Iridescia: The Desert: Indas
"It's not fair." It was a lot more than unfair. Iridescia stomped her foot for emphasis, wobbling her reed stool. The movement ruffled the side of Roewyn's tent.
She glanced to where Oran stood watching her and blood rushed to her cheeks. With his eyes on her, the bunched-up, lumpy loincloth beneath her dress might as well have been a diaper. It made the fabric of her dress all wrinkly.
"No, it's not fair." There was a weary patience in Roewyn's voice like the tone Iridescia had used to use on Tobi when he'd pestered her. Roewyn lowered her gaze back to the loincloth she was working on, tugging a thread through a particularly thick patch of fabric. "But you wanted to be a woman, didn't you?"
Iridescia screwed up her face, at first in protest, but then because of a wave of pain from what must be her womb doing somersaults. She cupped her belly and bent over, trying to squeeze the pain quiet.
"There." Roewyn cut the loose end of the string and held the ugly white loincloth up to the light. "It should fit better now."
Iridescia would have signed thank you, but she was too busy gripping her waist. Instead, she let out a whine.
"That can't be comfortable," said Oran.
Roewyn glared. "The tighter they are, the better."
"The tightness wasn't what I was referring to, Sese."
Roewyn huffed. "I can't wait to hear your suggestion."
There was a pause. "Papyrus. In Eq-Anout, most people use papyrus or soft grass rolled and then—"
Roewyn cut him off with tch. "The last place I want a paper cut is—" She stopped herself short of finishing.
At the pat of Roewyn's footsteps, Iridescia looked up.
Roewyn stood in front of her, holding out the menstrual loincloth.
Iridescia pinched it between thumb and forefinger.
"It's not a snake. It won't bite you." Roewyn reached out and smoothed out the wrinkles in Iridescia's skirt, her tone softening. "You can learn to wear it well, so it exsentuates your hips."
"Exs—"
"A-c-c-e-n-t-u-a-t-e-s." Roewyn shaped each letter with her fingers. "It means it emphasizes. It makes them look bigger."
Iridescia's frown deepened.
"You're pouting," Roewyn accused with a smile. "I thought you wanted hips, the way you stare at mine."
Iridescia squeezed the loincloth so tight she thought her knuckles might pop.
She had wanted hips though; Roewyn wasn't wrong. She'd wanted to be all grown up. Why growing up meant being in pain all the time though wasn't clear. Maybe before the word of Adonen had come, there'd been a story to explain it. Usually when bad things happened to girls it was because some goddess in the distant past had burned someone's dinner or opened a cupboard too fast. It must be hard being a goddess; everyone seemed to know when you so much as put on a mismatched pair of socks.
Iridescia was always opening things she wasn't supposed to and when she bothered with socks at all they were unmatched. Maybe this was her comeuppance.
Roewyn knelt down, meeting Iridescia's gaze. "Iridescia?" She cocked her head at Oran. "Have Sidi brew a tea and bring it to me. She'll know the one. With mint. And fennel."
