The grand hunt in the King's own forest for the coranation feast (permission for such being granted by Lord Varek), had been successful to a degree that all the men claimed could only bode as a good omen, for the the reign of the new king! And with wagons fair groaning with the weight of the bodies of the wild game that had been caught, the men trooped back into the castle courtyard. The wagons they had with them right now, were of the game for the King's own table and the high table set just beneath his own.
Fine stags weighted their carcasses in one wagon, while the bodies of wild boar filled the other. They had been blood-letted, the blood collected and saved of course for puddings and to thicken soups, and the finest cuts removed, tongue and liver and the like. These, blood and delicacies were sent on ahead, up to the kitchens.
Gregorick smiled with a laugh under his breath, to see the men posturing and re-enacting the most memorable scenes from the hunt, with one anouther. It had been a long time, it seemed, since anyone had been given leave to hunt in the King's Forest. Poaching there, being an offence punishable by death of course. And from what he had noticed, his ranger trained senses alive this day, in a way they had not been since he'd left the western provinces....It was true, what the men said. The land had grown rather overrun with the game, though the trees and grounds were well kept by the groundskeeper and his sons. But the wild beasts were more then abundant, and he had left word with one of the senshalls that had come out to see what had been brought back for the feast, that it might be wise to arrrange several large hunts this season, before the weather changed and snows fell. The number of deer alone in the King's Forest, were they not thinned out, meant many would likely starve when the snow was deep, and there was naught but bark for then to knaw on. The senshall, knowing that such things were within a ranger's way of knowing from striding the land, said that such would be presented to the King to see what his whim of the issue be.
After that, he'd moved to help the men unload the wagons of the carcasses that would soon be tender, juicy venison and savory pork roasts. Of course, this was only for the King's own table and the high one just below his. The ranger had found himself stunned to know how much other game had been being hunted, to serve the enormous influx of guests the castle would see and house for days to come as the festivities raged long after the actual coranation day. A week of such holiday for the people, in honor of their king, was not out of the ordinary. But the sheer volume of the food prepared, would be given in excess, to one and to all, and the poor knowing this, swarmed into the city beneath the castle, from miles around, to take advantage of the fact.
The call was given out to the kitchens, for anyone with two legs and two hands, not engaged in serving the nobles or their guests, be sent out to help with the game being brought in and to be butchered. And somebody, if she's not readily about, should find Aelflead. Twas obvious now to everyone, even the grudging cook, that the nobles enjoyed her taking command of the kitchens. And so if she did not oversee this for the feast that had been set to her hands to plan and oversee...Then on all their heads it would be, if the slight to her was found out!
Gregorick grinned hearing of this. The shyster, slowly but surely, in his mind...was coming into her own in some ways. She...as he had suggested gently in the garden that night...was...evolving, aye.
Sat Mar 01, 2008 6:35 am