When the goblin drops Jewel kicks it once then moves over to Silas. "Silas, Let me check that wound. Can't be infected or our folks will never let us out of the house again!"
Clara moves into the crypt and to the goblin. Kneeling down and poking it she asks "Is it dead?"
A moment later the dog disappears again.
Once Jewel is done helping Silas she moves over to the goblin and checks/searches it. "Stupid gobber caused all of our problems. Killed the chickens. Got us stuck inside. Now we gotta figure out how to get back to normal."
She drags the body over to the entrance. "Now we gotta figure out how to collapse the roof on the body. Then we get back home and hope the adults find it soon. Once they find the gobber dead they'll let us play again!"
"Anything else?"
"Noooo." Clara protests. It's one thing to fight someone who threatens you. But being responsible for the death of someone is another thing.
Also she doesn't want her parents here at their playground. Now that it got even more interesting. "Put the dead gobber in the chicken pen. Tell them we killed it there."
Silas’ eyes well up and he says, ”Owwwwww. The gobbo shot me.” He starts crying, not used to having felt pain like that before.
With the gobbo seemingly dead Clara looks at the large stone boxes. They also have words written with letters on them. Clara tries to decipher them, but can't make heads or tails of it.
Clara looks at Silas. The gobber is dead and he whines about a wound that got healed already. It's easy to look down on that if you didn't feel the pain yourself. But part of it is Silas being the big mouthed one and jumping into the gobber's lair first and then whining about the arrow it earned him. But she keeps her thoughts to herself.
Instead she asks "Are we going to search this treasure now? Or are we leaving and go home now before someone notices we're gone?"
Jewel listens to Clara and the others. The boys were acting a bit immature, but all of them were just children. "Right Clara. Guys, look for anything that's worth anything. We can take that. But we can't take the body back to the farm. We'd have to stage a battle scene with blood and everything, then scream like we were fighting. Our dads were there and they'd've heard if we killed it by the coop. Besides, the gobber was bitten by Clara's dog. We can't fake that. If we just collapse the opening with the body there and let the parents find that, they'll think it caused the collapse trying to break in. Then they'll fix it so no other gobbers try it again. AND, we won't have to explain how WE killed it. We don't need them thinking that we risked what we did, breaking rules and disobeying them. Do you want to be grounded from any playing for a month!?!"
"By the way Clara, where'd you learn to summon a fighting dog like that? That's a cool spell."
"That's no fighting dog. That's a dog for snuggling. And it stays much too short. And it's a secret where I know that from." But it's not hard to guess for Jewel that it can only be Weasel that told her.
The entrance to the crypt is built to last. So far it withstood the ravages of time for over a hundred years. And with the lazy digging job of the goblin there is also not much depth where something could fall into.
As for treasures, there is nothing to see. Only what the goblin has with him. Which is a shortbow with 19 arrows, a dogslicer (a slapdash dagger of goblin make), a wooden shield and a stinking leather armor. Also the remains of two chicken are found in the crypt.
"Well, the dog bit the gobber for us. I sure couldn't do much to it with this stick! And my magic is for helping, not hurting. I'm going to have to see about changing that just in case...."
Looking around the entrance doesn't take Jewel long to realize that her great plan is too risky, and she really doesn't know much about digging.
"Darn gobber doesn't even have anything, and he must have just been confused. I mean digging up bodies for treasure that ain't there? Maybe we just makes the dog's bite look worse, like maybe the dog killed it? If the dog tripped it and smashed his head on the ground.... Then we can go back home and just wait for the parents to find this and figure that it's safe for us to play in the woods again?"
"Can't we drag the gobber close to our home to find him away from our playgrounds? They will find it quicker there." Clara suggests as an alternative, as she sees that putting it in the chicken pen won't work.
After Jewel insits that the goblin has to be found there to see why it was here at all, the kids collect their sticks and leave the crypt. Jevel hits one of the stone coffins with the goblin's head to make it look like he fell unlucky and died from it. It is a strange feeling to pick up a dead but still warm body and smash it into the stone.
But as soon as the kids approach the village, that plan crumbles to dust. Randolf Johnson is walking up and down in front of the barn, alternating between looking at the hole dug under the wall and the edge of the wood.
"Can't we distract him and sneak back in, telling we were hiding from him in there all the time?" Clara asks, not willing yet to accept that fate.
"Lets just go home, sneak back into the barn, and pretend NOTHING happened. Tomorrow somebody will find him but WE won't be blamed. Who would suspect US? We're just little kids"
Randolf watches strenuously if he can see any of the kids.
Clara chooses the way around the grain field and past the other side of the farm using the regular door of the barn to get back in unseen.
