The Mammoth Hunters - Jean M. Auel [231]
“The change would not happen quickly,” Mamut said, “but people just would not turn to him after a while. They would go to someone else, someone who could lead a more successful hunt, or handle problems better. Sometimes the leadership is relinquished, sometimes a Camp just breaks up, with some going with the new leader, and some staying with the old. But leaders don’t usually give up their positions or authority easily, and that can cause problems, even fights. Then the decision would get turned over to the Councils. The headman or headwoman who has shared leadership with someone who causes trouble, or is held responsible for a problem, is seldom able to start up a new Camp, though it may not be her”—Mamut hesitated, and Ayla noticed that his eyes darted toward the old woman of the Crane Hearth, who was talking to Nezzie—“that person’s fault. People want leaders they can depend on, and distrust those who have had problems … or tragedies.”
Ayla nodded, and Mamut knew she understood, both what he had said and what he had implied. The conversation continued, but Ayla’s mind had wandered back to the Clan. Brun had been a good leader, but what would his clan do if Broud was not? She wondered if they would turn to a new leader, and who it might be. It would be a long time before the son of Broud’s mate was old enough. A persistent worry that had been nagging for her attention suddenly broke through.
“Where’s Wolf?” she said.
She hadn’t seen him since the argument, and no one else had either. Everyone started looking. Ayla searched her bed platform, and then every other corner of the hearth, even the curtained-off area with the basket of ashes and horse dung, which she had shown the pup. She was beginning to feel the same panic that a mother feels when her child is missing.
“Here he is, Ayla!” she heard Tornec say, with relief, but she felt her stomach churn when he added, “Frebec has him.” Her surprise bordered on shock as she watched him approach. She was not the only one who stared in amazed disbelief.
Frebec, who never overlooked an opportunity to derogate Ayla’s animals, or her, for her association with them, was cradling the wolf puppy gently in his arms. He handed the wolf over to her, but she noticed a moment of hesitation, as though he gave up the small creature reluctantly, and she saw a softer look in his eyes than she had ever seen there before.
“He must have gotten scared,” Frebec explained. “Fralie said suddenly he was there, at the hearth, whining. She didn’t know where he came from. Most of the children were there, too, and Crisavec picked him up and put him on a storage platform, near the head of his bed. But there’s a deep niche in the wall there. It goes quite a way into the hillside. The wolf found it, and crawled all the way to the back, and then he wouldn’t come out.”
“It must have reminded him of his den,” Ayla said.
“That’s what Fralie said. It was too hard for her to go and get him, as big as she is, and I think she was afraid after hearing Deegie tell about you going into a wolf den. She didn’t want Crisavec to go in after him, either. When I got there, I had to go in and get him out.” Frebec paused then, and when he continued, Ayla heard a note of wonder in his voice. “When I reached him, he was so glad to see me, he licked me all over the face. I tried to get him to stop.”
Frebec assumed a more detached and unconcerned manner to cover up the fact that he was obviously moved by the naturally winning ways of the frightened baby wolf. “But when I put him down, he cried and cried until I picked him up again.” Several people had gathered around by then. “I don’t know why he picked the Crane Hearth, or me, to run to when he was looking for a safe place.”
“He thinks of the Camp as his pack now, and he knows you are a member of the Camp, especially after you brought him out of the den he found,” Ayla replied, trying to reconstruct the circumstances.