"Let's not go overboard here." Gertrud warns. "How about you ask about some lessons about Erastil first and see if it is indeed necessary to tell Will and Shelly the details of this little adventure here. Or if that job, that was just until now in the hands of pretty dead people can be done by kids just fine without parental involvement."
Jewel turns and stares at the scepter for a moment then nods. "Mom and Dad will be happy that we want to learn, and I like learning. If it is important for us to learn about Erastil then we will learn. And we can learn about the job of caring for the shrine."
"That's wonderful. You'll be a good guardian." the ghost tells. Then he is sucked back into the sarcophagus and is gone.
Jewel smiles at the compliment until the ghost is sucked into his sarcophagus. Once he is gone she turns to the others. She hands the scepter to Clara, "Well, I guess we've got our work cut out for us. Clara, if you get a chance could you examine the scepter and see what kind of magic is on it? Tarjun, you and I need to go and talk with Mom and Dad, see what we can learn about Erastil...."
"Yes!!! Learn about Erastil. He is MUCH cooler than that silly butterfly!! He hunts and uses a bow and everything! But I don't want to hurt moms feelings"
"Guardians of the woods? That sounds really, really great. And I'd like to learn something about Erastil. Uh, if thats ok with you Mom? I mean, I'm sure he isn't as good as Desna but he does sound ok"
Clara looks at the scepter and waves it around, until suddenly a burst of flames comes out of it. Luckily not into the group but into the wall, singing only a few hairs of Jewel.
Clara turns beet red. "I think I found what it does."
"CLARA! Be careful where you point that!" Gertrud shouts.
Once she calms down she answers Tobar. "There is nothing wrong about learning about the gods. You should know them all. And if only to know which ones to avoid."
Jewel ducks when Clara sends a blast of flames from the scepter. "That would be useful to know if we have to defend the shrine, or the woods from something, but maybe for now just look to not activate any powers when you don't want to. Since we're not telling anyone else about this, maybe you should find a safe place at your home to keep it? Your mom already knows about it so you don't have to hide it from her!"
Once she gets home Jewel (and Tarjun?) burst in on their parents. "Mom. Dad. While we were playing with Tobar and Clara we got to talking. You know that crypt that the gobbers broke open? Wasn't it some shrine to a god or something like that? We want to know more, about it and the gods. Tobar mentions Desna sometimes and wasn't the shrine to Erastil? Do we have any books to read on them?"
Shelly is taken by surprise by this sudden interest in the gods. "We have the book somewhere." she tells, looking around if something makes her remember where it is.
"I think it is under the small table next to our bed." Will chimes in. He walks over to the bedroom and returns a moment later. He dusts the book off. "The Parables of Erastil. It was a gift from your grandmother. Before you get it you have to calm down, wash your hands and sit down."
He checks that the table is clean and places the book on it.
To adventurous kids all this emphasis on the community, honest work and agriculture is booooring. Hunting and tracking is a more interesting read. The beaty of those texts is in the eye of the beholder.
Clara can easily read between the lines of Tobar's sorry excuse for a bluff. "My mom is the best mom ever, and if my mom chooses Desna, then she is the best goddess ever!"
Once the other kids ran to learn something about Erastil Clara asks her mom "Why do we have Desna?"
Gertrud sits down on the meadows between the woods and the village with Clara. "Erastil is the god to go for communities like Oakstead. He has all the important rules to follow, the knowledge and blessings for farmers and hunters - he is a good and lawful god. He is all what these people need to survive and live a happy life with what little they have."
"But that wasn't enough for me. I wanted freedom. I wanted to run into the night and enjoy the stars. Not going to bed to be ready for work the next day. I didn't care for the rules, if there was an adventure to find or fun to be had, I would go."
"I don't like the limitation a life in such a village enough to praise Erastil about it. Choosing the freedom of Desna over the following of rules from Erastil is my little rebellion. Even though I follow the rules most of the time anyway, out of sheer necessity."
"But only most of the time." she adds with a smirk.
