The valley of horses_ a novel - Jean M. Auel [280]
“Baby doesn’t need both of them.” Ayla used the word for his name in the language Jondalar didn’t know, but he guessed it was a name. “No, Baby! Don’t take the heifer,” she said in sounds and gestures the man still didn’t quite perceive as language, but elicited a gasp from him when she took one bison away from the lion and shoved him toward the other. He clamped huge jaws around the severed neck of the young bull and pulled it away from the edge. Then, getting a better grip, he started down the familiar path.
“I’ll be right back, Jondalar,” she said. “Whinney and Racer might be down there, and I don’t want Baby to scare the colt.”
Jondalar watched the woman follow behind the lion until she was out of sight. She appeared again on the valley side of the wall, walking casually beside the lion who was dragging the bison under his body between his legs.
When they reached the large boulder, Ayla stopped and hugged the lion again. Baby dropped the bison, and Jondalar shook his head in disbelief when he saw the woman climb on the fierce predator’s back. She lifted an arm and flung it forward, and held on to the rufous mane while the huge feline leaped forward. He raced off with all his great speed, Ayla dinging tight, her hair streaming behind her. Then he slowed and turned back to the stone.
He got a grip on the young bison again and dragged it down the valley. Ayla stayed by the large rock, watching after him. Far down the field, the lion dropped the bull once more. He began a series of speaking grunts, his familiar hnga hnga, and built up to a roar so loud that it shook Jondalar’s bones.
When the cave lion was gone, Jondalar took a deep breath and leaned against the wall, feeling weak. He was awestruck, and a little fearful. What is this woman? he thought. What kind of magic does she have? Birds, maybe. Even horses. But a cave lion? The biggest cave lion he’d ever seen?
Was she a … donii? Who but the Mother could make animals do her bidding? What about her healing powers? Or her phenomenal ability to speak so well already? For all that she had an unusual accent, she had learned most of his Mamutoi, and some words in Sharamudoi. Was she an aspect of the Mother?
He heard her coming up the path and felt a shiver of fear. He half expected her to declare she was the Great Earth Mother incarnate, and he would have believed it. He saw a woman with disheveled hair and tears rolling down her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, tenderness overcoming his imagined fears.
“Why do I have to lose my babies?” she sobbed.
He paled. Her babies? That lion was her baby? With a shock, he remembered a feeling of the Mother crying, the Mother of all.
“Your babies?”
“First Durc, and then Baby.”
“Is that a name for the lion?”
“Baby? It means little one, infant,” she answered, trying to translate.
“Little one!” he snorted. “That’s the biggest cave lion I’ve ever seen!”
“I know.” A smile of maternal pride gleamed through her tears. “I always made sure he had enough to eat, not like pride cubs. But when I found him, he was little. I called him Baby and never got around to naming him anything else.”
“You found him?” Jondalar asked, still hesitant.
“He’d been left for dead. I think a deer trampled him. I was chasing them into my pit trap. Brun used to let me bring little animals into the cave sometimes, if they were hurt and needed my help, but never meat-eating animals. I wasn’t going to pick up that baby cave lion, but then the hyenas went after him. I chased them away with my sling and brought him back.”
Ayla’s eyes took on a faraway look and her mouth assumed a lopsided grin. “Baby was so funny when he was little, always making me laugh. But it took a lot of time to hunt for him until the second winter, when we learned to hunt together. All of us, Whinney, too. I haven’t seen Baby since …” She suddenly realized when.
“Oh, Jondalar, I am so sorry. Baby is the lion that killed your brother. But if it had been any other lion, I would not have been able to get you away from him.”
“You are a donii!”