Jewel listens to the back and forth with Tarjun and Clara. Apparently he's still a bit upset with her silliness of the previous night. "Tarjun. That's mean. Clara doesn't try to be a problem. She's just impulsive." She considers Clara's response and grins. "Your mother knows that a bored Clara is trouble ready to happen!"
She continues her work, finishing up the little tasks remaining. "We're almost done. Clara. I need a favor. The other day when I was out looking for the right kind of branch for my bow I spotted one that I think is perfect. But, it is way out of my reach up in the tree. You can only levitate yourself, right? So could you levitate yourself up and cut the branch off for me? The tree is healthy so I don't want to cut it down when all I need is the one branch."
"After that we can bring it back and find something to play. Your mother said it takes a long time to dry to branch and work it before it is ready to make into a bow. Oh, and Tarjun and I were discussing making a swing out by our tree-house. What do you think?"
"A swing is cool and getting a branch is easy peasy. We just need a saw."
"Does that mean you're ready to go?"
Jewel looks around. They had been working, somewhat diligently..... But, "Tarjun can go with you to make the swing. I'll be done here in just a bit. I want to be sure all is well when Mom and Dad get back. Tarjun can get the saw from the barn. It'll be needed for the swing anyway."
Once they are gone she works hard and fast to make everything "perfect".... Then closes up and joins them.
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"Woopty-doo... Just don't try anything funny again, okay?" Tarjun waves his crutch at Clara. "I gotta stick and I ain't afraid to use it!"
Finding a saw is easy, especially while his parents are not here to remind him of what he's not allowed to borrow.
He sets to work by the tree-house after double-checking that the branch he's going to cut doesn't belong to one of Bruihu's friends. He starts whistling a tune.
Clara follows Tarjun who leads the way full of motivation. After watching him do his woodwork for a while she inquires "Did you bring rope too?"
Clara walks back to the village and takes a route to the tool shed where she is hard to see. She doesn't want to answer any questions about 'what are you going to do with that rope?', 'have you asked if you can have it?' and the like.
Once she finds a nice rope in the shed, she grabs it and leaves on the same route back into the woods to their tree house.
Jewel finishes up.... and does a little more. Then she finishes up, again, stops and looks around, then leaves, closing the door carefully and heads out to the tree-house.
She sees Tarjun and is about to ask about Clara when she spots her returning, with a coil of rope. "Erastil, please give me patience."
"Hi Tarjun! Hows the swing coming?" She turns and waves as Clara returns. "Hi Clara. I finished so I could come out and help, if there's anything left to do. ??"
"Yes, you need to point out that stick that you want."
"That looks about right. Can Clara and I take the saw for a bit then. You finish the seat and get the rope tied to it while we go get the branch for the bow. But please wait for us to get back before tying it above. If you slip you don't float down like Clara does."
If they agree she takes Clara out to the tree that she had spotted and points out the branch. "Up there. I don't want to cut the whole tree down for just one branch. If you could levitate up there and cut it close to the trunk? I can take it back to your mother for instructions on the rest of what I have to do. I know it will take months, but I'm OK waiting."
"Sure" Clara climbs up the tree.
Or not.
Clara levitates up to the branch and cuts it off with the saw.
"Attention, tree falls." Clara calls after the fact.
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"But please wait for us to get back before tying it above. If you slip you don't float down like Clara does."
"Hey, I'm not gonna bust my other leg," Tarjun reassures his sister with a grin.
When the girls are back, he's made two small in the seat, where the rope can go through. The swing is ready to be tied to a branch. "Can I do the honours?" his smile widens.
"Yes, you test it first and if it doesn't break with oyur weight, we know it is sturdy."
Jewel lets the branch fall and picks it up. She wipes the dirt off from the end that struck the ground, then leans it over her shoulder for the trip back. "Thank you Clara. I really wish sometimes that I'd learned some of the hexes that you did. Breathing underwater must be so fun too! I wonder if I could speak with fish if I could breath water...."
She follows back to the swing, running over by the house and setting her branch in the barn first. "Yes Tarjun. You did most of the work. You should get the fun of swinging on it first. Get started and I'll push you higher."
Jewel tries to push Tarjun high....
"Are you trying to loop around?" Clara inquires. "You could jump off and see how far you get!"
I mean.... What if you fall and break something? Our cure spells don't fix broken bones! And your bad leg makes it harder to land safely."
She looks at Clara....
