Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 39 - Laughter is the best medicine.

"Help? Gosh... Did something happened?" my heart raced as I crossed the bridge and went to investigate further. I greeted the miners and their faces looked a bit grim. "Chadwell is hurt. He got bitten by a wolf half a day back. His leg... I think its broken. That's why we were delayed."

Someone mentioned and I peered into the wagon and saw one of the miner was lying down while his injured leg was heavily bandaged. From the looks of it, the injury looked grave.

"Heidi, go and inform Kayla. Get others to prep the food. Everyone should know their part." I quickly despatched Heather as she raced towards the courtyard and she took over the prep of the supper as Kayla went to her house to retrieve a weaver basket that contained all the necessary medication, bandages et cetera and waited for the arrival of the wagon as it was pulled toward the courtyard.

"Bring the injured down slowly, the rest don't huddle up close. I need torches. Fetch me a pot of clean water." Kayla immediately barked her orders and everyone cleared a distance away as the injured man was slowly brought down and was attended to.

After looking at the severity of the injury, Kayla simply stated with a straight face but with laughing eyes, "He will live, at least there's no moon tonight or else he would turn into half-man and half-wolf."

I nearly choked upon hearing what Kayla had said as I looked at the group of families and saw that some were covering their mouths with their hands, either in shock or was trying hard to stifle their laughter.

The Burns younger sister helped to carry the pot of water to Kayla as she began to clean the wound. The injured man was not having any fever which was a sign that the wolf does not have any diseases on it. He was conscious and was given a piece of wood to bite down as Kayla quickly dry the wound and blood.

She smelled it and found that it didn't have any malador scent. The bite was actually at the calf area and it means that the injured man would be out of action for some weeks. After drying the wound and blood, Kayla immediately brought out a piece of suture needle and a fine piece of string.

The moment Kayla began to insert the suture after hearing it over a smouldering ember that Jack had carried using a tong, she began to stitch the wound up. Screams of agony was heard as the suture was being made to close the open wound.

"Are you a man who is giving birth? Don't wake up the unearthly spirits by your pathetic holler. Be a man... Be a man..." Kayla muttered to herself within earshot and those witnesses were covering their mouths once again. On this second look, I realised they were trying to cover their mouths without letting a snicker from letting out.

She finished her suture and the injured man was drenched in perspiration. Antiseptic that was made from cattails ashes were generously applied before being wrapped with a white bandage.

I noticed that the bandage was made from the linen that she had purchased some time back from Marcel and these are the balances strips that she joined to make a long 4 inch wide bandage.

She wrapped the wound up and as she was nearing completion, Ben came with a long piece of bamboo and measured the length from the I fired man arm pit to the soles of his foot.

"Sorry for the interruptions, I was trying to make something." and then he rushed back to his sawmill shed and began to shape something. "He is not dead yet and there is no need to measure him by making a bamboo coffin."

Ben scuttled away while the crowd was still holding their hands at the mouth, some were stamping their feet while some looked away and looked at the sky instead.

After Kayla had finished dressing the wound she looked at the group of families and asked, "Who is going to claim your husband? Keep his wound dry. See me after 3 days so I can check on the wound."

The injured man slowly released the piece of wood from his mouth and heaved a sigh of relief from the ordeal. Kayla packed her weaver basket, washed her hands clean and said to the injured man, "Don't exert too much weight on your leg, or else the closed wound will tear. You might suffer some numbness because some of the nerves are severed which cannot be helped. Get well soon, young man."

The injured man named Chadwell mentioned his thanks as Kayla acknowledged and reply, "I am the Health Minister, so taking care of the injured and sick is part of my role and responsibilities." with that, she gave a slap on the bandage part and Chadwell can't help himself but screamed again due to a sudden jolt of pain.

Then Gwen sauntered over, holding her hunting knife in one hand, blood was dropping on both her arms and down the tip of the blade and snickered, "Kayla, I'm done with mine, do you need help to slaughter this one as well?"

Chadwell was staring at Gwen whose arms were drenched in blood and his eyes were wide open and he was pale as the moon and was trembling slightly. Unknown to him, a dark spot began to appear at his crotch of his breeches.

He let out a wail and fainted as I made a remark to the crowd, "Who is being butchered here? He or it?" and nearly everyone laughed their heads off as they cannot control their suppressed snickering anymore.

