The Mammoth Hunters (Earth's Children 3)

Talut looked at Ayla, then Vincavec, then Tulie. Then he laughed. “Well, this is one Summer Meeting that won’t be forgotten for a long time.”

“It wasn’t only the stop at Amber Camp,” Avarie said. “Seeing you, Talut, with your big red mane reminds me. We kept trying to go around a cave lion with a reddish mane, but he seemed to be heading in the same direction we were. I didn’t see a pride, but I think we’d better warn people there are lions around.”

“There are always lions around,” Talut said.

“Yes, but this one was acting strange. Lions don’t usually bother with people that much, but for a while, I thought he was stalking us. He came so close I had trouble sleeping one night. He was the biggest cave lion I ever saw. I still shake when I think about it,” Avarie said.

Ayla listened carefully, frowning, then shook her head. No. Just coincidence, she thought. There are a lot of big cave lions.

“When you get set up, come up to the clearing. We’re talking about the mammoth hunt and the Mammoth Hearth is planning the Hunting ceremony. It won’t hurt to have another good Caller. I’m sure you will want mammoth meat for the Matrimonial Feast, since you plan to be a part of it, Vincavec!” Talut said. He started to leave, then he turned around to Ayla. “Since you are going to hunt mammoth with us, why don’t you come back with me, and bring your spear-thrower. I was going to come and get you, anyway.”

“I’ll walk with you,” Tulie said. “I have to go to the Womanhood Camp and see Latie.”

“This is good quality. Especially for blade tools like chisels, scrapers, drills,” Jondalar said, hunkering down on one knee, examining the smooth gray interior face of fine-structured flint. He had used a specially shaped piece of fresh antler, strong and resilient enough to resist breaking, as a digger and a lever to pry out the exposed lump of hard silica from its chalky matrix. Then he broke it open with a hammerstone.

“Wymez says some of the best flint conies from here,” Danug said.

Jondalar motioned up at the perpendicular cliff face of a river gorge that had been worn down over time by the churning water. More lumps of the hard flint encased in a white opaque crust jutted out from the somewhat less hard chalky stone. “Flint is always best if you can get it from the source. This is similar to Dalanar’s flint mine and his is the best stone in our region.”

“The Wolf Camp certainly thinks this is the best flint,” Tarneg said. “The first time I came here, I was with Valez. You should have heard him rave. With this place so close to their Camp, they count these workings as theirs. You did the right thing in asking their permission to come, Jondalar.”

“It’s only courtesy. I know how Dalanar feels about his mine.”

“What’s so special about this stone? I’ve often seen flint on river floodplains,” Tarneg said.

“Sometimes you can find good nodules that were recently washed out, on flo

odplains, and they are a lot easier to get. It’s work digging them out of the rock. But flint tends to dry out if it lies in the open very long,” Jondalar said. “Then the flakes come off shorter, more abruptly.”

“If it’s been on the surface too long, Wymez sometimes buries flint in damp soil for a while to make it easier to work,” Danug said.

“I’ve done that. It can help, but it depends on the size of the nodule, and how dry it is. If it’s a big piece, it can’t be too old. It works best for small ones, even down to egg size, but those are hardly worthwhile to work, unless they are really fine quality.”

“We do something similar with mammoth tusk,” Tarneg said. “As a first step we wrap the tusk in damp skins and bury it with hot ashes. The ivory changes, becomes denser but easier to work, and easier to bend. It’s the best way to straighten a whole tusk.”

“I wondered how you did that,” Jondalar said, then he paused, obviously thinking. “My brother would have wanted to learn about it. He was a spear maker. He could make a good straight shaft, but he understood the properties of wood, how to bend and shape it. I think he would have understood your process, too. Perhaps knowledge of your methods is one reason Wymez was so quick to grasp the idea of heating flint to make it more workable. He is one of the best workers of flint I’ve ever known.”

“You’re a good flint man, too, Jondalar,” Tarneg said. “Even Wymez speaks highly of you, and he doesn’t praise easily. You know, I’ve been thinking. I’m going to need a good flint worker for Aurochs Camp. I know you’ve been saying you are going back to your home, but it sounds like a long trip. Would you consider staying if you had a place to stay? What I mean is, how would you like to join my Camp?”

Jondalar’s forehead furrowed as he tried to think of a way to refuse Tarneg’s offer without offending. “I’m not sure. I’d have to think about it.”

“I know Deegie likes you, I’m sure she’d agree. And you wouldn’t have any trouble finding someone to make a hearth with,” Tarneg encouraged. “I’ve been noticing the women around you, even the red-foots. First it was Mygie, now all the rest of them find reasons to visit the flint-workers’ area. It must be because you are new around here. Women are always curious about men they don’t know.” He smiled. “I’ve heard more than one man wishing he was a tall, blond stranger. They’d all like to get a red-foot interested again, but it’s Danug’s turn, this time.” Tarneg smirked knowingly at his young cousin.

Jondalar and Danug both looked uncomfortable. Jondalar stood up, and looked away to shift attention elsewhere, and in an incidental way, he noticed that around these two men, he was not exceptionally tall. The three of them were near the same size, and Danug still had some growing in him. He was going to be a second Talut. But there were all sizes of men at the Meeting, just as there were at Zelandonii Summer Meetings.

“Well, I wish you would think about Aurochs Camp, Jondalar. Now that Deegie and Branag are finally going to be joined, we’ll be building this fall, though I haven’t decided yet whether to make a single lodge, like Lion Camp, or the smaller individual ones for each family. I tend to be old-fashioned. I like the big ones best, but a lot of the younger people want a place with just their own relations, and I admit, when people start arguing, it could be nice to have your own place to go.”

“I appreciate the offer, Tarneg,” Jondalar said. “I mean that, but I don’t want to give you a false impression. I am going home. I have to go back. I could give you a lot of reasons, that I need to bring back word of my brother’s death, for example. But the truth is, I don’t know why I have to go. I just do.”

“Is it because of Ayla?” Danug asked with a worried frown.

“That’s part of it. I admit, I don’t look forward to seeing her sharing a hearth with Ranec, but I was trying to convince her to come back with me when we met you. Now it looks like I’ll be going back alone anyway … I’m not looking forward to that either, but that doesn’t change anything. I still have to go.”

“I’m not sure I understand, but I wish you good fortune, and may the Mother smile on your Journey. When do you think you’ll leave?” Tarneg said.

“Soon after the mammoth hunt.”

“Speaking of the mammoth hunt, we should be getting back. They are planning it this afternoon,” Tarneg said.