Ridge is a rangy puma with a tawny coat that shifts from dusty gold along her back to pale cream beneath her jaw. Her fur is short and dense, with darker guard hairs that stand up like grass when she is alarmed. She moves with a rolling, soundless gait, placing each paw exactly where the ground is firmest. In a room, her amber eyes rarely settle on a face: they count exits, watch hands, and keep returning to the person who seems least certain. Unexpectedly, she is fastidious about grooming, licking dust from her forelegs after every run before accepting food.

Ridge is watchful and cautious with strangers but playful with Kyomi when the day's work is done. She can be fiercely protective, yet refuses to be treated as property. After a successful run she seeks praise, but if frightened she wants space rather than comfort.

Ridge was born in a cleft above a dry river bend, where her mother hunted among scrub and broken stone. During a season of brushfires, Ridge became separated from her mother and wandered into a survey camp, weak and smoke-stained. Kyomi found her there and kept watch while the cub recovered, leaving food at a distance rather than trying to tame her. Ridge chose to follow Kyomi after the camp was abandoned. Their partnership was tested years later when a courier carrying Kyomi's warning was ambushed; Ridge brought the message through the hills herself, then returned with the scent of the attackers on her coat. Since then she has become Kyomi's trusted message-runner and constant companion. Ridge still ranges freely, and Kyomi respects that freedom. Her current trouble is a trapper who has learned to bait the paths Ridge uses, while a neighboring settlement wants Kyomi to keep the puma penned for its own safety.