"You mean Caspar that you made me give to mom for safekeeping?" Clara replies with her arms crossed and a pouting face.
Hearing Clara's words reminds Jewel. She tries not to react but deactivates her hex again to reply. "Yes. Sorry but I forgot. Angry beaver has me focused on other things...."
[smaller]"Sorry my ass." Clara mumbles. And towards the beaver that is hissing she shouts while taking a big step towards the rodent and dousing it in fire.
"Tarjun still has his magic stick. He can patch the beaver up once it behaves."
It smells of burned fur and the beaver flees into the river, diving out of sight.
Jewel takes a couple of running steps after the beaver, but quickly realizes that she can't follow it. She shrugs and turns back to the group. "I didn't want to hurt him. Building his dam is what he does. I think that's his home just like the tree is the owl's home! I offered to help him get a different tree, but he didn't have a chance to reply."
"I just hope he doesn't come back. Scared of the fire that you cast won't necessarily make him choose to not take this tree." She looks around the area around the beaver's dam. "Maybe if we spot a good tree that he can use? We could cut it and drag it close so he could use it? We just need something to cut it with. And a whole tree would be heavy, really hard to move."
Jewel agrees with Tarjun, but isn't negative. "It might take a day. But the beaver was going to take down the owl's nesting tree. His den must be down stream. He would float the tree into the den to expand it. Now really all we need is a smaller tree, or two, that we can handle. And we'll need to find his den."
"If we help him he shouldn't be so upset about being burnt. I'm hoping he survived that fire! He swam away rather than just floating so I'm fairly certain...."
"How about armoring the tree?" Clara suggests. "You don't know how many trees you have to offer for the beaver leaving this one in peace. But if it can't fell this one, we can leave that work to the beaver."
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"Let's have a look at its den, so we can decide what it needs," Tarjun suggests. Surely there can't be many beavers around... Or else this might prove a little more complicated than he thought.
It also doesn't help that he doesn't know the difference between a rabbit hole and a beaver den.
"Look over here! Maybe this is it!" he points at a hole in the bank that is clearly way too small to be inhabited by beavers.
Jewel has to make sure Tarjun doesn't get lost on the way that obviously would lead downriver.
Jewel giggles as Tarjun starts looking along the bank of the river and points out a hole. "Tarjun. The beaver was building a dam, like a big nest on the water. It won't be in a hole in the ground!" Then she starts looking around too.
"And it would be down stream. The beaver can't drag a tree upstream so it would just float it along and guide it a little...."
It isn't far to the beaver's dam. But there is no entrance to see.
Jewel looks around the area for any trees (not huge and without nests....) that could possibly be offered to the beaver.
"OK. He's probably in there since he's hurt. I'm going to try and talk with him. Everyone else should probably stay back. Clara, maybe you could stay behind Tarjun since you hit him with the fire. He's probably scared and angry...."
Moving up to about 5' from the water she uses her Feral Speech hex again to speak the beaver language. "Mr. Beaver? I'm sorry that we hurt you, we really just want to help. The tree you were can't be taken but we can help you take a different tree. And if you let me, I can heal where you were burned so it won't hurt anymore. Please let me know if you can hear me so we can be friends!"
"You believe it can hear you? Underwater?"
Jewel shrugs at Clara's words, "I don't know. But he's not a fish. He needs to breath so I'm thinking that he's in that bunch of sticks and stuff, above the water but hidden. If he made it here safely he's probably sitting in there licking his wounds. I'm just offering to heal those burns instantly, if he can hear and wants to reply."
She moves over by a little tree. "If he doesn't respond, maybe we can go get an axe and chop this little tree down for him. I think we can push it into the water so it'll float right to him, and he can do... whatever with it."
The beaver doesn't show up in a reasonable time while the kids are waiting.
"I'm staying here to guard mama owl's tree. And if that beaver shows again, he'd become barbecue." Clara states. Then she marches off to the owl tree.
