Hearing the teasing from Clara and Tarjun, Jewel frowns, pretending to be upset. "No I wouldn't! I don't think druids can just make any old animals their companions.... Animals should be free. And I don't speak bear! You know my witch hex lets me speak with any type of animal! But it doesn't teach me the language. If I don't keep my hex active I can't speak with them better'n either of you! And even with it I have trouble getting them to understand. It's hard remembering that they aren't very smart!!!"
"Don't listen to her. You're the smartest bear around." Clara consoles Paddington.
"But seriously. With no help from daddy owl, mommy owl is a sitting duck. We have to do something." She furrows her brow while trying to think of anything helpful.
Suddenly her eyes brighten as she tells. "We turn Tarjun into an owl. And then he flirts with mommy owl, til she lets him help."
Jewel giggles at Clara's words and plays along. "I like that! Maybe she'd let him sit on the eggs while she hunts. But my magic isn't powerful enough to do it. Maybe if we work together? Or could your mother help? But she uses different magic from what we do...."
"We need a third witch. Then we can dance naked around a fire in the woods on a full moon, and then we can do the strongest magic rituals!"
"At least that's what I heard one of those superstitios woodcutters tell at the fire one night. But don't tell mum. If she hears I snook out at night, I'm grounded for a week."
Still playing along Jewel does her best to be offended.... "I'm not going to dance around NAKED in front of my brother! Eeewe!"
But hearing her brother's words she can't hold it anymore and laughs until she falls over needing to catch her breath! "Hahahaha! That's just too much! Turn Tarjun into a big owl so he can flirt with..... Too much!"
"You are having fun?" Gertrud asks as the group arrives at hhome laughing.
Listening to the ideas she considers if she should keep a straight face and suppor those riduculous ideas, but she can't. With all the laughing and giggling going on she gives in to the laughing too.
"You can use my book about nature in these woods. I've collected all information I could find out about any kind of animal I have seen in these woods. It's not complete, but it should help a lot."
"You could search about the owl, but also about those who steal eggs."
Glad to be back home Jewel is glad to hear Mrs. Johnson join their laughing. She helps to get the animals back in their pens, but is fascinated by the book that Gertrud mentions. "Good! I wanted to ask about how long it takes for the eggs to hatch, and how long before the mama owl can leave the nest to hunt on her own. And it would be good to know about the marten that was attacking her when we first spotted her. It didn't look very big or dangerous, but she was half starved."
"I guess I really want to know if fish are good for her, 'cause you know, they're fairly easy to catch. But if owls need something else to be healthy.... And how often does she need to eat? She looked starved but I wouldn't want her to get fat and lazy and not be able to feed her babies!"
Owl
Great Horned Owl
What do Great Horned owls eat?
Marten
American Marten
Only looking at the drawings of what Jewel finds in the book Clara has no real idea, what it is about. "Sa, what does it tell? No carrots for mommy owl, right? And do we go and catch the marten?"
"We could build a marten jail for the time til the eggs are hatched."
"Or we drop so much fish there, that anyone gets their share, and noon needs to eat eggs anymore?" Clara throws another idea into the ring.
Re-reading a page or two to verify the details Jewel glances at the others. "Fish are OK, but I think we fed her too much. Well, maybe not since she was so hungry. But less for regular. Maybe a half pound or so. But she's a predator so she'll prefer live and kicking. Maybe we can make a net and catch some small fish live. Then we could leave them in a shallow puddle there for her."
"If I'm reading this right, if she were healthy and not stuck protecting her eggs, she might hunt and kill a marten. Wow! He claws are strong! It says she can crush the skull of a small animal!"
She looks up from the book and thinks about what Tarjun and Clara are saying. "Clara, I like that idea, but it might have the opposite affect. Free food could draw un-wanted attention, and even bigger problems. What if another bear like Paddington happened by? He'd eat the fish and then swat the momma owl away to have dessert from her eggs! Tarjun, The trap might be a good idea too, except the marten is just another innocent animal. I think...."
"You know, this is hard! Animals eat each other! Why can't they all get along like people!?!" She sits back, confused and obviously upset. "Why can't they all eat vegetables!"
"I for sure eat animals too. They are really tasty. They just shall stop eating this owl babies." Clara clarifies.
"If no one would eat the animals, then the animals would eat all plants, until none are left." Gertrud tells. "Nature isn't a nice place. It is eat and being eaten. And we're just lucky, that there are not many creatures around who can hunt and would eat us."
"Are martens like cats? Landing always on their feeet? Then we could build a catapult trap and shoot it far away. That would also work for every other egg stealing creature."
"We build that, load the trap with a chicken egg and shoot every predator that steps on the trigger plate away."
Jewel is almost to tears while thinking about what Gertrud and Tarjun are saying. It's just the truth, but not anything she had really thought about.
Then Clara presents HER idea.... She can hardly speak for the laughter! "Clara, You're just the best some times! Really? A CAT apult!?! To throw the marten far away! A apult! That's so funny!"
