Page 163 of Wind Rider

The rope went taut.

“Steady!” Nik said. “We release him slowly.”

Mari moved off Lily’s legs and someone anchored her legs as she lay on her belly beside the distraught newly Chosen Companion, watching O’Bryan rappel smoothly down the impossibly steep cliff.

“Almost to the ledge!” O’Bryan called.

“About three more feet,” Mari told Nik.

“Got it—let him down gently—three feet,” Nik said.

“He’s on the ledge!” Mari said.

“Hey there, little Dash. I’ve got you!” O’Bryan said, squatting to pick up the pup. Dash cried sharply. “Oh, I see! Come here. That hurts, doesn’t it? Okay, I’ll be careful, but let me wrap you in this sling.” As he gently put the pup in the sling, O’Bryan looked up and shouted, “Looks like he might have broken his leg, but other than that he seems scared, but fine.” Then his gaze slid to the far side of the ledge, which was covered in shadow. “Give me a foot or so. I have to check out—” O’Bryan began. His words cut off, and Mari tried to see what he was looking at, but she could only make out something that looked like a pile of forest debris.

“Be careful, O’Bryan. You have the pup. Let’s get you two up here,” said Mari.

“I’m coming. I just—” O’Bryan stopped abruptly and then he crouched, staring at the pile of debris and poking it with his long knife. Mari saw him jump in surprise. “Bloody beetle balls! I don’t believe it!”

“What is it?” she asked.

He reached into the shadowy pile and pulled out something white that wriggled and cried. “Bloody beetle balls!” he repeated, staring up, up, up above Mari and the rest of them to the cliff that protruded over them, before stuffing the white thing in the sling with Dash.

O’Bryan stood, put away his knife, and went to the cliffside, reaching up to find two secure handholds. “Okay, I’m ready! Pull me back up. I’ll do what I can to help.”

It took a lot longer to pull him up than it’d taken to drop him down, but O’Bryan was finally within reach, and Mari, Lily, and Rose grabbed onto him, helping him the final few feet.

He spilled out onto the path with a grunt, landing on his back to protect the pup wrapped against his chest.

Dash immediately began whining pitifully, and Lily went to her knees beside O’Bryan, reaching for her pup.

O’Bryan sat and carefully pulled Dash from the sling, handing him to Lily. “It’s his right front leg. Don’t worry. Mari’s fixed far worse.”

“Oh, precious one! My boy! Oh, Dash, let me look at you!” Lily cooed as the pup buried his head against her neck. He was still whining and in obvious pain, but his little tail was wagging.

“Hold him close for a little while to calm him, and once he understands he’s safe I’ll take a look at that leg,” said Mari. Then she turned to O’Bryan, who was peering down into the sling. “What else was down there?”

“Well, I think it was a dead wolverine,” said O’Bryan.

Antreas pushed through the crowd that had formed around them. “Long brown fur with some white—usually framing the face and sometimes on the body? Huge paws—as big as Bast’s—with long, visible claws?”

“Yeah, that’s what it looked like,” O’Bryan said as he reached back into the sling. “And this was pressed against its belly.”

He lifted the little creature from the sling. It was perfectly white and about the size of the smallest of Mariah’s pups, though this baby was obviously much younger—maybe even newborn. Its eyes were tightly closed and it was hardly moving and mewing weakly.

“Great Stormshaker! That’s a wolverine kit! I’ve never seen one before—only heard about them from another guide who found a mother and two kits dead after a bad flood one spring. But that’s exactly what he described.”

“It looks really young,” said Rose. She held out her hands. “May I?”

O’Bryan nodded and handed the baby to Rose. She studied it, turning the kit and looking for injuries.

“It looks uninjured, but this is a newborn. There’s no telling how long it’s been down there.”

“The mother was rigid. She’d been dead a while,” O’Bryan said.

“This baby is close to death as well,” Rose said sadly, handing it back to O’Bryan.

“But, we can save it, right?” Mari asked, reaching out to stroke the baby gently with one finger.