Owin #22 — A Hair Cut

Owin had to force himself not to run back to where he had left Gwen. If something had already happened to her, haste would only draw more attention. Instead, he moved at a regular pace that tormented his mind as all the terrible things that could have transpired played out with each step.

Turning the last corner, he had nearly reached the door when movement down the street caught his attention. “Praise the gods!” He swore just above a whisper. Hastening to reach her, he wrapped her arms around her the moment he could. “Are you hurt? I saw someone with your things and feared the worse.”

Gwen left her head against his chest. “I was scared. This big guy and his friend came across me. I started to slip out the back way, but another man had been there.”

Conscious of drawing attention, Owin squeeze Gwen one last time, then broke the embrace. “Is the room safe? Did you manage to keep any of your things?”

“When I broke free, the big guy had left his friend knocked out on the floor. I’m not sure if he was dead or not.  I only saw the one man limp away.”  She swallowed.  “I did manage to keep my dagger.”

Owin nodded his head and led her back into the building. “We can’t stay here, but I want to see if any of your stuff is still there.” He handed her the few things he found on the man. “This is all he had on him.” Looking down at her worried expression, he smiled. “You did darn well with that dagger. I saw wounds on his arm and leg.  And don’t worry, he won’t bother you again.”

She smiled back at him and appeared to relax a little. “I couldn’t remember anything you taught me. I feared I had forgotten it all, but when he got close enough, I just reacted.  I could hardly believe I remembered it after all.”

Owin smiled. “You did good. You practiced enough that you didn’t need to think and that I’m sure made you faster.”

Entering the backroom, Owin noticed the man on the ground. The wound on his head had crusted over. It looked bad, but the man still lived. “How’d this one get knocked out?”

“Well, the big man threatened…he planned to….” She took a deep breath. “This one only wanted to rob me. He said he had a daughter of his own. The other one didn’t like this one trying to stop him.”

“You said there was a third man?”

“Yeah, but these two scared him off. They were not together.”

Owin carefully rolled the man over onto his back and took a look at him. He was not someone Owin recognized. The fact that he appeared to show some honor galvanized Owin’s decision. “Get those scraps of rug from over there. We’ll try to prop him up.” Once Gwen drug over the decaying material, Owin lifted the man’s shoulders and head so Gwen could put it under him. The man stirred a little, but remained unconscious.

Owin looked up as Gwen started to gather some of her clothing. “Leave those for now.” He reached into the bag he had hanging from his shoulder and pulled out the clothing he had stolen. “If the hall is clear, go ahead and change into these. You might also bind your chest a little tighter if you can manage without it being too uncomfortable.” He watched as Gwen looked down at her breasts; she normally had them compressed fairly flat with her corset. “You won’t be able to keep the corset; it’ll affect your movement. You’ll have to just use strips of cloth.”

Nodding her head, she took the cloths Owin handed her and went into the dark hall to change. While she did that, Owin turned back to the man and checked to see if he had any weapons on his person. He did not expect the man, even if armed, to be able to fight after that blow to the head, but he still would not risk it. Finding nothing, he pulled a water skin from his bag and dripped some water over the man’s face. It caused the man to react again, but he still did not open his eyes.

Gwen hurried back into the room, drawing Owin’s attention. “This feels odd,” she said, her dress and corset in her hands. “I left on my bloomers, since they seemed to fit.”

Owin nodded. She did look different in a man’s cloths, but Owin had known other woman, primarily from Pandaras, who had worn pants and shirts, so the idea of Gwen dressed that way did not bother him. “Okay, now for the part you are really not going to like.” He pulled out his sharp dagger. “We need to crop your hair.”

She crinkled her nose and closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded her head. “We don’t have a choice, right?”

“Well…” Owin said, letting his voice trail off. “We have a choice, but the risk of not doing it is going to be quite high. There will be a reward out for us and lots of people willing to collect, so…” He shrugged. “We don’t absolutely have to, but not doing it carries a risk.”

She pulled on the ends of her hair, holding out her long brown strands to look at it. “Okay, let’s do it.”

I am glad I didn’t have to force that, he admitted to himself as he moved to her side. He had always taught Gwen by giving her options and letting her understand the risks. Sometimes she had disappointed him, usually rather stubbornly. But, he felt she had learned to understand the reasons behind things sooner than others who were simply told what to do.

Although he knew it was the correct thing to do, when he took hold of her hair, he also regretted having to cut it. The hesitation lasted only a moment, but Gwen had noticed and smiled at him. Wasting no more time, he carefully started cutting her hair short, but not too short that it had the appearance of a recent cut.

A dagger made a terrible tool to trim hair, but it was not the first time he had done something like this. After a short period of time, he had finished. The ends were not exactly neat and more than a few hairs had been pulled painfully from Gwen’s head, but she now had a bowl-shaped cut that hung down just over her ears.

She looked at the pile of hair that Owin had stacked on her dress and Owin shook his head. “We’ll toss all of it into a fire. I don’t want someone to realize what we’ve done to mask your appearance.”

She nodded her head. “Good thing we don’t have any silver. I’d hate to see what I look like now.”

“You look fine. Too fine actually.” He walked over to the pile of debris and grabbed a handful of dirt. Coming back, he rubbed it on her face and arms, then wiped nearly all of it away so it would not look obvious. “Now, I can tell you, you don’t want to see yourself in silver.”

“Thanks.” She looked about the room. “What about him?”

“Owin shook his head. “We can try to revive him again, but if he does wake up, I don’t want him looking at you too closely, okay.”

Continue to next episode.