Clara takes off her pants, throws them away and jumps happily over the meadow.
"That's not for beginners. You need to learn how to make it not sound like screeching nails on a blackboard." Zephyrus is a great critic but no teacher.
"We have a celebration in the woods. Wanna come? I can introduce you to the gal that teaches the kids."
Jewel grabs Clara's pants and chases after her. "Clara! Put your pants back on. You shouldn't be running around like that in front of Tarjun, or Zephyrus. What would your mother think!?!"
Jewel calls back to Zephyrus, "We probably should tell our parents before we go wandering off in the woods. If we get lost again and don't return for several days they'd be upset. Tarjun? Can you go tell them, and Mrs. Johnson. I've gotta catch Clara before she runs over to the lumberjacks and embarrasses herself in from of Jack!"
"Clara! You can't go flying away half-naked!"
"I'm not gonna be oppressed by your cultural norms anymore! Free the butts from the tyranny of pants!"
You're not sure if she is actually under the influence of magic. But it definitely doesn't brush her the wrong way.
She keeps running in circles to stay ahead of Jewel.
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"A celebration? I didn't know there were celebrations in there. You mean, with villagers or - er, people who look kinda like you...?" Tarjun gestures vaguely at Zephyrus' lower body.
"We probably should tell our parents before we go wandering off in the woods. If we get lost again and don't return for several days they'd be upset. Tarjun? Can you go tell them, and Mrs. Johnson. I've gotta catch Clara before she runs over to the lumberjacks and embarrasses herself in from of Jack!"
"Righto - you tackle her and put her pants back on, I'll tell Ma and Pa and Mrs Johnson we're off playing!"
Tarjun sets off to the village. He doesn't really try to hide the truth from Mrs Johnson; somehow, something tells him she's seen and heard far worse than some dude with goat legs inviting kids into the woods to party hard and learn how to play the flute.
Figuring out what to say to his own parents is a little bit harder. Somehow, he doesn't think the same story would quite cut it, especially if it's followed by something along the lines of "don't come for us, unless we disappear for a couple of days!" He just pretends the lumberjacks have invited them over for a party after Jewel helped them mark the trees. A single grain of truth doesn't make it a complete lie.
"Go have fun." is the short reply Tarjun gets from his father.
"You going alone into the woods to a faun celebration? Forget it, I'm coming along." Gertrud replies and drops everything.
get over here stat, we're going into the woods with the kids."
Jewel slows down when she realizes that she isn't going to catch Clara and get her to put her pants back on. She continues following her, watching to try and keep her out of trouble. She's tempted to throw her pants in a mud puddle, but doesn't see one....
"Zephyrus? How far is it to your party? We need to wait for Tarjun.... I think I see him. ??" In the distance she also notices Clara's parents. Should she warn Clara? Suggest that she get dressed? Hmm....
"Hi Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Johnson. Um. Here. I couldn't stop Clara to get her to put these back on. She's, that way." She just points.
Gertrud ignores the kids for now and approaches the Faun. "Hello. I'm Gertrud and this is Randolph. I hear there is a celebration. Does the invitation extend to us too?"
"I'm Zephyrus, and yes, the more the merrier." The faun points his hand in the general direction and leads the way.
Once on the way Gertrud takes Clara's pants off Jewel and inquires from Tarjun "You told your parents too? And they agreed that you go there?"
"And what besides the usual curiosity that kills the cat is your reason to go there?"
Jewel walks along with Mrs. Johnson. ”Tarjun told our parents. I was trying to get Clara to put her pants back on. She, uh, well she said that she wasn’t going to be oppressed by cultural norms anymore and to free the butts from the tyranny of pants. She glances ahead at Clara. ”I’m not sure what she meant. She’s not normally….”
”Reason? Well, Zephyrus said he was going to introduce us to someone that teaches kids how to play the pipes. I tried…. Well, I wasn’t any good, but I told him I had just started learning. He played his pipes. It was, enchanting!?! I mean really good! And he said there was a celebration in the woods.”
”Is he a Satyr? He says he’s a faun. Are fauns dangerous? He seems friendly.”
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Once on the way Gertrud takes Clara's pants off Jewel and inquires from Tarjun "You told your parents too? And they agreed that you go there?"
"Sure thing!" Tarjun answers confidently. "They said we could party."
He's not telling the whole truth.