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Tarjun looks over Jewel's shoulder as they flip through the book, but grows disinterested pretty quickly. All that emphasis on community and
rabbiting about following the rules clearly is not for him.
Besides, hunting is dumb and trees are better to climb on anyway.
"Gods sound like a bore," he grumbles, letting his thoughts drift away to more exciting adventures, like chasing off gobboes with sling and staff, hiding from his enemies in the foliage, carving wood while lying on a branch, getting his food from berries and drinking straight from the streams...
That sounded a lot more fun than Erastil's dogma.
"I don't think I understand. I mean, obviously I want adventures and to travel and dance under the stars. But surely the hunt and the farms are what keeps us alive. If following the rules keeps people alive then surely we should follow those rules, at least?"
"Ask yourself a simple question. This stupid adventure for the scepter. Did you want to come along, or would you rather have stayed at home?" Gertrud asks.
"Because it was totally against the rules, and a faithful follower of Erastil in your position would have stayed at home and left that job to those better fitted to it."
"The question isn't if the rules are good - they definitely are. The question is if you always WANT to follow those rules. And I don't."
Once Jewel is cleaned up sufficient for her father she settles down to read. Some of the text is dry. Some of it is REALLY dry, and boring, but through it all Jewel feels a connection. The rules, procedures, homilies and lore are all focused on a strong community and strong families. While Jewel had lied, many times, she had also felt very uncomfortable doing it. On the occasions when she had to, she had known that the truth would cause problems.... But she still knew what the truth was.
She hardly notices when Tarjun leaves, but does note his comment about gods sounding boring. She knows him too well to even consider arguing and just continues reading, even forcing herself to work through the truly boring parts and commit as much as she can to memory. When her parents stop her (for supper, chores, or whatever) she asks if there are other books about other gods. "I'm just curious, and knowing about them is the best way to not be fooled by someone preaching lies!"
"Books are expensive. We are no library." Will answers. "Why that sudden interest in Gods?" he asks wondering.
Jewel thinks about her dad's question and is glad when Tarjun gives a quick answer, giving her more time to reflect. "Well, I didn't really think about it before, but with the incident with the gobber and it breaking that grave open.... And other than it being really ugly to us that gobber was human shaped. I mean, I just wondered about other people and how they live and what they believe and things." She hesitates for just a second, thinking about who has been told what over the past couple of days. "I mean, that gobber cut into our chicken coop and killed some of our chickens. And I've known all of them since they were just hatched! But he wasn't just hungry, he was killing them to take the bones and make things from them."
"Mrs. Johnson said that gobbers are dangerous and they eat kids. But that gobber wasn't any bigger than us. He was stupid to attack us since there was only one of him and four of us, and Brina, but he must have thought he was stronger. I mean, we were a little hurt, but he ended up dead! And why did he think that there would be treasure buried with a dead person? Do some people waste valuable stuff and bury it with dead bodies?"
"I don't really know, but thinking about it has just given me more questions! And that shrine in the woods, you know, where the gobber broke in. That was to Erastil wasn't it? Why doesn't anyone take care of it now? Maybe when we're done with our chores we should go out there and pull some weeds too?"
"If reading this makes you want to do more weeding, then keep on reading. Erastil appreciates honest work. And so do I." will tells and pats Jewel on the back. "But I still have no other book for you. Maybe ask the Johnson's."
"But I for sure don't know what's going on the the head of those green little monsters."
"No, I wanted to come along on this adventure. It was fun! But it was also very scary. We DID follow the rules when we came to you and told you about it.
Are you telling me to NOT follow the rules?"
"You go with the Branston kids and learn about those rules. Seems to be your thing." Gertrud jokes. Yeah, sure. I'm not going to answer you that one. she thinks.
"If Erastil is all about rules, and following him is about learnign the rules and following them, what is Desna about then?" Clara asks. "No rules?"
"It's about being yourself. Enjoying your life. Where Erastil has a big book of dos and don'ts, Desna has the eight scrolls. It's some history about the early days of Desna. And the fifth scroll is aobu the behaviour of mortals. But there are many interpretations of that and almost all of those interpretations are fine. It's really hard to start an argument with a follower of Desna about right or wrong about the texts."
