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

Discovery!

Saturday, 10th September 1442

The campfire had long died down leaving a bed of coals at the bottom of the pile. Guy woke up first as usual and began to push the ends of the sticks into the embers and soon a small fire had been lit.

"Alright sleepy heads, time to wake up and break camp. Before that our bread could be spread with the Berry jam that we had made last night. The linen beeswax served as a great cover for the small pot so no ants would enter into it and drown. Hahaha."

With Guy's booming voice, the rest stirred up and rubbed their eyes when the first sun rays began to peek over the horizons. The water that was collected overnight had somehow overflowed and it was brought over to make some Berry tea.

"Look closely now. Pack some earth and wet it with some water and plug back the hole that I had made the night before in the tree. In this way, future Adventurers who saw this mud patch could peel back and start collecting water as well. In other words, this mud patch is like a bandage for this tree."

Guy slowly explained to the Guinness as they made notes of it and retired back to the encampment where they prepared the Berry tea and also sliced their bread into thick slices before smothering the jam on to it. The Guinness did for the MacDonough as well and had packed the bread back into the linen beeswax cloth.

Some birds were perched on the tree branches and were looking intently at the bread that the Guinness was slicing and they can't help to notice. So after breaking up sone crusts into some bits and placing them in some broad leaves, the Guinness offered the crumbs to the birds.

Those birds were a bit sceptical when being offered food but managed to swoop down from the branches as it hopped closer to the offered crumbs and took a few pecks before flying up to the branches once more.

Seeing that no harm would come to them, they swooped once more to the ground and began to peck ravishingly and once it had their fill, they flew away back to where they had come from.

After the party of four had taken a hearty meal for their breakfast and downed copious cups of Berry tea, they had taken along with them some handfuls of berries to eat along the way.

In this way, the adventurers would have their full and thirst satiated through the juices of the berries and this saved the meals that they had in their knapsack for later.

Once they had gotten what they needed for the journey ahead, they stomped down the fire and made sure it was totally extinguished before they make their journey onwards.

It was sometime later near midday when the party of four noticed a large group of livestock herders along with oxen driven wagons in the distance.

It was a sight to behold for Guy and Gillian as they were once part of this kind of group where they travelled the whole continent of English lands from Wales to Scotland and then back down again.

From afar, Guy estimated that the group could easily be made up by at least 10 to 15 families since there are more than 15 oxen driven wagons which would not travel more than 10 miles a day before stopping in their tracks and refuse to budge...!

It seems that this group of livestock herders were looking for some watering hole for the livestock to feed and graze. If not, the darn oxen would not budge a single inch if they had reached the 10-mile mark. Hahaha.

The distance between the party of four was about 2 miles or so apart and there was no way they would be able to hear shouts fine a distance. Seeing the shortening distance, Guy took the initiative to contact them — by a long, sharp and shrill whistle.

"Are you sure you going to stop them for directions, Guy? It seemed that they too were looking for a place to stay." the Guinness asked and then turned into bewilderment as they saw both Guy and Gillian were laughing at the sides.

"Don't worry Guinness, those are nomads or Irish Travellers like what we used to be. I've just given them a signal that someone was behind them and hope they would slow down and let us overtake them."

"This is a good chance for them to regroup with the rest of us back in town. Besides, it's had been some time since I've met another group so far."

"Normally we would travel besides the river but I'm not sure why they had moved so far away and now might be heading towards a stream or pond. Come on, let's greet them then."

Guy urged the party of four to move a tad faster and catch up with the group of livestock herders up front. 2 miles was no joke to chase after the group but after another long sharp whistle from Guy would the livestock herders finally pulled on their reins and waited for us to arrive.

"How's your Shelta, Gillian? Hope they would not label us as gorgers since we had abandoned out traditions and live in homes and had not travelled for quite some time." Guy asked Gillian and spoke of the harsh intervention they might ensue from the leader of the Irish Travellers.

Besides, Irish Travellers would normally frown on those who had abandoned the traditions but fortunately, Guy still is able to speak Shelta and so does Gillian too. As for the Guinness, it would be best to stuff their mouths with berries. Hahaha.

Seeing that the group of livestock herders had pulled the reins of their wagons and had waited for the party of four to arrive, Guy raised his hand in the air to indicate that he was the one who had whistled at them and appreciate that the group of livestock herders were willing to wait for them.

Upon arriving, Guy and Gillian greeted the group of livestock herders and found that they were actually lead by someone named O'Malley.

"Good day, O'Malley. It is nice to get to know you. Please forgive me for holding up the rest. I am a MacDonough and this is my little sister. We are part of the Adventurers from a town near Roecliffe called Gracehaven."

Guy made a simple introduction to the leader of the Irish Travellers and true enough, Guy and his little sister was frowned upon.

