Celtic Tales 13, Warriors

By Jill Whalen

Were Celtic warriors highly trained at a young age, or did they just step up to a challenge. Meet some of these warriors. One boy from Atrayus survived the sack of his city; another seeks to be an assistant to the great Timur. Read about a red haired man who was so feared that the enemy refused to battle if he was on the field. Come along as a boy fights and kills a bear that breaks into his house when his parents are gone. These ten tales will help you understand what made Celtic warriors so feared and admired.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jill Whalen
• Release date: Jan 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310378942

Jill Whalen

I am a Celtic mother of eight who is writing about family stories that have been handed down by word of mouth. I live in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks, am a graduate of Millikin University, and a member of Mensa.

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Celtic Tales 13

Warriors

By Jill Whalen

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 by Jill Whalen

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This book is dedicated to Clif, the ultimate warrior.

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Table of Contents

Tale 1: Kamo

Tale 2: Atrayus

Tale 3: Hok

Tale 4: Alleok

Tale 5: Starving Boy

Tale 6: Timur’s Assistant

Tale 7: Chopper

Tale 8: Micha

Tale 9: Rider

Tale 10: Argyle McKlintock

Tale 1: Kamo

Kamo is what I am called. It means the red man. My eyebrows are darker, but my hair is red like burning fire. I am almost six years old.

My grandfather the other night said, Boy, I could use your head like a beacon to find the corral.

He was really funny when he landed. I hit his horse in the balls with a rock. He landed on his butt.

I said, A good horseman would not have been unseated.

I left. Then came the punishment. It was not my fault. I didn’t start the fight. They called for me to come to the great hall. I was supposed to eat there every night anyway, but I didn’t feel like going. I just felt like sitting in the garden. I was not hungry, but I went to the great hall.

Mother said, You know your grandfather could have been injured permanently.

I said, He is the great warrior; he is a great rider. How could he possibly get thrown off his horse? What kind of an ass rides a stallion?

There was a great silence in the hall. One of the elders said, Young ones should not say such horrible things about old ones.

I said, There’s an old fart.

My mother said, Come over here.

I said, I’m staying here. You’re angry. If you want me, come and get me. They all say to me, ‘Young men should be obedient.’ I say a young man should not be stupid.

My uncle Yegor is the main hero fighter of our hall. He roared laughing. Mother was very angry with him. He could not stop laughing. She threw an apple and hit it upside his head. Then he did laugh, only he dumped the stuff off his plate and held it up like a shield. He laughed worse and worse, and then people began to laugh in the hall.

He said, What the hell good is somebody who will kiss people’s asses. He took from his sash one of his hidden knives and the sheath. He tossed it over and said, Catch it, boy. I caught it. He said, I’d advise you leave a permanent mark on anybody who tries to take it.

Mother said, You’ve got to eat sometime.

I said, Not at this table.

You’ve got to come in sometime.

No I don’t.

My other uncle said, Well, you’ve got to sleep sometime.

I said, I’ve always got to protect myself from you while I sleep. I’ll hear anybody else coming too.

He reared up half way. My good uncle was laughing more then.

Mother said, This kind of talk should not be aired to the people of the lower table.

I said, Then what did you bring it up for?

She said, There will be a reckoning someday.

I said, Yes there will be. I could see my grandfather was sitting sore. I said, I am very sorry you are sitting sore, because I love you, but remember the winter when you used the board and spanked my ass? I could hardly walk for two days. You said, ‘It is painful to see you hurting, my son, but you brought it on yourself.’ Next time you don’t say nasty things about my red hair and I won’t hit your stallion on the balls with a rock.

My good uncle fell beneath the table laughing. People were laughing all over the hall. Mother motioned with her head. Some of her people came on either end of the table coming around to get me. I ran lightly across that little space before the big table down to the small table. I started down the table. Dyxon’s boy was there.

He said, Here, my lord, you’ll need a cloak for the night.

He tossed his cloak up to me. He would have a long, cold ride home. I thanked him. I took it and clasped it around me. Other people tossed things to me. Bory surprised me most of all. He is the stodgiest, stingiest, nastiest merchant in that area. He makes things with gold in his shop. He tossed me a heavy purse.

