"Pirates?" Clara inquires in disbelief. "We have no ship, no treasure and no one to board and rob. Or are you suggesting, we're getting the rope the pirate way?" A mischievous smile creeps on Clara's face.
Jewel gets the tools back home to the barn. She spends a little time wiping the saw blade down and putting a light sheen of oil on it. Showing proper care she feels their dad will be pleased and likely to let them use it again.
With that job done she strolls over to the pump to get a quick drink, then heads back to the grove. "OK guys. What did you decide?"
"We be gentlemen o' fortune now! the bird on yer shoulder be a parrot, an' we'll cruise the seas in search fer riches an' fame."
"I need to go home, ask my mom for an eyepatch."
Clara runs off.
After a few minutes she comes back. With an eyepatch and a parchment. "Tarjun, Jewel, my mum has a pirate treassure map!" she calls out while running towards them and waving the parchment.
Jewel giggles at the treasure map, but glances a couple of times at Clara's eyepatch. Possibly jealous, she doesn't comment on it. "A treasure map? Gotta be quiet so nobody hears us. Are you sure you weren't followed?"
"Maybe for privacy we should go out by the shrine? So we'd be sure of privacy!"
"So we're pirates with a fort?" Clara inquires with a confused expression. She follows Jewel.
Once at the ruins she puts the map on the 'table'. "See, here is the river. It has no houses on it as it is an old map. And it has more trees. And here at the x is where the treasure is buried. But mum told it is buried deep. That is why no one has found it yet."
Jewel glances back at Clara as they head toward the shrine. "A fort? What do you mean? That be the captain's cabin on our ship!"
Looking at the map she considers the lines. "I see. But which way is this treasure? That way " She points north, sort of.... " is North. But where are we on this treasure map? If the treasure is buried deep we don't want to be guessing. Digging is hard work!"
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"We could have a fort and still be pirates. We can be lords of the sea, just not the actual sea..."
He stares at the map intently, before remembering that he can't read a map at all.
[b]"So these wriggly lines are the rivers, is that right?"
"You're holding the map upside down!" Clara tells Tarjun, before rotating the map twice herself. "See, if that is the river, and this is the trees, and we can still see the stumps, then the x would be in the middle of the field where the wheat grows."
Clara takes a twig, burns it with magic and the draws with the blackened stick. "See, here would be the barn, and the house and our house here."
Looking at what she drew and the general features of the maps she concludes "There has to be a hint on the field. There is no way to find the exact spot with the map."
Jewel looks at the map with concern similar to Tarjun. She hadn't ever learned how to read a map but understood them to be like a picture of an area. Listening to Clara she turns to glare at her. "We can't go digging great big holes in the wheat field? There's wheat planted there and Dad's counting on a good harvest!" But then considers Clara's last statement.
"What sort of hint would we be looking for? Surely there wouldn't be an 'X' on the ground? Maybe there might be some rocks lined up pointing to another clue? I mean, why would pirate treasure be buried here? It should be somewhere remote, like the goblin caves...."
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"That'd be kind of obvious," Tarjun objects. "Everybody knows that if there's a treasure somewhere, it'd be in some kind of cave! Especially if there's a dragon in it! Now, if I wanted to hide my treasure real well, I'd bury it where people won't even think to go looking! Like a field!"
"Maybe there's some rocks. Or a scarecrow. Or like, some suspicious spot that's been recently dug up!"
"The wheat is harvested and the field is plowed. I don't see an issue. Only that everyone would see us digging." Clara tries to turn the others attention to the real issues.
The field is a large area, now with the new trees at the side that are not on the map. And the only thing sticking out - figuratively - is a depression with a diameter of about seven feet. It is almost a foot sunken in at the center.
Kicking a big lump of dirt in the almost freshly plowed field at the center of the dent Tarjun finds a ten pound stone with an x chiseled into it. The stone is just deep enough to not be caught in the plow.
"My mum said there are some in the shed. I can fetch them."
Clara runs off and a few minutes later she returns with three shovels, two buckets, the cart and packed lunch for all three kids. "My mum made pirate snacks for us."
Jewel wonders at the depressed area in the field. She didn't remember any hole like this when her father had plowed the field. Would they need to get dirt from somewhere to fill in this area? Then she remembers that they are playing and she shouldn't be thinking about work!
