Historical writing
Everyone in our class has finished their historical writing. Rylan and I chose to write about the barbarians in the Scottish highlands.
Here is what I wrote:
Barbarians
By Campbell
War.
To a lot of people, it doesn’t sound too enjoyable. But for us barbarians - It’s what we do. It’s what we were born into.
However, right now, my clan is at war with a Roman army. Usually, fighting in battle gives us a feeling of…. well, satisfaction, I guess. But this war hasn’t. Maybe that’s because it’s not going too well.
The Romans have a lot of power. They have almost taken over the world a few times. This war has to be fought. We can't let the Romans take over Scotland, nor the world. They would take us as slaves, and do many bad things. We have to win these wars, although I’m not entirely sure that we can anymore.
The cold winter breeze whistled through the valleys of Loch Duich, as the evening crept closer. Some of these warriors had been fighting almost all day. The war just kept dragging on and on.
I’m Campbell MacRae, and I’m hiding behind a rock. I have an injured leg, and i’m finding it hard to fight right now. I risked a peek behind the rock, and see my friend, Daniel, on the ground, and he has blood smeared all over his face. A Roman, raised his sword high into the air. Daniel gasped with shock. Just as the Roman brought down his sword, I hurled my axe over, which knocked the sword away from Daniel’s chest. If I’d thrown it any later, then Daniel would have been a goner.
“Quick, follow me!” I yelled over to him, while leaping out from behind the rock.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him up. I lead him towards a secret cave in the side of the mountain (I used to hide in here as a kid, which is how I knew about it).
I moved the ferns and showed him the secret hole. We leapt in and stopped for a few seconds to catch our breath. The Roman tried to find us, but he walked straight past the secret entrance. When he was gone, we began talking
“What were you doing out there? I told you that you shouldn’t be in battle!” Daniel yelped. “You’re injured!”
He remembered that I had just saved him, so he thanked me. I grinned at him.
“Yeah, it’s what friends are for, and I really wanted to help out”
“Thanks for that.”
We stopped for a moment, until I broke the silence.
“We must retreat.”
“What? Why?”
“They are too strong. We must get reinforcements. Don’t worry, I know exactly who we need.”
I popped my head out from the cave to check that the coast was clear. I gave Daniel the ‘All clear’ gesture, and we crawled out of the cave and hid behind a tree. We peeked from the tree, and watched the battle in front of us.
“Gee, it sure is messy here,” Daniel said. “I guess you’re right. We should retreat.” I nodded to him, and pulled out my axe. Bravely, I stood out and screamed “RETREAT!!!!”
Some of the warriors looked puzzled, so I pointed towards home.
“Yes, RETREAT!”
“Uh, why?” asked Ian. Ian is… he’s probably the dumbest in the clan, and always is asking questions. This really annoys everyone in the clan, but fortunately, his fighting skill makes up for it.
“I’ll explain later!” I yelled. “Everyone get to the forest, we need to return to the castle!”
Since everyone had no idea what was going on, I decided to explain.
“This Roman army is strong. Stronger than any other before. It is a miracle that we all survived out there! We need reinforcements. We must fight this battle!”
I paused for a moment to check the Romans weren’t following us, and then I continued.
“I know exactly who can help. The Mackintosh clan. They are full of rage, and they hate the Romans. We haven’t had a history with them, so they aren’t an enemy. If we can get them to help us, then we should be able to win this war.”
“Why can’t we call one of the more powerful clans, like, uh….. McKenzie? They’re allianced with us as well.”
“Because they’d be busy fighting their own enemies.” I explained. “They’d just be busy.”
Everyone agreed to my plan (mainly because they needed rest and wanted this war to be over). The Romans were retreating too, probably to rest for a while as well. It had been quite a long day. We all went to the castle to sleep for the night. We would leave at dawn tomorrow.
Night fell fast over Loch Duich. Everyone was injured and tired, so they fell asleep quite quickly. However, I didn’t. I was tossing and turning all night long, thinking about the Romans. I wondered what they were doing right now after having us retreat. Eventually, I fell asleep. I dreamed about Romans and angry Mackintoshes. A Roman was walking up to me, so I turned to run away and came face to face with a really angry looking Mackintosh. He put a sword through my chest, which is what woke me up from the dream. When I woke, I thought it was all real, until I remembered something: Mackintoshes prefer axes, as do most barbarians.
