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Stark terror charged through the girl She fled in wild panic, carefully watched by another of the great cats The child had stue felines would have disdained so s a robust aurochs, oversize bison, or giant deer to satisfy the needs of a pride of hungry cave lions But the fleeing child was approachingnewborn cubs
Left to guard the young while the lioness hunted, the shaggy-irl jerked her head up and gasped at the gigantic cat crouched on a ledge, ready to spring She screa in the loose gravel near the wall, and scrareater fear, she ran back the way she had come
The cave lion leaped with languid ease, confident of his ability to catch the small interloper who dared to broach the sanctity of the cave nursery He was in no hurry—she moved slowly coame of cat and mouse
In her panic, it was only instinct that led her to the sround in the face of the cliff Her side aching, and gasping for breath, she squeezed through an opening barely big enough for her It was a tiny, shallow cave, not much more than a crack She twisted around in the cra with her back to the wall, trying to melt into the solid rock behind her
The cave lion roared his frustration when he reached the hole and found his chase thwarted The child trembled at the sound and stared in hypnotized horror as the cat snaked his paw, sharp curved claws outstretched, into the set away, she watched the claw coh, raking it with four deep parallel gashes
The girl squiret out of his reach and found a small depression in the dark wall to her left She pulled her legs in, scrunched up as tight as she could, and held her breath The claly entered the sht that penetrated the niche, but this ti The cave lion roared and roared as he paced back and forth in front of the hole
The child reht, andwound was a constant pain, and the sh-walled cave had little room to turn or stretch out She was deliriousnight fear But it wasn’t her wound or her hunger or even her painful sunburn that finally drove her froe It was thirst
She looked fearfully out of the s Sparse stands of wind-stuntedand pine near the river cast long shadows of early evening The child stared at the grass-covered stretch of land and the sparkling water beyond for a long tie to move beyond the entrance She licked cracked lips with a parched tongue as she scanned the terrain Only the ept grass one The lioness, anxious for her young and uneasy about the unfae creature so near their cave, decided to find a new nursery
The child crept out of the hole and stood up Her head throbbed and spots danced dizzily before her eyes Waves of pain engulfed her with every step and her wounds began to ooze a sickly yellow green down her swollen leg
She wasn’t sure if she could reach the water, but her thirst was overpowering She fell to her knees and crawled the last few feet, then stretched out flat on her storeedy mouthfuls of cold water When her thirst was finally slaked, she tried to stand again, but she had reached the limit of her endurance Spots swa went dark as she sluround
A carrion bird circling lazily overhead spied the un form and swooped lower for a closer look
Read on for an excerpt from
The Mammoth Hunters
Book Three in the Earth’s Children® Series
by Jean M Auel
Tre to the tall ers approach Jondalar put his arm around her protectively, but she still shook
He’s so big! Ayla thought, gaping at the man in the lead, the one with hair and beard the color of fire She had never seen anyone so big He even h the man who held her towered overtoward thee, a bear of a ed, his chest could have filled out two ordinary hs
Ayla glanced at Jondalar and saw no fear in his face, but his s travels he had learned to be wary of strangers
“I don’t recall seeing you before,” the big man said without preamble “What Cae, Ayla noticed, but one of the others he had been teaching her