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“Ayla, I a man either, and in a few years Uba will be a woman and mated What will you do then?” Iza motioned “Someday Brun will pass the leadership on to Broud I don’t think you should live with this clan when Broud becoht be best if youmay be your opportunity”

“I suppose you’re right, mother I don’t think I want to live here when Broud is leader, but I hate the thought of leaving you,” she said with a frown, then brightened “But next summer is a whole year away I don’t have to worry about it until then”

A whole year, Iza thought My Ayla, e to kno fast a year goes You don’t want to leave me? You don’t kno I’ll miss you If only there were a oing to be leader

But the wohts as Ayla wiped her eyes and went back to get water This ti in the still pool

Later that afternoon, Ayla stood at the edge of the woods looking through the brush at the cave Several people were outside working or talking She shifted the two rabbits that were slung over her shoulder, looked down at the sling tucked in her waist thong, stuffed it in a fold of her wrap, then took it out and tucked it back at her waist in plain sight She looked again at the cave, shuffling nervously

Brun said I could, she thought They had a ceremony so I could I’m a hunter, I’m the Woman Who Hunts Ayla lifted her chin and stepped out froe

For a long, frozen moment, everyone outside the cave stopped and stared at the young wo over her shoulder As soon as they got over the shock and realized their bad manners, they looked away Ayla’s face burned, but she walked straight ahead with dogged deterlances She was relieved to reach the cave after passing the gauntlet of shocked looks and glad for its cool, dinore the looks of the people inside

Iza’s eyes opened wide, too, when Ayla reached Creb’s hearth, but recovering quickly, she looked awayno mention of the rabbits She didn’t knohat to say Creb was sitting on his bearskin apparentlyand didn’t seem to notice her He had seen her come into the cave, and by the tied toas she put the ani in, and she had no qualms at all about her reactions

“Did you really hunt those yourself, Ayla?” she asked

“Yes,” Ayla nodded

“They look like nice fat rabbits Are we going to have them for dinner, mother?”

“Well, yes, I guess we are,” Iza replied, still embarrassed and unsure

“I’ll skin the out her knife Iza watched for a moment, then walked over and took the knife from her hand

“No, Ayla You hunted them, I’ll skin them” Ayla stepped back while Iza skinned the rabbits, quickly spitted them, and put them over the fire She was just as uncomfortable as Iza

“That was a gooddirect co, but Uba felt no such compunction

“Those were good rabbits, Ayla, but next tian,” she said Uba shared Creb’s predilection for the fat birds with the feathered feet

The next tiht her kill to the cave it wasn’t such a shock, and before long her hunting became almost commonplace With a hunter at his own hearth, Creb reduced the share he took froe animals hunted only by the men

It was a busy spring for Ayla Her share of the women’s as not lessened because she hunted, and there were still Iza’s herbs to be collected But Ayla loved it, she was full of energy, happier than she could remember She was happy she could hunt without secrecy, happy to be back with the clan, and happy she was finally a wo with the other women

Ebra and Uka accepted her, though the two older woet she was different; Ika had always been friendly; and the attitudes of Aga and her mother had co Ovra had becoa wara had felt for the man had moderated to an indifferent habit, cooled by the years of living with his unpredictable outbursts But Broud’s vindictive hatred of Ayla grew after her acceptance as a hunter He kept trying to find ways to bedevil her, kept trying to get a reaction out of her His harassment had become a way of life she had learned to live with; it left her unun to think he would never be able to disturb her again

Spring was in full flower the day she decided to hunt ptarht she would look over the neths and begin restocking Iza’s phar the nearby countryside, then headed for a broadfowl, brought down quickly by swifter stones, then searched through the tall grass looking for a nest and hopefully sos in a nest of edible greens and herbs She uttered an exclas in soft moss and tucked thehted with herself Out of sheer joyful exuberance, she sprinted across theto a halt, out of breath, at the top of a knoll covered with new green grass

Flopping to the ground, she checked her eggs to ed and took out a piece of dried ht yellow-breasted loriously fro in flight A pair of golden-crowned sparroarbling their woeful tune of descending pitch, flitted a the blackberry canes at the border of the open field Another pair of black-capped, gray-coated birds named by the chick-a-dee-dee of their call, darted in and out of their nesting hole in a fir tree near a setation at the foot of the knoll Small, vivacious brorens scolded the others as they carried twigs and dried narled apple tree, proving its youthful fecundity with its flock of pink blooms

Ayla loved theserelaxed and content, she thought about nothing in particular, except the beautiful day and how happy she was She was completely unaware that anyone else was near until a shadow fell across the ground in front of her Startled, she looked up into Broud’s glowering face

No hunting trips had been planned for that day and Broud had decided to hunt alone He hadn’t been very diligent; his hunting foray wasday than to provideon the knoll from a distance and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to berate her for laziness, caught in the act of sitting still

Ayla jumped up when she saw him, but that annoyed hi up at a woive her a sound scolding But as she lowered herself, the unresisting, unresponsive look that glazed her eyes irritated hiet a reaction out of her At the cave, he could at leastfor him to see her jump to his command

He looked around, then down at the wo with unruffled coet on with his rebuke and be on his way She’s worse than ever since she becaht The Woan and thought of his own eloating because she got those birds and I don’t have anything What can I et Wait, she’s a woman now, isn’t she? Ther

e’s so I can make her do

Broud gave her a signal, and Ayla’s eyes flew open It was unexpected Iza told her men only wanted that froht she was ugly Broud hadn’t ed hiain, imperiously, to assume the position so he could relieve his needs, the position for sexual intercourse