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The tall woman smiled; this girl was adorable and she really would feel sad when they found her papa because that meant Elsa would have to be on her way and leave Eleni. "My mama's name is Beatrice," she told the child. "I do look like her, but I'm much taller than she is. I got my papa's height." Eleni seemed to dismiss the questions about her mother with ease, knowing for certain that Elsa didn't know her. "How do you know that I don't know your mama?" That confused the woman, but she didn't press the girl any more than that one question; she would much rather keep Eleni happy and comfortable than push her for answers.

Then the child was holding her doll out to introduce to Elsa and the woman knelt down to Eleni's height, smiling and nodding at the doll politely. "Hello, Maggie," she replied. "I am very happy to meet you, too! Eleni is very lucky to have you here with her. And you are welcome; I couldn't just leave her to find her papa on her own in such a big place!" She then leaned in towards Eleni to whisper in a conspiring way, "Maggie is very nice. I like her." She then gave the girl a large smile before straightening up again. "Where did you get Maggie?"

It was obvious that the little girl was terrified. She was clutching onto her rag doll so hard her knuckles were white and her eyes were large and wet. Elsa wished that she could just scoop up the girl and hold her in her arms, comfort her, tell her everything would be alright. But the child had been taught not to talk to strangers, it seemed, and that was a good thing to know. So instead, so as not to frighten Eleni, the tall woman stepped over and stood next to her, crouching down so that she was at Eleni's height.

"Well, since I can see that you're scared, I will stand right here with you until your father finds us. I promise I will not take you anywhere; we will just stay here." Elsa smiled and straightened up, glancing around the market. If her father had lost the girl, then he was surely panicking and searching around. Maybe she would spot him -- one of the other good things about being tall. "My name is Elsa," she told the little girl, looking down at her with another warm smile. "Can you tell me yours? And what does your papa look like? Maybe I can find him in the crowd for you."

"Yes, It is good to be back." Elsa was certain it was. It must have been hard to go to a completely new place with no idea of who anyone was or what she would be able to do to support herself. The blonde woman knew that, had she been in Gwen's position, she would have been terrified. Leaving everything she knew and everyone she loved... The fear of not knowing what she was supposed to do, or even if she could do anything at all. She admired Gwen for surviving the experience.

The other's next words made Elsa smile gratefull. "No, please. I am still just Gwen today." At least she wouldn't have to worry about titles for a little while longer. It would be odd to call her friend "Your Majesty" or "my queen." Normal friends weren't supposed to deal with fancy titles or anything of the sort. "Alright," Elsa agreed. "Just Gwen then."

The last words from Gwen's lips made Elsa frown sadly. She knew that some people would not accept the woman for her past mistakes, but those were in the past. Gwen was not the type of person to betray the man she loved. "Of course," she assured the other. "While some may not be able to forgive your mistake, those who know you surely will. We all know that you are sorry and would never do so again. I do not even believe you meant to do it in the first place, and even if you did, the past is the past. What good is it to dwell on such things?"

With those words, Elsa went back to idly straightening the room again. "So what brings you here? Are you helping to fix the castle? If so, I refuse to let you help me. You have been through more than enough and deserve a rest." She gave Gwen a smile.

Elsa noticed his momentary silence at her smile. He seemed... speechless. Why? Was it something about her smile? She flushed a bit at the obvious attention and it quickly darkened as she realized that he had heard her singing. "Thank you," she replied softly, pleased and embarrassed. Her voice had drawn him in... The idea that he had come to speak to her because her singing was beautiful made her extremely happy and she couldn't help the large smile that came to her lips. "No, I don't usually... I have a few times, but only for small crowds at my father's bakery. Normally I just sing for myself or my family."

Then they were back to discussing books and Elsa glanced back down at the piles. "He has read both Aristotle and Plato," she told him. "I picked those up for him years ago on a trip into Mercia." When the man picked up "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, she decided that this book was a good choice for Kendrick. "This is perfect." She gave him a grateful smile and looked around for the merchant. They were with another customer, so the only choice she had was to wait for a few minutes.

"Oliver," she repeated. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well." His comment on their apologizing made her laugh quietly. "I suppose there have been quite a few apologies made in the last few minutes. I would apologize for that, but that would defeat the purpose of trying to stop saying sorry." She gave him a small, teasing grin and then was distracted by the merchant approaching. "I would like to purchase this," she told the older man. He nodded and relayed the price; Elsa reached into her small money pouch to pull out the required coins.

This knight was... Gwaine, wasn't it? If she was right, he was the one who was the infamous womanizer of the knights. Well, that made things a bit better with his flirtatious nature. She was an available woman and decently pretty -- despite her hair and height, she thought -- so it made sense that he would choose to speak with her. At his next words, however, she couldn't help but bite her lip and flush a bit darker, glancing down at the floor in embarrassment.

With a hesitant nod, Elsa looked up a moment later and glanced around at the other servants. They were mostly chatting amongst themselves, keeping an eye on the tables, so it couldn't hurt to stand here and keep Gwaine company, right? "All right," she agreed. "I suppose it cannot hurt if I just stand here and take care of the knights' table for awhile..." She gave him a small, shy smile. "My name is Elsa, sir." She stepped back to set the wine pitcher on a small servants' table along the wall before moving back to stand just behind and next to Gwaine. "You are Sir Gwaine, right?"

