While he wasn’t her father, he felt a father’s responsibility toward her, and couldn’t help but wonder which of the young men she would choose. Bren had caught her eye, but she was young, and he was much older, so much could change before she was ready to make the decision. Ajax already had two wives, and Jack was too close of kin, and that left him with a yawning gap in worthy men that would be of the right age group.

Since he had decided to spend more time at home with the family, he found that these sorts of problems arose almost as fast as engineering problems did, and with far fewer easy answers. He shook his head, trying to clear it. He couldn’t, and shouldn’t, plan their lives all out for them, but he wanted so much better for his people than the lives they had been living. His biggest fear was that when he got old, there would be no way to hold them together. That despite all of his efforts, they would slip back into primitivism and barbarism as soon as he no longer held the clan together. His family deserved better than that.

◆◆◆

Land Exploration

While Dag couldn’t go, he did authorize a land exploration expedition with the new chariots. As soon as he had two to work with, he had Hendden put together a small team to go exploring. They set off loaded with salt and a little flour, but would be expected to hunt and forage for most of their food.

Dag was more than a little concerned about them, for while they had two grown men and four boys to act as archers, they were still vulnerable if they ran across hostile clans. Hendden had told him that he worried for no good reason, as few clans were openly hostile, and fewer still would outnumber them, and none could match their speed if the need to run arose, but that didn’t stop Dag from worrying like a mother hen, right up until they appeared back on the horizon six weeks later.

Hendden was all broad smiles, as they were leading a small band of twelve or thirteen behind them. As they got closer, Dag noticed it was mostly women and teens, with a smattering of toddlers thrown in. It didn’t take Dag long to realize what had happened. Hendden confirmed this when he introduced them. It was the remnants of a clan savaged by a pride of lions. Once the lions learned that human tasted good, they preyed upon the clan mercilessly.

Of course, lions were soon taught that humans make easy food when poorly armed, but not all people were poorly armed. As soon as the archers got into action, and the few hunters left were able to track the wounded ones down from chariot back, the tables turned and the clan feasted on lion that night.

Too battered by the lions to make it on their own, Hendden brought them with him. Dag was a bit concerned about taking on full grown hunters, but given the number of women and children that they would have had to support, there wasn’t really another option.

It wasn’t until he had sent everyone off to bathe that Dag realized it was the first time that he had gotten more mouths to feed, that he hadn’t worried about how he was going to manage it. Food security was nowhere near the levels he had experienced as a well off, educated citizen of a first world country, but the specter of starvation for his people was just that, a specter that threatened more than ravaged. With his flocks and herds growing, his fishing boats productive, and his fields of grain producing, feeding himself was finally not the largest expense a man had to worry about. It still took far more effort than it would have in the America that Dag came from, but it was far less than those joining his clan had ever faced.

It was Nissa who drove the reality of this home to him. She wanted to send grain shipments to her people, and someone to teach them how to farm it. Dag wasn’t opposed to this, but wanted ceramic prospector pans built for that clan to pan for gold as a trade good. He feared if they could grow their own grain, that they might become complacent and not get him the gold he wanted for other projects.

If it had been anyone besides Nissa who had asked this of him, he would have given a flat no, but feeding his wife’s family seemed almost a duty to Dag. He would still need to make sure that they lacked boat making skills, or he would need to fear them blockading the river at some point, but grain at least he could do. Though, he sifted through the grain, and sent them only the smaller kernels. If he was going to help them feed themselves, he wasn’t planning on letting them ever be in a position to challenge his own people.

The clans that Hendden had run across during his own explorations had been mostly those that were at the gathering site each year, but a few were more distant clans which Hendden couldn’t communicate with. These more distant tribes gave Dag a little hope that there were more advanced cultures to trade with, but Hendden dashed those hopes as he complained about life among them. “I swear, I know that I lived like that only a year or so ago, but I tell you, after being here, I’ve gotten comfortable with the way my life is, and I like my creature comforts...”

Dag had tuned him out mid rant. While he found Hendden’s rant amusing, all things considered, it wasn’t his primary concern. If he couldn’t find someone to trade with soon, all of their production capacity would overwhelm demand. Then what would they do?

Economics

Children of the Sun

Eventually, Dag and Nissa could communicate well enough that he was ready to make the journey back up river himself to establish trade with her people. He made up special ceramic sluices to help collect gold washing down from the small hills around their main camp. Far from the giant mountains further to the north and the west, these little streams weren’t expected to produce much, but the presence of the flattened nuggets in the priests’ headwear proved that they did, in fact have some gold in them.

Lavern wasn’t excited about going and leaving behind her comfortable home. Still, Dag put Jack in charge, and took the whole family with him. Nissa was just starting to show, as their first child grew within her, and Lavern had the twins rushing off to get in trouble at every turn, and a new babe in arms. Only John was of an age that he stuck to Dag like glue.

