She, sorry they, will be back

Eleanor's POV

Well, we had done it again, we had recruited the locals.

The conversation had not gone exactly as planned, but then again, we hadn't exactly planned the conversation as we realised that it depended on all sorts of features like Michael's belief level and things.

It went very well though, and we did not have to tell him quite everything though we told him more than originally planned.

He soon organised for us to go to this event he had got one of his bosses to go to, it was Caleb – that is Celeborn to us oldies.

It is a re-enactment in the grounds of Bodiam Castle, which is actually just about post castle-age built by a romantic, but it does look like the cardboard cut out castle and is a National Trust property.

Obviously, one of the slightly less serious level weekends.

We book up a nice local hotel/B&B and bring along our Valinor clothes and a small selection of weapons.

On the Friday we all go down in suitable dresses for our houses (yes, we do still hold onto that tradition though Ginny wears her own choice of colours as Manwë declared her a separate house) or leggings and tunics in the case of the blokes.

We do not see our human friend at first when we arrive and we take the opportunity to go look round the stalls and things.

It is very strange to go there as Bodiam is a castle on the side of the country I came from and I had visited frequently when I was a child.

To think, my family who took me here are probably sitting grieving me somewhere or other. That thought made me want to cry a bit.

After an hour or two we bumped into Michael, who was dressed in the blue and silver of Dol Amroth. Okay, we shouldn't have started reminiscing about his ancestry.

He nabs Lanthi, Valaráto, me, and Legolas and takes us over to another person with this silver-blonde haired guy in silvery blue leggings and tunic with a grey cloak that we (well not Valaráto) recognised from somewhere.

Can't think why we recognise it.

When he turns round he doesn't immediately recognise us, but that is probably because we still have our illusions up even though they affect him much less.

When he looks at us properly, we have the extreme amusement of watching his face drop off in slow motion.

He starts off with a polite smile and that drops slowly with his jaw and his eyes widen as he recognises us.

He almost looks like he wants to run for a few seconds, but collects himself and comes over to us.

Out of pure mischief I greet the Sindarin elf-lord in Quenya. My son and daughter-in-law follow suit. I think my son just did it innocently as he grew up in Valinor, but I think Lanthi was also in a mischievous mood as I know she knows that he is definitely is a Sindar through and through.

My husband on the other hand greets him in Sindarin.

His returned greeting is rather less frosty than ours is for some reason.

He cannot say much to us in public with other people around so he sticks to politeness, though little more.

We drag him across to meet the rest of the family and be reintroduced the ones he knew before.

The most amusing bit is introducing him to my father, who he has not met, but heard an awful lot about.

Awful in every sense of the word.

A Sindar Lord of Doriath meeting the King of Gondolin.

Doriath, the city that was home to the King of the Sindars who banned the language of the Noldors or Caliquendi of Valinor, Quenya.

Gondolin, the hidden kingdom of the Noldors and the last place which used Quenya as the main spoken language.

How is that for tense?

They are civil however, partly because I am there and they both know I would kill them slowly and painfully and possibly bring in another round to the Kinslaying if they were not civil.

While they are talking, Ginny walks up to us, having still been looking at the stalls until this point.

We get an amusing repetition of the expression Celeborn wore when he saw me.

He had always been fond of her and probably thought she was dead long ago.

She looks a bit different than before because of her transformation so he has even more trouble believing it is her.

"Virginia? But you are dead; you died thousands of years ago!" Well that comment confirms one thing we wanted to know.

She grins and hugs him.

"Yes, it is me. The Valar rock, particularly Manwë and Varda. They made me elfin using Ada and Naneth's blood to make me a new body. Have you noticed the new about the disappearances in Australia of two girls?"

"Yes, what has that got to do with anything?" He looks confused.

"That would be Gin-Gin and I when Leggy and Adindel took us back in time to Thanduil for all those politics." Ada raises an eyebrow at me. We had kind of skirted round describing the exact reasons for Thanduil and his relatives bringing us back to the past.

"Er, let's not get on to that just yet." We don't want a political debate cough-argument-cough just now, we have better things to do.

