GODS AT THE CENTRE ( EDITING)

CHAPTER XVI, ARIS: WAKING DREAMS.

"Your hair is unkempt. Go, get a comb." He let go of Bibu's hair and sent him back to the house with a gentle shove.

Bibu growled at the prospect of combing again. His scowl was clear to see in the blaze of the brazier.

He doesn't like it at all.

"Too much combing makes my head burn! I have already combed it. You were the one who scattered it!" He sulked, looking at him accusingly.

He probably just ran a comb half way through his head and decided that he had combed it.

Aris scoffed. "I know what I saw. It was rough. Go and get it. You know my hands are softer than Tasa's. Go and get it let me comb it before she sees you."

He needed no further encouragement. Bibu raced back to the house.

He called after him as he raced into the passage. "Do it quickly and I would tell you a story while I comb it."

"I will!" His voice boomed back as he scuttled into the passage.

Aris found himself chuckling. All was quiet now. He exhaled.

The wind is soft tonight. The moon is already out. It's beautiful.

That's seemed like a poetic thing to say on such a night. The moon hung ordinarily above, in a pristine silver light.

The lady of the night. Singers like to say that no woman is as beautiful as the moon, yet even she has scars-wide craters that roughen her face. Can something scarred be beautiful? I think-

The sound of Bibu's tip tapping feet at run spread across the terrace.

Aris caught the frown in his face as he neared.

Bibu reluctantly handed the wooden comb to him. Still frowning, he submitted his head.

He's acting as if I sent him to bring a sword for his execution.

Bibu had loosened his cornrows. Aris knew he had been impressed by Tasa's flat crown hair style and wanted to make one like that. He didn't even care that it was socially considered a female hair style.

When the hair was loosed, Bibu remembered that he couldn't stand combs!

Children!

On a whim he ditched the hairstyle and settled for an undercut, but that still left something to be combed.

Aris stooped a bit, he grabbed Bibu's kinky mass and his hands came away wet.

"You wetted it."

Bibu nodded. "It will make combing less painful."

He murmured agreement.

He sank the comb's vertical teeth at the hair's root, pulling it upwards and forward through hardening kinks.

Even though Bibu had wetted his hair, it didn't get to the root. So it wasn't without pain.

"It's painful. Ayii!" Bibu tightened his eyes in pain.

"Do you know across the Sea, beyond Thigia, small boys like you among the tribes south of the Thigia empire, are shaved bald frequently? Their hairs are used as sacrifices. If it's painful just say so and we will shave everything and you will be like them."

Bibu still winced inspite of the joke.

"It's painful, painful! Ayii!"

"Sorry, sorry. You're strong; you can bear it. Dee Kessel daughter is smaller than you. She never cries when her hair is combed. You are stronger than a little girl, right?"