Vaieon

By V. Casa

Vaieon offers an enthralling and immersive journey into the heart of the Cretaceous Era, seen through the eyes of a human who unexpectedly finds herself living among dinosaurs. This captivating story centers around Lily, a woman thrust into a primordial world brimming with both deadly dangers and breathtaking beauty. It is a tale of survival, resilience, and discovery in an era where humanity is yet to emerge.

As Lily navigates this ancient and untamed world, readers are treated to a vivid portrayal of Earth in its youth, a time of both brutal challenges and awe-inspiring wonders. Vaieon is more than a story of time travel and survival; it is an exploration of a world where dinosaurs reign supreme, and humanity is a distant dream.

This novel is a perfect escape for dinosaur enthusiasts, nature lovers, and anyone who fantasizes about a wild, untamed, and youthful planet Earth. It's a unique blend of adventure, science fiction, and a deep appreciation for the natural world, making it a must-read for those who relish in the thought of exploring times and places untouched by humanity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781649793584

V. Casa

V. Casa has been writing stories and dreaming of writing a book since she was a child; she holds a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a master’s degree in Microbiology. Originally from Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, she now resides on the South Shore of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, with her family. The idea of Vaieon originated from her passion for nature, dinosaurs, and time travel. While she was camping with her family, she found herself wondering about traveling back in time to see dinosaurs. From there, her character, Lily, was born and lived through the impossible adventure of meeting those mythical creatures and surviving among them.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Just Another Monday

This Monday had started slow; with the dawn simulator gently brightening up the room at five-thirty. It had gradually increased its luminosity until six; then the sound of the soothing piano was heard. It was time to get up and start the day.

She lazily got out of her bed, putting on worn-out black sweatpants, woolen socks, and slippers. With eyes still half closed, she held up her hand behind her bedroom door and grabbed her warm, fluffy bathrobe with reindeers printed on it.

As soon as she reached the bathroom, her four years old little boy, Sam, came to join her. His pale brown hair was a mess, and his eyes were still sleepy as he slowly blinked himself awake. He was holding his blanket and his stuffed baby giraffe.

’S it time to get up? he asked, with a raspy, high-pitched voice while his face was half buried in the soft fabric of his comfort blanket. She knew her son’s blanket smelled of laundry detergent and fresh air from drying outside on the cloth line. She also knew Sam loved the smell and found it calming. He was barefoot, dressed in his favorite blue pajamas.

It is, Lily replied as she grabbed a clip to secure her hair. She, then washed her hands. When the water got warmer, Lily scrubbed her face and dried herself using a towel.

Standing up next to the shower, she bent forward and wet her hair using the handheld showerhead. She then applied her hair curling cream—the scent sweet, but not overly so—it was a subtle smell she found tolerable. Her long brown hair would curl in the course of this morning as it dried. She put on her homemade deodorant, washed her hands again, then made her way downstairs to the still dark kitchen. She could hear the loud footsteps of her little boy climbing down the stairs next to her.

Breakfast was sourdough walnut bread Lily had baked herself the previous day. On the kitchen counter was a mason jar with her sourdough started. She fed it daily like it was instructed in the recipe book. Every week, she baked two sourdough loaves for her family. This particular walnut bread was one of her favorites; The kids loved it too, which added to its attributes.

She sliced the bread and thought she needed a new serrated bread knife. Hers required a ridiculous amount of strength to obtain a single slice. She finally managed to cut four and placed them in the four-slices toaster. Sam stood silently beside her; he was looking at her while petting the soft label of his blanket.

No, me! were Sam’s sudden words as she was about to press the toast lever.

Okay, you do it— she replied in a low voice.

Lily watched as he pressed both levers. Then Sam stared quietly as the toaster’s progress indicating bars decreased as time went by. Her Sammy loved the surprise of watching the bread spring up after they were done toasting. He was waiting patiently.

Meanwhile, Lily pulled out four plates from the cupboard; three small and a larger one. Opening the fridge, she squinted from the bright light. Nearly blinded by the fridge’s lightbulb, she reached for the margarine and placed it on the kitchen island, along with a knife.

