Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 66 - The Three Stooges.

"Michelle, please, I suggest you try to put your mind into gear before opening up your mouth from this moment on. Looking at the ferocity of that man and the places that he had mentioned, it proved that he is a learned person and also someone that we can't take lightly."

"Yeah, I wanted to leave this place but didn't know where to go. My parents are in Hartlepool but I have no news on how their well being right now. If I were to make a futile attempt to l make the trip there and finds nothing, won't I be wasting my efforts and placing myself at risk too?"

"Yeah, it's nearing the end of spring and a lot of animals, predators and prey alike, would come out from hibernation. I won't want to be their fodder...! So, please Michelle. Try to be as cooperative as possible. The way I see those things from the wagon, I think he might be delivering it to a town. Definitely a town because of the loom and all those bundles of clothes. Maybe he got an offer to procure these items for sale, otherwise won't he be bringing a lot of his men along?"

"Alright... You know, I was a bit excited earlier too, because I have not seen another living human besides you guys for nearly 3 months already. How would I not be able to contain my excitement just now? If you were me, you should also react the same way too, you know."

"Alright, we understand. But why with the dress? Are you trying to impress him or won thing? By the way, let's hurry to find the 2 additional handcarts. As he mentioned just now, it's really true. Pushing a handcart is nothing compared to die by starving. Come on, let's hurry. Hope that bloke would pass you something light to push since you are a lady."

"If he does regard me like a lady, he won't place a blade against my throat and manhandled me so roughly. I was so shocked until I would not know what to do. I did not expect him to be too rigid."

"Oh, here's a handcart, let's go. Why don't you push it back yourself first? We go and look for another one."

"OK, see you guys in a while bit." Michelle took the handcart that those blokes had discovered and she pushed it over to the Macleod's Manor.

=*=

"Excuse me, sir, here's the handcart, what shall I do with it?" Michelle approached Eagle timidly as she placed the handcart next to the one that had been loaded with sacks of grains and flour.

"Hawk, Falcon. Load 3 barrels here and another 3 when the other handcart arrives. The other 6 barrels would be loaded on board the wagon."

"You, go and search as many weapons as you can. Swords, axes, shields et cetera. As for halberd, speaks and pikes, remove the head from its handle. I only want the metal parts. Go..." Eagle looked at Michelle and gave instruction for the above following task.

Due to the unknown load-bearing for the wagon right now, Eagle had no other choice but to split the load to the handcarts instead. Once the barrels are loaded and the weapons had been acc.u.mulated it was time to leave.

Time had been wasted and Eagle assesses that time is really of great essence. The fewer eyes that might pry on them, the better. They need to cover as much ground especially since 7 would be on foot and out of the 7, 3 could be considered as mules.

The last handcart arrived and the men loaded the 3 barrels into it. Michelle had gathered all the scattered weapons as being told that she could possibly carry with her two arms, and loaded them on the handcart. Several sacks of grains or flour were placed on the wagons that had the barrels of wine to cushion all those weapons. They would not bear to see those barrels being punctured accidentally, would they?

"Alright, the time has already been wasted too long. Sparrow, ride me with. The rest of you would be the guardian, flanks and rear guard. Maintain a distance of 150 feet. We might be in for a surprise. Be frisky."

"Yes, Leader." Soon, the wagon and the 3 handcarts behind moved out slowly from the sorry state of Darlington. The 4 scouts had dispersed and kept a lookout around to them. At least the main reason they had come here had been fulfilled. Now, it's time for their son, the only heir of the Macleod, to perform his part.

Since the wagon was quite laden, they had to traversed it with care. They travelled just before the break of dawn and only decided to make camp well after sundown, next to a body of water that flowed alongside. If the river was required to cross, they have to offload those barrels before making their way across. Fortunately, this was not the case and after pressing on for several hours before the break of dawn to forage the lands before them finally edibles.

When a temporary camp was made, all the scouts assembled and prepared themselves for a hot meal of gruel with the pot they had gathered and the clear clean water from the river. Fortunately, the grains were still in good condition as it was not exposed to moisture.

"After the meal, we take a break and rest for the night. There's some distance more to cover and this territory is miles away from Darlington but might be within the influence of the rebels and revolutionaries."

"You three take your rest after the meal. You might have been totally exhausted." Eagle advised as bowls of gruel were shared around. It had been so long since those 3 guardsmen had any hot food that they ate so fast till their tongues got scorched.

"Eat slowly. There's more to go."

"Thank you, sir..." Michelle answered meekly and the 2 other guardsmen nodded their heads in apprehension. It was the best meal in months, and the three can't stop but felt grateful for she felt the cool and mysterious man before them had no longer felt any animosity towards her.