"We're going to get away with it, they'll never notice us"
Randolf misses Clara and Tobar, but Jewel is too large already to hide fully behind the grain and get detected. "Jewel! What are you doing outside and where are the others?!?" Randolf shouts over the distance.
Hearing Mr. Johnson, Jewel turns and walks over toward him. "I'm sorry. My pet, Chirp, flew out and I was following it. We've been bored and started playing hide and seek, but I was worried about Chirp." She motions for her familiar to come to her. "Usually she follows her commands really well, but sometimes she gets distracted, and I don't want her lost if there are dangerous things around."
Realizing that she hasn't answered the last question she glances around. "The others? They must still be playing. Maybe they're hiding in the woods if they aren't in thew barn. They might have thought that I was seeking when I went out after Chirp." She turns back toward the barn and raises her voice, "Guys. Stop playing. Mr Johnson is looking for everyone NOW. Tarjun, Clara, Tobar, everyone come out."
Tobar steps out of the barn
"Hi. We're all here. Uh, hello. We weren't doing anything naughty. Not at all" he calls out nervously
Mr. Johnson eyes Jewel with suspicion.
Clara follows Tobar through the dug hole tugging at her father's arm. "I'm here too."
Jewels answer isn't persuading and knowing his kids he knows whom to ask. "Ok... Clara where have all the kids been. I was in the barn and called you and no one answered." Randolf inquires.
"In the barn..." Clara replies, but it sounds more like a question than an answer and she gets beet red and LIE stands written all over her face.
Seeing into the the stern eyes of her father, her resolve falters. Staring at the ground she admits everything. "I wanted to read that words on that stone and sneaked out of the barn and ran to the ruins where I found that stone but there was the gobber and we killed it and Silas got shot. It's all my fault."
Randolfs face color takes the opposite direction of Clara's. He pales to white. "What? Silas, where is Silas."
"Get inside the house. Your mother needs to take a look at that." Randolf tells, shaking his head.
"You crazy bunch! Do you have any idea what could have happened?" he asks noone in particular. And it's hard to tell, if he is angry about the kids recklessness or caught up in the horrors playin gin his imagination.
He ushers all the kids inside the house into the common room and informs Shelly about what happened - that little he knows.
Shelly goes almost into a headless chicken routine as she hears that her little boy got wounded. She takes a look at the hole in the trousers and as there is nothing to see Silas is forced to remove the pants for her to check the leg. "That could still bleed, or get infected or who knows what." This is really embarrassing for all. "I can't see anything... not even a scratch!"
Just as Jewel wants to explain she is cut off. "And you Miss you get your older sibling privileges revoked. Going along with this reckless behavior instead of telling us. Seems like I need to treat you all like five year olds again!"
As all calm down again Randolf makes the kids sit at the table and adresses Jewel. "Would you now please give a complete account on what really happened?"
Jewel can't even stammer out a response as everything is falling apart. She starts to stammer out that Tarjun is older, but isn't even sure what 'older sibling privileges' are.
Doesn't anyone know how to stick to a story? Probably not.... She decides that the 'complete account' (maybe abbreviated) would be the best option. "Ah, yes Mr. Johnson. It was true what I said that we got bored. We usually get to play after our chores but, well.... And I was upset about the chickens getting killed, then stuck downstairs. They don't like that so they don't lay like they should. So we thought maybe we could find the goblin and run it off, if there was only one. There's more of us! We took our pets with us in case of trouble, and sticks and things that were in the barn, and we found it, the gobber. It was digging at a play site in our woods. It said something about treasure with some buried folk, stupid talk, and that it'd share. We tried to scare it off but it grabbed a little bow and shot at Silas. Then we all attacked it and it's dead now. We can take you to it and show you."
Randolf's jaw drops. Not only are they not listening when they are ordered to stay here. They on purpose go after exactly what they were warned of and should stay away from. "Okay. Maybe tomorrow." he replies. "For now you all go to the kids sleeping room and think about what you did wrong here."
"The consequences will be discussed later, when Gertrud and Will are back."
Jewel nods her head down and stares at the ground. Will they ever be able to play again? "Yes Sir." She turns and slowly shuffles to the house, looking at nothing but the ground ahead of her, and to her room.
The kids all move to the room and sit together. But no one is in the mood to play. In the evening the hunting party comes back. They are all tired and annoyed as they had no success in finding any goblins anywhere.
As Will and Gertrud are informed about the events in the village it is quickly decided to solve that in the respective homes.
Clara, Tobar and Kygar follow there parents to the Johnson house.
