she is described as lucky, favored by the spirits. Iza later surmises that Ayla was born to a medicine woman of the Others (Cro-Magnons), though Ayla has very little memory of her birth mother and knows nothing of the tribe of the Others to whom she was born. This passage may be a hint by the author of the reason for Ayla’s mother’s camp to be in such an odd location, with no other mentioned people around. Although Ayla lacks the Clan's ability to access ancestral memories, Iza succeeds in training her as a medicine healer. In her childhood and young adulthood she invents several things previously unknown, as well as innovations to existing tools and their uses (see below.) It is here that we see her winning combination of the Clan's detailed factual knowledge and the Others' innovative and flexible thinking. When Ayla acts as the medicine woman at the Clan Gathering and prepares the sacred herb for the Mog-urs' ceremony, she ingests some of the juice from the root and is strongly affected by its psychotropic properties. Creb makes telepathic contact with her, and she follows him through his psychic exploration of the Clan "memories." She then follows the path of the Others' divergence from the Clan, and among other things sees a glimpse of the future: "Boxlike structures...long ribbons of stone...strange animals crawling at great speeds...huge birds that flew without flapping their wings." Apparently Auel intended to describe Ayla seeing a glimpse of the modern era, and even beyond to the next stage of human evolution. Creb has seen all these things with her, and telepathically orders her out of the cave when she returns to her own mind, knowing in his heart that only the Others will continue to evolve and that the Clan will die out. The Valley of Horses Alone in a secluded valley where she has fled after being expelled from the Clan, Ayla adopts and raises a cave lion cub she calls Baby and a horse she calls Whinney. She originally stops in the valley to stay for the winter, but stays to take care of the animal friends. She learns that to survive on her own, she must break many Clan traditions she had previously been raised under. She meets Jondalar when he is attacked and mauled by Baby's mate and tends his wounds. He begins teaching her his language. Some