Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 49 - My Mind On Overdrive..

I headed down to Gwen and greeted her and several of her assistants, "Hello Gwen, how are things at your end? It is good for you to have assistants rather than doing things alone, don't you think so?"

Gwen simply nodded in acknowledgement. "I and the assistants are preparing the 3 parts of the hunting bow each. Right now, we have more than a dozen broken-down parts that would be treated and then affixed with hide glue."

"Young master, I heard from old Jack that you wanted to have your own bow and also learn how to shoot? It would be good to have a ranged combat class and a melee class. In this way, you would be like having an all-rounder. As an archer, you could have a shield if you want."

"A shield? How am I going to shoot and defend myself at the same time?" I was a bit quizzed because a now would be held by two hands and the shield? Placed behind like a turtle as a pikeman or use it to cover over the head in case the other arrows rained down on you.

.

"Tell me more about this shield and hunting bow. I'm a bit perturbed since I won't know how it would be able to serve an archer."

"OK, first you need to to have a shield that would cover you from the enemy. In this case, imagine you are taking cover behind a wall, and that wall represents your shield and covers your blind spot from the enemies."

"That shield has a tripod leg behind it so once you set it up in the floor, you would be free to handle your bow. Furthermore, you don't have to kneel directly behind the shield since it's hard for you to shoot."

"Here, look at how I explain to you." Gwen scratched the ground with her knife and draw a short line. Then a circle to represent an archer which stand about 2 to 3 feet behind. She then draws an 'X' to denote an enemy."

"Your enemy couldn't see you because his field of vision is blocked by the shield. You, on the other hand, move here and here sideways to that you may shoot whenever you nooked the arrow."

"A hunters rule: Once you nooked your arrow, you must release towards your intended target. Secondly, if you hunt game, you kill what you eat. Got it now?"

"Good idea, Gwen. But could I improvise it a bit? I would wait for some planks that are out of size from Ben and see if I could implement it for ourselves.

It's a truly good idea and I believe that it's workable. According to science and math, your field of vision if we look straight would be this much, but if an archer has a shield, his vision would be this much in both left and right."

I extended my hands straight to indicate my reasoning and when I traverse to the left and right, it becomes wider using the front as 0 degrees and the left and right side to be angled at 95 degrees. The front, however, would be restricted to 15 degrees. Depending on the distance of the target, it would be wider.

"You're a hunter Gwen, so basically you should understand what I mean." I finally concluded and when I looked at Gwen's assistant, their jaws were wide open and stared at me, feeling perplexed.

"Yes, young master. I truly understand what you mean. Put in simpler terms it's like cutting a round pie in 6 equal parts while you are in the centre. Hahahaha..."

"I don't want to be in the centre of the pie. I'm going to look like the decoration of a wedding cake. Hahahaha..."

I laughed off the joke and I waved my hands and headed to Frank. "Frank, I'm terribly sorry but something slipped my mind. I totally forgot about it." as I hurried back to Frank and Ben and discussed the placement of the barricade on the left and right of our courtyard area and then on the other side for the residential lots.

I pointed out to him by scratching the ground and showed the distance of the barricade near the current farmlands. Then I drew the road that would be affected by the barricade, ending the road with a slight bend when it reaches the farmland.

"Extend the road here, put up the barricade here. Luckily it's mobile and when we extend the farmlands, this barricade would move. As for residential lots, place the barricade 2 lots away. So when it's time add more houses, the barricade would be extended further. However, could you make a mobile platform like this?"

I drew again on the ground and it became like a watchtower. The platform would be 6' to 10' high so if one jumped, at least the soft soil would cushion the fall. "The base should have an extension of 2 to 3 feet to stabilise the tower. You need to make it at this angle so that the weight of the men on the platform would not make it wobble. I think you can make 6 feet one with a bamboo platform and handrails."

"So it's a vantage point from a height. A person could detect incoming enemies or wild animals that would sacrifice themselves. So if Gwen is here does she shoot first or let the animals attack first?"

"Of course she would let the animal attack first. Because these silly animals when they go berserk, they would definitely gain and add half of their strength on top of the one that they have."

"Something did happen to you earlier today right, young master? You seemed revitalised and suddenly you were full of ideas. I myself find it hard to keep up with you."

"Just a spark of inspiration, my good man. Thank you for accommodating my request."

