History Characters / EarthsChildrenAyla

* ImperiledInPregnancy: ** Late in ''The Land of Painted Caves'', [[spoiler:she has a powerful drug-induced vision and unknowingly runs into a series of sacred caves, not long after realising she's pregnant. When she comes back to her senses, she's lost and alone in the caves with no food, water, light or adequate clothing. She's terrified she'll die down in the caves; luckily Wolf finds her and guides her out, but she subsequently realises she's had a miscarriage, much to her sorrow]].

* AdultAdoptee: After living with and growing close to the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi, they ask her to formally join them, with Talut and Nezzie offering to adopt her. However, to everyone's surprise the shaman Mamut is the one to formally adopt her, although Talut and Nezzie are still like parents to her; the whole camp basically becomes one extended family for Ayla, which is a big deal for her because she was orphaned as a child and forced to leave the family who raised her. Even after leaving the Mamutoi to join the Zelandonii she proudly states she's "Ayla of the Mamutoi" when people ask where she's from.

* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: People are generally shocked (even by Cro-Magnon standards where teenage pregnancy is common) when they find out how young she was when she had her first child. She was only ''eleven'', she having been raped by Broud. She isn't considered unusual by Clan standards, as they reach physical maturity much sooner, but when Jondalar figures out how young she was, [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer she has to assure him the age is, in fact, correct]]. As it turns out, being pregnant at such a young age causes Ayla a lot of health problems and she suffers an excruciating and dangerous birth. To put this further into perspective, by the time she's twenty, she has two kids under ten, one of whom is nearly ''half'' her age.

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: She has golden blonde hair and is extremely attractive.

* AllGirlsLikePonies: She adopts an orphaned foal out of loneliness and becomes one of the first people to tame and ride horses.

* HeroesLoveDogs: More specifically, a wolf she adopts as a cub.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: She has a way with animals, especially horses, wolves and even a ''cave lion''.

* InnocentBlueEyes: She has wide, blue-grey eyes and is kind and pure-hearted.

* DistressedDamsel: Largely averted, as she's pretty good at [[DamselOutOfDistress getting herself out of scrapes]], but one standout example is in the sixth book, where an AxCrazy guy named Balderan [[spoiler: takes her hostage and tries to strangle her]] as part of his plan to escape capture. It doesn't end so well for him, though, because Jondalar is standing nearby...

* BoobsOfSteel: She is a physically tough woman (even by Cro-Magnon standards) with an explicitly large set of breasts. No definitive size is given but she does become big enough to store enough milk to feed a [[RapidAging rapidly maturing baby]] for ''years''. All the while going through puberty.

* BladeOnAStick: When she isn't using her sling (mostly when she needs to hunt larger prey), she uses a spear. She teaches herself to use one in ''The Valley of Horses'', having learnt how to make one by watching Droog's work. She's initially apprehensive about it, as Clan women are forbidden from using weapons (she was permitted by Brun to hunt with a sling, but ''only'' a sling), but she realizes she needs a spear to get food and survive by herself. She initially uses a typical Clan spear, which are quite short, heavy and used primarily as a stabbing weapon, until Jondalar shows her how to make and use the spears used by Cro-Magnon, which are lighter and [[JavelinThrower can be thrown]].

[[TheProtagonist The main protagonist]] of the series. She is notable for being taken in and raised by Neanderthals (the Clan) after her family died and spends much of the story trying to find a place to belong.

* LoveMartyr: She comes across as a bit of one towards Jondalar in ''The Mammoth Hunters''; even when he's being a sullen jerk and emotionally neglecting her for reasons she doesn’t understand, she still loves him and is distraught that he doesn’t seem to love her any longer.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Following the events of the first book, Ayla can never return to the clan who raised her for a few reasons. Firstly, she was cursed with death, so everyone in the clan has been conditioned to see her as literally dead and would ignore her as a restless spirit. Secondly, the clan's cave was destroyed by an earthquake. Thirdly, because of the cave's destruction they would need to find a new home and Ayla has no idea where that is. When Ayla is considering trying to find the clan tobreunite with her son, she comes against these problems and ultimately realises there's no practical solution around them, accepting that the clan is no longer her home.

* [[SociallyAwkwardHero Socially Awkward Heroine]] / NoSocialSkills: Downplayed. Ayla is a total badass when it comes to hunting and healing, but when interacting with other people, she sometimes comes across as a bit odd or awkward, due to her mannerisms picked up from the Clan, in particular her tendency to be very honest, which can make her seem rather blunt. However, once people get to know her, they usually warm up to her due to her friendly and compassionate nature.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: When Jondalar tells Ayla of his fears he profaned the sanctity of First Rites by making the girls he deflowered [[SexEqualsLove fall 'in love' with him]] (even if only for that night), Ayla says she really doesn't think this sounds so bad, bluntly asking Jondalar if he knows what it's like to have your first sexual experience involve a man who doesn't care about you at all violently force himself on you (which Ayla sadly has personal experience with). Jondalar realizes Ayla has a point and that maybe he didn't do anything so wrong after all.

* BigDamnHeroes: Twice in the fourth book; first she comes riding in [[HorseBackHeroism on her horse]] to stop Attaroa from killing Jondalar, and then again with Jondalar when they come to a Clan couple's rescue.

* BrattyHalfPint: Several members of the Clan see her as this when she's a girl due to her nonconformance (whether conscious or not) with Clan customs.

* {{Claustrophobia}}: Getting snowed in during blizzards without an understanding of air holes--snuffs out any fire and increases [=CO2=] levels--brings this out in her. The first occurrence is during the death curse (complete communal shunning and ostracization). "The evil spirits, they tricked me. They made me think I was alive in my cave, but I am dead."
* ConstantlyCurious: A central trait of her's. It leads to her making some pretty amazing discoveries and innovations...but it also [[CuriosityIsACrapshoot gets her in trouble at times]], especially when she's living with the Clan (who struggle to grasp new concepts and deviances from the norm).

* LastGirlWins: For Jondalar. She’s the last love interest he meets and the only one (besides Zolena years ago) that he truly falls in love with. [[spoiler: Even when he sleeps with Marona in the sixth book, it’s made abundantly clear that Ayla is the one he loves and he vows never to sleep with anyone but her (which is unusual in the setting)]].
* LittleMissBadass: By the time she was ten, she was a very capable huntress, even taking on predators such as lynxs and hyenas, and also survives living alone for a whole month.
* LoveMartyr: She comes across as a bit of one towards Jondalar in ''The Mammoth Hunters''; even when he’s being a sullen jerk and emotionally neglecting her for reasons she doesn’t understand, she still loves him and is distraught that he doesn’t seem to love her any longer.

** When her newborn son is considered deformed - meaning he must be left to die - Ayla runs away with him to a small cave she had lived in when she was cursed with death a year or so earlier, intending to return after seven days, as if a baby lives that long, it must be accepted by the clan's leader. This is despite the fact she is still torn, heavily bleeding and quite weak from her traumatic birth, which almost ''killed'' her. She later stands up to Broud in front of everyone and calls him out when he tries to separate her from her son, and vehemently defends him and his half-Clan heritage from her own people.
** She's also very protective of her animals, some of whom she regards as her children.