"Yeah, Zephyrus can play mean music! And he said someone over there could teach us how to play too."
"And I've never been to a party with fauns - or satyrs, whatever. Could be fun!!"
Gertrud's face shows a mix of surprise and appreciation for Erastil's farmer's open mindedness.
"It's more or less just different names for the same thing. And no, fauns are not dangerous, as long as you are no woman or keep your pants on. Otherwise you might find yourself pregnant giving birth to a halfgoat that they then come to collect."
"But they sure know how to party!"
"Well, we're about to find out, aren't we?" Gertrud replies with a smirk and a wink.
Jewel hears the discussion, the subject is.... "Pregnant? No! But we're just little.... That's not possible. I've seen the animals. But we're not adult! Um. Maybe we shouldn't?"
Clara stops her bouncing around. "Pregnant with a faun? Do baby fauns have horns too?"
"I thinks it's fun having a baby. And as Tarjun doesn't want to be my husband, maybe I'll find one there."
Gertrud gets a nervous twitch in her left eye. The core element of her faith "to each their own" gets put to the test here. She's too young to get pregnant anyway. she tries to calm herself down.
Zephyrus leads you deep into the woods where they are dense and dark even when the sun is shining in a blue sky. While marching through the trees protecting your face with your arms from the branches in the way you hear faint pipe music in the distance. Following that sound you finally you reach a clearing with a bonfire in the center, but even there with no trees blocking the sun the place isn't properly lit. Maybe magical darkness?
Around the fire a feast is going on. Furs are laid out and bowls with all kind of food are all over the place. Grapes, apples, pears and other less common fruits. Peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and others you don't recognize. And wineskins.
At first glance you see about a dozen people celebrate. Three stunningly beattiful women, five satyrs trying to charm them and four satyr younglings staring. And all of them follow the no pants, no shirt rule.
"Boah! Nymphs!" Clara states eyes wide, mouth open.
"Feel free to get yourself rid of excess clothing." Zephyrus suggests (in a non-magical way) and moves over to help out the nymph that has only one suitor.
"Sorry, the pipe teacher is busy at the moment." he calls back.
Gertrud and Randolph sit down on a fur and start feeding each other with the offered fruits.
Jewel grits her teeth at Clara's comments. Hadn't she ever watched a birth? They both lived on farms and there were animals other than just the chickens. And even the chickens.... The hens sometimes struggled to pass an egg! Jewel had watched lots of wild animals and assumed it was similar for humans. Considering the size of a human baby it couldn't be easy or painless....
She glances at Gertrud but just keeps her mouth shut. They were too little to get pregnant, now. but they were too close to be so clueless!
With the invite to shed clothing Jewel gets more uncomfortable. She looks around at the fey creatures, nymphs and others and sits down quietly. She does reach for a couple of the ripe fruits, but only just barely nibbles. Looking at Tarjun she sees that he isn't quite so reserved. Maybe she should leave so he could enjoy the nymphs? Had he actually told their parents? What had he actually told their parents?
She realizes that she has very little appetite.
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With adolescence comes a basic survival instinct - call it social policing, or merely self-preservation. What Tarjun confusedly understands at this moment is that his trousers are, in fact, an important barrier that he should part with at no cost, if he is to avoid the kind of burning shame that will haunt him for life.
"I'm good, thanks," he shakes his head.
Clara considers the offer as she is halfway there already but another question quickly arises in her mind and pours out of her gaping mouth "What are we supposed to do here?"
Until now there was a gap in Clara's imagination between goats making babies - which she has witnessed - and humans making babies. But those Satyrs wooing nymphs leave little to the imagination and the closing of that gap makes her shudder. "Can I please have my pants back?"
"It's dangerous behaviour. If they start that at home they disappear in their bedroom, lock the door, and then make funny noises." Clara comments. "But here are no doors to lock."
As Tarjun pipes loudly over the perfect music two of the satyrs perform a painful expression appears on most faces.
Zephyrus interrupts his care for the nymph and turns to one of the staring younglings. "You go take those kids somewhere else and show them how to properly play the pipes."
The youngling isn't happy about being robbed of this entertainment, but obeys. The youngling that is about Clara's size comes scuffling over, grabs Tarjun at his arm and drags him away into the woods.