Jewel stays by the water, waiting for Tarjun to return. She hopes that Mr. Beaver doesn't go and get fried by Clara.
Noticing the beaver sticking his head up to check things she pretends not to notice, but calls out toward the dam using the Feral Speech hex and repeating, "Mr. Beaver? I'm sorry that we hurt you. We really just want to help. The tree you were at can't be taken, but we can help you take a different tree. And if you let me, I can heal where you were burned so it won't hurt anymore. Please let me know if you can hear me so we can be friends!"
The beaver make sa noise that sounds like the shy version of a horn. "Make hurt stop."
Jewel focuses on where the beaver is. She shows that her hands are empty of any sort of weapon, then sits down on the water's edge. "I'm alone Mr. Beaver and I have no weapon. I can heal you, make the hurt stop, but I do have to touch you. I can't swim like you can so I need you to come over to me. Come here and I will make the hurt stop."
"Thats a trap." the beaver accuses Jewel.
Jewel considers the beaver's words. She can understand his worries but isn't sure how to assure him. "I understand your fear. The other girl, her name is Clara, used magic and burned you. That shouldn't have happened. We're supposed to be the Guardians of Erastil and protect this area, but we're still young. We make mistakes. And once a mistake like that is made all we can do is try to fix it. It can't be un-done."
"Now I'm sitting down so I can't run away. I don't have any weapon. If you decided to attack me I'd be in real trouble. My brother, the other human that can't walk very fast, has gone home to get some sort of blade to try and cut down a small tree for your home. Clara has gone back to the owl's tree to protect it, just in case you had gone back there to bother the Mama owl some more. So you see, I'm offering my trust to you. I'm trusting that you won't hurt me, but that you will let me help you. And once you are healed and your hurt is gone, that you'll let us help you add to your home and not tear down a tree with baby birds in it."
"After that, well.... We can go away and leave you alone. Or, if you like we can stay around and help you out if you need something and it is something that we can do. Remember of course that we are still children."
"So. I'm trusting you now. My magic to remove your hurt requires a touch. What else can I do to help you to trust me?"
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Tarjun reaches his house, his whistling fading out as he gets closer to his family's farm in case his parents are out working. He tries to tiptoe to the tool shed to grab an axe without being seen, while walking in plain sight and humming a tune.
Tarjun carefully enters the shed, stumbles over the door sill and into the farming tools lined up on the wall. Luckily no one is around to hear it.
Over time and talking in those soothing words Jewel looks trustworthy, and keeps looking that way even up close. The beaver comes close enough Jewel might just be able to touch it, when she stretches herself over the water.
Seeing the beaver coming so close Jewel stretches a hand out, slowly moving close to him but not yet touching. "Thank you for your trust. I'm going to hold my hand right here and let you decide on the next step. The cure spell requires words to start it, and a touch to activate the healing. I'll wait and rather than me reaching for you I want you to touch me. Then I'll cast the spell, letting your touch heal your wounds. Is that all right with you? I want to heal the hurt, but I also want you to be comfortable with it."
The beaver carefull yleans into Jewels stretched out hand like Toothless into Hick's. After the healing washes over the beaver and the burn is gone, the beaver is ready to go tree shopping.
Tarjun finds an axe or two and leaves with the one matching his size better. As he comes back to Jewel, she is busy parlaying with the beaver. As the beaver notices Tarjun with the sharp tool it becomes uneasy again.
Jewel carefully rubs the fur of the beaver once he relaxes. Keeping her feral speech hex active she continues talking. Letting the beaver know what she is doing before moving. "OK. I'm going to stand back up now. I don't move as well on all four legs as you do. Human's walk best on our two legs and use the front legs, what we call arms, for grabbing and holding." Once she is standing she continues, "Good. Now we can go find a good tree. I'm going to make the ground here with an arrow, pointing to where we are moving. That is so when Tarjun gets back with a tool to cut the tree he knows which way to go. He may not see us immediately but he can follow."
