THE END OF THE REBELLION

~ Iain Kelly

He lay still, daring not to breath for as long as he could, pain spilling from his cleaved wound.

A ghostly still settled over the moor, the misty rain continued to fall. The quiet was broken by the moans of the injured. Each time a rebel was found, a gunshot echoed over the field. ‘No quarter given’ had been the order cried by the victors.

He had been there to witness the homecoming, hope and enthusiasm sweeping the nation. They had been so close only to be betrayed by their English cousins. And now it was over. He had seen the Bonnie Prince flee the field.

He froze as the ground behind him moved. A bayonet point prodded at his shoulder. He tried not to wince.

‘One for good measure, rebel scum,’ snarled a voice.

He braced himself. The air moved as the bayonet swung down, burying itself in his side. He couldn’t cry out. He heard laughter as the soldier called out to a comrade and moved on.

A black crow flew down and landed on his face. Still he did not move. All he could think of was Mairi and the home he hadn’t seen for six months.

20-ceayr-january-21st-2018
Copyright CE Ayr

Written as part of Sunday Photo Fiction. Write a story of around 200 words based on the photo prompt given (above). Hosted by Al Forbes. For more details visit HERE.

To read more stories based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.

I couldn’t help but link this prompt to a story I wrote only a few days ago for another prompt: CULLODEN.

Published by Iain Kelly

39 year old writer, avid film viewer and book reader, employed in the media industry as a television editor.

32 thoughts on “THE END OF THE REBELLION”

  9. Even though I’m a quarter english/Scottish I did not know about this battle at Collodum until watching the show “Highlighander” on Netflix. I quite like it, as I liked your story. But I was reading it and thinking about it in the context of the show. I’ve only seen up until the first episode of season 3 so I don’t know what happens. But I think of. The main character Jaimee and his friends and hope they are not the men being finished off with a blow to their death wounds. Well written Ian. And looking forward to seeing the rest of season 3 and learning more about Scottish History.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Mandi. Glad you like it. I have only seen a little of the show. It seems to have a big fan base, but I couldn’t get into it – perhaps because being Scottish I know the history a bit. Certainly makes for a dramatic story.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yeah some episodes are really good and some are a bit boring as they are building to something. It improves a great deal towards the end of the first season. It’s based on a book I believe. Yes if you know the history well, you might not be as interested. The magic woven into the show despite the stark reality of death, disease, war wounds, infection, characters with certain sexual habits, etc and the love story between the main characters and supporting characters makes for an interesting show when you’re in the right mood. Have a good Tuesday 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you. Collins English Dictionary defines ‘cleave’ as – ‘To cleave something means to split or divide it into two separate parts, often violently,’ which was the meaning I was hoping to convey.

      Like

      Reply

  14. I know very little of Scottish history, but the brutality of war is universal. You created quite a powerful scene with this story.

    I apologize for taking so long to respond. Life had other plans.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.