Part 5 - 1296-1328 First Scottish War of Independence - A man is lost.
Ok, I could just continue to tell you the wars and battles I have fought in, but as you can no doubt tell by now that list would be very long indeed, and also somewhat impersonal.
Now that you have an idea of the kind of life I had been taken into it will be easier for me to jump into the individual stories, and I really hope that will make things more interesting.
So, now we will skip forward a few years in time. To 1297 to be exact. Very little had changed in twenty five years, at least where we were concerned. We continued to act as the Kings guard when he felt it was required, and when we were not active we spent our time in our home of Warwick castle.
We had spent a long weekend hunting together in the South West, and when we returned Mattteson stopped us as we entered the barracks. I still don't know why he never accompanied us on our hunts, but he liked to keep to himself. I suppose he thought it helped him to retain an air of authority. Anyway, there he was, waiting for us in the cool dawn of a misty morning.
"Collect your battle gear boys, looks like we have some action." He said in a low, gruff voice. "Out here, form up, fast as you can."
I picked up my armour and weapons sharing a glance with Williams. During the past few years I had become closer with him than any other in our unit, although I can't really explain it. We were very different in many ways, I was quiet and reserved, staying to the shadows and keeping my thoughts to myself while Williams always had something to say and would often be at the front of our group, often causing trouble by getting into arguments with the local people. His temper was as fiery as his red hair and beard, but underneath the exterior he was a calm intelligent man who had a sharp wit. That was probably what drew us together, the chance to match wits and laugh at the people in our area.
Many of our evenings had been spent in the taverns of Warwick, pointing out the failings of the patrons, and thanks to our immortality we were presented with a never ending stream of new drunkards to mock.
Back to that night in the barracks, and the look Williams gave me was a serious one. He waited for the others to leave the room before he spoke softly into my ear.
"Ah dahnne like this lad, sammin danne feel right." His Scottish accent often made him difficult to understand, but I was always able to get his meaning.
"What are you thinking Willie?" I asked, keeping my voice as low as his.
"Ahm nae sure. Jus a feelin ah supose, probablah notthin." He shook his head as he walked out into the morning and I followed, making sure my wrappings were secure on my hands.
We gathered in front of Matteson who looked at us each in turn. "Ok lads, our king has called upon us once more." He was pacing slowly a few feet in front of us. "It seems there is some rest in the North, and talk is rife of an uprising of the Scots. We must meet with a gathering force in Inverness where we will be given assignments." As he was taking a moment, Williams stepped forward.
"Sarge, ya canne expect mah tae fight mah own people." His voice was loud and his chest was puffed out proudly. I feared this may end badly.
"Williams," Matteson spoke in a calm, even voice, "I expect nothing other than for you to follow the orders of our king." The two were now very close, the Sergeant towering over his subordinate. "But I can understand your feeling on the matter. I will give you a choice. Stand with us, not as a soldier of the king of England, but as the mercenary you truly are, or leave now and travel north. But know this, should we meet in battle, I will ask my men to allow you no quarter."
Both men breathed deeply as they faced each other, and finally Williams spoke, loud and clear. "In tha case, ah hope we shall ne'er meet in bahttle." He shook hands with each of us in turn, and finally he approached me. I extended my hand and he slapped it away, instead embracing me in a giant bear hug. He whispered in my ear "See ye soon laddie."
Then he turned and walked into the surrounding woodland, the rest of us just standing there watching. Matteson allowed him to disappear from sight before he spoke again. "The next time you see that man he will be under a kill order, and I will expect you to fulfil that order. Come now." And he turned, leading us into the trees.
As it would happen, we would not see Williams again throughout the war, which was a relief to me as I spent many long moments alone with the troubled thought of our next meeting, and how he would most likely be more capable of taking care of me than I would of him.
Much of the war passed slowly for us. We did not join up with the main forces, but instead held a single position in Alnwick where news would reach us of the Scots advances into the Northern territories of England. Then one day in the summer of 1298 Matteson asked me to walk with him in the castle grounds.
