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Clara shudders under the cold rain but endures it to get the soap out of her eyes. Once she has turned blue it doesn't feel as cold any more and she endures it further to rinse her clothes too.
Tarjun stares at Clara's increasingly bluish face in disbelief. "It ain't even following you," he calls out. "You could just get back in the warm bath and avoid it." He shakes his head. "Weirdo," he adds under his breath - but not too loud.
Perhaps he had taken things too far, he thinks, and feels a pang of remorse. Of course, Clara and him aren't exactly sweet to each other on the best of times, but this reminds him too much of the cruel pranks other children could have pulled on him, when his leg didn't allow him to run away.
He can't use his magic to make people dry, so he goes to fetch a warm towel instead, and tosses it to Clara. He adds a few more branches on the fire for good measure. "Here, dry yourself and warm your hands by the flames before you catch your death."
"You're so sweet when you're worried." Clara replies in all sincerity.
She returns to the bath, takes off the wet clothes and hangs them next to the oven. Then she rolls herself up in the towel and sits on the bench warming herself at the fire.
"I need to get a boar." she thinks out loud.
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"Don't get used to it, I ain't gonna be worried often" Tarjun turns his back on her while she gets ready.
He doesn't even question the boar thing. By now, whatever random thought crosses Clara's mind at the most unexpected of times, he accepts that this is how she works. And she's not good at explaining them either. "Well, you can't go swimming now, so sure, we can look for one."
Something about what she said makes him low key suspicious, but it takes several minutes before he realizes why. "Did you just stand there so I'd take pity on you?! Really?!?!"
"How believable is that? Like anyone would have expected you to have a soft side." Clara flames Tarjun as he stops being sweet.
"I had to get the soap off. You really think I'd freeze myself to get pity from you?"
"At your expense, not mine." Clara clarifies.
"I'm warm again, but I need dry clothes. But I can't leave the bath, or my feet will get dirty again. Will you carry me over the threshhold?" she teases Tarjun.
But she doesn't wait for an answer, but walks from the bath into the house anyway.
Once Jewel gets to the pond she takes off her shoes and strolls out the the edge of the dock. She sits down and dangles her feet in the water to wait. The air smells sweet, but the water isn't as clear as it is while flowing freely in the stream. She checks the little stream from the river, and the return. Maybe they should try using a plow to dig both out deeper? That would also allow bigger fish to swim into the pond.
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Clara comes back out of the Johnson house with a "fresh" set of clothes. Some too short pants that fit her last year and a shirt with half a dozen patched holes.
She puts on her shoes and proclaims "I'm ready to go."
She wastes no thought about the tub full of soapwater she left behind or the fire that still gleams under the kettle.
"Where did she want to meet after that? I'm not interested in watching paint dry."
Once they meet at the pond Clara inquires from Jewel "Where do you get new clothes?"
Jewel looks up as they show up. Clara has an interesting question and Jewel looks over what she is wearing. "I don't know. Mom usually handles that. But I sometimes ready the mending cantrip to fix things. If we had cloth and thread I wonder if the cantrip could make new clothing...."
"I need money and then I want to visit Granny. They have shops for clothes in the city."
"And I need a boar."
Jewel stands and looks at her brother and Clara. "Well, let's grab weapons and go hunting then. Chirp can be our eye in the sky."
Clara takes the lead into the woods. After getting lost and finding no tracks of boars she starts complaining. "How does anyone find something looking for tracks?!? I see nothing but leaves, grass and dirt!"
Jewel is paying attention to the ground, occasionally calling Chirp down to discuss 'the hunt' and is surprised with Clara's outburst. "There's tracks. Lots of animals. Look here.... Tarjun? How about you? It looks like these are a boar, but I'm not sure how far we are behind it. I'm going to send Chirp ahead."
She tells Chirp to fly in the direction that she thinks the boar is headed to see if she can spot it.
What a lucky coincedence, that blind Clara has led Jewel to a place where clear boar tracks are. Chirp takes flight and scouts the area. After a minute the bird is back with good news. Not too far ahead is a soudner of boars. Chirp isn't good with counting, so no precise number is given.
"Like Jewel would talk a boar into following us to the butchery." Clara states looking at Tarjun with THAT look.
"But I'd take them all. If we get enough of them I'll get of work for quite a while. About how - I'd say burn them? The bristles need to be burned off anyway. But you can club it until it is out too."