When they left, Dag took all four canoes loaded down with trade goods and people. He wanted to create a demand for such goods in these people, otherwise, who would he trade off all the things they could make to? Nomads? That was a very limited audience. After all, everything they owned, they had to be able to pack up and move as the herds did. That didn’t encourage having many items. Nissa’s people were semi-sedentary already, which meant that things like concrete and furniture were more reasonable trade goods.

Dag also knew that where there was gold washing down a river, there would also be iron rich sand as well. He fully intended to teach Nissa’s clan to harvest both from the river in exchange for the items that they wanted. It was the only option Dag saw for having enough hands to do all he wanted to do without resorting to slavery. Slavery, historically grew out of warfare, and while the clans had skirmishes, if he could keep it from growing into true warfare... well that would be a legacy worth handing to his children.

Dag camped early on the last day before they reached Nissa’s clan. He wanted to be able to arrive early enough in the day to take stock of any changes since his last visit. Had they arrived late in the day, as he had the last time, there would be few options for setting up his own camp. With women and children with him this time, he wanted to set up as comfortably as possible.

So, when they first beached the boats on the small peninsula, Dag had them emptied of supplies and pulled well up away from the water’s edge. His people were staying a while, and as close to the annual floods as they were, he didn’t want to risk the waters rising unexpectedly in the night and sweeping away his ride home.

The strong younger man who had not seemed too friendly on their last trip approached. Dag now knew him to be Nissa’s older brother. Time hadn’t seemed to make him any more fond of Dag, because he approached, scowling. It was only the sight of Nissa behind him that softened the man’s face. The look on his face when he realized what her swelling middle meant was almost comical. Dag took comfort that no matter how much he might be the unwanted in-law, the man obviously cared for his sister and was happy for her.

“Breg,” Nissa said when her brother let her out of the embrace, “This is my husband Dag. I have learned their language and can now help out people and his work together, like father intended.”

Breg’s face fell at the mention of her father, and Nissa’s eyes teared up instantly, knowing what it meant. She felt her knees start to buckle, but before she could fall, Breg had her by one arm, and Dag by the other. When her words finally returned, she said, “He can’t really be gone...” It wasn’t a question, more of a plea.

Breg nodded, “Just last moon. I lead the Children of the Sun now.” Nissa just bowed her head and then hugged her brother.

◆◆◆

Panning for Gold

Breg slowly warmed to Dag as he heard more and more from his sister. That she had been treated well and was happy went a long way to cementing a foundation for the two clan chiefs to work from. Dag noticed that the clan now used hides as tarp shelters. It was far from functional tents, but it was obviously their first attempt at replicating the teepees they had seen him use during his last visit. Taking that as encouragement, the first thing Dag did was gift the other chief with the knowledge of how to make real teepees for his people.

That gift opened the floodgates of trade. Dag didn’t speak their language well, but he could follow it well enough. When he heard Breg asking why she hadn’t come before now, when their father would have been alive to see her, Dag butted into the conversation. “My choice. If you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at me.” he said bluntly.

Nissa lay a hand on his arm, and smiled softly at him, before turning to her brother. “It wasn’t Dag. He would have brought me back at any time, but I let my fear of their boats hold me back. Breg, you should ride one. Don’t do it where anyone can see, as the sensation the first time is terrifying, but if you can get over the idea that you should be sinking, it is a wonderful way to travel.”

Mention of having to ride the boat was all Breg needed to understand. Like Nissa, he was terrified of the things. It was one of the reasons that he distrusted Dag so much. The boats just seemed so unnatural to him. Breg only nodded, but made no commitments. All accusations went out of his tone after that.

Dag decided that Breg wasn’t a bad guy. Just a guy used to getting his own way since he was a mere boy. Adjusting to dealing with an ‘equal’ or in reality, someone who was far above him, was just not something he had been raised to deal with. Dag tried to take it easy on him, but he didn’t dare show weakness. It helped that Nissa’s description of her new home had shaken him to his core. That such a place of wonders could exist had caused him to doubt his own superiority.

Dag let Lavern and Nissa conduct most of the trading on this trip. He took Breg out hunting of a different sort. After teaching him how to turn two of the teepee poles into a travois to drag the rest of it, he set off for a fast-moving river tributary with his gold sluice. Finding the right spot took time, as did getting properly set up. In fact, it took long enough that the spoiled Breg had lost interest and had started poking around after an errant rabbit.

Dag found his brother-in-law’s lack of attention span to be every bit as frustrating as his seemingly meaningless tinkering was for Breg, and both were ready to go for the other’s throat by the time Dag had his first glint of gold. Of course, getting Breg’s attention, and then painstakingly explaining to the already frustrated man what he was seeing, with only broken levels of language comprehension between them, was where the real fun started. Just when Dag was ready to either shoot him and hope that the next chief was smarter, or give up until Nissa could translate, he noticed the comprehension dawn on the other man’s face. It was like he was hit by lightning from the sky, because he finally understood that the little bright flashes he was seeing were the same ‘sun rocks’ that his god had gifted his people as a sign of his favor.

