Getting punched in the face was not something that Eadwyn enjoyed, but hardly the worst thing in the world. She just wished Kenfrith had cleaner fists.
The last strike made her nose glug like a mud filled brook. Spitting blood and snot to the floor she raised her hands and circled the foreman. Around them the other twenty members of the Windholm Forgesteel mine watched on, arms linked, trapping the pair in the circle they had demanded.
Kenfrith raised his arms out to his sides, his lower lip bleeding into his dirt and grime stained blonde beard. He was slightly shorter than Eadwyn, but twice as brawny. Her blood that stained his hands, not his.
“You can stop this at any point Ead. ” He declared. The circle of the comrades responded with a ripple of whispers.
“I’ll stop it when you admit you’re working us harder for your own coin purse you coward!” She snarled and bared her teeth. As she expected, the barb bit home for the older man who lunged forward. She had been expecting a wild swing with his mallet of a fist, but as she blocked with her forearm, his other arm wrapped around her chest and threw her over his hip into the dirt.
She turned her head in time to avoid smashing her face, instead a pure white pain flared through her skull and she rolled onto her back.
“Bullshit. We’re at war Eadwyn! Everyone needs to pull more than their weight to stand a chance at taking that wall!” Kenfrith gestured out beyond the darkened mine tunnel off to the east, where Baelags Holdfast loomed. “This is our part of that fight.” His last words were pleading. Maybe her one good hit had done more than she thought.
With Kenfrith giving her some space, Eadwyn pulled herself to her hands and knees, pressing the base of her palm into her eye socket and willing that the fire in her skull would subside. As she pulled it away the whirlpool tattooed into her palm dared her to fail and challenged her to win.
Swaying to her feet she grabbed Kenfriths long braided hair as he turned to face the miners, yanking hard she pulled him over backwards, slamming into his eye with her other fist as he collapsed to the ground.
“It doesn’t matter if we win this fight if we’re all dead from exhaustion in this mine! Damn the extra shifts and let people see their families!” She roared down at the foreman as he clutched his bleeding eye. The assembled miners began to murmur agreement. It had been too long since they had slept a full night.
Eadwyn allowed Kenfrith to stand. Lowering his hand his glare passed around the room and landed on her.
“Is this how you all feel?” He asked the space, a loose accord sounded out.
“You understand this means we’ll have to work harder to hit the quota that the council agreed?” he called, a challenge rising in his voice. The response was less enthusiastic, but more even. Kenfrith sighed and stood tall.
“We’re all in this together. If that’s what you want, that's how we’ll do it.” Kenfrith conceded, the murmur became conversation as the tunnel erupted into plans. The foreman approached Eadwyn and the pair shared a shoulder cross as they looked each other in the eye.
“Thank you for speaking for them,” Kenfrith confided.
“Thank you for listening. “ Eadwyn croaked. She didn’t really think that Kenfrith was a coward, but she knew he was a proud man, and there was no way he was going to be open to change without getting knocked on his arse at least once. That's why he was always elected foreman of the mine, that same pride that squared him up against Eadwyn would fight for them at the Lee-Council.
“We nee-” Kenfrith began but a deep base horncall from outside the mine echoed into the camaraderie filled darkness. The miners looked at each other, knowing what it called for.
“That’s muster folks!” Called Kenfrith, his voice echoing throughout the tunnel.
“WE STAND TOGETHER!” Responded the assembled miners as they moved up towards the moonlight, ready to defend their home.
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