The Mammoth Hunters - Jean M. Auel [69]
Ayla was listening, and watching the pile of bison parts dwindle as everyone packed as much as they could carry. She wasn’t used to surplus, to having so much that one could pick and choose and take only the best. There had always been plenty of food to eat when she lived with the Clan, and more than enough hides for clothing, bedding, and other uses, but little was wasted. She wasn’t sure how much would be left, but so much had already been thrown into the heap of scraps that it bothered her to think of leaving more, and it was obvious that no one else wanted to, either.
She noticed Danug pick up Tulie’s axe and, wielding it as easily as the woman, chop a log in two and add it to the last fire left burning. She walked over to him.
“Danug,” she said quietly. “Would help me?”
“Um … ah … yes,” he stammered bashfully, feeling his face turn red. Her voice was so low and rich and her unusual accent was so exotic. She had caught him by surprise; he hadn’t seen her coming, and standing close to the beautiful woman inexplicably flustered him.
“I need … two poles,” Ayla said, holding up two fingers. “Young trees downstream. You cut for me?”
“Ah … sure. I’ll cut down a couple of trees for you.”
As they walked toward the bend in the small river, Danug felt more relaxed, but he kept glancing down at the blond head of the woman who walked at his side and just a half-step ahead. She selected two straight young alders of approximately the same width, and after Danug chopped them down, she directed him to strip off the branches and cut the tips so that they were of equal length. By then most of the big strapping youth’s bashfulness had eased.
“What are you going to do with these?” Danug asked.
“I will show you,” she said, then with a loud, imperative whistle, she called Whinney. The mare galloped toward her. Ayla had outfitted her earlier in harness and panniers in preparation for leaving. Though Danug thought it looked odd to see a leather blanket across the horse’s back, and a pair of baskets tied to her sides with thongs, he noticed it didn’t seem to bother the animal or slow her down.
“How do you get her to do that?” Danug asked.
“Do what?”
“Come to you when you whistle.”
Ayla frowned, thinking. “I am not sure, Danug. Until Baby come, I am alone in valley with Whinney. She is only friend I know. She grow up with me, and we learn … each other.”
“Is it true that you can talk to her?”
“We learn each other, Danug. Whinney not talk like you talk. I learn … her signs … her signals. She learn mine.”
“You mean like Rydag’s signs?”
“A little. Animals, people, all have signals, even you, Danug. You say words, signals say more. You speak when you not know you speak.”
Danug frowned. He wasn’t sure he liked the drift of the conversation. “I don’t understand,” he said, looking aside.
“Now we talk,” Ayla continued. “Words not say, but signals say … you want ride horse. Is right?”
“Well … ah … yes, I’d like to.”
“So … you ride horse.”
“Do you mean it? Can I really have a ride on the horse? Like Latie and Druwez did?”
Ayla smiled. “Come here. Need big stone to help you get on first time.”
Ayla stroked and patted Whinney, and talked to her in the unique language that had developed naturally between them, the combination of Clan signs and words, nonsense sounds she had invented with her son and imbued with meaning, and animal sounds which she mimicked perfectly. She told Whinney that Danug wanted a ride, and to make it exciting but not dangerous. The young man had learned some of the Clan signs that Ayla was teaching Rydag and the Camp, and was surprised that he could make out the meaning of a few that were part of her communication with the horse, but that only filled him with more awe. She did talk to the horse, but like Mamut when he was invoking spirits, she used a mystical, powerful, esoteric language.
Whether the horse understood explicitly or not, she did understand from Ayla’s actions that something special was expected when the woman helped the tall young man on her back. To Whinney, he felt like the man she had come