Story written by The Old Grey Bear posted by Lilyflower50 with The Old Grey Bear's permission

Ayla's Home

This is what could have happened had Thonolan's mate Jetamio not died in childbirth. He and Jondalar never left the Sharamudoi and Jondalar mated Serenio. Ayla's future changed.

Chapter 1

Broud had cursed her with death. Then the ground started shaking and rumbling. When it was over the cave had been destroyed and Creb was dead. After she had buried the Mog-ur she packed what she could carry and walked out of the cave right up to Broud and signed. Broud, you can curse me with death and make me leave the clan, but you cannot make me die. As she turned she signed to Brun, Please take care of my son and teach him to be a hunter. With that she turned and walked away toward the north to look for her own kind of people. Iza had told her before she died that she should leave and find her people before Broud could find a way to really hurt her. She could not leave and Broud had found a way to do just that. He had taken her son away She wondered the country for months looking for the Others as Iza had called people like her. As she wondered she used her sling to kill the animals she needed for food. Her biggest problem was keeping a hot coal to start a fire when she did make camp. There were many nights when she had no fire to keep warm by, and sometimes she had to eat her kills raw. While walking and not paying attention one day she almost walked into a pride of lions but a roar from the pride male turned her east. After a few more days a storm blew up and forced her to seek shelter in a valley. At daylight she started to look around the valley and found a cave that could be reached by a path from the beach. She checked out the cave and found that it had been used by cave lions at one time but that had been years ago. Ayla moved into the cave and started bringing wood up and storing it in the back. She got a fire going inside then went out to find some game. She got a rabbit and collected some greens on the way back to the cave. As time went by she made a clan spear to hunt larger game with, she chased some horses into a pit trap and killed a nursing mare. After she had skinned, butchered and carried the animal back to the beach she found a filly where she had made the kill. When the hyenas went after it she decided to take her to the cave too. She raised the filly as she would a child and they became close friends. Later on she had forgotten to bank her fire one night and it went out. She awoke to shuffling and cackling sounds at the entrance to her cave. She could not find her sling so she threw whatever she could find at the entry. Later the next morning she took her axe and started out of the cave. Whinny bumped her hand and caused her to drop and break the axe head. When she took her tools down to the beach to knapp a new axe head she set the tool she was using down and then when she went to pick it up she picked up another stone instead. When she struck it against the flint she saw a spark jump from the stone and land in some dry grass. A breeze came through and a flame appeared. She looked and noticed that it wasn't her tool at all but another stone. In time she was able to learn how to use the stones to start fires at the cave or on the trail. Sometime later when the horse was older she started riding her. She went after some deer and after she made the kill she used a hide tied to Whinny to haul the deer back to the cave. She found a lion cub that had been kicked in the head but it was still alive. When she placed the cub close to Whinny the horse got scared and broke and ran. There were two clan spears in the basket and they fell to the ground but were still hung up in the basket. She reset the poles as they had fallen and tied the hide between the poles. She got the deer and the cub on the hide and walked back to the cave. That had been the beginning of a friendship between Ayla, Whinny and Baby that had lasted until Whinny returned to the herd and then Baby left to find his pride. Whinny had returned when the herd stallion had broken its leg and fell prey to wolves. Ayla had been in the valley for four years now. Whinny had given birth to a colt she named Brown that had grown into a large brown stallion. Baby had his own pride and only came around every so often to see her. She was still trying to decide if she wanted to leave the valley or not. She still felt she needed to find her own kind of people but did not know where to look. She had decided long ago that the clan spears were too cumbersome and had developed a thinner spear that she could handle. Now she could ride close to an animal and throw the spear at it. She first used a flint point but found later that bone points held up better. Another thing she had found out was that each season brought new things to the beach near her cave from upstream and she had taken advantage of that. She had taken some of the bones and made plates, some of the wood she had shaped and sanded into bowls and cups. If it was something she could use she stored it in the back of the cave. She had plenty of flint, firestones, mammoth ivory and bones. One day while out hunting she came across a man that was not clan. When she greeted him with the clan signs he returned it while speaking words she did not understand. He said and signed, I am Torvon of the Mamutoi, I have been on a long journey and am now on my way home. What is your name? Ayla replied, I am Ayla of no people, I have been forced to leave my clan by a new leader that hated me. I am a medicine woman. He approached with hands held out and palms up and said, I greet you Ayla of no people. She tentatively reached out and took his hands in greeting saying, Greetings Torvon. She invited Torvon back to the cave for a meal and they began to talk. He told her while signing about his people and that they were known as the Mammoth Hunters because they depended on the large animals for almost everything. He asked her how she became a member of the clan. She said that she had been found by the clan and adopted by the Mog-ur Creb and the Medicine Woman Iza after she had been attacked by a cave lion at the age of five years. He told her that he had lived with a clan farther south toward the southern sea and had heard of both. He was a hunter and had hunted with them for ten summers. He had mated a clan woman and she had a son but she had been forced to leave the boy outside the cave to die because they said he was deformed. Ayla felt sad for him and told him that she had a son but the old leader had taken the boy and promised to teach him to be a hunter. She said she knew what it was like to lose a son. She asked him if he wanted to stay for a while and he replied that he would. His people did not look well on those that had mated or shared pleasures with the clan. Ayla looked at him and asked, “What are sharing pleasures. He replied, That is when a man and woman couple. She studied the comment then replied, I never knew pleasures when I was forced to couple with Broud, it was only pain. He looked at her and said, He forced