Main character page can be found here.
Ayla's Animals
The pets Ayla acquires over the course of the series. open/close all folders
In General
- Horse of a Different Color: Lions and wolves make for pretty cool pets (especially lions that let you ride on them), but even the more 'mundane' horses deserve a mention, as they are intregal to Ayla's survival and allow her to develop new methods of travel, hunting and transporting goods. If it weren't for Whinney and the travois Ayla invented, Jondalar could well have died after being attacked by Baby, as Ayla wouldn't have been able to reach him and carry him back to her cave to treat him in time.
- Interspecies Friendship: All of them live together in relative harmony and are even protective of each other. They're also all very loyal to Ayla and to a lesser extent Jondalar.
- Pale Females, Dark Males:
- Applies to the horses; in this case it's partly justified by Whinney's children happening to take after their sires in terms of colouring. Whinney has a golden yellow coat, while her son Racer has a dark bay coat like his sire and her daughter Grey has a light grey coat like her sire (making him an aversion).
- Inverted with Wolf and his mother; she had black fur while Wolf's fur lightens to a more typical grey colour.
- Pet Baby Wild Animal: All of them started out as this - Racer and Grey being possible exceptions, as they were born into Ayla's care directly. The others were all found and handreared by Ayla from infancy. They aren't truly domesticated, as they still have natural instincts and behaviours, such as hunting in the case of Baby and Wolf, which Ayla encourages, allowing them to come and go as they please.
Whinney
Whinney
Appears in: The Valley of Horses | The Mammoth Hunters | The Plains of Passage | The Shelters of Stone | The Land of Painted Caves
Whinney is a dun yellow steppe horse Ayla adopts and tames. She's the mother of Racer and Grey, and the first of Ayla's various pets.
- Agony of the Feet: While attempting to cross a glacier in The Plains of Passage, the ice is so sharp it cuts Whinney's hooves. She is unable to go on until Ayla makes booties out of leather to protect her feet.
- Cool Horse: To Ayla. After killing her dam, Ayla takes pity on the now orphaned foal, saving her from hyenas and coaxing her into her cave. Ayla raises Whinney to adulthood and she trusts Ayla enough to let her ride on her back, which is unheard of in the setting. She also helps Ayla hunt from horseback and transports heavy goods for her, making her journey across Europe easier than if she'd been solely on foot.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Debated on. Her name refers to the sound horses make. Most people pronounce it as the word 'whinny', though Ayla herself uses a mimicry of an actual horse's whinny for her name.
- I Choose to Stay: Ayla allows Whinney to leave and live with a herd of wild horses, believing she'd be happier. However, after a time Whinney returns to Ayla of her own accord and stays with her permanently.
- Odd Friendship: With Baby, a cave lion. She's initially wary of him as a cub due to him being her natural predator, but warms up to him and even becomes a nursemaid of sorts to him.
- Only Friend: For a few years, she was Ayla's only source of companionship while she lived in the Valley of Horses, with no humans around for miles.
- Translation Convention: "Whinney" is the closest approximation to what Ayla decided to call her, which is "(The Actual Whinnying Sound Of An Actual Horse)".
- Tropey, Come Home: While Ayla and Jondalar are camping for the night in The Plains of Passage, a passing herd of wild horses 'kidnap' Whinney. Ayla insists they get her back and they manage to track down the herd. Ayla is able to get close enough to climb on Whinney's back, but then things go From Bad to Worse when a group of hunters start a stampede, intentionally trying to drive the horses over a nearby cliff, and Ayla struggles to control a panicking Whinney. Jondalar loses sight of them, then is knocked unconscious and captured by the hunters; he spends days not knowing if Ayla and Whinney went over the cliff, and his captors don't believe his story about a woman riding a horse. Fortunately, Ayla was able to steer Whinney out of danger and thus avoided capture herself.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Whinney has a dun yellow coat, sometimes described as golden. Ayla has golden blonde hair, with some people noting her hair matches Whinney's coloring. They share some personality traits too; they're both strong, hardworking and affectionate, but can be nervous around strangers and especially large crowds.
- Undying Loyalty: To Ayla. Notably, she comes back to Ayla in the middle of a storm and while pregnant, after leaving for many months. She never leaves her side again, travelling all the way across the continent with her.
Baby
Baby
Appears in: The Valley of Horses | The Mammoth Hunters
Ayla's pet cave lion, whom she raised from a cub after he was abandoned.
