In Which Lyraina Plays a Different Game

March 16, 1163

"No fair!" cried Had as Lyraina laughed victoriously. "You're not supposed to hit that hard!"

Lyraina shook her head. "You know the rules; the winner gets to hit the loser. They don't say how hard the winner's allowed to hit, so that just means the winner can hit the loser as hard as she wants."

"You tell him, girly!" chuckled her papa from the fire. At the sound of his voice, her grandmother appeared quite disappointed; Lyraina concluded that she herself had been about to say something similar, but now had to remain silent so as to not appear to agree with him. That did seem like something her grandmother would think: Never let a man know you agree with him--it goes to his head, and before you know it, he thinks he's smarter than you!

"Oh, come on, Had! It's just a game," she did her best to assure him. "It's nothing to get all mopey over, you know."

Had remained silent, simply rubbing his arm with his other hand while his teal eyes glowered up at her.

"What? Hurt by a girl?"

Immediately, he let go of his injured arm and laughed. "Of course not, silly! It's just... you girls and your 'it's just a game'. It's not 'just a game' to us boys, you know--it all counts for something."

"Think it makes up for the fact that you're all shorter?" Lyraina teased.

Had contorted his features into a rather pained-looking face. "You've seen adults, haven't you? We boys get to be taller than you girls in the end, you know!"

"Yes, I'm sure the day will come when you tower over me!" she giggled; given the good number of inches she'd always had on him, the thought was absurd. She squatted and stared up at him, her eyes wide and adoring. "Oh, Had, you're sooooo tall! When did this happen?"

The boy scowled. "Shut up--you're not that much taller than me, you know." He shuffled toward her so that they were nearly touching; if she'd wanted to, she could have easily kissed him. "See?"

"Not really," she informed him. "The view must be different from down there."

"Shut--up!"

Boys! They were just so easy! "Even if you do get taller, I'll probably still be taller than you," Lyraina told Had matter-of-factually. "My papa's quite a bit taller than your papa."

"But my mama's taller than your mama," he protested. "What if we end up being the same height?"

"Then you'll still never be taller than me."

Had opened his mouth to argue, but before he could say anything, Lyraina's papa called, "Had, I'd better take you home now; I promised your mother I'd have you back for your supper."

"Why can't he have supper with us?" Lyraina demanded.

"Because his mother wants him to have supper at his house," her father restated--then, with a devilish twinkle in his eye, he added, "besides, I'm sure you'll be eating enough suppers with him when you're older, hmm?"

She raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Her father simply laughed; meanwhile, her grandmother's forehead hit the table.

"Bye Lyraina," Had bade her, pulling her close for a quick hug. "Thanks for having me over today."

Lyraina felt her face grow warm; perhaps she was catching whatever her brother and sister had? "You're welcome, Had. Thanks for coming."

Her father shot the two of them a dark glare. "Don't you touch my daughter before you marry her, you hear?"

"Ewww!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Oh, they say that now," sighed her papa to his mother-in-law as he made his way around the table.

"Shut up and get the boy out of here already, you great useless dolt!" Lyraina's grandmother snapped at him.

"Yes, your majesty. Come along, Had."

Lyraina watched as Had scrambled to the corner of the room to fetch his cloak, then hurried outside after her father. She was still rather disappointed that he wasn't staying for supper--and still trying to figure out what her father had meant with his cryptic comment.

"Men!" moaned her grandmother from the table. "Good luck trying to find a damned mule with less of a brain than any one of them! Let me tell you something, girl--there's only one part of a man's body that was ever of any use to anyone, and you won't be catching a glimpse of that until it's too late and you're already married to the rest of him!"

Frowning, Lyraina shrugged. "I don't know, Grandmama; I think they're funny."

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