Line #1 Awesome/EarthsChildren


1	!!All spoilers are unmarked
2	----
3	* The ceremony for Ayla's "Woman Who Hunts" initiation. Creb has gone all-out to search the ancestral memories to find precedent for Ayla's violation of the law against women hunting or touching weapons. Thousands of years before, the Clan did have women hunters and enshrined powerful female spirits, who will protect Ayla as a hunter. His invocation is spine-chilling. ''We have one of your own with us, one who has walked with your shades and returned...''
4	* Oga standing up to Broud when he tries to bar her from nursing Durc, calmly reminding him that whils it's within a ''man's'' right to say who lives at his hearth, one of the few ironclad rights of ''women'' is to nurse any child they want, and his authority means little against this. It's by far the most outright defiant act of any Clan woman (who are ''genetically adapted'' to obey men) in the novel.
5	* When Ayla stands up to Broud at the end of ''The Clan of the Cave Bear'' after he curses her with death and gives him [[BadassBoast this speech]]: "I'm not dead, Broud. I won't die. You can't make me die. You can make me go away, you can take my son from me, but you can't make me die!"
6	* In ''The Valley of Horses'', when Jondalar calls her adopted family "animals" and her son an "abomination" for being of mixed spirits, Ayla rips him a new one, vehemently defending her family, calling him out on his knee-jerk prejudice and hypocrisy for claiming to be more civilised whilst vilifying her son for the way he was born and the Clan for being different, and for daring to judge ''her'' over being ''raped'' by Broud, culminating in her telling him that if she had a choice between living with his people or with hyenas, she'd "choose the stinking hyenas"[[note]]keeping in mind that hyenas have been Ayla's worst and most hated enemy since she began hunting[[/note]] before leaping onto her horse and galloping off, leaving Jondalar gobsmacked and utterly shamed. He himself states she was "magnificent" in that moment.
7	* At the Mamutoi Summer Meeting in ''The Mammoth Hunters'', Baby arrives looking for Ayla, having followed her scent and terrifies everyone. The hunters try to kill him, only for Ayla to intervene, putting herself between them. Then, in front of hundreds of people, she not only fearlessly approaches and strokes the biggest lion they've ever seen, but ''climbs onto his back and rides off'', leaving everyone completely speechless.
8	* In the same book, Ayla is furious when she learns that the mamuts won't allow Rydag to have a funeral because he's a hybrid and so considered subhuman. She chews them out - keeping in mind that these guys are the spiritual leaders of the Mamutoi and very powerful - and then proceeds to hold a funeral for him anyway, Clan-style. Everyone watching Ayla's ceremony can tell that the Clan must be a lot more intelligent and sophisticated than they've been led to believe.
9	* In the fourth book, the fact that Guban ''jumped off a cliff'' and then fought off several men at once ''whilst his leg was broken'' to protect his mate.
10	* Jondalar punching Charoli in the face and yelling "[[AndThisIsFor That's for Madenia]]!" (the girl Charoli assaulted).

Context Awesome / EarthsChildren