Read Online Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel - Free Book Online Page A

people who speak with words are not silent, Ayla thought.
    She was as fascinated as the rest, but found herself for a moment watching the people who were listening to him. Adults held young children in their laps while the older children sat together watching the charismatic stranger with glistening eyes. Danug, in particular, seemed captured. He was leaning forward, in rapt attention.
    “Thonolan went into the canyon, thinking he was safe with the lioness gone. Then we heard the roar of a lion …”
    “What happened then?” Danug asked.
    “Ayla will have to tell you the rest. I don’t remember much after that.”
    All eyes turned toward her. Ayla was stunned. She didn’t expect it; she had never spoken to a crowd of people before. Jondalar was smiling at her. He’d had the sudden thought that the best way to get her used to talking to people was to make her do it. It wouldn’t be the last time she’d be expected to recount some experience, and with her control over thehorses still fresh in everyone’s mind, the story of the lion would be more believable. It was an exciting story, he knew, and one that would add to her mystery—and perhaps, if she satisfied them with this story, she wouldn’t have to bring up her background.
    “What happened, Ayla?” Danug said, still caught up in the tale. Rugie had been feeling shy and reticent around her big brother who had been gone for so long, but remembering former times when they sat around telling stories, she decided at that moment to climb into his lap. He welcomed her with an absentminded smile and hug, but looked at Ayla expectantly.
    Ayla looked around at all the faces turned toward her, tried to speak, but her mouth was dry, though her palms were sweaty.
    “Yes, what happened?” Latie repeated. She was sitting near Danug, with Rydag in her lap.
    The boy’s big brown eyes were filled with excitement. He opened his mouth to ask, too, but no one understood the sound he made—except Ayla. Not the word itself, but its intent. She had heard similar sounds before, had even learned to speak them. The people of the Clan were not mute, but they were limited in their ability to articulate. They had instead evolved a rich and comprehensive sign language to communicate, and used words only for emphasis. She knew the child was asking her to continue the story, and that to him the words had that meaning. Ayla smiled, and directed her words to him.
    “I was with Whinney,” Ayla began. Her way of saying the mare’s name had always been an imitation of the soft nicker of a horse. The people in the lodge didn’t realize she was saying the animal’s name. Instead, they thought it was a wonderful embellishment to the story. They smiled, and spoke words of approval, encouraging her to continue in the same vein.
    “She soon have small horse. Very big,” Ayla said, holding her hands out in front of her stomach to indicate that the horse was very pregnant. There were smiles of understanding. “Every day we ride, Whinney need go out. Not far, not fast. Always go east, easy to go east. Too easy, nothing new. One day, we go west, not east. See new place,” Ayla continued, directing her words to Rydag.
    Jondalar had been teaching her Mamutoi, as well as theother languages he knew, but she wasn’t as fluent as she was in his language, the one she’d first learned to speak. Her manner of speaking was odd, different in a way that was hard to explain, and she struggled to find words, feeling shy about it. But when she thought of the boy who couldn’t make himself understood at all, she had to try. Because he had asked.
    “I hear lion.” She wasn’t sure why she did it. Perhaps it was the expectant look on Rydag’s face, or the way he turned his head to hear, or an instinct for it, but she followed the word “lion” with a menacing growl, that sounded for all the world like a real lion. She heard little gasps of fear, then nervous chuckles, then smiling words of approval