Takuya approached the ongoing lesson with some trepidation. He knew that both the twins knew how to use their bows in defence, but that they both professed to having little skill in fencing. Although they both carried curved blades, as Takuya understood it they were used in hunting more than as weapons. He supposed that fencing in a forest was a rather difficult thing to accomplish, which is why they could give him some basic ideas, but their curved swords required a vastly different fighting style. That is why he found himself approaching a group of pages that morning, doing sword drills with their instructor.

"Uh… Hi?"

Several heads turned to look at him.

Takuya focused on the instructor. "I was hoping you could help me?" He shifted his hand to his sword nervously. "I want to learn how to use this properly, and I was hoping you could at least give me some pointers and stuff because I really don't have much of an idea about it, and Kouji and Kouichi don't know how to use broadswords, and…" He stopped as the instructor held up a hand.

"Firstly, that's not a broadsword, it's a short sword. A lad like you couldn't even lift a bastard sword, let alone a broad sword. Secondly, if you want to learn, that's fine with me, but I expect you to put in just as much effort as the rest of the boys do, understand?"

Takuya nodded. "I'm leaving tomorrow, but I'd be grateful for anything you could show me to practice, so I feel less useless and more able to defend myself."

"You want me to teach you to be a swordsman in a day?" asked the instructor. "It can't be done."

"How about enough so I don't cut my arm off drawing my sword?" asked Takuya.

The instructor sighed. "Get in line with the rest of them, then."

"Thank you, sir."

***********************

The castle forge seemed a strange place to Kouichi and Kouji, and one where danger could lay in the unknown. Kouji's hand was wrapped around his dagger, the only weapon he carried, and he peered into the darkness. "Do you think he's here?"

Kouichi shook his head. "I don't know. It's a blank zone, like all metal-workers' huts." He entered slowly, wincing as his magic was forcibly cut off. "Now I remember why we never visited Errol."

Kouji looked around slowly. "Junpei? Are you here?"

There was a general groaning from above, and the head of a middle-aged man with red hair and a beard, both shot through with strands of white, lent down to look that them. "What do you boys want with my apprentice on this early morning, hm?"

"It's well after sunrise, sir," pointed out Kouichi.

The smith snorted. "Aye, but we were working well into the night because we knew today was our day off. We need to go into the city to buy fresh iron."

Both the twins shuddered slightly, then Kouichi spoke again. "We were hoping Junpei would help us to find gifts for us to take to present to the council, and help us not to draw too much attention."

"Two elf lads not draw attention?" The smith laughed. "Goddess love you, but I think that's a lost cause. Oi, Junpei!" The smith moved out of sight, and a second voice could be heard mumbling.

"Get up you lazy boy, we've work to do and the sun is high."

Junpei moaned. "Please, Master Jonus, we were up almost all night."

"Aye, and we used up all our iron. No work in the forge today, instead we've to go and haggle in the market." Jonus reappeared, and moved to climb down a ladder from the loft where he slept. "And some friends are here, and maybe I'll give yer a bit of free time in the market if you help them."

Junpei stuck his own head over the edge of the sleeping platform, his hair stuck at many angles. "Oh. You. You looking for gifts to trick my Izumi away from me?"

Kouichi blushed as he remembered the kiss she had given him last night. "We're looking for suitable things as peace offerings to the elven council. We wouldn't know where to look in the city, and hoped you'd help us. Of course we'll pay you for your time."

"Hmph." Junpei climbed down to join them. "Okay. Guess you need a city boy like me to help you out. The folks in the city won't be too happy to discover your pointy devil-ears."

"Great," said Jonus. "And you with your strong arms can help us carry back our supplies from the city."

Kouichi shook his head violently. "Please don't ask us to do that if it's iron you seek. We… Our…" He shook his head again. "Iron does something to our magic, absorbs it, or deflects it, and the effects can last up to a day, depending how much is there."

Jonus nodded. "Okay. I would not ask a man with no strength in his arm to help, neither will I as someone who cannot stomach iron." He clapped Junpei on the shoulder. "Be at the usual place by fifth bell, to help load the cart, otherwise the day is your own."

************************

Kouji and Kouichi kept close to each other as they walked the streets of Lyndora, now wearing bands around their heads to hide their ears as Junpei had declared their hooded cloaks too suspicious in the hot weather. Kouichi could feel the nervousness rolling off his twin as the enforced closeness to so many people started to fray at his nerves. All the streets while not crowded to capacity were certainly full, and Kouichi found himself growing nervous at the idea of a panic if their identities were revealed. Thankfully most of the people of the city seemed to have taken no notice of their individual features when they had been led through the city in a cage, instead concentrating on how they differed in appearance to humans.

