Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 94 - Secondary Traps Were A Hit

It was quite some time since the miners had left to mine for their destination. The 6 miners, including Chadwell, had hauled their empty 50 pounder hemp sacks and pickaxes onto an empty wagon. Sir Victory was assigned to ferry those men to the mines and back with an ample supply of bread for the men and horse alike.

Supplies of grains, some tubers and jerkies along with cooking utensils were provided to supply the men as well as a bushel of wheat for the horse in case it goes hungry.

After breakfast and the morning conference before the start of things, the 6 miners finally waved off and starts their journey towards their intended destination.

Before this, it takes a total of 5 days to reach the mines, pulling their wagon behind them. But with the resourcefulness of Sir Victory, they were able to get here in 2 days and work on their mines and be back within a week.

"Farewell, Sir, see you in 7 or 8 day's time. We would bring back the intended coals and ores and even bring back some new families with us. We hope we would be able to get some families as we hardly get to see many miners around the place. However, since we had not nene there for more than 2 weeks, we might even see new faces."

"Take care then, men. Be careful out there and Chadwell, don't force yourself too much if your calf gets too numb." I hollered out as the men shifted away the barricade to let the horse-drawn wagon leave the area before he closed it up and anchored it down to place.

I looked around me as I saw the backs of the miners go over the knoll and observed that there was a lot of improvements made around the residential lots as there was a 2x2 farmland of about 30' by 30' per lot just near the river, as now there's another 2x2 farmland beside it.

There is now 4 plots of farmlands lined beside the riverbanks and the defensive structures were adjusted accordingly. It took mere less than a foot of a shadow's length to adjust these barricades to their new position.

The new 2x2 farmlands next to the cornfields were as close as 10 to 15 feet away from the edge of the Burial ground and we knew it had reached the limit of the land size intended. Besides, having too large of land would only inhibit crowdedness and more security breaches and fire hazards.

Luckily, two latrine pits were at both sides of the residential lots and for that, a special plot of land was marked mainly for it. Sooner or later the latrine pits would be filled up as a new one would be needed to be dug.

Initially, the contents of the latrine pits were being covered by earth, but now, someone had thrown in a burning torch and some dry grasses to burn it off. Not only it hastens the decomposition, but it also eliminates airborne diseases coming from the open latrine pits.

The space beside the lot assigned for the latrine pits in the future would be enough to set aside an additional 5 by 3 residential lots for each side, meaning there would be a total of 90 residential lots for 90 families.

With an average of 2 children for every household, these planned residential lots would have 360 to 400 citizens altogether. Not too shabby for a growing village like GraceHaven.

More houses mean more resources for green bamboo and bamboo strips, screw pine leaves, iris leaves and beargrass to make those woven walls and main structures while reed and jute would be made into structural frames and rope for binding and other usages.

To balance the usage of the houses'' structures, a mixture of green and yellow bamboo was used instead. The stilts and skids were made of green bamboo while the supporting cross beams were made from yellow bamboo.

This yellow bamboo was able to hold the weight of a person when they stood on the crossness of the main structure to fix the thatched roof overhead and splice the wall partitions together, eliminating the need of a ladder. No wonder 2 people could complete 3 houses within a foot of a shadow's length.

=*=

"Hello there, young men. We are Irish Travellers or nomads, that is commonly known to you. We would like to ask you a few questions, please." the leader of the Irish Travellers waved to the riders of the horse-drawn carriage when they stopped near the riverbank to let their horse drank up and the men to take a brief break.

"Oh hello there, mates. We have heard about you before. The last time we heard you were about two or three towns away. What took you so long to get around these parts?" the young miner spoke and greeted the leader of the Irish Travellers.

"Aye...we not only travelled from town to town but also visit other settlements as we go, you know. A normal 3-day trip would be even a 7 to 8 days one with our wagons and livestock."

"Ah... I see. So what kind of questions may you need to ask and where are you heading next?" inquired another miner who had extinguished the fire on the ground after making themselves a kettle of tea. He offered tea to the leader and was politely declined.

"We are heading towards a settlement we had heard that had good pasture grounds and also a good place to be sort of a stopping point in between other towns and settlements. How far will it be, young man?"

"Oh, it is about half a day travel downstream. That's where we came from. It's no more a settlement now but a full-blown village. Say, maybe you're the one that was mentioned to us during one of the night conferences after dinner."

"Night conference? What's that? So it's a village now, eh? Hope we could do some trade with your village chief later on." the leader remarked as he thought of the god tidings upon meeting the men from the said village.

"Yes, a nightly conference where His Majesty would brief us on our daily progress and also what we have achieved so far. It's a common practice that had been since the day we arrived there. We too had just arrived from town and we find life easier and more meaningful than the town, believe me."

"His Majesty? You mean there's a king living within your village. Wouldn't a king befitting to be in a castle or a kingdom besides a village?" the leader of the Irish Travellers inquired with frowned eyebrows as he thought about a kingship which he does not favour at all.

