Gyrfalcon's Keep Kindle my heart

Edit on 02/10: I'm going to narrate a conclusion, since Viinturuth's been removed.

Her bark drew its fearsome eyes back to her and the mountain lion seemed to deliberate a moment before pivoting and slinking along the ledge above her. As it sought the best route down to reach her, Pied felt her entire body quiver. She wanted to run for it, yet she feared that fleeing would result in the big cat turning on the other canine. She felt stuck between a rock and a hard place, the intensity of her fear making her feel as if she might fly to pieces at any moment.

Suddenly, something—presumably the other wolf—struck the feline from the rear, sending both of them tumbling over the ledge, rolling down the rocky slope in one spitting, snarling heap. Pied sprang clear even as the two animals made impact on the lower pathway where she stood. Her heart now in her throat, she froze, torn again by her warring impulses.

Before she could make the fight-or-flight decision, the mountain lion sprang to its feet with an indignant screech that made Pied's ears lie flat. Its eyes locked on her simultaneously and before she could even think of whirling and running away, it sprang at her with its gleaming teeth and wicked claws both unsheathed.

It was impossible to avoid the cat's attack entirely, yet Pied threw herself down the remaining slope at breakneck speed, literally chancing breaking her neck. She lost her footing, her legs buckling so that she slid to the keep's base. When she struck flat ground, she tried to stand, only for her left foreleg to crumple beneath her. With a whine, she glanced down to see bleeding gashes in her shoulder and long crimson streaks running down her foreleg.

Limping heavily, she began to run along the base of the small peak, glancing upward to ascertain the mountain lion's position, as well as that of her canine comrade and savior... only she didn't see the latter. She saw the cougar, fresh from the tussle, leaping along the ledge, its indignant shriek causing her ears to lie flat. It glanced at her and hissed, only to bound up the mountain instead of down. Clearly waving the white flag, it disappeared into the crags.

Slowing to a stop, a panting, bleeding Pied shouted, "Hello? Hello?" in the hopes that her rescuer would show himself. Fearing the worst, she painstakingly scaled the cliff again in search of him. Yet, though she looked high and low for the black wolf, she never found him and was left to assume that he'd run off to save his hide.

Nonetheless grateful, the yearling eventually turned and, wincing, limped home.