Part 12 1700-1721 Northern, Eastern & Central Europe - great northern war

It was, of course, many years before my next taste of real war. In the forty years that passed I trained hard, worked very hard at overcoming my urges and took whatever missions I could get. Oh and I explored the city in which I live.

London was evolving into a thriving centre of the country, if not Europe. I was never one to enjoy the company of the nobility however, so I preferred to keep myself in tune with the lower classes. Oddly this was a division that was becoming ever clearer following the civil war. There was still a long way to go, but it was plain to see that the social structure of our country would never be the same again.

Williams was quite the opposite of me when it came to socialising, and he often tried to talk me into attending his parties, but I would rather be in the dockland taverns speaking with the pirates of the day, listening to their tales of the high seas.

The other thing that was evolving was the army. Where once all armed men would work for their local lord and their base of operations would be his castle, now the national army was beginning to take shape. It was apparent that the need for the modern soldier was changing. When I was changed, a soldier would be required to ride and to master his weapon, be that the sword or the bow, but now we had firearms that was becoming a thing of the past. The flintlock musket had a bayonet fitted which even rendered the pikeman obsolete. And best of all, mastery of the gun did not take a lifetime, but in most cases a few short months. Accuracy was low, but numbers were high so battles would consist of mass groups firing upon one another until one side was routed.

I kept my bow and quiver while also opting to carry a musket for myself, despite barley using it. The longbow was much more accurate over long distance and my eye sight allowed me to make shots no mortal could, be it with a bow or a gun.

In the few battle outings I was involved in before the Northern war I generally served alongside the English army. It was fascinating to watch this organisation form and begin to take shape. The local lords were unimpressed but there was little that they could do. The battle of the Boyne was one such outing, the English had contracted Williams and I to assist and that is what we did. Williams acted as a horseman, helping the troops to keep their animals under control and leading a division of modern day horseback knights. I was attached to scouting parties. Generally I would act as a security detail for the scouts, picking off any would be ambushers. Occasionally I was given something more taxing like the long range assassination of a high ranking enemy but we will get to that shortly.

Ireland was a difficult place to fight as the locals were so very stubborn, and the conditions were not ideal, but I would soon learn there were even worse places to fight.

When I first entered into the great Northern war it was the summertime. I was operating as a mercenary for the coalition against the Swedish, and I thought it was marvellous. The weather in Northern Europe in the summer can be quite pleasant, and the battles were nothing like those against the Irish and Scots. There I had been fighting desperate, passionate men, here I was fighting organised professionals. I was also fighting alongside professionals who were just as organised. The battles were cleaner and the missions more surgical. I was making a name for myself as an expert marksman and scouting parties clamoured for my escort.

Then the winter came. I had never experienced anything like it, and I had been around for a very long time. First came the sweeping rain and the driving wind. I have said it before, but despite vampires being impervious to the cold I still find it unpleasant. And please do not get me started on how much I hate being wet, or even just damp. Soon the temperatures began to dip and frost covered the ground. The men I was marching with began to complain loudly, but fortunately for me it was mostly in Russian or Saxon. The problems became more pressing when the snow started to fall and hypothermia and frostbite were the enemy. By now I had been given a platoon to lead and I was working my way towards another long and gruelling battle. The food was running low and men were starting to fall one by one. My objective was to use my men and take an enemy encampment at Poltava. When I arrived it was with a team of only four humans.

I had decided we would do what we could, so I set the four of them in strategic positions about the city and took off by myself into the woods. From here I spent the day in the treetops, scouting the enemy and making my choices before the fall of night. When it was dark I went to work, firing bolts into the heads of the most high ranking personnel I could see. When the panic started and the enemy began to run out of their walls my men fired upon them, causing greater hysteria. I was moving all around and taking shots too, trying to give the impression of a larger force which apparently worked because when the infantry of our army arrived at dawn the enemy had already come out to surrender. I was proud that those four humans lived to tell the tale, and I received my most treasured commendation to date from the Tsar of Russia.

As for the rest of the war, let's just say I spent most of it trying to keep warm and was never more happy to return home to a comfortable house and a burning log fire, my friend happily handing out the celebratory whiskey.