'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 2: Here Comes The Witches

Recruitment Drive

The next day during the morning meeting, I had Old Jack, Old Mann and Eagle to gather and to announce about setting up 2 garrison squads to protect our town further.

The response we had gotten from the community was quite warm since the recruitment drive would consist of both genders and it would not disrupt the normal daily lives at all.

Taking advantage of the lull period at this moment, a lot of able-bodied men and women signed up for this recruitment drive and judging from the responses, we could easily establish 3 garrisons altogether.

After getting their names and their current trade, it seemed that the majority of them were mainly labourers tending to the crop fields and livestock. As the response was great, our side was swamped with work to prepare the wooden swords and blunt pikes to prepare for the training.

At the meantime, after we had settled the recruitment drive and works for the preparation of wooden swords and pikes were already underway, Andy and Samuel approached us from Old Jack's Blacksmith and the duo were carrying a large wooden chest which could only mean one thing — the destructive concussion arrowheads...!

"Whoa...! What do you have there, laddies?" I exclaimed in delight even I knew what would come out from that box that had just emerged from Old Jack's Blacksmith...

"I'm terribly sorry, Your Majesty. We were not able to finish up our targets and managed to complete 500 of these concussion arrowheads, 10 each for at least 50 archers. Furthermore, I've run out of saltpetre so maybe Sir Eagle would be able to procure some more for us."

"Oh...no worries on it lads...! 500 concussion arrowheads are better than nothing at all. It seems you had been working around the clock to make this feat possible, eh?" I was sweetly surprised at the two boys tenacity. They would make good examples in the future...

"The three of us didn't go back home and spent our time in Old Jack's blacksmith. If not for Michael helping out most for the Minerals and the smelting of these arrowheads and its concussion part, I don't think the feat would be possible."

"It would take about a month or more to complete these 500 destructive concussion arrowheads. Your Majesty, I now leave these under your care. Please allow the three of us to have complete rest at home to recover our loss of sleep."

Judging by the dishevelled hair and sunken faces of those 3, I allowed the trio to have as much rest as they would take and hurriedly inform Eagle to store the large wooden chest they were filled with the destructive power of concussion arrowheads.

The trio bowed low and ambled from the courtyard as signs of accomplishment flashed across their faces as they had achieved what they wanted to achieve and the reward of resting for a day or two without moving from their houses would be a terrific reward.

"Eagle, Please take this wooden chest and stow them safely. The destructive concussive arrowheads would not be in use at the moment. Rather, it would be in your safekeeping until the need arises."

I spread my hands over to the wooden chest that had been placed near my wooden bamboo throne while Eagle nodded his head and motioned for two of his Shadow members to carry the wooden chest carefully back to the domain.

That's the only safest place he could think of since the domain had a 'standby room' for the other Shadow members who would occasionally take their break while on duty.

Gwen and several women went to the storage barns and removed the stock of bows that were intended for sale and distributed some to the citizens that were intending to train up as archers.

Since the bows were used as a training tool, only 20 bows were removed from the storage barn area. Gwen went to Gracehaven's First Tailor and Loom to fetch a spool of thread where she would be making a few more bamboo spools (like the bamboo fishing rod and reel in our discord channel) and attached it to the bow.

When a blunt arrow was nocked and released, it would be pulled over by the thread and the distance of the thread in the spool would be about 120 feet. Gwen then explained to us that there would be some hay targets set at 25, 50 and 100 feet away from the firing line and I agreed at her ingenuity to use a spool and thread to retrieve the arrow back.

This reduces the possibility of having someone taking a blunt arrow to the knee...!

Ben and Frank were hard at work in the sawmill area as they were making 10 feet wooden pikes they would be fitted with a metal pike head in the future. Besides they had a few men working to create some sturdy wooden swords as well. Even though the wooden swords were lightweight, it would be easily wielded by both the young men and women.

Soon by midday, a stack of wooden poles, wooden swords and improvised training bows and blunt arrows had been manufactured and they were displayed on a table in front of our domain entrance in the courtyard.

Lunch was served and all the new members of the conscript were eager to partake in the training thereafter and soon after they had finished their meals, they all gathered at the first training station — the Archery.

Gwen and several of the gatherers from the Irish Travellers were standing in the forefront, each wielding a bow with a reduced draw strength of 35 pounds.

"Before we start, can you check for yourselves your master eye, the one that you uses most, whether it's the left or right or ambidextrous? Same goes to your master arm, the one that you held your spoon to feed yourselves..."

Gwen announced and she showed how a person was able to test which eye the new conscripts were feeling comfortable with to aim. She formed a triangle with her two thumbs and forefinger together and held it over her left eye and closes her right while among at one of the haystacks on the 25 feet range.

There were 20 archery stations and there were 20 columns of men and women lining up and doing the same thing. Including me... Since I had been Itching to train archery for so long but couldn't find the opportunity.

Today is different and I could finally be able to be a bow master... Ahem... Just a beginner, actually.

After gaining the insight on the eye dominance through a simple test, Gwen separated the ones with the left eye dominance against the right eye dominance. In this way, some of the gatherers from the Irish Travellers were able to guide the ones with the left eye dominance as Gwen herself was ambidextrous.

"Alright, this is a leather bracer and this is used on the arm that holds the bow which is the opposite of your eye dominance. This piece of leather bracer is important so that it would prevent injuries from the bowstring or the fletches of the arrows."

"Next would be this pair of heavy linen glove. This glove is to prevent damage of your nerves after pulling the bowstring many times over and also from having any tingling and Itching feeling."

"And now, for the first row of archers, please don your bracers and gloves and pick up the bow. The teachers in front of you would be guiding you on how to wield your bow properly, your stance, the nocking of the arrow, aiming and release."

"Your Majesty, you would be the first one leading the rest of the archers, would that be alright...?"

Gwen pulled me to the head of the starting line as she handed me a bow equipped with the tiny bamboo spool with a line of thread that was tied at the fletchings of a blunt arrow.