"So how many trees will you need for your home? You know that you can't completely block off the stream right? The water is needed downstream and there might be people that would come looking if you completely cut it off. And they might have some really dangerous weapons, like bows and arrows? Plus, they'd use chains with nasty hooks on them to pull your home apart to get the water flowing again. That was what got us looking at things this morning. The water flow has already slowed, and then we heard the momma owl in the tree that you were at. We've been helping her, bringing her some food while she tends to her nest."
The beaver listens carefully to Jewel making many words, which takes even longer when you translate it into beaver. The beaver isn't exactly familiar with numbers and counting. So the answer is "many" to the question about the number of trees. The beaver gets a confused look when Jewel starts talking about details of the dam, but telling about people with dangerous weapons doesn't help any with Tarjun and the sharp axe. The beaver jumps into the creek and watches from there.
Jewel giggles once she realizes that the beaver is afraid of Tarjun with the axe. "Sorry. That's Tarjun. What he's carrying is a tool for cutting a tree. We don't have the sharp teeth and claws like you so he needs to use a tool. Just watch. I'll stay here so you can stay behind me and watch."
"Thanks Tarjun. He's healed now but concerned that you might use the axe against him. Just cut a small tree over there. Once it's down please move away and I'll come over with him so he can see and we can discuss moving it to the water. He says he wants 'many' trees but I'm trying to get him reasonable."
Once the tree falls she switches to Beaver again. "Tarjun will move away so you can see the tree and we can pull it over to the water for you...."
"Okay, Tarjun" or at least you guess the high and low whistle mean Tarjun from context "cuts the tree, you throw it into the river and I check how it best fits into the dam." the beaver suggests with a wide smile.
Jewel giggles as she thinks that she understands the beaver's noises matching names. Names were always the hardest as they didn't really translate from human language to animals.
"Well, I'll drag it to the water! I'm still just a little girl and not really strong enough to throw it!"
Once the first tree is in the water she looks for a second, and third small tree. But after that asks for that to be enough for now. "We've got other work to do. But we can come back if you need more help later. Or, you could follow us back to our home so you know where to come if you need our help. You know Tarjun and Clara, and I could point out the other humans that would be helpful. ??"
"Okay." the beaver mumbles with its mouth full and swims away to the dam with the tree half into the suggestion to follow to the human's home where that nasty Clara lives.
"Maybe we should go ask Mrs. Johnson about beavers and their dams? From here all I see is a big tangle of sticks."
"I'm not as strong as you Tarjun, but I'll try to help. Just one more.... little tree for now? Then I'm trying to get him to follow us back home so I can point out who he could go to for help. I don't know if he understand though. The hex lets me speak his language, but I don't really know if he can understand all of my words."
Clara sits under the owl-tree staring daggers at the creek.
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"Fine," Tarjun sighs, lifting his axe once more to cut down another small tree. Even though he specifically chooses one with a somewhat frail trunk, it still takes him longer than it should have for him to cut it down, and by the time he's finished his arms are almost trembling fatigue. "There," he says in a falsely cheerful tone. "A little roof for Mr. Beaver's new house!"
Jewel watches as her brother struggles to cut down one more, wishing she could help but knowing better. Once he's done she grabs a branch to try to drag it to the water. "Thanks Tarjun. I wish I had magic to make it better. But once this gets to the water Mr. Beaver should be able to handle it himself."
"Now let's get home and talk with Mrs. Johnson. And maybe I can give you a shoulder rub so you won't be hurting tomorrow?"
The beaver floats away all wood the two kids drag to the water. When they turn to leave the beaver waves goodbye at Jewel.
Jewel starts to walk back toward their homes, then stops. "Clara is guarding the owl's tree. I don't think it needs a guard now that the beaver has two extra trees to work with. Let's go and get her and then go home to talk with her mother."