Five year old Ayla making an effort to learn the Clan sign for 'mother' so she can make it to Iza, who is at first surprised, then moved by the action.
Creb's plea to Brun to allow Ayla's "deformed" son to live, combined with Moment of Awesome. He pulls off his cloak to show the stump of his amputated arm, which he usually hides from self-consciousness, and gestures to all his scars and deformities, saying although he's seen as being a broken man (and barely even a man at all because he can't hunt), Ayla still loves and respects him unconditionally, and sees him as being "whole".
Iza's last words to Ayla, combined with Tear Jerker. Just before she dies, she assures Ayla that she's always loved her as her daughter no matter how different she is or where she goes.
The Valley of Horses
The moment when Ayla and Jondalar finally confess their love for each other. Jondalar rather amusingly berates himself for his foolishness and ego, because even though he's had women practically throwing themselves at him for years it took him so long to realize he himself had fallen in love with Ayla, after years of searching for love. Ayla has to ask what the word "love" means and when he explains it to her, she immediately understands and says she's loved him for some tine but couldn't put it into words.
The Mammoth Hunters
Ayla starts teaching Clan signs to the half-Clan child Rydag. He approaches Nezzie, the woman who raised him, and makes a sign at her. She asks Ayla what it means and when Ayla explains Rydag called her "mother", she's reduced to tears of happiness.
Fralie explaining to Ayla why she loves Frebec even though he's far from perfect. After going through so much pain and rejection, Fralie was happy to find a man who adored her and would do anything to be with her; it also gives us a look at Frebec's softer, more sympathetic side.
"Can you imagine what it was like being joined with a man who didn't want you, and never did care about you from the beginning? Then finding a man who wanted you so much he was willing to give everything he had, and promise everything he would ever get? That first night, after we went away together, he treated me like...a special treasure. He couldn't believe he had the right to touch me. He made me feel...I can't explain it...wanted."
Despite their current estrangement and Jondalar's own insecurities about her past, he's the first person to come to Ayla's side to support her when people began ganging up on her and Rydag. Jondalar is ashamed of himself later, believing he should've done more to defend her, but Ayla herself is touched that he came to stand with her first against everyone else. It's also telling that while Jondalar could've done more, he still didn't think twice about coming to Ayla's assistance.
Frebec vehemently standing up for Ayla and the Lion Camp when she's publicly shamed by several people, including his cousin Chaleg, for having given birth to a child of mixed spirits. It shows how far Frebec has come as a person, seeing as he was originally making derogatory comments about Ayla and the Clan, and never felt he truly belonged with the Lion Camp. As Jondalar notes, it also takes courage to stand up to your own relatives and he wonders if he would be capable of the same. It's also nice to see Frebec giving the camp who never appreciated or cared about him and his family a public dressing down.
Chaleg: Why are you standing up for her, Frebec, against your own family, your own Camp?
Frebec: What Camp is my Camp? The one that turned me out, or the one that took me in? My hearth is the Hearth of the Crane, my Camp is the Lion Camp. Ayla lived near us all winter. Ayla was there when Bectie was born, and she is not mixed. The daughter of my hearth would not even be here now, if it hadn't been for Ayla.
Although the situation is tragic, it's heartwarming to see the Lion Camp come together and help Ayla organize a Clan funeral for Rydag after the boy's death, seeing as the mamuts won't allow him to have a typical Mamutoi funeral. They all make sure Rydag has things he might need in the spirit world, and Ayla asks her own totem, the Cave Lion, to guide Rydag's spirit, saying he is worthy of the Lion's protection. She also uses her own son's travelling cloak to wrap Rydag's body, as it's one of the only Clan items she has to give Rydag.
When Ayla breaks up with Ranec, they're both feeling upset and dejected, especially Ranec as he's in love with Ayla. In an attempt to comfort him, Ayla tells him she's certain that Ralev, his ex-girlfriend Tricie's baby, is his son. Ranec states that lots of people think he's a child of his spirit due to their resemblance, only for Ayla to clarify that she means Ralev is just as much Ranec's son as he is Tricie's; she promises him it's true "and this promise cannot be broken". Although Ranec is still devastated at losing Ayla, he does seriously think on what she told him and starts to believe it is true, so he still has a chance for a happy future with Tricie and their son.
The Plains of Passage
The scene where Madenia secretly watches Ayla and Jondalar make love. Normally, having a young teen girl spying on an adult couple having sex would be pretty weird or a source of Squick. However, when said teen is recovering from a vicious rape and seeing the couple together leads her to realise that what she experienced was only a perverted mockery of a genuinely loving and consensual relationship, it manages to be surprisingly moving.
The Shelters of Stone
When Jondalar introduces Ayla to his family, they start asking questions about her past. Ayla looks to Jondalar, as she knows that they may react poorly to finding out she was raised by the Clan and has a 'child of mixed spirits'. Jondalar merely smiles encouragingly at Ayla, showing he is no longer ashamed of her past and will support and stand by her no matter what others think.
When Ayla goes into labor, she starts to panic because the first time she gave birth she had a horrendous time and nearly died. Zolena guesses she has given birth before and when they're alone together, she calms Ayla and tries to distract her by getting her to talk about her son. Smiling tearfully, Ayla talks at length about Durc for the first time in a long while (and to someone besides Jondalar), about how lucky she felt to have him due to her fear of never becoming a mother and her determination to keep him alive despite his so-called deformity, how although he was smaller than other Clan boys he could run faster than anyone, and how they could talk to each other in a private language. Zolena realizes that although her son was of mixed spirits - who among her culture are often shunned - Ayla truly, sincerely loves Durc. Zolena had privately worried that if Ayla had previously given birth to a mixed child, her new baby might also be mixed and that the child would be rejected (to the point that it might even be crueller to let them live), but she realizes now that Ayla would love and protect her child no matter what they looked like.
