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The zelandonia had been very quiet when they saw herin solitude with her chest plaque turned around so that the carvings and decorations were hidden and only the plain side showed,she did not want to be interrupted Now they knehy

There was an undercurrent of conversation “But they’re animals” “They aren’t even human” “They are related to bears”

The Zelandoni of the Fourteenth Cave spoke out “The Mother is appalled by such a mixture”

“They are an abomination,” Denanna, the leader of the Twenty-ninth Cave, said “We’ve always known that”

Madroman whispered to the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave, “Denanna is right They are half human, half animal”

The First waited until things quieted down “Think about where you heard those things Try to recall even one instance in the lore of the zelandonia, or the Histories and Elder Legends of the Zelandonii, where it specifically mentions that the children of mixed spirits are abominations, or even that the flatheads are aniestions, but specific references,” she said

She let them think for a while, then continued “In fact, if you think about it clearly, you would know that the Mother would never be appalled, or want us to think of them as abominations They are children of the Mother, just as we are After all, who is it that selects a man’s spirit to blend with the spirit of a woman? It doesn’t happen often, we don’t associate much with flatheads, but if the Mother so the elan of a flathead with the elan of a Zelandonii, that is Her choice It is not for Her children to disparage those offspring The Great Earth Mother decided to create them, perhaps for a special reason Echozar is not an abomination Echozar is born of woman, as we all are The fact that his mother was a woman of the Clan doesn’t make him less a child of the Great Mother If he and Joplaya have chosen each other, then Doni is pleased, and we should be, too”

There was another commotion, but the First heard no actual denials and decided to ather is that Joharran wants to talk about the ones we calfflatheads, but first I think you should learn more about them from someone who can speak from experience Ayla was raised by the ones we know as flatheads, but that she knows as people of the Clan Ayla, will you come here and tell us about them”

Ayla got up and walked toward the First Her stomach was queasy and her roup of people and she didn’t knohere to start, so she just began where her an

“I was a five-year, I think, as close as I can guess, when I lost the family I was born to I don’t remember most of this very well, but I think it was an earthquake that took theuess I wandered alone for a while, I’o or what to do I don’t kno long I had been alone when I was chased by a cave lion I think I hid in a small cave, very setI still have the scars, four lines froIza, a wo at the sight of her Her response was to hold me in her arms until I quieted”

People were iirl who could count only five years She explained that the home of the clan that found her had been destroyed by the sa for a new one when they came across her She told them that they knew that she was not Clan, but one of the Others, the word they used for people like her, and she talked about being adopted by the medicine wo-ur, which was like a Zelandoni As she continued, she forgot her nervousness and just spoke naturally, with all of the es about her life with the people who called themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear

She didn’t hold back anything, not the difficulties she had with Broud, as the son of themedicine from Iza She talked about her love for Creb and Iza, and her Clan sister, Uba, and about her curiosity when she picked up the sling for the first tiht herself to use it, and several years late

r, the consequences for doing so She hesitated only when it caical and high- children of the Mother, too, she could tell froe of several people, especially those who had s had not changed They had just decided that itAyla thought it , too

She told the forced to leave the Clan when Broud becah she tried to explain what a death curse was, she didn’t think they fully understood the real power of its coercive force It did literally cause the death of individual o and no one, not even their dearest loved ones, would acknowledge that they even existed She spoke only briefly about her ti, the mixed child that was adopted by Nezzie, the mate of the headman of the Lion Camp

“Unlike Echozar, he did not have the strength of the Clan, and he eak internally, but like the Clan, he could not ht him and Nezzie, and then the rest of the Lion Cans It made Nezzie very happy the first time he called her ‘mother,’ ” Ayla ended