Another character mash-up!

And this one's possibly the weirdest combination, i.e. Henry VIII and an elephant. Well done Carol Westron for making this one work.

The Greatest Fool

The King glared at his courtiers. They shook and shuddered, remembering the ever-present threat of the headsman’s axe. The Bloody Tower beckoned. Entry by Traitor’s Gate seldom allowed an exit in one piece.

“Well, what have you to offer me?” demanded the King. “I who can turn fields into Cloth of Gold. I require something to make me smile. Life grows tedious since my last poor wife left this world.”

The courtiers said nothing. The King’s last poor wife, Queen Katherine Howard, had left this world without a head.

“There is a man who begs admittance,” said a courtier more daring than the rest. “He has a creature with him that may amuse Your Grace.”

“Let him enter. Anything is better than this tedium.”

The courtier departed. He returned, followed by a small brown man and a large greyish creature, with big ears and a long, long nose. Many courtiers trembled and crossed themselves, surreptitiously. In the King’s present mood, to show adherence to Catholic Rome was certain death.

The creature looked at the King with small, clever, knowing eyes, then raised its nose and sprayed the courtiers with water.

There was a long, dark silence.

The King roared with laughter. “It is good!” he declared. “A knighthood, nay an earldom, for my glorious new Fool.”