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.
As he wrapped both mother and child in a protective embrace, Lavern inspected the child. Displaying for Dag ten fingers and ten toes, all in order. Dag kissed the top of her head, “You were amazing! He is wonderful.”
Lavern winced slightly as she shifted position, “He is strong like his father.”
Dag smiled at her, but the boy squalled again. Lavern’s milk had not yet come in, and he wanted to eat. Shirley and Jill arrived at this point. Shirley said, “We need wash him now.”
Dag saw Lavern’s arms tighten as her whole body stiffened. Dag got the message, she wasn’t ready to let go just yet. “Thank you, but we need just another little bit with him first.” He smiled at the girls to let them know he wasn’t mad. Hearing Lavern’s shuddering sigh, he knew he had made the right call.
He gave her a little time to try to quiet the baby as he held her close, then said, “They really do need to clean him up. I’ll go with them to watch over him. You should try to get your rest, it is still likely to be a long night ahead of us.”
He could see that she wanted to argue, but exhaustion was starting to overwhelm the adrenaline in her system. After only a moment’s hesitation, she nodded, and held the baby out for him to take. Dag froze. It was so small, and while he had held babies before, never one this new and never one if his very own. Fighting to keep his hands from trembling, he took the boy into his hands. He left the mother with a kiss to her forehead, noticing as he rose to his feet that her eyes were already drifting closed as if they had lead weights on them.
The girls were waiting with a crock of water that he had boiled just two hours earlier. Both were smiling widely as they held eager arms out to take the boy. Dag saw Oona head back in to where Lavern was lying. She had another crock of water, and a soft sheepskin. She looked at Dag, “Must clean her, you stay here.”
Dag didn’t argue, she was alive, and so was his son. He would be happy to stay here while Shirley and Jill were cleaning him up. Dag had made additional chamoise soft leather diapers for the boy, with little buttons to help hold it in place. It was far from ideal, but it wasn’t like they could run to the corner store for pampers. They hadn’t even had access to cotton for cloth diapers. Dag sighed, he had found over the last almost two years that it wasn’t as much the big things that one missed about the modern world, as it was all the little things that one just took for granted.
He couldn’t say that he really missed TV, or going to the bar, or the movies, but little things like metal pans, or hot water, and don’t even get him started about toilet paper... It was the little things that caused life to be so much more difficult than he knew it needed to be. He knew that he shouldn’t focus on what was missing in his life, but instead all the blessings he had been granted, but there were just a few things that the absence of were really demoralizing.
As the girls finished cleaning him up, they smiled and handed the child to him. Dag smiled, then walked outside onto the walls of the castle. Below was the entire clan, awaiting news. When he held the boy up above his head for all to see, the people went a little wild.
Then, as they ran off to celebrate, Dag brought the little one back in out of the bright sunlight. He grinned as the child yawned and stretched, but Dag could see that he was almost as worn out as his mother. He just couldn’t keep his eyes open. Dag put him in the soft sheep skin lined basket, and carried him back into the room where Lavern was now finished getting cleaned up, and was laying back on the furs barely able to do more than smile at the sight of her family. Dag sat the babe down next to his mother, and he too took a long shuddering breath and felt the adrenaline dump out of his system.
◆◆◆
Planning Session
After a nap through the heat of the day, Dag woke and kissed Lavern gently on her brow. She didn’t even stir, and he slipped out to let her rest. Shirley and Jill were waiting to go in to watch over them for him. The girls just smiled and bobbed their head in greeting as they quietly slipped into his room.
Jack and Ajax were waiting for him just outside of the tower on the top of the wall. Ajax greeted him loudly with, “About time you woke up!”
Dag hissed at him, “Quiet fool! If you wake up either of them, you’ll be pulling the predawn watch for the next month!”
Ajax’s eyes went wide, “Oops, sorry.” he whispered. “Didn’t think about that.”
Dag snorted, “You’ll think about it soon enough. Shirley looks like she is ready to pop any day now.”
Ajax just gave him the goofy grin of all soon to be fathers when they think about what’s to come. Jack saved them from any more useless banter and asked, “I know you’re going to want to stick close for a while, and Ajax can’t really be away either... Do you want me to lead the next hunting party?”
Dag shook his head. Ever since Jack had finally gotten strong enough to draw one of the composite horn bows he had been eager to test it on a hunt. “We have meat for now, and if we’re going to go for a big hunt, I want to take all of you.”
Jack looked frustrated, “I can do it you know?”
Dag nodded, he wanted to laugh, but he didn’t think Jack would see it as funny. He wanted to prove himself, and Dag understood that. “I want to keep most close by to work on building projects before the winter storms kick up. If you are still in such an all fire hurry to test out the new bow, get two of the spearmen to go with you, then when Jill, or I guess Pipi now go out to collect birds and eggs, you can try to bag a crock, or maybe two.”
Jack thought about that, “Not much of a challenge if you have two spearmen with those wicker shields keeping it off of you.”
Dag snorted, “It is the perfect thing to use as a test. Make sure exactly what kind of damage you can do before you’re out there without them. Take the shield men with you if you want to test it out.” He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, “They can help you carry your prize back, if nothing else. Some of those crocs are getting damn big.”
Ajax smirked, “From eating over confident archers no doubt.”
Jack glared at him, but before they could argue and get noisy, Dag intervened. “While a hunt won’t be needed for a little while, I wouldn’t mind someone doing a little scout past the coconut grove. As far as I know, no one has pushed more than a few hours past it.’ He frowned, “For as much as we’ve made the most of our local area, we really haven’t explored very far beyond a day or two’s travel in all directions.”
Ajax quirked his head to the side, “How far you lookin’ to expand?”
Dag shrugged, “I don’t know that I am. Looking to expand that is. At least not where more land is concerned. I’m just looking for more resources that we can gather.”
Jack gave him a confused look, “Like what?”
Dag sighed, “That’s the problem, you could walk right by a resource and not recognize it. It isn’t your fault, there just hasn’t been time to teach you what to look for. For instance, if you saw a pool of black liquid the consistency of cold stew, what would you think?”
