Recent content by Anfisa Ironhammer

Anfisa froze. Instinctively she drew her crossbow just a bit closer to herself, as though it would serve the dual function of also acting as a shield against whatever terror let out that screech in the forest ahead. The Spine, untamed land that it was, was well-known for its assortment of...

...but in the mountains rather than on them. Why should that come as so much of a surprise as it did? Yet, undeniably, it was. Despite Anfisa knowing full well that the way Gildan dwarves lived fell into that category contrary to traditional dwarves, still her surprise surfaced. Truly, she...

THE WESTERN GATE "I'll second that," Anfisa said. In her own Gezi, she did not travel as widely as Ruslan did in his own. Though they had left together, she parted ways with him before he crossed through the mighty gates of Belgrath—such a place as that was not for an Ironhammer of the Gildan...

THE WESTERN GATE The second of the riders pulled down her hood, and similarly did she call out, "Praetor Anfisa Ironhammer, daughter of Gogrun Ironhammer, forged of the bronze of the Beyars!" Great commotion from above. The guards could be seen hustling through the gaps in the fortifications...

"Agreed," Anfisa said, and she was in turn echoed by the Volunteer agreeing to the same. How difficult could it be? Right? What headstart Geoff and the two fleeing thieves had could be measured on the scale of minutes only. And the terrain of the Spine was nothing if not treacherous, hardly...

"Well, the war is over," Anfisa said, only in the precise moment after having said it remembering that it was Ruslan's own father, the Consul Kadir Gildal, who signed the treaty with the Ommites (which many Gildans saw as an unnecessary and shameful surrender), and realizing that she didn't know...

Anfisa laughed, and even she could hear how it started out hearty and slowly became awkward. "Well...it would seem that one of the things Clan Ironhammer is adept at doing is squabbling amongst itself." It was a little embarrassing. Okay, it was more than just a little embarrassing. At least...

Anfisa blushed a little, her natural bashfulness threatening to come out in full bloom. She shifted her eyes away for a second, ran a hand through her hair before rubbing at the back of her neck, and then she looked back up to him. "You give me too much credit," she said. "The honor is mine...

Anfisa was a late bloomer. Not just because she was a dwarf, maturing more slowly than her human or ogre counterparts, but as well because she only became aware of her Praetor power the year before she was enrolled into the War College. She was twenty-six years of age then, freshly past her...

Not all of the caravan hands on the scene were keen on Geoff's well-being. "Like I said, I'm not anybody's keeper." "If he wants to get paid, he'll turn up." "Maybe he had to go 'fertilize the field' after a fight like this." This one came with a few snorts of laughter. Even the paymaster...

Anfisa bit her bottom lip as the other caravan hands looked amongst each other as the question of vouching for Tarl Kanner was put forth into the air. Was it visible, her lip biting? She hoped it wasn't too conspicuous. Her uncle Ordin would've told her to "chin up and make like granite" if he...

Torin's admission of I don't know served to further fuel Anfisa's disbelief. One moment Geoff had been there, maybe not within arm's reach, but close enough, and then, in the next moment, he was gone. Gods! Had she not been drilled against this in the War College, this perilous narrowing of...

Anfisa had her crossbow ready to loose, pointed around from the corner cover of the wagon, but all she saw was the brief glimpse of the two thieves' fleeing backs, they who were too cowardly, too shrewd, or both, ditching their attempt of robbery and rushing away from the caravan grounds and out...

Torin's shouts proved the spur necessary to prompt Geoff into action. The big man had a surprising deftness to him, whipping about and leaping into motion, getting around the (now frightened) blacksmith's wagon from the other side and snatching up the crossbow so mentioned by Torin—yet still he...

The charade was over. With Tarl's declaration came the preamble, and with the aggressive motions of himself and his comrades the confirmation. Weapons were drawn or revealed, faces were contorted with hostility, and all rushed as one. These madmen! Possessed of a bandit's derangement! They...