to accompany Thonolan on his Journey to the end of the Great Mother River. Jondalar does not tell Marona he is leaving. He would not return home for five years. Journey Jondalar and Thonolan made their way down the Great Mother, meeting with several different tribes. Thonolan, an outgoing, easy-mannered young man, made friends easily, much like his father Willamar. After they had traveled for some time, Thonolan was injured by a rhino and rescued by the Sharamudoi; Thonolan fell in love with a woman named Jetamio, and soon found himself mated and cross-mated with his Shamudoi wife and a Ramudoi couple. Jondalar did not lack for company during his time among the Sharamudoi, and formed a strong attachment to a woman named Serenio; but, as with his other relationships, Jondalar was more physically invested than emotionally. Unfortunately, Jetamio died in childbirth, and Thonolan, stricken, took to his Journey again, hoping to escape grief too heavy to outrun. Jondalar abandoned his relationship with Serenio and continued to accompany him. Their travels led them all the way to the Beran Sea, the end of the Great Mother River. Thonolan considered going even further, reckless in his grief and not really caring what might await them further beyond the steppes. When a cave lioness stole a deer which Jondalar and Thonolan had just killed during a hunt, Thonolan recklessly insisted upon tracking her back to her den and retrieving his kill. Inside the box canyon where the lioness and her mate lived, however, the cave lion attacked them. Thonolan was killed, and Jondalar mauled almost to death. In the haze of blood loss and pain, he thought a beautiful spirit woman had come for him; when he woke, he found that she was in fact a woman of extraordinary beauty and great skill, living alone in a small cave in a valley, who did not speak. Gradually, Jondalar began to communicate with the woman and learned that her name was Ayla. Believing that she was either an acolyte of some tribe's zelandonia or a full-fledged Zelandoni on some kind of sacred retreat, Jondalar was beguiled by her beauty and intrigued by the mystery she presented. When he realized that she could not speak, Jondalar began to teach Ayla Zelandonii, further mystified. Jondalar and Ayla both began to fall in love with one another while Jondalar recovered from his injuries; after a dream