Celeborn then gets to the point,

"Why are you lot here? You have sailed, that or died and got to Valinor through the Halls of Mandos." Michael then gives us a strange look. I decide to explain,

"Elves can die, but when we do, we go to a place called the Halls of Mandos. Mandos is sort of like Hades without the personality defects and stuff. I like him actually. After we have been in the Halls for a certain period of time, Mandos makes us a new body and we go to live in Valinor."

"Another question is when did you decide to educate him about the details of a society that died before the Great Floods?"

Ginny answers this time,

"When he joined us in doing the Valar's will. The Valar (and Galadriel) want you and the other elves back where you belong and that is the haven of the elves. The Age of Men started long before those aforementioned floods, caused by Ulmö – the elfin god of the sea, if you were wondering."

"Ulmö caused that?" Celeborn asked.

"Yes, though I couldn't convince him to tell me why. He is one of the most terribly closed mouthed of the lot of them. Varda and Manwë, not to mention Mandos, actually are the friendliest and you frequently cannot tell the difference between them and ordinary elves."

We spend the rest of the day wandering around and being generally medieval, before going to a nearby pub for dinner. We notice that most of the patrons in the olde worlde style pub are wearing medieval dress.

We spend most of that night talking; convincing Celeborn that coming to Valinor is the best idea.

We have the next two days to convince him over to our side before we go on to getting the rest of the elves.

I hope we will not have to use our final weapon, a threat the Valar gave us to use as a last resort.

I really hope I will not have to threaten fading if they don't come.

Ginny's POV

Michael clearly had questions for his employers that he wanted answers to – hell I think anyone would if their employers had not aged in the slightest in all the time of acquaintance. He also probably wanted to break free of his hum-drum life and experience the upcoming reunions, many of which would be stirring to say the least.

Fortunately, we had arrived during the 'season' for re-enactments – I don't think even the most die-hard re-enactors would seriously choose to camp in a tent in a farmer's field during the British winter.

This meant Michael found it relatively easy to arrange for us to go to an event that Celeborn would also be attending – what a coincidence!

"Surely it would be easier and quicker if we met them all at once." I say the night before we're due to leave. "I mean, have you seen the amount of luggage we're all taking? And I have to do all the driving."

"Half of it actually, besides you sure you want to meet them all so quickly, Ginny?" Ellie is looking at me, an amused and knowing smile playing about her lips.

I open my mouth to answer, but close it again – on second thoughts, maybe that would not be such a good idea...

It takes us nearly five hours to drive from Bristol to nearly the far edge of East Sussex.

I drive one mini-bus with Gil-galad, Ada, Miriel, Miriel's twins, and Elrond's twins and all our luggage; Ellie drives the other mini-bus with everyone else and all their luggage.

We would have taken our cats, but that would have created far too many logistical headaches, so we leave them with the housekeeper.

On the Friday after we arrive, we drive over to Bodiam Castle. Naturally, we all want to make an entrance so we all wear our Valinor clothes. We also wear our own colours – this makes for a rather colourful turn out.

My dress is dark purple silk with minute flowers embroidered in silver all over the bodice. The sleeves are (small) bells, but the upper halves are gathered against my arms with a criss-cross of silver ribbon. The back, although not daringly low, is low enough to reveal most of my tattoo – not very authentic I know, but then, it's also not very authentic for someone to wander around so nonchalantly in purple silk.

We spend a little while looking around all the stalls before Michael finds us. He's dressed in the colours of Dol Amroth and he suddenly looks so much like Amrothos that my mouth hangs open; I look away.

As much I enjoy having my descendant around, I wasn't quite prepared for how much a simple costume would make him look so much like my husband.

Fortunately, Michael has not noticed anything strange and he purloins Ellie, Legolas, Lanthi, and Vala, leading them off through the crowd whilst I wander over to where people are practising archery. Ada, Elladan, and Gil-galad follow and watch as I bewilder the man in charge with my archery skills.

I fire off the arrows in the same way that Legolas does in the Two Towers film during the Battle of Helm's Deep (obviously not balancing on a moving shield) – I've always wanted to do that!

I hold out the bow to Gil-galad,

"Do you accept the challenge, Gerard?"

