Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 1: The Beginning

The Unexpected Visitor

We were having some smoked fish that had been dried in the sun beforehand with some baked bread. The bread came from the small sacks flour that had been pooled together and was brought along with some of the settlers when they made their hasty getaway.

As we were having our lunches, Gwen noticed some movement some distance away and saw a silhouette of an animal that was approaching our direction. "Everyone hush... I could see a beast approaching us. I'm not sure if it's a wild one but do not make any sudden movement." Gwen suddenly gave a warning and we all looked in our general direction.

With that, Gwen slowly unsung her short bow from her back and nooked an arrow while she peered at the distance. Just as she was about to unleash her arrow, she loosened the drawstring and place the bow next to her and she heaved a sigh of relief, "Relax, its just a dog. It won't come near us especially when there's a fire and a group of us here."

Gwen finally spoke up and continued to gnaw at her fish. A look of interest flashed on Heather's face at the mention of a dog, even if it's a wild one. Both Heather and I looked into the distance and saw a black wild dog sitting on its haunches and looking at our direction.

The dog seemed to notice our gazes and walked a few steps in front and stopped while regain its position by sitting on its haunches. "That dog might have smelled the food that we are having now and might have followed the scent." I thought to myself.

"Here doggie..." Heather motioned for the dog to come forward and tapped the ground in front of her as if indicating it to come forward and join us for our meals. I watched her pat the ground as it the dog would understand her motions as a welcoming one.

The dog eyed suspiciously towards our direction before it took another few steps forward and sat down on its haunches again.

Suddenly, the dog went down on all fours and began to crawl slowly towards us. "Hmm, I've never seen a dog done that before," Gwen spoke up as she looked at the weird behaviour of the dog that was sort of crawling low on the ground. It was as if the black dog was creeping to ambush us or the fishes that were roasting still next to the hot embers.

"It looks friendly enough. I don't think it would do us harm and likewise, the dog's sense of smell is much more sensitive than a human. Maybe it would like to have us as its companion." Jack the Blacksmith pointed out as he too raised his head from his bowl and peered at the dog's direction.

Instead of indicating that it being our companion, Jack was indicating otherwise and this made us laugh at his silliness.

The dog was crawling and stopped and continued its crawling once more until it reached about 6 feet from our distance. It looked at us with its forlorn eyes and its tail were thumping the ground slightly. The dog raised its head slightly before it sank down in front of its paws and looked at the half-eaten fish that was in Heather's hand.

"Here doggie... Do you want to have this fish? Come here a bit closer and I will toss it to you..." Heather stated in a matter of factly and the dog began to inch closer to Heather as if it understood what Heather was talking about.

Heather tossed the half-eaten fish to it but the dog did not pounce on it immediately. It cautiously crept forward and sniffed at the fish before it gave a lick and slowly chomped on it.

"Look... Even the dog knew how to behave in front of royalty. Hah hah... Young Master, do you fancy having a dog by your side to act as a lookout? Gwen... This dog would also be able to assist you during your hunt as well." Frank broke the silence and simply babbled his thoughts aloud.

Although their means of conversation may be crude and easily misunderstood, but looking at the current situation it clears away such misunderstanding. "Guess I have to get used to the way commoners talk anyways." I figured to myself as I would be having close interaction with them throughout my life after all.

Hopes of gaining back to the throne was dashed since there was no proof of my royalty at all. Not a coat of arms, not a seal — nothing.

After seeing that the dog had finished eating its food, I motioned for it to come closer by patting the ground in front of me. I then stretched my hand that had of the half-eaten fish towards it.

"Come here doggie, if you can eat from my hand without actually biting it, I would keep you by my side and I would name you Sir Blackie. Come on... This fish is for you." I called to the dog and as if it understood what I was talking about, slowly crawled in front and sniffed at the fish in my hand before it slowly opened its jaws and clamped on the fish ever so gently.

Everyone watched me intently as I shared my food with the dog and the dog seemed to understood a single word I say.

I saw the dog was wagging its tail high in the air happily when I released the half-eaten fish. A normal wild dog would snatch the food out of your hands if it's too overwhelmed by hunger but this dog is totally did the opposite. It was as if it had been domesticated and were living with humans before it ended its way over here.

The black dog was now sitting close to us at it gnawed at the fish which fortunately had been deboned by me. The spinal bones of the fish was tossed into the hot embers as I went to fetch another one roasting next to it.

"Heh... Sir Blackie. Would you like to stay by our side and act as a guard?" I asked and after the dog had finished it's food, it looked at me and gave a short sharp bark and sat down back in its haunches and wagged its tail.

