The Land of Painted Caves - Jean M. Auel [162]
“I don’t much like them either,” he said, holding his fragile little family close. Ayla looked around, and noticed the tilted fir tree near the spring. She shivered with an unexpected memory of a scene long ago.
“What’s wrong?” Jondalar asked.
“That tree,” she said.
He looked where she was gazing and saw the tree near the spring, canted over and roots exposed.
“I remember seeing many trees tipped over and leaning like that, and some on the ground and fallen across a river. It must have been when I was very young …,” she said, hesitating, “before I lived with the Clan. I think it was when I lost my mother, and family, and everything. Iza said that I could walk well and talk; I suppose I could count five years when she found me.”
After she told him of her memory, Jondalar held her until she relaxed again. Though it was just a brief recitation, it gave him a better understanding of the terror she must have felt as a little girl when an earthquake had brought her world crashing down around her, and life as she had known it came to an abrupt end.
“Do you think it will come back? The earthquake? Sometimes when the earth moves like that, it doesn’t settle down right away. It comes back,” Ayla said, when they finally let go of each other.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But maybe we should get back to Old Valley, and make sure everyone there is all right.”
“Of course! I was so scared, I wasn’t thinking about anyone else. I hope everyone is safe. And the horses! Where are the horses?” Ayla cried, looking around. “Are they all right?”
“Aside from being as frightened as we were, I think they’re fine. Racer reared up and made me slide off, but I managed not to fall. Then he started running in big circles. As far as I could tell, Whinney didn’t move, and Gray stayed by her side. I think she must have run away after it stopped.”
Off in the distance on the level field, Ayla spied the animals, and breathed out, relieved. She whistled her special summons loudly and saw Whinney’s head go up, then start in her direction. Racer and Gray followed, and Wolf behind them.
“They’re coming now, and there’s Wolf, too. I think he must have run off with them,” Jondalar said.
By the time the horses and Wolf arrived, Ayla was more composed. Since there was no convenient rock or stump of wood nearby to help her climb on Whinney’s back, she gave Jonayla to Jondalar for a moment, and holding on to the mare’s stand-up mane, she jumped up, threw her leg over, and found her seat. She took the child from the man and watched while Jondalar climbed up on Racer’s back in much the same way, though he was so tall, he could almost step up onto the back of the compact, sturdy stallion.
She looked toward the spring, where the tree still leaned at a precarious angle. It would fall soon, she was sure. Though she had wanted to go there before, she didn’t want to go near it now.
As they started toward Old Valley, they heard a loud crack, and when they glanced back, there was a more muffled boom as they watched the tall fir hitting the ground. Riding back to the Fifth Cave, Ayla wondered about the horses, and the implication of their recent actions.
“Do you suppose that the horses knew the ground was going to shake like that, Jondalar? Was that why they were behaving so strangely?” she asked.
“They definitely were nervous,” Jondalar said, “but I’m glad they were. That’s why we left and were out in the open when it happened. I think it’s safer to be out here; you don’t have to worry about things falling on you.”
“But the ground can open up under you,” Ayla said. “I think that’s what happened to my family. I remember that smell of deep earth, of wetness and decay. But I don’t think all earthquakes are the same. Some are more powerful than others. And most of them can be felt a long distance away, but not as strongly.”
“When you were young, you must have been very close to the place where the shaking started, if all the trees toppled over and the ground opened up. I don’t think we were as close to this one. Only one