"Tarjun, that's funny. I mean, when are you going to sleep? And we can't see in the dark so how would we train the owls?"
"Let's go get a bow and arrows from home and head down to the shrine. We can set up targets and pretend we're defending the shrine from an attacking horde. Mrs. Johnson would say it's good practice, but we can make it fun too!"
"I'll play the horde!"
"As if you'd hit me." Clara boasts. "But you have to use dull arrows, with a cotton filled pouch at the tip."
Jewel grins at Clara's idea, but then thinks it over.... "No. Can you imagine trying to explain that to your mother? 'We were just playing, and you know we aren't very accurate anyway.... But Clara just accidentally popped up in front of my arrow and.... Well, she does still have her other eye!?!'"
Waiting for Clara's reaction she tries hard (but fails) to stifle a giggle.
"I just need to wear an arrowproof helmet." Clara casts Jewel's objection aside. "Tarjun, you need to build one for me!"
Jewel runs over to Tarjun to whisper in his ear, "Just use a bucket. If it doesn't have any eye holes an arrow couldn't get it!" then snickers and steps away.
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"Good idea!" Tarjun snickers back.
Finding a bucket isn't too difficult, and he doesn't really have any adjustments to make beyond making sure it's a good fit for Clara's head and that the handle won't constrict her throat or chin.
"Here, that'd be a good protection! You still sure you wanna do this?" he asks, gallantly offering her a last chance to backtrack.
"Haha, I'm invulnerable! I'm the bucket knight! And I'll kick your asses! The knight who kicks, with a bucket... now I got it: The bucket kicker knight!" she elaborates stumbling around mostly blind, but kicking at any shadow she can make out on the ground.
Jewel laughs as Clara stumbles around with the bucket on her head. "Careful or we'll have to kick your bucket!" But then she glances around. "But really, I meant that we could set up targets to shoot at with real arrows. It would still be play, and we could compete. Say most targets hit with 20 shots doesn't have to do any chores tomorrow. The other 2 have to do them. I'm sure we can talk our folks into agreeing with that!??"
"Hell, no! I'm not interested in doing your farm duties!" Carla objects into a random direction, with her arms on her hips
Jewel laughs as she heads toward their homes to get the bows. "OK. We can just target shoot for fun. You know everybody has a bad day sometime, and a good day sometimes. I'm not really any good with the bows. But maybe something more fun like both losers having to call out 'You're the Greatest' to the winner anytime we see anybody else.... But not today. Today will just be practice!"
"Bow to the mighty Jewel, best archer of the whole woods!" Clara proclaims and then bursts out in laughter.
"That for sure will get you some people looking in disbelief. And maybe some challenges for a serious competition with the grown ups."
Jewel giggles along with Clara. "Sure! But it just as well might be 'Hail Clara the Mighty Huntress with her Mighty Bow! Let all the forest shake with fear!"
"But how do we handle ties? A 'sudden death' shoot off? Or will I be following you two around calling out 'Hail Clara and Tarjun!.... ?"
"Hail Clara who managed to not shoot herself in the foot and hit the outer ring of the target with one of twenty shots!" Clara jokes.
"How about we shoot trees and paint the targets around the arrows later?"
Jewel just pauses with a puzzled look on her face. "Why would we shoot trees? They haven't done anything mean to deserve being shot, and doing so would only break the arrows! For practice we should set up soft targets that the arrows can penetrate and not be destroyed."
"If you don't want to make it a competition that's OK. But we should practice. What's going to happen if goblins return and we have to chase them off again?"
"We burn them?" Clara asks confused.
"Whatever, let us do some practice shots. It can't hurt." Clara tells. Mostly to not disappoint Jewel.
She helps with decorating the intended practice targets as green, toothy, big-mouthed goblins. She uses green, red, yellow and brown leafs that she pins to the straw targets with twigs.
Jewel reacts with feigned shock when Clara suggests burning goblin attackers. "Burning can't be our only answer! You're the only one with a septer that does that! And besides, what if they have bows and attack from farther out than your fire will reach? As you run up to burn them they shoot you full of arrows!"