Dag found it amusing that Breg showed the same excitement at the discovery, as a nineteenth century prospector in California would have over the discovery of gold on his claim. To be separated by so much time and cultural context, but to have nearly the exact same reaction to the shiny yellow metal was in its own way mind boggling. It was hard to get Breg to even focus on the heavy iron rich sand in the second pile, but that was actually of more value to Dag than the gold.

He wanted the gold for its ability to be easily worked, and feared iron in useful quantities would evade him for the exact opposite reason, but even so, he had to try. Iron tools to replace stone and bone would completely alter his ability to radically alter his world in to something far more comfortable for the people he cared about. Breg may be the embodiment of short-sighted leaders that rule from a position of privilege rather than competence, but if Dag could only focus him, he wasn’t too proud to use the man.

◆◆◆

Gathering In the Sun

When they had a small sample of the gold dust collected from the river, Breg insisted that they head back to camp. Dag would have preferred a greater haul for their time away, but knew that he had exhausted Breg’s patience, and he wanted to get back to Nissa in order to have a little help with translations.

After they returned and settled in, Dag was surprised to see Breg actively displaying the small amount of gold dust he had collected. The purpose behind it confused Dag until Nissa explained that he was showing off the rare metal as a sign of the sun god’s favor. That each little fleck was proof of the many small divine miracles that he was favored with.

Dag wanted to growl, but kept it in. He didn’t like superstition, but Nissa and the rest of her tribe were all true believers. Dag built a small crucible out of clay and lined it with just a dusting of the cement. He then dug a hole to act as a furnace and lined it with pitch. Getting Breg to hand over the gold dust was the hard part until Nissa threated that Dag wouldn’t show him how to get more if he didn’t. Of course, when he put the powder in the fire, Breg nearly attacked him.

Dag fought back a smile as he and John and Lavern sat around with long hollow reeds and blew air down into the fire pit like a bellows. Eventually, the fire got hot enough, and the gold melted and beaded up. It wasn’t easy to remove the crucible from the fire using only bent reed tons, but the billowing smoke added to the spectacle, especially for the local clan, gripped as they were by superstition. When he poured the small bead of gold into a waiting wet sand mould, he expected them to draw in to see what was being done, instead the faint hiss that escaped as moisture in the damp sand evaporated and cracked the mould in several places.

Of course, the accident caused Dag to swear violently, but it was in English, and so the locals just took it to be magical words that were part of the whole event. Instead of a nice round coin, which was what Dag had been going for, he ended up with a more sun like representation, as the cracks appeared much like rays of light coming off of the central disk. When it steamed as he dumped water over it to cool it enough to see how bad the poor substitute for a mould had left this pour, the steam hissed and drove back the spectators.

Breg was the first to join him in looking at the new little medallion, and his gasp of awe wasn’t missed by his people. The look said it all. Breg knew how this would look to the clan. After all of his hype about finding the gold, for this interloper to sweep in and perform this miracle... Awe was soon replaced by envy. Especially as Breg’s own people gathered around, all but ignoring him to marvel at the miracle Dag had created. Fortunately, this change in attitude that swept over Breg’s face wasn’t lost on Nissa, and she made the decision right then to choose her new husband over her brother. She would fix things between them if she could, and if her brother proved too stubborn, as he often did, she would champion her husband before the people, and Breg would not enjoy the results.

City

Priests

Breg and Nissa had a large fight later that night. Breg wouldn’t admit to his envy of Dag, but Nissa wouldn’t let him free of the accusation. Breg decided that he couldn’t fight Dag head on. His sister had convinced him of that much at least. So, Breg fought him in the only way that he knew how, with magic.

Not with spells, but with the belief of the people. He didn’t oppose Dag’s actions, but moved to couch each of his miracles as gifts from the sun god, of whom he was the high priest. To a modern observer, his actions weren’t even all that subtle, and Dag didn’t miss what he was doing. He wasn’t ready to force a conflict with the man over it. Their people needed trading partners, and Dag wasn’t in it for the credit, anyway. So, when Breg claimed the ‘sun stone’ as a gift of their god, and proclaimed that priests would see to its distribution, Dag didn’t object.

At first he just thought that Breg was trying to monopolize the trade in the metal, and as it was a fairly useless metal given the current culture, he didn’t object. His real interest was in the iron ore that they washed out of the same streams as a byproduct of their gold production. He even grudgingly accepted a temple to the sun in the village as a place for the gold to be distributed to his burgeoning trade empire. If it kept the iron flowing to him until he could figure out how to smelt it properly, he would give his brother-in-law the monopoly on gold. With iron weapons, he reasoned he could always break the monopoly later if it became an issue.