He said, Here lad, in case you have to run all winter. And then he did laugh. It was a purse with gold and silver in it.

As I was running down the table my mother’s people started coming in the other way. Nine of the forester people were there. They stood up, turned, and looked at those men. Those men looked at them. There was a clear space behind them. I went down off the table there. I dug back underneath and ran between two chairs. The dogs started for me, because they like to play with me. I ran behind the curtain that led to a wall. I ran until I got to a way out and I went out. The night guard had just come in from looking the outside over beyond the walls. Their horses were still fresh. I jumped on the guard captain’s gelding and spurred him. The guards were dropping the dragon’s teeth. I dropped low over the side of that gelding. The horse put his head down and looked at me. We went right through. The bridge was coming up a little bit, but he just went right off the end of that leaping. We went off sideways and landed on the berm wall out there. He just went galloping right down it in a big arc. He stopped and reared up in the air neighing for everybody. He had been cut; he had no balls, but sometimes he didn’t act like he knew it. I liked that about him. The men on the guard wall saw me. They were doing this, that, and the other thing, but there were some up there that were twirling their caps on their fingers like a salute to me. The horse reared again. Most of the men were twirling their caps. The guard captain said something and they all quickly put their caps on their heads.

I galloped off into the night towards the western wall. That is where the wild country is. Garrod and his son came later. When they got close my horse stamped a little. Garrod was off his horse and so was his son. They found out who I was and they wanted me to come visit them. They were freeholders out in wild country. Three days later my grandfather came in. He said he had lost a calf and was hunting for it.

Garrod said, I think if you’ll come in to supper you’ll find it.

My grandfather laughed and said he was hoping his grandson was with them. He said he would like to eat supper and maybe stay the night if they wouldn’t mind. He said that his ass still hurt him. They talked back and forth. He was riding a gelding. One of the boys came out, lifted his horse’s tail, and looked underneath it. Grandfather got mad at him.

Garrod yelled at his son and said, Sit now! You are supposed to be nice to guests.

I came out. I said, Hello Grandfather.

Garrod looked at my grandfather very stern and he said, This young man is a guest in my house also.

Grandfather came over, lifted me up, hugged me, spun around, and then he hobbled. He said, Oh my aching ass.

Everybody knew the story before we sat down to supper in my mother’s place. The only thing I didn’t like about Garrod’s place was every morning you had to get washed up before you could eat. The second night I had gone out with his oldest son and two of his male relatives for a bear. A tough looking, silent man had gone up to find out what was going on with the cattle in this one canyon. We found two carcasses partially eaten and covered by brush. We went on up. A bear came after us. When it reared its bellybutton was almost ten feet high. I put an arrow into his roaring mouth. Everyone got out their bows and arrows. We began to flicker it. It came down on all fours shaking its head. It was nodding up and down real fast. Its mouth opened. I could see where my arrow hit way back high up on the lip. It had lodged in his mouth. He was trying to get it so he could bite it. You could see the two hang-downs in the back of his throat, so I put an arrow right between them. He pissed and shit all over the place, roared, spun around, slipped in his shit, fell on one side, and got up.

One of the men said, I don’t want that hide.

He was joking. That bear finally died, but we chased it half way down that valley before we got it. They very carefully cut out the arrows and cut off the hide. We took the back hams and all the fat; bear fat is valuable. They cut off the paws and the head to take with us. Later on I found out they mainly took the head so they could have the brains for some of the tanning. They said the teeth and claws were for me. They took the kidneys and the brains so they could do the hide. That took a long time. We actually ate by the fire while we were finishing up. We had all four horses loaded down, so we went back by foot. We finally came to a place where there was a horse herd. We caught some and we rode the rest of the way. We were pretty bloody and messy.

I thought we were going to have to clean up before we could eat. The lady looked out and saw the bearskin. She got two women up to begin cooking the bear haunches. The men got up. They put some of the bear meat up inside the chimney where it would be smoked. She had them put a warm water tub right there in the kitchen. She bade us to just drop our clothes right there by the door and wash in the nude. That really bothered me. There was a tub, soap, and clean clothes. Women had a good supper warmed up. I ate too much and went to bed.

