The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel [354]
“Epadoa didn’t want to hurt those boys. She told S’Armuna that she was afraid if she didn’t do what Attaroa wanted, she would kill them. Those were her reasons. Even Attaroa had reasons. There was so much in her life that was bad, she became an evil thing. She wasn’t human any more, but no reasons are good enough to excuse her. How could she do the things she did? Even Broud, as bad as he was, was not as bad, and he hated me. He never purposely hurt children. I used to think my kind of people were so good, but I’m not so sure any more,” she said, looking sad and distressed.
“There are good people and bad people, Ayla, and everyone has some good and some bad in them,” Jondalar said, his wrinkled forehead showing his concern. He sensed that she was trying to fit the new sensibilities she had gathered from her latest unpleasant experience into her personal scheme of things, and he knew it was important. “But most people are decent and try to help each other. They know it’s necessary—after all, you never know when you may need help—and most people would rather be friendly.”
“But there are some who are twisted, like Attaroa,” Ayla said.
“That’s true.” The man nodded, having to agree. “And there are some who only give what they must and would rather not give at all, but that doesn’t make them bad.”
“But one bad person can bring out the worst in good people, like Attaroa did to S’Armuna and Epadoa.”
“I suppose the best we can do is try to keep the evil and cruel ones from causing too much harm. Maybe we should count ourselves lucky there aren’t more like her. But Ayla, don’t let one bad person spoil the way you feel about people.”
“Attaroa can’t make me feel any different about the people I know, and I’m sure you are right about most people, Jondalar, but she has made me more wary, and more cautious.”
“It doesn’t hurt to be a little cautious, at first, but give people a chance to show their good side before you judge them bad.”
The highland on the north side of the river paced along with them as they continued their westward trek. Wind-sculptured evergreens on the rounded tops and level plateaus of the massif were silhouetted against the sky. The river split out again into several channels across a lowland basin that formed an embayment. The southern and northern boundaries of the valley maintained their characteristic differences, but the base rock was cracked and down-faulted to great depths between the river and the limestone foreland of the high southern mountain. Toward the west was the steep limestone edge of a fault line. The course of the river turned northwest.
The east end of the lowland basin was also bordered by a fault ridge, caused not so much by uplifting of the limestone as by the depression of the land of the embayment. Toward the south, the land spread out on a level grade for some distance before it rose up toward the mountains, but the granite plateau in the north drew closer to the river, until it was rising steeply just across the water.
They camped within the low embayment. In the valley near the river, the smooth gray bark and the bare branches of beech made an appearance among the spruce, fir, pine, and larch; the area was protected enough to shelter the growth of a few large-leafed deciduous trees. Milling around near the trees in seeming confusion was a small herd of mammoths, both females and males. Ayla edged closer to see what was going on.
One mammoth was down, a giant of an elder with enormous tusks that crossed in front. She wondered if it was the same group they had seen earlier breaking ice. Could there be two mammoths who were so old in the same region? Jondalar walked up beside her.
“I’m afraid he’s dying. I wish there was something I could do for him,” Ayla said.
“His teeth are probably gone. Once that happens, there is nothing anyone can do, except what they are doing. Staying with him, keeping him company,” Jondalar said.
“Perhaps none of us can ask for more,” Ayla said.
In spite of their relatively compact size, each adult mammoth consumed large quantities of food