The clan of the cave bear_ a novel - Jean M. Auel [234]
“He is the chosen of Ursus?” the woman repeated with a look of awe. “The Cave Bear is his totem?”
“And the Ibex, too. He can claim both,” The Mog-ur said. He noticed the beginning of a bulge under her wrap. No wonder she is so distraught, he thought. “Does the woman have children yet?”
“No, but life has started. I am hoping for a son.”
“You are a good woman, a good mate. Stay with him. When he wakes, tell him what The Mog-ur has said.”
The young woman nodded, then glanced up as Ayla hurried by.
The small river near the cave of the host clan became a torrent of angry water in spring, only slightly less violent in fall, tearing giant trees out by the roots, gouging huge boulders from the rocky face, and hurtling them down the mountain. Even in its quieter moods, the surging stream, foaming down the middle of a rock-strewn floodplain many times wider than itself, had the greenish, cloudy cast of glacial runoff. Ayla and Uba had scouted the region near the cave shortly after they arrived to find the cleansing plants necessary to purify themselves in case one of them was called upon to participate in the ceremony.
Ayla was nervous as she raced to dig up soaproot, horsetail fern, and red-rooted pigweed, and her stomach was a bundle of knots while she waited anxiously for boiling water from one of the cooking fires to extract the insecticidal element from the fern. The news that she would be allowed to perform the ritual spread rapidly through the Clan. The mog-urs’ acceptance of her revised everyone’s opinion of the Clan woman born to the Others, and her worth increased proportionately. It confirmed that she was indeed Iza’s daughter and elevated her to the medicine woman of highest rank. The leader of the clan that had members who were Zoug’s kin reconsidered his flat refusal to accept her. Zoug’s recommendation just might have some merit after all. Maybe one of the men would take her, if only as second woman. She could be a valuable addition.
But Ayla was too worried to notice the comments fluttering around her. She was more than worried, she was terrified. I can’t do it, her mind screamed, even as she ran to the small river. There isn’t enough time to get ready. What if I forget something? What if I make a mistake? I’ll disgrace Creb. I’ll disgrace Brun. I’ll disgrace the whole clan.
The glacier-fed river was icy, but the cold water calmed her raw-edged nerves. She felt more relaxed as she sat on a rock pulling tangles out of her long blonde hair drying in a light breeze, and watching the glowing pink mountaintop, reflecting the setting sun, deepen to a rich bluish purple. Her hair was still damp when she put her amulet back over her head and her clean wrap on. Stuffing her tools in the folds, she picked up her other wrap and ran back to the cave. She passed Uba holding Durc on her way, and gave her a quick nod.
The women were working frantically, unhelped by totally unmanageable children. The gory ritual slaying of the cave bear had them keyed up; they were unused to going hungry and the smells of cooking stimulated appetites already sharp and made them irritable; and their mothers’ preoccupation gave them a rare opportunity to indulge in misbehavior seldom allowed children of the Clan. Some of the boys had picked up the cut thongs from the bear’s cage and wore them wrapped around their arms as badges of honor. Other boys, not as quick, tried to take them away, and all of them were racing around cooking fires. When they tired of the game, they teased the girls, supposed to be tending crying younger siblings, until the girls started chasing them around or running to their mothers to complain. It was a riotous, disorganized madhouse. Even the occasional stern command of some woman’s mate did little to quell the unusually rambunctious youngsters.
Children were not the only ones hungry. Food, prepared in enormous quantities, tantalized the tastebuds