Saving Ulfric

"What!?" shouted Galmar Stone-Fist, bringing his fist down hard onto the table in the war room. "You were supposed to protect him! You were supposed to ensure his safe return! YOU!" His face was beet red with rage and spittle flew everywhere as he shouted at her from across the room.

"Don't you think I know that, Galmar!?" Mjolna shouted back, just as loudly. "I know! I know it's my fault!" The fact that he was laying blame and pointing fingers instead of listening to her was making her furious. She knew she had been at fault, but that didn't make their next course of action any less important. They should be talking about getting Ulfric back, not arguing and raging at one another. "You do know what we have to do next, don't you?" she spat at the man, barely keeping her voice down, a look of contempt on her face.

For once, Galmar seemed speechless for a moment, then, "No. No I don't! I never agreed to that. It's a ludicrous plan, I've said so from the beginning! And I don't think Ulfric would like-"

"It doesn't matter what Ulfric would like!" she screamed, cutting across his objections. "He's not here to decide. And besides, what he doesn't know what hurt him. Right, Galmar?" She said the the last part with particular ferocity. It was true, Ulfric would not like their plan, not at all. But Ulfric wasn't here to help them decide and Mjolna was betting that if he had to decide between death and the Plan, he'd choose the latter.

"It's an atrocity!" he screamed, hitting in the table with his fist again. "It'll just make everything worse and-

"Letting Ulfric get beheaded will make everything worse!" she yelled, yet again interrupting him. "Galmar," she began again, with a softer voice, "We've got to do this. It's our only choice. We have no other plan and if we don't follow through, he'll die. And the revolution will die with him. And Skyrim will never be free. Is that what you want?" Mjolna knew those words would cut him deeply and she hoped they would have desired affect.

Galmar stood stock still for a few moments, weighing the options. She could see the emotions warring on his face, his expression flickering between anger and ascent. "I still don't know about this, girl," he growled, emphasizing the last word, knowing it would grind on her temper. Mjolna had proven herself to him again and again, first with the ice wraith teeth, then with countless victorious battle across Skryim, but Mjolna got the feeling Galmar never trusted women in battle anyway, least of all this woman, an Altmer. "You know I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, even though-"

"You trust me very much, then," she said with a smirk, enjoying his anger. Baiting Galmar was one of Mjolna's favorite hobbies, but she had always managed to keep it to a minimum when Ulfric was around. Fortunately, Ulfric wasn't around at the moment, and she was having a bit of fun, siphoning off some of her anger into the Stone-Fist.

"Quit interrupting me!" And now he was shouting again. Great thought Mjolna. Though she had been expecting it. "I still don't know about this plan, girl. It's awfully risky. And once it's in motion… Only you would be able to stop it! And you haven't been doing a very good job at stopping anything!"

She already knew all of what he was saying and his insistence to keep pointing blame instead of talking about the problem was starting to grate on her nerves. They needed to start with their plan, not stand here and discuss the problem.

"Galmar, do you think for one second I'm not sorry?" Mjolna's voice was lowered now, all the rage gone. She was sorry, so sorry she had failed Ulfric. If anything happened to her it would all be her fault, the revolution would die and there would only be one person to blame; her. "Listen, they're heading to Helgen from Whiterun so we only have a few days," it was all coming out in a rush now. She could feel their time window closing and there was so much to do yet. "Please, Galmar. What other choice do we have?"

"None. But this had better work! We're taking an awful risk here and with no proof that this will actually go as we plan."

"You just let me worry about that, Stone-Fist," replied Mjolna, grinning now. "Just get to the Throat of the World with Wuunferth and get rid of that bloody dragon up there, just don't kill him, alright? And for the Gods' sake don't let the Greybeards see you. None of them would be overly joyed about what we're doing…"

"Aye, lass. We're going to have to work quickly. You have twenty-four hours to get what we need and meet us there. And then you have to get yourself arrested with Ulfric. I don't know how this is going to work out."

"It will, Galmar. It has too," and she swept out of the room, hurried down the great hall and out the double doors in Windhelm, thinking that they didn't have very much time at all.

AN: This is a first attempt, and I'm not very happy with it, so if you have any tips feel free to give them to me.