13 September 1699

It was time for Lena and Brochan training to begin at Lochaber castle with their uncle Bearnard. His first lesson was in how to disarm an attacker with an ax, then a sword and finally with their own hands. Brochan took to this like a duck to water, he was a natural, but Lena on the other hand was not as good as was struggling with disarming the attacker with her hands but was fine with the ax and sword.

Bearnard then gave her a bow and 5 arrows and asked her to fire the arrows at a target about 4 meters away. She looked at her uncle and asked " How do I use this?" Her uncle explained how to shoot and focus the arrow then left her to fire at the target. She lifted the bow up with the arrow in place. She breathed in and pulled back the string, then as she breathed out she fired the arrow. The arrow flew up high, but was short of the target.

Bearnard asked Lena to try shooting with her left hand instead of her right. She did what her uncle asked and took another arrow and fired this time it hit the target but only on the outer rim. Beardnard then asked her to close her right eye this time and look at the yellow circle in the middle of the target. Lena did as she was asked and tried again, this time the arrows hit the middle of the yellow circle. She fired her last two arrow to see if it was a fluke she hit the middle, however the arrows went through the last arrow in the same place.

Bearnard was impressed with how well Lena had done and knew when she got around to Dunham he would help her perfect her bow and arrow skills.

Lena and Brochan stayed with their uncle for 3 months so that they could get better at disarming an attacker and using other weapons.  Brochan was handy with a sword but his talent showed when he had a double bladed ax.

When the 3 months were up Bearnard gave Lena and Brochan a horse each because unlike the journey from Claymore to Lochaber which takes half a day though the wide open country side. The journey from Lochaber to Bruadar was dangerous by foot. You have to cross the river, dusk then climb Mount Bas. The mountain was home to a pack of black dogs and the river had dozens of kepie's in so anyone who wanted to get to Bruadar had to face these terrors.

The horses Lena and Brochan where given were Galloway horse. Lena had a pure black stallion she named Shamas and Brochan had a white and tanned stallion he names Scott. They packed their bags and headed off north to see their Uncle Mungo in Bruadar.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and Bas in Scottish means death.

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