A Million Roads to Nowhere

Seeds for Planting

Patrick gets a razor from Brynjar and shaves his face in a little mirror after he takes a thorough bath. Once his face is clean and smooth, he looks much younger, which Isla comments on when he approaches her later in the day with a request.

"You look like a boy again," Isla teases upon seeing him.

"I'm eighteen!" he protests. "I'll be nineteen before spring's over."

Isla laughs. "And I'm twenty seven. Much older than you. Well, what did you need me for?"

"Could you cut my hair for me?"

Isla's eyebrows jump and she smiles, almost cat-like. "Very well."

If asked, Patrick couldn't readily explain why he chose Isla of all people. Her hair always looks nice and she seems knowledgeable about hair, so he figured why not?

They go to Isla's room and he sits at the chair at her dresser so she can snip the ends of his hair. She fishes a pair of scissors out of the drawers and begins cutting off strands without bothering to ask how much he wants to cut off.

"There," she says with finality and steps away after a couple minutes of silent trimming. She brushes the hair off his shoulders and hands him an ornate silver hand mirror so he can see his freshly cut hair.

Isla cut a couple inches off so now strands of his hair curl around his ears and just brush the top of his jaw. Without the extra weight, his hair curls more and has more room to stick out every which way.

"Thank you," Patrick says. "It looks good."

Isla smiles and pats him on the head. "You can clean up the mess. It's your hair, after all."

He swipes up all the hair on the floor and tosses it in the wastebin. He eats a late breakfast, then spars a couple times with Brynjar. Once it's noon, he meets William out on the beach rocks, who smiles at the sight of him.

"You shaved and cut your hair!" William observes.

"Isla cut my hair," he says. "Does it suit me?"

William blushes. "Oh, well- you look very handsome."

Patrick wasn't expecting to hear such a thing and he chokes out a little, "Oh."

"Let's get in the water," William suggests.

They strip down to their underwear and wade into the Aureate Sea, its cold waters lapping at their waists. The sea is relatively calm today, so there's small risk of drowning, as long as they don't go far out- not that Patrick would be able to go to waters past shoulder height.

Patrick does know how to swim a little bit, but it's still nice to have William's hand on his arm. Once in the water, he realizes that he should have waited to take a bath, but alas.

William teaches him some techniques to keep himself afloat and even gets him to float on his back. After a half an hour, Patrick is sufficiently swimmied out and he and William go to the beach to put on their clothes, foregoing under pants, as they're soaked with seawater. They leave their wet garments on the rocks to dry and head up to the infirmary, finding Aodhan engrossed in a book.

"You lost your rugged beard," Aodhan comments once he looks up.

"I looked like I lived on the streets," Patrick answers and Aodhan laughs.

"I liked it. You should grow a beard like Brynjar's."

"Never."

Aodhan grins, tossing rags at them both so they can dry their hair. "Now that my boys are back from their swimming adventure, you can both go get some herbs from the garden," he says, nodding to a basket in the corner of the room.