Ayla didn’t feel the trembling

Ayla didn’t feel the trembling beneath her feet until she saw the people toppling over, unable to keep their balance. Her own face mirrored the stunned expressions of the rest as they changed to fear, and then stark terror. It was then she heard the deep, terrifying rumble from the bowels of the earth.
She scrambled up the swaying slope trying to reach the large triangular entrance. A huge rock rolled down the steep wall that held the opening , and, deflected by a tree that splintered under the impact, crashed to the ground beside her. Ayla’s didn’t notice . She was numb, in shock. The memories locked in her old nightmare were released, but jumbled and confused by sheer panic.
The ground beneath her dropped several feet, then heaved up again. She fell over and struggled to get up again, and then saw the vaulted ceiling of the cave collapse. Jagged chunks, torn from the high roof, crashed down and slipt on impact. Then more fell. All around her boulders bounced and tumbled down the rocky face, rolled down the gentler slope, and splashed into the icy stream. The ridge to the east cracked and half of it toppled.
Inside the cave, it was raining rocks and pebbles and dirt, mixed with the intermittent thunder of large sections of the walls and vaulted dome. Outside, tall conifers danced like clumsy giants and naked deciduous trees shook bare limbs in an ungraceful jitter, moving in speeded time to the thunderous dirge. A crack in the wall, near the east side of the opening, opposite the spring fed pool, widened with an explosive gush that flushed out loose rock and gravel. It opened another underground channel that deposited its load of debris on the broad front porch of the cave before making its maiden voyage to the stream. The roar from the earth and the smashing rocks overpowered the screams of the terror stricken people. The sound was deafening.
Finally, the quaking subsided. A last few stones tumbled off the mountain, bounced, rolled, then came to rest.
From the book ‘The clan of the cave bear’ by Jean M. Auel