Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman

Respect, she thought, it's that he respected me. She knew that dwarves viewed a 'woman's role' differently than her own folk but it was more than that. In the wake of the fight in the pass he never questioned that she was capable and would do her part. One of the men of her own folk would have expected her to be helpless, weak in the wake of her ordeal. But Engvyr had seen her strength and accepted it, assuming that she could pull her own weight.

Breakfast in the Steading was a catch-as-can affair with people coming and going, serving themselves as they had time. She filled a tray with bowls of porridge for her family along with two mugs of coffee. Coffee was something that she and her sister-in-law had little of before their rescue. Her folk tended to drink hard cider, beer or ale at all hours of the day but the dwarves seemed to live on the dark, bitter brew. They drank alcoholic beverages too, but tended to do so only in the evenings after the day's work was done. She had to admit she was developing a taste for the beverage herself.

They got the children settled around one of the tables that ran in a line down the center of the Great Hall and watched over them as they broke their fast. She felt a stab of grief as she watched the children eat, knowing that within days they would be parted for she knew not how long.

As they ate dwarves stopped by their table to greet them and inquire after the children's welfare. She had been startled by this at first but Engvyr had explained that a married couple among their folk might expect to have children only every twenty years or so, a function of their long lives she suspected. As a result they doted on them and each dwarven child in their community was viewed as the responsibility of all. Now that they were living among them the dwarves unthinkingly extended that attitude to the human children as well.

Engvyr and Taarven entered the hall together, deep in conversation. They too were staying in the Great Hall but they had already been up and about their business before she woke. Engvyr was in uniform and from his condition she suspected that he had been riding, perhaps a quick patrol around the area. Taarven simply wore a shirt and tunic over his uniform trousers and boots, not yet fit for duty.

Strangely, she knew Taarven better than his partner at this point. She had sat with the dwarves when they gathered at the hearth in the evening while Engvyr was away. Taarven wasn't garrulous, but he possessed a ready wit and wasn't reticent about speaking when he had something to say. She thought that maybe he and Ynghilda were sweet on each other.

She studied Engvyr from across the room as she rode herd on the children and ate her own breakfast. He was like most dwarves in height, a foot shorter than she, and she was by no means tall for one of her folk. But dwarves were broad-shouldered and thick-chested, and their height made their short arms and legs look thick. Their heads, hands and feet were human-sized or nearly so. The overall effect was as if a human had been compressed.

When she was binding Taarven's leg after the fight at the Eyrie she had been impressed by the muscular solidity of him. She had helped him to his feet and had been surprised to discover that he weighed as much as a human man half-again his height. From the restrained power of his grip she knew that he was immensely strong as well.

Engvyr was slighter of build than his partner but still compactly powerful. He had a large nose almost like a beak, craggy brows and prominent cheekbones. His jaw was broad and angular and a neatly trimmed line of blonde beard ran along his jawline to join with his full mustache. His features looked almost as if they had been hewn from stone. There was a stern strength about his countenance, tempered by the glint of humor in his blue eyes. Though he was not handsome in the way of her own folk she found that she liked his face very much.

Over the following days she worked and helped Saewynn care for the children. It was odd working for Ynghilda. She had no set duties but simply did as she was asked, or just pitched in when she saw a need and that seemed to be all that was expected of her. In the evenings she sat near the fire, or sometimes to one side in quiet conversation with Engvyr. She was occasionally asked to serve drinks and sometimes did so of her own accord but she was never treated as being less than anyone else present.