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She was sitting at the far end of the terrace in a favorite place On the side facing the ht distance below it, another to rest her feet She could not see the water as it turned the bend or the rocky beach, but she had a clear view of the valley, and if she turned her head she could see the upstea Whinney in the meadow and had seen her head back Thenose of the wall, but Ayla could hear her co for her to appear

The woe head of the steppe horse, with her dark ears and stiff browncoat of the yellow horse and the dark brown feral stripe down her spine ending in a full long dark horse’s tail There was a faint suggestion of stripes on her forelegs above the dark broer part The young horse looked at the wo to see if Ayla wanted soh not quite filled out, the yearling had reached her adult size

Ayla turned back to the view, and to thoughts that had been occupying her for days, keeping her awake nights I can’t leave now—I need to hunt a little first andto do about Whinney? That was the crux of her proble about the people whom the Clan called the Others, except that she was one What if I find people on’t let rown horse, especially one so young and tender What if they wanted to kill her? She wouldn’t even run away, she’d just stand there and let them If I told them not to, would they pay attention? Broud would kill her no matter what I said What if men of the Others are like Broud? Or worse? After all, they did kill Oda’s baby, even if it wasn’t on purpose

I have to find soer At least until I do so, and maybe until some of the roots are ready That’s what I’ll do I’ll stay until the roots are big enough for digging

She felt relieved after her decision to postpone her departure, and ready to do soe The stench of rotting meat wafted up from the new pile at the base of the wall She noticed movement below and watched a hyena crush with powerful jaws the foreleg of what had likely been a deer No other anith concentrated in jaw and forequarters, but it gave the hyena an ungainly disproportionate build

She’d had to restrain herself the first time she saw the back end of one, with its low hindquarters and slightly crooked legs, nosing into the pile But when she saw it dragging out a rotting piece of carcass, she left it alone, for once grateful of the service they performed She had studied them, as she had observed other carnivorous animals Unlike the felines or wolves, they didn’t need powerful springing hindleg muscles to attack When they hunted, they went for the viscera, the soft underbelly and lands But their usual diet was carrion—in any condition

They reveled in corruption She had seen thee human refuse piles, disinter bodies if they weren’t carefully buried; they even ate dung, and they smelled as foul as their diet Their bite, if not immediately fatal, often caused death later, fro

Ayla ust She hated thee to chase off the ones beloith her sling Her attitude was irrational, but she couldn’t help her revulsion at the brown-spotted scavengers To her they had no redeeers, though they often smelled as bad

Fro after a share of the offal The glutton rese tail, but she knew they were lands were as noxious as a skunk’s Wolverines were vicious scavengers They would vandalize caves or open sites for no apparent reason But they were scrappy, intelligent animals and absolutely fearless predators that would attack anything, even a giant deer, though they could content thes, fish, or berries Ayla had seen theer animals from their own kills They orthy of respect, and their unique frost-doffing fur was valuable

She watched a pair of red kites take wing froh in a tree across the streas and deeply forked tails and soared down to the rocky beach Kites fed on carrion, but, like other raptors, they also preyed on s woman wasn’t as familiar with carnivorous birds, but she knew the feer than the males, and they were beautiful to watch

Ayla could tolerate the vulture, despite its ugly bald head and a smell as evil as its looks Its hooked beak was sharp and strong, built for shearing and dis dead animals, but there was liding and soaring so effortlessly, riding air currents with large wings, then, on spying food, plu toward the corpse with outstretched neck and wings half open

The scavengers beloere having a feast, even carrion croere getting a share, and Ayla was delighted With the stink of decaying corpses so near her cave, she could even abide the hated hyena The faster they cleaned it up, the happier she would be Suddenly she felt overpowered by the fulsome reek She wanted a breath of air untainted by malodorous emanations

“Whinney,” she called The horse poked her head out of the cave at the sound of her na for a walk Do you want to conal and walked toward the wo her head

They walked down the narrow path, gave the rocky beach and its noisoed around the stone wall The horse seee of brush that lined the sain The s fear of hyenas had a basis in early experience They both enjoyed the freedo winter, though the air still had a chilly da scavengers were not the only birds feasting, although other activities seemed more important

Ayla slowed to watch a pair of great spotted woodpeckers, the e in aerial displays, dru, and chase each other around trees Ayla kneoodpeckers They would hollow out the heart of an old tree and line the nest ood chips But once the six or so brown-spotted eggs were laid and incubated, and the young hatched and reared, the couple would go their separate ways again to search tree trunks within their territory for insects andcall

Not so the larks Only during breeding season did the sociable flocks separate into pairs and the a as a pair soared straight up It was sung with such volume that she could hear them as they hovered above, hardly more than specks in the sky Suddenly, like a pair of stones, they dropped, then swooped up singing again the next moment

Ayla reached the place where she had once dug a pit to hunt a dun ht it was the place No trace re flood had swept away the brush she had cut and smoothed out the depression Farther on, she stopped for a drink and se It resembled a lark, but was slimmer with a yellow underbelly, and it held its body horizontal to keep its tail fro up and down

A flood of liquid notes brought her attention to another pair of birds who had no qual at each other in courtship display, but she alondered how they could walk underwater without getting their plued When she went back to the open field, Whinney was grazing

the new green shoots She s her with their chick-chick when she passed too close to their shrub Once beyond it, they changed to a loud clear flowing song that was sung first by one, and then by the other in an alternating response

She stopped and sat on a log listening to the sweet songs of several different birds, and then was surprised when a bush warbler imitated the whole chorus in one burst of melody She sucked in her breath at the virtuosity of the s sound she produced A green bunting followed her with his characteristic note that sounded like an indrahistle, and the ain

Ayla was delighted It seeain Pursing her lips, she sucked in her breath but ed to produce only a faint windy whistle The next tis so full of air that she had to expel it,a loud whistle It was much closer to the sounds of the birds With the next effort, she only blew air through her lips, and she had no better luck with several more tries She went back to the indrahistle and had h it lacked volume

She kept trying, pulling in and blowing out, and occasionally she produced a sharp sound She became so involved with the atte up her ears whenever the piercing whistle was made The horse didn’t kno to respond, but she was curious and took a few steps toward the woman

Ayla saw the youngof her ears “Are you surprised that I canlike a bird Well, , I think I could coain”