The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children 5)

“Well, I wouldn’t mind knowing where those bison are,” Joharran said. “Let’s go ask Thefona where they were.”

“I think I’ll go with Ayla,” Jondalar said. “She isn’t familiar with this region yet. She might not understand Thefona’s directions.”

“Go ahead, but I hope you make it back in time. I’d like to see those spear-throwers of yours in action,” Joharran said. “If they do half of what you say they can, it could make a big difference.”

After talking with Thefona, Ayla and Jondalar took off at a gallop with Wolf loping behind, while the rest of the hunters continued to follow Grass River upstream. The countryside of Zelandonii territory was a dramatic land carved in high relief, with steep cliffs, broad river valleys, rolling hills, and elevated plateaus. The rivers sometimes meandered across meadows and fields with a gallery of trees along their banks, and at other times flowed beside high rock walls. The people who lived there were accustomed to its varied landscape and moved through it comfortably, whether it meant climbing a steep hillside or scaling a nearly vertical cliff, jumping across slippery stones to cross a river or swimming upstream against its current, walking single file between a wall of rock on one side and a rushing river on the other or spreading out on an open plain.

The hunters broke up into small groups as they moved through the nearly waist-high but still green grass of the open field of the valley. Joharran kept watching for the return of his brother and his strange entourage—the foreign woman, two horses, and a wolf—hoping they would get back in time to join the hunt, though he knew it would not make much difference. With so many hunters and so few animals, there was little doubt they would be able to get the ones they wanted.

It was midmorning before the stag with prodigious antlers was sighted, and the hunters stopped to discuss deployment of those in pursuit. Joharran heard hoofbeats and turned around. With inadvertent but perfect timing, Jondalar and Ayla returned.

“We found them!” Jondalar said in an excited whisper when they had dismounted. He would have shouted if he hadn’t noticed that the giant deer were very close by. “And they’ve changed direction again. They’re heading toward the surround! I’m sure we could encourage them to move that way faster.”

“But how far away are they?” Joharran asked. “We have to walk. The rest of us don’t have horses to ride.”

“Not very far, the surround was made by the Third Cave. It isn’t that far from here. You could get there without too much trouble,” Ayla said. “If you’d rather hunt bison, you can, Joharran.”

“Actually, big brother, you could hunt both,” Jondalar said.

“We’re here now, and a deer in your sight is worth much more than two bison in a distant surround,” Joharran said. “But if this doesn’t take too long, we may try for the bison later. Now, do you want to join the hunt?”

“Yes,” Jondalar said.

“I do,” Ayla said at nearly the same time. “Let’s tie the horses to that tree over there, by the stream, Jondalar. Maybe I should tie a restraint on Wolf, too. He can get excited about hunting and may want to ‘help,’ but that could be a problem for the other hunters, or he could get in the way if he’s not sure what to do.”

While the decisions were made about tactics, Ayla studied the small herd, especially the stag. Ayla remembered the first time she saw a fully developed, mature megaceros stag. This giant deer was much the same. Somewhat taller than a horse at the withers, though certainly not as big as a mammoth, they were called giant deer because they were the most imposing of all the varieties of deer. But it wasn’t the size of the animal itself that made them so impressive, it was the size of their anders. Each one of the massive, palm-shaped, deciduous horns that emerged from their heads grew larger each year and in a mature male could reach twelye feet in length.

Ayla visualized the length of one antler as two men the size of Jondalar, with one standing on the other’s shoulders. The size of their antlers precluded the forested habitat that was often preferred by many of their cousins; the megaceros were deer of the open plains. Although they ate grass, especially the green tops of the tall grass varieties, and grazed more than other deer, they also browsed on young brush and trees and leafy herbaceous plants near streams when they could.

Once giant deer reached their full growth, though their bones no longer enlarged, the enormous growing antlers added to the illusion that megaceros stags increased in height and breadth with each season. Support of such huge racks required the deer to develop massive shoulder and neck muscles, which did increase slightly over time to accommodate the greater weight of the enlarging antlers, and to evolve a distinctive hump on their withers where muscles, tendons, and connective tissue bunched together. It was a genetic manifestation of the species. Even the females had a marked, though smaller, hump. Such enormous musculature, however, made the heads of the megaceros seem small, and those males that sported immense racks had heads that appeared disproportionately petite.

While the leaders were discussing tactics, the disguises were taken out, then Joharran and several others passed around skin bags of grease. Ayla crinkled her nose in distaste at the smell.

“It’s made from the musk glands in the legs of the deer, and mixed with fat from just above the tail,” Jondalar told her. “It covers our scent in case the wind shifts suddenly.”

Ayla nodded and began smearing the greasy mixture on her arms and underarms and her legs and groin. While Jondalar was putting on his deer disguise, Ayla struggled with hers.

“Let me show

you,” Kareja said. She was already in hers.

Ayla smiled gratefully as the woman showed her how to wear the capelike hide covering with a deer head still attached. She picked up the antlers that were fastened to a separate headpiece, though she didn’t understand what the extra wooden parts were for.

“This is heavy!” Ayla said, surprised at the weight when she put on the antler headwear.

“And they’re small ones, from a young buck. You don’t want that big stag to think you are competition,” Kareja said.

“How does it stay balanced when you move?” Ayla said, trying to shift the antlers to a better position.

“That’s what these are for,” Kareja said, using the wooden supports to prop up the ungainly headdress.

“No wonder the megaceros have such big necks,” Ayla said. “They need muscles just to hold these things up.”

The hunters aproached with the wind blowing in their faces, which carried the human scent away from the deer’s sensitive noses. They stopped when they could see the animals. The giant deer were browsing on the tender young leaves of low-growing brush.

“Watch them,” Jondalar said softly. “See how they eat for a while, then look up? Then they move a few steps forward and start to feed again. We’re going to copy their motions. Take a few steps toward them, then dip your head, just as though you were a deer who had just seen some juicy new leaves and stopped to take a bite. Then look up. Stand perfectly still while you are looking up. Don’t look at him directly, but keep your eye on that big stag, and don’t move at all when you see him looking at you.

“Now we’re going to spread out in the same pattern they make. We want them to think we’re just another herd of deer while we get close to them. Keep your spears out of sight as much as possible. Hold them upright behind your antlers while you move, and don’t move too fast,” he explained.