Building A Future

Castaway Book 2

Vlad ben Avorham

Copyright © 2024 Vlad ben Avorham

All rights reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 9781234567890

ISBN-10: 1477123456

Cover design by: Art Painter

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Fullness of Time

Calm Before

Weathering The Storm

Clan Gathering

Culture Clash

Readjustment

Larger World

A Path Forward

Life Goes On

Bren Immigration

Exploration

Resources

Population

Industry

Managing Changes

Life Is Good

Time Flies

Confluance

Back Home

More Time

Economics

City

A New Era

Coming of Age

About The Author

Books By This Author

Fullness of Time

That Time In Life

Dag heard the screams from the other room and winced. It had been going on now for almost an hour, and he was at his wit’s end. Custom dictated that no men were to be in with the mother, so Dag was on the outside wishing he could look in. Oona and her cronies were having none of it, though. Dag had insisted on thorough washing, and even provided a small sharp metal knife that could be heated over a flame to sterilize it for cutting the cord, but that was the limit of the contribution he was allowed.

He had used a small stainless steel ruler that was packed in his kit to make the ‘knife’. It wasn’t the kind of thing that could be of any use in a fight, but he had hammered out the edge and spent enough time on the grindstone to make it razor sharp. It wasn’t much, but it was the best he could do to protect his now growing family. With modern luxuries like hospitals staffed with trained professionals thousands of years into the future and in a completely different world, he was thrown back into the ancient terrors and realities of his new stone age existence.

Lavern had known all that could go wrong. She had seen it happen to other women of her clan, but still she had been excited about the child. Dag was the one used to neonatal intensive care units available for every possible contingency, but wishing for it, didn’t make it suddenly appear. He tried to push out of his mind all of the negative thoughts, but the next shriek from the other side of the door just brought them all roaring back to the surface.

Just when Dag thought he would lose his mind, he heard the sweetest sound he had yet heard in his life. Lavern’s cries quieted, and a loud squall from an infant pierced the afternoon heat. Dag was done waiting, tradition or not, they weren’t keeping him out anymore! He barged into the room, and saw Oona handing the tiniest baby that Dag had ever personally seen over to a smiling Lavern.

Dag felt his knees go weak in relief and had to grab the door jam to keep from collapsing right there. Both of Oona’s old crones were giving him the evil eye, but he couldn’t care less. Recovering his strength, he raced to Lavern’s side.

She only spared him a small smile before looking down to help the babe latch on to her left breast. Dag halted for a moment, the babe was a purplish color. It was all wrinkled and still covered in blood and slime, but it seemed healthy, and took right to trying to eat. He didn’t want to say that his son was ugly, but Dag had a moment of concern. His family tended to have large babies, but this little guy couldn’t be more than five, or maybe six pounds. Which was probably a good thing given his mother’s diminutive size.