"Castor, I have been asked to provide a single man for a mission, and I feel it is most suited to your skills." A look of confusion befell my face. "It will call upon your ability with the bow. Will you go and perform to the best of your ability?"
"Yes sir." Was all I could manage, the pride was swelling within my heart, almost making it beat for the first time in over fifty years.
"Very well, be ready at dawn, I will give you directions."
Since my death I had not slept a wink, an unfortunate side effect of my condition, but that night was particularly restless for me, and I took to pacing the castle walls, endlessly walking around and around. When the sky began to lighten I found Matteson near to the main gate and took a map from him. I was already dressed in my battle armour and my bow was in my hand. The trip North to Falkirk was fast and I met with the contact as instructed. I was ushered into a barn where I was asked to submit my bow. This was a worry for me, as my bow was my main weapon, but I went along with it, as a good soldier did not question his orders. This would turn out to be a great choice as I was given a new bow, a longbow. It was long and supple, and the range was much further than that of my old bow. I went to a range with the other men in the newly created rank of Kings Long-bowmen where we practised our shots. At first I felt the target was an impossible distance away even with my increased strength and vision, but soon I discovered the amazing power of this new weapon, and my abilities gave me the edge, allowing me to hit the target every time.
After a week of training with our new weapon we were lead out to a battlefield. I had done a great job of keeping myself separate from the rest of the brigade and now I stood off to one side as our instructor told us to take aim. I could clearly see the army of Scots approaching, and we were well outside of their range, but they fell deep within our firing range. The marker was dropped and we opened fire. I killed a hundred men that day, before the battle was over. They never even got close enough to loose a single bolt into our ranks. While the pikemen picked off the remnants of the opposition I turned and began to retreat. The instructor, a vile little man, came to me and spoke softly. "Castor, you performed well today. I will have you by my side in the future."
Needless to say I was not happy about this thought. Even when I was back at Alnwick I couldn't rid myself of the weasel like sound of his voice. Give me a fair battle, or a hunt any day, but a massacre at the hands of an advancement in technology hardly seemed like a victory to me and despite the attempts of my fellow Vampires I never told this tale until now. All they saw was my shiny new longbow.
The rest of the war was tiresome for us and I won't bore you with the details, but towards the end there was another episode of note.
In 1305 Matteson changed his title to Sir John Menteith, at the personal request of King Edward. The task at hand was the hunting of William Wallace, a thorn in the side of the English throughout the duration of the war. Menteith led us on what seemed like the most difficult hunt we had faced since becoming vampires, and this had us wondering if we were in fact hunting a man at all.
We were camped on a hillside at Robroyston near Glasgow when Hart gently alerted us. He had sensed a presence and he was not sure if it was human. Remember this was a time before instagram or even newspapers, so we had no idea what our quarry would look like, other than a sketchy description Menteith had been given by the Kings aids. This felt right though, like our hunt was coming to an end.
Lenster stepped out onto the the hilltop to block the way of the newcomer. "Wallace?" He asked in a loud, deep voice. The other man stood still for what felt like an eternity before he slowly nodded. He was a beast of a man and I felt glad that I was not going to be tackling him alone.
The rest of us stepped out of the mist to encircle our quarry. Now the hunt was over, the fight must begin. Smith bull-rushed Wallace, but the Scot sidestepped his advance, crouching in readiness for the next attack which came from both Hart and Menteith. They were both taken down with a long, round blow to the back of their heads that resulted in a loud cracking sound. Then Lenster stepped forward and exchanged blows with Wallace, each blow landing with a loud crack. Finally Wallace performed a move I had never seen before where he moved quickly around the back of Lenster and held his arms high above his head while applying pressure to the back of the neck. When I heard a creak and saw a fissure in Lenster's marble flesh I reacted with lightning speed, loosing an arrow in an instant which impaled Wallace through the shoulder. In a flash Smith was upon him, and the fight was over.
We found a cavalry brigade and commandeered some horses, riding back to London with our prize. Legend will tell that he was hung, drawn and quartered, but it will not tell that the parts were burned and head on the spike outside of the Tower was that of a murderer and rapist from the cells who loosely resembled the Scotsman. I know, because it was me who took his head and placed it on that spike.