Firefly Ravine there in the smoke

there might have been time. she could not tell if anyone still pursued her, and could not hear any kind of approach, but her lungs burned and her heart thundered in her ears. even with her usual hypervigilance—no, there was only the panic in her blood. she paced, she looked over this edge or that edge, and scrambled up a ledge while the cub hung as a dark bundle ready to be loosed.
stumbling, sulukinak reverses. she finds a place to shove the small body of ghenaya, and holds her there among the pine needles until the child's squirming and weeping is forced in to quiet. she paces. she paces, and she looks again over the edge. she sees paths crossing down in to a narrow valley carved by a deeper river.
yes! yes, she can do this.
her head raises when a voice calls out behind her.
ghenaya, stowed somewhere near. hidden. dark. quiet.
the pale woman pleading—pleading!
war she called! danger she brought! sulukinak hissed back, flashing her teeth; standing rigid with the chasm before her, bristling, eyes wide and fierce as she looks upon the other woman.
child is lanzadoii! my family! mine. sun eater protects what is his.
and sulukinak would protect what was her's.