A loud Ah! was Sam’s verbal cue the toasts had sprung up.

Lily cautiously placed them on the largest plate in quick movements to avoid burning her fingers. While they were still hot, she applied margarine and set the plate in the center of the dining table. With the help of her little Sam, Lily distributed the smaller plates to their designated places on the table, then she made her way back upstairs. Amy, her six-year-old daughter, tended to sleep longer in the morning; still, it was time to wake.

A kiss on the forehead. She went for a gentle awakening. The kind she wished she got from her kids, but never did, especially not on a Saturday morning when they were hungry.

One could always hope.

Lily watched as her sleepy girl headed toward the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She went back downstairs to find Sam had already picked up a toast and was slowly chewing. He was holding the bread with his left hand while holding his blanket and baby giraffe with his right.

Soon, Amy came downstairs, dressed for school, hair done, face washed, pink scrunchie around her wrist (a new fashion at school) and the three of them ate their breakfast. The kids requested their gummy vitamins and, later, milk. Lily got up and brought both items back to the table. Shaking the gummy vitamin container a bit, she poured a few on the lid so her kids could pick one. They argued about who would eat the red vitamin since there was only one of that color in the lid. She ended up providing another red one, if only to keep the peace for a little longer.

While Lily set the plates in the dishwasher and prepared the lunches for everyone, she told Sam to go get dressed and asked both Sam and Amy to brush their teeth.

With automated motions that spoke of daily habits, Lily proceeded to place the milk, along with the margarine, back in the fridge. She put the vitamins back in the designated cupboard. Next, she assembled all the lunchboxes for her kids, then herself. They would be eating Pad Thai for lunch. Lily knew both her children loved that meal. She added a lemon and cranberry muffin to everyone’s lunch, plus a banana and some chopped mangos in a clipped container. Finally, she soaked, then wrung out a rag to wash the island counter.

Satisfied with a clean kitchen and full lunchboxes, Lily made her way upstairs to check on her children’s progress.

She found them drawing in the middle of Amy’s messy bedroom floor. Sam wasn’t dressed; their teeth weren’t brushed.

She frowned.

Get ready first, okay? Then if there’s time, you guys can draw for a little while before school. Until you are ready, though, there is no time to play.

Some whining and complaints followed. She barely heard. They were on the clock, like every weekday. Work started soon and so did school. Playing was only allowed if they got ready early. So far, there would not be any playtime today.

Thankfully, Amy was already dressed and brushed her teeth like a pro. Her daughter had achieved an impressive level of autonomy in the recent years. It compensated for the fact that Sam needed to be coerced into getting dressed on a daily basis. And that’s without mentioning the teeth brushing struggles. Nothing was easy with her stubborn little Sammy.

Convincing him to put on a pair of pants for kindergarten was a challenge. His favorite pair, the one he had worn the previous day, was in the hamper. Thus, he had to wear something else today. Except none rivaled his favored trousers.

Standing in front of his opened drawer, the little boy searched through the various other items available, making disgusted sounds with every new one he picked up.

This was never easy. Lily regretted not buying seven pairs of his favorite pants. Sadly, she had not known they were going to be his favorite when she had bought them, and now it was too late, they were no longer sold online.

Remember when you had never worn your favorite pair? You didn’t know they were gonna be your favorite since you’d never tried them on. If you try the other ones, you might learn to love them too. Here, those are very soft, I’m sure you’re going to love them just as much, she was holding a pair of gray jogging sweatpants that were likely to please his tastes—if he ever tried them on—that is.

It was a small victory when he finally conceded.

The teeth brushing also took some negotiations. Either Sam wouldn’t open up his mouth, or he did, but then bit on the toothbrush.

When she was finally done getting her children ready, she took a few minutes to put on makeup, then she got dressed. Dark tights, a black and gray dress. She put on her watch and teal earrings she had brought for herself as a present. Overall, she had the corporate office style; classy, elegant, and zero comfort.

