This one will go into either SNARK or Well, Bully For You. Both books are in the works and I may well combine them as their themes are closely related.
Rua was in trouble.
Forbidden by Mamm to in any
way show, let alone use, in this place at this time, the formidable powers at
her disposal on pain of serious consequences put her at the mercy of the band
of youngling girls.
They held Rua’s struggling
little self on the ground. Four or five of them were being none-too-gentle
about it as a pair of them yanked Rua’s head around so they could get at the
fiery locks that were rapidly getting filthy in the dirt. Bits of old leaves
and little twigs didn’t help any, either.
Sass and Alianora, out
gathering healing herbs, heard the ruckus before they saw it.
‘Cut it out! Get off of me!’
Baskets dropped, tall blonde
Sass and small dark-haired Alianora raced toward Rua’s outraged voice.
‘Stop that at once!’
The authority in Alianora’s
voice stopped the pack of girls from pummeling, kicking, and yanking the hair
of a by-now-infuriated Rua, but they did not release her.
Fortunately, the arrival of
Sass and Alianora got the full attention of the pack because right then Rua’s
big sky blue eyes sent a bright blue bolt straight up into the blue of the sky
above. Rua had reached the limits of her patience and was on the verge of
losing her temper.
A stern look from Sass
calmed her a little and she quit with the lightning.
Hands on hips and dark brown
eyes threatening to shoot a little lightning of their own, Alianora demanded an
explanation.
‘What is going on here? Rua,
come over here at once.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Move back, all of you. Let
her up.’
Reluctantly, all but one of
the girls did as they were told. The one who defied Alianora had a good grip on
Rua’s long bright red hair and was not going to turn it loose. When Rua got to
her feet and started toward Sass and Alianora, she dragged this one along with
her.
Sass glared at the pair of
them.
‘Do you care to explain what
that was all about?’
Rua shut her mouth firmly
but the other girl glared back at Sass.
‘We braid our hair tight.’
‘Well, and so what of that?
We braid ours too sometimes.’
‘We braid our hair tight.
All of us. Always.’
Giving this a brief thought
Sass realized the little girl was right. Everyone in this place did braid their
hair, so tight it looked painful.
‘What does that have to do
with anything?’
‘Rua did not have her hair
braided tight enough.’
‘So?’
‘We braid our hair tight.’
‘Oh, so Rua has to braid
hers tight too? That’s nonsense.’
‘We braid our hair tight.’
Sass reached for the end of
the golden braid that hung over her shoulder and began unraveling it.
Alianora watched, eyes still
glinting with temper. Her own dark mop followed Sass’ golden mane in coming
undone from its confining braids.
‘What are you doing! We’re
going to tell the elders!’
And the whole troop of girls
darted off toward their little town posthaste, eager to tell the elders what
these strangers among them had done.
Alianora fluffed out her
hair until it foofed out to her shoulders on the sides and foofed out behind
her waist at the back.
Then she fluffed Rua’s
already wild-looking hair even more and gave Sass’ a foof as well.
Lifting Rua up onto Sass’
shoulders, Alianora squared her shoulders and started marching toward the town.
Slowly.
‘Follow me.’
One look at three set faces
had Aine on her feet.
‘You look like storm clouds.
What’s up?’
Alianora’s voice was flat.
‘They braid their hair
tight.’
‘So? So do we braid ours,
especially when we’re traveling, like now. It’s easier to control that way.’
‘They braid their hair tight,’ intoned Sass slowly and with emphasis.
‘Well,’ said Caileen who had
just walked up, ‘Rua’s could do with a good brushing at least. It’s full of
leaves and twigs and dirt. What on earth have you been doing, Rua?’
‘I didn’t have my hair
braided tight enough.’
‘So? Neither do Sass or
Alianora. Right now none of you have braids at all.’
By then the whole family had
gathered and the story was told.
A stunned silence fell over
the group.
Merri was the first to
speak.
‘They hurt Rua? On purpose?
They did that to her? Caused her harm, just because she didn’t wear her hair
the way they think she should? What is wrong with those girls?’
And Merri loosed her own
braids, starting a chain reaction that soon had everyone who had hair long
enough to braid loosening their own.
Just then up marched the
scowling tight-braided elders of this people, the gang of girls jaunting along
behind with smirks on their faces.
Mamm took one look at the
scowls and put up one hand in front of her. It was enough to stop the approach.
‘So,’ said one of the
scowlers, ‘it’s true.’
Talorc, Kalann, Drustann,
and Thann stepped up to stand with their wives.
Sass set Rua down in front
of her and the rest of the Younglings of Dunnottar moved to stand alongside of
her in front of the adults.
Mamm remained standing alone
in front of her family, facing the obviously angry elders of these people who
braided their hair tight.
Talorc had a question.
‘Is it true that those girls
behind you did deliberate harm to our Rua?’
‘It is. She deserved it.’
‘In what way did she deserve
it?’
‘We braid our hair tight.’