"What are you doing here all alone with the mumbo jumbo of being an Adventurer instead of an Irish Traveller? And these two behind you are part of gorgers, I believe" O'Malley reproached Guy and Gillian for abandoning their traditions and decided to be dwellers in a home instead.

Fortunately, the Guinness didn't understand a word they were chatting about and smiled in a silly manner whenever they caught the livestock herders glancing at them.

As they were speaking in their native language of Shelta, the Guinness had nothing better to do but to inspect each other if they had any loose threads sticking out from their uniforms or not. Hahaha.

"Our kinsmen was nearly wiped out. Macintosh was dead and clobbered to death before he was forced to watch the womenfolk being r***d in front of his eyes and can't do shit...!"

Guy spoke up on a fiery tone and was clenching his fists as he mentioned about their leader being clobbered until his limbs were all broken and then had suffered long before he died and buried in the burial grounds of the town back then.

After Guy had narrated about what happened from start to finish, the womenfolk had already finished preparing some tea and had invited the Guinness who were standing around to join them.

You could imagine how long that narration had taken...!

O'Malley rubbed his chin as he listened to Guy and some other families were there as well as they joined in to listen to the fate of the Macintosh and the rest of the families.

O'Malley did not show his discontent or displeasure when he heard that the MacDonough had decided to stay put in a home and had abandoned their traditions but after listening to the development of the town and the opening of the Adventurers Guild, it offer the youngster to have a sense of travelling in the frontiers like what their ancestors used to do

There were fields to work on and their livestock had been bought over by the leader of their town. The Irish Travellers don't have to pay taxes and were paid accordingly without a single kissing penny at the end of the month.

O'Malley heard about the rest of the womenfolk from the Irish Travellers had become livestock herders within the town, herbalist as well as hunter-gatherer, providing the rest of the town folk with the necessities.

O'Toole cleared his throat and asked, "MacDonough, what you are saying to us are true? There is a descendent of an Irish Travellers that had been living in town and taking care of the livestock? Cattle, bulls, dairy cows, goats, sheep as well as chickens too?"

Guy looked up and answered affirmatively. He even commended that the person who tended the livestock, Crystal, was more like an urbanised Irish Traveller and would also partake in some hunting as well during her free time et cetera.

This piqued the interest of many womenfolk within the group.

O'Leary was the next to speak up, "MacDonough, so the clothes that you wear right now was designed by the chief? And this is what represents the Adventurers? I might add that the colours do represent how bright and prosperous the town is and also is quite vibrant as well."

Gillian spoke up and she twirled around in her Adventurers clothing which made some of the womenfolk giggled at her antics. The little girls among the womenfolk were also giggling along and had come to the former's side as they chatted away in Shelta.

O'Shay spoke up the last and asked Guy the most important question, "MacDonough, does this mean your chief welcomes the Irish Travellers just like any others?"

"I meant to say that there would be fair treatment and also a sense of belonging in the town? I had never seen such a miraculous happening before but if what you said is true, then it had to be true."

"O'Shay, it is the truth and I have never meant to twist and turn with my words. Why should I be doing so and wasting everyone's time right? Now I am the leader for this small party of ours and we have tasks to do — gather manpower to make our town to be a much prosperous one since there would be a lot of homes available."

"There's a total of more than 1,000 crop fields that need to be worked on and our town needs more people to join in as temporary residents before they become permanent residents."

"Don't worry about your extended families, dear leader. When you get there, you would need to go through the normal process of registration and would be allocated your own homes."

"As for your livestock, the chief would gladly compensate you according to the market price in gold coins. I am sure that our chief does not have any problems accepting all of us inside the town as town folks."

"Even if you do lose part of the traditions but rest assured the sacrifices are worth it. Besides, the children can attend school free of charge and learn how to read and write just like myself and my sister."

"Another note though, being an Adventurer like me now also represents the tradition of being an Irish Traveller. Furthermore, our chief may be a descent of an Irish Traveller for his family household name is Macleod."

O'Malley, O'Shay, O'Leary and O'Toole listened intently and were gasping with awe at what Our Majesty had done in the past and this reflects the positiveness between the four households.

After getting more information from both Guy and Gillian, the Irish Travellers decided to head back and follow the directions pointed out by the MacDonough where they would reach Gracehaven.

"Please remember that when you reached the town's walls, tell the guards that Guy MacDonough and his party had sent you over."

O'Malley nodded his head and the rest were ecstatic to find other Irish Travellers bad already settled down comfortably and also leading a better carefree and easy living now.

The party of four bade their farewells and the Irish Travellers made an about turn to make a two to three days trek back to where the Adventurers had come from.

Driven with the enthusiasm to join the others, the current Irish Travellers were also tired of facing the harsh weather conditions just for the sake of their livestock.

Now its time to change for the better for everyone...!