The Clan of the Cave Bear

Iza’s newborn is a girl. Brun is glad that the arrangement of Creb providing for Iza, along with Ayla, will remain unchanged, while Creb is overjoyed to have a complete family around his hearth. Iza introduces the baby to Ayla, who promises to help teach the baby as she grows.

The Clan observes the traditional customs surrounding birth: Only after seven days of survival will the baby be formally accepted into the Clan. Creb reflects on his own precarious birth and how he was nearly abandoned, but survived through the pity of a nursing woman, eventually rising to become the Mog-ur. He and Brun inspect Iza’s baby and formally allow her to remain with her mother, pending the naming ceremony.

While Iza recovers, Ayla discovers a wounded rabbit by the stream and, treating it with the same care she would Iza’s baby, brings it to the cave. Though Iza initially reminds her that animals do not belong inside, she eventually tends to the rabbit’s wound.

Creb and Iza privately discuss Ayla’s future as she may not easily find a mate. Iza suggests training her as a medicine woman, giving her status and security within the Clan even without a mate.

Ayla bombards Creb with questions about reproduction, and he explains the Clan’s beliefs about how a woman becomes pregnant when her totem is defeated by another. When Ayla asks how long it will be before she can become a mother, he teaches Ayla about counting. However, she’s able to grasp numbers and abstraction far beyond the Clan’s usual limits, leaving Creb shaken.

The Clan gathers for the naming ceremony of Iza’s baby. Creb marks the infant with red ochre and announces her name: Uba. Mating ceremonies are also held for Ovra and Goov, as well as Droog and Aga.

The Clan gathers to hear Dorv tell the legend of Ice Mountain, Storm Cloud, and the Sun. Ayla listens with fascination, even though she already knows the story by heart. The tale explains how Ice Mountain grew larger every winter, threatening the Clan, until Ursus taught them how to survive. It also warns of Durc, a young man who disobeyed the leader and left the Clan with others, only to vanish forever. The children are reminded to obey their parents and leaders, but Ayla wonders aloud if Durc might have survived. Despite being trained in the customs of the Clan, Ayla remains restless. She often roams alone to collect plants for Iza despite the unease it causes Brun, and has a habit of bringing home wounded animals to care for them.

Late in winter, Iza’s milk begins to dry up and her health declines, marked by a worsening cough, though she hides it. When spring arrives, Ayla goes to gather plants for Iza. Near a clearing, she secretly watches the men practicing with their weapons. Zoug tries to teach young Vorn the sling, only for Broud to interfere and fail. Brun publicly reprimands Broud. After they leave, Ayla finds the sling left behind and, despite weapons being forbidden for women to use, experiments with it in secret.

Ayla brings Zoug water while he works on a deer hide, and later offers him berries she picked. At her suggestion, Creb invites Zoug to their hearth for a meal, which pleases the old hunter. The next day, Ayla requests the scraps left over from the new sling Zoug made for Vorn, which he gives to her. She uses them to craft a new one, as the original one wore out, and searches for a hidden place to practice.

In the mountains, she finds a secluded meadow with a spring, hazelnut bushes, and a small cave hidden behind thick foliage, which Ayla adopts as her secret retreat. She practices her sling there, setting up increasingly difficult targets and honing her skills. While Vorn struggles to learn under Zoug’s instruction, Ayla secretly surpasses him in accuracy and control.

Meanwhile, Broud’s resentment toward her worsens, fueled by her confidence and her subtle defiance of him. When she hesitates to bring him tea one day, Broud explodes in rage and beats her in front of the entire clan. The assault leaves Ayla badly injured, and Iza tends to her while she recovers. Brun, shocked and disappointed in Broud’s loss of control, warns him privately that another such outburst will cause him to be disowned and death-cursed, despite his being the chosen successor to lead the Clan someday.

Ayla starts testing Broud with small acts of insolence, certain that Brun’s protection shields her from further beatings. Later, on a foraging trip, Iza warns Ayla to obey Broud more carefully, reminding her that as a woman she has no choice but to submit to the men’s whims. Ayla reluctantly promises to try.