"As for rules, you follow your own and you change them as you see fit. Just don't be evil."
"Wow, Desna sounds like much more fun. I should follow Desna"
"Wow, Desna sounds like a REAL flake. How can you leave important things like that to interpretation? And some rules are necessary. That is what papa says and I think he's right."
Jewel closes the book on Erastil and steps away. "I can read more on this later. I'll be very careful with the pages. But Tarjun, let's go over to the Johnson's. I know Clara had mentioned something about a book she was reading. Something about the best of times.... I think it was just a story for fun reading. But they might have something about other gods. At the least I think I heard something about Desna?"
"Dad, What time do we need to be back?"
"Before it gets dark." Will answers Jewel.
"Let's go inside. I'm hungry." Gertrud tells as she gets up from the grass.
Once they are away and far enough along to be sure that they can't be heard Jewel smiles at Tarjun's question. "Yes. I know there are powers above any of us. Clara and I get our magic from a patron. You have magic that comes from somewhere. None of us a wizards, studying spells in some wizard college. I'd just like to know more."
"But really, when I was reading that I did feel something of a connection. You know I hate lying, but we've had to do a lot of it lately. We had to lie to help the ghost, and even Gertrud said we shouldn't tell everything to our parents. That's a lie of omission.... I'm just not sure how it all works though. You know sometimes telling the truth can be hurtful and mean, and that's just evil. But when is it right to lie and when is it wrong to tell the truth? I'm hoping that learning more about how gods are I can understand the rules better. You know you can't win a game if you don't know all of the rules!"
Listening in on the two as they approach Gertrud comments. "There comes another follower of Erastil - always about knowing and following the rules."
"To win a game, you need to know what it takes to win. You don't have to obey the rules."
Jewel laughs at Gertrud having over-heard her words and commenting. "But you are making my argument for me. Knowing what rules you CAN break to win is a rule! Even if it isn't a written rule, and that is why I'm having trouble understanding them. Or maybe that's an instruction, but that's just another kind of rule!"
"I asked our parents and they have one book, The Parables of Erastil. It is interesting to me, even the boring stuff, but it makes me curious. I want more to read. Clara talked about a book that you have, not about Desna but a story about somebody called, Ismael I think. I'd like to try and read that someday if you don't mind? And if you have a book about Desna or any other gods.... Getting away from the farm has gotten me thinking and I just want to know about what is, well, not here. But I know the world is too dangerous for us kids to just wander around."
"As for Erastil, I would like to clean up that shrine and see if there is more there. The old guardian stayed there a lot of years, probably more than I've lived, so I'd like to know more about him. And the ghost seemed happy knowing we would take care of the area. Seems strange to me that he asked a group of kids, rather than our parents. Maybe learning more about him I can understand why."
"Maybe it's more about knowing than just about following rules. I want to know.... everything!"
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"Not sure ye can go all philosophical 'bout ghosties and gobboes and tiny gobboes ridin' giant ants underground," Tarjun argues, although he seemed pretty detached from the conversation so far. "Ain't gonna be no rules 'bout life, and I ain't trust in no God just 'cause they want me to. And ye ain't gonna learn everythin' in a book," he adds, patting his stiff leg with his staff. "'Cause the doctors never agreed on this. I dunno where it came from," he shrugs. "But it ain't gonna bother me, 'cause I can still do stuff -and if nothin''s gonna make sense anyway, better roll with it and adapt than lookin' for rules that maybe ain't gonna help you much."
"You can visit us and read the book. It's about travelling the sea and hunting whales." Gertrud tells.
"But about Desna you'd be done quickly. It's only eight scrolls. And they are an entertaining read."
"But the ghost ex-guardian is a wise man. Because a strict follower of rules would never make a good leader."
"But as you're all so set on the importance of rules, I'll give it another try to explain it to you. Not following rules, doesn't mean you don't follow anything. I have principles. A rule is for example: Thou shall not work on Sundays. A principle would be: you need time without work to recover every now and then. A day per week is a good measure."
