page29 (1/2)

I was riding Whinney! She chased after that hahts raced back to the first day she had cli mare’s neck Whinney had reached down for a clurass

“Whinney!” Ayla cried The horse lifted her head and perked up her ears expectantly The young woman was stunned She didn’t kno to explain it The h, but that the horse would go where Ayla wanted to go was harder to understand than the process had been for both of them to learn

The horse ca with a sob, though she wasn’t sure why, as she hugged the shaggy neck Whinney blew through her nostrils and arched her neck so her head was leaning over the woman’s shoulder

When she went to et in the way She walked to a boulder, though she had long since ceased using one, and, stopping to think about it, knew she had ju easily before After some initial confusion, Whinney started back to the cave When Ayla consciously tried to govern the filly, her unconscious signals lost some of their decisiveness, as did Whinney’s response She didn’t kno she had been directing the horse

Ayla learned to rely on her reflexes again when she discovered that Whinney responded better if she relaxed, though in the process she did develop soan to hunt ot off to use her sling, but it wasn’t long before she ave her reason to practice, a new challenge She had taught herself the use of the weapon in the beginning by practicing alone It was a game then, and there was no one she could have turned to for training; she wasn’t supposed to hunt And after a lynx caught her unarmed when a stone missed, she had developed a technique to rapid-fire two stones, practicing until she had it perfected

It had been a long tiain becah no less serious because it was fun She was already so skilled, however, that it wasn’t long before she was as accurate fro on her oo feet But, even racing on the horse as she closed on a fleet-footed hare, the young woe of possible benefits, the advantages she had gained

Initially, Ayla carried her kills home the way she always had, in a basket strapped to her back Laying her prey in front of her across Whinney’s back was an easy step toa pannier, a speciallyical ht to come up with a pair of baskets on either side of the horse, attached to a wide thong tied around her an to perceive soth of her four-legged friend For the first tier than she alone could carry

Once she understood what she could accoed The entire pattern of her life changed She stayed out longer, ranged farther afield, and returned with more produce, or plant materials, or small ani the results of her forays

Once when she noticed wild strawberries were beginning to ripen, she searched over a large area to find as many as she could Ripe ones were few so early in the season, and far between It was nearly dark when she started back She had a sharp eye for land lost, but before she reached the valley, it was too dark to see them When she found herself near the cave, she relied on Whinney’s instincts to guide them, and on subsequent trips she often let the horse find their way back

But afterward she took along a sleeping fur, just in case Then one evening she decided to sleep out on the open steppes, because it was late and she thought she’d enjoy a night under the stars again She made a fire, but, cuddled up beside Whinney in her fur, she hardly needed it for warmth Rather it was a deterrent to nocturnal wildlife All the steppes creatures ary of the srass fires so—everything in their path

After the first tiht or tay froion east of the valley more extensively

She wasn’t quite ad for the Others, hoping she would find theht In one sense, it was a way of putting off the decision to leave the valley She knew she would soon have toto take up her search again, but the valley had become her home She didn’t want to leave, and she was still worried about Whinney She didn’t knohat so within range of her valley by horseback, she could, perhaps, observe the about them

The Others were her people but she couldn’t re with the Clan She knew she had been found unconscious beside a river, half starved and burning with infected cave lion gashes She was near death when Iza picked her up and carried her with them on their search for a new cave But whenever she tried to recall anything of her earlier life, a nauseous fear overca beneath her feet

The earthquake that had cast a five-year-old girl alone in the wilderness, left to the mercy of fate—and the compassion of people eremind She had lost all memory of the earthquake and of the people to whom she had been born They were to her as they were to the rest of the Clan: the Others

Like the indecisive spring, with its swift changes froain, Ayla’s inclination shifted frorowing up, she had often spent her days roa herbs for Iza or, later, hunting, and she was accustos and afternoons, when she was busy and active, she wanted nothing more than to stay in the sheltered valley with Whinney But at night, in her small cave with only a fire and a horse for co to ease her loneliness It wasthan it had been all through the long cold winter Her thoughts dwelled on the Clan and the people she loved, and her arht she decided she would begin preparations for leaving the next day, and everyshe put it off and rode Whinney on the eastern plains instead

Her careful and extended survey made her aware not only of the territory, but of the life that inhabited the vast prairie Herds of grazers had begun to e anihts, it displaced a measure of her preoccupation with her solitary existence

She saw horses, but none had returned to her valley It didn’thorses It would have to be soht use the poles were unwieldy until she devised secure holders for them, one in each basket carried on either side of the horse

It wasn’t until she noticed a herd of fean to take shape When she was a girl, and surreptitiously teaching herself to hunt, she often found an excuse to work near the —their favorite topic of conversation At the ti lore associated with the sling—her weapon—but was intrigued no ht, she thought the herd of small-antlered reindeer wereall the varieties of deer, only reindeer fe

ered a whole set of associatedthe taste of reindeer meat

More irate north in the spring, they travel the sa a path only they could see, and theybegin the trek, followed by a herd of youngin sroups

Ayla rode at a leisurely pace behind a herd of antlered does and their young The sunats and flies that liked to nest in reindeer fur, especially near eyes and ears, driving the reindeer to seek cooler climates where the insects were less abundant, were just appearing Ayla absently brushed away the few that were buzzing around her head When she had started out, ahollows and dips The rising sun stea an unaccustoulates, and they ignored Whinney, and her huet too close

While watching the If the bucks follow the does, they should be co reindeer buck; I’ll knohat path they will be taking But knowing the path won’t help if I can’t get close enough to use ain They’d just h brush to build a fence they couldn’t ju, one will fall in