When Broud strikes her again over a simple command to fetch water, she turns to Creb for comfort, only to find him cold and distant. Shaken and guilty, Ayla flees to her secret meadow, where she practices her sling in anger and accidentally wounds a porcupine. Realizing she cannot hunt without revealing her forbidden skill, and terrified of losing her place in the Clan, she breaks down in tears. Convinced that Creb no longer cares about her, she vows never to be disobedient again and abandons her sling under a bush.

Returning to the cave, she tells Iza she will do whatever Broud wants and asks hopefully if Creb will love her again. Iza comforts her, though she’s saddened by the girl’s struggle to fit in.

When Ayla becomes strangely eager to do Broud’s bidding, the men of the clan interpret this as proof that women require strict discipline to remain obedient. Broud begins to deliberately hound and humiliate Ayla with endless tasks and punishments. Exhausted, Ayla does her best to obey, but her cheerfulness fades. Iza, worried, arranges for Ayla to gather herbs, giving her some time away from Broud’s constant demands.

Ayla uses the opportunity to visit her hidden meadow and find the sling she abandoned. As she practices again, she convinces herself that she can use her skill to hunt predators like hyenas or wolverines that threaten the Clan’s hunts.

Through the long winter, Ayla begins training in earnest to become a medicine woman under Iza’s guidance. She memorizes treatments for burns, wounds, and ailments, though she struggles because she must consciously learn what women of the Clan usually know instinctively through their ancestral memory. She also takes on preparing meals and remedies for Creb. When he develops a severe toothache, Iza and Ayla tend to him, eventually extracting the tooth. The success of the procedure leads the Clan to begin to accept Ayla as a healer.

Later, Ovra has a stillborn child. While Iza remains with Ovra, Ayla is called to treat Brun after Oga accidentally spills boiling soup on him. Ayla successfully treats the burn, impressing him.

After the long winter, the group eagerly returns to gathering and hunting. Ayla practices tracking and teaches herself to stalk animals like the hunters. One day, when a wolverine steals meat from near the cave, Ayla tracks it to its den and uses her sling to kill it. Though elated at her first successful hunt, she realizes she cannot show her kill or keep the pelt without revealing her secret. She drags the carcass away to prevent discovery. From then on, she continues to target scavengers and predators, eventually rivaling Zoug’s proficiency, though she becomes overconfident.

During the summer, Ayla finds a lynx near a creek. Certain she can kill it with her sling, she hurls a stone but only grazes its head. The lynx leaps at her, and in desperation, she strikes it with a heavy branch, managing to drive it off. Shaken, she returns home and suffers nightmares, doubting whether her totem truly meant her to hunt. She avoids the forest for a while, but eventually finds her way back to her secret meadow. There, she invents a new technique to fire two stones from her sling in quick succession. Practice restores her confidence, and by fall she masters the skill. When a hyena arrives in her meadow, Ayla angrily kills it with her sling for entering her territory. Unlike her first kill, the victory feels real, and she finally believes she’s become a hunter.

However, Clan hunters wonder what is killing the predators. Ayla hides her satisfaction, but grows more confident. Her change in demeanor unsettles Broud, who feels his authority over her is slipping.

The Clan holds a communal fishing trip to the coast to catch sturgeon and cod, exciting everyone. Droog is especially eager to collect fresh flint from the floodplain deposits to replenish their supply of tools.

Once at the coast, the Clan sets up camp and prepares their net. During the fishing, however, Uba notices that Ona, Aga’s young daughter, has been swept away in the current. Ayla dives into the water after her and manages to catch Ona before bringing her back to shore, where Iza revives her. In gratitude, the Clan honors her by letting her take the first taste of fresh sturgeon caviar, a rare privilege. That night, Aga thanks Ayla personally, saying she will name a future daughter after her.

Life on the beach settles into routine as the Clan processes the fish. Ayla assists Iza, and the women preserve their catch while Droog gathers nodules of flint and begins making new tools. Ayla asks to watch him work, and Droog lets her observe as he shapes hand-axes, knives, scrapers, and saws. Droog then gifts Ayla with a scraper and flake knife. Ayla shows Iza, who tells her Droog’s gift is both a sign of respect and gratitude for saving Ona’s life.