Chet Scott glared at his sword lying uselessly 10 feet away. His opponent's blade inched closer.
Shael Millheim smirked at Scott and lunged her blade toward his chest.
Scott caught it with the crook of his elbow and gave Millheim a left cross to the cheek.
At least, that's how it was planned to look.
Scott, a 22-year-old UF alumnus, and Millheim, a 23-year-old former UF student who moved to Gainesville from Sarasota, are part of the Thieves Guild, a group that performs most of the shows at the annual Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. The fair runs during the last week of January and the first week of February.
This weekend, members went to O'Leno State Park to clear their minds and prepare for the intense three months of practice that await them. The group started preparing for the fair near the beginning of the semester, but the retreat marked the start of the effort to create and memorize hours of scenes.
Members imagine histories for the characters they play, but the weekend is also a time for them to get to know each other's real back stories.
Millheim got her first taste of medieval performance as a 9-year-old following in her father's footsteps.
"I remember seeing my dad after one of the shows," Millheim said, "and he knelt down, and he said, ‘Do you want to do this with me one day?' and I said, ‘Yup!'"
She's been a thief and a gypsy and will play Dalia the Innocent, a slightly deranged girl, this winter. She joked that she always gets typecast as a crazy person.
During an improv practice session later that day, Millheim - or rather, Dalia the Innocent - squirmed while a duchess insisted Dalia tell her where she hid some expensive leather.
"Oh! I buried it!" she said, wriggling in an imaginary straight jacket.
A few minutes later, a high-school student strutted up to the makeshift stage - a campfire circle - and proclaimed in a pretend Scottish accent that he needed to buy a knife to fight off the English.
Brandon Cotter, a 17-year-old P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School junior, said being a part of the Thieves Guild is a perfect fit for him. He's a history buff and has been interested in medieval times since his grandmother handed him his first toy sword in his stroller.
"Most little kids pretend to be Spiderman or Superman and run around with a mask," Cotter said. "As a little kid, I ran around with a sword and pretended to be St. George."
He's in the middle of making his own sword: a late-period medieval blade with a Viking-style handle. He's only bought the bare, dull blade as of now, but he said it's a project too exciting to pass up.
He plans to attend UF and study history. Maybe, he said, he'll go to law school after that, where the performances may lack swords but are a duel all the same.
He was called away from the improv practice to show his sword technique to one of his instructors, Sunshine Andrei.
He stood and waited for his turn while two members pretended to beat each other senseless for a staged fistfight.
Andrei, 36, watched the fighters, noting what looked fake from the audience's view.
She toted her 7- and 4-year-old sons while she taught Thieves Guild members the finer points of wielding a sword or taking a hit to the groin. Normally she would teach them how to use daggers, but she's pregnant and due in February, so moving too much is off-limits.
When she was about 7, Andrei, her cousin and her sister would put on plays and concerts for their family during Christmas and the Fourth of July.
Now, she won't sing in front of her sister anymore, but her 17-year dedication to the Thieves Guild has led her to craft dramatic scenes year after year as the coordinator of training and safety.
She's also the president of the board of directors.
She performed at the Gainesville Community Playhouse before finding the Thieves Guild, where she was introduced to sword fighting.
"I was told my face just lit up the first time I held the sword. You feel empowered and challenged all at the same time," she said.
As for her children, she said she loves that they get to be around people who have different opinions from their parents.
The young boys munched on Tostitos while a blonde woman kicked another member in the stomach. Then she pretended to collapse to a groin kick.
She hopped up, and Andrei showed her how to lock her knees in before her body collapses.
Andrei's oldest is in Cub Scouts, and her youngest is taking tap, ballet and jazz, but she said it's up to them if they want to try stage combat.
The Thieves Guild is watching them grow up, she said, and that's the best part.
Coming to a practice "almost feels like coming back to your extended family."
Others, including Millheim, agree.
"I grew up around this stuff," she said. "I felt very welcomed when I moved up here. It felt like everyone was already good friends."
Chet Scott and Shael Millheim practice fighting with swords at O'Leno State Park. Scott and Millheim are part of the Thieves Guild, a group that does most of the performances at the annual Hoggetowne Medieval Faire.
