The Clan of the Cave Bear

Long ago, in the days of the great ice mountains...

...the first of our people followed the herds of game into a new land.

There was a girl child among them...

...and she was called Ayla.

The legends still speak of her.

Ayla!

Mama!

Ayla!

Mama!

Before our people came...

...this had been the land of the old ones.

The Clan of the Cave Bear.

When the Earth shook, they had lost their home.

Many had died.

But Brun, the leader, stiff had with him Broad..

...the son of his mate, who would he leader after him.

Then came Crab, the great Mag-Ur...

...the crippled holy man.

And lza, his sister, the medicine woman.

Without a cave...

...the Clan was weak.

They knew that soon the wind spirits would bring snow.

And snow would bring death.

Lza.

Brand.

Lza.

The child that lza nursed was one of us. The new people.

The first the Clan of the Cave Bear had ever seen.

She was proof of the tales they had long heard...

...of “the Others. "

The strange ones who threatened the world which had always been theirs.

At sunset, they called ta the spirits ta help them...

...fa! They were afraid.

Creb.

Creb.

Grub.

Creb.

Lza.

Ayla.

Mog-Ur.

Brand.

Brand!

As the days passed, and still they had not found a cave...

...many were sure that same dark spirit...

...had put the child, Ayla, in their path.

She was of the Others and should have been left to die.

That was what the memories told them.

It was the memories that ruled the Clan.

The ancient knowledge that each was horn with.

The voices of the past that could not be disobeyed or changed.

Ayla did not have the memories.

Lza knew the Clan would not let her keep the child much longer.

For many seasons, the Clan lived in this new cave.

And Ayla was allowed to stay among them.

Lza and Creb protected her...

...and raised he! With lza 's awn daughter, Uba.

Ayla tried to he a child of the Clan.

But she knew that to Broad and many others.

...she was still a threat to the Clan's unchanging ways.

Even the spirits seemed to have no place for her-

Ayla.

Ebra.

Ayla!

Lza was afraid.

She knew that Broad would soon be made a hunter of the Clan.

...and Ayla would not be safe.

She did not have an animal totem ta protect her...

...as all Clan people did.

And only Creb, the Mog-Ur, knew the magic to find her one.

But as he climbed the mountain...

...he was not sure the spirits would grant a protector...

...to this child of the Others.