Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 98 - Treated As Equals

"Macintosh, is that the settlement that was told by those men the day before? It looks kind of... Defended. All around it, as if it was to keep out intruders or maybe wild beasts. Should we be entering their compounds?" a young man asked their leader of the Irish Travellers.

"No, its already nearing dusk, we would be better off staying by this river. At least we could enter that village by daybreak. From there we could observe things more clearly and also sought help from the village chief to trade and do a bit of repair."

"Alright, Mac, as you say it is. By the way, don't you think it's weird that they defend the whole village and yet they leave their rivers wide open? Oh, there's only a few stakes of yellow bamboo in the river."

"They really don't put a priority on the river since its the easiest way any intruders or wild beasts could get their way in and out." the young man added as he raised his hands in the air and waved the rest to stop and make camp.

"Don't bother about these "Borders", it's their own fault if they find that the crops were all stampede by wildlife and their village be sieved by rebels, bandits and marauders. They think too highly of themselves and they thought that they are better than others. Leave these "Borders" alone."

"Even if you tell them, would they appreciate you?" Macintosh warned the young man not to be a bootlicker and a blade of grass wiper just to show how smart the person was. "These "Borders" are simply pigs."

He ended his 'sermon' and the young man walked away feeling a bit dejected even after he had voiced his thoughts in a casual manner. Little did he expect that he would be rebutted openly and flatly. "Sigh... Some people could not just leave their spots."

As the families started to make camp and gather water to prepare the meals they discovered that the villagers from afar had lit several pits of fire and were seen on merriment as soft music drifted to their ears, brought over from the surface of the water that was flowing downriver.

There was quite a lot of smoke from the burning pits as it seemed that they were roasting some wild game or even their livestock. There were cries of joys and synchronised clapping of hands. Hmm, if their leader had wished to approach the village even just before dusk, at least they could have a share of their merriment too.

The women made a fire to boil some water as they prepared some broth from the edible plants that some of the hunter-gatherers had acquired. Being in the pastures had been their lives and hardship, as well as joys, were shared equally.

These Irish Travellers had braved the sleet and snow, heavy thunderstorms and gale, drylands and harsh conditions and environment, but they had never complained once in their lives because they were predestined to be facing these while they move from one pasture to another, climbing high elevations above sea level as they had nudged their livestock to graze and avoid those barren lands.

They were the Irish Travellers or commonly called nomads.

=*=

"Excuse me, Sir. My men had detected some movements downriver where a group of nomads were seen camping out there near the river. Reports say that there are more than 50 people travelling on horse-drawn or ox-driven wagons."

"50 over people camping out just outside the borders of GraceHaven, you say? Why don't they come in earlier and why do they need to camp out first? Is there anything wrong?" I asked Eagle who came in with the initial report of the sightings of nomads just within our perimeter.

"What are they doing right now?"

"The nomads seemed to be cooking their meals, Sir. They normally enter a town or village in the day to observe their surroundings. They usually avoid nighttime since the citizens would be asleep after dinner sometime later."

"They were sighted sometime before dusk just now. Our scouts observed and saw that none was making a move for the night and they had tethered their livestock in a herd, so most probably they would rest after their dinner."

"Hmm, is that so... How about sending a reconnaissance team and invite them to come in, at my discretion?"

"Yes Sir, I will attend to it immediately." Eagled then saluted me with a hand clasped at his c.h.e.s.t and quickly went to look for his men and deployed two of them to invite the nomads into the village.

=*=

"Excuse me, our Lord wishes to invite all of you to enter the village and its grounds. It is not safe here after dark as some beasts normally leave their dens to look for food."

"There are children and women in the group so it would be safe for everyone to be inside the village." a young Shadow approached the Irish Travellers and requested them to move into the village instead.

"Tell your Lord there is no need to, furthermore we have already set camp and would enter once daybreak. Tell your Lord thank you for his offers. We would like to see him tomorrow." replied Macintosh with pride even though he too wished to be in the village and join the merriment.

"As you wish...." the young Shadow simply replied, bowed and left with his buddy. Once he got to the village, he reported the matter to me directly on the presence of Eagle.

