Magical Ointment
1295 Words
*SMACK*
An unsuspecting flat handed slap landed on my back as Old Kayla wrapped up her task of spreading the medicinal ointment on my body as she slowly stood up and twisted her sides for squatting down so long.
"Don't need to bathe after this and if you do need to bathe, do it with lukewarm water instead. I don't have to explain why but just make do with these simple instructions, alright? Go on now, the three of you are getting hungry. Don't keep the other citizens waiting."
Old Kayla made her way down swiftly as I stood up from the chair and flexed my muscles a bit here and there and I could feel all the tightness gone away after the treatment.
I skipped to my room, took a fresh pair of tunic and breeches as I wore them and hurried down with Heather in tow. As what Old Kayla had mentioned, the citizens were already seated at the dining area and waiting for us to join them for the meal.
As we sat down, the rest said grace silently as I made the first serving to Heather and Heather to mine as everyone else tucked in afterwards.
I glanced around and saw a lot of satisfied looks on their faces. At first, I was thinking that no one would take the recruitment drive for conscripts seriously and would face a drawback where I would be required to get external help from other towns instead.
But after the initial short period of time, we were able to get positive feedbacks from the set of conscripts and thus began to be able to look forward to our organised militiamen in the next couple of days.
Practise would still be done using the wooden swords while the actual ones were still being manufactured in Old Jack's Blacksmith. A 3 feet double-edged short sword had been designed and implemented as it was slowly being forged.
Samuel and Andy worked together to became the Blacksmith apprentices as they learnt the ways of a blacksmith as Michael worked continuously to produce metals that would be able to fuse with the present iron that was smelted from the iron ores.
Little did the 4 of them actually realised that they had somehow managed to forge a new kind of metal unknown to the rest of the world that was as strong as steel but was much lighter and tougher with its weight to be equivalent to a few gold coins per ounce.
After dinner, we had a routine night conference that mainly speaks about the knew militia and the men and women involved stood on the benches and were hollering and cheering at the same time.
Ah well... Maybe it's just one of the way they express themselves as one united militiaman of Gracehaven.
Firstly it was Gwen that addressed the community after I had made an opening speech. Gwen spoke of discipline as well as patience when shouldering the responsibility of an archer.
"An enemy has to be struck down from a distance to minimise the effect of them putting too much pressure when they reach the pikemen. The idea of archers is to either rain that lightly armoured personnel with arrows or simply take one down with an arrow through their hearts...!"
"In time to come, you would not only be taught on how to shoot an arrow while standing still but you would also learn how to do so while in pursuit. This couples with the skills of shooting behind solid objects like a tree trunk or like the defensive shields designed by His Majesty himself."
"Once you are tested on your archery skills, you would then be certified by me and the other trainers as a proficient archer. On top of that, you would also undertake the role of a swordsman so you would never fail to be a ranged assailant as well as a close combat militia."
Gwen sat down and thunderous applause sounded from the community.
Next was Eagle who gave a speech on swordsmanship. He mentioned about the craftiness of handling a sharp object in hand, be it a sword, a Mace or a flail as these would be able to inflict pain and hurt to another human being.
"As a dual role militiaman, you would be carrying another set of T baton at your sides. Once the item is ready, you would realise the importance of having it by your sides and being able to wield and shield you with its humble use."
"Wielding a T baton and a short sword is like having 2 weapons at the same time. While one does a hack and s***h action, the other would be used to jab and concuss your opponent. It would also be used to block blunt objects where you would easily counter with your short sword."
"I am sure you are as excited as me to actually learn a new trick when none of your enemies has any recollection of it or any knowledge of it at all."
"When the time comes, you would be able to learn a few tricks with it then. At the meantime, our men at the sawmill are rushing the job but not compromising the quality of it to ensure it delivers a good whammy at the end of the day."
Eagle returned to his seat and raised his bamboo cup and everyone applauded loudly. They can't wait to learn about the new weapon called the T baton for all they knew was a Billy — a small thick truncheon used by the city guards.
Last but not least, Old Mann stood up and raised his wooden cup and only mentioned two words, "WORK HARD...!" and then he sat down again. A simple pair of words from a simple person that nevertheless rocked the whole courtyard with their cheers and hoots.
Very soon, the whole place erupted with cheers and best wishes to the militiamen and the rest of the community and lastly the best wishes to the Royal family.
Everyone cleared their cups of tea from the wooden mugs and then raised their empty mugs high in the air as they changed, "Grog... Grog... Grog..." in a very dispersed manner before it became a single voice...
I had no choice but looked at the direction of Strongbow and gave him my thumbs up to get the flow of ale ongoing for the hardworking men and women who in turn now had something liable in their lives — stand and protect their lands...!
I later learnt that drink would raise the morale of the people especially their fighting spirit whereas stash and food would come on the second and third regardless of its position. So I guessed the legends where sea pirates that stayed in the sea would normally uplift their fighting spirits through drinks and songs.
Without further ado, I signalled for Ben and Frank to take out the lutes, flutes and drums and start their merrymaking once again.
"For tonight, the ale would be for 2 coppers instead of the usual 3 coppers. So drink as much as you like..."
The citizens did not give a hoot even if they had to pay for the ale even in such celebratory mood. Just a mere 1 copper discount...! Where in the world would you find those labourers to be earning a high of 5 silvers a month while doing the same job as those earning 2 silvers a month?
Besides, most importantly the feeling of being treated fairly and in a just system was the way of life right now. No one was above from one another and everyone treats each other as friends and relatives. There's no other place like Gracehaven at all.
- Writer
