The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel [145]
The horses were tense, too, and crowded close to the known comfort of fire. Wolf stayed at camp as well. Ayla was glad, and as she gave him a serving of their meal, thought she would have kept him close in any case. Even Jondalar was glad; having a large friendly wolf nearby was reassuring. He could smell things, sense things, that a human could not.
The night was colder in the damp woods, with a clammy, sticky sort of humidity so heavy it felt almost like rain. They crawled into their sleeping furs early, and though they were tired they talked long into the night, not quite ready to trust sleeping.
“I’m not sure we should bother with that bowl boat any more,” Jondalar commented. “The horses can wade across the small streams without getting much of anything wet. With deeper rivers, we can lift the pack baskets to their backs, instead of letting them hang down.”
“I tied my things to a log once. After I left the Clan and was looking for people like me, I came to a wide river. I swam across it pushing the log,” Ayla said.
“That must have been hard to do, and maybe more dangerous, not having your arms free.”
“It was hard, but I had to get across, and I couldn’t think of any other way,” Ayla said.
She was quiet for a while, thinking. The man, lying beside her, wondered if she had fallen asleep; then she revealed the direction her thoughts had taken.
“Jondalar, I’m sure we have already traveled much farther than I did before I found my valley. We have come a long way, haven’t we?”
“Yes, we have come a long way,” he replied, a little guarded in his answer. He shifted to his side and raised up on one arm so he could see her. “But we are still a long way from my home. Are you tired of traveling already, Ayla?”
“A little. I would like to rest for a while. Then I’ll be ready to travel again. As long as I’m with you, I don’t care how far we have to go. I just didn’t know this world was so big. Does it ever end?”
“To the west of my home, the land ends at the Great Waters. No one knows what lies beyond that. I know another man who says he has traveled even farther, and has seen great waters in the east, though many people doubt him. Most people travel a little, but few travel very far, so they find it hard to believe the stories of long Journeys, unless they see something that convinces them. But there are always a few who travel far.” He made a disparaging chuckle. “Though I never expected to be one. Wymez traveled around the Southern Sea and found there was more land even farther to the south.”
“He also found Ranec’s mother and brought her back. It’s hard to doubt Wymez. Have you ever seen anyone else with brown skin like Ranec’s? Wymez had to travel far to find a woman like that,” Ayla said.
Jondalar looked at the face glowing in the firelight, feeling a great love for the woman beside him, and a great worry. This talk of long Journeys made him think about the long way they still had to go.
“In the north, the land ends in ice,” she continued. “No one can go beyond the glacier.”
“Unless they go by boat,” Jondalar said. “But I’m told that all you will find is a land of ice and snow, where white spirit bears live, and they say there are fish bigger than mammoths. Some of the western people claim there are shamans powerful enough to Call them to the land. And once they are beached, they can’t go back, but…”
There was a sudden crashing among the trees. The man and woman both jumped with fright, then lay perfectly still, not uttering a sound. Hardly even breathing. A low, rumbling growl came from Wolf’s throat, but Ayla had her arm around him and wasn’t about to let him go. There was more thrashing about, and then silence. After a while Wolf stopped