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.