She, sorry they, will be back

Eleanor's POV

I have to admit that I suffer any number of weird looks after that fun little exit and am eternally glad when Charlotte decides to attach herself to us and helps provide a suitable distraction from all the overly shockable elves.

What surprises me most is that she doesn't mention anything to do with my disappearance at all. I know we weren't in contact as much as we would have liked after we had both gone to university, but I am sure that she would have noticed that it was me missing on the news; the girl, I knew, paid avid attention to the news.

The more I listened to what she said, or more often what she didn't say, I got this impression that something was majorly wrong. Apart from anything else, minor things would have resulted in me having her cry on my shoulder. I made a mental note to ask her about that.

Meanwhile, we went back to England to that pretty mansion. Taking Lottie with us of course.

When we go back there is what I am sure is the largest re-enactment I have ever been to with everything from the classical period onwards. It is seriously cool.

We go in medieval dress, coz that's what we got, but we have to get a dressmaker in to make Lottie her own stuff as she is a wee bit on the larger-than-us side.

Rather unsurprisingly, considering personalities and relative insanity levels of the pair in question, Lottie and Gil-galad get on really rather well.

At least they do after he has got over the major culture differences, mostly the S-E-X related ones.

I have to admit that the irrational jealousy Ginny gets and tries to hide at this is really quite amusing. She was getting too much attention anyway and this does stop there being an incipient Kinslaying from happening.

When we spot the Sealed Knot area, we decide we have to go to the demonstration. Well, Ginny does and, since I've been meaning to go to one of these re-enactment because I promised Ginny's parent several years ago that I would eventually get round to it, I agree.

It is funny, Ginny really wants to go to it and claims fascination, but I remember when she was not nearly so enthusiastic to and not half as interested.

I don't point this out though because it would mean mentioning her parents and I don't think that is such a good idea.

While we are waiting to pass the time for the Civil War stuff, I go watch the Ermine Street Guard, which are the most major Roman re-enactors in Britain and are kind of fun to watch.

Once I have finished watching the Romans with the per-doingy thingies, sorry ballista and trebuchet, I go meet up with Ginny and friends to watch the cannons and other Civil War type things.

I find it quite interesting and start to grin slightly manically when the cannon is brought on.

Hey, I'm mad, get used to it.

Part way through the cannon firing, Ginny suddenly rushes off. I call after her and Gil-galad follows her so I don't, she doesn't need crowding. Instead I look back to see what distressed her so much.

Shee-yite!

Quite a few other swear words run through my head as well as I notice exactly what it was that got her so distressed. Oh the poor girl...

I get Lanthi to go after Ginny as well, thinking she probably needs some sort of family around her, all things considered.

Shortly after that we are called off to see Adindel do a sword display. Well, nothing like staring at her beau to cheer a girl up, I'm sure.

Ginny stands at one end with Erestor and Lanthi and Gil-galad comes and stands over with me and Charlotte. I think the protective family expressions on Ginny's relatives' face might have something to do with that.

Adindel then comes into the arena and starts being a little showy before getting serious. Goodness, that elf is a poser.

He starts by explaining how the medieval weaponry comes in different forms, but is mostly designed for heavy cavalry, aka Knights.

The main swords are (as I already know) a broadsword, a bastard sword, and the two handed sword. There are others but these are the main ones that matter in this occasion.

Once he has finished explaining the, mostly pretty obvious, differences and the different usages of these weapons he goes on to show some basic swordsmanship.

Attack, Parry, a bit of foot work, that sort of thing. He doesn't bother with such complications as feints because those swords are so serious that only someone with a fair amount of skill would be able to try them without hurting themselves.

He then asks the crowd for some volunteers to be suckers and get attacked by him. Our lovely High King pre-empts the other people by jumping the fence and chucking the leather glove from his non-sword hand at Adindel.

Despite it traditionally being the floor he is supposed to aim at, Gil-galad hits Adindel's stomach.

"Damn, too high!" I heard Gil-galad mutter.

So much for the cooling of rivalry.

As the pair size each other up, in the formal way of a duel, I realise that all hell will soon breakout if the looks on their faces is anything to go by. Charlotte leans over to me and whispers in my ear.

"My name is High King Gil-galad, you flirted with my love interest, prepare to die!"

I slam my hand over my mouth, hold my nose, and try not to laugh and failing that, not collapse from laughing at the mangled 'Princess Bride' quote. The two of them trying to kill each other is not funny.

Must not laugh.

Oh bugger that...

Anyway.

They soon start to move into a complicated dance of attack, parry, counter-attack, feint, and compound-attack. Any person with real experience of sword fighting can recognise the difference between a duel or play fighting and the dance of death these two are weaving together.

As the fight escalates and both get further and further from nice duelling, Charlotte and I begin to get worried. She might not know half as much about fighting as I do, but it does not take Brain of Britain to work it out that this was most definitely not what it had been called at the beginning.

Even the crowd, which were previously clapping and cheering and stuff, have gone silent. I look at Charlotte. She looks at me.

"We have got to do something" I hiss to her, hoping that no-one over heard that.

As we move round the edge to the gate into the arena, I grab my father and pull him with us, and am soon joined by my husband.

I am also joined by a plan, of sorts. I whisper it to the component people and they quickly get ready to prevent the next round of Kinslaying.

Ada puts on his best High King face and storms into the area, drawing his sword, and forcibly separates the combatants. He makes some big commands about how dare they disturb the King's peace and stuff, making both look a little bit ashamed as they realise how close they came to actually killing each other.

Then, to stop them trying to start up again (I am a strong believer in covering all angles), I get Charlotte to run over to them.

