Clara has disgust written all over her face. She thought cabbage is the worst and there is no way to make it worse, but now she isn't sure about that anymore.
Jewel thinks for a moment. "Well, if you want to stay focused on cabbage, how about making some sauerkraut? All that takes is the cabbage, salt, water, and a sealed container to keep it in while it ferments." By the look on her face you think she's serious....
"You're aware, that you don't put the whole cabbage into the barrel, right? You'd have to cut enough cabbages into fine slices to fill a barrel."
Clara isn't that easily tricked out of playtime and into work. Even if Jewel sides with her mum to do the trick.
Jewel smiles. "Of course. But not a barrel. A container the size of a small bucket will be fine. Only a few cabbages, and yes. They have to be finely chopped. I'll need a sharp knife."
Jewel is fine with starting the recipe. It has to sit for several days before it ferments properly anyway. So Clara can play and Jewel will join later.
"Jewel is going to make us eat vegetables. She has joined the dark side!"
Jewel grins at Clara's comment. The dark side indeed!
"Sauerkraut goes well with sausages. But it takes a few days to ferment anyway. You two go finish the drum, and figure out what we can play next. I'll go cut two sausages and prepare the sauerkraut. I'll join you in about an hour."
She picks a knife and stroke it on a stone to sharpen it, then heads to the garden. She smiles when she realizes that she's acting a lot like her mother....
Clara shudders. "That has Women of Stepford vibes."
"And her going after that cabbage leaves us with the sewing of the rabbit skin."
Jewel silently chuckles as she leaves to get the cabbage. She knew that Tarjun had never paid attention when their mother had been sewing their clothes, sometimes adjusting some of his old clothes so she could wear them, and occasionally making new clothing out of cloth that they'd purchased after a good harvest. She wonders if he even knew where the needles and thread were stored....
"For the ring you best look for a straight flexible willow branch and make a ring of that. Clara knows where thread and needles are." Mrs. Johnson answers.
"The first fur is for free. For the next one you have to learn how to get it off the rabbit."
"Sure. Let's go get some tree parts." Clara replies less than enthusiastic.
Jewel returns with two nice sized heads of cabbage. She cuts both in half then creates some water to clean them. Once both are clean she puts them on a large cutting board and chops them into small pieces, transferring the pieces to a large sturdy bowl. She measures out the proper amount of salt for the amount of cabbage and water that she'll be using, mixing the salt into the cabbage in the bowl. Once it is mixed properly she works it with rounded mallet, smashing the cabbage and salt together to release the juice of the cabbage. As she gets it mashed proper she transfers it to the crock, adds water and presses it down to remove any trapped air. Once she has all of the cabbage in the crock she seals it and puts it aside to ferment and cleans up the work area.
Moving outside she looks around. Not seeing Tarjun or Clara she spots Gertrud. "The sauerkraut should ferment for at least a week. Where did Tarjun and Clara go?"
"They are off to find a willow branch. Supposedly at the river." Gertrud shrugs.
Jewel considers what she wants to do next. Clara and Tarjun were getting a willow branch? She thinks about the trees down by the river. She does remember a couple of willows closer, but....
She decides to head over to check on the saplings and mark new trees to cut. Tarjun and Clara weren't interested in that 'work' anyway, so this was a good time to do that. And maybe she'd have a chance to chat with the guys? She didn't want to get in trouble with Dwayne. But maybe Clark or Tony might be around?
"Clara, you know where the sewing kit is. Fetch it." Gertrud delegates.
"I don't know where she went, she didn't say."
Clara sighs. She hasn't even started to fetch the tools. "Don't rush me." she objects and then moves towards the stairs and up as if she had heavy weights tied to her legs.
Looking over the saplings Jewel is glad to see all are growing well. She considers the area and thinks about what she might want to bring over next from the 'seedling' farm she had started. Dwayne mostly wanted fast growing trees for lumber. But there were also some slower growing hard woods that might be more valuable if they could be allowed space and time to grow. That would be years and she'd be into her adult years before they could be cut.... But there were a few areas that weren't convenient for regular lumber trees. Maybe she could plant them there. Dwayne could harvest them and get a bit of a 'bonus' before he retired!
