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The biggest grin she’d ever seen cracked his face He felt like a boy setting out for the Suo, woer to be up and out

His boyish enthusiasm was infectious She smiled back, but added a note of restraint “Don-da-lah eat food”

It didn’t take long to prepare atea She brought grain to Whinney, and spent a fewthe little colt with it as well Jondalar watched her He’d watched her before, but this was the first time he noticed that she made a sound reuttural syllables Her handto hiral part of the language she spoke to the horse—but he knew that in so to theimpression that the animal understood her

As she fondled the ic she had used to captivate the ani a bit captivated hihted when she led the horse and her colt to hiotten so close to a fuzzy new foal, and he was slightly overwhelmed by their total lack of fear The colt seemed particularly drawn to him after his first cautious pats led to strokes and scratches that unerringly found the right places

He reiven her the name for the animal, and he pointed to the mare “Horse,” he said

But Whinney had a name, a name made with sounds, just like hers, and his Ayla shook her head “No,” she said, “Whinney”

To him, the sound she made was not a name—it was a perfect imitation of a horse’s whinny He was astonished She couldn’t speak any hues, but she could talk like a horse? Talk to a horse? He ed; that was powerful ic

SheShe touched her chest and said her na to explain Then she pointed at him and said his naain

“Is that the mare’s name? Ayla, I can’t make a noise like that I don’t kno to talk to horses”

After a second, and more patient, explanation, he made an attempt, but it was more like a word that sounded like it That seemed to satisfy her, and she led the two horses back to theto learn all his words, but I had to tell him your name We’ll have to think of a name for your little one… I wonder, do you think he’d like to name your baby?”

Jondalar had heard of certain zelandonii ere said to have the ability to lure aniood iet closer But he’d never heard of anyone who could talk with an animal, or who had convinced one to live with her Because of her, a wild ht before his eyes, and had even let him touch her baby It suddenly struck him, onder and a little fear, what the woic did she possess? But as she walked toward him with a happy smile on her face, she seemed no more than an ordinary woman Just an ordinary woman, who could talk to horses but not to people

“Don-da-lah go out?”

He had alerness, and, before she could reach hiet up His enthusiasm paled He eak, and it was painful to move Dizziness and nausea threatened, then passed Ayla watched his expression change frori

“I may need a little help,” he said His smile was strained, but earnest

“Ayla help,” she said, offering her shoulder for support and her hand for assistance At first he didn’t want to put tooup under it, had the strength, and kne to pull him up, he took her help

When he finally stood on his good leg, braced against a post of the drying rack, and Ayla looked up at him, her jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide The top of her head barely reached his chin She knew his body was longer than th into height, hadn’t perceived hoould appear standing up She had never seen anyone so tall

Not since she was a child could she re up to anyone Even before she had reached wo the ly; too tall, too pale, too fiat faced No man would have her, not even after her powerful totem was defeated and they would all have liked to think their totenant; not even when they knew that if she wasn’t ave birth, her child would be unlucky And Durc was unlucky They weren’t going to let him live They said he was deformed, but then Brun accepted him anyway Her son had overco histo be tall—she had known that before she left—but not as tall as Jondalar

This man made her feel positively little Her first i ier, too She looked up at hirowing in She didn’t knohy he hadn’t had one when she had first seen hi from his chin made her realize that he was not a boy He was a man—a tall, powerful, fully mature man

Her look of ah he didn’t know the cause She was taller than he had guessed, too The way she ave the effect of someone of much shorter stature Actually, she was quite tall, and he liked tall woh this one would catch anyone’s eye, he thought “We got this far, let’s go out,” he said

Ayla was feeling conscious of his closeness, and his nakedness “Don-da-lah need … garh she enitals; he had not told her that word, either Then for some unexplainable reason, she blushed

It was not modesty She had seen many men unclothed, and woht he would need protection, not froh women were not included in their rituals, she knew that enitals exposed if they were going out She didn’t knohy that thought made her feel flustered, or why her face felt hot, or why it see sensations

Jondalar looked down at hienitals, too, but they did not involve covering them for protection from evil spirits If malicious enemies had induced a zelandoni to call down harm, or if a woreat dealto protect him

But he had learned that while a stranger iven, it hen traveling to pay attention to subtle hints so that he would offend as seldom as possible He had seen where she pointed—and her blush

He took it to enitals exposed And in any case, sitting with bare skin on bare rock could get uncomfortable, and he wouldn’t be able to move much

Then he thought about hier to get out of the cave that he hadn’t even noticed he was completely naked The humor in the situation suddenly struck hih

Jondalar had no way of knowing the effect of his laughter on Ayla To hirown up with people who did not laugh, and who viewed her laughter with such suspicion that she had learned to curtail it so she would fit in more easily It was part of the price she paid for survival Only after her son was born did she discover the joy of laughter again It was one of the qualities he had acquired fro him would be disapproved, but when they were alone, she couldn’t resist playful tickling when he responded with giggles of delight

To her, laughter was charged withthan just a simple spontaneous response It represented the unique bond she had with her son, the part of herself she could see in hihter inspired by the cave lion cub which she loved had strengthened that expression, and she would not give it up It would not only haveup her own developing sense of self

But she hadn’t considered that soh Except for her own and Durc’s, she could not recall hearing laughter before The special quality of Jondalar’s laugh—the hearty, jubilant freedoht in his voice as he laughed at himself, and, from the moment she heard it, she loved it Unlike the Clan adult-hter bestowed approval by its very sound It was not only all right to laugh, it was invited It was impossible to resist

And Ayla did not resist Her first shocked surprise turned to a shter on her own She didn’t knoas so funny; she laughed because Jondalar did