Zel in the Ivory Tower by Abida Akram

 Bored, bored, bored, Zel sang to herself in her ivory tower in the middle of the forest.

What a cliché this was. She was already in a castle in the air, why would she want to

marry a prince and live in one? She was sick of waiting for her witch of a mother to

deign to visit her. She was fifteen and a lonely birthday it had been yesterday with

just the birds visiting, enticed with fruit from the magic food cupboard. She was also

tired of her hair growing all the time, what a pain.

Now where had mother hidden her scissors? It took Zel a couple of days to find them

behind one of the paintings, the one of the big grey wolf that mother used to frighten

her with as a toddler. She quickly cut the braid at the nape of her neck. Oh, the relief!

Her head so light and free. Tying the extremely long golden braid to the four-poster

bed, she climbed down from the tower.

Walking through the forest was scary but she did it. She had never used her legs so

much; her feet were sore. Her hair was waist length already. In a nearby village, a

kind couple took her in. Now with foster siblings and a foster father, she learnt to

share. Her foster parents let her use the cottage to set up a hair salon. Her magic

hair was used as wigs for sick people, who soon started to feel better. She also

learnt to cut and style the hair of everyone in the village. She learnt about the lives of

everyone in the village. Life was busy. Word soon spread about Zel’s hair salon

called Hair Today and the family had to move to a bigger cottage.