Junpei paused at a house with a sign bearing a complicated design in gold paint. "A goldsmith, here. One of those men who claim to be a smith, but make nothing practical or useful. Do your kind wear jewellery?"

Kouji nodded. "For our festivals, yes. Mostly pins for our cloaks or hair, if that helps any. But we do not wear stones in them."

Junpei shrugged, then led them inside, where a man sat at a desk covered in many small and intricate decorations in gold and silver. He raised an eyebrow at their appearance. "Isn't my shop outside of your price range, young sirs?"

Kouichi and Kouji ignored him, and started to examine the pieces, in particular the broaches and hair decorations for the ladies of the court.

Kouji examined one that resembled the veins of a leaf picked out in fine gold wire. //They are shoddy craftsmen, aren't they? You can see the joins still. Do they take no pride?//

Kouichi turned a hair clip made of what seemed to be solid silver with a pattern engraved. //Maybe they can't see the joins. I don't know how blunter still human eyes are.//

The shop owner continued to glare. "I dislike boys that waste my time."

Kouji glared back, and slapped a few of the golden coins down on the table. "Are we still wasting your time, old man?"

The twins left about fifteen minutes later with a selection of pieces, all reflecting natural shapes in their craft, but with misgivings about their worth.

Junpei snorted. "So you think these to be cheap trinkets?"

Kouichi shrugged. "Certainly not a master's work. Maybe there is less skill because there is less time to perfect technique. But we should bring other gifts as well."

"What about instruments? Humans must create music like we do." Kouji looked around. "Do you know where we might find them, Junpei?"

Junpei made a face. "Maybe, but they aren't common items, you many not be able to get one right now." He paused sniffing the air. "Do you smell that? Hungry?"

Kouji shrugged, but Kouichi smiled. "You want to eat? I don't recognise the smell, but it must be good."

Junpei grinned, and led them to one of several stalls set up in a corner of the market. "Maybe you'll like this, I don't know what you're used to eating." He handed over some copper coins and received three half-moon shaped parcels. "These are 'pasties'." He handed one to each of the bemused twins. "They're filled with spiced meat and root vegetables."

Kouichi turned his over in his hands. "How do we get to the stuff inside?"

Junpei laughed. "You just bite through the pastry, that's all." He saw their confused look. "What? You don't have pastry back home?"

Kouji flicked the outer casing with a fingernail, producing a hollow thud. "Nothing like this. Is it the shell of a nut or something?"

Junpei shrugged. "Not entirely sure what it is, but its flour, fat and water mostly, I think. They bake it to turn it hard like this."

Kouichi took a cautious bite from the corner. "Doesn't taste of much, but its sort of like bread. It's got that funny gritty taste."

Kouji sniffed at it, and watched with horror as Junpei took a large bite out of his.

"It's not poisonous, really," said Junpei, swallowing. "Really pretty standard food for us smiths because of all the soot we get covered in."

Kouji pulled off some of the pastry and sniffed at the meat filling. "Hm." Both he and Kouichi started eating without much enthusiasm.

***********************

The following morning was bright and clear, and promised to be a good day for walking. Takuya, Kouji and Kouichi adjusted the large, heavy packs that they were carrying, and Takuya once again bemoaned the fact that Chess was to stay in her stable, as the elves did not have domesticated animals. Kouji seemed to be keeping his distance, and Takuya wondered if it was because they had returned to an area of human population. Certainly he had felt that the distance between them had been closing while they were on the road, and part of him was glad to be setting out again if it meant that Kouji would once again draw closer to him. Other than a few quiet discussions in Kouichi's absence nothing had become any clearer to either of them about their relationship.

On top of those worries, Takuya had a new one, in the form of Kouji's ominous sounding warning about what true elves were like. Now he knew the truth, Takuya could understand why it was that Kouji and Kouichi did not fit into normal elven roles, or why they were so quiet about why they seemed different when Izumi had asked them. In part, he felt sorry for them, because he now knew what it was like for an invisible separator to hang between themselves and the rest of their people. He only hoped that in the next week while they walked steadily back to Whitefords, and on into the forest that the twins said contained their home that Kouji would again feel at peace with himself and his relationship with Takuya.