Nikola hadn't had another option but to take the girl with them. Fortunately, she didn't cry, having exhausted herself in the last three days. They made stops to feed her and Nikola gave her tea from time to time.
Soon they found bones stacked near a tree. Nikola had left the baby with the manticore and had buried them too, small lights appeared near the grave, and he heard, as the spirits thanked him. One of the ghosts told him his attack happened three hundred years ago.
Which was a problem for Nikola.
It meant that the Gudiao was long-lived. There was nothing stopping it from running deeper into the canyon and waiting for them to leave.
It had already marked them as predators and was giving them a wide berth. They had heard wailing at night just one more time the previous night, and it had been very muted.
They pressed on.