=*=

4 days after Eagle had left.

Meanwhile back in GraceHaven, I had a small discussion with the pioneers amidst their work of assembling the defensive structures, making clay bricks as well as preparing the parts of a hunting bow.

"Young Master, I would like to propose some bamboo sleighs to enable the children to transport the pre-firing and post-firing of the clay bricks. In this way, time would not be wasted by carrying brick after brick to the firing area."

"Ben, see to the needs of Jack and his little henchmen... Hehe. They had been doing a great job lately." Ben nodded his head and placed a hand on Jack's shoulders and responded that he would see to it. The pull sleigh to transport these clay bricks would be made of bamboo, some splicing and a rope to pull them. It would take mere minutes to construct one.

"Another matter, young master. Could I reward the children by giving them the sweets that Kayla had prepared before? You know, the thick gooey stuff from the cattails before?" I laughed at Jack and reassuringly informed him to go ahead. What's wrong with rewarding the children with sweets as a form of treats right?

Gwen, Kayla and Heather will move out with all the three horses. They will bring down as many bamboos as possible because of their needs in both the construction of the defensive structures and houses.

Besides, they would build 4 more houses on the row that was currently occupied by Ashworths and Burns. Out of those 4 houses, 2 would be for 5 engineers each. It wouldn't be appropriate for those who served under their Prince to sleep in the windmill after hours, would it?

"Ben, err... Why was it always you eh? Haha. Since you made those reed flutes, could you make a handful of reed whistles? A dozen would do fine. This would be for the watchtowers to inform of animals or human intrusions." I felt kinda bad on keep asking for Ben for favours but he was one of the fine carpenters and his speed of accomplishing tasks was astonishing.

"Don't worry, young master. When I'm at it, could I ask something from Gwen? I would like to make some drums too and some lute. At least these 3 instruments would really make a great musical composition to ease the weariness in the evening after dinner a d our nightly conferences."

"Hahaha...that's a wonderful preposition, Ben. Go right ahead. Get some assistance if you may. Thank you so much for everyone's effort in contributing to this community."

"Young Master, just to update you on the defensive structures. We had completed and placed a total of 60 of those, and by evening we should be able to complete another 5 to 8 more. Would you excuse the team this time so that they could set up the remaining defensive structures before nightfall?"

"That's terrific news, Frank... I am mighty glad of the accomplishments. Never knew that your team would be able to work on it in a matter of days." I commended to Frank and he explained that the short time is taken to complete the defensive structures because the engineers would sharpen those bamboo stakes once they had done measuring and cutting it down to size.

"Great job... Alright, as for the residential lots, set aside for another row of 12 houses behind those being occupied. The prefabrication materials should still carry on. Place 4 people in that team and deploy the rest to other stations."

"I doubt there would be an influx of settlers soon because the nomads hadn't shown their noses yet. Maybe they are contented in the pastures and decided to let their animals roam freely and they set up permanent camps instead."

"Maybe so, young master. If they were situated upstream, they might pollute the waters, if you know what I mean. But if it is downstream, we won't be bothered much."

"Just hope they had made a waste management latrine pit system to dispose of their daily waste into it and turn it into manure. Alright, everyone assumes their stations and please take Sir Blackie along to the other side of the forest."

"Thank you, young master..." the pioneers choruses in unison and fall back to their individual stations to complete their tasks at hand. They knew that once the defensive structures had been completely set up, the next thing would be building materials, clay bricks production, rocket stove productions, woven mats of different sizes, the humble brooms, hunting bows and the bamboo chicks.

I went back to my study table as the women had retrieved the horses from the stables and had placed a kind of blanket on the horses back like a saddle.

Sir Hope was hooked up with the wagon this had been used earlier to ferry earth and was led by Kayla and Heather while Gwen and Crystal were on horseback. Heather waved at me and I waved at them back as I continued to put an entry into my journal.

Anything that is significant would be entered inside the journal. At least this would be a story that would be told for generations. From the start of me running, till Ben knocked me out, from sleeping under the stars to building a small settlement. All events such as the Chadwell who was treated with a bite from the wolf and all the funny quirks was recorded to.

Time passed by quickly and it seemed like two feet of shadow had extended from the vertical stick on the ground. I stretched myself and closed the journal.

It was a journal to me but more like a personal diary to others. At least it is recorded somehow and would make a good reference for the others who would have a chance to read them. When I was about to close up the journal and put it inside the house, I heard frantic shouting from Jack...

"STOP THAT BOY...HE'S GOING TO....."