Chapter 6: NEW Look

The fliers for her capture were hideous. Snatching one from the nearest pole, she frowned. The picture emphasized certain features to the extreme. For example, they made the freckles on her face huge dots, her red hair looked like the flames of an angry mop, and they got the missing bottom tooth wrong. Well, she concluded, it was time for a make-over of sorts.

It had been a total of three days since her escape. An elderly man with a lazy eye had allowed her to wash up in the back of his ink shop. Luckily for her, he had a son who was a water bender. Her cuts were mended for the most part and her shoulder only harbored a giant bluish bruise. From the newspapers, Flint gathered that her parents were shipped to a different facility. The location wasn't mentioned. Until she could find out where, Flint was going to remain in Republic City. There were bound to be people who had known Linna and Rata here.

"Flint, one thing at a time." She walked into a shop where a lot of girls were. It was her best guess for a total change of look.

All of their heads turned like they were attached to one string. Flint wanted to back away slowly, but their eyes stung her. She was paralyzed until a small woman came over and touched her dirty cloak. "Dear, you look like you need a hot meal and something to drink."

Flint was in the right place. After her meal, second and third helping and four cups of tea, Flint was given an intense scrubbing. The girls had no mercy! They tugged and pulled, painted and tied, brushed and cut until she was raw. "I…can't….do," the woman trying to comb through her hair was breathing hard. The sweat on her brow glistened like a polished vase. "I don't know what to do." She had been the third woman to try to tame the red wilderness.

Flint slowly raised her hand. Her suggestion hadn't been considered by the lovely ladies bravely tackling her hair, but Flint already knew what she wanted. It should have been done a long time ago.

"Cut it."

The women and girls looked at each other in horror. "Off, Dear? You sure?" The small woman had laid a hand on her shoulder in doubt.

"All of it."

She left the shop without her new cloak hood on. Flint thought she looked different enough from the poster to walk out safely. The women hadn't cut it all off like she asked, but they left her with a boyish cut that was short on the sides and longer towards the middle. Oh the freedom!