The clan of the cave bear_ a novel - Jean M. Auel [191]
“Iza, that’s enough food for a whole clan,” Creb remarked. “How can we eat so much?”
“It’s for Ayla,” Iza said, and quickly put her head down.
Iza should have had many children, the old man thought, she dotes so much on the ones she has. But Ayla does need to regain her strength. It’s going to take her a long time to get over this. I wonder if she’ll ever have a normal child?
Ayla’s head reeled when she got up, and she felt a rush of warm blood. It hurt to walk even a few steps and bending over was an ordeal. She was weaker than she realized, and almost panicked. How am I going to climb up to the cave? But I have to. If I don’t, Iza will take my baby and get rid of him. What will I do if I lose my baby?
I won’t lose him, she decided with firm determination, forcing the panic from her mind. I’ll get up there somehow, if I have to crawl the whole way.
It was drizzling when Ayla left the cave. She packed some things in the bottom of her collecting basket and covered them with the smelly package of birth effluvium. The rest she hid under her outer fur wrap. The baby was held securely to her chest with a carrying cloak. The first wave of dizziness passed as she started to walk into the woods, but it left her nauseous. She turned off the path and worked her way deep into the forest before she stopped. It was difficult to dig a hole with her digging stick, she was so weak. She buried the package deep, as Iza had told her, and made the proper symbols. Then she looked at her son sleeping soundly, warm and comfortably secure. No one will put you in a hole like that, she said to herself. Then she began to climb the steep foothills, unaware that someone was watching her.
Shortly after Ayla left the cave, Uba slipped out after her. The winter of training after her mother’s illness had made the girl much more conscious of the danger Ayla was in. She knew how weak the young woman was, and was afraid she might faint and become easy prey for a roaming carnivore drawn by the smell of blood on her. Uba almost ran back to the cave to tell Iza, but she didn’t want Ayla to go alone, so she started to follow her. The girl lost sight of her after she turned off the path, but saw her again climbing up an open stretch of slope.
Ayla leaned heavily on her digging stick as she climbed, using it for a walking staff. She stopped often, swallowing hard to keep down her nausea and fighting not to give in to the dizziness that threatened to become darkness. She felt blood running down her legs but didn’t stop to replace her absorbent strap. She remembered a time when she could run up the steep slope without even getting winded. Now, she couldn’t believe how far it was to the high meadow. The distance between familiar landmarks was impossibly long. Ayla pushed herself until she was ready to collapse, then struggled to stay conscious until she was rested enough to go on.
By late afternoon, when the baby started crying, she heard him only through a dim fog. She didn’t stop for him, she just forced herself to climb. Her mind clung to one thought—I’ve got to reach the meadow, I’ve got to get to the cave. She wasn’t even sure why anymore.
Uba stayed far behind her, not wanting to let Ayla see her. She didn’t know Ayla could hardly see beyond her next step. The young mother’s head was swimming in a red haze when she finally reached the mountain pasture. A little more, she told herself, just a little more. She plodded across the field and hardly had the strength to push the branches aside as she stumbled into the small cave that had been her sanctuary so many times before. She collapsed on the deerskin fur, uncaring that her fur wrap was wet, and didn’t remember putting her crying son to her breast before she finally allowed herself to