'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 3: The Prophecy

Boodle Fight Fight Fight...!

Sir Blackie and the felines were also part of the troops that invaded below the dining tables as they waited for morsels of food or even pieces of meat to be fed to them. Frankly, Sir Blackie wasn't even fussy and would eat vegetables too.

As usual, the felines would be fighting for the food while Sir Blackie would always wait for its favourite — trotters or internal organs.

Once the Shadow unit members had packed the food for their other members and had departed on their Dandy Horses or The Patrols back to their respective, the newlyweds carried pitchers of water to let the well wishers to wash their fingers and hands.

Back then, we only had spoons and these were normally to be used for liquid food such as gruel or soups.

There were knives but were used to cut the meat up into smaller portions. The fork was not introduced yet so the most common practice was the use of fingers and hands to eat.

Once we had washed out hands we all lined up facing each other and squeezed as many people as we could per table. Since we both were holding to our twins while some others were also doing the same to their young ones as well, we were assigned some tables where the parents could eat peacefully.

Someone had brought the balance of the 5 dishes from Heather's cooking and place them on the banana leaves among the mounds of rice.

When the twins saw the mounds of rice and the colourful arrangement of all kinds of dishes, they were hounding in my arms and wished they could crawl in the table and feed themselves.

I can't imagine them being on top of the table and began to crawl among the rice and dishes like as if its a kind of sandbox for them to play in...!

After everyone had washed their hands, no none started eating yet since they knew that we would be the first to touch the food. Its either for us to eat first or to feed the twins and as soon as the food touches or enters the mouth, then everyone would commence eating.

It was like the good old days where we used to do together during breakfast and dinner.

"Amy, have you washed your hands just now?" I asked my twin daughter and she nodded her head and twirled her hands at me indicating that it was clean despite having some drool on it when she stuffed her fingers in her mouth.

Jay-R also did the same as his twin sister and showed his hands up for us to see and twirled it around.

"So what would you like to have? We have meat, fish, chicken and lots and lots of vegetables as far as this end to the other end. Hahaha. Point to daddy which one you would like to have."

It was slightly before midday and the twins were looking on their left and right and even extending their necks to see where the food had begun to pile up right to the end of the line.

Of course, they won't be able to distinguish which food but we are pretty sure they would like to have greens and then some fried food like fish or chicken.

"We will move a few steps to the right once we have taken a few mouthfuls, alright dear gentlemen and ladies?" Someone had used Anastasia as she projected the voice over to everyone. It seemed that the snaking line would be moving along so everyone could have a taste of the food before them.

A loud "AYE...!" reply came from the nearly 3,000 string community and the twins who were peering on which to start first simply hid their faces in bashfulness.

"Hahaha. Alright, if you are shy you would go hungry, understand? Come on now, the community here is waiting for you both to have a bit of food then everyone would start to eat."

I picked a bit of rice, dab it with a bit of sauce that Heather had cooked earlier and fed Amy which she had already opened up her mouth wide to receive the food. Once the food entered her mouth she was smiling and was munching it with relish...!

Heather had picked some rice as well and dab it with some gravy and had some stir-fried pumpkin which she had mashed it with the rice she had picked on earlier.

She then reached over and when Jay-R saw the food that was ushered near his lips, he opened his mouth wide as well and was munching along with his twin sister.

When the community saw that the twins had their first mouthful, someone picked a spoon and started to hit a metal lid and this sound resonated across the whole area and everyone began to dig in...!

Woohoo... Let the boodle fight begin...!!

When there was silence a few moments ago, now there were a smattering of soft touches of laughter, murmurs, whispers and playful jokes as the community began to dig into the food with their fingers and begins to take small portions at a time.

They knew that there's plenty of food to go round and it would even last right till dinner, if not till supper time. (the Shadow units had earlier briefed the whole community of the boodle fight and the ethics on eating them. After good guidance, the residents were told to think of the person next to them.)

