Firefly Ravine knuckles on wood, nerves up in knots

Forward dated a tidge, with a tag for reference.  all welcome!

She left her lover briefly as she slept, though she did not like separating with the bear possibly nearby.  They needed food and @Erzulie did not need to be hunting right now.  Rosalyn's head still ached fiercely, and her movements were stiff.  But she at least could move more freely.

In truth, she was hoping to scavenge.  She'd seen the birds circling from a distance, the reason for her departure, but when she arrived, her hopes fell.  The carcass was a sheep, but it had obviously fallen to its death, and the birds that swarmed for the most part were down within the ravine before her a good thirty feet.

She could not return empty handed, and she'd seen nothing so far but this.  There was a way down, maybe, if she was careful.  She would grab what little she could carry and return, and it would at least be enough that she and Erzulie would not starve today.

If she was hale, she would have likely made it.  But hunger and desperation made her reckless, and she was only a short ways into her climb when dizziness struck.  She wheeled, trying to steady herself against the ravine's wall, but it was useless.  Her paws slipped and she fell, landing heavily next to the prize she'd sought to claim.  She was senseless even before she landed, and remained so, oblivious as the birds continued to flock and afternoon grew on towards evening.

She came slowly to as the sun was nearing the horizon and groaned softly, confused as to where she was.  Clarity didn't strike until she tried to roll and a lance of pain struck her shoulder, causing her to cry out.  The bear had slammed it and the fall had landed with the brunt of it there, stoking the already aching joint.

Stupid.  Rosalyn gritted her teeth as she forced herself to roll to her stomach, then stared up at the climb she had tried to make.  Something rose in her chest and throat, and she pressed her face into the rock between her paws as finally the quiet detachment she'd held the past few days snapped.  Some things needed to be done alone, and stuck on a wide ledge within the massive ravine, the former captain sobbed her shattered dream into the cliffside.

She felt freer than she had since the horror once it  was done.  Slowly she rose, tremblingly, and picked her way to the carcass.  She would take the freshest of the find and climb slowly back up, the rise likely to be slightly easier than the descent.  Her exhausted and abused body resented every movement, but eventually she made it and set off back to where Erzulie waited.