She strolls in the current cutting area looking at the pattern. It was almost routine now but she could practically visualize the way the men would 'drop a tree', avoiding the ones that weren't quite ready. It had taken time both for them and for her. She marks out the next three days for cutting, then looked for Clark or Tony. She liked how Tony looked, but Clark had a nicer voice. She smiled to herself when she thought about that. Maybe in a few years she might ask her mother how to flirt with the guys? She knew she was too young now, and the guys knew her age. But it was still fun to think about growing up....
When she finally found the guys she cringes a little seeing Jack with them. "Hi guys. Quick question, not related to work. Do any of you know how to play an instrument, or sing? Tarjun, Clara and I are making some instruments for us. Once we get them made I was thinking maybe we could work together to make some music? Maybe an hour or so down by the pond? We won't be any good at first, but maybe with some practice.... ?"
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In Tarjun's humble opinion - which is, of course, completely right and devoid of any bias - Clara takes so long fetching the sewing kit, she might as well have taken a dozen laps around the entire village.
"Finally!" he exclaims when she reappears. "So, how do we do this? Can I help out sewing stuff on the skin, or no?"
"You can try. Make the ring, check that it is the right size for your bucket. Then you carefully cut the fur an inch larger than the ring and sew the ring in."
"You'll need a sharp knife and don't you dare cut into my table."
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"Sure, I'll do it. Don't cha worry, Mrs. Johnson!" Tarjun answers with forced cheer, and his smile fades a little. For all his bravado, he has absolutely zero doubts that Gertrud is one to carry a threat to term.
Making the ring is the easy part, which is saying something consider how much trouble Tarjun has to go through to saw off the branch until it's the right size for the bucket, then to actually make it fit the damn thing. There is a universal law that for any troublesome DIY, one's language must devolve into the vulgar, and it's quite lucky that Tarjun's parents are not nearby or he would have had his ear tugged a dozen times.
Then it's time for the sewing, which necessitates calling Clara back so she can actually contribute to making her own drum. Tarjun's help might generously be called coarse work - but at least it does the job.
Making instruments, at it turns out, is a lot harder than Tarjun thought, if it involves more steps than simply taking a piece of wood and carving it into a shape suitable for producing notes if you blow air into it.
He takes a step back to admire their work. Somehow, he doubts it belongs on the world's greatest stages. "Look at that, it ain't bad!" he exclaims, ever the optimist. "At least for a first try. Wanna try to play on it?" Perhaps he won't even need earplugs.
Clara reluctantly takes the ring and the fur and as Tarjun is not willing or able to sew, she tries it herself.
This doesn't work out too great but surprisingly Tarjun's 'helpful comments' and him holding the piece in place make it work out half decent.
When that finally is done with quite some pricking fingers clara cuts a small triangle out of the rim every inch. Getting the twig ring out isn't easy, but once it is done the twine goes in to tie the fur to the bucket and put some tension on it. The pattern of the twine looks chaotic at the sides and the wild crossing at the bottom looks concerning in regards to the durability of this 'instrument'. But for now it holds and slapping the thing with the hand makes a sound. Not like a big war drum or to bully galley slaves, more the sound to drive a household crazy with persistance.
Clara beating the drum sounds surprisingly good. A nice rythm and precisely in time.
"Nah, I'm good. I don't need another hobby."
Jewel feels a little disappointed that the guys were too busy to talk, but accepts it. Maybe Dwayne has given them more strict rules recently?
She has finished what she wanted to do with the saplings and returns to see what progress has been made with Clara's drum. She slows down a bit as she gets in range of the drumming sounds. Maybe Mrs. Johnson was right and they should practice a mile or more away from the farms so they weren't upsetting any animals.
She alters course to chat with the chickens. Activating her feral speech hex she calls out, "Hi girls. Are you all OK? That pounding isn't too scary is it? It's just Clara. And the piping sounds are Tarjun. No danger."
"We need to simplify that. Only one string, and to change the tone you have to shorten the string with your finger on the board it is mounted."
Hearing the end of the conversation as she approaches the pair Jewel smiles.
"Yes, of course I was working with the trees. None of the guys were talking though. Maybe Dwayne told them not to?"
