Alred meets a little man with a little name

Alred knocked on the door in the least threatening manner he knew.

Egelric’s horse was dozing in the shed, Belsar was dancing and fawning around his feet, there was a fire in both chimneys, and the rope that Egelric had hung from a low branch to summon the elf had been removed. All of these seemed to be good signs, but he didn’t dare think too long on what they might mean. It was easiest simply to knock and learn the truth.

He had just a glimpse of a broad grin before he was crushed against the chest of his tall squire.

“She’s home!” Egelric said in a voice that was hushed as if for speaking of miracles. “Home, home!”

“Good, good!” Alred laughed in relief.

“Come in, come in. She’s sleeping – she’s so tired! But wait here,” he said, shuffling Alred over to stand before the fire. “Wait, wait.”

Alred smiled at his back as he went creeping into the bedroom. He had taken up Sela’s old habit of repeating herself at the end of every sentence. It was how he spoke to her, and if he was speaking that way to him, it showed that he had probably been speaking that way for a long while before Alred had arrived.

“Look! Look!” he said softly when he reappeared. He held a tiny, pale baby with a tuft of dark hair on the top of its head.

“Jupiter! When did this happen?”

“I believe she went into the woods to have her baby.”

“All alone? Jupiter! Sneaking off like a mother cat, eh, Egelric? Let me see the poor thing, old man. You look all out of practice, or else it’s your big hands that make you look like a blundering ogre.”

“Both, I think, both,” he smiled. Indeed, he had not stopped smiling since Alred had come in.

“Hmmph!” Alred said, putting on a critical expression as he inspected the baby. “It has its mother’s mouth, that’s certain. I shall withhold judgement on the propriety of that until you tell me whether it is my sons or my daughters who will need to be defended from its charms.”

“Oh, he’s a boy!”

“Excellent. I already have husbands for Gwynn and Margaret, but the old man is still a bachelor, and he does like the girls. If it’s a boy then we shan’t worry so much about the destiny of his nose, though I doubt he can escape the curse of Black Colin. However, he does have his father’s ears, if I am not mistaken.”

“That’s so. I don’t know whether to be pleased or sorry. Sela has been trying to tell me something about that – either that she doesn’t like them, or that she thinks they will look like hers someday.”

“Perhaps baby elves are born with round ears? Pointed ears would seem to be a bit of a problem for the mother.”

Egelric shrugged.

“Where did you find her?”

“I found her here, when I came home this evening. The poor thing was all huddled up in bed, still dressed, still with leaves and twigs in her hair – and when I pulled down the blankets I found this little man hiding in there. She didn’t quite seem to understand where she was or what she was doing, but he certainly looked as if he knew,” he grinned.

“Wanted to play a trick on the old man,” Alred laughed.

“Some trick! That’s ten years of my life gone. I only wish she had warned me she would do this,” Egelric said ruefully and stroked the baby’s fuzzy head.

“Perhaps she didn’t know she would want to until her time came. It was her first kitten, after all.”

“Pup, rather,” Egelric laughed.

“That is not a terribly gallant allusion.”

“I don’t mean to compare Sela to a dog. But the boy is named Wulf.”

“What? Wulf? Have you been going to Leofric for ideas about names?”

“It wasn’t Leofric who gave me the idea. Anyway, your boy is named Cynewulf.”

“That’s so, but you must call him Somethingwulf, like a respectable man. Aethelwulf, Beowulf, something.”

“Simply Wulf.”

“Nothingwulf?”

“Simply Wulf.”

“Wulfgar?”

“Wulf!” Egelric laughed. “Damn you!”

“Well, youngster, I shall have tried,” Alred said to the baby. “What do you think of Wulf for a name?”

Wulf stared up at him with solemn eyes.

“You see?” Egelric said. “He likes it.”

“I think the boy is plotting his revenge. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you find yourself with grandchildren named Nebuchadnezzar and Mahershalalhashbaz. And let us pray they not be girls!”