Roused 094 The Hair

- Roused
- Chapter 094
~ The Hair

"Tell me about your hair," said Briar Rose, moving hip to hip next to Rapunzel, grunting against the pain shooting up her legs. It sounded so important to her sister.

"It could heal, any injury and sickness, even death, though I didn't know that until after. It would glow when I sang my special song. I felt so good when I would heal Mother."

Rapunzel reached out and touched Briar Rose's locks of golden sunshine hair. "It was so beautiful, just the color of yours, the color of sunshine. It was seventy feet long, it could go around the room so many times and reach the ground from my window."

"Let me tell you, the idea of seventy feet of hair is much different from seeing It," interjected Queen Rebecca. "We found it on the floor in the tower and it was amazingly long."

"I could use it to reach out and grab things from across the room. I could climb it and open the upper shutters. I would lower and raise Mother on it, so she could go Outside and get things for us." Continued Rapunzel.

"It made the nicest rustling sound as I moved around the tower. I could hide in it when I was scared, sleep under it when I was cold. I would worry it, if I was nervous, I still catch myself doing that. I even used it to read by, late at night, when Mother was asleep and I wasn't supposed to be awake." She said with a shy smile towards her Mama.

"When I went to the kingdom people were stepping on it, that hurts, Mother was careful never to step on it, and Eugene found these little girls who were braiding their hair at the fountain, they are so sweet and wonderful and the look on their faces when they saw all that hair to braid is a precious memory, I even sketched it into my book. It took them a few tries, but they got it short enough so I could walk around without it dragging on the ground, it was so beautiful and they filled it with flowers. It also made dancing so much easier. They asked about my hair after I returned and I told them what happened, but it hurt so much to tell them. They would never get a chance to braid all that hair ever again," said Rapunzel sadly.

"And now I'm a little scared about my hair." Rapunzel looked shyly at her mama, who looks on worriedly.
"It hasn't grown at all in the months since it's been cut. Mama visits the royal hairdresser all the time. But I don't dare let anyone touch it, it scares me too much. There might be some kind of magic left in me somewhere if it isn't growing and I don't want to hurt anyone."
Rebecca nodded in understanding.

"But the thing I miss most, was how I could fan it out behind me and then stand in front of my mirror and have this amazing looking cape of golden sunshine behind me. It was a look of myself that I knew was completely and totally mine. I made a painting in my room of myself with my sunshine hair and if I stood in the right place it almost looked like it was there behind me again, but my hand always comes back empty."

Rapunzel looked down, tears in her eyes, hands empty in her lap, and said quietly, "I loved my magic, golden hair. And-and it's g-gone, forever." Her breath caught, her lower lip quivered, and she began to sob, finally mourning her lost golden hair.

And they all hugged her and mourned with her for the lost hair.

- End of Chapter 094