Down the stairs, she opened up the storage chest bench next to the front door. It contained all of her children’s outdoor clothing. She pulled out their coats, neck warmers, gloves, and hats. She laid them on the floor near the carpet for them to put on. Meanwhile, she got her own trench coat and scarf. Then she put on her boots.

She took some time to help Sam put on his socks, a challenging task for him, and, while at it, assisted him in putting his boots on.

Opening the door, she noticed how dark it was outside. Grabbing her laptop bag, her backpack handbag, and her lunch bag, she made her way to her minivan. With the RFID proximity keyless entry system, her car unlocked on its own, making it easy for her to place all her bags in the passenger’s seat. Walking back to her home, she spotted Amy, all dressed up, backpack on, holding her lunch box. There was her big girl!

Get in the car, Beautiful, and fasten your seatbelt, okay?

Once indoors, she spotted her son attempting to put on a glove on his left hand. He had gotten the fingers in wrong and now, he was upset. Kneeling before him, she helped him out with the proper placement of fingers in tiny blue gloves. She grabbed his backpack and lunch box and turned off the lights. She locked the door and walked to the car with Sam by her side.

October was such a beautiful month. The colorful foliage of the maple and pine trees made a mixture of red, yellow, orange, and green in the park across the street. The wind smelled of wet leaves; the crisp morning air made her feel wide awake and sharp. Those were her favorite mornings.

With their seatbelts fastened, they were ready to go.

The CD player in the car played the same album that had been put in six months ago. She didn’t care. The album was just as good as it had been on day one. The kids were humming along with some of the songs. They had requests for specific songs too.

Will Dad be home when we finish school tonight? Amy asked.

Not quite. He should be home a little later, by dinnertime, Lily replied casually as she drove.

Like every morning, she drove to her son’s kindergarten school first. Dropping her little one at kindergarten always gave her heart a little squeeze. He looked adorable with his coat, hat, and backpack on. All grown, except he was still so small, with a pink button of a nose, chubby cheeks, and a bright smile. Opening the door to let him inside the school building, she asked for a quick kiss and he gave it to her. Lily watched him happily walk in.

Going back inside the car, she drove Amy to her school, wished her a good day with a kiss, watched as she self-assuredly made her way into the schoolyard, then Lily drove to work.

Mondays at work were quiet. Lily started by checking her emails. She handled the ones that were most urgent and flagged those requiring more complex actions. At nine, she had a meeting with her teammates. She loved their Monday morning meeting; it started the week in a nice way. They would talk about their weekends and tell each other how it had gone by; they would discuss food, weather, children, and so on. Simple non-work-related small talk. Eventually, the topic would drift back to work and they would dive in, discussing strategies, budgets, portfolios, issues—

She got to witness good leadership and was thankful for it. If anyone ever asked her what good leadership looked like, her answer would have been, You’ll know it when you see it. She also got to witness petulant behavior, which made her cringe. There was no perfect job. But hers certainly suited her very well.

She kept busy for the whole day, eating lunch (her infamous Pad Thai) while working, asking her colleagues how they were and how their weekends had been.

By three in the afternoon, Lily was done with her day. She packed her laptop into her bag and made her way home. Setting a chair in her living room, she worked out for about an hour using a ballet tutorial video on the Internet. She picked one she particularly liked since the exercises were done with and without the barre/chair.

Afterward, she drove to Sam’s school to pick him up. As she opened up the minivan’s sliding door to let her little one in, she had to catch herself on the car’s frame as a sudden vertigo hit her; as if the world had shifted ninety degrees for a second. It had felt as though she was falling. She put the fault on the pirouettes she had done earlier, thinking they must’ve done something to her inner ear. The labyrinth it was called, right? Must be it.

As she drove toward Amy’s school, Lily still felt the remnants of the vertigo she had experienced. She drove more carefully to compensate. Walking through the parking lot at her daughter’s school felt odd. The ground was weirdly even considering she felt like it might give out under her feet at any time.

