Chapter Five

I've done it this time! Jan groaned inwardly. The big miner was cracking his knuckles. She removed her jacket, letting it slide down into one hand and hang by her side.

"Time to teach you a lesson, girl," the miner growled.

"Be careful, Jan," Feb said worriedly from behind.

"And lucky!" June added in a helpful tone.

Jan scowled and turned her head too look at June, a stupid mistake.

"Jan!" May screamed, too late.

The miner's heavy punch smacked Jan in the side of the head and sent her to the floor. The watching crowd made sympathetic noises. The noises turned to surprise as Jan started to rise of the floor, holding her head, growling.

"That wasn't very fair," the pirate said.

"All's fair," the miner grinned, cracking his knuckles again.

Jan swished her jacket at the miner's face, the metal buckle leading the attack. The miner quickly brought his hands up to protect his face and leaned back just enough not to be struck. Groggily, but still cat-fast, Jan stepped in and landed her own punch right into the miner's midsection.

The miner grunted, and that was it.

"Uh, oh," said April. It wasn't looking good for Jan.

Jan's eyes were saucers. Then came pain to her hand. The miner's stomach was like iron! She hopped back shacking her hand.

"Ha ha ha!" the miner's laughed boomed. "A good hit, I'll give you credit for that lass. But I haven't finished me meal and have the next shift so I can't play around." With those ominous words he stalked forward.

Jan fell back, kicking the miner in the shins, knee, thigh, anywhere. No matter how hard her hits landed, they weren't slowing the miner down, and he always managed to set his body to receive her attack. At least she was able to avoid his slower punches.

Until she found her back against the wall.

May couldn't look, she hid her face in June.

"Do something!" June hissed.

"Like what?" April hissed back, "The others might join in if we do." And they were outnumbered, hundred to one.

They both gasped in surprise when Feb set her shoulders and headed to the fight. It was the last thing either of the pirates expected Feb to do. She wasn't even slightly drunk.

The miner was about to pummel Jan into the ground when Feb's maturely pitched commanding yell exploded from behind him: "Just what would your mother think?"

The miner stopped in mid-swing, as if turned to stone, or ice.

Feb walked around to put herself between an amazed Jan, and the petrified miner. She slapped him, hard. The sound echoed around the hall.

"Would this make your mother proud? Is this what she taught you?" Feb said loudly. "Answer!"

"N. no," the miner stuttered.

"Then aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

The miner's eyes darted around, looking for a way out or help that wasn't going to come from his comrades. They were equally stunned.

"Well?" Feb pressed. Her foot tapped, tap tap tap. Her hands were on her hips and her face very, very disapproving.

The miner shook his head. It was also red where Feb had slapped him.

"Thank God, for that," Feb reproached. "Now go back to your bench and finish your dinner - all of it!"

"Yes ma'am," the miner said sheepishly, and retreated to the utter confounded amazement of Feb's companions.

Jan stood up close behind Feb and whispered into her ear, "Thanks."

Feb whirled around, "Don't thank me, young lady! Causing this fuss and getting into a fight."

Jan recoiled, like she had been slapped herself.

May burst into a fit of giggles. Everyone, June, Jan, April, Feb, all the miners, looked at her. She tried to cover her huge grin, pull it down into a neutral flat line, but it was hopeless. She laughed again, making all sorts of strange noises when she covered her face with her hands and tried to keep it in. Her eyes were still laughing.

Somewhere in the hall, the laughter was picked up. Rapidly it spread through the hall and it shook; none laughed louder or with as high a pitch as May.

Jan limped back to join the small group of her friends, "Should we leave now?"

"Good idea," April replied.

Unfortunately Feb had other ideas. Like a queen, shoulders set, chin angled just enough upwards, she strode into the mill of miners and held her hands out to either side. By unspoken command two miners took a hand each and lifted her up onto the bench. Feb smiled down on them with such feminine gratitude that the men almost fell to their knees in worship. Spellbound, all the miners watched this regal, beautiful and wild haired woman walk down the bench, gracefully avoiding the plates and mess. When she reached the middle of the bench she stopped.

"We are Sol Bianca!" Feb shouted out.

"Who the hell's that?" a miner shouted, and was almost immediately flattened by his peers.

"They're pirates you fool!", "Beautiful pirates!", "A female review, yeah!", "She looks just like my mum, when I left for the mines ten years ago."

"We've come here for supplies, and would give our gracious thanks if you kind gentlemen would be so kind as to help us."

Back at the mess hall entrance, and completely ignored, Jan said to April: "Feb is scary."

April nodded, this was a part of her close friend she hadn't seen before. "Look at the way they stare at her, like she's royalty or something."

Indeed, the miners stared with reverence towards Feb, and she basked in their devoted attention, skin, eyes shining.

Sol

Director's Notes: A bit camp this chapter. I think it needed lighter moments and Feb surprised me as well! I like it when characters do that because I think that the best stories are those acted by the characters themselves, and not the writer. The writer is simply there to put down in words what the characters do, think, and want. Not forced into any misbehaviour, they will be more real this way. On some publishers website I read that an author should write to a target audience if they want a better chance at getting published. For non-fiction this is likely a good idea (although only a little), but for fiction I think it is total dross and crappy marketing. If you have to write a story to an audience or genre then what will be written is a formula piece and not real creativity. Write honestly to yourself.