The sun rose over Loch Duich, creating a beautiful golden sky, and casting a shadow over the vast mountains. I opened my window and felt the cold breeze rush in. No sign of Romans. A wave of relief rushed through my body. I also realised that my leg wasn’t hurting anymore, which was good.
I sat at the windowsill for a while, looking at the beautiful hills, which were now capped with a white blanket of early winter’s snow. It was beautiful. I felt lucky to live in such a beautiful place. I really didn’t want to lose this place to the Romans.
When everyone was awake and ready, we packed our weapons, gear, food, and everything we needed for the trip. We needed a few large horse carriages, some for weapons, and the others for food and the warriors. We left some warriors as guards to defend the castle while we were gone. I was quite sad when Daniel got selected to stay back, but I knew it would be fine.
“We will be back,” I said. “No need to worry.” Daniel nodded, and looked away.
* * *
We stopped a few times that day, to rest the horses and have short meals. We got to Loch Moy by evening. When we arrived at Moy hall, we saw that the Mackintosh warriors were retreating from a battle.
“Huh,” I murmured. “Maybe they got attacked by some Romans as well.”
The Mackintosh warriors got closer. I suddenly realised how nervous I really was. I was breathing loudly, and my legs were shaking. They might think of us as enemy. And they didn’t look very happy. We really needed some help.
They stopped right in front of us. One of their warriors at the front stared at me for a while. He had blood all over his face, and looked quite injured and tired. Judging by what he was wearing, he was likely to be their chief. He looked at one of his clanmates, and then turned to me.
“Who are you?” He asked. “I don't recognize the kilt you wear.”
“We’re the McRae’s,” I said, with pride.
“MacRae? Huh, don’t think I’ve heard of you. Well, you’re not an enemy, and even if you were, we wouldn't be able to fight you. Anyway, go away. We want to heal.”
They began to walk away, until I stopped them
“Wait!,” I said. “We need help.”
The Mackintosh turned and frowned.
“Help? Ha, we need some as well. We’ll help you, but only if you defeat the Comyns clan”
He laughed, and began to walk off with his clan again.
“Easy!” I said. “But where are they?”
The Mackintoshes turned again, with the look of shock on their faces
I heard a noise behind me. I turned, and saw another clan coming. Probably these ‘Comyns’ that they speak of.
“Huh,” I murmured. “Maybe we should-”
“CHARRRRGE!!!” Ian yelled.
Oh gosh…. I thought to myself. Do we really have to?
Within seconds, the sound of metal on metal was ringing in my ears. I guess we have no choice… I pulled out my axe, and ran into battle. The Mackintoshes had decided to come help us, even though they had just returned from a battle.
“PROTECT THE HALL!” screamed a Mackintosh.
The enemy was getting closer to the hall. One almost got through, but I slashed my sword through his neck. His body collapsed, and thudded onto the ground. Blood splattered everywhere, including on me. His head rolled away, leaving a wet red trail behind it. We formed a wall of warriors, McRae and Mackintosh. No one would get through.
Surely we’ve won… We strode closer to them, and that was their last warning. The sudden realisation of them being outnumbered caused them to slowly creep backwards.
“Uh, retreat!” one of them shouted. They bolted away in fear. Huh, what a quick battle…. I thought to myself. They seemed scared when they saw that the Mackintoshes had us as their backup.
“Haha,” I laughed. “That’ll keep them gone for a while. now it’s your turn on our homefield.
“Okay, that’s fine,” One of the Mackintoshes said. “We would like a rest first.”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“Thanks. We’ll leave at dawn.”
The Mackintoshes offered us some food, but we refused. We weren’t hungry because we ate lots during the trip. Everyone had been busy and needed rest.
The morning sun rose, sending huge beams of light into my face. I woke up with a jolt. I looked around, and saw people sleeping around me. “Huh, where am I?” I said aloud. I rubbed my eyes to wake myself completely. This is Moy hall, I thought to myself. That's right! The battle, the deal with the Mackintoshes...
Only a few people were awake, me being one of the few. I saw the Mackintosh chief.
I should Introduce myself.