The tavern wasn't at all busy. There were a few men and then the drunk that was always there. It wasn't a surprise to Elsa, who had taken to working in the tavern some afternoons. Elsa's younger brother, Kendrick, was now working in the bakery with her parents and doing much of the work she used to. It was nice because they could now send Elsa to neighboring villages to get ingredients so that one of them didn't have to leave, but it also meant that when they didn't need Elsa to go somewhere, she had time to spare. Luckily, the tavern was an easy place to get a temporary job and the owner didn't mind when she wasn't able to come in on short notice due to errands given to her by her parents.

Elsa was wearing one of her handmade dresses: it was done in fabrics that were shades of brown and had long, tight sleeves that wouldn't get in the way as she served. A dirty apron from the tavern was tied around her waist and her hair was left to its own devices, making it long, curly and big. She glanced up as the door swung open and someone new entered, but didn't make much note of it until the man sat down in front of her.

A pint of ale was easy enough and so she quickly grabbed a cup and began to fill it. His next words, however, caused Elsa to flush. "Er, hello," she replied. "Here's your pint, sir." She set it down in front of him, feeling embarrassed and bashful. Of course, many drunk men liked to flirt with her when she worked in the tavern, but this man wasn't even drunk. She usually just assumed that the men were lowering their standards because of the alcohol, but that was obviously not the case here.

Arthur's first words to the bandits made her eyes widen in surprise. Of course, she would never wish death on anyway, even if they had done something horrible, but she had not expected the knight to be as merciful as she would have been. It was a shock to hear that he wanted them to be safe in the city as well. He was definitely not an average knight, but Elsa was glad for that. It would have been hard to watch him kill the bandits without any provocation except her words against them.

The young woman blinked as he handed her the torch, but nodded. She'd heard rumors that fire scared the creatures off; it was obviously true if this knight trusted it to work. With a shaky inhale to try and calm her heart, she held the torch with both hands and watched the area with attentive eyes. As Arthur began to fight the bandits, Elsa did her best to not get distracted -- it was easy to become so when he looked so graceful with a sword -- and keep watch for the dorrocha. It was lucky she managed to do so, too, as she soon spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and heard the deafening shriek of the creature. She leapt forward, brandishing the torch in front of her and the creature quickly dissipated.

Two more of the dorrocha appeared while Arthur was taking care of the bandits. Once he'd finished, Elsa sighed in relief and made a point to not look at the bodies of the dead men. She did not want to see that. At his question, she shook her head. "N-No," she replied. "I was alone. I had only planned on going for a short walk... but the bandits found me." She hung her head, disappointed and ashamed of her own poor decision to go out walking in the woods. "It had been a long day and I wanted to be alone for awhile..." Looking for a job was taxing, she'd quickly discovered, and she'd only been at it for a day or so.

[[ That's okay! Haha! It took me awhile to reply, too, so it's fine. (; ]]

It was Arthur's coronation day and, as was tradition, there was a feast that night to celebrate. All of the knights and nobles from the area had been invited, including important nobles from days' travels away. Elsa hadn't been working in the castle for very long when it came time for this day, but as a servant, she was required to be at the feast and do what was her job: serve. She was to bring out plates of food along with the multiple other servants and make certain people's goblets stayed full and the guests stayed happy.

One of the other things required was that she wear something nice. She only had two dresses that she hadn't made herself: one was silk and a present for her sixteenth birthday and the other was soft cotton. She didn't want to wear either of those if she'd be serving people, however, so she chose the nicest dress she'd made. It was a deep green with long sleeves that flared just slightly -- she didn't often wear sleeves that were too long as they got in the way when she worked -- and accented with lighter green and gold threads. She had embroidered it herself and was rather proud of the job she'd done; it had taken her a long time.

Her hair was another problem. It was so long and curly that it was nearly impossible to completely put up, but she didn't want to leave it free if she would be serving food. Instead, she decided to pull it into a long braid down her back to keep it out of the way. Once she'd pulled on her boots, Elsa deemed herself ready.

It was her first feast. Admittedly, she was only serving, but she'd still never been to a feast before! This was an exciting and nerve-wracking occasion. The thing started before she could even register that it had and she was hurrying back and forth with platters of food and pitchers of drinks. About halfway through the main course, Elsa managed to catch a break and leaned against the wall. These feasts were hard work! With a soft sigh, she straightened back up and grabbed a pitcher of wine, making her way back out into the grand hall.

She filled a few goblets discreetly before she noticed one of the knights was low on his drink. They were all sitting together and were being the loudest out of everyone. She couldn't remember most of their names -- Leon, Elyan, Percival, Gwaine... who else? -- and she certainly couldn't recognize who was who. And so without saying anything, she quietly approached the group of knights and began to fill the empty goblets.

[[ Here is a reference for her hairstyle. (; ]]

Elsa gave Gwen a friendly smile. "Gwen, then," she replied. At the other's questioning of her last name, the young woman gave a small, sheepish smile. She was often asked that when she introduced herself. "My grandparents were wealthy bakers in France when they decided to come and live here," she explained. "'De la noue' means 'of the valley;' they came from a French village in a valley where they ran their bakery." She paused for a moment. "It isn't common for people of our status to have surnames, but my family wanted to keep it despite how odd it is. My father is rather proud of his French heritage."

"The scars left on all of us from that time, weigh on us all. We do what we must." With a nod, Elsa also looked back at the king's doors. It was true; Morgana's short reign hadn't been pretty or nice. She was a bitter queen and hadn't been the nicest to the citizens of Camelot. "I have hopes that he will be well." She looked back at Gwen to give her a small, encouraging smile. "We all do, I think," she stated softly, though she agreed with Gwen's fears; she did not believe that Uther would get better, not after this betrayal. No matter how much they all hoped, that was not enough to bring their king back to health.