- The Bus Came Back: He briefly reappears in The Mammoth Hunters, turning up at the Mamutoi Summer Meeting looking for Ayla. He starts advancing on a girl that resembles Ayla; fortunately, the real Ayla turns up before he or anyone else gets hurt and proceeds to climb on his back and ride off with him to the wilds, in front of everyone.
- Chekhov's Gunman: When he first appears, he just appears to be another pet Ayla takes in to alleviate her loneliness while living alone in the Valley of Horses. However, he's revealed as far more important to the plot later in the second book. A few years after Ayla adopts him, Baby attacks Jondalar and Thonolan when they enter his territory. Ayla is able to call him off, saving Jondalar's life and resulting in the pair falling in love. She even believes that Baby was supposed to bring Jondalar to her.
- Easily Forgiven: Jondalar never holds it against him for mauling him and killing his brother, probably because he knows that Baby, as an animal, didn't do it from malice and was just defending his territory, which Thonolan had recklessly entered. That, and there's not a whole lot he could do against a massive cave lion.
- Fluffy the Terrible: He's an exceptionally large lion (of a species of lion that is believed to be the largest that ever lived), who has mauled at least two people (one of them to death). Ayla calls him 'Baby', the Clan word for 'infant'.
- Horse of a Different Colour: He sometimes lets Ayla ride on his back when he grows up, though she cannot control where he goes like she would a horse.
- Interspecies Adoption: He is raised by Ayla, a human, and comes to regard her as his mother, which is one of the main reasons he obeys her commands even when he's fully grown. Ayla in turn regards him as being a 'son', which is particularly appropriate seeing as Ayla's totem is the Cave Lion (she even thinks her totem guided her to Baby for a reason).
- Odd Friendship: With Whinney, the horse. She's his natural prey, but they become pretty pally and Baby even seems to regard her as a nursemaid of sorts.
- Panthera Awesome: He's not just a cave lion, but he's one of the biggest and strongest cave lions anyone's ever seen (probably due to the exceptional amount of care Ayla gave him growing up) and he obeys almost any command Ayla gives him, even letting her ride on his back.
- Parental Abandonment: His mother abandons him after he's wounded during an elk stampede. Luckily, Ayla finds him and takes him in.
- Put on a Bus: He hasn't appeared since The Mammoth Hunters, as he remained in or around the Valley of Horses after growing up and leaving to find his own territory, while Ayla travels to the other side of the continent.
- Rugged Scar: After spending a long time away and coming back to see Ayla, she notices that Baby now has a distinctive scar on his muzzle, which she surmises he got fighting off an animal, possibly another lion. Besides hanmering home that he's no longer a cute little cub, it also helps make him recognisable to Ayla.
Racer
Racer
Appears in: The Valley of Horses | The Mammoth Hunters | The Plains of Passage | The Shelters of Stone | The Land of Painted Caves
A bay stallion and Whinney's first foal. He becomes Jondalar's horse.
- Agony of the Feet: While attempting to cross a glacier in The Plains of Passage, the ice is so sharp it cuts Racer's hooves. He is unable to go on until Ayla makes booties out of leather to protect his feet.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Whinney gives birth to Racer in Ayla's cave, shortly after Thonalan is killed and Jondalar has his Near-Death Experience. He regains consciousness in time to see Ayla helping with Racer's birth, and initially thinks he's dead and gone to the spirit world (as he's never seen or heard of any mare allowing a human to get so close to her and her foal).
- Cool Horse: To Jondalar. Racer is considered an impressive horse; he's a rare bay colour and can gallop very fast. A lot of people are awed that Jondalar can not just ride a horse, but have any degree of control over a powerful stallion.
- Meaningful Name: Jondalar names him Racer, meaning one who likes to run fast in Zelandonii, after seeing how fast he gallops and his love of running.
- Someone to Remember Him By: The stallion who sired Racer broke his leg and was killed by predators while Whinney was still pregnant; shortly after Whinney returned to live with Ayla and so Racer grew up living with humans rather than a wild horse herd.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He has the same unusual, dark bay coloring as the stallion who sired him. Ayla takes this as further proof that males can impregnate females when they copulate.
Wolf
Wolf
Appears in: The Mammoth Hunters | The Plains of Passage | The Shelters of Stone | The Land of Painted Caves
Ayla's pet wolf, whom she adopts as a cub in The Mammoth Hunters.