"Hmm, there are children there as well? Sigh... I should treat this matter as a way of sharing our blessings to them. We got quite a lot of venison which we would not be able to finish in 3 days time."

"Please send them a large cauldron of vegetable broth, two baskets of bread and a large cut of venison hindquarters. They could return those cauldrons and baskets tomorrow when they entered."

Eagled looked at me with raised eyebrows as a smile slowly carved across his face. He knew that I somehow was a kind-hearted person and would gladly share whatever we have with others, even if they are outsiders.

The thoughtfulness of mine had once again touched Eagle's heart. Not many leaders have a compassionate heart and attitude.

The young Shadows nodded affirmatively and nodded their head and whistled and showed 3 fingers and soon, 3 more Shadows joined the duo.

The roasted hindquarters of the deer were deftly cut away and then wrapped with banana leaves. It was quite a large stag so the share of venison would easily be enough for a group of 50 over people. This banana leaves wrapped meat was handled by a rather mid 30ish Shadow.

We had only a deer over the pits as two others were being a trussed up and covered with leaves to rid of gnats, flies and other vectors. The one over the pits weighed over 500 pounds while the other two smaller ones weighed between 250 to 400 pounds each.

Two Shadow members were carrying the baskets of twenty freshly baked plain wheat bread, quite a bountiful of pretzels that were coated with sugary water that when it was cooled, the sugar caked and coated the pretzels and several cheesy breadsticks.

The earlier two Shadows transferred the vegetable broth into a cool cauldron so that they would not burn their fingers and hand handling the hot cauldron instead.

A short while later, the 5 Shadows exited the village and headed towards the nomads' encampment where everyone was equally surprised and delighted at the hospitality they received even if their leader had rejected to enter the village upon request.

"Thank heavens for the glorious food. Oh my, this food is still steaming hot. And what nice baskets you have there. Oh...! It is filled with freshly baked bread and a lot of it too...!"

"Oh my...! Your Lord is so generous... What's in the banana leave wrappings? It smelled like meat... Oh...! Its venison... Thank heavens... I don't know what to say... "

The Irish Travellers' leader professed but truthfully his gratitude as he received the cauldron of vegetable broth and everyone stood up and gathered around as their leader received these gifts.

There were bread, sugar-coated pretzels a d cheesy breadsticks which the parents quickly dispersed to their children as they munched with smiles on their faces at the wonderful treats they had received.

This is the first time they had been treated as equals as it seems that the ones who delivered the food were also respectful to them regardless of their ethnic background. When the Shadows excised themselves to leave, they bowed to the Irish Travellers which made the latter feel awkward.

Nevertheless, they bowed back in return as they were told to enjoy the blessings that their Lord had shared, even if those Irish Travellers were strangers.

The Shadows went back to the village, leaving the Irish Travellers to have a good share of the meal. They were surprised to find that the bread when they broke it three ways to have with their broth was made of white wheat bread. Unlike the other pieces of bread that they normally eat, they discovered that this bread they were eating was only meant for the upper-classmen.

They could only see and smell the bread from afar and wondered how these bread tasted like but tonight, it was their first time to actually savour this type of bread. It was crispy on the crusts, not hard. And the insides were soft and fluffy like cotton pillows.

Parents shared a pinch of the sugar-coated pretzels and the cheesy breadsticks the children were eating and find that these foods were actually fit for a king. Would a simple village with simple barricades and an open waterway be actually baking such bread to be consumed with the rest of the citizens?

Would their Lord even share a piece of perfectly seasoned and roasted venison that was untouched to them? Leftovers and scraps were commonly offered to these ethnic group of the landlord or homeowners were generous enough.

It would be half-eaten trenchers or even broth that people had eaten and spat inside it. The cruelty of these facts that they had faced for many years were none much worse than beggars themselves. Humiliation, slurs, discrimination and most times being ostracized really put a dampening blow to them.

That's why they prefer to shun away from the public to avoid being humiliated themselves. To those who ply their trade or mends the household everyday items, would normally avoid too many verbal communications with the "Borders" as only important words would be spoken throughout their offer of service.

Only one word could describe how everyone felt that night and that would be B-L-E-S-S-E-D.