When she gets there, she flings her arms round Gil-galad and kisses him senseless then pulls away and gushes something about them fighting over her honour and stuff.

Thankfully, all parties get the hint and turn the whole thing into an act, as if that was meant to happen. Ada then declares that the Lady Charlotte is honourable and that they should stop fighting over her honour, yada, yada, yada.

I have to try and not laugh; my estimation of my father's capability to act and adlib has gone up rather in the last few minutes. Not to mention his capability to both invent and deliver lies as well.

You can tell he is a politician.

Ginny's POV

After that rather interesting, not to mention eye widening (for some in our party) experience, we head back to the UK.

The main reason for this is Celeborn, Thanduil, and Adindel want to attend this huge multi-period re-enactment fair at Detling, Kent. Apparently nearly every period in history is represented, from ancient Greeks to soldiers from the first Gulf War.

For reasons only beknownst to herself, Lottie accompanies us.

Not that I'm complaining, it's nice to have another insane person in our group. Lottie always manages to lighten a situation – or degenerate it, depending on your point of view.

This is probably why she immediately gets on so well with Gil-galad – they're both as nutty as each other.

I'm with Ellie the first time I see them alone together. They're talking and laughing as though they've known each other all their lives. I don't like it for some reason – Ellie notices and comments, but I'm not really paying attention.

Anyway, we stay at Celeborn's Elizabethan mansion near Bodiam and commute every day.

Naturally, we all go in medieval clothing; all that is except Lottie. We would have lent her one of our dresses, but she's a little larger than all us willowy Elves.

We girls rectify this situation fairly quickly, however, and Lottie soon has a whole medieval wardrobe.

Wandering around the fair, I suddenly find myself in the Sealed Knot Living History area. I know it is by the 17th century clothes as well as a huge poster advertising a cannon demonstration at midday.

Whenever I watched my parents handle the cannon when we went camping with the SK, I was always fascinated by it. Everyone was – big bangs and all that.

Some have been VERY big by the sounds of it – apparently, they once managed to set off a whole load of car alarms as well as set fire to the field where they were fighting.

At the appointed hour, I meet up with Ellie, Miriel, and Lottie and we wander over to designated area. Firstly, a demonstration of the pike block is given, followed by cavalry, and then muskets.

Eventually, the cannon is wheeled on. I watch absent-mindedly while it's being set up and then the fun begins.

I suddenly notice the man who's doing the dry mopping. He's wearing a very familiar black hat and his body language is something I'd know anywhere.

Without meaning to, I had virtually come face-to-face with my own father. I begin scanning the other faces; I recognise others from our regiment, but it's the person guarding the powder box who really catches my eye.

My mother looks like she did the last time we saw each other – a little older and thinner perhaps, but that is only to be expected, given what she must have been through over the past few months.

When Ellie met her parents and after I had made that call home, I vowed not to have any more contact with my human family. Yet, here I am, barely 50 feet from them, watching them fire a replica English Civil War cannon.

All of a sudden, my courage fails me and, picking up my skirts, I push my way through the not too small crowd and run off as fast as I can.

I think I hear Ellie's surprised call, but I don't pay attention and run blindly through the stalls, slowing down only when they begin to thin out. I eventually stop and lean against a large oak. I don't cry, but simply stare up into the large canopy above my head.

A little while later, how long I don't know, I sense that I'm no longer alone. Gil-galad steps in front of me, his face grave with concern.

"Ellie said you just ran off; she mentioned something about your parents."

"Yes... on the cannon... I... I suppose this was an obvious place where they'd be... they always liked re-enacting. I just didn't think..."

Gil-galad folds his arms around me and I return the gesture. We stand there, not speaking; Gil-galad gently begins stroking my hair.

A few minutes later, we break apart; well, I drop my arms, but Gil-galad keeps his about my shoulders and looks into my eyes.

Bit by bit, Gil-galad lowers his hands until they're resting on my waist. I don't really know what I should be thinking – am I glad it is Gil-galad, or sad that it isn't?

I'm saved from finding out by a quiet cough behind us.

"Are you OK, Ginny?" My sister's voice is full of concern, but there is also a tone of caution. Gil-galad takes the hint and removes his hands.

Lanthi takes my hand and leads me over to where everyone else is standing.

"Adindel is about to give a demonstration of medieval swordsmanship – do you all want to watch?" says Celeborn as we reach the group.

The general reply is one of agreement so we all trail back to the field set up for all the demonstrations and line up against one of the barriers. I'm on one end with Ada and Lanthi, Gil-galad sensibly chooses to go to the other end next to Ellie.

Adindel prances out into the centre of the field – it's blindingly obvious that he's revelling in all the attention. His ego always was slightly over-inflated.

He begins with a quick run through of sword history and all the different sword positions, etc – for those of us in the know, it's actually rather boring, but everyone around us is lapping it up.

The excitement really starts when Adindel asks if anyone from the audience wants to come for a mock duel.

This is met with a chorus of calls from the crowd, but then Gil-galad vaults the barrier and tosses his leather gauntlet at Adindel.

It looks like a planned gimmick, so everyone is laughing and cheering. Everyone that is, except our group for we had all worked out by now that both Gil-galad and Adindel, to put it bluntly, fancy me.

So they're already in 'competition' with each other. One being a Noldor and the other a Sindar doesn't help either.

Doesn't life get interesting when a female is involved?

Both proceed to draw rather serious looking and strangely familiar broadswords and move into the 'en guard' position. To an outsider, the fight looks heavily choreographed, but anyone with the slightest hint of experience can see that it's most definitely not a 'friendly'.

Ellyn!