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For two days they struggled through putrid, h by occasional channels, before they reached the mainland Scrub oak and hornbeam quickly led to the cool, welcoh an almost pure stand of beech, relieved by a few chestnut, and into aboxwood and yew, draped with clinging ivy and clematis The lianas thinned out, but still climbed an occasional tree when they reached a belt of fir and spruce intermixed with beech, maple, and hornbeae and carried a dense cover of forests, and the lowest snowline
They caught glimpses of forest bison and the red deer, roe deer, and elk of wooded landscapes; they saw boar, fox, badger, wolf, lynx, leopard, wildcat, and le squirrel Ayla sensed so in the fauna of these mountains before she realized the absence of the familiar creature It wasof a cave bear
Brun threw up his hand in a signal to stop, then pointed ahead at the ainst a tree Even the children sensed the ahich the clan viewed the h The brown bears of their own ed about three hundred and fifty pounds; the weight of athe summer while he was still fairly lean, was closer to a thousand In late fall, when he was fattened for winter, his bulk was reater He towered above the ht, and with his huge head and shaggy coat, seeh bark of the old snag, he appeared unaware of the people frozen in their tracks so close by But he had little to fear fro the the area near their own cave had been known to break the neck of a stag with one blow of a powerful foreleg; what couldn’t this huge bruin do? Only anotherseason, or the fe her cubs, would dare to stand up to him She was invariably successful
But it was more than the tremendous size of the animal that held the clan spellbound This was Ursus, the personification of the Clan itself He was their kin, and more, he embodied their very essence His bones alone were so sacred they could ward off any evil The kinship they felt was a spiritual tie, far h his Spirit that all the clans were united into one andthey had traveled so far to attend It was his essence that made them Clan, the Clan of the Cave Bear
The bear tired of his activity—or his itch was satisfied—and he stretched to his full height, walked on hind legs a few paces, then dropped down on all four legs Muzzle drooping close to the ground, he reat size, the cave bear was basically a peaceful creature and rarely attacked unless he was annoyed
“Was that Ursus?” Ubaonder
“That was Ursus,” Creb affiret there”
“Does the host clan really have a living cave bear in their cave?” Ayla asked “He’s so big” She kneas the custo to capture a cave bear cub and raise him in the cave
“He’s probably in a cage outside the cave now, but when he was young, he lived in the cave with the him whenever he wanted to eat Most clans claim their cave bears even learn to talk a little, but I was young the ti I don’t remember very much about it, so I can’t say if that’s true When the bear is about half grown, he is put in a cage so he can’t hurt anyone, but everyone still feeds him tidbits and pets him when they walk by so he will know he is loved He will be honored at the Bear Cerees to the world of the spirits,” Creb explained
They’d been told about it before but, after seeing a cave bear, the story took on newto re
“When can we host a Clan Gathering and get a cave bear to live with us?” Uba asked
“When it’s our turn, unless the clan whose turn it is can’t Then we can offer But clans seldoh huntersway to find a cave bear cub, and the danger fro this time is fortunate Cave bears still live near their cave They have helped other clans to get cave bears, but now it’s their turn There are none left around our cave, but there must have been once, since the bones of Ursus were in our cave e found it,” Creb answered
“What if so happens to the clan that is supposed to host a Gathering? Our clan doesn’t even live in the same cave as before,” Ayla asked “If it was our turn, hoould anyone knohere to find us?”
“We’d send runners to the nearest clan to spread the news, either to tell the clans where the new cave is or to give another clan the chance”
Brun signaled, and the clan got under way again When they passed the tree used by the cave bear as a back scratcher, Creb exaht in the rough bark He wrapped them carefully in a leaf held in his teeth, then tucked the wild cave bear would make powerful charms
The giant conifers of the lower foothills were replaced by shorter, sturdier upland varieties as they ascended, opening up to breathtaking views of the glistening mountaintops they had seen from a distance as they crossed the plains Birch thickets appeared, and low-trailing juniper and rosy pink azalea, whosethe priht color A multitude of wild flowers added er lilies, ht lavender iris, blue gentian, yellow violet, primrose, and whites in a diversity of shapes The southern e, like the one at the lower tip of the peninsula which was folded during the sae for the flora and fauna of a continent during the Ice Age
Occasional chamois made an appearance, and heavy-horned mouflon They were ala, bordering the high rass, before they came to a orn path that traversed a steep incline The o before they reached the open plains north of the mountains to hunt, but the proxi to accept the inconvenience It alsothe elusive forest animals
The people running to greet the newly arriving clan, when they first saw Brun and Grod appear around a bend in the trail, stopped short at the sight of Ayla The training of a lifetime could not prevent the shocked stares Her position in front of the women, as the travel-weary clan filed silently to the open space near the cave, caused a flurry of speculation Creb had warned her, but Ayla wasn’t prepared for the sensation she caused; nor was she prepared for the throng of people Over two hundred stunned individuals crowded around to see the strange woman Ayla had never seen so many people in her life, much less in one place
They stopped in front of a huge cage of stout poles sunk deep in the ground, lashed firether Inside was another of the er Hand-fed for three years with a superabundance that kept hiantic cave bear lolled in lazy indolence within the fenced enclosure, almost too fat to stand up It had been a labor of devotion and reverence for the s, and even the ht by the visiting clans could not le person who didn’t envy the er
ly awaited its turn to take on the sareat honor
The cave bear waddled over to see as causing the co for more handouts, and Uba crowded in closer to Ayla, as much overwhelmed by the crush of people as by the bear The leader and the estures of greeting, quickly followed by an angry question
“Why have you brought one of the Others to our Clan Gathering, Brun?” the leader of the host clan motioned