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“Will it really take a whole year to reach your home?” the woman asked

“It’s hard to say for sure Depends on e find along the way, how many problems we have, how often we stop If we make it back to the Zelandonii by this time next year, we can count ourselves lucky We haven’t even reached Beran Sea, where the Great Mother River ends, and ill have to follow her all the way to the glacier at her source, and then beyond,” Jondalar said His eyes, an intense and unusually vivid shade of blue, looked worried, and his forehead wrinkled in a familiar furrow of concern

“We’ll have solacier that worries me most, Ayla We have to cross over it when the ice is frozen solid, which , and that’s always unpredictable A strong south wind blows in that region that can war in one day Then the snow and ice on top melt, and break up like rotten wood Wide cracks open and the snow bridges over them collapse; streams, even rivers ofinto deep holes It’s very dangerous then, and it can happen very suddenly It’s su way off, we have ht think”

The wo the Journey would take, or ould happen when they arrived Better to think of each day as it came, and plan only for the next day or two Better not to worry about Jondalar’s people, and whether they would accept her as one of them the way the Mamutoi had

“I wish it would stop blowing,” she commented

“I ao visit our neighbors, and see if we can get so better to eat”

They took Wolf with them when they returned to Feather Grass Caathered near a fire over which a large rump was spitted Conversation was slow to start, but it wasn’t long before curiosity becaave way to anilacial steppes had little opportunity to meet anyone new, and the excitement of this chance encounter would fuel discussions and fill the stories of Falcon Ca time to come Ayla beca wo unassisted and laughing out loud, who charmed them all, but mostly Wolf

The young led out her child for his solicitous attention, but when his eager licks entle restraint, even when she grabbed handfuls of fur and pulled, everyone was surprised

The other children were eager to touch hi with therown up with the children of Lion Caentle with the very young, or the weak, and he seemed to know the difference between the unintentional overzealous squeeze from a toddler and the purposeful pull of a tail or ear by an older child He allowed the former with patient forebearance, and he repaid the latter with a warning growl, or a gentle nip that did not break skin but showed that he could

Jondalar , and Rutan told thee had delayed their departure or they would have been there He asked Jondalar about his travels and about Racer, withThey seemed more reluctant to question Ayla, and she didn’t volunteer h the mamut would have liked to have taken her aside for private discussions of more esoteric subjects, but she preferred to stay with the Camp Even the headwoman was more relaxed and friendly by the time they headed back to their own camp, and Ayla asked her to pass on her love and remembrances to Lion Ca

That night, Ayla lay awake thinking She was glad she had not let natural hesitation about joining the Ca stop her Given the opportunity to overcoe or unknown, they had been interested and willing to learn She had learned, too, that traveling with such unusual co reactions fro the way She had no idea what to expect, but there could be little doubt that this Journey was going to be far ined

An Intervieith Jean M Auel

Random House: While your novels focus on a civilization of the past, there is a veryto achieve equality with her peers When you first created this dyna her modern sensibilities?

Jean M Auel: The reason there is a non “cavemen” were modern people, the first modern humans in Europe I researched my characters as much as every other aspect of this early culture My infore of today’s scientists, not the antiquarians of the nineteenth century whose views, unfortunately, are still held by too many I have traveled to many of the locations where those early humans lived and have become acquainted with many professionals who study the extraordinary painted and engraved caves

Those early non were the first people who not only had skeletons like ours but were like us in ly deical record They were our randparents; whatever qualities we claie of intelligence that we do, the saical reactions, the sae, the same talents, skills, and abilities And they had a remarkable creative impulse I’ve seen it, and it certainly convinced me Neanderthals are still unknowns, but they were far ine; they were also hue today There were differences between us, but they were our close cousins Once I learned this, I knew I could write the story of a young Cro-Magnon woman raised by a clan of Neanderthals who then finds her way back to her own kind of people Ayla’s struggle creates tension and conflict, but it is not a modern theme It is a universal theme It’s natural, part of the human condition, to want to be accepted People understand this and always have