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

Earl - The Earth Elementalist

The roasted meat that was on the pits right now emanates a fantastic aroma that could whet someone's appetite easily. As the hunt was done 'naturally' by means of vines that ensnared the hares, there was minimal blood loss and the meat was not damaged in any way.

Andy can't help but licked his lips when the splutter of roasting meat over the pits made him salivate even more as the condiments were sprinkled sporadically and evenly on the meats. Just like the wolves that hid in the forest, they too were drooling at the smell of meat that permeates the surrounding area.

Earl, who was suggesting to put up a barrier around to keep danger at bay had finished conjuring up a depression into the ground. It was like a dry moat 15 feet wide and 4 feet deep and within the depths of the dry moat, Penelope had conjured up lots of brambles of thick vines with lots of prickly and sharp thorns.

It would not cause much harm but it would sure give an animal a sore they would not forget. Earl had wanted to use a wall of earth to surround them earlier but he doesn't want to raise any suspicion on where the wall of the earth came from.

He definitely would not jeopardise the whole group if he acted rashly. Besides, the dry moat was simple to conjure since all he needs to do was to visualise on what he needs to do and points it to the ground or take a stick to mark where the dry moat would be.

And that's what he did after he took a stick and drew a circle around the encampment. He then conjured up some incantations and then the ground that he had drawn with a stick became like a sinkhole and became wider will it was about 15 feet wide.

Wolves maximum reach when leaping would be 12 feet in length, so anything wider than that, those wolves would end up with sorry prickles on their bodies. Since wolves were social animals, they move in a pack and its leader couldn't do anything except growl in hunger and anger.

It waited at the edge and peered at the dry moat which appeared out of nowhere that suddenly has all those prickly vines growing inside it.

Earl's special abilities came to him when he was in his mid 20ish and that was close to 30 years ago. That time, he was just a general worker for a municipal hall of some towns and his job was to dig out fresh cesspit or latrine pits for homes around town.

It was a booming business that time and all he need to do was to locate the best plot of land behind a house and dig a large cesspit along with the other workers.

The work was laborious because everything had to be done by hand and they worked from early morning till late evening. During that time, lanterns were not readily available and they have to work when natural light was available.

The cesspit would be cylindrical with a diameter of 4 feet and 8 feet deep. The cesspit in towns would be built with hollow blocks or clay bricks and most of the cesspit would be on porous ground, means the bottom of the cesspit would be unlayered.

Liquid waste could seep through the underground while the solid would be on the surface. This cesspit would then be cleared almost nightly to prevent overflowing. As a general worker, he would be involved with the building of such cesspit with the other municipal workers.

One day, as he was digging a fairly large cesspit, the sides of the walls began to cave in and he was trapped within. There wasn't anyone around at that time and he was buried alive for several days...!.

Miraculously, there was a shield that prevented him from being totally buried alive and this shield somehow protected him right till he was rescued. During the cave-in, he was knocked unconscious. During that uneventful mishap, he was greeted by a vision that looked like a man but had no distinguished figure as it was all too bright to notice.

Earl related the story but was very vague as it was difficult for him to actually narrate the whole event in detail. What he knew the next moment was that he awoke in the surface of the ground next to the cesspit he was digging.

He happens to realise his special abilities when he returned to work the following day. The moment he marked out a ground with a stick, the ground suddenly sank until the desired depth. He seemed perturbed and he wondered if the ground had just sunk was exactly like a sinkhole.

Then out of a sudden, the hole which he had marked earlier rose up and level itself once again, like as if the hole earlier doesn't exist. This incident happened a few times in the day and the municipal workers were surprised about the whole matter.

At first, no one notices his talent for over 10 years. He safeguarded the secret and find that it made his job rather easier as time goes by. One day, he was suddenly laid off from work because of potential hazard towards his colleagues. They won't want to end up being filled up with earth in a hole they had just dug through. They also won't want to end up in a sinkhole that appears out of nowhere either.

He tried to work in other areas but was always shown the door every time he came in to apply. He applied for other jobs not pertaining to cesspit digging but still the same results were perceived. He was virtually frustrated and decided to leave the town he worked and lived in as he ventured out to try his luck elsewhere.

It was then, he was spotted by Penelope, as he was sitting out in the forested area, looking at the river passes him by and without him realising, he had made the depth of the river deeper than usual. The effect was miles away from his spot and this resulted in rivers overflowing at certain parts.

It was as though the depth of the rivers before him was as deep as his thoughts. Penelope introduced herself back then and explained that what he had gotten as part of his special abilities was his destiny. She introduced him to the group and that's when he started to be part of the Pagan Witch.

=*=

The pan-fried bread that was toasting in a small skillet had been piled up and each person was allocated 2 pieces of an inch thick pan-fried bread with chives.

