Vauxian Hairstyling

Now that things were safe, Alexis had given permission for Gonyaul to emerge from his hiding spot in the wagon. He helped with the tasks that he was allowed to manage. Then Nicolaus had him report in so that he could apply an ointment and change Gonyaul into some fresh bandages for the night. Upon being done, Gonyaul was standing at the edge of their camp taking in all the new sights, sounds, smells, people, etc.. in childlike wonderment. He earnestly wanted to go explore if that was an option.

As he noticed natives staring at him, he would bow and sign back to them in greeting. They were curious about his gestures, but would inevitably warm up to his contagious smile. They had never seen someone that looked like Gonyaul before. The young man wasn't wearing a shirt, just the bandages that wrapped around his upper chest and back. His markings were on display. He was wearing only the lower half of the Arisha Ikeburer, which the natives would conjecture was a long skirt. And his long beautiful hair was pulled up into two buns in a Vauxian hairstyle to keep his long hair away from the wound. With the parallelogram shape of his eyes and the hairstyle, he had a very feline look from the neck up. Some kids even started a rumor that he was a Luger that turned into a person.

Eventually his wish came true and they were all escorted to the heart of the camp to enjoy the hospitality of the Ashen Hooves. While there, children looked in wonderment from behind their parents legs. He graciously received a balm from a young woman for his wound. He would be sure to have Nicolaus later that night inspect and apply it if he deemed fit. He even got to swap pantomiming stories with another man who shared a Luger attack survivor story.

Gonyaul found that most didn't know the common tongue of Helias, so he let himself be free to speak in Vauxian. Apparently the hosts found this very entertaining, as it was built on an entirely different structure, pitch system, and alphabet then anything they had ever come across. They also enjoyed his sign language as he talked. Some of the little children even started to mimic him to their friends.

It wasn't long before Gonyaul found himself playing with the children. That eventually turned into some of the little girls being very curious about his hairstyle; at first thinking the buns were cat ears. This led to Gonyaul getting the opportunity to braid a confident young girl's hair in a Vauxian hairstyle that he thought would compliment her face. After she had run off to show her friends and parents, Gonyaul suddenly found himself in business of a long line of other young girls. Then the line started to have young ladies mixed into it. Then young women. Then mature women. He was completely surrounded and there was much talk and merriment amongst them all. When not the one receiving a Vauxian braid, they were either showing off their hair or gathered near trying to see how he did it.

It was a good thing that the Vauxians put so much meaning into everything they did. Gonyaul had probably a hundred different hairstyles that he knew how to perform. Hairstyles in his culture, since speaking aloud was considered sacred and done less frequently, were another means to communicate and much attention was placed in the art. It was mandatory to learn them all and to be able to innovate variety with them; even creating new styles to add to the collection.