“Hello,” I said, as he came into eye contact “We didn’t really get a chance to introduce ourselves. Do you remember me? I’m Campbell, Campbell MacRae.” I stepped closer.
“Hello, I’m Angus,” he replied.”
“Albert,” said a nearby Mackintosh. I waved at him.
“I’m the Chief here,” Angus continued. “Who’s the MacRae Chief? You?”
“No,” I laughed. “We don’t have one.”
“Oh.”
I looked away and noticed everyone had started packing. “So, how’s packing up going?” I asked.
“We’re almost finished.”
I helped them load the weapons onto the carts.
A few hours later, we were ready to leave.
“It’s been dawn for ages!” yelled Ian. “Why haven’t we left?”
“Argh, don’t be stupid. You already know that we’re leaving now!” I shouted. I began walking towards the cart. Angus was beside me.
“So I was thinking- if there’s really that many Romans, then maybe we should bring the Stewarts as well,” he said. He turned to Albert. “Remember the deal we made with them?” He gave Albert a wink.
“What? Who are the Stewarts?” Ian asked. “And are we going now? What’s going on?”
I slapped my face. Sometimes I just couldn’t understand how his brain worked..
“Who’s that?” asked Angus. I leaned closer to him and whispered, “That’s Ian. He’s the dumbest in the clan, and is always asking questions. But he’s worth it because of his skill on the battlefield.”
Angus climbed into the same cart as me. We continued talking, but got interrupted by Albert.
“Chief, what will happen to the hall while we are gone? What if it gets attacked and stolen?”
“Don’t worry, we have the archers. Remember?” Albert nodded and looked away.
I had so many things to ask, but I couldn’t think of where to start.
I didn’t understand why we were going to Castle Stuart, so that’s what I decided to ask.
“So, what makes you think that the Stewarts will agree to come along?” I asked. “I don’t think that any un-allianced clan would just agree to come along without a reason. We don’t even know if they’ll agree to help us!”
“They will,” Angus laughed. “Because they, well, ‘Owe’ us.”
I frowned. “Really? What caused that to happen?” Angus stared at me for a few seconds, then spoke. “Funny story actually. We, uh… We stole their castle, and then we gave it back to them, but on one condition. They ‘owed’ us something. So, we might as well bring them along for some fun,” he grinned. We continued chatting for most of the trip.
It took us over an hour to get to Castle Stuart. When they saw the Mackintoshes, they quickly realized what was going on, and immediately got packing. They knew something important was about to happen, because we were here with them, along with all our gear.
When the Clan Stuart soldiers were ready, we lead them on the trail to Eilean Donan castle. They were fairly quiet, and didn’t really talk much. I didn’t mind, they seemed prepared for battle, which was good.
We only stopped for one break, because I was worried that our castle would be getting attacked. It ended up taking us about 8 hours to get to our castle.
The sun was going down, and we were almost home. Because of the dark, I could only see the silhouette of the castle. But it almost looked as if it were under attack…
“Is that…” I didn’t finish. I knew the Romans had arrived.
“THEY’VE ARRIVED!” I cried out in terror.
“Uh, guys,” Ian said. “I think they just got here..”
I didn’t bother saying anything. There was no time to lose, they were about to attack.
“DEFEND THE CASTLE!” I screamed with tears in my eyes. I wondered: what would have happened if we did decide to take another break on the way over?
We leapt into the weapons cart and took our weapons. The Romans saw us coming, which made our castle guards aware of their presence. We quickly created a plan.
“Here’s the plan,” said Angus’s second in command, Albert. “We need to make a circle of warriors around the Roman army, so that they would be surrounded and unable to escape.”
He pressed his finger along on the planks to show us how we would make this work.
“Leave those warriors at the bridge, and we’ll sneak up from behind.”
“He’s a smart one,” I whispered to Angus.
“Maybe we should just scream at them and charge? Then they’d get scared and run away,” Ian said. I just ignored him, and nodded to Albert. We had agreed to his great plan.
The Romans were already making their way to us. They thought the guards weren’t aware of their presence.
We all charged towards the Romans, with our weapons held high above our heads.
Back to where we started… Here we go again.