- Action Pet: He helps Ayla hunt and saves her life on a few occasions.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Wolf usually comes across as a Big Friendly Dog, but when Attaroa tries to kill Ayla in The Plains of Passage, he doesn't hesitate to rip out her throat. For a while afterwards, he acts aggressive towards strangers if he sees them as threatening Ayla in some way.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the fourth book, he bursts in as Attaroa is about to kill Ayla and tears her throat out to protect Ayla.
- Canine Companion: Though technically a wolf, rather than a dog, he still fits the trope, serving as one to Ayla from the third book onwards. He accompanies Ayla on a long and treacherous journey across Ice Age Europe, including across a flooded river and over a glacier; the fact she raised him from a cub and so he views her as a surrogate mother likely helps. As a cub, he tries to follow Ayla around so much she has to teach him to "stay" to keep him out places he shouldn't be.
- A Dog Named "Dog": His name is said to be the Mamutoi word for "wolf".
- Friend to All Children: He really likes children; he's very patient with and protective of them, and they in turn adore him. Most people are worried about letting their children around a wolf until they see how he is with them; Solandia even lets Wolf basically babysit her children.
- Howl of Sorrow: He howls mournfully when Rydag dies and during the boy's funeral. People think it sounds like he's crying, too.
- Innocence Lost: Wolf was adopted by Ayla as a young cub and raised amongst the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi; Ayla has always been loving and nurturing, while the Lion Camp in turn treat both Ayla and Wolf like family. As a result, Wolf had no reason to fear humans and initially tends to treat all new people as his pack. This changes midway through The Plains of Passage, after the protagonists' hostile encounter with the Three Sisters Camp of the S'Armunai, culminating in Wolf killing the Camp's murderous leader to save Ayla's life. Afterwards, he is far more wary of strange people and Ayla has to train him not to automatically growl at or otherwise behave aggressively towards people they encounter. She states she believes this change in Wolf is because he now knows not all humans are benevolent, and some may pose a danger to those he regards as his pack.
- Mutually Unequal Relation: He views Jondalar as a pack mate and is always friendly and playful towards him. Jondalar finds Wolf to be a nuisance and only tolerates him for Ayla's sake. Wolf is largely oblivious to this. This changes when Wolf saves Ayla from Attaroa, after which Jondalar comes to like and appreciate Wolf more.
- Near-Death Experience:
- In The Plains of Passage, he nearly drowns and comes close to dying of hypothermia while crossing a river with Ayla and Jondalar. At Ayla's urging, Jondalar rescues him and Ayla nurses him back to health.
- In The Shelters of Stone, he is almost killed after being attacked by another wolf. He gets better, though for a while he's a wary of people and Ayla has to retrain him to prevent him from snapping at strangers.
- Noble Wolf: He's a bit too much of a goofball to fit the 'dignified' aspect of this trope, but he's still generally friendly, loves kids and proves himself to be heroic several times; this includes running to get Ayla's help when Rydag has a medical emergency (though unfortunately there's nothing she can do for him), single-handedly killing Attaroa to save Ayla's life (and by extension freeing the Three Sisters Camp from her tyranny), helping save Guban and Yorga from a gang of delinquents, and helping subdue a a gang of outlaws who intended to rape Ayla.
Grey
Grey
Appears in: The Shelters of Stone | The Land of Painted Caves
Whinney's second foal; she's a gray mare born at the end of The Shelters of Stone. She is ridden by Jonayla.
- The Baby of the Bunch: She's the youngest of all Ayla's animals, so Ayla and her family tend to be protective over her as she can't escape or defend herself from threats as easily.
- Generation Xerox: Her mother is a loyal companion to Ayla, whilst she is a loyal companion to Ayla’s daughter Jonayla.
- Last Episode, New Character: Although she’s technically born at the end of the fifth book (and was conceived at the end of the fourth), she isn’t prominently featured until the sixth and final book.
- Meaningful Name: She has a gray colored coat.
- Out of Focus: When compared to Ayla’s other animals, Grey doesn’t have as big an impact on the story as they do (which is understandable, seeing that she isn’t even born until the end of the fifth book and is a baby for a large chunk of the sixth). She does get to accompany Ayla and co on her tour throughout the Zelandonii's caves as part of Ayla’s acolyte training, though.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She has a light gray coat, the same as the stallion Whinney paired with near the end of the fourth book.
- Walking Spoiler: Downplayed. But mentioning her is a bit spoiler-y, in the sense that Ayla makes mention of the fact she and Whinney both got pregnant at the same time, and Grey is the personal mount of Ayla's daughter.
