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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
EARTH’S CHILDREN® Series Sampler
Read on for excerpts from each of the other novels in
Jean M Auel’s Earth’s Children® series
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR
THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS
THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE
THE SHELTERS OF STONE
Read on for an excerpt from
The Clan of the Cave Bear
Book One in the Earth’s Children® Series
by Jean M Auel
The naked child ran out of the hide-covered lean-to toward the rocky beach at the bend in the s in her experience ever gave her reason to doubt the shelter and those within it would be there when she returned
She splashed into the river and felt rocks and sand shift under her feet as the shore fell off sharply She dived into the cold water and ca, then reached out with sure strokes for the steep opposite bank She had learned to swim before she learned to walk and, at five, was at ease in the water Swi was often the only way a river could be crossed
The girl played for a while, swi back and forth, then let the current float her downstream Where the river widened and bubbled over rocks, she stood up and waded to shore, then walked back to the beach and began sorting pebbles She had just put a stone on top of a pile of especially pretty ones when the earth began to tremble
The child looked with surprise as the stone rolled down of its own accord, and stared in wonder at the s the too, but she was stillto understand why her universe had altered in some inexplicable way The earth was not supposed to move
The small river, whichwith choppy waves that splashed over its banks as the rocking strea mud up from the bottom Brush close by the upstream banks quivered, animated by unseen movement at the roots, and downstreaitation Beyond them, stately conifers of the forest into which the streaiant pine near the bank, its roots exposed and their hold weakened by the spring runoff, leaned toward the opposite shore With a crack, it gave way and crashed to the ground, bridging the turbid watercourse, and lay shaking on the unsteady earth
The girl started at the sound of the falling tree Her stoe of her mind She tried to stand but fell back, unbalanced by the sickening swaying She tried again, ed to pull herself up, and stood unsteadily, afraid to take a step
As she started toward the hide-covered shelter set back fro roar A sour stench of wetness and rot issued fro breath froly at dirt and rocks and sap as the cooled shell of the molten planet cracked in the convulsion
The lean-to, perched on the far edge of the abyss, tilted, as half the solid ground beneath it pulled away The slender ridgepole teetered undecidedly, then collapsed and disappeared into the deep hole, taking its hide cover and all it contained with it The girl treand security to the five short years of her life
“Mother! Motherrr!” she cried as comprehension overwhel in her ears was her own in the thunderous roar of rending rock She clambered toward the deep crack, but the earth rose up and threw her down She clawed at the ground, trying to find a secure hold on the heaving, shifting land
Then the gap closed, the roar ceased, and the shaking earth stilled, but not the child Lying face down on the soft damp soil churned loose by the paroxysm that convulsed the land, she shook with fear She had reason to fear
The child was alone in a wilderness of grassy steppes and scattered forests Glaciers spanned the continent on the north, pushing their cold before the animals, and the carnivores that preyed on them, roamed the vast prairies, but people were few She had nowhere to go and she had no one ould come and look for her She was alone
The ground quivered again, settling itself, and the girl heard a ru a le bite She juain She looked at the place where the lean-to had been Raw earth and uprooted shrubs were all that re into tears, she ran back to the strea heap near the muddy water
But the dae from the restless planet Another aftershock, this tiasped with surprise at the splash of cold water on her naked body Panic returned; she sprang to her feet She had to get away fro earth, but where could she go?
There was no place for seeds to sprout on the rocky beach and it was clear of brush, but the upstrea forth new leaves Soled brah wet eyes that blurred her vision, she looked the other way at the forest of tall conifers
Thin bea branches of dense evergreens crowding close to the strearowth, but ht A few had fallen to the ground; hbors still firmly anchored Beyond the ju than the brush upstrealanced first one way, then the other with indecision
A tre downstrea look at the vacant landscape, childishly hopeful that somehow the lean-to would still be there, she ran into the woods
Urged on by occasional gru water, stopping only to drink in her hurry to get far away Conifers that had succuround and she skirted craters left by the circular tangle of shallow roots— to their exposed undersides
She saw less evidence of disturbance toward evening, fewer uprooted trees and dislodged boulders, and the water cleared She stopped when she could no longer see her way and sank down on the forest floor, exhausted Exercise had kept her hile she was ht air, burrowed into the thick carpet of fallen needles and curled up in a tight little ball, throwing handfuls over herself for a cover