Finally, they made it home. Safe and sound. She was glad there was no more driving required today.

The evening’s schedule started with showers for everyone, starting with the first one to arrive in the bathroom with a clean pile of clothes in hand. Amy had made it first. She showered for long minutes with the door locked for the intimacy this six-year-old spirited and hot-tempered young lady required.

Several minutes of knocking were necessary to finally convince her now clean daughter to come out, get dressed and let the others in.

Sam was a wild child that loved being naked. He was the sort of little boy whom spent his entire summer half-naked, running in the grass of their backyard in absolute bliss. He took a total of three seconds to undress and run into the shower. Lily, then did what she did every evening. Soap her hands and wash her little one. She allowed him a few minutes to play in the shower, for Sammy loved to play in the water, especially when it was hot.

When the time came for him to come out, she undressed and showered while her kids got dressed in what she assumed would be their favorite clothes currently available.

Since her son’s favorite clothes were in the hamper, he was naked and crying when she got out. After drying her hair with her towel, she attempted to get dressed, but struggled, for her legs were still dripping with water, and the fabric clung to her calves. Careful not to slip on the wet ceramic, she made her way to her bedroom to finish dressing up and help her heartbroken little one.

She managed to convince him to wear comfy—but not quite his favorite—pajamas. Small victories.

Mommy, will Daddy be home soon? Sam inquired, as he finished putting on his shirt over his round little belly.

Hum—let me check, he should be here any minute now.

Lily looked at her phone app, the one that allowed her to locate John. Technically, he should be on the way home at this point. Except he wasn’t. His location indicated he was across town. Not on the way home, or at the fire station. That meant he would not be home anytime soon. Best not to wait up.

Sorry sweetie, there’s been a fire. Daddy most likely won’t be home for a long while. Let’s go eat, okay? she took his little hand in hers, and they made their way downstairs.

Amy was waiting at the table. She was hungry (she always was), so dinner was next. Lily warmed up some chili and served everyone while trying not to listen to her kids’ loud and lengthy complaints about the dish. She put some music on to help tune them out. She liked chili.

Amy asked about John as well. The same answer was provided, but Amy, always more emotional, was upset by her father’s absence from the meal and the subsequent evening.

Throughout the meal, her children negotiated the minimum amount of bites to eat to be allowed dessert.

Seven.

They needed to eat seven spoonfuls of chili. When Sam started to eat and count, Amy attempted bribery to lower the amount, saying she wasn’t THAT hungry and felt that three should be enough.

Lily knew better, though. Amy was a bottomless pit when it came to food. She just happened to love dessert more than the rest and, therefore, sought to attain it more quickly by skipping the main course. This happened every evening.

Dessert was finally served and the kids were suddenly starving again. Lily brought back the chili for those still hungry; the result was the same as the first time around; a complete lack of interest.

She cleaned the kitchen and prepared the lunches for the following day. The kids argued in the background. What about, Lily didn’t know.

After supervising the teeth brushing, she got the library books out of the wardrobe of her room. They were the books her kids had chosen the week before. Her youngest settled on the bed, he chose a Superman book and started looking into it. Meanwhile, she made her way to Amy’s bedroom.

Homework time. Half an hour tops; her daughter was still young, a first grader, and thus it was not recommended to exceed thirty minutes of homework each night to avoid throwing her off schoolwork so early in her academic journey.

Eventually, all the to-do’s were done and the kids were put to bed. Like every Monday evening, they were all tired. Amy cried a bit, for she missed her dad and Lily attempted to comfort her but seeing her words had little impact on her weeping daughter, she found one of John’s T-shirts, one that smelled of him, and gave it to Amy as a blanket. This was a solution that had worked before, and it worked well tonight also. Soon, the little ones were asleep.

Lily read a book in her bed until nine, turned on the alarm for the following day, then turned off the lights. By a quarter past nine, she was asleep.

