Ayla was walking, following the bed of a dried-off river, admiring the wonders of nature and, as always, unconsciously analyzing the plants that grew around her. It was spring and all kinds of flowers were blooming as far as she could see. There had been rain the last few days, and even though the sun had been shining brightly all day, there were still a few drops of dew every here and there.

She lifted her head as she rounded the bend of another mountain and in the distance, her gaze fell on an unexpected and terrifying sight. A gigantic skull lay on the ground, next to a small lake, with a few trees growing near it and a few birds flying around. It must have been there for a long time, but what kind of beast has such an enormous head? Not a mammoth, that she knew, but what could be bigger than a mammoth?

She approached wearily, holding Whinney close with an arm across the horse’s back. The two friends were used to travelling together and stumbling upon weird sights, but they both knew that danger was always lurking. It was a wild world, after all, and humans were few.

As they got closer, the sun getting low over the distant mountains, they discovered an obviously man-made path leading up to the giant skull. Ayla squinted her eyes… “Whinney, there are people living here!” she motioned the horse forward excitingly, always eager to meet new people and discover new things.

She came to a sudden stop when a women emerged from the skull. She was tall, blonde, with blue eyes and had something familiar in her features but Ayla couldn’t quite discern it. The woman dropped the basket she was carrying, putting shaking hands to her face. “It’s you… It can’t be! Who… Who are you?”

Ayla didn’t understand the language that the woman was using, but she felt that she should. Not like when she met Jondalar, no, this particular language was known to her… Somewhere, hidden in the back of her mind, a long-lost memory emerged. She took a step forward, toward the woman that looked so much like herself.

Just as she was about to speak, a man’s head appeared on top of the giant skull. There seemed to be some sort of ladder there, to reach the top easily from inside. It was a really clever construction that reminded her of the Mamutoi and their own houses made of earth and mammoth horns. Ayla really wanted to explore it more, but first she needed to know why this scene felt so familiar.

The woman had approached, and was standing in front of her now. Still trembling like a leaf, she put a hand on Ayla’s cheek, cupping it as if a child’s, and murmured soothing, familiar, long forgotten words that drew tears to her eyes. Submerged by feelings she couldn’t even describe, Ayla closed them and leaned in to the touch. She didn’t have a clue what was happening here, but somehow… She was home.