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“And you, too, Willamar?”

“Yes It takes some practice, but it’s not hard,” he said

“Well, I guess I can’t be the only one in the family who doesn’t kno,” Folara said

While Ayla was showing the young wo a fire with stones, with advice from Jondalar and the new expert, Willa stones She filled her tea-an to slice so stones were hot, she put several in the teapot basket, bringing forth a stea with a bit htly interwoven with fibers attached to a wooden base It contained vegetables that had been cooked that reen stems of poke, elder shoots, thistle stems, burdock stems, coiled baby ferns, and lily cornut roots for added spice

By the tiht supper ready, Folara had added her sot their own eating dishes and cups for tea and sat on cushions around the low table After the ht a bowl of leftovers and an extra piece of meat to Wolf, poured herself another cup of tea, and rejoined the others

“I want to know more about these firestones,” Willa fire like that before”

“Where did you learn to do that, Jondé?” Folara asked

“Ayla showed me,” Jondalar said

“Where did you learn, Ayla?” Folara said

“It wasn’t anything I learned or planned or thought about, it just happened”

“But how could so like that ‘just happen’?” Folara asked

Ayla took a sip of tea and closed her eyes to recall the event “It was one of those days when everything seean “My first winter in the valley was just beginning, the river was turning to ice, and ht Whinney was still a baby and hyenas were nosing aroundI had to chase the to cut wood to make a fire, but I dropped my axe and it broke It was the only one I had, so I had to make a new one Luckily, I had noticed that there were flint nodules in the heap of stones and animal bones that had piled up below the cave

“I went down to the rocky bank by the river to knap a new axe and so, I put my stone retoucher down, butstone by mistake It wasn’t my retoucher, it was a stone like this, and when I hit the flint with it, I got a spark It made me think of fire, and I needed to make a fire, anyway, so I decided to try to make it with a spark from the stone After a few tries, it worked”

“You make it sound so simple,” Marthona said, “but I’m not sure I would have tried to make a fire like that, even if I had seen a spark”

“I was alone in that valley, with no one to show s, or to tell me what couldn’t be done,” Ayla said “I’d already hunted and killed a horse, which was against Clan traditions, and then adopted her foal, which the Clan would never have allowed I’d done so s I wasn’t supposed to do that by then I was ready to try any idea that came to me”