Slowly, the seasons turned, the leaves of the woods turning yellow as the temperatures dropped and the cooler winds of autumn began to blow. The women were busy gathering large quantities of nuts, mushrooms, small apples and pears, berries, all kinds of roots, herbs, and other greens and vegetables to be stored for the winter. The men went out to the steppes for big hunts even more often, trying to make their storage of meat large enough to comfortably last until spring.

Zoug and Ayla, too, contributed to the storage of meat, going out together often to hunt small game. Once, they even brought home a small roe deer, having stunned it with three stones to the head before Zoug had quickly slit its throat.

The morning before the day of another hunt close to the end of the season, Brun found Broud striding over to his hearth after the morning meal.

"Broud," Brun began when Ebra had served the men tea and had excused herself to leave them to their privacy, as Broud had requested to talk to Brun alone. "What is it that you wish to speak about?"

He could see from his body language that Broud was angry, but he had no idea why. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened as far as he knew.

"We need to talk about Zoug and his mate," Broud replied, brows knitted together in a frown.

Brun sighed inwardly. Like everyone, he hadn't missed that Broud was anything but pleased with the unusual couple, but had hoped that the son of his mate would let these feelings go over time.

"What about them?"

Broud let out an incredulous grunt. "You can't tell me that you haven't noticed, Brun!"

"Noticed what?" If the son of his mate had a complaint, he would have to speak it plainly like Brun would expect from all the men of his clan.

Broud's next words were calmer, though it took him a visible effort. "Both Zoug and his mate are breaking Clan traditions and flaunting it. They are a bad example for everyone, especially the children. I ask that the leader put an end to it."

"Tell me," Brun demanded, "how exactly they are breaking Clan traditions, and how you fear that it will affect others."

He did not feel as if Zoug and Ayla's mating had a detrimental effect on the clan, and none but Broud had so far mentioned anything like it to him. But he did wonder sometimes if he was overlooking something, unusual as it all was. If Broud could give him insight into an aspect he might have overlooked, he would think about it.

"You know I was not in favour of letting Ayla hunt," Broud began, "but Mog-ur made it clear that the spirits wish for it. I can't argue with the spirits. But it's not acceptable that she should go out to hunt with a man. There have been times when she came home with kills and Zoug didn't. It's implying that a woman could be a better hunter than a man! Imagine that boys and girls learn this idea by watching them!"

It was clear to Brun that while Broud tried to make a reasonable argument that went beyond his personal discomfort, none of it made much sense if he thought further about it.

"So you're telling me Ayla should only be allowed to go out hunting alone, is that it?"

"Yes," Broud nodded his agreement.

"Tell me, then, if Zoug and Ayla go hunting separately on the same day and he doesn't succeed while she does, is that any different from them hunting together with the same result?"

Broud couldn't answer, but only shake his head.

"And also, if any other man hunts on the same day as Ayla and fails while she succeeds, what then? Are you asking me to only allow her to hunt on days when no man will hunt? How would I make sure that such days even exist? I can't forbid a man from hunting in the afternoon just because Ayla went hunting in the morning. It's not a leader's place to interfere in his people's life to such a degree, and it would be bad for the entire clan and deprive us of much needed food."

Broud looked stunned - obviously, he hadn't thought of the deeper implications of his request.

"This is why women shouldn't be allowed to hunt in the first place!" he finally managed. "It brings nothing but strife and confusion."

"Ayla was chosen by the ancient spirits to follow their ways, and it's not negotiable," Brun declared firmly. "None of the women or girls show any interest in hunting like Ayla does, since they don't have the memories for it. Watching her won't change that. And none of the other men seem as bothered as you by her hunting. None of them has come to me to complain about her making kills while they didn't. I will admit that it's a strange feeling to know that she is better with a sling than me, even if it's only a weapon for small game. But the meals at Zoug's hearth taste no worse for her having provided the meat, and I am man enough to respect another hunter's skill, even if she is a woman."

Brun hadn't spoken those words to anyone before and hadn't planned on it, either. But now he realised they were true. As strange as it was, Ayla was a fellow hunter of sorts.

