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“Well, I wouldn’t o ask Thefona where they were”

“I think I’ll go with Ayla,” Jondalar said “She isn’t faht not understand Thefona’s directions”

“Go ahead, but I hope you make it back in time I’d like to see those spear-throwers of yours in action,” Joharran said “If they do half of what you say they can, it coulddifference”

After talking with Thefona, Ayla and Jondalar took off at a gallop with Wolf loping behind, while the rest of the hunters continued to follow Grass River upstream The countryside of Zelandonii territory was a drah relief, with steep cliffs, broad river valleys, rolling hills, and elevated plateaus The rivers soallery of trees along their banks, and at other tih rock walls The people who lived there were accustoh it co a steep hillside or scaling a nearly vertical cliff, ju upstreale file between a wall of rock on one side and a rushing river on the other or spreading out on an open plain

The hunters broke up into sh but still green grass of the open field of the valley Joharran kept watching for the return of his brother and his strange entourage—the foreign woet back in tih he kneould not make much difference With so many hunters and so few aniet the ones they wanted

It was hted, and the hunters stopped to discuss deployment of those in pursuit Joharran heard hoofbeats and turned around With inadvertent but perfect ti, Jondalar and Ayla returned

“We found them!” Jondalar said in an excited whisper when they had disiant deer were very close by “And they’ve changed direction again They’re heading toward the surround! I’e them to move that way faster”

“But how far away are they?” Joharran asked “We have to walk The rest of us don’t have horses to ride”

“Not very far, the surround was made by the Third Cave It isn’t that far froet there without too much trouble,” Ayla said “If you’d rather hunt bison, you can, Joharran”

“Actually, big brother, you could hunt both,” Jondalar said

“We’re here now, and a deer in your sight is worth much more than two bison in a distant surround,” Joharran said “But if this doesn’t take too long, we may try for the bison later Now, do you want to join the hunt?”

“Yes,” Jondalar said

“I do,” Ayla said at nearly the same time “Let’s tie the horses to that tree over there, by the stream, Jondalar Maybe I should tie a restraint on Wolf, too He can get excited about hunting and may want to ‘help,’ but that could be a probleet in the way if he’s not sure what to do”

While the decisions were made about tactics, Ayla studied the s Ayla reaceros stag This giant deer was much the sah certainly not as big as a iant deer because they were theof all the varieties of deer But it wasn’t the size of the animal itself that made them so impressive, it was the size of their anders Each one of the ed froer each year and in a th

Ayla visualized the length of one antler as twoon the other’s shoulders The size of their antlers precluded the forested habitat that was often preferred by aceros were deer of the open plains Although they ate grass, especially the green tops of the tall grass varieties, and grazedbrush and trees and leafy herbaceous plants near streams when they could