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It was cold on the open windy prairie and got colder rapidly as they traveled north Even so, shortly after they started out in theTheir pace warmed them quickly and only when they stopped for short rests did they notice the frigid te muscles of the first few days, especially the women’s, soon disappeared as they hit a stride and developed traveling legs

The terrain of the northern part of the peninsula was rougher Broad flat plateaus suddenly disappeared into steep ravines or abutted sheer cliffs—the result of ru free the constraints of lied rocky faces, so where the walls conjoined and soed fallen boulders cleaved fro bulwarks Others channeled occasional ays ranging fro rivers Only near watercourses did a feind-twisted pines, larches, and firs, crowded by birches and s stunted to little rassy steppes In rare instances where a ravine opened into a watered valley, sheltered fro wind and supplied with sufficient moisture, the coniferous and small-leafed deciduous trees more closely approached their true proportions

The journey was uneventful They traveled at the steady, fast pace for ten days before Brun began sending out ress for the next few days They were close to the broad neck of the peninsula If they were going to find in to see them soon

The hunting party had stopped at a small river Brun had sent Broud and Goov out earlier in the afternoon, and he was a short distance off froone He would have to make a decision soon whether they would camp beside this river or continue farther before they stopped for the night The late afternoon shadoere lengthening into evening, and if the two young men did not return soon, the decision would be made for him He squinted his eyes as he faced directly into the sharp east wind that whipped his long fur wrap around his legs and flattened his bushy beard against his face

Far in the distance he thought he saw ures of two e of excitement Perhaps it was intuition, or perhaps it was his sensitive attuneure and put on a fresh burst of speed, waving their ar before their voices could be heard

“Mammoth! Mammoth!” the roup Everyone crowded around the exultant men

“A large herd, to the east,” Broud gestured excitedly

“How far?” Brun asked

Goov pointed straight up, then nal indicated

“Show the way,” Brun naled the rest to follow There were still enough hours of daylight left to move closer to the herd

The sun was crowding the horizon before the hunting party saw the dark blur of ht, as he called a halt They would have to make do with the water they carried from the previous stop; it was too dark to look for a strea they could find a better ca was that they had found mammoth Noas up to the hunters

After the troupecreek defined by a double row of scraggly brush along each bank, Brun took his hunters to reconnoiter the possibilities A mammoth could not be run down like a bison, or tripped with bolas A different tactic had to be devised to hunt the woolly pachyderms Brun and his men scouted the ravines and canyons in the vicinity He was looking for a particular formation, a blind canyon that narrowed to a close defile with boulders lining the sides and piled up at the closed end, not too far fro herd

Early in the a nervously sat down in front of Brun, head bohile Ovra and Ayla waited anxiously behind her

“What do you want, Oga?” Brun motioned as he tapped her shoulder

“This woan hesitantly

“Yes?”

“This woman has never seen a mammoth Neither have Ovra or Ayla Would the leader allow us to go closer so we can get a better look?”

“What about Ebra and Uka, do they want to see a mammoth, too?”

“They say they will see enough h to satisfy thea replied

“They are omen, but then, they have seen mammoth before We are doind; it should not disturb the herd if you do not go too close and do not try to circle around”

“We will not go too close,” Oga promised

“No, I think when you see theo,” he decided

It won’t hurt to let the young woht They have little to do now, and they will be busy enough later—if the spirits favor us

The three were excited about their proposed adventure It was Ayla who finally convinced Oga to ask, though they had all talked about it The hunting trip had thrown them into a closer association than they noret to know each other better Ovra, as quiet and reserved by nature, had always considered Ayla one of the children and did not seek her out for coe toohow Broud felt about her, and neither of the young woirl They were mated women, adults, mistresses of their men’s hearths; Ayla was still a child who did not have the same responsibilities

It was only that su on hunting trips, that the woan to think of her asthe trek to hunt for ave her the appearance of an adult, and she was treated inand Droog in particular called upon her Their mates were back at the cave, and Ayla was unh another man, or with his perranted With the common interest of the hunt, a friendlier relationship developed aer females Ayla’s closest associations before ith Iza, Creb, and Uba, and she enjoyed the newfound warmth of friendship with the women

Shortly after the a left Brac with Ebra and Uka and the three started out It was a pleasant hike They soon fell into ani hands and emphatic words As they drew closer to the aniether They stopped and gawked at the massive creatures

The woolly lacial climate of their cold environment Their thick hides were covered with an undercoat of dense soft fur and an overlayer of shaggy, long, reddish brown hair up to twenty inches in length They were further insulated by a three-inch layer of subcutaneous fat The cold had caused modifications in their body structure, too They were coh at the withers Their ht and h above their shoulders in a peaked dome They had small ears, short tails, and relatively short trunks with two fingers at the end, an upper and a lower one In profile, they had a deep depression at the nape of the neck between their doh hump of stored fat on the withers Their backs sloped down sharply to the pelvis and so, curved tusks

“Look at that one!” Oga gestured and pointed to an old bull His ivory tusks originated close together, pointed steeply doard, curved sharply outward, upward, then inward, crossing over in front of hi on for a full

sixteen feet

The e with his trunk and stuffing the tough, dry fodder into his rinders A younger ani and still useful, uprooted a larch and began to strip it of twigs and bark