Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 61 - A Moment Of Silence

The flag was Magnifique and Sparrow clasped his hand over his heart and gazed up to the flag above after he secured the rope near the base with a simple knot. "Never ever let the colours of the flag to touch the ground. Except for the black ones. If it touches the ground, it is a sign of disrespect and the punished is..." he let the words hung in the air as he looked for Gwen.

Gwen saw the eyes locked onto hers and she excused herself to move to the front, extracted the whip at the side of her waist and whipped it on the floor and "CRAACK" the sound of the whip resonated among the crowd and everyone can't help but cringe in horror...!

"100 wh.i.p.s, no more, no less. If the offender faints, Kayla will rouse him up and continue the whipping. Faint. Awake. Whip. Faint. Awake. Whip. And this process repeats till the 100 lashes have been fully awarded. Let's go back to the court." I finally concluded.

The citizens moved back to the court and some were carrying the burnt-out torch, shovels and the benches. They all took their seats on the benches while Heather and I assume our position on the throne.

"It was an uneventful passing of a child of our dear citizen. Although life and work have to continue today, I have decided to let the first half of the day remained untouched. No work should be performed and will resume after midday."

"I would so announce that 6 engineers would be taking a leave of absence for 5 days to visit their loved ones and they will return thereafter. They would leave once they had their fill and have brought along some supplies with them too."

"Let's take the first half of the day as a day of mourning and a sign of respect for the grieving family. Dismissed..."

=*=

When Ben was approached by Jack and Jennings last evening, he had produced 6 wooden moulds and press that would be shaped into clay bread moulds. He showed it to Jack and he nodded approvingly as when the press was in place inside the mould, it left a clearance of one-eighth of an inch all around.

After using his own middle finger to gauge the press and mould, it should be able to accommodate closely to the requirements of Jennings. He worked immediately after receiving the projects.

Just like today, he was able to render assistance and make the fishing pole project a success as it was completed under 1 inch of a shortening shadow.

(no means of telling the actual time or sundial, water clock et cetera, the time was based on the length of the shadow on an upright stick where an inch represents one hour. It may be an hour or less in modern times.)

Ben and Frank went to the clay bricks production area and prepared to work on those clay bread moulds in silent as they stoked more wood that can be broken underfoot into the open pit of the clay bricks.

The children had joined in the middle of the court as Heather retold the story of babies and death by means of using a stork delivering and retrieving babies instead. The children were then told to wash their hands and faces as they were making the mud pies over at the clay baking area and there would be no work till midday.

Kayla and Heather proceed to prepare baking bread that was filled with cheese curds and corn kernels that had been left steamed earlier. It was simply a sympathy meal for the grieving family.

Gwen and Crystal went to bind the hunting bows together and it was a task that could be completed slightly more than an inch of shadow time. The hunting bows that had been bonded with hide glue and clamped tight, was left to sit and placed ln a temporary structure that was made of triangular shaped bamboo poles.

The hunting bows were then placed on top of one another in an alternating way so that it would be aired properly and left to set for at least 3 days in the shade or 2 days under direct sunlight.

The pioneers do about the work as silently as possible as the citizens sat around and chatted softly between themselves.

"Momma, will my little baby sister be okay? I mean she is taken by the stork, what will happen to my little baby sister when the stork opens its mouth to yawn?"

"Oh, the stork mouth is very strong. Do you know about the goats? It's much heavier than your little baby sister and it delivers with more babies than you can imagine."

"Oh, Momma is so clever. But why does the stork wants to take my little baby sister? I don't understand."

"The stork wants to send your little baby sister to a place much more better than this. Do you know when the stork came one night, it asked me what I want since it carries 2 babies. There's a boy and a girl and Momma chose a girl and here you are, my little baby princess."

"Then how come little brother cannot talk and listen when I call him?"

"The stork said to me one night and told me this little baby boy is special. Only a person like you could have such a special little baby brother."

"Oh...now I understand why... Will the stork comes here again to deliver or take more babies?"

"Momma doesn't know because these storks are busy every day and they deliver not only babies but also animals. Do you want to listen to a funny story?"

"Yes... Yes... Tell me, Momma...! One night, a stork drank too much ale that he took one bundle of baby and it thought it was a human baby boy and deliver to one family."

"When the next morning the mummy open the bundle, she found a baby wild boar instead and decided to take care of the baby boar for some time."

"Then the stork counted how many human babies and wild boars, it realises the mistake and came back to take the baby away and it forgets to exchange the wild boar baby with a human baby."

"Ohh... So it was like the stork that came to take little baby sister yesterday... I see now. Hahaha. So funny. I hope the stork won't give you a bundle of the goat because goats are always hungry and it could eat a whole house down. Hahaha... Momma, you are so funny."

A group of other children gathered around and listened to the funny side of the story and they snickered and laughed while rolling on the floor in stitches. At least the Chadwell was able to make light of their situation even though it had been about 2 months passed when their actual infant girl had passed on.

Since both I and Jack was not doing anything much, we went to the blacksmith shop and retrieved the sack behind the store. It was not a single sack but 3 sacks altogether and these sacks were actually hose meant to store 25 pounds of grains or flour.

We both dragged it inside the store and retrieved out item per item and display them on the countertop. If a merchant was passing by, they might think we were holding a kind of bazaar or an auction. There was an assortment of daggers, short swords, maces, one-handed battle axes and some bows. It looked... Pretty uninteresting to me there was no armours or shields.

"I can't wait for the shadows to bring back some of my equipment from the store back in town. At least, I've got my smelter, which I could turn all these metals into other usable stuff. I need to remind them to bring some cast iron moulds since it could be turned into plate armours as making those and making these need a set of other tools called the armourer's toolkit. I'm not an armourer so I don't have that toolkit in my store."

"Would it be better to be lightly armoured and mobile than be bogged down armour from head to toe? Before that person could raise his arm to make a strike, he would receive multiple slashes on his c.h.e.s.t, back, sides, legs and even be clobbered on his head too."

I wished to be an archer, able to shoot my targets from a distance and move within the trees like a predator pouncing on its prey, releasing an arrow then running to another spot and releasing another one until that target doubles over and succ.u.mb to its injuries."

"If possible, I wished for a bow that can shoot 3 or more arrows in a vertical or horizontal position. But I think a machine would only be able to do that, right?"

"I was discussing with Gwen last evening and she told me about archers using a shield. It had given me an idea but I am not sure it would be feasible to use here."

"What are you thinking, son?" (Jack would call me son because he treated me as his own and I don't mind ever since. At least he's of reputable stature and also our senior in our community)

"If a shield could be used to protect an archer, then a collapsible three-door shield would do wonders. If he is able to deflect a direct frontal assault by an arrow, then by adding two side collapsible shields would protect him more than the front and sides. He could even fire his arrows backwards."

"A small opening in the collapsible shields enable the fire to see through and observe the surroundings where he could adjust his position and with a split moment fire at the enemy."

"That's a fine idea but would the shield be thrice as heavy?"

"We might not necessary to use all metal surfaces. A convex surface would be able to deflect arrows. Since archers would be dealing with the same class at a range. What other types of metal have you worked with?"

"Copper, bronze and Iron. The lightest and weakest material is copper followed by bronze which is tougher than copper and the toughest one would be Iron. However, I can't think of someone wielding a shield and then a bow would feasibly be suitable on the battlefront."

"Actually, not a battlefront but a homefront instead. Hmm, never mind, it's just wishful thinking only. Just my wishful thinking that might not even take off. Furthermore, it would be truly c.u.mbersome for an archer to carry thrice the weight of a shield that he would end up using it as a sleight instead. Haha."