Ayla

Ayla is the main character of Jean Auel's Earth's Children novels, a series which started in 1980. She is a Cro-Magnon woman who was raised by Neanderthals. Ayla was played by Daryl Hannah as the older version and by Nicole Eggert as the younger version in the 1986 film The Clan of the Cave Bear. Ayla's character has been described as an example of the "rebellious primordial" that conquers adversity with wit and will. Background Ayla is orphaned as a young Cro-Magnon child after an earthquake opens a fissure in the ground, directly underneath her and her mother's campsite, brutally taking the woman (and all of her tools and survival essentials) underground to her death. It was mentioned a few times that the location of the camp was odd, and not near any other known Cro-Magnon settlements. Ayla happens to be swimming in a river adjacent to the campsite when an earthquake strikes; she watches, in shock and horror, as her mother is helplessly pulled into the depths of the earth's crust in front of her very eyes, along with all of their belongings and any clothing the child had. Wandering aimlessly (without clothing), alone, frightened, hungry and helpless, Ayla eventually stumbles upon a cave lion, which chases her, forcing her to retreat into a narrow crack in a rock wall. Attempting to pull her out, the lion's claws gash open Ayla's leg, leaving four deep, parallel scratches on her thigh. The girl remains hidden in the rocks, for a day, in terror; driven by thirst, Ayla emerges from her hiding place to drink at a nearby stream, where she subsequently faints and collapses. She was extremely delirious from the shock of witnessing her mother's death, the stress of being pursued by a cave lion, and still desperately thirsty and in need of sustenance. Soon, she is found by a group of Neanderthals, a "clan" led by Brun; Ayla is then adopted by Iza, the clan's medicine-woman, and her brother, Creb, the clan's "Mog-ur" (shaman). Though no one in the story can possibly know Ayla's age for certain, author Jean Auel places Ayla at the age of five years in the book's second paragraph, with her foster family eventually guessing her age, accurately. See The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage, The Shelters of Stone and The Land of Painted Caves for a detailed synopsis of Ayla's life.