"One gives you strict orders to follow. The other leaves you all the freedom. But as a result we both sit on the porch on Sundays and enjoy our day off. Only when there is a reason to shift the day off to Monday, you'll see the difference."
"You're a kid. You need rules. Though I wonder why you all want rules. That's not kid-like at all. But the more you know and the more experience you've got in life, the less you need them. You know what will happen when you do or don't do things and can make your own decisions. You need no one else to make your decisions for you anymore."
"Because that's what rules are. Other people making your decisions."
"I'm not going to say anything but mom is wrong. SOME rules are good. I want mom to follow the rules where she has to feed us and protect us. I want dad to follow the rules where he has to be nice to us. I don't want Gobbos to come rob us. If we don't follow the rules, how can we expect THEM to?"
"Ok, all that talking won't help with my hunger. I'm going to make supper now." Gertrud walks to the house and into the kitchen and puts bread, cheese, ham, dried sausages and apples on the table. And a bottle of beer. "This is only for grown ups. That's the rule." She says with a wink.
Jewel smiles when Gertrud goes in. She decides to find time to read the scrolls, and maybe the book later. She wonders about what other sources might be available around the town, but ultimately figures that she may have to wait until she grows up and can travel to a city.
"Tarjun, some people just like telling others what to do regardless of whether or not they are botherin' anyone because they can. Parents make rules for children mostly for good reasons, to keep them safe, to have them eat when a meal is ready, and stuff like that. But some people just like bossing others around. They do whatever they can to get a position of authority."
"THAT, more than anything else is a good reason for knowing the rules. I don't WANT any more rules than we already have. But if you know that someone is exceeding the rules you can ignore their orders and make your own decisions."
With that decided Jewel grins at Tobar and Clara as well as Tarjun, "Dad said we have to be home before dark. That doesn't give much time, but do you want to play anything before we have to go?"
While Jewel continues to discuss rules, Clara thinks she has learned enough about freedom today to break a rule. She sneaks the bottle of beer off the table and silently opens the bottle top.
Looking around she checks if someone noticed and proceeds to poor something in her wooden cup. Before someone could hinder her, she takes a large gulp from it.
Freedom isn't as sweet as she expected it to be.
With her face distorted by the bitter taste, she forces herself to swallow and slowly puts the bottle back to its place.
"There are different kinds of people who like rules. People that need safety, and don't like surprises. People that use the rules to get power over others. Rules are also very convenient, if they are good. You don't have to find the best solution yourself, but can simply rely on what people before you found out to work best. Also you can always put the blame on the ones making the rules if it doesn't work out." Gertrud replies over a bite of bread.
A grin sneaks onto her face as she sees Clara try out the beer. "And it saves you from the consequences you have to bear from making decisions for your own. Be they sweet or bitter."
Tobar just keeps his mouth shut. Obviously, his mom is just flat out WRONG. But he doesn't want to get in trouble by pointing that out.
He sees Clara try the beer and only just manages to stop from laughing.
"Yeah, I think I'll just follow the rules. At least, the ones that I think are good ones"
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Tarjun sees Clara taking a gulp from a bottle and wincing, which piques his curiosity.
"What? It ain't good?"
Not waiting for an answer, he decides to sneakily try for himself.
He takes a single sip which instantly burns his mouth and his throat. He struggles not to cough it out, and, like Clara, immediately puts the bottle back into place.
Erk! That's gotta be some grown-up juice. Maybe that's what they give kids before they become adults...
Suddenly scared of having drunk a magical potion that is going to rob him of his childhood forever, Tarjun swears to himself to stay the heck away from alcohol in the future.
Gertrud grabs the bottle, assesses the remaining content and pours herself a mug. "To everyone his own." she tells and empties half the mug. "Refreshing." she comments on putting the mug down.
"Ok, new rule: All kids have to prepare themselves for bed to be ready for bed one hour after sunset. Then they'll report to me and go to bed. The rule is effective immediately." Gertrud tells, to get some gain out of the newfound love for rules of some of her kids.
"That's totally mean! I'm not doing this!" Clara protests, crossing her arms in front of her.