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By Root 2519 0

to guide her horse around some brush growing beside a streamlet that was making its way to the river. After Jondalar had developed the halter device that he used to guide Racer, Ayla also started using one to help lead Whinney occasionally, or to tie her to something to keep her in one location, but even when the horse was wearing it, Ayla never used it when she was riding. She had never intended to train the animal when she first got on the mare’s back, and the mutual learning process had been gradual and, in the beginning, unconscious. Though once she realized what was happening, the woman did purposely train the horse to do certain things, it was always within the framework of the deep understanding that had grown between them.

“But if a smile is meant to show that you are not afraid, doesn’t that mean you think you have nothing to be afraid of? That you feel strong and have nothing to fear?” Ayla said, when they rode abreast again.

“I never really thought about it before. Thonolan always smiled and seemed so confident when he met new people, but he wasn’t always as sure as he seemed. He tried to make people think that he wasn’t afraid, so I suppose you could say it was a defensive gesture, a way of saying I’m so strong I have nothing to fear from you.”

“And isn’t showing your strength a way of threatening? When Wolf shows his teeth to strangers, isn’t he showing them his strength?” Ayla pressed.

“There may be something about them that is the same, but there is a big difference between a smile of greeting and Wolf baring his teeth and growling.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Ayla conceded. “A smile makes you feel happy.”

“Or at least relieved. If you’ve met a stranger and he smiles back at you, that usually means you’ve been welcomed, so you know where you stand. Not all smiles are necessarily meant to make you happy.”

“Maybe feeling relieved is the beginning of feeling happy,” Ayla said. They rode together in silence for a while; then the woman continued. “I think there is something similar about a person smiling in greeting when he is feeling nervous around strangers, and people of the Clan having a gesture in their language of showing their teeth that means they’re nervous or implying a threat. And when Wolf shows his teeth to strangers, he’s threatening them because he’s feeling nervous and protective.”

“Then when he shows his teeth to us, to his own pack, it’s his smile,” Jondalar said. “There are times when I’m convinced he’s smiling, and I know he teases you. I’m sure he loves you, too, but the trouble is, it’s natural for him to show his teeth and threaten people he doesn’t know. If he’s protecting you, how are you going to train him to stay where you tell him, if you’re not there? How can you teach him not to attack strangers if he decides he wants to?” Jondalar’s concern was serious. He wasn’t sure that taking the animal with them was such a good idea. Wolf could create a lot of problems. “Remember, wolves attack to get their food; that’s the way the Mother made them. Wolf is a hunter. You can teach him many things, but how can you teach a hunter not to be a hunter? Not to attack strangers?”

“You were a stranger when you came to my valley, Jondalar. Do you remember when Baby came back to visit me and found you there?” Ayla asked, as they again separated into single file to start up a gully leading away from the river toward the highland.

Jondalar felt a flush of heat, not exactly embarrassment, but a recollection of the strong emotions of that encounter. He had never been so scared in his life; he had been sure he was going to die.

It took some time to pick their way up the shallow ravine, around rocks that washed down during spring floods, and black-stemmed artemisia brush that burst into life when the rains came and retreated into dry stalks that appeared dead when they stopped. He thought about the time Baby came back to the place where Ayla had raised him and found a stranger on the broad ledge in front of her small cave.

None of them were small, but Baby was the biggest cave lion he’d ever seen, nearly