The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel [255]
The young woman had not slept at all after she had been awakened by the commotion and discovered that her beloved friend was gone. The moment the sky lightened, shading from ebony to indigo, she was up, though it was still too dark to see any distinctive features on the land. She had stirred up the fire and started water boiling for tea while the heavens transformed, shifting through a monochromatic spectrum of gradually paler shades of blue.
Wolf had crept near her while she was staring into the flames, but he had to whine to get her attention. She had taken the opportunity to examine him closely. Though he had winced when she prodded deeply, she was grateful to find no broken bones. A bruise was bad enough. Jondalar had gotten up soon after the morning tea was ready, still well before it was light enough to search for signs.
“Let’s hurry and leave right away, so they don’t get too far ahead of us,” Ayla said. “We can pile everything into the bowl boat and … no … we can’t do that.” She suddenly realized that, without the mare she wanted to find, they couldn’t just pack up and go. “Racer doesn’t know how to pull the pole drag, so we can’t take it or the bowl boat. We can’t even take Whinney’s pack-saddle basket.”
“And if we’re going to have any chance to catch up with that herd, we’ll have to ride double on Racer. That means we can’t even take his pack-saddle. We’ll have to cut our load down to bare necessities,” Jondalar said.
They stopped to digest the new situation the loss of Whinney had put them in. Both of them realized there were some hard decisions to make.
“If we take just the sleeping rolls and the ground cover, which could be used as a low tent, and roll them up together, that should fit on Racer’s back behind us,” Jondalar suggested.
“A low tent should be enough,” Ayla agreed. “That’s all we ever took when we went with the hunters of our clan. We used a stick to prop up the front, and rocks or heavy bones that we found to weigh it down around the edges.” She began to remember the times that she and several women accompanied the men when they went hunting. “The women had to carry everything except the hunting spears, and we had to move fast to keep up, so we traveled light.”
“What else did you take? How light do you think we can travel?” Jondalar asked, his curiosity piqued.
“We’ll need the fire-making kit and some tools. A chopper to cut wood to burn, and to break up the bones of any animals we might need to butcher. We can burn dried dung and grass, too, but we should have something to cut the stems. A knife to skin animals, and a sharp one to cut meat,” she began. Ayla was remembering not only the times that she accompanied the hunters, but the time she traveled alone after she left the clan.
“I’ll wear my belt with the loops for holding my axe, and my ivory-handled knife,” Jondalar said. “You should wear yours, too.”
“A digging stick is always a help, and it can be used to prop up the tent. Some extra warm clothes in case it turns really cold and extra foot-coverings,” the woman continued.
“An extra pair of boot liners. That’s a good idea. Under tunics and pants, fur mitts, and we can always wrap our sleeping furs around us, if we have to.”
“A waterbag or two…”
“We can tie those to our belts, too, and with enough cord to make a loop to go over the arm, we can wear them close to the body if it gets too cold, so they won’t freeze.”
“I’ll need my medicine bag, and maybe I should take the sewing kit—it doesn’t take much room—and my sling.”
“Don’t forget the spear-throwers and spears,” Jondalar added. “Do you think I should take any flint-knapping tools, or flint blanks, in case a knife or something breaks?”
“Whatever we take, it should be no more than I can carry on my back … or could if I had a carrying basket.”
“If anyone carries anything on his back, I think it