"Well, I guess we can just work at feeding the momma, until the eggs hatch. Not a huge meal like we just did. The book makes sense. If momma owl only weighs a couple of pounds she certainly shouldn't be eating a whole pound of fish in one day. Maybe we could just use a seine and catch a few small fish?"
Clara comes with Tarjun. She is very excited as he starts putting the trap together. As the thing starts to come together she looks suspiciously. "Where do you put the part that throws the marten away?" she inquires?
Clara is not satisfied, that her glorious idea is not implemented. So she starts herself to build a trap that will shoot the marten away. So she finds a about four foot long board as a base for her invention. The most important part of that trap will be a flexible branch that will provide the stored energy for the throw.
Clara runs off to check some of the trees closest to the house. All that break off when she climbs up and hangs her self to them are disqualified. The one that is thin enough and doesn't break is from an ash tree. Problem is then, that the branch denies to break off, and she didn't bring a tool. So she has to run back and get a saw. Finally she manages to conquer the branch.
With those two things down, she needs a basket or something to lure the marten in, before it can be shot off. As there is nothing found she gets some more thin twigs from the ash that she has now anyway to weave one to the end of the stick. A whole drilled into the board and some carving of the stick later, the stick can be put through the hole and stick there in place.
The hardest part is the trigger. Another hole with an sharp edge to allow interlocking of the bent stick should do the trick. But it has to stay in place for a long time, and it has to unlock quickly, on the weight of the marten entering the basket. As that doesn't work out great, she goes for a twine, that gets untied, if the bait is removed.
But as she puts everything together and triggers the trap for a test run, everything falls apart. "STUPID, STUPID RUBBISH!"
She storms off into the house and slams the door.
Seeing Tarjun's trap, Jewel looks somewhat skeptical. "Well.... I think that'll drop on whatever takes the bait. But won't the marten that we saw the other day be strong enough to lift the edge of the trap to get out? I think maybe it needs to be heavier. But it's a good trap for smaller things, and they might be a danger to the nest if the mama ever has to be away!"
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"Yeah, good point," Tarjun thinks aloud. "Maybe I can make a heavier one, or we'll have to do somethin' for the marten to stay still. Like choose a bait that'll knock it out? Make it sleep?" He glances at the Johnsons' house. "We can ask Clara's mom, and... I guess calm Clara down," he sighs, visibly struggling to remain patient with the easily irritable girl.
Jewel giggles at Tarjun's irritation with Clara. "Could you maybe 'fix' her trap? Not for trapping anything, but maybe to play with, like a miniature siege weapon to throw rocks? It might make her happier!"
"I'm thinking that she just didn't fasten the parts together very well 'cause she was rushung it...."
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"Maybe," Tarjun says, already thinking of all the wooden parts he would need to build such a trap. "I mean, I can give it a try, but I've never crafted somethin' like that."
It takes him quite a few hours, but when he's done, the result is unmistakably a small catapult.
"Hey, look at that!" Tarjun calls out to Jewel, looking at his toy with something like amazement that he actually did it. "That ain't so bad!"
Clara comes out to check. As she sees what Tarjun accomplished, while she totally screwed up she pouts even more with crossed arms.
But it doesn't hold long. The catapult is too cool. "How far can it shoot? What pet are we trying it out first?" she asks as excitement takes over.
"Nah, you can't shoot a cat at a bottle. That would be mean. I thought more of a far fling competition!
Jewel joins the fun with the miniature catapult. "Right. This is like a miniature of a big, war weapon! It throws rocks to break walls. Maybe we can stand up a little wall of sticks stuck in the ground, like a palisade around a town for defense? And use Tarjun's catapult to break them down!" She turns and runs toward the trees. "I'm going to get some straight sticks to build the palisade! Little ones like that!"
Jewel tries to help, and make it not too strong so the miniature catapult rocks can break it....
"We don't want the little wall so strong that all the rocks just bounce off!"
Tarjun and Jewel put a little more effort into the fort as was initially planned. It's a two foot square with a wall running around. Towers at the corners, a main gate and a larger tower in the middle of it. Even a house is half finished as they realize that they wanted to build only something to tear down with rocks.
Clara looks puzzled at the catapult. "I think you should shoot first." she tells not wanting to admit, that she doesn't get the mechanics of it.
Jewel looks at the miniature village that they'd almost built. It was started as just a wall, but.... "Yeah Tarjun! You're the builder. Show us how it works!" She smiles and steps back to watch.
The fist sized stone is flung off the catapult and flies in the rough direction of the fort. But the shot is too far and off to the right.
The special modifyer is +2 for every consecutive attack.
Again the shot is off. Still to the right, and very far to the right, but the distance is about right.
"I want, I want!" Clara tells and brings a stone to fire with the catapult. Once Tarjun loaded it for her, she adjusts the siege wepon and fires it.
As the stone hits somewhere off she curses "Damn it. It can't be that hard to hit that fort. I could throw a stone at it from here!"