Author's note: this is completely made up. we all know ayla's dream where she learns to speak, so there's no point retyping it all. instead, this is what durc dreamed on that night, something that may completely change the course of their lives... (and yes, i know i sound like a bad commercial. i'm going to stop talking now and let you all get on with the story, which is what you really want anyway.)
Disclaimer: i'm not Jean Auel. even i update faster than she does...
--kyra

Durc slept restlessly that night, passing from dream to dream in a stream of agitated consciousness. Later, he couldn't remember any of them but one, which imprinted itself into his memory so clearly that, even years afterwards, he could call it to mind as though it had only happened yesterday.

He walked through a landscape that should have been familiar. He squinted, trying to recall when he'd been there before. Perhaps not in his living memory, but… yes! This was the Clan's ancestral home! His hands clenched into fists as the legends associated with this place sprang to his mind. The Others had come and had driven the Clan away. The Clan, outnumbered and desperately under equipped, had fled, vowing never to forget. This was the root of the Clan's hatred, the reason they distrusted the Others so. The Clan never forgot anything.

A bear, the biggest he had ever seen, sprang towards him, growling menacingly. Durc searched desperately for a stone, a branch, anything to use as a weapon, but found none. He scrambled back, his eyes wide with panic. He was going to die here, and his mother would never know the reason! She would grieve for him – he hoped – but she would never know.

The bear's claws raked towards Durc and the young man threw his arms up, trying to shield his face from the danger. But the claws fell short. Hesitantly, Durc raised his head, wondering if this was another dream. Was it possible to have a dream inside of a dream?

The paw fell back to earth, and the bear looked at him. Man and bear stared at each other, neither moving. Finally, Durc took a slow, careful step back, then another. At the third, the bear growled, and Durc froze. The bear took a step towards him. Durc still didn't move. And then, in a low, growling voice, the bear spoke. Not in the words Jondalar teaching his mother, but in the Ancient language, that of the Cave Bears before they had become Clan. Like the Clan's ancient sign language, Durc understood, though this called up memories far, far older, perhaps memories that not even Creb, Mog-Ur One-Eye could recall without help.

"Watch."

Durc watched. He saw the Others come out of the caves, saw them talking in their language, saw them gesturing wildly, though they were no gestures he knew.

"They plan to eradicate the Clan."

Durc looked up at the bear, his eyes wide. "How can we stop them?" he signed, his movements strong and sure despite his fear.

"Watch."

Durc obeyed, looking on as the Others gathered spears and knives. More of them came, until there were so many crowded together that he saw nothing but a mass of people. He hadn't know that many people existed! There were more Others in this space that the Clan could muster in all their Clan Gatherings together.

One man, a tall man with blond hair and blue eyes, one who bore a great resemblance to Jondalar, stood before the seething mass, his arms wide and his eyes ablaze.

"He tells them that the Clan are animals." Was it Durc's imagination, or did the bear's voice quiver slightly with suppressed fury. "He says that animals are to be hunted and destroyed. They agree with him."

Durc watched in horror as the mass roared as one and set off, spears at the ready. His eyes began to water as he watched them slaughter his people, watched them hunt out the women and relieve their needs before killing them. Babies were massacred without a second thought, and the elderly tossed aside like old bones. His fists clenched so hard they drew blood.

"No!" The guttural word erupted from his throat, emphasizing the vicious gesture he made with his bleeding hands. "Why are you showing me this?"

"You must stop it." The bear turned away from the carnage to face Durc. Durc found that he could look the bear in the eye, though he wasn't sure if it was he who had gotten bigger or the bear who had shrunk.

"How?"

"Their leader is the son-who-could-be of the man of the Others."

"Jondalar?" Durc spit out the word vehemently, wanting nothing more than to kill the man right there.

The bear nodded. "Yes."

"Then how do I kill him?"

"No!"

Durc frowned at the bear's vehemence. More softly, though with no less fury, the bear continued, "It is not the man's fate to die, nor is it yours to kill him. You must help him mate Ayla."

Durc opened his mouth to shout his defiance, but the bear cuffed him so hard he fell to the ground. Now he was certain the bear had grown: it towered over him with such majesty and terribleness that he knew at last who it was.

"Ursus! I…"

"Silence!" The bear's roar echoed throughout the landscape. "You will do as I say, Durc!"

"Yes Ursus."

"The man of the others must mate with Ayla."

"Yes Ursus."

"It is the only way to save the Clan."

"Yes Ursus."

"You will do nothing to hamper their progress."

"Yes Ursus."

"Good. Now go. Tell no one of what you have seen."

"Yes Ursus."

The scene began to fade, and Durc found himself back in the cave that he called home. Just for a moment, the huge, terrible figure of Ursus loomed just beyond the opening, but, before Durc could see it properly, it had faded. All that was left of its coming was an object clutched tightly in Durc's fist. When he looked at it, he found a claw, one that looked exactly like the ones that had so recently threatened him.