My first Pennsic fight.

So in the film Top Gun, after their first dogfight at the school, there is a conversation between Goose and Wolfman. At one point Wolfman describes their dogfight like this: "We went like this, he went like that. I said to Hollywood, "Where`d he go?" Hollywood says, "Where`d who go?"
That... was pretty much how my first fight at Pennsic went.

My first Pennsic was Pennsic 29. I had never been to a really big event. Glenn Linn War camp that year was about the biggest for me, so I was already a bit agog at the scale of the thing. We decided that we would fight in the 10 man melee tournament to warm up and get ready for the rest of Pennsic. This is a tournament at Pennsic fought between 10 man teams. (kinda like the name implies)
At this point, none of the Zeebera unit is exceedingly experienced. Gabe and Earnan have a Pennsic under their belts, I think, and maybe Justin. Ian was fighting with us, and he'd been before as well. Most of us had only been in a few years. We also could not make up a complete 10 man unit, so we filled in on the spot with a few people who needed a team.
First team we drew was called "10 Little Indians". Looking across the field, I noticed they seemed a bit belt heavy... seemed to be a lot of knight and masters... and I noticed a decent number of strawberry leaves on helmets, denoting Dukes. Oh well... should be interesting anyway. Plan was to stay as a solid unit, and shift to refuse a flank, trying to overwhelm them at point of contact.
Ha. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy. This was no different.
Lay on was called, and the plan immediately went to shit. They did not advance as a unit as we were used to... it was more like a pack of wolves slashing through a herd of caribou. What I realized (afterwords) was that I was basically at a hinge point... we had pot people who were used to fighting together on one side of our line, and filled up the right side with the people we picked up at the tournament. The unit was immediately fractured. As I started forward, the left side went left, and the right side went right.
I looked to my right... and I see dead people. I look to my left... and pretty much the same. Ian had advanced, and was ahead engaged with a small knot, so I charged to help. He died as I arrived, so I went tearing in. I think Ian legged one guy, which was like the only shot we landed.

That's me on the ground. 

I found myself in a pile of about half a dozen fighters. One of them asked if I yielded. Being fair minded, I asked him if HE wanted to yield.

He didn't.
Somebody legged me, and I dropped. He asked again if I wanted to yield. I told him that that was a stupid question.

Before he could rearrange the dents in my helmet, somebody mercifully reached in and gutted me, ending the fight. (I have been told that was Lucan)

My wife was standing and watching, and talking to a woman at the side, who had informed me that the 10 Little Indians team was all "Dukes or better". Apparently, according to her, they had over 20 reigns among them, and one of them was the Prince of the Middle. I have no idea if all that was true, but we were definitely outgunned. It was my first taste of fishing in the deep water.

We did much better in the first war point battle... the woods. But that's another story. :)