Henry and Eliud

        “Your son has the most troublesome mannerisms!” Eliud screamed, shaking his porky finger underneath Henry’s nose, who, in turn, gave Eliud an awkward look and sniffed the finger presented to him.

          “Are you trying to tempt me into eating your finger?” Henry asked innocently. “It looks much like a sausage.”

         Eliud’s fleshy face became bright red, but his ears, however, nose, and parts of his chin turned a dark purple. Henry leaned forward to take a closer look at the multicolored face before him, pretending to be quite concerned. “Eliud, your face is making funny colors! I should send you to the doctor, yes?”

         The little man jumped with an expression of horrific disgust. “Disrespectful!” he screeched. “He gets it from you! Tyleke is the most disrespectful and arbitrary boy I’ve ever seen—“

         “—I thought you half blind—“ Henry cut in.

         “—I GOT NEW SPECTACLES LAST WEEK! Quite nice pair actually, but nonetheless, he’s the most un-aristocratic aristocrat out there!”

         Henry cocked his head to the side. “Out there? Out where? Here, you mean?” A grin crept onto his face, thought he didn’t smile. It was in the eyes. He smiled with his eyes.

         “He drinks with commoners in peasant pubs and he spends to much time with that scandalous girl…Oh, what's her name….”

         “Lilleyethe?” Henry provided.

         “Yes! Lileyethe…scandalous girl—“

         “She is not!” Replied a voice, the owner not seen, but Eliud plowed on.

         “—Wears trousers and has short hair. She picks locks and carries around strings of different colors and lengths and—“

         “I tell you, they always come in handy those strings!” the voice said again. 

         “—She has three metal picks in three different sizes for various uses! And she has a chain of keys that unlock—what?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!”

         The voice piped up once more. “You know, you find pretty interesting things with those keys.”

         “My Lord Henry, you must do something about your son’s company—“ Eliud implored.

         “—Hmm,” Henry grunted thoughtfully. “I quite like the girl—“

         “or Tyleke’ll become an unscrupulous man!”

         A few feet away there was a table with a white cloth over it and suddenly a dark head appeared from underneath it. “Unscrupulous?!?” Tyleke asked, rather astonished. “I en’t unscrupulous!”

         Eliud and Henry looked at him, bewildered, and both said, “What are you doing down there?”

         Tyleke blinked and looked about him to see if anybody was around and then grinned at the two stunned men by the door. “I…I’m looking for something. It’s, uh, very important, you see…Don’t know how I lost it...” With that, he ducked back beneath the table, which erupted with laughter.

         Henry turned back to find Eliud racing out the door, shouting, “You Caels! You’re a strange people and I don’t understand!”

         As soon as Eliud’s shouting couldn’t be heard, Henry walked over to the white table and lifted the cloth. Inside were Tyleke, Lilleyethe, several other warriors and the King circled together, drinking cheap beer and playing cards.

         “Who’s winnin’?” Henry asked, whispering.

         Tyleke nodded toward Lilleyethe. “She has.” And then added with a cough. “For the last…five rounds.” There was a chuckle around the group. “She and the king are dow’right sharks when it comes to cards.”

         Lilleyeth and Eilentic both grinned. The king took a swig of beer and raised his jug toward Henry. “Join us, Henny. Do some good to you. “

         The lord hesitated. “Aw, alright. Good beer right? ‘Kay, I’m comin' in…So’s what we playing?”