"If we don't hit it, maybe tomorrow there some tiny folks will have moved into it?" Clara fantasizes.
Jewel giggles at Clara's idea. "Good point! If this little village proves to be safe from the evil catapult...."
She takes careful aim with another rock and tries her luck.
"See! Even with a hit the rock glances off of the wall, doing very little...."
"Woohooo! You hit it!" Clara flips out.
On Jewels disappointment with the result she inquires "Do we have tar?"
Clara runs for the tool shed. After a while she reappears with a tar blackened gooey stone. She lets Tarjun prepare the catapult for her and then puts the stone on it.
With everything adjusted, she cast fire on the stone, setting it aflame. She fires the burnign rock at the fort.
Or in the genereal vincinity of the fort. Three foot away the grass is set on fire. "Your capatult can't hit." she frowns.
Seeing what Clara is doing Jewel knows what is coming next. As soon as Clara fires the flaming rock Jewel moves up to dump some dirt on the catapult6 arm. "Quick! Create some water to put out the fire! And be sure that the tar residue on the catapult arm is out!"
"It's new and fun! Let's not burn it up! I'd suggest a little ballista next, but that would just be a mounted crossbow.... What else is ther?"
"I can get my godzilla costume and trample it down?" Clara suggests, pointing to the house.
But a mellee siege engine looks silly to me too, as they are all powered by human force. With only giant sized humonoids around (in scale to the fort) I guess it would be no fun to break it with those.
But I don't know what exactly you have in mind. Maybe I'm mistaken. Surprise me.
"Hmm.... Clara's right if the battering ram is held by us. But what if the ram were suspended from a frame? Then to use it you just pull it back and let go so it bounces against the wall? Still not as good as something that launches a missile....
Here's a cool looking one....
Clara is so caught up on her idea, that she raises her arm, makes giant noises, like she imagines them and tramples around, making the dandelions shake in fear. For those who know she looks more like a wannabe zombie than everything else. But at least she leaves the fort alone for now. A fire spitting godzilla might have been its end.
Clara hold some things in place when Tarjun is lacking a third hand or something.
Jewel tries to aid as well....
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With the girls' help, Tarjun assembles bits of wood and strings, crafting a toy version of a battering ram.
"That'll knock down the fortifications!" he announces proudly once the miniature siege engine is done. "But, er... What time is it? Isn't it gonna be evening soon?"
"We'll attack the fort once it's dark!" Clara states. "They'll never see us coming!"
Fire is Clara's cue. She casts another fire spell on the next tar-doused stone on the catapult.
Startled by the rock bursting into flames Jewel releases the catapult missile without aiming....
Somehow the rock accidentally goes the right direction, possibly damaging the structure and transferring some of the burning tar to the wall. "Clara! Don't start it on fire before I fire. We don't want the catapult burnt! Tarjun, Some more water please...."
"Starting the fire after shooting it would be cheating!" Clara objects. Also she thinks that the burn gives the catapult an authentic 'used in war' look.
Jewel giggles at Clara's response. "Not fire the city! Fire the rock, after I fire the rock!!!"
Clara watches as the wall collapses to the ram and the tower slowly smolders in the flames of the tar. But after a while that gets boring.
"What are we doing now? We still have nothing to keep egg eaters from our owl!"
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"Oh yeah, I forgot!" Tarjun exclaims, finally tearing his eyes away from the very satisfying spectacle of the burning fortress. He gives the problem some thought. "Hey, you know, I'm startin' to think that maybe we looked at this the wrong way. We don't need to capture martens. We just need to protect the eggs. That's what we built chicken coops for. What if we made some kind of little home for mama owl, so she can sit on her eggs in peace?"
Jewel stares at Clara in surprise. She was having fun and had temporarily forgotten about the owl.... "Good point Clara. This was fun, but it doesn't help the owl."
She thinks about Tarjun's idea for a bit, but sadly shakes her head. "Something would still have to stand guard. Martens are smaller that the owl, so any opening that let her in would be large enough to let them in too. And she's not likely to allow us to build a coop around her nest, or move the nest into one once it is built. I can ask her if she would make her nest closer to us next time, or even in a coop if we had one available for her. But I think our only real option for this set of eggs is to help her with food. Once the eggs hatch it'll be easier for her. And once the baby owls learn to fly our help won't be needed at all. It just takes some time!"
"I think though that maybe we should build a fish trap! That way we could just take a little fish out of the trap and take it to her, rather than taking the time to catch the fish everyday. Something easy though."
"Just make sure it doesn't catch too much fish, or we get to eat wish all week too."
"Do you know how to build that? And from what? Twine?"
Jewel nods. She doesn't want to eat fish every night either! "Just build it to catch small fish. It would be reeds and twine, and the reeds have to be close enough together that the little fish can't swim through. Or maybe just build a frame and use cloth? Old rags would do I think."
"Old socks?" Clara comments. "It's for small fish after all. If you have one without holes."
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"We could always patch 'em up," Tarjun suggests. "But I'll see if I have a few intact ones."
As a general rule, Tarjun disliked socks -they were slippery, constricting, and got your feet all damp and smelly. He never wore them unless the weather absolutely requested him too, and even then, his toes tended to stick out of them through very convenient holes. But it was summer, and it wasn't impossible that he'd find a few not let worn pairs in the drawer...
Clara waits for Tarjun to return. "How long can it take to find a sock?" she inquires from Jewel. "Or are they especially well hidden and guarded by the monster of sock ness?"
"Do we have bait? And how do you make it the fishies come in, but not out?"
Once Tarjun comes back Jewel just grins ay his comments about lateness.
"Fish are really stupid. You make the "in" to the trap a cone. As they move in it directs them to the small opening. Once they are inside, the bait is contained in a cage that they can't get in to. If they get tired of trying they try to swim back out. But unless they happen to swin back through the little hole, the outside of the cone directs them into the corners of the trap...."
"It could be a simple thing woven from reeds. Or simpler yet, put the bait in a little bag and hang that inside the trap...."
Not wanting to sit around like forever while Tarjun searches for something Clara calls out "I'll get you some reeds." and runs off to the woods.
Clara takes her time in the woods, collecting some twigs she deems worthy of becoming a fish trap. She also collects some flowers and watches the squirrels. All in all it may take a while until Clara comes back. And if the stuff she collects will be useful is to be seen.
"Now you need to throw it into the river. Do you then jump in to get it back again?"
"No. You attach a cord that you can tie to something on the shore. Then you can pull it back in after a few hours, or maybe in the morning once it has been out there over night."
Clara's head spins. One Moment all were playing in front of the house and all of a sudden Jewel and Tarjun are gone...
:P
Jewel stops and grins at Tarjun's question. "We could hide and see if she comes looking for us? Let's go over here and sit down behind this bush. If we keep fairly quiet we'll hear her...."