Hello everybody! Here's a little information:

1: To those of you who wonder why I chose a prehistoric panther as a companion for Elandi, I just have to say that I don't know. It just felt "right".

2: The chapters will vary in lenght depending on the theme. Some will be short, like Chapter 1, and some like this, will be long.

3: The more subscription and critics I get, the better the story gets!

I hope you all like my story, but please R&R anyway!

The Chase

Elandi was scared. The blond man neared slowly, a knife in his hand. The coyote-like animal stayed with the blond woman. Nala stayed watch over her, snarling at the world in general.

"Nala, go. They will harm you. Go!" she whispered at the big, black cat. Nala meowed softly and rubbed her head against Elandi's arm. "Nala, go!" she pushed her friend away. "Go!" she said, in a loud voice. Nala looked one last time at her foster mother and best friend, and then disappeared into the forest.

Jondalar walked slowly over to the black girl on the ground. Red blood made a sticky puddle around her. The girl groaned, and rolled halfway over. Just as he reached out to touch her, she spun around, bringing up a big bone knife. If it wasn't for his lightning-fast reflexes, she would've cut his hand right off. Instead, Jondalar jerked his hand up and away, suffering only a cut right above his elbow. It wasn't deep, but it hit a nerve centre, causing the pain to double immensely. He screamed in surprise and pain, sinking down on his knees.

Ayla watched with horror as the wounded girl brought up a big, white knife and cut Jondalar above the elbow. When he screamed, she shouted "Jondalar!" and rushed towards him. The woman got up on slightly unsteady feet, and ran away into the forest the same way the black cave-lion-like animal had. Jondalar groaned as she knelt down beside him, inspecting the wound. "You were lucky, she could've cut your arm right off," Ayla said as she reached for her medicine pouch.

When she was done rinsing and bandaging Jondalar's arm, she called Whinnie and Racer and Wolf. "Come on, we must follow that poor girl," she called as she mounted Whinnie. "Why?" Jondalar asked. He had little lust to go find the woman that had tried to cut his right hand off. "Why, she's injured! That wound will kill her as surely as a knife between her ribs if it is not treated. That's why!" Jondalar had to admit that what his wife said was true. He mounted Racer, and they set off to find the girl.

In the meanwhile, the girl, or Elandi, had run and walked nearly a mile. She reached her camp, and quickly found her healing gear. She sat down with her back against a tree, and gripped hard around the spear still embedded in her arm. Then she pulled. The spear came out in a spray of blood. Elandi quickly cleaned and bandaged her wound, and then she put the spear, her big bone knife and some smaller knives in her belt, and hid everything else. She then backtracked until she could hear the hoof beats from the two horses the pair who was after her rode. Elandi waited until she could glimpse them, and rushed noisily into the underbrush. A shout from behind and the sounds of pursue told her that the plan had worked.

Quickly she picked up a stone and climbed up a nearby tree. She then threw the stone as far away in the others direction, and waited silently as the two who followed her discussed.

"No, no, I'm sure I saw her running in this direction!" Jondalar argued. Shortly after spotting the girl they had heard a rustling in the grass and leaves not far behind them. Ayla wanted to go back and check, just to be sure. But Jondalar was convinced she was just trying to trick them by throwing something. "Oh, why can't we check?" asked Ayla. She was becoming irritated now. First, Jondalar didn't want to go find the poor girl he had thrown his spear at. Then, he didn't want to go in the direction Ayla was sure she was fleeing. "Look," she sighted. "Why don't you continue in that direction, and I go back to see if she has turned around?" Jondalar agreed, and they parted.

Elandi waited until the woman was well gone, and then she slipped from tree to tree until she overtook the man. She passed without him hearing it, and settled on a low branch, hidden by the thick summer leaves.

Jondalar had not ridden far before he started wondering if Ayla had been right after all. There were no tracks, no broken sticks or bent grass at all. Then, all of sudden, he heard a rustle above his head, and something dropped down on his back.

Elandi let herself fall down on the blond man's back. In her hand she held a short, sharp flint knife. She wrapped one arm around his neck, and stabbed at his collarbone. The knife did not cut deeply, and the man reached behind his neck and gripped her arms. Then he flung her over his head and down on the ground.

The pain when he gripped around her wounded arm was immense. She screamed in pain and surprise when she was flung down on the hard ground. The fall knocked the air out of her. As she lay there, struggling for breath the man who had not only thrown a spear at her, but now also surely broken many of her ribs neared with hands balled into fists of rage.

Ayla had not gone far when she heard a piercing scream. She immediately turned Whinnie around and galloped to the place where Jondalar stood poised over the dark-skinned girl, blood flowing freely from a cut at his collarbone.

"Are you okay?" she asked him as she dismounted. Jondalar nodded, his gaze never leaving the girl who lay sprawled at the ground, looking from him to Ayla and back again with eyes wide with panic. She knelt down beside the girl, only to receive a cut to the wrist as the girl brought up her knife in self-defense.

Elandi cut at the woman who knelt down beside her. She didn't know if she hit her. Thoughts came hard. She was dully aware that she was probably dying. So this is how it is going to end… she thought sadly. NO! Something inside her screamed. Something warm and alive. She used her legs to push herself away, using the sharp pain as a stone dug into her shoulder to push away the fog inside her head. Elandi scrambled unsteadily to her feet, to the surprise of the couple who watched her. She wrapped an arm securely around a low branch, to prevent herself from falling. Then she looked properly on the couple who had chased her for the first time.

Ayla stared as the girl scrambled to her feet, and then got a secure hold around a low branch. She didn't flee, just stood there and stared. There was something strangely familiar with her, but Ayla just couldn't place her. As she pondered, she noticed that Jondalar stared from her to the brown girl and back again in confusion.

Jondalar stared at the young woman, thinking her familiar but unknown at the same time. Then he saw it: She looked just like Ayla. Only that Ayla was like day as this girl was like night. He stared open-mouthed and confused from his beloved Ayla to the alien girl by the tree.

Elandi saw the recognition and confusion in the blond man's face. She knew then that she had been discovered for what she was. As the pain in her arm intensified, she knew that she could not stay conscious for many more seconds. She lifted her injured arm, and stretched it towards the woman, as if pleading for help. Then the pain, fatigue and loss of blood became too much. She collapsed on the ground, already gone far into the swirling darkness.

So, rewieves are not appearing. This is disappointing! Rewieves, signed or not, make me update faster. Yeah, I know, I'm not a fast writer. But anyway! I got ONE rewiev about a week after i published the first chapter. That's it. ONE rewiev. I need AT LEAST TWO MORE before I update again!

BTW: Thank you Marcus for sending me that one rewiev. It really helped!!