A/N: Text in italics is once again quoted from The Mammoth Hunters by Jean Auel.
Jondalar saw Latie coming toward him. He smiled and stopped to watch her. She walked with an independent stride now, smiled confidently at people who nodded greetings.
There is a difference, he thought. It always amazed him to see the change that First Rites brought. Latie was no longer a child, or a giggling, nervous girl. Though she was still young, she moved with the assurance of a woman.
"Hello, Jondalar," she said, smiling.
"Hello, Latie. You're looking happy." A lovely young woman, he thought to himself as he smiled. His eyes conveyed his feeling. She responded with an indrawn breath and widened eyes, and then a look that answered his unconscious invitation.
"I am. I was getting so tired of staying in one place all the time. This is the first chance I've had to walk around by myself...or with anyone I want." She swayed a little closer as she looked up at him. "Where are you going?"
She looked disappointed when he told her he was looking for Ayla, and he was glad he'd not break her heart when he would leave, which would be soon.
At the same time Old Mamut was talking to Ayla: „Your reluctance is giving Vincavec hope. He asked me again today if I thought you were considering his offer. He said, if you didn't want to break your Promise, he was going to talk to Ranec about accepting him as a co-mate. His offer could increase your Bride Price substantially, and give very high status to all of you. How would you feel about it, Ayla? Would you be willing to accept Vincavec as a co-mate with Ranec?"
"Vincavec said something about that on the hunt. I'd have to talk to Ranec and see how he feels about it," Ayla said.
Mamut thought she showed remarkably little enthusiasm, either way. This was a bad time for a joining, with her grief still so strong.
On the day of the matrimonial, Vincavec was frantic. Ayla had told him days earlier that she might agree to a co-mating if Ranec would not mind, and Ranec had in turn told him he might acquiesce if Ayla or Tulie insisted. Tulie had thankfully not brought the First Rites issue to the public, and had likely stopped Brecie as well, but she had not been as supportive of his pleas as she had been before.
Vincavec, like old Mamut and the rest of the mamuti, was convinced that Ayla was not just Mamut - One Who Served the Mother - she had to be something more. Perhaps she embodied some supernatural presence; she might even be Mut Herself, incarnate. It was all the more believable because she did not flaunt it. But whatever her power, he was sure some important destiny awaited her. There was a reason for her existence, and he fervently wanted to be a part of it. She was the chosen of the Great Earth Mother.
The chosen of the Great Earth Mother had chosen the traveller from the far west, as was probably preordained, and rode with him into the sunset, leaving her people behind her to drop tears to the shroud of ash that still covered everything. Vincavec had never felt so lacking and unworthy, which he tried to mask by making snide remarks to Tulie about accepting amber for a bride who then ran.
Deegie was too happy with her mating to Branag this day to be overly sorry, but Latie was really devastated by the couple's departure, and not Jondalar's only as such.
Ever since her vision, she had been sure Ayla would teach her horse-taming magic, but that was not to be now. She would have to work out that magic all on her own if her vision was to come true, but that would take years of learning the lore of those who served beforehand, and what if the Mother blessed her in the meantime?
And wouldn't the mamuti consider her presumptuous if she asked to be an acolyte just because she would like to be able to handle horses like Ayla did? No, she decided, she would not ask; she rejected the mamuti tent anyway since they had denied her brother Rydag his humanity.