Some helpers began to issue plates to us but we turned them down. "What we eat, the community will eat. What the community eat, we will also eat. There's no need for plates, or to separate between the classes of royalty and commoners. In this meal, everyone is equal and we are here to enjoy and to celebrate the weddings of the newlyweds."

Everyone cheered as my voice rang out clear and crisp. I didn't realise that when I started to speak, Anastasia had locked on to me and had projected my voice all over the arena.

No one mad a mess of the boodle fight feast. No one took a bite of something and leave it on the table for someone to pick it up and eat. If one had put something inside their mouth, they would not put it back on the table.

This was a sign of respect. Even if the boodle fight may look like food placed inside a trough for pigs, but it is not the pigs that were eating them, but us, humans.

It was an experience no one could forget and after we had a few mouthfuls we stepped to our sides so that we could enjoy the other dishes as well. The twins were very happy as they get to be fed by us and would playfully bite in our fingers as they giggled by their mischievous acts.

We had a few laughs as well and the food that was prepared by Heather had been widely complimented. This makes her head inflate more and more until she had to be tethered to the ground. Hahaha. She's getting an airhead already. Hahaha...!

The twins had more than they usually eat since they seemed to be competing with the other children as well. The group that we were eating with happened to be children from the same daycare and it seemed pretty normal for the twins to start competing at an early stage.

That's how the explanation of a collection of medals and trophies from the twin's rooms back then in the future.

There was fried chicken coated in turmeric powder and Amy was pointing to it. Since the chicken was halved and yet no one dared to touch it, most probably the boodle fighters were a bit shy.

"So you want to have a drumstick, do you? Alright, I get one for you and at the same time, Jay-R too would get one as well. Remember, you cannot throw this back here okay, hold on to it if you can t finish and then we can pass it to the felines. Rabbits can't eat meat but they love raw vegetables, remember, alright... "

I spoke to the children as I tore off the drumsticks and passed it to the children. Fortunately, after a few bites, they looked for the helpers and passed the remaining to them and the helpers placed them into a plate to bring it back.

The twins showed their hands and the helpers quickly wiped their hands clean before they continue to be fed kit else the twin's hands would ruin our Sunday's best clothes. Hahaha.

I won't mind mine at all since it black in colour but as for Amy's, the pretty light blue dress might get smudged. It's a little big for her but it would last her for a good 6 months or more.

With the pace of the twins growing up in guess they might outgrow their clothes even faster and it would be sent to the Thrift Store. I guess children do need a change of clothes every 3 months as they were at a growing stage.

"Dear... The dishes that you had prepared tasted simply delicious...! I had a few pieces of the pork belly and all I could say that it almost tasted like Old Kayla's cooking. Amy loved the ones that I had made into smaller bite-sized pieces for her."

"Yes, honey. Jay-R loved them too as well. I didn't make the dishes to be too saltish or spicy since we know that we would have children dining in as well."

"Look, see how happy Clayton and Clara are eating. If only we could turn back the time, I would like them to still have their little sister with them and also for the Irish Travellers not to lose their husbands and daughters as well."

"Hush dear, this is a joyous moment, leave those sad thoughts away. Let those two children have this meal together and for more years to come. I know what you mean to say, dear but right now we have our present to offer to them."

I quickly changed the subject and made it livelier as we do not wish to see rain on midday at all.

Everyone had one or two mouthfuls and then we shuffled to the next table until we had almost made a full rotation. The twins had their fill and we stayed behind until we had completed the whole circle and then we excused ourselves as we retired back to our thrones that were brought down from the domain.

The boodle fight had finally completed its full circle and there was still some food left despite nearly 3000 mouths were feasting on it.

The community were encouraged to help themselves to a second round and once everyone had their fill, the rest of balance were then sorted out by the Town Council officers as it would be processed into pig feed.

Strongbow wheeled in some copper tuns containing 4 types of ales and some ciders and that's when the feast really took off as the town folks milled around Strongbow and his family as they helped themselves to the free flow of drinks. It was the first time they had a feast as such and there would be many more to come.