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The vast ice field chilled the air above it, causing moisture in the atmosphere to condense and fall as snow But nearer the center high pressure stabilized, creating extrees The huge glaciers grew at theirdimensions, a sheet of ice more than a mile thick

With lacier, the land just south of it was dry—and frozen The constant high pressure over the center caused an at the cold dry air toward lower pressures; wind, blowing from the north, never stopped on the steppes It only varied in intensity Along the way it picked up rock that had been pulverized to flour at the shifting border of the grinding glacier The airborne particles were sifted to a texture only slightly coarser than clay—loess—and deposited over hundreds of miles to depths of many feet, and became soil

In winter, howling winds whipped the scant snowfall across the bleak frozen land But the earth still spun on its tilted axis, and seasons still changed Average yearly teer the forlacier; a few hot days have little effect if they don’t alter the average

In spring the er snow that fell on the landdown and out across the steppes The h, above the perrasses and herbs to sprout The grass grew rapidly, knowing in the heart of its seed that life would be short By thehay, an entire continent of grassland, with scattered pockets of boreal forest and tundra nearer the oceans

In the regions near the borders of the ice, where the snow cover was light, the grass supplied fodder the year around for uncountableanilacial cold—and to predators who can adapt to any cliraze at the foot of a glea a mile or more above it

The seasonal streah the deep loess, and often through the sedi the continent Steep ravines and river gorges were coorges shelter froreen valleys existed

The season warrew tired of traveling, tired of thesun and incessant wind Her skin roughened, cracked, and peeled Her lips were chapped, her eyes sore, her throat always full of grit She careener and more wooded than the steppes, but none tempted her to stay, and all were empty of human life

Though skies were usually clear, her fruitless search cast a shadow of fear and worry Winter always ruled the land On the hottest day of suht Food had to be stockpiled and protection found to survive the long bitter season She had been wandering since early spring and was beginning to wonder if she were doomed to roam the steppes forever—or die after all

She made a dry camp at the end of another day that was so like the days that had gone before it She hadwith a fire, but she had no appetite She threw the a as sharp an eye out for it Gathering was round was hard-packed and rowth And there was always the wind

She slept poorly, troubled by bad drea to eat; even her discarded one She took a drink—stale and flat—packed her carrying basket, and started north

Around noon she found a streahtly acrid, but she filled her waterbag She dug up soy and bland, but she chewed on theo on, but she didn’t knohat else to do Dispirited and apathetic, she wasn’t payingShe didn’t notice the pride of cave lions basking in the afternoon sun until one roared a warning

Fear charged through her, tingling her into awareness She backed up and turned west to skirt the lions’ territory She had traveled north far enough It was the spirit of the Cave Lion that protected her, not the great beast in his physical form Just because he was her totem did not mean she was safe from attack

In fact, that was how Creb knew her tote parallel scars on her left thigh, and had a recurring night into a tiny cave where she had run to hide when she was a child of five She had dreaht before, she recalled Creb had told her she had been tested to see if she orthy, and marked to show she had been chosen Absently, she reached down and felt the scars on her leg I wonder why the Cave Lion would choose ht

The sun was blind

ing as it sank low in the western sky Ayla had been hiking up a long incline, looking for a place to lad she had filled her waterbag But she would have to find ry, and upset that she had allowed herself to get so close to the cave lions