History Characters / EarthsChildrenAyla

* MinorLivingAlone: In ''The Clan of the Cave Bear'', she lives alone for a whole month [[spoiler: after being temporarily cursed with death for using a weapon]]. In ''The Valley of Horses'', she lives completely alone (discounting her pets) from the age of fourteen to seventeen in steppeland, until she meets Jondalar.

* MsFanservice: From the second book onwards, especially when described from [[MaleGaze Jondalar's perspective]].

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: She saves Brac, Broud's son, from a hyena attack. She then gets cursed with death for a month for breaking the Clan's rules about women using weapons, with [[UngratefulBastard Broud]] actually pushing for a permanent curse.

* TheAloner: For a good part of ''The Valley Of Horses''. She's actually surviving completely alone in the wilderness, using all the skills she learned in the Clan, for around three years.
* AmazonianBeauty: Played straight; she has an athletic build - Jondalar even thinks she's one of the strongest women he's ever seen – and is very beautiful, though by Clan standards (and in her own opinion), she's seen as more of a BrawnHilda.

* TheApprentice: She learns several useful skills from older, more experiences mentors.

* BerserkButton: She is usually a reasonable and open-minded person, but insulting her half-Clan son and her adopted family, or calling the Clan 'animals', sends into a seething rage.

* ChristmasCake: She thinks of herself as one in ''The Shelters of Stone''; she's 19 years old when she finally gets married. This is more justified as Clan girls reach menarche at 9 or 10, and it's not unusual for women of the Others to have children by 16.

** ContraceptionDeception: She starts taking a contraceptive tea without telling her lover Jondalar in ''The Plains of Passage''; they both want children but as they're in the middle of a long and dangerous journey to Jondalar's homeland a pregnancy would be far from ideal. She does consider telling him but doesn't get around to it, as Iza had ingrained in her not to tell men about the tea as some may react badly to finding out women can control their fertility. It doesn't help that most people in the setting [[MissConception don't understand how pregnancy occurs]], namely not realizing that sexual intercourse is a big component; Ayla figures it out and tells Jondalar of her theories, but he's a bit skeptical. Jondalar privately worries over the fact Ayla hasn't gotten pregnant yet, believing there may be something wrong with him (as he knows Ayla has previously given birth) although a shaman he confides in suggests that the Great Mother knows they're not yet ready for a baby. After the most difficult part of their journey is over, Ayla impulsively decides not to drink the tea and quickly gets pregnant.

* SufferTheSlings: Her primary WeaponOfChoice. She first learned how to use a sling after finding a discarded one and watching Zoug teaching the boys how to use them. She secretly practised every day until she was at expert level, just as good, if not better, than the male hunters in the Clan. Even among her own kind, her skill with a sling is nigh unrivalled. She even developed a technique that allows her to fire two stones nearly simultaneously (which may not actually be possible in real life). Her skill with a sling inspires Jondalar to create 'spear throwers' (atlatl).

* BettyAndVeronica:
** In a gender-flipped example, she has the choice between Ranec (the Betty) and Jondalar (the Veronica).
** She herself is the Betty to Marona's Veronica for Jondalar.

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

** Ayla is actually [[UpToEleven only eleven]] when she gives birth to her son. It nearly kills her as a result.

* UnusualPetForUnusualPeople: In the second and third books she adopts a cave lion and a wolf as pets. She also has the more mundane horses, though even having those as pets is considered highly unusual in the setting, as domesticating animals is a new concept many people have never even considered trying or thought possible. Some people say they can believe she can tame horses and maybe even a wolf but draw the line at a lion...until they see her petting said lion and climbing on his back. It marks Ayla as someone who is innovative, willing to go outside the norm, has impressive abilities and a great deal of courage given she shows no fear towards even the predatory animals; even though she often wants to fit in she inevitably stands out, seeing as she's accompanied by her pets almost everywhere she goes.

* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler: Where she originally came from and who her birth tribe was]].

* BoobsOfSteel: She is a physically tough woman(even by Cro-Magnon standards)with a 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.

* 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]]. RealityEnsues, as 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.

* AgeLift: In the film adaptation, she appears to be in her twenties, or possibly her late teens, during the second half of the movie (Daryl Hannah was about 25 during filming). In the book, she was only fourteen by the end of the novel and didn't reach her twenties until the ''last book''. This was probably done for practical/ethical reasons, given that the book depicts Ayla being raped by Broud and giving birth to Durc when she's only ''eleven years old''.

* SurprisePregnancy: Her pregnancy in ''The Clan of the Cave Bear'' comes as a complete shock to the clan, as most people believed her totem was too strong to be overcome by any of the men's (the Clan believe women are impregnated when their totems are defeated by a man's, though Ayla's totem is a freaking ''[[PantheraAwesome Cave Lion]]''). Ayla herself doesn't realise she's pregnant until Iza notices the symptoms and points it out to her. Even with a modern understanding of conception, Ayla's pregnancy is highly unusual: she's only ''eleven''.

* AnimalMotif: The [[PantheraAwesome cave lion]], which is her totem animal. She is strong in both mind and body, brave and powerful, yet also protective and nurturing. She is nearly killed by a cave lion as a child, who claws her leg and leaves her with scars resembling the Clan's symbol for lion, which Creb believes was the Cave Lion spirit claiming her. Lions sre also directly or indirectly involved in other important events in her life throughout the series.[[note]]Among others, the cave she lives in for three years was once the home of lions, her adopted lion Baby 'brings' Jondalar to her, and her first experience living with a Cro-Magnon society us with the Lion Camp[[/note]]

* AnimalMotif: The [[PantheraAwesome cave lion]], which is her totem animal.

* YourCheatingHeart: Towards the end of ''The Land of Painted Caves'', she [[spoiler: has sex with ''[[SlimeBall Laramar]]'', of all people, mostly to get back at Jondalar for cheating on her with Marona (although the Zelandonii don't actually have a concept of cheating, it's still seen as a betrayal). She actually has no interest in Laramar and deeply regrets it. Also, given she was extremely drunk at the time, it's...[[QuestionableConsent debatable]] as to how coherent she was]].

* TragicKeepsake: The cloak she used to carry her son with becomes this for her. She only takes it with her to remind herself of him after she's forced to leave him and she sometimes [[CradleOfLoneliness holds it close to her]] for comfort. She eventually leaves it behind in the third book, when she accepts she will probably never see him again.