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

Catching Up With Old Times

Andy hadn't moved into the house where Firestone would reside because it seemed that both father and daughter had so much to catch up after not seeing each other for 24 months.

So Andy decided to stay on with the other two guys who were fast sleepers and would be knocked off the moment their heads touched the pillows. There was no need to have a light in the house since the street lights had been improved by Farah to light continuously using her special abilities.

It was during after some nights after the Priests and Priestesses arrival when she and Imelda walked along the paths with the patrolmen and helped to bring the lanterns down from their lamppost. The miner's lamps were removed from its holder and Farah then imbued the unlit wick inside the lamp with her safety no-heat incandescent light.

"Big Brother, there's no need to bring this down every time. With the safety no-heat incandescent light here, you don't even need to refill the fuel inside the lamps too. This light will stay lit no matter what. It's cleaner, more fuel-efficient and also brighter, don't you think so?"

Nolan and Oscar nodded their heads in apprehension when Farah explained to them about the lights. Not only it made their jobs easier, but the lights were much brighter as opposed to the miner's lamp.

=*=

Firestone sat at the doorway of the house shared with Imelda as the latter hugged her pillow and lay sprawled like a small kitten with her legs raised behind her as she listened intently to the father and daughter chat all through the night.

Imelda doesn't feel a bit sleepy at all and was chuckling when she heard Firestone shared his funny experiences when he was younger, as early as before Farah was born right to the present time. He even made jokes about his wooden prosthetic leg when a dog happened to 'invite' Firestone to play fetch and was pulling at it...!

The girls roared with laughter but buried their faces inside their pillows to muffled out their laughter. The way Firestone described the incident to them was too hilarious indeed...! "Father, you don't have to worry about our Sir Blackie here, I don't think he would dare to grab that wooden prosthetic leg of yours to play fetch. Hahaha...!"

It had been 18 or more months since he had not laughed, cracked a joke, smiled or even have some time for himself to find solace. Whenever he returned home, he would be half expecting to be greeted at the door by his daughter.

Whenever he opened up the door of his house, it would be as dark as his heart and there was no familiar scent, silhouette or even a voice that greeted him at the door even though he half expected that to happen many a time.

He started to gather his friends and even those who would be able to spread the message around for his daughter to come back to him or even for him to know her whereabouts, but all were in vain and he nearly lost hope until the day when he was approached by two unknown men.

Firestone looked at Imelda and inquired, "Girl, where are your parents? Were you sent away or do you have any recollection of their whereabouts?" he asked not because of curiosity but of concern because Imelda was a few years younger than his daughter. Maybe he thought she had suffered the same as her own daughter.

"Oh, I was given away by my parents to their brother who was my uncle back then. They were childless and raised me just like one of their own. One day something....." Imelda then related what happened that night which resulted in both of her uncle's arms to be frozen and shattered up till the elbows when he was knocked over and fell.

She then narrated how she went into hiding and she was found she was raised by a farmer until the day she had to make a run for it once again.

Seeing Imelda had not had a proper affection from a parent before, Firestone asked what she thinks of Farah whom he felt was the direct opposite based on the special abilities of the two girls.

"You two are just like sisters do you realise that? One is fire and the other is ice. I guess what I can say is 'opposites attract'. So you know where you both got your special abilities from?"

Firestone inquired as he too was anxious to know how her own daughter got the special abilities from. As usual, Imelda was not able to give a straight answer to the question because she herself could not answer that herself. All she knew she got it when she was nearly attacked that night and bodily harm were imminent.

"That's what happens to me too, Father. But it was not bodily harm but a sense of anger or rage that I can't help but to contain it when the man refuses to render his help but took your coin pouch instead." Farah recalled the incident and if not for the man, she would not be separated from her father at all.

But things would not turn out this way of Farah didn't release her tempest that day to protect her father somehow and she would not even know that she possesses certain special abilities that would benefit the whole community.

Given the chance, no doubt the lives and wellbeing of Gracehaven did lift off the moment the Priests and Priestesses came to town. *RUMBLE* Farah looked at Imelda's direction and thought she heard the latter's stomach rumbling in hunger but she shook her head.

"Look up ahead. See those dark rainclouds that are covering the sky now? There's not a single star in the sky right now... How long had it been since the last sight of rain here?" Firestone pointed to the distance on the east side about 10 to 20 miles away from where orangish and bluish coloured clouds were forming storm clouds.