We slowly made a circle around the Roman army. We moved in closer and closer, defeating anyone in the way. Some of these soldiers looked almost… innocent. They seemed scared and not wanting to be here in battle. But we’re Barbarians. That's not the way we think. We just think of people as either an enemy or ally.
After about an hour of fighting, we managed to herd them towards the castle like sheep. The Romans were outnumbered. Their army was now less than a quarter of the size ours was.
The castle guards held out their weapons and came closer. I saw Daniel, and waved over at him. One of the Romans saw this, and spun around and stabbed his sword into Daniel’s shoulder. A battle began in the middle of the circle.
‘DANIEL!” I gasped. Daniel screamed, and fell to the ground. Blood began gushing out everywhere. The Roman spun around to try get someone else, but missed.
I was furious. I shoved an ally out of my way and stormed towards the Romans.
“CAMPBELL, STOP!” Albert yelled. I leapt up high in the air, and brought my axe down towards him. He ducked, and held his shield on top of him. I landed on it, and my axe went into it. The shield was dented and had sharp, jagged edges. I used this to my advantage.
I leapt off the shield, and grabbed my axe. It was stuck onto the shield. I swung my axe at the Roman, but his comrade knocked the shield off my axe. I could hear a Roman behind me, so I spun my axe around. He collapsed. I ran over to Daniel.
“Are you okay?” Daniel attempted at words, but they sounded all muddled.
I immediately searched for something to stop the bleeding. I dropped my axe, and took him into the castle.
“Daniel is injured!” I yelled. Almost immediately, the healers came rushing towards me. They took him away. I knew I had to get back to battle, so I said goodbye to Daniel and hurried outside. Back into the good old clangy sound of metal-on-metal. I joined the battle. To my shock, some of our warriors were already dead. Including some MacRaes. I charged into battle, full of rage. Eventually, I returned into the evil gaze of the same Roman who had attacked Daniel. He was a very good fighter, so I was nervous. He yelled something at me in Latin, and then swung his sword at me. I lunged forward with my axe, and blocked the attack. He looked furious. We began fighting. It was quite a long duel.
I swung my axe around in a 360 degree turn, and knocked his sword out of his hand. He gasped. I was about to bring my axe down on him, but he leapt down, and grabbed a sword and shield off a dead Roman. He got back up, and continued fighting me.
“You little cheat.” I muttered, even though I knew he wouldn’t know what I was saying.
I turned, and saw Angus. He had two layers of chainmail, one for show, and one for battle. Both were quite strong.
“Gimmie that,” I said. I pulled off some of his chainmail, and leapt onto the Roman. I pulled the chainmail around his neck. He gurgled, and tried to grab me, but I was holding on tight. He eventually collapsed.
“Unconscious,” I said. Angus kicked the Roman into the water.
“There, he’s done now.”
We finished off the rest of their army at about midnight. We had won!
I finished up with a quick speech.
“Thanks to you all,” I said. “We couldn’t have done this without you. We really appreciate your help, and we mourn for those who have fallen. It was a tough battle. Sadly, we still haven’t won. There’s still an entire Roman empire to defeat. And I tell you, if things go this well, then we have a good chance at this!’
Everyone cheered.
“One thing though,” Albert said. “Can we stay the night here? It’s quite late, and we need rest. We’ve been fighting all night...”
“Sure, sure!” I laughed. The Stewarts decided to hang around as well. I greeted Daniel, relieved that he was okay. We both went to bed happily.
Victory is a great feeling.
I awoke as the sun was rising over the mountains. Ah, just in time for another beautiful sunrise… I sat there for a while, before going down to greet Albert.
“Morning,” I said. “We should set up the funerals now.”
We all gathered outside, and buried the corpses.
We decided to celebrate our victory by having a massive feast. We offered for the others to stay and enjoy with us. The Mackintoshes accepted, but the Stewarts decided that they better get going.
We helped the Mackintoshes pack all their gear. They said goodbye to us, and got ready to leave. I walked over to Angus and Albert.
“You know, we’d make a great alliance,” I said.
“Yeah,” Angus replied. “I guess so” Albert agreed.
“Well, you guys better get going. We’ll meet again! ” I said. They nodded, and set off for Loch Moy. I smiled, and walked back to the castle. There was still an entire Roman empire for us to defeat.