‘So Rua was physically and
emotionally harmed because she wasn’t aware that tightly-braided hair is
*required* in this place and left hers looser for her own comfort?’
‘We braid our hair tight.’
Caileen gave her long thick
mane of brown, copper, and gold a good shake as she stepped up.
‘You braid your hair tight.
Good for you. Tight braids give us headaches; comfort and health matter more to
us than having tight braids.’
‘We braid our hair tight.
It’s a matter of appearances.’
Frustrated, Kalann gave his
own long dark hair a brisk flip over his back with a mighty big and strong
hand. In his other was his sword.
‘You want to braid your hair
tight and keep getting horrible headaches, go ahead. For our part, health and
comfort trump appearances.’
‘We braid our hair tight.’
Before Aine has a chance to
tug an arrow from the sheath that rides her shoulder, or Drustann and Alianora
let loose with a tirade, Mamm again holds up a hand.
‘We are here at your own
request, if you recall. Your people have been suffering from a malaise you told
us. Pain and bad feelings have been making them less effective than they once
were you told us. They have muscle aches, sprains, torn ligaments and tendons,
and massive headaches you told us. Come and see if you can help you told us. Is
this not true?’
‘It is true.’
‘Here we are.’
‘We …’
Mamm’s raised hand interrupts
the scowling elder.
‘I know. You braid your hair
tight. Because appearances are important.’
‘Yes.’
‘Would you like to know the
results of our investigation into the malaise and bad feelings among your
people?’
‘Yes.’
‘Almost all of you suffer
from headaches. When a person’s head is hurting, they tend toward bad feelings.
Headaches also make people’s necks hurt, and then their shoulders and backs
because pain makes muscles tense. Tense muscles get injured more easily. The
pain affects the whole of the body, which makes people irritable, and so effectiveness is cut by bad feelings
and injuries.’
‘Oh.’
‘Oh, indeed. When did
appearances become more important to you than health, comfort, and
effectiveness? Your whole town is suffering. Making everyone braid their hair
so tight is like telling them they all have to wear shoes that hurt their feet.
The consequences are identical in terms of the effects on their bodies.’
‘Oh.’
Sass and Alianora stepped up
beside Mamm.
‘The medications we have
supplied you with are only going to provide temporary relief,’ said Sass. ‘The
root of your malaise lies deeper than headaches, sore muscles, and pulled
tendons. We can treat those but we cannot prevent them from recurring.’
Alianora smiled.
‘The good news is that we
seem to have found the real problem here.’
‘Oh?’
‘Oh, yes.’
‘What is it?’
‘You braid your hair too
tight. All of you. Always.’
‘We braid our hair tight.
How is that a problem?’
‘Think about it. Did you
have all these issues with health, comfort, and effectiveness for always?’
‘No.’
‘Perhaps they began when you
decided that appearances were so important that you all started braiding your
hair tight?’
Frowns turned to thoughtful
looks.
‘Hmm …’
Drustann came to stand
beside his wife and took Alianora’s hand in his own.
‘Don’t get us wrong. It is
important to look good. But not at the expense of your health, comfort, and
effectiveness. Not to mention your happiness! Much as we hate to tell you this,
we’ve rarely seen a more miserable group of people in all of our many travels.’
Aine added her voice.
‘You all need to loosen up a
little is all. No wonder you’re all ailing in one way or another. You’re strung
as tight as your braids, as tight as the strings on the Queen Harp!’
Kalann at her side laughed
aloud.
‘And you can start with
those too-tight braids. They’re as dangerous to your well-being as shoes that
hurt your feet.’
‘Hmm …’
Rua looks at the bunch of
girls and grins.
‘Just don’t go getting your
hair full of dirt, leaves, and twigs; they’re hard to brush out.’
Jaunty smirks turn first to thinking
squints and then to tentative little smiles.
‘If we loosen up our braids,
will our headaches go away? And all the other things?’
‘Well, you might still get a
headache once in a while, or hurt your muscles from working too hard – but I
bet it wouldn’t be all the time, like it is now. You could try it and see,
couldn’t you?’
The girls looked up at the
elders who looked back at them.
‘We could try.’
And so they did.
On the way back to Dunnottar
Rua looked at Mamm and grinned.
Mamm grinned back and reached
over to tug on one of Rua’s fiery braids.
‘You trying to give yourself
a headache, Rua?’
‘Nope. These braids aren’t
that tight! What were those people thinking, Mamm? Those poor girls, each
trying to braid her hair tighter than the others – no wonder they had headaches
and were so cranky!’
‘Well, they were just
following their leaders, Rua. If the leaders say appearances are more important
than health, comfort, effectiveness, and happiness, the people are bound to go
along with it.’
‘And suffer the consequences.
I feel so sorry for those folks. Braids are useful, I have to say, but not that
important. So what if mine are looser than theirs? They keep my hair out of my
face and are comfortable too. Those girls were wrong to hurt me like that for
no good reason.’
‘Aye. But you survived.’
‘Yep.’