"Anyway. A simple instrument would probably be best. Something easy to make and for Tarjun to teach me. Maybe a pan pipe? Or something like what you play? You can teach me, right?"
"And I'll ask Chirp to sing along with us...."
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Making flutes start to look like it's going to become a serious hobby for Tarjun.
He takes his time crafting the instrument, and he has enough experience to make not merely a decent pan flute, but one that also looks nice. It's easy enough to carve Jewel's name on it as well as a little rendition of Chirp without damaging it.
"Jewel! Try it out!"
Jewel watches as Tarjun carves the pipes. At first she's curious, but gets bored after a while. She glances over at Clara, surprised that she was patiently waiting. Maybe she really did want to make music? But the drum wouldn't be musical.... It was more for keeping time. Wasn't there a drum that made different pitch sounds?
When Tarjun was done with the pan flute she takes it almost reverently. He had really done a great job. She calls Chirp down so show her the little carving of the bird. Chirp lightly pecked at it.... "See Chrip. That's a pretty good picture of you!"
Clara calls for her to 'Try it out' and Jewel nervously moves the pipes to her lips. What if the sounds she makes is just raucous noise!?!
At first there is little more than the noise of her blowing on the pipes. She tries to get the angle right, the correct amount of air blown across the pipes, or through them....
"Thank you Tarjun! Obviously I need a lot of practice...."
Jewel listens to Tarjun's tune with a wary glance at her pipes. She considers the different pitches with Tarjun's finger positions. Maybe?
She has trouble keeping up but doesn't get too many notes wrong. Chirp joins in, matching Jewels performance.... "Chirp. Sing to match Tarjun's music. I'm just learning so I'm making mistakes...."
"Who is butchering music with my instrument?" a man asks that looks like he had a goat in his family tree. All below the belly is like goat, horns like a goat, a goatee and a lack of pants - face, trunk and arms look human. Save the ears, that remond more of elf. The upper half is also lacking clothes.
But at least his facial expressions seem easy enough to read and show something between disgust and anger. It is not clear how he appeared behind you unnoticed.
Not recognizing the voice Jewel spins around. Obviously holding the pipes she just looks at the strange, man? "Ah. Me? I'm trying to learn how to play them. My brother just made them for me, but I'm afraid.... I mean, obviously I need time to learn them."
Assuming the creature is magical, since he just 'appeared', Jewel loses a bit of her concern. "I'm Jewel. My brother there is Tarjun. And our friend is Clara. What should we call you?"
"Are you a Satyr?"
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Tarjun startles, and turns around to face the man. He stares him in the face. It's safer than letting his gaze travel down.
"Hey - it really wasn't bad for a complete beginner!" Startled as he is, Tarjun isn't going to let anyone trash talk his sister and steal his Big Brother Privilege. "Also, where are your clothes?!"
He reaches for his club. There was only one way to deal with strange men approaching kids in the woods with no pants on - goat legs or not. He couldn't run, but he could distract him while the girls fled.
Jewel steps in front of Tarjun hoping to stop any trouble. "Tarjun! Stop. We don't know him. Maybe that's normal for him.... You don't always wear a shirt. And clothing over fur might be strange."
Jewel recalls that those fey are called satyr or faun.
The faun chuckles at Tarjun's prude objections. He bows. "I'm Zephyrus, a faun." He takes out his panpipes and plays a catchy song.
It's a music so enchanting, you've never heard anything like this. The wonderful sound fills the whole area, with floating layers of notes as if several musicians would play with him.
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"Okay, yeah, you're really good at this," Tarjun admits, lowering his club a bit reluctantly. Something vaguely buzzes in his ears, like an annoying fly - but he ignores it. He's too busy trying to keep track of the faun's fingers on the flute to memorize the melody to notice anything else.
"We're actually trying to be a band - but you're more or less a band on your own! How'd you do the thing where it sounds like there's several flutes playin' at the same time?"
Jewel feels a tug to do something totally wrong for her. She struggles with the impulse but stops before she embarrassed herself.
"Good to meet you Zephyrus. Are you traveling? We've never seen you, or any of your kind before."
"Tarjun is right. That music was great. It did sound almost like there were more players than just you. Do you teach how to play the pipes?"