Shearing Ebony

Wordlessly the two walk the rest of the way through the dense terrain until arriving at a moss covered wooden cabin neighbouring a stone wall lined with ivy that has crept above the treetops. To the left of the building is a small covered well constructed of rough stone and wood. Just outside the front door of the cabin are a few planks of wood that have become embedded into the ground from years of use as a makeshift entry.

The area within that immediately greets Ren as she follows Jäger inside is that of a simple kitchen with nothing more than a few surfaces for preparation, hooks and shelves for drying and storage, a large firepit at the centre of the building, and a few other small things here and there. To the right are a couple of rooms with shut doors while to the left is a living space made cosy with numerous animal furs and cushions of soft leather. In the far corner, in an area free of such comforts, is a small table with two chairs as well as a dresser and chest that's situated beside it. All of this is illuminated by the natural morning light that shines through the few existing windows, although there are several candle holders around the place for when there is none.

The smokey smell of soot lingers about the place.

Silently Ren stops at the entrance for a minute to take the place in before continuing to follow Jäger further into the kitchen. He's now crouched before the firepit where he works on moving the old ashes from the pit and into a sack, which he had retrieved while Ren was looking around. Once done, he stands with the sack of ashes in hand and says with his breath coming out in visible puffs, "Stay here. I'll be right back." He then exits while grabbing a satchel off a wall hook by the door.

Once left alone, Ren mentally calls out, 'Rumpawhatever?'

[...Yes?] They respond, deciding it's not worth correcting the nonsense name.

'Tell me.'

Knowing to what she was referring but feigning ignorance, [Tell you what?]

Ren crosses her arms and leans against a support post, 'If he's been lying or not.' When Rumpelstiltskin remained silent for several seconds, Ren added, 'How are you to know if you can trust me if you give me nothing to prove myself? For now, reveal this much to me.'

Rumpelstiltskin considers the request before responding, [While there is some truth to what he's told you, he has also lied.]

Thinking back, Ren ponders to herself, 'He probably started lying after he realised I'd lost my memory...'

Jäger reenters with a pile of wood and the satchel hanging from his shoulder full of kindling, which he sets beside the pit and uses to start getting to work. Ren studies him as he first sets up some dried needles, twigs, leaves, and untreated leather scraps before setting up larger pieces of wood around the pile of kindling. Once all is set, he takes out a matchbook from the side pocket of the satchel and lights one before carefully bringing it to the kindling. As the kindling burns up, more is stuffed in to replace it until the flames licking at the wooden logs finally alight.

He then sets up a cauldron, grabs a couple of buckets, and once again mentions how he'll be right back. Jäger goes back and forth between the cauldron and the well several times before he sets aside the buckets. "Once this boils the bath should be ready for you. Until then, you should warm yourself by the fire," Jäger informs her before leaving for outside once again, stopping to open the door to the far room as he leaves.

Ren sits cross legged beside the firepit to warm herself, as she was told. Her icy limbs sting as they warm, a sensation she finds strangely pleasant.

'Quite different,' Ren ponders while flexing her fingers repeatedly, each time feeling the rigidity in her muscles as the blood in them strains to circulate. 'I want to ask more, but I doubt that Rump will tell me,' Ren internally sulks and starts rubbing her hands together between bouts of holding them near the fire.

Rumpelstiltskin who always hears her thoughts, [...]

The water in the cauldron takes a while to boil. When it finally does, Ren can't help but wonder, 'What am I supposed to do with it now? Is this the bath?' An intrusive thought surfaces, '...I'm hungry.'

Just as Ren is reaching for the cauldron, and Rumpelstiltskin is considering advising her against doing so, Jäger returns with a pair of shears in hand. "What are you doing?" He asks with his brow furrows in confusion and face reddened by the cold.

"Is this not the bath?" Ren asks cautiously while retracting her hands from the cauldron's edge.

"No, I'll be taking this to fill the bath now that it's ready," he explains while approaching. "But first, let's cut your hair."

Having an instinctual aversion despite her vague sense of what he means to do, she asks, "Why?"

"Because your hair is a disaster. While it may look okay from the front, the back is a knotted mess. It's better to cut it and grow it back." Since Ren made no effort to hide it, he can clearly see the displeasure in her expression, so he adds, "Besides, if we cut it short, you'll be harder to recognise by the Queen and her people."

Letting out a heavy sigh, Ren looks down at the boiling cauldron and gives a silent nod in agreement.

Jäger gathers her hair together in one hand at her nape and then brings the shears to cut at it several times. Its haunting sound causing her to zone out and feel a deeply ingrained unease. As if the cut of the shears is like that of a sword being slowly unsheathed so that it can behead her slowly. Ren clenches her hands into fists at her sides, her nails biting her palms.

One cut.

Two cuts.

Three.

A heavy thump sounds from the dirt floor below.

Looking down, Ren sees a coiled length of long matted hair at her feet.

"There," Jäger says while setting aside the shears, bringing Ren back from her mysterious turmoil. "Now, let's get you bathed," he grabs the buckets from before and starts using them to ferry water between the cauldron and the tub in the far room. When the water is too low to continue that way, he then uses two rags to take hold of the cauldron and dump the remainder directly into the tub.

Finished, he returns the cauldron to the kitchen area, cautions Ren to wait a bit longer, and then goes out to fetch some cold water from the well to dump into the boiling hot bath water to cool it down.

Once it's at a tolerable temperature, Jäger leads her into the far room which only contains a circular wooden tub half full of steaming water, a stool, and a table with a couple of items atop it. "These are for cleaning yourself. Scrub this one on your body and this one in your hair," Jäger informs Ren while referencing different items on the table. "And be sure to wash it off after doing so," he decides to add after remembering how she tried to get into the boiling cauldron.

Ren gives a nod that she understands and so he continues.

"Place your garments outside the room, I'll go fetch some clean ones for you and then hunt," he says while exiting. Pausing in the doorway, he looks back at Ren and adds, "Please hold out until then," before leaving with the empty two buckets in hand.

The walk to the bathing room alone was enough to return Ren's body to its former stiffness, so when she strips and enters the heated water it feels like a fire consuming her icy being.

A feeling that's strangely familiar...

A shiver shoots through her body.

All too soon the fire dies and Ren's left feeling its true warmth. For a while, she simply sits there letting the heat soak into her.

As she washes her hair, Ren can feel a small patch of uneven skin at the back of her head. 'From my fall? The voice did say I hit my head.' Her hands then move down to the ends of her choppy nape length hair. A grimace subconsciously befalls her face as she does so. Ren tries searching within herself for the origin of such feelings yet the fog reveals nothing.

By the time she's finished, the water has become a murky reddish brown that contrasts strongly with her blemish free white skin. Yet Ren continues to soak in the water until it becomes too tepid to bring any further comfort.

Upon exiting, Ren immediately feels the difference as the air in the bathroom is rather chilly even when in comparison to the now lukewarm bathwater.

Peering out the door, a warm draft is let in and Ren spots a dirndl,1 socks, and a pair of leather shoes that are laid out for her in place of her previously worn tunic, belt, and cloak. Not knowing why, Ren looks around for something with which to dry. Upon not finding what she's searching for, Ren ventures through the house in search of Jäger yet fails to find him. Unsure of what to do, Ren decides to dry herself beside the fire. After a while, Ren loses herself in the flames, pulled into its trance inducing dance. As a result, she doesn't hear when Jäger returns.

"W-wh-what are you do-doing?" he exclaims with white puffs escaping his lips, frozen in the entryway for several moments staring as his face turns a deeper shade of red.