The next day they were admiring the bear. They were showing where I had shot him in the mouth. My one arrow was still in there. Everybody liked that. Some people came over and just touched me. I had heard of that, but they’d never done it to me before. Do you know what that is for? It is to get some of the luck and strength of the hunter.

I went home that time. The knife my good uncle had given me was of a special metal. I went to him with the knife. I said, Uncle.

He said, Yes I know. I figured with people wandering the halls at night you need something to cut with.

We’ve got an old man who used to be the weapons master. Now he worries about weapons, but he doesn’t teach. My uncle told me once I learned weapons I should go to the old man to get pointers on the side. He wasn’t interested, and I thought it was because he was old.

He said, Son, a man don’t ever get too old to think about women. I buried my one true love thirty-seven years ago. It was in the spring after the thaw when the green comes and the ground firms up. You relax and you think the worst part of the year is over. A rock rolled down a mountain and hit her. I didn’t want any more women after that.

My mother said taking my father was one of the biggest mistakes of her life.

My uncle smiling a nasty grin said to her, You still think about him.

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Now they call me the Flame of Danu. I still don’t like it, but when I walk out on the battlefield people start cheering. The whole army has this chant. It is not a sign of disrespect. I suppose I’ve outgrown people knocking my hair. That was the third time that year Ru had sent armies out after us. They came down through the low sea pass. Do you know what that area is like? The tide washes through that bog every now and again. Those people were my friends. Most people are my friends. We lost three men. They were screaming and struggling. There were men on top of the rise. I got my men to the bull boats by the gray of the evening. We went on across. They didn’t leave. The majority of men from Ru were taken. We came a little bit after dark and were sitting around the fire. We left none of them alive. Ru couldn’t get an army to come out that year or the next. When I do battle with Ru I stand on the battlefield. They finally sent a message under the peace flag. They won’t fight any more if I’m there.

They liked my hair very much. It is still bright red. They said it would be a signal for men to follow the rest of my life. Enemies noted it too. We all went away from there, and things were quiet for the next few years. Everywhere I went men wanted to go along with me.

I went to the battle at Megadore. I was pretty well armed. I took my horses there along with a squire from a freeholder’s place. He said he’d come away with me. He knew I was a good fighting man, but I needed somebody to do my camp, take care of my animals, and such. He came away with me. People think he is my servant; he is my best friend. Do you remember the boy who gave me his cloak? He rode home that night in his father’s blankets with a hole cut in the middle. When I went to Megadore he was at my side. Two days later when the old men showed up, they sent people down to get our horses. I offered to fight the lead man over the issue. He kept looking at me and my red hair. By that time I must have had fifty or sixty men that wanted to ride to my banner. We were there and the next day we went around and met everybody. There were farm boys there waith sharp sticks. One boy was from the forest land. I liked his looks. I gave him one of my own fighting knives. He brought his own bow and arrows. I moved him back to a more strategic place. There were three young swordsmen, two brothers and a friend that had come together. I put them in front.

I said, You three stay lower here and protect his ass while he’s shooting.

They could do that. I didn’t realize it, but during that time I slowly but surely had the whole line—the line is the young men’s part—working together. I sorted them out, stacked them around, and put them in groups. Each group had a man in charge.

I told them, We don’t know how good a man is in charge until he does well or messes up. If he messes up he is not going to be in charge anymore. If he does well, I’ll sing his praises.

We cut some long saplings for the guys that didn’t have good weapons. The men who killed enemy got first claim on their weapons, if they had weapons. If they took the good weapons, then their weapons went to men who didn’t have any. If they didn’t want the weapons of the fallen men of Ru, then those weapons went to those that didn’t have weapons.

Ru sent infantry on the first assault just to test us. We stopped it. From those men we got little loot, but what we did get were really good, standard issue swords and fighting knives. Those went back to the men who had no weapons. They had harnesses; they had knives; they had swords. They were delighted. We were beginning to teach them how to use the weapons. Some of them had done pretty good. Some actually trained with family weapons, but they didn’t have any of their own. Others didn’t know anything but they did fine.

Ru tried our lines for three days. Mid-day on the third day they were thinking about lunch. They always stopped for lunch. I took the ends of my lines forward and