"You are not telling me," he went on, "that you feel like less of a man because she might have brought home a rabbit or goose once in a while, while you returned to the cave empty-handed, are you, Broud?"

"Of course not!" Broud's gestures were sharp. "I still think it's a bad example to set. Zoug isn't behaving properly either. He's teaching her hunting instead of making sure his mate is taking care of the hearth as she should."

"Did he mention her womanly skills being deficient?" Brun inquired.

Broud shook his head no. "It's obvious, though. Nobody could be a hunter and perform all women's tasks well at the same time. And Zoug is letting her be lazy, he's even taken to serving her in the mornings as if he were the woman and she the man! It's unacceptable!" Broud's gestures had become more and more forceful at his last statement.

Brun had seen during the last few phases of the moon that Zoug had sometimes handed Ayla a cup for rinsing her mouth after throwing up. Nobody in the cave could have missed Ayla's terrible morning sickness and how she sometimes lost control of her stomach at other times of the day as well. Also, he had noticed that except for her swelling midsection, she seemed thinner than she had been before her pregnancy, her skin had grown even paler, and her hair had grown thinner and lost its shine.

It wasn't usual for a man to pay this close attention to a woman's appearance, especially if she wasn't his mate, but as the leader, Brun felt responsible for all the members of his clan. The medicine woman would tell him if there was anything to truly worry about, and he trusted Iza implicitly. She was the first of all medicine women, and none could compete with her skill. Still, he liked to keep an eye on everyone all the same.

This did not, however, include the time that people spend at their own hearths. If he'd seen Zoug serving Ayla a drink, it had been accidental, as everyone sometimes saw the goings-on at other hearths by chance. It sounded as if Broud had deliberately observed the couple, however.

"This is happening regularly?" Brun asked.

"Every morning," Broud nodded. "What are you going to do about it?"

"First, I'm going to ask you why you behave like a rude child instead of a man. Staring into other people's hearths is something you were taught not to do already in your weaning year."

Broud spluttered, obviously not having expected the reprimand.

When no answer came forward, Brun pressed on. "You say that they're setting a bad example. Do you feel the wish to perform women's tasks now that you've witnessed this?"

"No! I could never want to do women's work!"

"Then tell me what is so wrong about Zoug being kind and considerate of his mate's health," Brun demanded. "He's handing her a cup, nothing more. There is no harm in treating a woman well, especially if she is carrying the future child of a man's hearth. Eventually, her pregnancy will be over and it will end. And as far as I can see, she hasn't been lazy - on the contrary. She's performed all of her duties and has gone hunting on top of it."

"It's unclanlike!" Broud argued heatedly, speaking almost before Brun had finished his sentence in his frustration. "We should live by the memories, as we've done since we became Clan. It's kept us alive for so many generations, how can you now throw it all away?"

It wasn't like Brun couldn't understand Broud's feelings. By now, his head hurt like it had every time he'd had to make a decision outside of the scope of his memories. This was a talk for mog-urs, a complicated matter that he was sure no other leader had ever had to deal with. Part of him even wanted to agree with Broud. And still . . .

"If your argument is solely that it's unclanlike, then I have to tell you that there are more things to be upset about. Like Creb, or Ona, or Brac."

Confused, Broud frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Creb's mere existence is unclanlike," Brun explained. "He should have been exposed to die at birth, and yet now he is alive and the greatest Mog-Ur that has ever lived. Do you wish the leader before me had stuck to Clan traditions with him?"

"I . . . no," Broud returned, stunned.

"Ayla's swimming is unclanlike, too, yet it saved Ona's life. Her hunting is even worse, as you pointed out yourself, yet it saved Brac's life. Do you wish she had stuck to tradition in both of these cases and looked on helplessly, dooming two children of the clan to certain death, one of them the son of your mate and the future leader?"

"No, but . . ." Again, Broud could only shake his head in frustration. "It's just not right! Any of it. Ever since she's been with us, nothing is as it should be according to the memories. I wish Iza had never found her!"

Brun sighed. "I know," he said. "Don't think that I never felt the same. When Iza picked her up and I had to decide whether she could keep her, when Mog-ur revealed her incredible totem, when I had to decide how to punish her after her skills with the sling had been revealed - those were exceptionally difficult situations, Broud. Every instinct in me wanted to simply follow tradition and the memories, like I had always done before. But sometimes . . . sometimes it's more complicated than that, especially for a leader who has to think of the good of his entire clan."

