The bear indulges on the tiny piece of meat Clara throws in and then intently listens to Jewel. Once she is finished and waits for his answer, Paddington makes happy bear noises and dances in circles. "<Yes, yes, yes.>"
Jewel notices that speaking with animals is nice, but only of limited helpfulness, if your counterpart has a vocabulary of ten, maybe twenty words.
Jewel smiles at Paddington's antics. Hearing Tarjun's question she thinks for a moment. "I don't know, but I don't think so. A mama knows her cubs, and the cubs know their mama. But I don't think they really have a language like we do. Their lives are pretty simple. Hunt, eat, sleep.... Hunt and eat a lot before they hibernate. Pretty simple! I think Paddington is happy with his name because he hadn't really thought about a name before. Maybe names are more of a people thing."
She turns back toward the house. "I guess I'll go back in to help clean up, like I said I would. You want to stay out here with Clara?"
Clara tugs Tarjun at his sleeve. "We may have lost her to the adults already." she tells with sad eyes.
"Haha, no! Let's let the dogs out!"
"and the bears!" Clara replies jumping around and openeing the kennels with the dangerous beasts.
Wookie knows the routine and starts chasing Clara. Paddington likes the game, but he likes Jewel better and gallops into the house after her.
Paddington overtakes Jewel and goes straight for the meat on the table. Until a gaze from Gertrud makes him freeze in place and then turn around and flee the house again.
Paddingtion frolics around a bit with Wookie and the kids. But then he suddenly stops and after a moment he leaves for the woods at top speed.
"Fumblesticks! Wookie come, we need to follow Paddinton!" Clara calls the dog and runs after the bear.
After running for a while Clara catches up with Paddington. He sits under a tree, where an owl that has a larger body than Clara is fighting a marten. Tarjun also joins while the fight is still ongoing. The fight is very onesided, but the marten doesn't give up easily. Until it notices more and more humans join there. Then it quickly retreats to another branch, and over to another tree, and out of sight.
The owl doesn't look well. It seems to be malnourished. Wirh the marten gone, it checks on the nest, and then stares with it's motionless eyes at the new dangers, that have moved into proximity of the nest. It swoops down from the tree, flying an attack with its sharp claws to scare the humans away. But it avoids the bear and the dog.
Shocked by the bear being released and following her in to the house Jewel calls out to Paddington, telling him to quit and get out before he is in trouble. When Gertrud takes control and directs the bear back out she apologizes and runs after him.
Once she catches up with Tarjun she stays with him, in case he needs any help.
When they arrive by the fighting birds Jewel is in shock at how furious the birds are. It takes several seconds to remember her ability. Then she activates her Feral Speech to speak with birds and calls out "Stop! Please! Stop fighting!"
Seeing the owl start an attack she speaks directly to it. "Please stop! We don't want to hurt you. Just help. You look.... hungry. How can we help?"
Are martens normally aggressive against owls? Really big owls?
And is the nest the right size for such a huge owl?
The owl lands on the nest again and oglesthe collected party with registering any move. It cries aout an angry hoot.
After ducking from the attack and stepping closer to paddington Clara asks "That's a cool bird. Can that be our pet too?"
Hearing the command Jewel nods and replies. "Yes. We will leave."
To the others, "The owl is saying to go away. I think it, I mean she, has eggs in the nest and is guarding them. Everyone please back away slowly." She thinks for a moment on what owls might eat, and what they can carry. "Fish! Maybe we can get Paddington to help catch a fish to bring back here. I'll tell her that we'll come back later with a fish for her. She looks starved!"
Jewel stops in place as the others back away. "We're leaving. But we'd like to help you. We're going to try and catch a fish for you to eat. When we return we'll just bring the fish to this point and leave it for you. Then we'll leave again."
The owl stares back, but doesn't reply.
~~~~~~~~
"A giant owl you say? How big we're talking?" Gertrud asks with a worried look. On more precise meassurements she relaxes and inquires "A great horned owl maybe?"
"Fish isn't a bad idea. You can take Paddington along. He could be helpful if you can persuade him to share some fish. If not, catch some yourself. There is twine in the drawer. Tie an arrow to it and shoot youself some fish."
"Be back before it's dark."
Jewel laughs at Tarjun's comment. "You've already been fishing with him once, and it looked like he knew better how to fish than you did! Come on now!"
After getting guidance from Mrs. Johnson she gathers the twine, hands it to Tarjun and heads out again. "Bow and arrow training again! And I'll try to convince Paddington not to eat ALL of what gets caught. Let's get a sack to carry a couple of fish in if we can catch any."
Approaching the cages she calls out, "Paddington, Ready to go fishing? But we need to catch a couple for us as well as what you eat!"
"I'll bring a bucket." Clara tells. "But only on the way to the river. On the way back someone else has to carry it."
As the meat was only an appetizer Paddington is all ears when he hears fish. He runs all the time until he got some 100 feet ahead, then he stops and waits. Until the water comes into view. Then he's off and runs right into the water. Standing over a small step, where the fish have to jump Paddington waits for the fish to jump into his mouth.
At first it doesn't work too well. And once he finally gets one fish, it goes right down his throat, with almost no chewing.
Paddington is not familiar with common language, but he gets the idea that Tarjun wants something. Just in case it is the fish, he makes sure to swallow the last bite.
Jewel laughs, both at Paddington and Tarjun. "He's still hungry and apparently likes fish. Let him have fun and eat a few. And we can try and get a couple with arrows, like Mrs. Johnson said. Let's get some distance so we don't shoot Paddington!"