Well, we needed a break from the chaos..
What a week.
Loch Duich
Here is what I wrote:
Barbarians
By Campbell
War.
To a lot of people, it doesn’t sound too enjoyable. But for us barbarians - It’s what we do. It’s what we were born into.
However, right now, my clan is at war with a Roman army. Usually, fighting in battle gives us a feeling of…. well, satisfaction, I guess. But this war hasn’t. Maybe that’s because it’s not going too well.
The Romans have a lot of power. They have almost taken over the world a few times. This war has to be fought. We can't let the Romans take over Scotland, nor the world. They would take us as slaves, and do many bad things. We have to win these wars, although I’m not entirely sure that we can anymore.
The cold winter breeze whistled through the valleys of Loch Duich, as the evening crept closer. Some of these warriors had been fighting almost all day. The war just kept dragging on and on.
I’m Campbell MacRae, and I’m hiding behind a rock. I have an injured leg, and i’m finding it hard to fight right now. I risked a peek behind the rock, and see my friend, Daniel, on the ground, and he has blood smeared all over his face. A Roman, raised his sword high into the air. Daniel gasped with shock. Just as the Roman brought down his sword, I hurled my axe over, which knocked the sword away from Daniel’s chest. If I’d thrown it any later, then Daniel would have been a goner.
“Quick, follow me!” I yelled over to him, while leaping out from behind the rock.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him up. I lead him towards a secret cave in the side of the mountain (I used to hide in here as a kid, which is how I knew about it).
I moved the ferns and showed him the secret hole. We leapt in and stopped for a few seconds to catch our breath. The Roman tried to find us, but he walked straight past the secret entrance. When he was gone, we began talking
“What were you doing out there? I told you that you shouldn’t be in battle!” Daniel yelped. “You’re injured!”
He remembered that I had just saved him, so he thanked me. I grinned at him.
“Yeah, it’s what friends are for, and I really wanted to help out”
“Thanks for that.”
We stopped for a moment, until I broke the silence.
“We must retreat.”
“What? Why?”
“They are too strong. We must get reinforcements. Don’t worry, I know exactly who we need.”
I popped my head out from the cave to check that the coast was clear. I gave Daniel the ‘All clear’ gesture, and we crawled out of the cave and hid behind a tree. We peeked from the tree, and watched the battle in front of us.
“Gee, it sure is messy here,” Daniel said. “I guess you’re right. We should retreat.” I nodded to him, and pulled out my axe. Bravely, I stood out and screamed “RETREAT!!!!”
Some of the warriors looked puzzled, so I pointed towards home.
“Yes, RETREAT!”
“Uh, why?” asked Ian. Ian is… he’s probably the dumbest in the clan, and always is asking questions. This really annoys everyone in the clan, but fortunately, his fighting skill makes up for it.
“I’ll explain later!” I yelled. “Everyone get to the forest, we need to return to the castle!”
Since everyone had no idea what was going on, I decided to explain.
“This Roman army is strong. Stronger than any other before. It is a miracle that we all survived out there! We need reinforcements. We must fight this battle!”
I paused for a moment to check the Romans weren’t following us, and then I continued.
“I know exactly who can help. The Mackintosh clan. They are full of rage, and they hate the Romans. We haven’t had a history with them, so they aren’t an enemy. If we can get them to help us, then we should be able to win this war.”
“Why can’t we call one of the more powerful clans, like, uh….. McKenzie? They’re allianced with us as well.”
“Because they’d be busy fighting their own enemies.” I explained. “They’d just be busy.”
Everyone agreed to my plan (mainly because they needed rest and wanted this war to be over). The Romans were retreating too, probably to rest for a while as well. It had been quite a long day. We all went to the castle to sleep for the night. We would leave at dawn tomorrow.
Night fell fast over Loch Duich. Everyone was injured and tired, so they fell asleep quite quickly. However, I didn’t. I was tossing and turning all night long, thinking about the Romans. I wondered what they were doing right now after having us retreat. Eventually, I fell asleep. I dreamed about Romans and angry Mackintoshes. A Roman was walking up to me, so I turned to run away and came face to face with a really angry looking Mackintosh. He put a sword through my chest, which is what woke me up from the dream. When I woke, I thought it was all real, until I remembered something: Mackintoshes prefer axes, as do most barbarians.