Broud huffed unhappily. "It shouldn't be."

Brun inclined his head. "Maybe, but the world is not as we wish it to be. It is as it is. Life is not always easy. And sometimes, different ways may be not entirely traditional but still worthwhile, within reason. We've always had good luck since Ayla came to us. The spirits favour her, and I'm not going to punish her or interfere with Zoug's treatment of her when they've done nothing to harm this clan."

Brun saw that Broud knew his words were final, as he slumped slightly, not making any attempt to contradict anymore. Instead, he got up.

"It's your place to decide as the leader," he deferred, but Brun was well aware that Broud strongly disagreed with him.

He said nothing, though, but only nodded his agreement.

"I am going now." With these words, Broud left Brun's hearth, and Brun to his thoughts.

There was no action needed regarding Zoug and Ayla, that much was clear to Brun. If anything, he was now even more convinced than before that their mating was a successful one, and that they were not doing anything wrong. Reasoning it all out with Broud had given him that insight, he realised.

What did worry him was Broud's short-sightedness regarding matters that affected the whole clan. He understood that the son of his mate was uncomfortable with untraditional ways - as Brun himself was, too - but a leader should be able to think about such matters more deeply, Ayla's presence among them had taught him that much. He only hoped that his words would move Broud to change his mind eventually. For now, though, there wasn't much he could do regarding this matter.

Life in the cave had moved on during their talk, and when Brun looked around, he found that he was alone. Everyone else had apparently gone to utilise the good weather of the late autumn day and spend time outside. He got up and stretched, feeling his muscles loosen as he did so. Maybe he could go on a short hunting trip by himself to calm his aching head before he would talk to the men about tomorrow's hunt in the late afternoon.

When he exited the cave, his eyes fell on Zoug, though, who had moved to his favourite spot in the shade of a pine tree.

.-.-.-.-.

That morning, some of the younger men had gone to hunt smaller game in the woods and Ayla had gone with Uba to gather more herbs for Iza's pharmacopoeia so she wouldn't run out in the winter. For some time now, Iza had seldom gone herself, but had relied on her daughters to make trips into the woods.

Zoug was sitting in front of the cave, busy repairing spears for all the hunters in preparation of tomorrow's hunt. The fire-hardened tips were as sturdy as the shafts, but eventually, they became dull and had to be sharpened and hardened again, which was a task he and Dorv had taken to sharing as they had retired. He was just starting to shave away at the tip of the third spear when Brun approached him, sitting down next to Zoug, who put away the spear to greet the leader.

"I see you started early on the spears for tomorrow," Brun began. "I'm glad that I have such experienced men in my clan who help to make a hunt successful even if they no longer go out themselves."

Warmed by the acknowledgment, Zoug replied. "I am glad that I can be of use to my clan still."

"You are, in more than one way. Your contribution to our stores, and that of your mate, is greatly appreciated. Speaking of her, how are you finding it to be a mated man again?"

"I find it extremely pleasing. There's nothing better than having your own hearth and a mate who takes care of it well. It's rejuvenating. I've felt younger these last few moons than I have during the previous years."

"I'm glad to hear it. I have been wondering sometimes if I made the right decision. Ayla is an unusual woman."

"She is, but I must say that find myself enjoying some of her differences. It's not easy in all respects," Zoug amended. "I'll admit that the first time she managed to make a kill while I didn't, I was . . . uncomfortable. But in the end, I'm proud of what she has accomplished."

Brun nodded, gratified with Zoug's response. "Your mate and her skills reflect well on you, Zoug, as does your willingness to accept her differences."

Brun made to say more, but it was at this moment that Ayla and Uba appeared at the edge of the woods, and by the way they walked and held themselves, Zoug could immediately tell that there was something wrong.

Others saw it as well, and Iza quickly got up from where she had been sitting weaving baskets with Uka and Ika, hurrying over to her daughters.

"Iza," Uba gestured, in plain view for all to see, "Ayla is bleeding!"