Gil-galad raises his eyebrow and takes the bow from my hand. I move round to his other side while he lines up his first shot. Whilst no one is looking, I carefully put my hand to Gil-galad's back and momentarily press his spine with my fingertips. Gil-galad misses the target by a mile.

"That's not fair, I was distracted," he says in a manner not too dissimilar from an incident not all that long ago.

"You shouldn't have been quite so eager to beat me then, should you?"

I turn and walk off serenely – I've always wanted to do that as well.

Wandering back through the stalls, I suddenly spot Michael and co talking to a very tall, very familiar man (well, elf) dressed pale leggings and tunic with a cloak of a darker hue. I notice the cloak is clasped with an equally familiar leaf brooch.

Grinning to myself, I move slightly so that I approach the group right in the centre of Celeborn's line of vision. I bring myself up to my full height and walk sedately and gracefully through the crowd.

It doesn't take long for Celeborn to notice me. Slowly, his jaw drops and his eyes pop out.

I think he's mainly having trouble in grasping that it is actually me he's seeing. Can't blame him, he was, after all, under the impression that I had died thousands of years ago; now he's having to get his head around the fact that I'm now an elf and, consequently, have been alive for all this time. I have also changed somewhat due to my transformation.

He doesn't speak until I'm right in front of him – he actually looks slightly pale as if he's just watched someone return from the grave. Well, he has essentially.

"Virginia? But you are dead; you died thousands of years ago!" Celeborn has a look of complete disbelief and incomprehension on his face; his eyes are darting all over me.

I incline my head slightly before beaming and wrapping my arms about his shoulders. Even with my elfin height, I still have to go on tip toes to do this.

Celeborn doesn't return my hug immediately; I think he's still trying to reassure himself that I'm not a ghost. But he presently envelopes me in a gentle, yet wholehearted, hug.

Stepping back from him, I finally answer his question, well, shocked statement,

"Yes, it is me. The Valar rock, particularly Manwë and Varda. They made me elfin using Ada and Naneth's blood to make me a new body. Have you noticed the new about the disappearances in Australia of two girls?"

"Yes, what has that got to do with anything?"

What? My and Ellie's disappearance has been one of the main headlines; our pictures have been beamed out across the country – I know we (especially me) have changed, but not that much. Is it me or is the male of every species particularly stupid?

Actually, better not answer that – it was more of a rhetorical question anyway.

Almost as though she has read my mind (she probably has actually), Ellie answers Celeborn herself.

"That would be Gin-Gin and I when Leggy and Adindel took us back in time to Thanduil for all those politics."

Tuh! 'All those politics'? Selling the situation a bit short isn't she?

Turgon looks a little cynical – no wonder, Ellie has never exactly got round to telling her father the precise reasons behind her (indeed our) sudden arrival back in Middle Earth. His eyes flick towards his son-in-law; Legolas has the grace to look slightly abashed, but is saved when Celeborn and Ellie carry on the conversation.

I only chip in again when Celeborn questions our motives behind us telling Michael about Middle Earth – he sounds quite reproving.

I keep my eyes fixed on his as I answer – they flicker momentarily when I mention Galadriel.

The rest of the day is spent wondering around the fair (or 'fayre' as it shows on the banners); my plan to be as ladylike as possible... excuse me, gorgeous, flowing dress... sort of backfires when I'm roped into giving a demonstration of battle archery.

Fortunately, both Michael and Celeborn know who I really am so they don't try to get me to join the society.

In the evening we go to a traditional English pub for dinner, although we don't make the grand entrance that was hoped for – everyone already in the pub is also dressed medieval. But I suppose the number of people in our group did do something.

I notice Celeborn is rather quiet throughout the meal; I only find out the reason when we're about to part company in the car park.

Celeborn takes my arm and pulls me a little way off from the others.

"Has Galadriel said anything about me?" I can't quite gauge his tone – it's sort of a mixture of tenderness and, oddly, apprehensiveness.

"Only that she wants you back."

"How did she..."

"Sound?" I finish helpfully and Celeborn nods. "Mmmm... loving, possibly a little threatening as well."

Celeborn's eyes widen at the last bit; he turns away without a murmur.

Bingo! I don't think we'll have to threaten fading with this one.

One down, two to go.