Mammoth Hunters Read Online Free PDF

two men—the older one a massive giant with flaming red hair and pale blue eyes, the other dark and compact—and understood the deep bond of affection and loyalty they shared though they were asdifferent as any two men could be. They were both Mammoth Hunters, both members of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi.
    They walked toward the archway Ayla had noticed earlier. It seemed to open into a hillock or perhaps a series of them, tucked into the slope that faced the large river. Ayla had seen people enter and leave. She knew it must be a cave or a dwelling of some kind, but one which seemed to be made entirely of dirt; hard-packed but with grass growing in patches out of it, particularly around the bottom and up the sides. It blended into the background so well that, except for the entrance, it was hard to distinguish the dwelling from its surroundings.
    On closer inspection she noticed that the rounded top of the mound was the repository of several curious implements and objects. Then she saw a particular one just above the archway, and caught her breath.
    It was the skull of a cave lion!

2
    Ayla was hiding in a tiny cleft of a sheer rock wall watching a huge cave lion’s claw reach in to get her. She screamed in pain and fear when it found her bare thigh and raked it with four parallel gashes. The Spirit of the Great Cave Lion himself had chosen her, and caused her to be marked to show he was her totem, Creb had explained, after a testing far beyond that which even a man had to endure, though she had been a girl of only five years. A sensation of quivering earth beneath her feet brought a rush of nausea.
    She shook her head to dispel the vivid memory.
    “What’s wrong, Ayla?” Jondalar asked, noticing her distress.
    “I saw that skull,” she said, pointing to the decoration over the door, “and remembered when I was chosen, when the Cave Lion became my totem!”
    “We are the Lion Camp,” Talut announced, with pride, though he had said it before. He didn’t understand them when they spoke Jondalar’s language, but he saw the interest they were showing in the Camp’s talisman.
    “The cave lion holds strong meaning for Ayla,” Jondalar explained. “She says the spirit of the great cat guides and protects her.”
    “Then you should be comfortable here,” Talut said, beaming a smile at her, feeling pleased.
    She noticed Nezzie carrying Rydag and thought again of her son. “I think so,” she said.
    Before they started in, the young woman stopped to examine the entrance arch, and smiled when she saw how its perfect symmetry had been achieved. It was simple, but she would not have thought of it. Two large mammoth tusks, from the same animal or at least animals of the same size, had been anchored firmly in the ground with the tips facing each other and joined together at the top of the arch in asleeve made from a hollow short section of a mammoth leg bone.
    A heavy curtain of mammoth hide covered the opening, which was high enough so that even Talut, moving the drape aside, could enter without ducking his head. The arch led to a roomy entrance area, with another symmetrical arch of mammoth tusks hung with leather directly across. They stepped down into a circular foyer whose thick walls curved up to a shallow domed ceiling.
    As they walked through, Ayla noticed the side walls, which seemed to be a mosaic of mammoth bones, were lined with outer clothes hung on pegs and racks with storage containers and implements. Talut pulled back the inner drape, went on through and held it back for the guests.
    Ayla stepped down again. Then stopped, and stared in amazement, overwhelmed by bewildering impressions of unknown objects, unfamiliar sights, and strong colors. Much of what she saw was incomprehensible to her and she grasped at that which she could make sense of.
    The space they were in had a large fireplace near the center. A massive haunch of meat was cooking over it, spitted on a long pole. Each end was resting in a