15