The temperature had dropped a few notches and from that great distance, the trio could see flashes of lightning streaking across the sky, not vertically down to earth but streaked horizontally across. It was intracloud lightning or commonly called sheet lightning as the skies across illuminated every time the lightning flashed.

For each time the lightning flashed across the sky, the girls counted, "one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand..." but after counting for more than 20 they still could not hear the thunder clap at all. What they had learnt before, for five seconds it would be equivalent to 1 mile, which means the rainclouds may be nearer to them as rain would be imminent.

However, it was about 50 counts when they finally heard the low rumble of thunder, and it dawned to the two girls that the rain would not be reaching Gracehaven soon but would help to flood the rivers from somewhere, though.

Looking at the dismayed faces, Firestone can't help but snicker to them. He felt that these two girls somehow were connected to each other like a magnet that pulls in the opposing forces together.

"So, tell me about this lad named Andy. Is he someone's boyfriend somehow?" Firestone hinted to the two girls and noticed that their faces blushed and had hidden them behind a pillow each and only their eyes were visible.

Firestone can't help but chuckle to himself as he saw the two girls before him behaving in such a bashful manner. He can't help to smile at his daughter, who was just a teenager when she had to leave him to escape capture and questioning but now had grown into a fine young lady.

"Ah... Father, he's just a lad that we found floating in the river with a body full of injuries. We... Uhm... Treated him back then and when he was alright, he got nowhere to go so he joined us. He told us he was thrown off from a height and lost consciousness tumbled down the cliff side and ended face up in the river."

Farah explained as she saw Imelda was still covering part of her face with the pillow and still looked rather bashful. Firestone deduced that the younger girl may be infatuated with the lad after all.

Firestone changed the subject and decided to ask questions about the town he was being brought in earlier and had no time to move about since it was already dark when he arrived.

He was astonished to find that the settlement that he thought he was in right now was actually a full-fledged town that was able to be self-sustained and only had an estimated 350 citizens residing inside it.

He learnt about the contributions made by each of the Priests and Priestesses and he can't help but exclaimed, "No wonder the public misunderstood and had a wrong misconception when people were bestowed with certain special abilities that they could control."

"The term Witch could depict the general public as those who had scraggly hair and beard, dishevelled clothes and even looked more wretched than a street beggar. His Majesty had the right mind to change the term from Witches to Priests and Priestesses to change the mindset of the general public. How noble is he to be doing that to your group and also to my little precious."

Firestone rubbed the top of his daughter's head as she laid down on her stomach with a pillow under her head and raised her feet behind her just like Imelda was doing.

He can't help feeling a great sense of gratification that finally his daughter was able to stop travelling around, exposed to the harsh elements of the outdoors and have to constantly live off the land. He was both deeply thankful to the leader of the Priests and Priestesses as well as His and Her Majesty.

"Look at my condition, my little precious... What could I do in Gracehaven? I mean what could I contribute to the economy, development and growth since I have very limited abilities that I could share?"

Firestone was worried that he might not be able to contribute to any of Gracehaven's cause and this would make him look like a freeloader.

"Don't you worry father, His Majesty and his Ministers would find something for you to do and even if they can't find something at the moment, they would be able to fill your time to help around the town, perhaps. Don't think too much about it, yes Father? Go on, take a rest back at your new home. Don't forget to clean your feet before getting in."

Farah reminded her father but then she clasped one hand over her mouth as she realised that her father had only one leg... Firestone laughed at her daughter since he doesn't even mind it at all since he had gotten what he had wished for all his life — reunited with his one and only, little precious daughter.

=*=

"Shadows, it may look like rain is imminent within the next few days. We better slack our comms device and put up our lightning arrestor instead. We can't take the chances of our watchtower getting hit by lightning."

The Shadow member on top of the watchtower was obvious to the impending rain that might hit Gracehaven and ordered a lightning arrestor to be erected so lightning may hit it and be instantly grounded by its guiding copper lines.

The voice pipe lines continued to relay some conversation before it went dead as the ground patrol men helped to erect the lighting arrestor towards the clay brick production area. It was a simple bamboo pole construction that was joined to be made into one long single piece.

The top end of the pole had a sword that would act as a conductor and the pommel had been removed. A thin copper wire was entwined where the pommel once was and then attached to it, all the way down to the ground to be earthed.

The tip of the sword was higher than any tallest structure and it proved to be effective when a bolt of lightning happened to strike it instead of any structures on the ground.