Jewel stops cold. "Get out of work? Take them all and if there are enough you get excused from your work? Do you know what you're saying? Chirp say that's a soudner of boars ahead. We're after one boar. Preferably a big one, mature or even old, without any young that need to be cared for."
"Have you ever talked with your mother about hunting boars? They're dangerous, and attacking a family? A soudner of boars? I don't think that's a good idea. Let's move closer, quietly, and see what we're looking at. Then back up and discuss it. OK?"
"An old one? You like your steaks leathery?" Clara inquires with a look of disbelief.
But the idea of looking sounds good.
There are a total of seven boar. Two old ones and five that are probalby from last spring's litter. Luckily for Clara they are too busy with digging something to eat out of the ground to notice her.
Clara returns and tells what she found. "A magically created pit trap would be great. I'd say we can eat five of those seven."
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"Oooooh. I thought you wanted to adopt one."
Tarjun goes rather quiet, clearly uncomfortable with the prospect of clubbing an animal to death. He has nothing against sausages, and perhaps a clean death wouldn't shock him quite as much, but...
"Your mum wants just the one, right? So let's have one."
"I could make one fall asleep."
"They're digging?" Jewel thinks about it for a moment but can't think of why the pigs would be digging. "I wonder why?"
She smiles when Tarjun mentions putting one to sleep. "If Tarjun can put one to sleep we'd just need to scare the others. Can you cast that spell more than once Tarjun? Just in case the boar resists the magic?"
"Are pigs afraid of snakes?" Clara inqures.
Jewel thinks for a couple of seconds before answering. "I don't know. They're not very smart. Are you thinking about using an illusion? If it had sound I'd think a bear might be better. A really big brown bear. Black bears don't get much bigger than the pigs do so that wouldn't be effective...."
"Not an illusion. Summon a real snake!"
Looking at Tarjun Clara inquires "If they do, how fast can you be on a tree?"
Clara sneaks up on the boars again and waits for Tarjun to make one sleep.
Then she summons a snake to scare the others away.
As soon as Tarjun starts casting Jewel puts her Protective Luck hex on him and starts the Cackle to extend it. She holds her spear in one hand. It is a little short for her current size, but she hadn't done anything about weapons....
One boar falls asleep. The summoned snake slithers up to another one and bites. The boar is not impressed and together they make short work of the summoned viper.
Seeing the pigs trample the snake Jewel uses her Feral Speech hex to translate her words. "Wolves! Run away. Get the little ones away to safety. Run away!"
One more boar falls asleep. The boars are startled by the squeals and grunts from behind a tree with no visible boar. They are looking around nervously.
Jewel pauses just long to ask, "Clara? Can you cast an illusion of a wolf?" Then continues the squeals and grunts....
"Run! Here comes the lead wolf! More are behind it. Save the young. Get them running!"
The boars are not made to flee. Neiter by Jewel's sweet talk, nor by Tarjun's magic.
Finally Tarjun manages to make one boar freak out and start running. With that all the others run too, leaving you with two sleeping boars.
Jewel walks up to the pigs. They look so peaceful….
”How long does your sleep last? They don’t look dangerous at all like this. Are you sure your mother will want two?”
She turns away shaking her head. ”I can’t hurt them. They’re just animals. And this isn’t fair to them.”
She walks about 50’ away and waits.
"If you want to eat them you have to kill them. Can't let them die of old age. And it for sure isn't nicer for them if they are hunted down by a pack of wolves." Clara states.
"But how are we going to kill them now? They'll wake up when we hurt them, so they should better be dead with one stab."
Clara pulls out a sharp knife that her mother uses for butchering.
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"How about we let your mom take care of the killing?" Tarjun suggests. "We could just tie one up..."
"Um, they should be asleep for like, a minute or so." He suddenly becomes pale. "Actually, yeah, we might not have the time to tie 'em up."
"If you wanna do it, just slice its throat, I guess. Make it quick."
Jewel calls from the distance. "Maybe you both hit it at the same time? Tarjun wack it on the head with his club and Clara cut the throat? You don't want it wounded and running off...."
As Tarjun tells that they only have a minute Clara takes the knife, searches the point where the heart is on the boar, pushes the knife in to the hilt and cuts down as far as she can.
Then she repeats that on the other boar.