"It is for the citizens of GraceHaven, young master. I would like to see this village grow and for my children too. We are the one who should be thanking you. Bless you, young master."

I bowed to him and walked towards Gwen again and asked her, 'Could you call me in advance when you are putting hide glue to these wood? I might have some usage later on."

"So basically you would make these parts first and then treats the wood, right? 3 hunting bows per day? It's been 2 days Marcel had left so we have about 12 days to supply him with the 50 bows."

"Don't worry about it, young master. We would put it to speed. It would be ready by 12 days later. Rest assured."

I bowed towards her and walked over to check in other progress and I was satisfied with what I had seen. Jack and Kayla were guiding the children like their own grandchildren and they were basically making mud pies as it was the first time for half of them especially the Chadwell's boy.

That boy didn't go for the class but it seemed he had emerged out from his cocoon. His parents were elated since he was an introvert after discovering that the silent world around him.

I approached the boy and squatted beside him and announced to the rest of the kids. "Listen here children, this boy is special but even if he is special, he should be treated as someone normal, alright? He can't attend class but he should be able to fit within you, little boys and girls. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Big Brother..." the children choruses as I placed a gentle hand on the boy's back and patted while I smiled at him and nodded my head. He replied with the most handsome smile he could put, clasped his hands on his c.h.e.s.t and nodded.

"Strange... This boy is only 3 but it seems to be connected with my inner thoughts" I wondered as I left them be since Harry and Imelda were making the mould of the clay bricks.

Jack and Kayla had dug 3 shallow pits on the ground as the children kneaded the clay, soil, bits of hay and crushed pebbles inside the pit and handed to Harry and Imelda when it was ready to be moulded.

I checked the loom and saw the Chadwell's was removing the current threads and places the spools on the tailor's table before replacing the loom with the twine made from jute. The place seemed a bit cramped and I saw she was fumbling with her infant that was slung across her c.h.e.s.t.

"Do you think we should extend this shop by another 4 feet? At least your loom and the weaving would not be too cramped. These walls are extendable. And another roof could be placed above, underneath the present one."

"Is this possible? I thought this was a permanent fixture and cannot be enlarged. In this case, I agree, sir. Please extend this area, sir, I would really appreciate it."

I nodded and found that the extra space would be used to store those treated bamboo strips to make those sun shades or bamboo chicks. The first one that she will make would be the one that I'm going to place in front of my home. At least for a sales gimmick for Marcel to be enticed.

"Your baby is very good eh, she doesn't cry, doesn't kick around and just stayed close to her mother unlike the Hereford's. May I hold her for a while bit?"

The moment I mentioned that her eyes looked at me with horror and she covered her mouth with one hand. But she regained her composure and just smiled and informed me that her baby was sleeping and if anyone else touches her, she would cry and it would take an hour for her to settle down.

"Oh alright then. Just a thought though. As you know I'm good with kids and your boy is now at the clay brick processing area and was socialising with the others even though he... You know what I mean."

"Thank you, Missus Jennings, for letting your son participate in our projects. We would definitely take a look at your current situation because your daughter had told me something last night. I just hope that you and your family had finally settled down here and would be with us for many years to come."

Not intending to disturb her peace of mind and tenacity towards her work, I bowed and left the loom. I stood in the middle of the courtyard and looked around me. We had a blacksmith shop, a tailor and loom combo, a brewery that would require one to fill the position, a bakery that would definitely be extended in the sides and back.

The sawmill was empty and I saw some sawdust on the floor and I thought to myself that this material could be used to strengthen the clay brick. Since the composition requires water, those mud pies could be easily moulded with just the right amount of water.

1000 bricks, I wonder if we could achieve the target since we had just begun the process today. But many hands make work light so I believe on those kids. I decided to note down a few things that need to be improvised and added to make things move in a more upscale pace.

I went over to Crystal and saw her chatting with Heather as she used a pitchfork to move some bamboo, reeds, cattails and jute unimportant parts and feed it to the goats as I was curious because I remembered goat is not mentioned on eating bamboo leaves.

"They eat almost anything, your master...! They can even nibble and eat your clothes if you are unaware that they are doing it... Now we have more than enough goats to supply us milk to drink and also to make cheese. Let me finish the task first and I'd come back to you."

Crystal hollered back at me as I waved my hand and saw Heather was raising her fists at me as if she wants to have a brawl right now. I chuckled as I walked into grains shed.