"Clara? Have you ever tried your slow falling if you were moving upward? I'm wondering. If you swing and we push you really high? Then you jump off as you are still going up. With your slow fall? How far could you fly? Would you go to the top of the trees?"
Clara gets on the swing and with Jewel's help she gets swinging high fast. "More, more!" shouts little Clara.
Once the swing rope starts collapsing at the upper point Clara jumps off and casts featherfall.
The results are disappointing. it stops Clara's movement almost instantly and then floats down like a feather, getting hit by the returning swing. "Ouch!"
Jewel watches when Clara releases her grasp on the swing and tries to leap off. She sees the disappointing cessation of the upward movement, and even the lateral movement. She is possibly just as surprised as Clara when the swing moves back along its path and strikes her. "What? That...." She considers the movement as Clara floats down. "Clara? Do you have any control over that? Or does the magic just cause you to float down slow and safe? That would be useful, but maybe not as much fun."
She moves over to where Clara comes down. "Want to try again? Maybe stand on the swing and dive off? After activating the magic first of course. I'll try to grab the swing so it doesn't hit you again."
Clara glares at Tarjun. "Very funny. Why don't you try it?"
She rubs her newly grown bump at the back of her head.
Jewel looks at the swing, a little bit concerned with how Clara had jumped off and things had gone.... not good? "Um. OK. But don't push me too high. I don't want to fall off and get hurt."
She gets on the seat the way Clara had done and holds on tight to the rope "OK. How do I start?" and she tries to move by rocking back and forth....
Tarjun sends Jewel up in the air far beyond the rope being horizontal. Which leads to a several foot freefall before the rope catches it again and transfering it into a very rocky circular motion again.
Jewel screams when the swing starts spinning and sends her flying.... too high! and then the fall before it catches and sends her backwards. The scream isn't a sound of joy! Jewel can't slow her fall like Clara, or fly like her familiar!
But then the swing slows and just swings regular. Jewel drags her feet to stop and jumps off. "Oh. Well. I mean, who's next? That was.... I'll try again later. Right now I think I need to keep my feet on the ground."
"Yeah. I'm OK."
"Now it's your turn again!" Clara tells Tarjun with a grin.
Jewel pushes to try and get Tarjun swinging again, safely.....
"You're just too heavy." Clara comments and tries to give Tarjun a push too.
"No he's not. He's just a bit bigger than we are...." She tries again to give him a shove.... and promptly slips, loses her balance and falls down.
Rolling out of the way she starts to laugh at her clumsiness.... "Maybe we need to learn how to swing without pushing?"
"We just need to ty harder!"
Unable to help herself after her brother's bragging Jewel openly laughs. "Maybe next time use that strength to hang on?"
She catches the swing and stops it moving. "Your turn Clara? This time just regular swinging, no magic? And Tarjun won't try to push you completely off...."
Clara can't supress a satisfied grin.
"Why? That's boring. Tarjun, give me the hardest push you can do." Clara tells and takes a seat.
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"I'm not sure you'd like to experience it," Tarjun stands up with some difficulty - and a grimace. He's now limping from both legs at the same time. The effect is not quite unlike watching a duck on aesthestetic try to waddle in a straight line.
He takes a few seconds to breathe and recover, and pushes Clara hard.
The result is really unimpressive. Of course it almost takes Clara off the swing backwards as Tarjun pushes, but as soon as he loses contact with her and the swing, it slows down to a halt way before reaching the point where it would get rocky.
"Is that all? I thought you are the strong one who can give me a bumpy ride here."
"Clara! That's no fair. Your magic slows you down whenever it detects that you're falling. If the swing is moving it must be detecting it as you falling!"
She thinks for a moment. "Can you levitate more than once a day? You used it to help me get that branch for my bow. I was thinking that you could levitate yourself and the swing seat as high as it can go on the back swing, then release it and let your falling get it really hard on the swing through...."
Clara grumbles something under her breath which could be understood as "stick in the mud" and "spoil sport"
"No, I can't do that more often."
Tarjun almost breaks Clara in half when he puts all his weight into that push. It sends her off to a full loop.
The only issue being, that there is no room above the branch for a full loop. There is the full crown of a healthy tree. Into which Clara crashes and gets stuck in.
After some cursing and spitting leaves you hear Clara from the foiliage.
"Whooohooo! That's the thing. We need a looping swing!"
Jewel gives a withering look at Tarjun. Did he really.... ?? "That would only work for Clara, and it would damage the tree. Clara is still the only one of us that won't be hurt by falling off of the swing if it goes too high. Please don't ever push me that hard!"