The pan-fried bread was a welcome to eat with the roasted meat and since there was enough meat to go around, each hare was shared among two people. For those who were big-eater would be able to get another portion of the hare.

The meat before it was roasted over the pits were fairly large but after it had been completely done, the size was comparable to a spring chicken. From a four-pound carcass, it had shrunk its way to become a 2 pound roasted meat.

Nevertheless, the game meat was a tantalising delight and the poor wolves over at the perimeter could only sniff and grovel in hunger as they eyed the group eat with finesse.

The meat was tender and succulent and the fat dripped and smeared Andy's hands and lips, making it glisten in the fire-lit night. Andy smacked his lips to capture those glistening oil from the corners of his mouth as he devoured the meat that had been halved by Walter.

The meat was perfect and the bones were crunchy and soft enough to bite and swallow. The amount of salt and pepper seasoning for the meat was perfect as well and it was not too salty at all. The meat was searing hot but Andy managed to tear them off using his teeth and blew it in order to cool the meat before chewing it.

The burst of tender meat and ample seasoning accentuated with the warm pan-fried bread that some had made stuffings inside them. They ate it like a sandwich and Andy followed suit and made a slit on to the side of the pan-fried bread.

The slit served like a pocket and the meat which was too hot to be pulled apart was bitten away by Andy and then crammed inside the slit. From a one inch flat pan-fried bread, it became double in size.

"Guys, what would we be expecting from the small settlement once we reach there? There's a lot of abandoned villages and the last one we met was Adewera."

"That too, one day would be left abandoned since there are only the old folks staying there. I don't think they would be doing much farming as well."

Andy quoted to the group amidst his mouthful of sandwich that he had prepared using the roasted meat and the pan-fried bread.

"Well, we always hope for the best and from that settlement, we would be able to find out more about the rest of the towns. Which ones are abandoned and which are not. So how were your arrowheads sales so far?"

Farah asked as she chewed slowly and in a more peaceful manner as she took a small bite from her sandwich too.

"Well, I have stopped making them right now. Hope that settlement would purchase all of them so I don't have to carry too much of that stuff."

"It's 5 quivers and it's equivalent to 250 arrows inside them. At least we would be able to earn some silvers and use them for the provisions."

Andy replied as he highlighted to his corner where the 5 quivers of arrows were stacked neatly.

"If there's no nearest village or town within a 10-mile radius, would you think that settlement allow us to make an encampment just outside the perimeter?"

"At least we know for ourselves that we do not mean any harm to others. It's just a small patch of land to make our camp and do our own thing."

Penelope was mentioning this in her nonchalant way as usual. What she wished for the group was just to live happily and be with Mother Nature, nothing more and nothing less.

Wendy nodded her head as she took a bite off her sandwich and chewed noisily. She would express her gratitude to the food in this manner as usual. Or maybe she was used to smacking her mouth and chew without closing it and that's how she managed to eat noisily every time.

"I am tired of moving about, you know. Even if I could manipulate the weight of even my own body, but still I get tired easily. Maybe because of my poor old bones that are screaming to stop and look back at what we had achieved so far."

Wendy was making a point when she suggested that they make a stop and set up their own settlement. However, with the tight control of lands, they can't simply pitch a tent and declare the land as theirs.

Furthermore, there's so much abandoned village and settlement and definitely there was no way for them to earn a living, especially like Wendy whom could manipulate weightlessness or reduce the weight of an object by 90%.

The group pondered while they finished their supper and places another kettle of tea to boil. Being a nomad was a hard life, being recognised as a Pagan Witch was even harder as most people do not welcome them within their quarters.

With the settlement within a few miles away from their encampment, they were wishing deep in their hearts that Andy would be able to dispose of the quivers and get some coins in exchange.

On top of that, their provisions were getting low and they might be depending on Mother Nature to forage and scrounge for edible tubers, plants and vegetables soon.

Besides, autumn was creeping near as plants would definitely be in hibernation right until early spring. This applies to edibles that were under the ground. As the weather gets colder, these plants would somehow stunt their growth and wait till the weather gets warmer.

This happens when it's in late autumn and nearing winter soon. Even with individual special abilities of each member of the group, there was nothing they could against these weather and Mother Nature.

Andy looked far into the direction of where they would be heading tomorrow as he cleaned his hands and mouth after he devoured the last piece of pan-fried bread. He had also walloped more than half of the roasted meat and he was now literally bulging at the seams.

"Sigh... Come what may. Let God be the decision-maker. We could only plan what we could right now." he thought inwardly as he took a cup of hot tea and went to a comfortable spot where he spreads a hemp blanket over it and began to lie on his sides, resting his elbow and supporting his head as he watched the calm crackling sounds from the fireplace.

He had been with the Pagan Witches for almost a year and even though he misses home once in a while, living and surviving with them made him realise how fragile and precious life can be.