Moving downstream 20-30' and looking for a spot where we can try shooting some fish. Then sitting the bucket down and tying twine to arrows. "Lady's first! Clara? Do you want to try? Or should I try first?"
Jewel has a lucky run, and shoots three fish with three arrows. The fourth she plants into the ground, where it is stuck.
Clara is not interested to compete with that. She just takes a seat until Jewel is ready to go. "I guess you don't need to gut them for an owl, do you?"
Happy with her luck, except for the stuck arrow, Jewel tosses the fish into the bucket. "Thanks Tarjun! Those were a couple of lucky shots." She considers Clara's words and nods to her friend, "Good point Clara. I think a owl would prefer the food still alive. Could you and Tarjun stay here while Paddington finishes his fishing, and then take him back home? I'll haul the fish over to the owl. I hope that Marten hasn't returned!"
"Paddington. Once you're full please go home with Tarjun and Clara.
She hands the bow and arrows to Tarjun and takes the bucket.
"You're going into the woods alone? Are you crazy?" Clara calls after Jewel as she leaves.
Clara cheers on Paddington to eat some more fish and once he looks full she tells him to come along.
"Wookie, find Jewel!" she orders the dog and follows where Jewel and Tarjun went.
Once she realizes that Tarjun is following Jewel slows down to let him catch up. She hadn't realized how heavy the bucket was and her brother was much stronger than she was. "Thanks Tarjun. I shouldn't be alone here, and this bucket seems to be getting heavier...."
When Wookie catches up too Jewel is concerned, then notices Paddington following behind with Clara. "Clara! The owl might accept Wookie, but the bear??? If you have to bring him, please keep him way back when we get there!"
When they get closer to the huge nest Jewel activates her hex and calls out to the owl, "I've got some fish for you. We just caught them. I'm going to bring them closer and lay them on the ground. Then I'll back away so you can take them."
Focusing on Wookie she speaks to him too. "Stay here with Tarjun. We're just bringing some food to an owl. It might be scared of you. Please stay."
As she slowly approaches she repeats, "Fish for you, please wait. Fish for you, please wait."
The owl sits in its nest and ogles Jewel with suspicion.
Jewel agrees and moves back with Tarjun once he has dropped the fish. "We're backing off to let you eat. You can eat."
Once they are at what she thinks is a safe distance she turns and steps out a little faster. "Let's get back by Clara and Paddington. I don't want him moving in and upsetting the owl."
Clara stops in safe distance, as requested by Jewel and orders Wookie and Paddington to sit. With mixed results. But at least the bear doesn't follow Jewel.
As soon as Jewel is far enough away to not jump the owl, it swoops down and grabs one of the fish. In one smooth movement the owl rises again with a few flaps of the wings, and glides back into the nest, where it indulges on the fish.
Jewel sees the owl swoop and grab a fish, then return to the nest. She turns away and walks the rest of the way back to Clara and the animals. "That should help her out for today. I wonder how long it takes for owl eggs to hatch. And how do owls normally protect their nests when they go off to hunt. Clara, Maybe your mother knows? Let's go back and ask."
Once the group is up and moving, in the general direction of home, she thinks out loud some more. "And how much do owls eat? I don't know if we'll need to bring her a fish every day? It looks like a pretty big bird but I don't want to get her fat!"
"They breed for about a month. You just need to ask it when it started. And usually there are two owls. Mom owl and pop owl." Clara explains in wise ass stlye.
"Also there is no such thing as too much food." Clara clarifies.
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"Problem is that when mom and pop are gone huntin', babies are left to themselves," Tarjun explains. "And sometimes they fall off the nest 'cause they're tryin' to fly too soon. If we keep bringin' food to the mom, that means she ain't gonna need to fly far away to find stuff to eat, so the babies are safer."
"But here is no pop owl. At least I guess that's the mom. We've seen no other owl around, so mom owl can't leave the eggs!"
"Or you sit on the eggs for her." Clara teases Tarjun.
Jewel listens to Tarjun and Clara until she just can't contain her mirth anymore. "Sit on her eggs? We're not birds? We don't have the feathers to cover them and keep them warm! That's just silly!!!
"We can keep bringing food and build up some trust, and maybe she'll allow us to help her with her nest. I can talk to her but she's not very smart. There's only so much I can get her to understand...."
Clara rolls her eyes at Jewel. "That was a joke! You lost all chill lately."
As Tarjun and Jewel agree to start a daily fish delivery she objects. "That's all? How about we set up a watch! To protect her from martens, and whoever else want some owl-egg-omlett. Or create a no egg eater area aroudn the nest. There has to be something else we can do here."
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"We're not going to stand there for hours!" Tarjun protests. "And we can't set up a no egg eater area. What if it's another bird attacking the nest?" He thinks about it for a while. "Remember how dad used to build bird tables and feeders," he ponders aloud. "I wonder if I could make somethin' like that. Like a little house to put the eggs in, to keep them safe..."
Jewel thinks about the ideas that the others mention while the group heads back home. "I think we need to know more about owls. She won't let us near her nest so warming the eggs for her isn't an option. And if she could get into a house, any of the littler birds could too. Let's go and see if there's any information in a book, or if Mrs. Johnson knows more about owls. You know animals don't eat the same as people. Maybe she doesn't need a fish every day. But she may need something else once the little owls are born.... I mean hatched."
"Sometimes I wish I was a druid or something.... Then I could charm her, or ask her to be my animal companion. Then she'd trust us and we could take her nest home!"
"Just don't try to feed her carrots!" Clara comments, spitting out the last word.
"I don't think you being a druid would solve your problem. You would have companioned half a dozen other animals before."