The sun rose over Loch Duich, creating a beautiful golden sky, and casting a shadow over the vast mountains. I opened my window and felt the cold breeze rush in. No sign of Romans. A wave of relief rushed through my body. I also realised that my leg wasn’t hurting anymore, which was good.
I sat at the windowsill for a while, looking at the beautiful hills, which were now capped with a white blanket of early winter’s snow. It was beautiful. I felt lucky to live in such a beautiful place. I really didn’t want to lose this place to the Romans.
When everyone was awake and ready, we packed our weapons, gear, food, and everything we needed for the trip. We needed a few large horse carriages, some for weapons, and the others for food and the warriors. We left some warriors as guards to defend the castle while we were gone. I was quite sad when Daniel got selected to stay back, but I knew it would be fine.
“We will be back,” I said. “No need to worry.” Daniel nodded, and looked away.
* * *
We stopped a few times that day, to rest the horses and have short meals. We got to Loch Moy by evening. When we arrived at Moy hall, we saw that the Mackintosh warriors were retreating from a battle.
“Huh,” I murmured. “Maybe they got attacked by some Romans as well.”
The Mackintosh warriors got closer. I suddenly realised how nervous I really was. I was breathing loudly, and my legs were shaking. They might think of us as enemy. And they didn’t look very happy. We really needed some help.
They stopped right in front of us. One of their warriors at the front stared at me for a while. He had blood all over his face, and looked quite injured and tired. Judging by what he was wearing, he was likely to be their chief. He looked at one of his clanmates, and then turned to me.
“Who are you?” He asked. “I don't recognize the kilt you wear.”
“We’re the McRae’s,” I said, with pride.
“MacRae? Huh, don’t think I’ve heard of you. Well, you’re not an enemy, and even if you were, we wouldn't be able to fight you. Anyway, go away. We want to heal.”
They began to walk away, until I stopped them
“Wait!,” I said. “We need help.”
The Mackintosh turned and frowned.
“Help? Ha, we need some as well. We’ll help you, but only if you defeat the Comyns clan”
He laughed, and began to walk off with his clan again.
“Easy!” I said. “But where are they?”
The Mackintoshes turned again, with the look of shock on their faces
I heard a noise behind me. I turned, and saw another clan coming. Probably these ‘Comyns’ that they speak of.
“Huh,” I murmured. “Maybe we should-”
“CHARRRRGE!!!” Ian yelled.
Oh gosh…. I thought to myself. Do we really have to?
Within seconds, the sound of metal on metal was ringing in my ears. I guess we have no choice… I pulled out my axe, and ran into battle. The Mackintoshes had decided to come help us, even though they had just returned from a battle.
“PROTECT THE HALL!” screamed a Mackintosh.
The enemy was getting closer to the hall. One almost got through, but I slashed my sword through his neck. His body collapsed, and thudded onto the ground. Blood splattered everywhere, including on me. His head rolled away, leaving a wet red trail behind it. We formed a wall of warriors, McRae and Mackintosh. No one would get through.
Surely we’ve won… We strode closer to them, and that was their last warning. The sudden realisation of them being outnumbered caused them to slowly creep backwards.
“Uh, retreat!” one of them shouted. They bolted away in fear. Huh, what a quick battle…. I thought to myself. They seemed scared when they saw that the Mackintoshes had us as their backup.
“Haha,” I laughed. “That’ll keep them gone for a while. now it’s your turn on our homefield.
“Okay, that’s fine,” One of the Mackintoshes said. “We would like a rest first.”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“Thanks. We’ll leave at dawn.”
The Mackintoshes offered us some food, but we refused. We weren’t hungry because we ate lots during the trip. Everyone had been busy and needed rest.
The morning sun rose, sending huge beams of light into my face. I woke up with a jolt. I looked around, and saw people sleeping around me. “Huh, where am I?” I said aloud. I rubbed my eyes to wake myself completely. This is Moy hall, I thought to myself. That's right! The battle, the deal with the Mackintoshes...
Only a few people were awake, me being one of the few. I saw the Mackintosh chief.
I should Introduce myself.
