Wringing Water from Stone

by AdelineWrecker

Who was Esca before he met Marcus? The story of Esca starting from the Brigantes conflict with Rome, through his capture and enslavement, till he meets the Roman who would save his life and return what Rome stole from him: freedom. This is an attempt to flesh out Esca more and give us/me the context of conflict and friendship that occurs when he meets Marcus. Comments welcome.

1. Author's Note

Author's Note: As always the original story, characters and setting doesn't belong to me and I make no profit from this. If I did life would be much better. Please also keep in mind that A) I'm American and not very familiar with English geography or history and B) I've taken literary license with historical events and people to do what I want with them. So if something seems out of place or time it probably is. Sorry.

Full disclosure. I love books more than I love movies and while I did like the original story I would have loved to read the novelization of the movie so I could understand more of the complexity of the new story line. I loved the movie and appreciated the divergence the director took from the book to make the story more mature. However the character of Marcus is more fleshed out in the movie than Esca, which is unfortunate because in many ways he had to grapple more with the question and consequences of loyalty, friendship and honor. Ideally, I would like to rewrite the entire movie to give both Marcus and Esca the freedom to express more behind their friendship and behaviors but for me I feel that in order to do that I must start at the beginning, which is Esca's enslavement

In the movie Esca comments that his people rose against Rome 7 years ago. I'm putting his at 19 when he meets Marcus so I can put his age during the Brigantes-Rome war/battle between 12 and 15. In the book he was enslaved for only 2 years and was 17 at his enslavement. Historically, the Brigantes had a tradition of flouting of authority and so while there was one final battle I'm taking the literary liberty to do what I want and stretch the conflict out over 3 years resulting in Esca's enslavement when he is 15 and 4 years of enslavement. I'm not sure whether in the movie they meant he was enslaved for 7 years but I feel like 7 years of slavery may have wiped out the resistance in a lot of strong people so I'm writing as if he was enslaved for 4 years as a compromise. Also let's face it: war is harsh and I dislike watching and writing about violence against children and so 15-19 is age where I feel like I feel comfortable (as much as I can really) writing about the situations Esca would have encountered as a prisoner of war and salve. Plus it's an interesting age. Don't like it? Don't read it. Thanks so much!