you? Yes replied Ayla. He only got pleasure when he could force then beat me. He was the only man of the clan to couple with me. When I found I was going to have a baby and didn't care what he did anymore he left me alone. Torvon shook his head and said that if a man did it the way that the Great Earth Mother commanded it should be a pleasure for both of them. Torvon watched her ride Whinny and wondered how it would feel to be able to hunt from the back of an animal that could move as fast as the animals they were hunting. He started paying attention to Brown and the animal seemed to enjoy it. He was watching her one afternoon with the horses and noticed her using a combination of clan signs and sounds to talk to them. He was trying to teach her his language whenever possible. And she was picking up the words but they sounded different when she said them. Over the next few months they became closer and she asked him one day if he wanted to ride Brown. He asked, Will he let me? She replied, I don't know, the only thing you can do is try. Ayla put a leather blanket on the horses back and Torvon lay across it as she led the horse around. After a few days he was sitting on the horses back as she led him. He thought that there should be an easier way to control the horse than the way she controlled Whinny. But it would take time to figure it out. One day while they were out he had been watching her use her sling, and she was very good with it. He had once seen a man throw a spear using a notched stick and it carried a great distance. He wondered if he could make one. He found plenty of shafts in the valley and he designed the spears so that they would fly more stable by adding three bird feathers to the back. Next he took a flat piece of wood about the length of his arm from elbow to fingers and hollowed it out where the spear shaft would lay in it. He left a hook shaped piece at the back to hold the spear in place and a hollow at the rear of the spears that fit the hook. When he had the spears and two spear throwers ready they started throwing with them. He made some minor adjustments to the throwers and they continued practicing with it. He found that with practice they could make kills, and they practiced every day. He even made a long leather tube that held many spears that could be carried over the shoulder or in the horses pack baskets. As time went on Ayla started looking at Torvon differently. She would feel a tingling feeling in her lower body whenever she saw him without his clothing. And his male organ would become hard whenever she was without hers. But he never did anything about it. She was beginning to think that he didn't like her enough and one day she asked him why he never gave her the signal when his member was hard. He told her that it was not the way his people did it, they would ask the person if they wanted to share pleasures before they tried anything. Looking at her he asked, Would you like to share pleasures me? She looked down and said, Yes but I don't know what to do. I was only with Broud and that was only pain. I promise you that you will only feel pleasure, no pain and you will not do anything you don't want to do. The first step is to purify the body and meet at the furs. They left the cave and she went down stream and he upstream to perform the ritual. When they returned they stood on either side of the furs and looked at each other. Then he knelt on the furs and she did also. He reached for her hands and then leaned in to kiss her. When they parted she was flushed and asked, What was that? He smiled and replied, That was a kiss.I liked touching of lips, the kiss. What do we do now? He lay down and had her do the same. Then he took her in his arms and kissed her again while softly running his hands over her body. She was breathing heavily when they pulled apart. There was a slight look of fear on her face but he only smiled and held her. After a few minutes she asked, Can we do the kissing again? Yes, he replied, All you want.†This time when he broke the kiss he started nuzzling and softly licking her ears and neck. She was beginning to tremble and he started working his way down her body. He paid attention to her breasts and nipples and licked across her stomach to the mound of her womanhood. She stiffened and when he parted the folds and licked across her nodule she raised her hips and came up off the furs and then passed out. She had never felt anything like this before. When she came to he was still holding her and running his hands across her body. She asked, Did you relieve yourself? He replied, No, I wanted you to be awake when we did that. She said, Then please do it now? As he rose up and moved between her legs she began to feel the fear again. He sensed it and told her that there was nothing to fear and he would go slowly. When she had closed her eyes he said, Ayla, look into my eyes as I enter you. She did as he said and felt his organ enter her body and there was nothing but pleasure in the feeling. Once he was inside her he lay there stroking her face and then kissed her again only this time his tongue was licking at her lips. When she opened her mouth to speak he ran his tongue across hers and forced his lips tighter to her. Then he started moving in and out as he worked on other areas of her body with his lips and hands. He took his time and made sure that she was enjoying what he was doing. When he felt her meeting his thrusts he increased his force. As their speed picked up she wrapped her arms and legs around him as though she thought he was going to stop. Then their eyes locked again he saw tears running down her cheeks. He asked, Am I hurting you? She replied, Oh no, I have never felt anything like this in my life, please don't stop. He smiled and said, I don't intend to, this is the first time I've been with a beautiful woman in years. And they continued to move as one until they both gave out. As he started to roll off she held him and asked, Please don't, I like feeling you in there. He kissed her nose and said, Alright my beautiful woman. They fell asleep with him still inside her. When he awoke she was still under him and he was still inside her. He looked down and saw her smiling at him. He started moving again and she started to meet him. When they both reached their crests he rolled away then pulled her to him. And they fell asleep again in each others arms. When he awoke this time he found her sitting next to him drinking tea and she handed him a cup. While they were sitting there he asked her what she thought about sharing pleasures now. She replied, As long as it is with you I'll love it. He looked at her closely and said, If you meet my people when they have a Mother festival they will expect you to honor the Mother by sharing pleasures with many men. And you will not be forced to do anything you don't want to. Ayla asked, Who is the Mother you keep talking about? He looked at her and said, She is the one that created the animal spirits and the people. We revere her as the creator of all things. Ayla said, In the clan Ursus is revered at the creator of all things.