Will and Shelly then question their kids again about the events and that ends in a lengthy and emotional speech about the dangers in the wild and the woods and the need to be careful and as farmers they should leave that to other people and bla, bla, bla, ... it gets tiresome to listen to that. It ends with a "I hope you've learned your lesson and will act accordingly in the future."
the croods dad
At the Johnson's house there is also an interrogation. Gertrud wants to know exactly how they found that goblin. Because she fumes that the kids managed to accomplish, what she didn't. As it is clarified that it was sheer luck that they stumbled into it she calms down a little. But then she insists on knowing all details about the fight. It's hard to notice for the kids who fear the worst, but Randolf looks at his wife with curiosity as he notices that there is pride gleaming through about the kids in his wife.
But that doesn't help much when it comes to the punishment. "No playing for you anymore until all weeds are removed from the vegetable garden."
Everyone goes to bed and after a night with no new attacks on chicken or anything else in the village a new morning comes.
With weeding for the Johnsons and the harvest of grain for the Branstons.
"I'm sorry. We thought we were helping. It won't happen again. Honest!"
Thoroughly ashamed of himself, he hangs his head and goes to bed.
After breakfast, Gertrud leaves with her hunting dog to check on the ruins. After two hours the comes back with the dead goblin. There is another meeting in the village and over the next days everything goes back to normal. The chicken are back out in their fenced in area and everyone does their work. Midweek Gertrud leaves again for the ruins with two of the lumberjacks and a load of boards.
The Johnson kids need all week to weed out the vegetable garden. The Branston kids are off better, but playing is limited to the close surroundings of the village for now.
At the end of the week all kids are called together in the morning. Will, Shelly, Gertrud and Randolf stand in front of them. "We've talked about what you did with the goblin. And as we told you, we still believe it was a mistake to take on that fight on your own." Randolf explains.
"But the day may come where you don't have the choice to fight or not. Therefore you need to be prepared. You all will get into training with Gertrud who will show you how to use a weapon."
Gertrud opens the sack she is holding and draws out small longbows. "You will learn how to shoot and to hunt." The bows are simply a stick with a string, that has some carvings to hold the string when it is taut. She hands every kid a bow matching their size. "Come along, we're doing the training behind the barn."
Behind the barn there are targets painted on fresh boards that are put at the barn's wall. Gertrud draws a line with her foot on the ground 50 feet from the wall. "Stand here, tauten your bow take an arrow and try to hit the target. And only the target. No one walks to the target and gets shot."
Gertrud then proceeds to show how the bow is held with the legs and bent to tauten it and shows how to nock an arrow and shoot.
Clara wrestles down the bow in a fight that is open for quite a while. Often it won't bend at all and when it does the string jumps out of the carvings on the other side. But finally the bow gives up and Clara wins.
The shooting of the bow also shows mixed results with the arrows all over the place from barn wall to bulls eye.
The morning after the goblin incident Jewel wakes, ready for whatever the punishment is. Surprised that it is really only regular work on the farm she strives to do her best. She leaves Chirp back at the house so she won't have that distraction.
At the end of the week, with the surprise bow practice she pays close attention and tries her best....
Determined to do well, Jewel soon realizes that the bow is not her best weapon.... In the end she has to be glad that she only missed the target once. "Isn't there an easier weapon that we don't have to be so strong to use?"
"Why? It's good. Almost all arrows on target and only one miss. Just like me!" Clara jumps with joy.
Tobar somehow manages to easily string his bow and quickly shows that, while competent, he is hardly a natural with it.
Still, 4 out of 5 shots hit the target and he NEARLY gets one bulls eye.
He looks chagrined at the fact that Clara outshot him. But he KNOWS he'll do better next time.
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Tarjun was expecting one heck of a row and an everlasting punishment. He's pleasantly surprised by the turn of events -even if he's not sure he'd be all good at that 'bow' thing.
"I like my sticks less bendy," he grumbles a bit to his mother.
But obediently, he still grabs the weapon, and tries to tauten it.
"Woops, hehehe. I was holding it upside down."
Once his bow is finally ready, he aims at the targets without much confidence.
Shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, everybodyyy...:
It turns out that he was right to be sceptic about the 'bow'. It's not a great success -to put it midly. The only one arrow having found its target sticks out of the bullseye like it kind of got lost on its way and is surprised to be here.
"It ain't no proper stick."
Jewel grins at Tarjun, but then gets a more stern look on her face. "Tarjun. Ms. Johnson is teaching us how to stay away from an enemy. You're strong enough and we all need to learn this." She faces Gertrud again and adds, "And I'm sorry for my words. Can I practice some more? Hopefully we won't need it 'til we are grown proper, but just in case...."
Dropping the arrow and releasing the line on the bow on the fourth shot is rather embarrassing, but Jewel still tries again.