“Hello,” I said, as he came into eye contact “We didn’t really get a chance to introduce ourselves. Do you remember me? I’m Campbell, Campbell MacRae.” I stepped closer.
“Hello, I’m Angus,” he replied.”
“Albert,” said a nearby Mackintosh. I waved at him.
“I’m the Chief here,” Angus continued. “Who’s the MacRae Chief? You?”
“No,” I laughed. “We don’t have one.”
“Oh.”
I looked away and noticed everyone had started packing. “So, how’s packing up going?” I asked.
“We’re almost finished.”
I helped them load the weapons onto the carts.
A few hours later, we were ready to leave.
“It’s been dawn for ages!” yelled Ian. “Why haven’t we left?”
“Argh, don’t be stupid. You already know that we’re leaving now!” I shouted. I began walking towards the cart. Angus was beside me.
“So I was thinking- if there’s really that many Romans, then maybe we should bring the Stewarts as well,” he said. He turned to Albert. “Remember the deal we made with them?” He gave Albert a wink.
“What? Who are the Stewarts?” Ian asked. “And are we going now? What’s going on?”
I slapped my face. Sometimes I just couldn’t understand how his brain worked..
“Who’s that?” asked Angus. I leaned closer to him and whispered, “That’s Ian. He’s the dumbest in the clan, and is always asking questions. But he’s worth it because of his skill on the battlefield.”
Angus climbed into the same cart as me. We continued talking, but got interrupted by Albert.
“Chief, what will happen to the hall while we are gone? What if it gets attacked and stolen?”
“Don’t worry, we have the archers. Remember?” Albert nodded and looked away.
I had so many things to ask, but I couldn’t think of where to start.
I didn’t understand why we were going to Castle Stuart, so that’s what I decided to ask.
“So, what makes you think that the Stewarts will agree to come along?” I asked. “I don’t think that any un-allianced clan would just agree to come along without a reason. We don’t even know if they’ll agree to help us!”
“They will,” Angus laughed. “Because they, well, ‘Owe’ us.”
I frowned. “Really? What caused that to happen?” Angus stared at me for a few seconds, then spoke. “Funny story actually. We, uh… We stole their castle, and then we gave it back to them, but on one condition. They ‘owed’ us something. So, we might as well bring them along for some fun,” he grinned. We continued chatting for most of the trip.
It took us over an hour to get to Castle Stuart. When they saw the Mackintoshes, they quickly realized what was going on, and immediately got packing. They knew something important was about to happen, because we were here with them, along with all our gear.
When the Clan Stuart soldiers were ready, we lead them on the trail to Eilean Donan castle. They were fairly quiet, and didn’t really talk much. I didn’t mind, they seemed prepared for battle, which was good.
We only stopped for one break, because I was worried that our castle would be getting attacked. It ended up taking us about 8 hours to get to our castle.
The sun was going down, and we were almost home. Because of the dark, I could only see the silhouette of the castle. But it almost looked as if it were under attack…
“Is that…” I didn’t finish. I knew the Romans had arrived.
“THEY’VE ARRIVED!” I cried out in terror.
“Uh, guys,” Ian said. “I think they just got here..”
I didn’t bother saying anything. There was no time to lose, they were about to attack.
“DEFEND THE CASTLE!” I screamed with tears in my eyes. I wondered: what would have happened if we did decide to take another break on the way over?
We leapt into the weapons cart and took our weapons. The Romans saw us coming, which made our castle guards aware of their presence. We quickly created a plan.
“Here’s the plan,” said Angus’s second in command, Albert. “We need to make a circle of warriors around the Roman army, so that they would be surrounded and unable to escape.”
He pressed his finger along on the planks to show us how we would make this work.
“Leave those warriors at the bridge, and we’ll sneak up from behind.”
“He’s a smart one,” I whispered to Angus.
“Maybe we should just scream at them and charge? Then they’d get scared and run away,” Ian said. I just ignored him, and nodded to Albert. We had agreed to his great plan.
The Romans were already making their way to us. They thought the guards weren’t aware of their presence.
We all charged towards the Romans, with our weapons held high above our heads.
Back to where we started… Here we go again.
We slowly made a circle around the Roman army. We moved in closer and closer, defeating anyone in the way. Some of these soldiers looked almost… innocent. They seemed scared and not wanting to be here in battle. But we’re Barbarians. That's not the way we think. We just think of people as either an enemy or ally.
