Read Online Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel - Free Book Online Page B

the bank. Across the river he saw what had drawn her to the edge. Tucked into the slope on a terrace halfway up the opposite side was a large, long mound with tufts of grass growing up the sides. It seemed to be a part of the riverbank itself, but the arched entrance closed by a heavy mammoth-hide drape revealed its actual nature. It was an earth-lodge like the one the Lion Camp called home, where they had lived during the previous winter.
    As Ayla stared at the familiar-looking structure, she remembered vividly the inside of the Lion Camp’s earthlodge. The roomy semisubterranean dwelling was strong and built to last many years. The floor had been carved out of the fine loess soil of the riverbank and was below ground level. Its walls and rounded roof of sod covered with river clay were firmly supported by a structure of more than a ton of large mammoth bones, with deer antlers entwined and lashed together at the ceiling, and a thick thatch of grass and reeds between the bone and the sod. Benches of earth along the sides were made into warm beds, and storage areas were dug down to the cold permafrost level. The archway was two large curved mammoth tusks, with the butt ends in the ground and the tips facing each other and joined. It was by no means a temporary construction, but a permanent settlement under one roof, large enough to support several large families. She was sure the makers of this earthlodge had every intention of returning, just as the Lion Camp did every winter.
    “They must be at the Summer Meeting,” Ayla said. “I wonder which Camp’s home that is?”
    “Maybe it belongs to Feather Grass Camp,” Jondalar suggested.
    “Maybe,” Ayla said, then stared in silence across the rushing stream. “It looks so empty,” she added after a while. “I didn’t think when we left that I would never see Lion Camp again. I remember when I was sorting through things to take to the Meeting, I left some behind. If I’d known I wasn’t going back, I might have taken them with me.”
    “Are you sorry you left, Ayla?” Jondalar’s concern showed, as always, in the worry wrinkles on his forehead. “I told you I would stay and become a Mamutoi, too, if you wanted me to. I know you found a home with them and were happy. It’s not too late. We can still turn back.”
    “No, I’m sad to be leaving, but I’m not sorry. I want to be with you. That’s what I’ve wanted from the beginning. And I know you want to go home, Jondalar. You have wanted to go back ever since I’ve known you. You might get used to living here, but you would never really be happy. You would always miss your people, your family, the ones you were born to. It’s not as important to me. I will never know who I was born to. The Clan were my people.”
    Ayla’s thoughts turned inward, and Jondalar watched a gentle smile soften her face. “Iza would have been so happy for me if she could have known I was going with you. She would have liked you. She told me long before I left that I wasn’t Clan, though I couldn’t remember anyone or anything except living with them. Iza was my mother, the only one I knew, but she wanted me to leave the Clan. She was afraid for me. Before she died, she told me, ‘Find your own people, find your own mate.’ Not a man of the Clan, a man like me; someone I could love, who would care for me. But I was alone so long in the valley, I didn’t think I ever would find anyone. And then you came. Iza was right. As hard as it was to leave, I needed to find my own people. Except for Durc, I could almost thank Broud for forcing me to go. I would never have found a man to love me, if I hadn’t left the Clan, or one that I cared about so much.”
    “We aren’t so different, Ayla. I didn’t think I’d ever find anyone to love, either, even though I knew many women among the Zelandonii, and we met many more on our Journey. Thonolan made friends easily, even among strangers, and he made it easy for me.” He closed his