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THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE

Read on for an excerpt from

The Clan of the Cave Bear

Book One in the Earth’s Children® Series

by Jean M Auel

The naked child ran out of the hide-covered lean-to toward the rocky beach at the bend in the s in her experience ever gave her reason to doubt the shelter and those within it would be there when she returned

She splashed into the river and felt rocks and sand shift under her feet as the shore fell off sharply She dived into the cold water and ca, then reached out with sure strokes for the steep opposite bank She had learned to swim before she learned to walk and, at five, was at ease in the water Swi was often the only way a river could be crossed

The girl played for a while, swi back and forth, then let the current float her downstream Where the river widened and bubbled over rocks, she stood up and waded to shore, then walked back to the beach and began sorting pebbles She had just put a stone on top of a pile of especially pretty ones when the earth began to tremble

The child looked with surprise as the stone rolled down of its own accord, and stared in wonder at the s the too, but she was stillto understand why her universe had altered in some inexplicable way The earth was not supposed to move

The small river, whichwith choppy waves that splashed over its banks as the rocking strea mud up from the bottom Brush close by the upstream banks quivered, animated by unseen movement at the roots, and downstreaitation Beyond them, stately conifers of the forest into which the streaiant pine near the bank, its roots exposed and their hold weakened by the spring runoff, leaned toward the opposite shore With a crack, it gave way and crashed to the ground, bridging the turbid watercourse, and lay shaking on the unsteady earth

The girl started at the sound of the falling tree Her stoe of her mind She tried to stand but fell back, unbalanced by the sickening swaying She tried again, ed to pull herself up, and stood unsteadily, afraid to take a step

As she started toward the hide-covered shelter set back fro roar A sour stench of wetness and rot issued fro breath froly at dirt and rocks and sap as the cooled shell of the molten planet cracked in the convulsion

The lean-to, perched on the far edge of the abyss, tilted, as half the solid ground beneath it pulled away The slender ridgepole teetered undecidedly, then collapsed and disappeared into the deep hole, taking its hide cover and all it contained with it The girl treand security to the five short years of her life

“Mother! Motherrr!” she cried as comprehension overwhel in her ears was her own in the thunderous roar of rending rock She clambered toward the deep crack, but the earth rose up and threw her down She clawed at the ground, trying to find a secure hold on the heaving, shifting land

Then the gap closed, the roar ceased, and the shaking earth stilled, but not the child Lying face down on the soft damp soil churned loose by the paroxysm that convulsed the land, she shook with fear She had reason to fear