It was one minute to midnight when the vertigo from earlier started up again. She didn’t feel it though, deep in her slumber as she was. She didn’t move, didn’t react.

Parts of her brain recognized the feeling of a fall but mistook it for a dream.

Except she did fall. And it was no dream.

It was not just another Monday.

Chapter 2

One Hell of a Tuesday

The brutal landing was the first thing Lily registered. The shout of surprise she made as she crash-landed into the mire startled her as much as the shock of the landing itself. And then there was her wet, muddy state, which only exacerbated her disbelief.

Confused, she lifted her upper body, using her arms as support. Gone were her pillows and blankets. The bed was nowhere to be seen. Neither were any parts of her house.

She was outside in broad daylight, surrounded by a thick green forest. The leaves, ferns, and trees all around her looked exotic. She reasoned she was, somehow, in a tropical forest. Except she did not live anywhere near tropical areas. The people of her country paid fortunes to reach tropical destinations in the middle of winter for a week of warmth and sunshine. No one went from Northern country to tropical jungle in a few seconds! Because a few seconds is how it felt to her.

Had she been unconscious? For how long?

The smell that surrounded her was that of petrichor added to wet leaves and trees. The humidity was already making her hair curl. The ground was wet. Her entire front was muddy. Standing up, she turned around, looking left, then right. Ahead and behind. Above, below. Everywhere she looked, she found rainforest, wet soil, and a clear, blue sky, mostly hidden by the trees.

Shouting sounded like a bad idea. If anyone had wanted to be near her, they would be here, she assumed. And since there was no one around—There were no footprints in the mud surrounding her. Just the shape of her body, laying on the side, as it had been when she landed. Had she been thrown? Dropped?

Lily listened carefully and found no noise that resembled an engine. No car, plane, or helicopter were around. She did hear weird noises, however, all of them were unfamiliar. What she assumed to be birds—or bugs—were evidently nearby. No one was talking, though; she could not detect any city-related noises like traffic, car horns, and the likes. Just forest.

A quick thought went to her children, but she was alone. She hoped they were still at home, safe and sound. She knew her daughter was resourceful enough to contact John at work should anything go wrong—if she woke up and could not find her mother, for instance. At this very moment, however, Lily was mostly concerned about her own well-being.

Slowly, carefully, she started walking in the direction where the trees and leaves were less dense. She could see ahead; more trees and leaves. At least she got to see where she was going. As she walked, one step at a time, she tried to recall the knowledge she had of the rainforest. Not much.

What predators lived in this type of environment? Which were the most dangerous? The most common?

The continent she lived in did not have rainforests. Too cold. How far from home was she?

The main offenders she could identify were snakes. Possibly wild felines? Crocodiles and gators were highly probable.

Other various insects, too, most likely. Fishes too? Where did piranhas live?

She started thinking of the fact that the elements and her complete inaptitude to survive in the wilderness would most likely be her main enemies. People didn’t die of snake bites in rainforests. They died of infection, food poisoning, hunger, sprained ankles combined with meeting a croc—falling down a cliff, then meeting a croc—Her mind was providing so many deadly scenarios. She was still too shocked to panic, though.

Still dressed in her t-shirt and shorts, hair smelling like her usual haircare product, she wondered how long she had been unconscious for. She was wearing the same clothes she had put on before going to bed—her last conscious memory.

She was barefoot, and her hair was frizzy and messy. It felt like she’d fallen asleep minutes ago; not like she’d been kidnapped, then transported for hours to some exotic country, only to be moved in the middle of nowhere to get dumped by people who were nowhere to be seen. More so, she did not feel the confusion and nausea attributed to being sedated or drugged.

What was going on? Had she gone mad? Was sudden schizophrenia attacks a thing? Was she in a padded room somewhere?

She stepped on a sharp rock and flinched. This felt real enough. Maybe too real.

The smell around her, the sounds—She was in a jungle!

Loud noises interrupted her thoughts. It was the sound of branches breaking as something huge suddenly moved and something else took off, running away at full speed. She looked back toward the