Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel Read Free Book Online

at a time.”
    “She was good. But she probably practiced as long with that throwing stick as you did with your sling. I don’t think that kind of skill is something to be gained in one season.”
    “But if this grass wasn’t so tall, I might have been able to see what Wolf was going after in time to get my sling and some stones out. I thought it was probably a vole.”
    “We should keep our eyes open for anything else that Wolf might scare up,” Jondalar said.
    “I had my eyes open. I just can’t see anything!” Ayla said. She looked at the sky to check the position of the sun, and she stretched up to try to see over the grass. “But you’re right. It wouldn’t hurt to think about getting fresh meat for tonight. I’ve seen all kinds of plants that are good to eat. I was going to stop and gather some, but they seem to be all over, and I’d rather do it later and have them fresh, not after they’ve wilted in this hot sun. We still have some of the bison roast left that we got from Feather Grass Camp, but it will only last one more meal, and there’s no reason to use the dried traveling meat at this time of year, when there is plenty of fresh food around. How much longer before we stop?”
    “I don’t think we’re far from the river—it’s getting cooler, and this high grass usually grows in lowlands around water. Once we reach it, we can start looking for a place to camp as we go downriver,” Jondalar said, starting out again.
    The stand of high grass extended all the way to the river’s edge, though it was intermixed with trees near the damp bank. They stopped to let the horses drink, and they dismounted to quench their own thirst,using a small, tightly woven basket as a dipper and cup. Wolf soon darted out of the grass, noisily lapped up his own drink, then plopped down and watched Ayla, with his tongue hanging out, panting heavily.
    Ayla smiled. “Wolf is hot, too. I think he has been exploring,” she said. “I’d like to know all the things he’s found out. He sees a lot more than we do in this high grass.”
    “I’d like to get beyond it before we make camp. I’m used to seeing farther and this makes me feel closed in. I don’t know what’s out there, and I like knowing what’s around me,” Jondalar said, as he reached for his mount. Holding on to Racer’s back just below his stiff, stand-up mane, with a strong jump the man threw a leg over and, bracing himself with his arms, landed lightly astride the sturdy stallion. He guided the horse away from the softened riverbank to firmer ground, before heading downriver.
    The great steppes were by no means a single, huge, undifferentiated landscape of gracefully swaying stalks. Tallgrass grew in selected areas of ample moisture, which also contained a great diversity of other plants. Dominated by grasses more than five feet tall but ranging up to twelve feet in height—big bulbous bluestem, feather grasses, and tufted fescues—the colorful forb meadows added a variety of flowering and broad-leaved herbs: aster and coltsfoot; yellow, many-petaled elecampane and the big white horns of datura; groundnuts and wild carrots, turnips and cabbages; horseradish, mustard, and small onions; irises, lilies, and buttercups; currants and strawberries; red raspberries and black.
    In the semiarid regions of little rainfall, shortgrasses, less than a foot and a half tall, had evolved. They stayed close to the ground with most of the growth underneath, and vigorously sent out new shoots, especially in times of drought. They shared the land with brush, particularly artemisias like wormwood and sage.
    Between those two extremes were the midgrasses, filling niches too cold for shortgrass or too dry for tallgrass. Those meadows of moderate moisture could be colorful, too, with many flowering plants intermixed with the grassy ground cover of wild oats, foxtail barley, and, particularly on slopes and uplands, little bluestems. Cordgrass grew where the land was