Am Bratach Sith of Dunvegan

over two hours, she looked in on Lucy, who was fast asleep,

one arm round her favourite teddy, the other over the top

of her head, Anne quickly dropped off into a deep sleep,

she was tired and contented.

Suddenly a deafening bang, more like an explosion,

pounded Anne’s ears waking her in an instant, she sat

upright in bed, the window, she pulled back the curtains,

in the distance she could see a fi re near the village, overhead

the drone of aircraft engines, ‘Lucy?’ she shouted, she

turned towards the bedroom door grabbing her dressing

gown, a burst of bright light blinded her, followed by a rush

of wind that knocked her to the floor.

‘Lucy?’ she shouted again, Anne couldn’t see a thing,

she squealed with pain, her eyes felt as if they had been

pierced by hot needles, she smelt something burning, the

heat of fl ames, she stepped forward towards the bedroom

door, every step she was treading on stones or something,

she had to get to Lucy.

Anne held her arms out in front of her, trying to feel

for the door, a small hand touched hers, ‘Lucy?’ she knelt

down, ‘mummy,’ Lucy threw her arms round Anne’s neck,

‘thank god your alright, what’s happened, a canny see?’

her question was followed by a short silence, ‘Lucy what’s

happened?’ Lucy pulled Anne’s arm, ‘come on mummy

we have ta go with tha lady,’ Lucy pulled at Anne’s arm,

‘what lady, Lucy what lady?’ another hand touched her

arm warm, gentle, delicate as silk, Anne could tell it wasn’t

Lucy’s.

Angus picked up a wooden staff which was laying

beside one of the crofts, he tied dry heather onto it with

a piece of MacLeod plaid he found, some of the others

did the same making torches out of whatever they could

find, most of the crofts had fires burning, a MacDonald

clansmen brought out some burning peat from one of the

crofts, they approached the fane from the side where the

door was, when they were close enough Angus wedged the

door to stop anyone from escaping.

Inside the fane the people were oblivious to what was

going on outside, until a voice was heard shouting, ‘death

to the MacLeod’s.’

The People inside the fane began looking through the

narrow windows, some of them could see Angus standing

with a flaming torch in his hand, ‘death ta tha MacLeod’s,

vengeance fa tha MacDonald’s,’ the people in the fane

began to panic as they realized what was about to happen,

they tried to push the door open, it was wedged shut, there

was no way out, the windows were too narrow to escape.

Angus took great delight in setting light to the wooden

fane, it burned slowly at first, he could hear the screams of

the people inside, this is what he had waited months for,

his revenge on the MacLeod’s and there was still more to

come, they left the fane to burn and all inside to perish in

the flames.

Everything was going to plan, they decided to stack up

everything they had looted and press on to Hallin, Stein

and Lusta, they made good progress towards Hallin they

again wreaked havoc killing any MacLeod they could find,