Ayla is the main character of Jean Auel's Earth's Children novels, a series which started in 1980. She is a Cro-Magnon woman who was raised by Neanderthals. Ayla was played by Daryl Hannah as the older version and by Nicole Eggert as the younger version in the 1986 film The Clan of the Cave Bear. Ayla's character has been described as an example of the "rebellious primordial" that conquers adversity with wit and will. Background Ayla is orphaned as a young Cro-Magnon child when an earthquake opens a fissure in the ground into which the camp of her mother falls and is destroyed. It was mentioned a few times that the location of the camp was odd and not near known Cro-Magnon settlements. The facts that no father or other family members were mentioned and the odd location of the mother’s camp suggest that the mother either chose or was forced not to live with her clan. Ayla is swimming nude in the river beside the campsite when the earthquake starts and watches the tragedy in horror. Wandering aimlessly, alone, frightened, hungry and helpless, Ayla eventually encounters a cave lion which chases her into a narrow crack in a rock wall. Attempting to pull Ayla out, the lion gashes open Ayla's leg, leaving four deep parallel wounds on her thigh. After a day spent hiding in terror and driven by thirst, Ayla emerges from her hiding place to drink at the nearby stream and then collapses, delirious from fever and starvation. There she is found by a group of Neanderthals, a "Clan" led by Brun, and is adopted by Iza, that Clan's medicinewoman or healer. Though neither Iza, Ayla's adoptive mother, nor Creb, the "Mog-ur" (a Shaman-like character), her adoptive father, know Ayla's age for certain, author Jean Auel places Ayla at the age of five years in the book's second paragraph, and her foster family eventually guesses her age accurately. See The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage, The Shelters of Stone and The Land of Painted Caves for a detailed synopsis of Ayla's life. Characteristics Ayla is described as tall, with blonde hair, gray-blue eyes, a well-toned body, and a strangely accented voice (actually a speech mannerism). She has been raised with Clan customs, using sign language instead of speech, and being taught not to laugh or smile