When Clara starts decorating the targets Jewel joins her. "This is more fun that shooting them! And we can make them really scary. That might scare off any goblins that came this way so nobody would have to fight them! Kind of like the scarecrows in the field scare the birds away!"
"What are goblins afraid of? What would a scare-goblin look like?" Clara inquires.
"Would you be afraid of a scarecrow that looked like you? I wouldn't. Is there something eating goblins?"
"Maybe scarecrows that look like soldiers. Problem is you'd need several of them to look like a small army. And that might just make them get a bigger army...."
"I guess scarecrows aren't the answer for gobbers. They're too stupid, ugly and stinky! Burn 'em, shoot 'em, or crush their ugly heads...."
"Maybe put a gobbo doll on a stake to scare them away?" Clara ponders.
"I'm getting tired of just talking. Come on, let's go shoot some things!"
Clara runs to the house to get her bow and some arrows. As she comes back out of the house she starts shooting goblins immediately, in a way that can only be called reckless.
She starts out surprisingly precise, shooting the eye of Tarjun's goblin and then it's rump. And Also the other goblins get spiked with arrows. But the success might have to do with those goblins not trying to duck.
"Meet Clara the shooter of goblins!" she boasts.
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"Hey, leave some for others!" Tarjun jokes, taking his turn at shooting the dummy goblins.
Most of his arrows end in the fake goblins' chests, arms and legs, but one surprisingly precise shot flies straight through one of the doll's head, sending it backward and snapping its precarious neck.
"Well how 'bout that?" he looks incredibly smug.
Clara runs for cover.
Jewel waits for the others, giggling at Tarjun shooting the head off of the target. "OK. My turn...."
The first shot is good, but then she almost drops the second arrow at her feet, and follows it with a shot that misses the target by over a foot. She drops the bow and laughs, "Maybe you should hide in front of the target Clara! That's one place those last two arrows didn't even come close to! If gobbers were attacking I'd just have to hope our magic, and Tarjun's arrows could stop them!"
"Hey, I did great!" Clara protests.
"Yes you did Clara! And Tarjun had a really great shot, right in the head. I was just laughing at how bad my second and third shots were. And that was against stationary targets! Imagine if they were moving, or attacking!!!"
"We need magic to make them hold still for shooting them!"
"Maybe we need magic arrows so we don't need bows!"
"You want to throw the arrows at them?" Clara inquires confused.
"I'm hungry and tired. I'm going home." Clara tells and leaves.
With the day almost at an end all go home and to bed.
The next morning you manage to persuade your parents that the most important thing of the day is feeding mommy owl. So you leave early before doing any chores. Catching some fish is easy, as you got some practice already. But you wonder why the water in the creek is a foot higher than the day before. It hasn't rained at night and there is no obvioux reason for that.
You leave the investigation for later as the owl has to be fed first, but as you approach the nest you find mommy owl at war with the reason for the flood. A beaver has decided, that the tree with the next on it would be the perfect addition to its dam. And mommy owl strongly disagrees.
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For once, Tarjun isn't reluctant to get out of bed, probably enthusiastic at the prospect of going fishing again. Upon arriving in sigh of the flooding river, he frowns:
"That's strange. It shouldn't have risen like that before winter," he comments briefly.
He starts to think of possible reasons for the flood, but quickly snaps out of it as he notices the fight between the beaver and the owl.
"HEY!! That's not your place, beaver! Jewie, tell him to go away!"
As the group approaches the battle and reaches understanding of what is happening Jewel activates her Feral Speech hex, first to speak the language of the beaver, then the owl.
The owl gladly retreats to the nest, leaving the beaver for the kids to deal with. But the beaver seems to be of the stubborn kind as he approaches Jewel with teeth bared and an overall hostile attitude.
The beaver flinches as Tarjun does his feint. But it doesn't back away.
"Beavers are tasty." Clara comments. "Do you know if beaver dams are good for the forest?"
Clara might be one of the most dangerous predators in those woods, as she'd eat almost everything that has between two and four legs. The only thing protecting an animal from being eaten is looking cute.
Seeing the situation almost out of control and dangerous Jewel still wants to use diplomacy, but first....
"Clara. Please use your septer, but just send some fire above the beaver. Be as sure as you can to not hit anything, then be ready."