The ringing of metal picks striking stone echoed down the hill from the mine as Annekke stared off in the distance. She was a proud daughter of Skyrim, and like most Nord women she was tall and well-built, fair-haired, and blue eyed. Annekke's coarse white miner's tunic was dusty and dirty, but the fabric was tight across her impressive bosom and she earned a few appreciative glances from the other laborers in the camp.
Annekke could see across the steaming sulfurous pools, misty geysers, and roiling hot springs of Eastmarch's volcanic tundra, the Aalto valley in the shadow of the great mountain that her people called the Throat of the World. Over towards the forests of Kynesgrove, a great rocky crest strewn with sun-bleached mammoth bones rose up to the sky. The ancestors had built some sort of structure upon it, the ruins of their strangely carved walls and pillars enduring the test of time. Annekke could almost make out a great bird circling the peak overhead.
"Head in the clouds again?" grumbled a deep voice behind her. Annekke's piercing blue eyes came into focus and she turned to see her husband, dirty and sweaty from breaking rocks down in the mine.
Verner was a burly Nord man, strong enough to earn the completely accurate sobriquet of "Rock-Chucker". In Skyrim, it was common for Nords to earn such nicknames after performing some impressive or notable feat. In her younger days as a scout, Annekke was called "Crag-Jumper" for her ability to cover difficult rocky terrain with the speed and agility of a ram.
"Verner, you should have come out with me yesterday" Annekke said with a smile, her eyes shining with delight. "I found the most amazing thing, a beautiful tree growing right out of a cave!" she continued, pointing off to the north. The great tree had been a marvel, something that could have been blessed by the Divines. The tree reminded her of the blessed tree decorating the Temple of Kynareth in in Whiterun.
Verner just looked at her without expression for a moment. "And I found a new deposit of amber. Would have been nice to have some help pulling it out."
Annekke's smile faded. She was the one who originally found the goldenrock mine that Dakwater Crossing was built around. Annekke had been exploring the waterfalls of the Darkwater River when she nearly stumbled over a sizable piece of corundum ore, a mineral that was useful in the creation of good old-fashioned Nord steel. Oh, it was certainly some good fortune to praise Talos for; the young couple had a nest egg that would grow into a profitable business, and a stable home to raise their young daughter Sylgja. More than a lot of people have, to be sure.
But Sylgja had grown up and moved a few miles up the trail to another mining town called Shor's Stone. To Annekke's dismay, settling down and raising a family had cost Verner that spark of wanderlust they had both shared and bonded over in their youth. Even though there was no baby to care for anymore, Verner was still content to stay home, and Goldenrock Mine had became a prison in the eyes of his wife.
"You used to love finding new places..." Annekke said in a quiet, hurt voice.
"I still do. I just like to have food waiting for me when I come home," came the gruff reply.
Annekke just stared at his back as he stormed back down towards Darkwater Crossing. All marriages have troubles and disagreements from time to time, but this one had grown a little too sharp with each passing year. He thought she was a bounder, and she thought he was a milk-drinker.
*************
As the shadows grew longer in the evening, Annekke watched as Tormir, one of the few other women at the mining camp, showed her young daughter Hrefna how to properly remove the scales from a slaughterfish. Nearby was Sondas, a grey-skinned Dark Elf that looked after Hrefna when her mother was away, and Derkeethus, an Argonian lizard-man from the Black Marsh.
"So this is Darkwater Crossing?" a musical voice remarked. "Sylgja was right. Terrible name for such a beautiful place."
Annekke nearly jumped out of her skin. In her depression, she had barely noticed a tall and brawny Nord woman trudging up the hill into the camp, the sunshine flashing off of her armor's metal plates. The stranger's face was painted with some blue woad, and she carried a hefty steel battleaxe with ease.
The woman studied Annekke for a moment, her eyes seeming to drift down towards Annekke's amble busom for more than a brief moment, and kept her hands in plain view. "Well met, friend. I am Mjoll the Lioness, Champion of the Rift. I have a delivery for Verner Stone-Chucker from his daughter Sylgja."
"Sylgja?" Annekke blurted out, and waved her husband over. Their daughter had not visited Darkwater Crossing in quite some time, and Verner was beginning to worry about her. "I'm her mother. Is she okay?"
"Yes!" Mjoll started to nod, but then shrugged, "Well, actually she rolled her ankle bringing some food to the men in the mine. Can't really walk too far on it, but a Priest from Riften's temple of Mara had a look at it, gods be praised, so it should heal up in due time."
Mjoll handed off the satchel of letters to a concerned looking Verner.
"It's a shame Sylgja couldn't make the journey herself," Verner said, clutching the letters like they were a piece of precious ore, "I would have loved to see and talk to her. But at least she still thinks of us." Verner smiled and inclined his head to Mjoll. "Thank you for making the rough trip out here. Feel free to spend the night here, we have plenty of food and drink and good company."
As dinner time rolled around, Mjoll sat next to Verner and Annekke, an honored guest at their table, with the other miners gathered around eating Tormir's baked slaughterfish. Verner brought out his stash of fine Riften mead in Mjoll's honor. Whenever a cask of really good mead is opened, the Nords made sure to gather round because they know that cask won't last long.
Mjoll raised a toast to the miners and tossed back the first cup, and the revelry began in earnest. "Those Black-Briars might be a sordid bunch, but I can't deny they make the best honey-wine in Skyrim," she said aside to Annekke.
Annekke took a sip from their shared bottle, impressed by Mjoll's bold statement. It was well known that Maven Black-Briar had a lot of influence in the Empire. The Imperials cared more about gold than honor, so any story about the Black-Briars being connected to the Thieves Guild or the Dark Brotherhood of Assassins was ignored so long as it was her brew that was kept on tap in every tavern from Solitude to Bruma.
"We don't get many travelers in Eastmarch. What brings you all the way out here?"
Mjoll chuckled. "Oh, this particular journey started simple enough. I was in the Riften market, down in Elgrim's alchemy shop on the water. He sells healing potions and the like, you see. Useful for my ventures, I can tell you that much!" Mjoll chuckled, and Annekke found her soothing laughter infectious.