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"Wait. You're gonna teach us? I thought the music teacher was, like, the lady over there. You look like us kids...! You look young, I mean. Not speaking about the goat legs. Although it definitely gives you a style," Tarjun's babbling gets fainter and fainter as he is dragged away. It doesn't sound like it's stopping, though.
Clara shrugs and follows Tarjun. "Everything's better than staying here and waiting for things to happen."
Jewel scrambles to her feet and quickly follows after Tarjun. They'd been offended by his music? What chance did she have, unless she got really lucky and 'accidentally played the right notes....
"I'm coming!"
The youngling stops at a nice place where the ground is all mossy and a fallen trunk offers itself as a seat. He sits down, gets out his pan flute and plays the same melody the grown up Satyrs played. Not with the same magic of sounding like an orchestra of flutes, but without errors and sounding perfect. "See, that's how it's done. Now you."
Jewel sits down nervously and takes out the Pan flute that Tarjun had made. "I'll try. But I just got this today and never played any music before...."
She stops after barely more than a few notes. "Tarjun is much better. Not as good as you though."
"Gaaah!" the youngling covers his ears. "Where did you get that garbage flute. And how do you play so wrong on a pan flute? This is torture! From what hell did you all crawl out?"
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Jewel stops and hides the little instrument. "I'm sorry. It's not the flute. It's me. I just don't know how to play it! Tarjun is better. He's played for people before. He actually got some to pay him money for his music."
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Even Tarjun can't help but contort his face in an embarrassed grimace as his sister plays what must be the worst possible tune he's ever heard. It's ear-splitting. He finds himself unconciously gritting his teeth through it.
"Yeah, I wasn't at my best last time, but I ain't a complete beginner!" He tries to salvage the situation by giving a demonstration.
There's no way that someone at least a little trained in playing the flute could reproduce what Jewel just did - even by accident. Still, perhaps she popped his eardrum a bit - because it's quite obviously off-key.
Not that she would notice.
"Why did you show up in the woods? Were you exiled from your village for your music? Gimme that."
The youngling grabs the pan flute from Jewel and plays some notes on it. Only to hand it back in disgust. "You hear that? It's off key. Not that it matters much for what you're doing to it. But that is unusable."
Offering his instrument to Tarjun he comments "Your flute is the same. Whoever sold you this should be drowned in the next river. Try mine. You're at least skilled enough that I can hope you're not going to spit into it."
Jewel accepts the pan flute back but her face brightens with the question. "Well, we're hear because we need help. And obviously I need more than just about anyone."
"We want to be able to play music. And Zephyrus?" She hopes that she is saying the name correctly. No need to add more insults! "He said that a really good music instructor here might be able to help us. I know we can't ever be as good as you. But I'd like to be a little less terrible!?!"
"I'd like to be able to play with my familiar. but she doesn't even like the sounds that I make...." She mentally calls Chirp down to her shoulder. "See? She was keeping her distance until I stopped." She activates her feral speech hex. "Sorry I play so poorly. I'm asking the girl here to help.
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Tarjun's face falls. "Hey, I made those flutes and they ain't too bad!" Still, he's not too blindly devoted to his creations to let go of an opportunity to play such a well-crafted instrument.
It does sound... Marginally better. But only marginally. Clearly he has little technic beyond the basics. "Like this?"
"At least it doesn't hurt my ears anymore. For it to become enjoyable you need to practice a lot more."
The youngling actually takes the time to explain to Tarjun what to look for, how to properly blow into the flute, explains the nuances of tone when changing the angle and pressure of the airflow. He can't instill the magic that is innate to him, but proper technique improves Tarjun's play quite a bit.
Lastly he helps Tarjun to properly tune the pan flute for Jewel, but he makes sure, Jewel doesn't get her hands on it to make those horrible sounds again. "Proper length of the inner hole, sharp edges, not rounded." he explains.
"For your flute it is hard. If the hole is drilled a little too far down, maybe you can fix it by making it a bit larger. If it is too far up, you're out of luck." He continues to explain something about wavelength and how that translates to drill positions for the flute, but without a degree in engineering, that is hard to follow.
Then he plays some music together with Tarjun showing off his skills, but also correcting Tarjun here and there until he plays a proper basic melody worthy of a satyr improvising over.
Jewel and Clara get the feeling that females are only considered an audience in satyr culture. Or Jewel ruined it for all girls with this youngling.