The Ways of War

Chapter 5

Despite my initial bravado, as soon as the metal of the scissors caught a hint of the firelight I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to withstand the sight of my hair falling from my head. Mother had had such pride in my hair, so much more than I did myself, and cutting it seemed almost as if I were ruining something that was precious to her.

I felt Helga pull on a section of my hair before I heard the metal sliding on metal sound of the scissors opening. The next thing I heard was the snip and snap of the metal cutting through my hair and then banging together as they ran out of hair to cut.

Snapping my eyes open I saw no change in my appearance, as Helga had started at the back of my head, but I felt the air on the sensitive skin of my neck and saw the black length of hair that lay on the ground.

Breathing out a puff of breath I hadn't been aware of holding I looked at my reflection. "How short are you cutting it?" I questioned, realizing that I probably should have asked that before I had given permission for my hair to cut, and definitely before the cutting started.

I caught a hint of a laughing smile in the warped mirror before Helga picked up another clump of my hair and cut, the now shorter strands ending a little above the name of my neck. "Short." She stated simply before she continued.

Unable to bare the sight of my hair falling off my head I squeezed my eyes cut and tried to think of anything but the hair that was falling from my head. At the sound of the scissors filled my head I could feel my head getting light, no longer having to support the massive weight of my hair.

A knock sounded on the side of the tent and Helga stopped cutting my hair long enough to yell out that the person could enter. Not wanting to see the ruin that had become of my hair I kept my eyes sealed shut but my ears alert. "My god Royse." A male gasp sounded, shock sounding genuine in Lucas's voice. The shock forced my eyes to fly open to see that my long tangle of hair was now short enough that it didn't even reach my shoulders.

The dark stands were wildly placed from Helga running her hands through them, and, now that they were exposed to the light, some of the light strands added dimension.

Helga looked up in time to catch my shocked expression before she bent her head back to her task. "I am almost done, although, I have to say, this is some of my best work." She told me as she started to comb her fingers through my now short hair, occasionally stopping to snip a bit of hair.

I was barely able to see Lucas out of the corner of my eye, but what I could see had me chocking down laughter. His arms were strained with the weight of my armor but he seemed not to notice, too busy starring at the sight that had become of my hair.

Helga tousled her hand through my hair before she stepped back. "Alright then, this should please the admiral. Now on to your armor!" She declared before she bustled off to jerk Lucas around and shove him towards a workbench.

Standing I moved closer to the mirror and stared in shock. There was no arguing that the haircut had changed the way I looked. My already angular face looked sharp enough to cut glass and my eyes seemed to glow, the green edging away from the more natural grass green that they had been to a green that seemed closer to the color of Opher's eyes.

Slightly unnerved by the familiar stranger starring at me I turned from the mirror and walked towards where Lucas was standing beside Helga, who was fiddling with my armor. My bare feet sunk into the soft furs that layered the ground, and despite the warmth that was in the tent I still found myself suppressing a shiver, my skimpily clad form making me feel vulnerable.

Lucas looked up as I moved beside him, his eyes dipping down my form before snapping to my eyes. "You look different." He said, a joke hidden behind a tone that was cold as ice.

I shrugged at him before looking around him to see Helga intently fiddling with my armor, bending and shaping the metal as if it were clay. "How?" I questioned amazed. I knew Helga was strong, but what she was doing should have been impossible.

Lucas shrugged before he glanced at me from the corner of his eye. "Opher is going to be shocked." He told me causing me to flash a smile.

"To be completely honest I think I'm in shock, if you give me about an hour I'll probably start freaking out." I joked back, a hint of truth echoing in my words.

Before I had cut my hair, I could still have claimed to be the same girl from Oldham who had been so shocked to have completed one of the trials, much less all of them. But now? Now, if I were to stand beside the me who had first been accepted into the Riders' School, I doubted you would be able to draw any similarities between us other than we might be related.

Lucas gave a half smile before he turned back to watch Helga. "As much as I hate to admit it, my dad was right, you do look a lot more fierce." He said, causing Helga to cackle out a laugh.

"Of course he was, the Admiral is a lot of things but a stupid man is not one." She said before she pounded on the breastplate of my armor. "There we go. Go put this on, I need to see how it fits." She ordered me as she shoved the armor at me. "I need to mess with the bottoms a bit more, I always hated how little protection they offer." Helga said with a scowl.

Doing as I was told I put on my top and noted the tighter fit around my waist and chest as well as the looseness around my shoulders, allowing me to move them more freely than I had been able to before. Helga had also added more to it, so that instead of stopping at my rib cage the armor continued down to my hips where my pants would start.

I turned just in time to see Helga ripping my usual pants and skirt to shreds before she moved to one of the fur clad pieces of furniture and pulled out an odd garment that looked similar to the one that she had just shredded. "Now these will not fall apart on you, and if you can rip these then I bow to you." She told me as she handed the material to me. "I keep trying to tell those ninny armor's at the school that these need to be standard issue but will they listen to me? Of course not!" Helga ranted as I slid on the pants and attached skirt.

These bottoms were similar to the ones that now lay in shreds however they were tighter and thicker, as if metal was sewn into them. Another large difference between these bottoms and my old ones was that instead of being the trademark dark gold of my dragon these were a midnight black, meaning that when I put on my boots, which needed no changing according to Helga, I looked very odd with my gold and black stripes.

Helga seemed to have a similar opinion as she threw up her hands. "I can not send you out there like that! You'll be the laughing stalk of every rider and Tsoro!" She said before she motioned for me to remove my top and boots. "Never understood why you had to match your dragon! The Tsoro know you'll be on there, it's not like you'll be surprising them!" She huffed before she moved back to the chest she had pulled the pants from and pulled out a top and boots.

After I put them on I looked up to see Lucas and Helga starring at me, Lucas with a look of shock and Helga with a look of smugness as she said, "Let the Admiral say what he will, but he will not be saying that you look soft." 

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Sorry it is so short.