After about an hour of fighting, we managed to herd them towards the castle like sheep. The Romans were outnumbered. Their army was now less than a quarter of the size ours was.
The castle guards held out their weapons and came closer. I saw Daniel, and waved over at him. One of the Romans saw this, and spun around and stabbed his sword into Daniel’s shoulder. A battle began in the middle of the circle.
‘DANIEL!” I gasped. Daniel screamed, and fell to the ground. Blood began gushing out everywhere. The Roman spun around to try get someone else, but missed.
I was furious. I shoved an ally out of my way and stormed towards the Romans.
“CAMPBELL, STOP!” Albert yelled. I leapt up high in the air, and brought my axe down towards him. He ducked, and held his shield on top of him. I landed on it, and my axe went into it. The shield was dented and had sharp, jagged edges. I used this to my advantage.
I leapt off the shield, and grabbed my axe. It was stuck onto the shield. I swung my axe at the Roman, but his comrade knocked the shield off my axe. I could hear a Roman behind me, so I spun my axe around. He collapsed. I ran over to Daniel.
“Are you okay?” Daniel attempted at words, but they sounded all muddled.
I immediately searched for something to stop the bleeding. I dropped my axe, and took him into the castle.
“Daniel is injured!” I yelled. Almost immediately, the healers came rushing towards me. They took him away. I knew I had to get back to battle, so I said goodbye to Daniel and hurried outside. Back into the good old clangy sound of metal-on-metal. I joined the battle. To my shock, some of our warriors were already dead. Including some MacRaes. I charged into battle, full of rage. Eventually, I returned into the evil gaze of the same Roman who had attacked Daniel. He was a very good fighter, so I was nervous. He yelled something at me in Latin, and then swung his sword at me. I lunged forward with my axe, and blocked the attack. He looked furious. We began fighting. It was quite a long duel.
I swung my axe around in a 360 degree turn, and knocked his sword out of his hand. He gasped. I was about to bring my axe down on him, but he leapt down, and grabbed a sword and shield off a dead Roman. He got back up, and continued fighting me.
“You little cheat.” I muttered, even though I knew he wouldn’t know what I was saying.
I turned, and saw Angus. He had two layers of chainmail, one for show, and one for battle. Both were quite strong.
“Gimmie that,” I said. I pulled off some of his chainmail, and leapt onto the Roman. I pulled the chainmail around his neck. He gurgled, and tried to grab me, but I was holding on tight. He eventually collapsed.
“Unconscious,” I said. Angus kicked the Roman into the water.
“There, he’s done now.”
We finished off the rest of their army at about midnight. We had won!
I finished up with a quick speech.
“Thanks to you all,” I said. “We couldn’t have done this without you. We really appreciate your help, and we mourn for those who have fallen. It was a tough battle. Sadly, we still haven’t won. There’s still an entire Roman empire to defeat. And I tell you, if things go this well, then we have a good chance at this!’
Everyone cheered.
“One thing though,” Albert said. “Can we stay the night here? It’s quite late, and we need rest. We’ve been fighting all night...”
“Sure, sure!” I laughed. The Stewarts decided to hang around as well. I greeted Daniel, relieved that he was okay. We both went to bed happily.
Victory is a great feeling.
I awoke as the sun was rising over the mountains. Ah, just in time for another beautiful sunrise… I sat there for a while, before going down to greet Albert.
“Morning,” I said. “We should set up the funerals now.”
We all gathered outside, and buried the corpses.
We decided to celebrate our victory by having a massive feast. We offered for the others to stay and enjoy with us. The Mackintoshes accepted, but the Stewarts decided that they better get going.
We helped the Mackintoshes pack all their gear. They said goodbye to us, and got ready to leave. I walked over to Angus and Albert.
“You know, we’d make a great alliance,” I said.
“Yeah,” Angus replied. “I guess so” Albert agreed.
“Well, you guys better get going. We’ll meet again! ” I said. They nodded, and set off for Loch Moy. I smiled, and walked back to the castle. There was still an entire Roman empire for us to defeat.
Well, we needed a break from the chaos..
What a week.
Loch Duich
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