A risqué remark made at the right moment broke the dam and it was a sight to behold. What can I say... Kayla started it first and I just wrapped things up. If Gwen didn't come over, the last remark would not be pronounced. As one would say, "Laughter is the best medicine".

Since no bones was broken no splint was necessary. Kayla asked for a woven mat that could be used as a stretcher to ferry the injured back to the allocated home of his but at the meantime, he would be ferried closer to the dining area.

"Take a rest first. A wolf got a man but a woman got a wild boar. I'm going to prepare something for you since you had travelled far and then we are going to hold a feast. It's pretty rare for a wild boar to enter our village and this is considered as a blessing for all of us." Kayla slowly stood up and carried her wicker basket to her home and continued with her preparations of a meal as if nothing happened in the past 30 minutes or so.

Ben hurried over and presented his ever masterpiece from his newly acquired sawmill. A piece of bamboo crutch with a 'T' on top that could fit snugly under the armpit for support and a piece jutting out where it would be used as an arm support. The crutch looked like the letter 'F'.

He called out the wife of the injured man and handed the crutch to her as he made his way to the group. Since the weary travellers had travelled long and hard, they huddled around the fireplace near to the benches area. It seemed from the number of new faces, we would need another 6 more benches.

The families had little possessions with them and I noticed among the new faces there was at least 2 infants who were still b.r.e.a.s.tfeeding. A few wild haired children, most probably due to the heavy winds blowing across the prairie and some teenage boys and girls.

Frank had prepared a spit that was made up of 2 halved bamboo and had managed to skewer and clamp the wild boar as it had been dressed and it looked like a butterfly. Another piece of bamboo had a split in the centre and was used as a clamp to hold the wild boar in place.

It seemed that Gwen had broken the boar's spine in order to have it split like a butterfly. 4 low stands were being erected and the wild boar, after being stripped of its fur, skin and innards weighed over 300 kilograms and it took 4 person to lift it up, doused with water to get rid of some dirt and blood before placing on the pit.

Since it was a large animal, instead of being rotisseried, it would need 4 person to flip it from topside to underside and condiments such as salt, pepper, rosemarie and thyme was prepared and would be rubbed once one side of the meat was done.

The new faces saw the wild boar and can't help themselves but began l.i.c.k.i.n.g their lips. I saw Sir Blackie doing the same thing. Its either the new faces were mimicking Sir Blackie or Sir Blackie was mimicking them. Hahahaha.

Before long, warm cups of tea was passed around first as a huge clay cauldron was placed above the fireplace, using some clay bricks that was due to be fired.

The pot of gruel was still cooking and was gurgling as the scent slowly trailed to the noses of the new faces and audible familiar sounds of grumbling sounded from their tummies. I looked at them as the ladies made small talk while the men recognises some of the engineers a d began to talk casually.

"Inform the Ashworths and Burns to convey the token system to the miners. Listen a d correct them as they relate how the system works." I signalled to Jack as he inched closer and whispered to Ashworth and Burns and I saw they nodded in apprehension.

From the looks of the miners, they were shocked and taken aback at the abrupt changes and after Jack made a few corrections, the miners and their wives slowly understood.

Jack produced the rectangular token and said he was in the midst of working on this since waiting for the completion of the 60 houses. At the mean time, meals would still be provided, awaiting the token system to be completed and finally implemented.

Since there's now 8 groups of families, he would have to work on these tokens faster because at the end of the day, the cauldron would only be able to feed the pioneers and a few extra mouths.

Crystal took a knife from her waist and then started to slice the bread and Heather helped to distribute it to the new faces. "Sorry gentlemen, this would be for the new faces who had travelled 5 days on foot. They are more tired and hungrier than any of you. I hope you understand." Heather advised to the pioneers as well as the 2 households and they voiced their agreement.

"Its alright, I am still full but we are sure waiting for the main event. Teeheehee..." one of the engineers chuckled and his members all followed the same. In fact, no one objected when she handed the platters full with sliced bread that were an assortment of chewy cheesy, sweet cornbread and sweet cinnamon bread.

There was a total of 12 loaves of bread, and with the blessed hands of Heather, everyone still managed to get a piece while some of them gave their share to the weary travellers.

The injured man finally was aroused and his wife tended to him and let him sip some tea and have a bread to chew. At least when cokes to the gruel, everyone would be able to enjoy the meal further and as one of the engineer had earlier remarked, "Just waiting for the main event."