The settlers watched in astonishment and after finishing off their food, they gathered the scraps and placed them in front of Sir Blackie with a bowl of water beside it. At least with the scraps, the dog would be able to have some proper sustenance minus the fish bones of course.

I looked at it as it happily chewed on some pieces of bread and lapped at the bowl of water as I was thinking that we now have 13 settlers instead of the original 12 that we had some moments ago. I looked at the dog and found that it was not emaciated by any means and its coat had glowed with a kind of sheen.

It was as if the dog was well taken care of and its cost was brushed constantly.

"What kind of breed is Sir Blackie, Heather?" I queried as Heather squatted beside it and petted its head. The rest 4 children were curious as well and they took turns petting its head, body and even one that tried to pull on its tail. The dog however never showed any kind of retaliation or aggression.

"I don't know. It looked like a cross between a shepherd and a retriever. It's too short to be a Doberman and way too big to be a schnauzer." Heather joked as she let out a giggle as the dog licked Heather's hands as she tried to tickle its nose.

"Maybe its a crossover between a retriever because its size and shape looked just like one but the fur betrayed its original breed. Whatever it is, the dog could be considered as intelligent because it understood our intention and words.

Seeing the lighter side of things, I too let out a slight chuckle looking at the antics of Sir Blackie and Heather together. I let out a sigh involuntarily and then went back to my sombre expression.

Heather glanced at me and she understood that it may take time to heal my feelings and she hoped that things would turn out alright with an addition of a dog among the settlers.

The next day, the settlers had performed several finishing touches to the 2 shelters they had made from branches and sturdy tree trunks as its floor. The tree bark walls proved to be an excellent way to prevent cold drafts in and the shelters were roughly the size of 6 feet by 9 feet which would be a total of 54 square feet.

The simple wooden shelter was elevated from the ground slightly and the slightly inclined roof that was thatched and made from weaving the leaves from a nearby pine tree.

The roofs were low and it looked discreet and was partly obscured from view. There was no need to stand up once inside the shelter. One would bend in to enter and from that position would just plop down to sleep.

The leaves had been removed from the tree base and were meticulously attached so it overlaps one another. In short, it took some skills to actually weave the leaves together to keep out rain.

Although it may look simple to the settlers I was amazed at the whole structure of the shelters. Not only was it warm and cosy inside, coupled with the inclined roof, it also provides sufficient ventilation too. An open doorway was sufficient to let some cool air in if it is too stifling and was covered with another detachable thatched door that acts as a panel or the leaf of a door.

The floor had a cool kind of coverage that was made from screw pine leaves that had been woven from wall to wall. The leaves were green and it gave off a natural sweet fragrance.

This reduces the bumps when sleeping over uneven surfaces. "This woven carpet would be cool to sleep during summer and it could be rolled up when not in use, easy to wash and hung dry."

Kayla informed me when I peered inside the shelter and was observing the woven floor covering. I nodded in apprehension and smiled at her. In fact, I was elated to find that the children and the elders have a proper place to rest right now.

At the side of the doorway, a small sun-baked clay pot was visible and it was made from the clay that had been taken from the riverbank. After being moulded when it was prepared during our first day here, it was left to sit in the sun and once the pots were dry, it could also be used for cooking and also to ferry water from the river.

Gwen, Kayla, Crystal and Heather had been busy preparing the pelt that they had skinned off the rabbits when Gwen brought back from hunting. The pelts were washed at the riverbanks to rid of blood and fat.

It would then be rubbed with plenty of salt and then dried over under the sun after being nailed and stretched to retain its shape.

These pelts would be made into leather products to make into shoes as well as hats during the winter. I was delighted to find out about their ingenuity of using the whole rabbit not only just for consumption. Even the bones could be made into fish hooks, not to mention rabbit's foot to be used as a good luck charm.

Since there were bountiful resources, food would never be a scarcity at all. The only main issue is carbohydrates and Kayla had been scouring the lands when they chanced upon some wild buckwheat growing some distance away.

Even though the wheat seeds that had been procured would not be sufficient to feed a single person for the whole day, they had decided to harvest and replant them once again instead. This would provide better yield during the next coming harvest.

From a single stalk of wheat, there's about 10 to 20 pieces of grains and they had gotten quite an armful of those wild buckwheat. They  slowly plucked each grain from its spine or stalk and places them in a single piece of bowl.

The supply of flour had been dwindling recently and we would be eating roasted bread once every 2 days to conserve it. Life is frugal, one might say. At the meantime, there would be other resources that we could replace our desire to have bread or a bowl of gruel.

"How nice it would be to have a hot bowl of gruel that had bits of rabbit meat and onions inside them." I thought to myself and decide to voice out my suggestions during the next mealtime.

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