Kingship would mean the villagers would live under a fixed ruling, a feudal system would be set and everyone has to pay taxes. The ideas of these nearly put him off and he only meant just to go there and trade, nothing else.

"Thank you, young men, we better get packing and head downriver to your so-called village. We are doing some trade and be on our way once we had done our bidding. Hope there are some good grazing grounds for our livestock too."

"Alright then, we are off too. We are heading to the old mines and get some ores and coal for our Domestic Affairs to forge them into pig irons or make some tools and weapons too. Take care and good morrow then." the miner bade farewell to the leader of the Irish Travellers and heads towards their destination.

"Good morrow too, young men." as the leader of the Irish Travellers went to his people and made an announcement about the village and their weird practices. Since they were moving downriver, it would be dusk before they reach the village and decides to make camp beyond the outskirts before approaching the village chief.

=*=

"That leader of the Irish Travellers doesn't seem to be too happy when I mention about His Majesty, don't you think so?" Chadwell spoke to Hereford, sharing his thoughts with the others.

"Well, as His Majesty had mentioned to us, we are not here to bend their will to stay. Nomads are well... People who travel from a place to another. Prefer to be within their ethnic group and also not being governed by any system." replied Hereford as he expresses what he recalled during one of the nightly conferences.

"Yeah, we can be considered nomads too. If not, how would we leave the towns with our wives and made a jump based on blind faith after we had only 2 occurrences with the then young master?" quipped Innes towards what was being said by Hereford.

"True... True... I have never regretted the day I brought my family along with you guys. Even if we do not possess any coins with us, but we more than enough food to eat, clothes on our back as well as a nice house and roof over our heads." added Jennings as he shared his thoughts while sitting in the back of the wagon.

"Well, truth to be told, I was surprised that a noble king walks among the commoners. Maybe it is because of survival and maybe because he was forced to do so. Just hope that Our Majesty would remain the same and be fair towards the citizens."

Kensington was the last to speak and just as everyone not only in the wagon but back in the village, they were thankful for the bliss they had so far since they arrived in the village. A village that operates and have the capacity of a small town, indeed.

=*=

Gwen bellowed as she saw an earlier herd of grazing spotted red deers. The herd had avoided the barricade but that doesn't stop her from spooking these game that was normally hunted by the Kings of other territories.

As the herd was grazing and drinking water from the riverbanks, she took a blunt arrowhead, nooked it and let it fly towards the mid of the herd.

"WHIZZ..."

"SMACK"

As the arrow whizzed through the air, is struck a young doe on the hinds and it jumped slightly in the air, spooking the others in front of it that ended in a chain reaction of leaping red deers.

This effect worked as she had planned as some of the red deers were seen jumping inside the knee-deep waters of the rivers when suddenly, a few of the red deers were thrashing about in the waters as the water stained red with their blood.

"S-T-R-I-K-E...!!"

Three red deers were slightly impaled at first with the contraptions that their Majesty had made by using a framework of halved bamboo as a base and sharpened sticks of bamboo that protrudes along with it.

This was an intruders' trap, that impaled any intruders and restricts their movement if they dared to traverse the rivers to avoid the defensive structures. Little did the intruders knew that there are traps laid there waiting for them.

Due to being spooked, these red deers hopped and crossed the river, thus stepping on the deers that had been slightly impaled to be thoroughly impaled now. Their bodies were riddled with puncture wounds and coupled with the tramplings, these deer suffered a watery death as well.

"Hahaha. Didn't knew that the trap laid for intruders finally gave us food on the tables instead. Better for me to get some help to retrieve those deer. Luckily this river is not infested with crocodiles. Haha. We are going to feast on King's game tonight." Gwen ran back happily to the edge of the barricades and shouted for some men to assist her to haul back the kill.

=*=

"Wow...we did it again, too bad those sharpened ends of the bamboo got snapped and embedded in these deers' bodies. Any trouble so far retrieving the traps and placing them back?" I approached the men as they hauled in 3 a.d.u.l.t deers with stakes of sharpened bamboo embedded in their soft bodies.

"Hahaha. Your Majesty's idea really worked...! I thought it was only for intruders but it worked for wildlife game as well. I only used a blunt arrow to spook one of the doe and this started a stampede across the river to the other side."

"Guess there's going to be a constant supply of this meat in the future from now on till hibernation time," Gwen claimed gleefully as she dragged two of the traps to be mended.

Since it was light, these traps were weighted down by stones. To avoid any accidents, yellow bamboo poles were being placed inside the river to mark both ends, ensuring young swimmers do not go beyond the yellow bamboo poles.

At the mention of meat, Sir Blackie was once again on its hind legs and twirling around in circles like a ballerina and barking excitedly as it watched the three deers being placed near the fireplace to be skinned and dressed.

As usual, the lungs would be booked and meant for Sir Blackie while other internal organs would be mushed and made into pig feed along with wheat and other edible plants.