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And brought forth the Children of Earth from Her womb”

“From the Mother forlorn, more children were born”

“Each child was different, soe and some small,

Some could walk and some fly some could swim and some crawl

But each form was perfect, each spirit complete,

Each one was a model whose shape could repeat”

“The Mother illing The green earth was filling”

Suddenly Ayla perceived a feeling that she’d had before, but not for a long ti ca, where Creb had learned in some inexplicable way that she was different, she had soe disorientation, as though he had changed her She felt a tingling, a prickling, a goosebu nausea and weakness, and she shivered as her memory of a darkness deeper than any cave became real In the back of her throat she tasted the dark cool loaus of ancient primeval forests

An angry roar shattered the silence, and the watching people juate to the cage and sent it crashing to the ground theon his shoulders; two otherto his fur Suddenly one was in the onized screa snapped his spine the nity carried it into a cave Creb, in his bearskin cloak, hobbled in the lead

Ayla stared at a white liquid sloshing in a cracked wooden bowl She felt an anxious worry she had done so There wasn’t supposed to be any liquid left in the bowl She held it to her lips and drained it Her perspective changed, a white light was inside her, and she seeh above at stars blazing a path the stars changed to s endless cave Then a red light at the end grew large, filling her vision, and with a sinking, sickening feeling, she saw the mite pillars

She was sinking deeper into a black abyss, petrified with fear Suddenly Creb was there with the flowing light inside her, helping her, supporting her, easing her fears He guided her on a strange trip back to their ulps of air, loaround, walking upright on two legs, walking a great distance, going west toward a great salty sea They came to a steep wall that faced a river and a flat plain, with a deep recess under a large overhanging section; it was the cave of an ancient ancestor of his But as they approached the cave, Creb began fading, leaving her

The scene grew hazy, Creb was fading faster, was nearly gone She scanned the landscape, searching desperately for him Then she saw him at the top of the cliff, above his ancestor’s cave, near a large boulder, a long, slightly flattened coluh frozen in place as it was about to fall She called out, but he had faded into the rock Ayla felt desolate; Creb was gone and she was alone Then Jondalar appeared in his place

She sensed herself e worlds and felt the terror of the black void again, but it was different this ti it with Mamut, and the terror overcame both of them Then faintly, froonized fear and love, calling to her, pulling ber back and Math of his love and his need In an instant she was back, feeling chilled to the bone

“Ayla, are you all right?” Zelandoni said“You’re shivering”

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