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At first the cats, young and old, just watched therass that hid theh they weren’t sure what to do The ones who retreated with cubs returned without them

“They don’t seem to knohat tohunters, feeling a littlemale suddenly snarled at them, everyone jumped with a start, and stopped in their tracks

“This is not the ti ahead

They started out again, their forether again as they continued on All the lions startedinto the tall grass, but the bigof a roar as he stood his ground Several of the other big cats were arrayed behind hi up the scent of fear from the human hunters, she was sure the lions were, too She was afraid herself, but fear was so that people could overcome

“I think we’d better get ready,” Jondalar said “That male doesn’t look happy, and he has reinforcements”

“Can’t you get hirunts that was usually a precursor to a lion’s roar

“Probably,” Jondalar said, “but I’d rather be closer, so I can be more sure of my aim”

“And I’ood my aim would be from this distance We do need to be closer,” Joharran said, continuing to march forward

The people bunched together and kept going, still shouting, though Ayla thought their sound was more tentative as they drew closer The cave lions became still and seee herd that didn’t behave like prey animals

Then, suddenly, everything happened at once

The bigsound, especially froe He started toward the, Jondalar hurled his spear at him

Ayla had been watching the feht About the time that Jondalar , then vaulted to pounce

Ayla pulled back and took aim She felt the back of the spear-throith the spearit as she hurled her spear It was so natural for her, it didn’t feel like a deliberatetheir entire year-long Journey back to the Zelandonii and she was so skilled, it was second nature

The lioness soared into her leap, but Ayla’s spear met hercat, and lodged firmly in her throat in a sudden fatal slash Blood spurted out as the lioness collapsed to the ground

The worabbed another spear from her holder, and slapped it down on her spear-thrower, looking around to see what else was happening She saw Joharran’s spear fly, and a heartbeat later another spear followed She noticed that Rushemar was in the stance of one who had just thrown a spear She saw another large female lion fall A second spear found the beast before she landed Another lioness was still co Ayla cast a spear, and saw that someone else had, too, just a moment before her

She reached for another spear, ht—that the point, which was affixed to a short length of tapering shaft made to detach from the main spear shaft, was fir spear shaft was engaging the hook at the back of the spear-thrower Then she looked around again The hugebut not dead Her fe

The lions were disappearing into the grass as fast as they could, at least one leaving a trail of blood The hu around and beginning to smile at each other

“I think we did it,” Palidar said, a huge grin starting

He had barely gotten the words out when Wolf’s ht Ayla’s attention The wolf bounded away from the hu ain With a roar, he sprang toward theer, and she didn’t really blame him

Just as Wolf reached the lion and leaped up to attack, keeping hi her spear as hard as she could Her eye caught another one hurled at the same time They landed almost simultaneously with an audible thunk, and thunk Both the lion and the wolf cruasped when she saw them fall, swathed in blood, afraid that Wolf was hurt