Halloween treat from the WIP!

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Happy Hallowe'en to one and all. 

This time last year I was part of a Halloween Blog hop. I spent a goodly while on the 30th writing a lovely post to put on this blog...but don't worry...I'm not repeating it here today - though it was a fun one to write. 

Of course, if you missed it then you can easily use the 'SEARCH' facility on the right sidebar and it will take you to last year's 'Thespian Nightmare' post.

On second thoughts- I dare you to!

That's because I've been very busy today creating new scenes to add to my wonderful time-travel novel for early teens set in Severan Roman Britain. Can you imagine being one of my super lucky adventurers who get to meet a real Roman Emperor and a bloody nasty one to boot!

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It appears, from the scant historical records available, that Severus had a bit of a genocide thing going on in the Scotland of AD 210, in the very part where I live now. Would I like to be one of my characters who are meeting this butcher of the northern Britannic Celts? Absolutely, but it's also great writing about what they're doing as the book comes to a conclusion.since I've got a lot more to write this evening so I'll leave you with a little taster.

At this point in the story, 13 year old Aran has been dragged in front of Emperor Severus, Aran only one member of a large exchange of hostages being given to the Roman Emperor as part of a treaty between the local Caledon and Taexali tribes and Rome.

He flickered his eyes, just enough to get an idea of who was bent over him. Red feathers stuck up from the helmet in a wonderfully thick arc fanning from ear to ear. A centurion!

Multiple fingers dug into him as more than one soldier yanked him to his feet. The gibberish continued as he was swirled around to face the emperor who was still mounted.

Looking up at the seated man, he really did get his wish of earlier. The armour Severus wore was fantastic. The muscled bronze breastplate was polished to a mirrored gleam. Just below throat level was the gawping maw of a lion cast in gold, mathching other embellishments around the armour.

A deep bark of unintelligible words were as noisy as Tuach could make, but he understood none of them.

Raising his eyes to the emperor he couldn’t help but gasp. The man’s armour was amazing but the helmet he wore was even more so. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever seen on the internet or in books. The helmet was tight to the skull with slightly shorter earflaps than the one the centurion wore but it was the gilded decoration that was stunning. At the forehead was a raised crown-like decoration in gold with a little rampant lion statue behind it. The white plume of feathers behind the statue went right down to the back neck piece and were part of the skull cap, not like the ceturion’s which stuck up from a raised knob. All the decorative elements were incredible to look at but Severus’ helmet also had a lot of little dents in it as though the man had taken a lot of hits in combat.

Staring at the sight of the man on the white stallion was easy, answering the man was impossible.

  

...and do you know as I read what's above Ican see the changes I've still to make! 

The night has fair drawin' in here in Scotland and I'll wait and see if anyone is guisin' at my door. I didn't even need to get the make-up out though I had to rescue the crow from the chimney.

Have a happy time wherever you are.

Slainthe!