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Ayla had changed As her hunting skill grew, she developed an assurance and sinewy grace unknown to Clan wohtbody, a confidence in her own reflexes, and a far-seeing look in her eye that clouded over ih she wasn’t really seeing him She jumped just as quickly to his coe of fear no matter how he cuffed her

Her coible, but no less apparent to Broud, than the near-open rebellion of earlier ti to obey hi he didn’t He watched her, trying to discern the subtle shift, trying to find so to punish her for, but it eluded him

Broud didn’t kno she did it, but every time he tried to assert his superiority, she made him feel below her, inferior to her It frustrated him, infuriated him, but the more he kept after her, the less control he felt over her, and he hated her for it But gradually, he found hi away froatives As the season came to an end, his hatred intensified Someday he would break her, he vowed to himself Someday he would make her pay for the wounds she inflicted on his self-esteem Oh, yes, someday she would be sorry

13

Winter came, and with it the dis that followed the cycle of the seasons Life still pulsed, but at a slower pace For the first time, Ayla looked forward to the cold season The rushed and active war her With the first snows, the ain The pattern of the clan’s life repeated itself with only ain drew to a close

Spring was late, and wet The hlands, abetted by heavy rains, swelled the strea along whole trees and brush in its headlong flight to the sea A logja over part of the path the clan had h to unfold tentative blosso hailstor hopes of the proe of heart and wanted to make up for the offer of fruits withheld, the early suumes in bountiful profusion

The clanvisit to the seacoast for salmon, and everyone was pleased when Brun announced they would h members of the clan often walked the ten s fro the huge fish was one of the few clan activities that was a community effort of both men and women

Droog had his own reason for wanting to go The heavy spring runoff had washed down fresh nodules of flint froher elevations and left them stranded on the floodplain He had scouted the coast earlier and seen several alluvial deposits The fishing trip would be a good opportunity to replenish their supply of tools with new ones of high-quality stone It was easier to knap the flint at the site than to carry the heavy rocks back to the cave Droog hadn’t made tools for the clan for soher implements when the brittle stone of their favorite ones broke They could all ’s

A lighthearted spirit of holiday accompanied their preparations It wasn’t often that the entire clan left the cave at one ti, especially for the children Brun planned for one or two of thewas disturbed in their absence Even Creb looked forward to the change of scene He seldom wandered very far from the cave

The wo a new section frorasses, and long anih material, sineas not used As with leather, waterfat well

The th and weighing over a ton, rated from the sea, where it spent most of the year, into freshwater streams and rivers to spawn in early summer The fleshy feelers on the underside of its toothless ave the ancient, sharklike fish a fearsome appearance, but its diet consisted of invertebrates and sed from the bottom The sing up to two hundred pounds and rated seasonally northward into shalloater in suh mostly a bottom feeder, it sometirating or chasing food

For the fourteen days of the sturgeon’s su, the h the fish that chose the siants that churned their way up the great rivers, the sturgeon that found their way into the clan’s net would be rations neared, Brun sent soa sturgeon had just broached the strea

Ayla woke up full of excite fur tied into a bundle, food and cooking gear packed in her collecting basket, and the large hide that would be used as a shelter loaded on top even before breakfast Iza never left the cave without herit when Ayla ran outside the cave to see if they were ready to leave

“Hurry, Iza,” she encouraged, running back in “We’re alo”

“Settle down, child The sea isn’t going anywhere,” Iza replied after she pulled the drawstring tight

Ayla lifted the collecting basket to her back and picked up Uba Iza followed, then turned to look back, trying to reh she was forgetting so when she left the cave Well, Ayla can coht Most of the clan were outside and shortly after Iza fell into her proper place, Brun gave the signal to start They had barely gotten under hen Uba squiret down

“Uba not baby! Want to walk nity At three and a half, Uba had begun to emulate the adults and older children and to reject the pa up In so close to four years, she would likely be a woh an inner sense of her rapidto prepare herself for the added responsibilities that would be hers so soon

“All right, Uba,” Ayla motioned as she let her down “But stay close behind me”

They followed the strea around its altered course along a new path that had already been forh the trip back would take more exertion—and before noon they reached a broad stretch of beach They set up te driftwood and brush for supports Fires were started and the net rechecked They would begin fishing the nextAfter camp was set up, Ayla wandered toward the sea

“I’ in the water, mother,” she motioned

“Why do you alant to go in the water, Ayla? It’s dangerous, and you always go out so far”

“It’s wonderful, Iza I’ll be careful”

It was always the sa, Iza worried Ayla was the only one who liked to swie heavy bones of Clan people reat fear of deep water They waded into the water to catch fish, but they never liked to go in deeper than waist level Itwas

considered one of her peculiarities It was not the only one

By the time Ayla reached her ninth year, she was taller than any of the wons of approaching wo Her height and lateness in bloo ether They wondered if she would live out her life as a sort of neutered female, neither a man nor fully a woman

Creb li Ayla walk toward the shore Her tough lean body, flat wiry s made her seeainly-seeh she tried to mimic the Clan wos No er, almost masculine strides

But it wasn’t only her long legs that made her different Ayla radiated a self-confidence that no Clan woman ever felt She was a hunter No man of the clan was better than she with her weapon, and by now she knew it She could not feign a subreater male superiority she did not feel She lacked the coenuine belief that was part of a Clan woman’s appeal In the eyes of the men, her tall, lanky body, devoid of any womanly attributes, and her unconscious attitude of assurance detracted froly, she was unfeminine

“Creb,” Iza gestured “Aba and Aga say she will never beco”

“Of course she will beco? Just because she was accepted into the clan doesn’t change who she is It’s probably norirls don’t becoive her at least that long before they start i some abnormality It’s ridiculous!” he snorted in annoyance

Iza was pacified but still wished her adopted daughter would start to show sons of womanliness She saw Ayla wade into the water up to her waist, then kick off and head out to sea with long clean strokes

The girl loved the freedom and buoyancy of the salty water She never re how to swim, it just seemed she always knew The underwater shelf of the coastline dropped off abruptly after a few more feet; she knehen she passed the place by the deeper hue and colder water She flipped over on her back and floated lazily for a while rocked by thefrom a briny mouthful splashed on her face, she rolled over and turned back to the beach The tide was going out and she had drifted into the outflowing strea back harder She exerted herself and soon regained her footing, then waded back to shore Rinsing off in the fresh water of the streas and the unstable sandy bottom crumble beneath her feet She flopped down near the fire outside their shelter, tired but feeling refreshed