Jewel smiles at Clara as she brings the tools and supplies back for digging. She takes a shovel and gets close to the marked stone. "I know it's a big area, but I think we should take turns rather than all trying to dig at once.... And put the dirt far enough away from the hole so it can't fall back in."
Clara starts digging enthusiasticly. She picks up a quarter shovel of dirt and then throws it as far as she can. Which means that behind her is a dangerous place, as sshe isn't very specific in where to throw it. But after a few minutes the enthusiasm wanes. And after a few more the shoveling stops. Without too much to show for it she is exhausted. "Why can't pirates hide their treassure in trees or something?"
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"My mum made pirate snacks for us."
"Sweet!"
Without ceremony, Tarjun opens his packed lunch and starts stuffing himself with whatever is inside. Never in any historical document whatsoever has it been mentioned that pirates had a particular fondness for cookies, but Tarjun isn't the type to let himself be stopped by such stereotypes.
"Don't look at me, my mouth's full," he says as Clara stops shoveling, with his mouth full.
Slow and steady.... Jewel glances at Clara as she so enthusiastically starts shoveling. She returns her focus to her own digging, slower but steady work. As her father had taught, place the tip of the shovel where it belongs. Then apply quick pressure with her foot, not a stomp but just a push using her weight. Bend the shovel back to loosen the dirt and use her legs to lift, not her back. Being so much lighter than her father it is less effective but she does get about a half of a shovelful each time. She also just moves the dirt where she wants it, not throwing it but piling it just beyond where the edge of the hole should be. It'll be easier to fill the hole back in if the dirt isn't randomly spread so far! Remembering the digging they had done for the channel into the drow pit she notices that her arms and shoulders aren't tiring out so quick. Maybe she had gotten stronger? Or maybe she had just learned how to dig better....
"Don't eat too much Tarjun. You'll get a stomach ache when you do start digging!" She considers giving digging advice, but stops herself and just continues her digging.
Jewel accepts the shovel back, stretches a bit before continuing. Even using the training and recent shoveling she is getting tired.
"Has anyone seen any sign of treasure? How deep would it be? I don't want to dig down to the home of the spider woman!"
"Digging for pirate treasure isn't much fun!"
"You're saying my mom would lie?" Clara shoots at Tarjun. She picks up the shovel again and restarts the digging.
As the hole is about three feet deep at the center Gertrud comes along with Wookie and Paddington. "A nice hole you got there. Have you found something already?"
"I'll leave you wookie here to help digging. She loves that." And she isn't much worse than Clara at it. she thinks. "You should consider digging a proper cylindrical shape. If it is deeper still, that will make it easier and prevent that you have to dig larger and larger to prevent the dirt from falling back in.
"Once you're tired, come over to the house. There is cake for hungry treassure hunters."
"We dig deeper holes to bury the dead. Don't you think a pirate treassure would be buried at least as deep as that?"
Taking a look at the stone she concludes "At least it looks like you read the map right and dig in the right spot."
Jewel looks around at the hole that they'd dug so far. It felt like they should be deeper, but.... "Cylindrical shape? So the sides of the hole should be straight up and down and the hole needs to be a circle? If it gets much deeper we'll need to put the dirt into a bucket and have someone pull it up and dump it."
She leans on the shovel handle for a moment, then sighs and continues digging. "OK. A little more then...."
"Why would I? You wanted to play pirate. I just offered something that could make it more interesting. Like a real treassure."
"Just take a break first, while the cake is still warm." gertrud suggests while pointing to the house.
Jewel drops the shovel and starts toward the house. "Cake? And some water. Digging makes me sweat! Need to drink some water to recover that."
"Hope we find it before dark.... Then we can go down to the river for a swim to rinse off the dirt and sweat!"
Clara doesn't need an extra invitation for cake. She runs ahead to the house.
In the kitchen the table is set with warm apple cake, and a cup of milk for each of the kids. "I didn't prepare water, but if you prefer that..." Gertrud puts the jug full of water on the table too.
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Tarjun eyes the cake greedily.
"Thanks, Mrs Johnson! I'd like some water actually." Beat. "So I can wash my hands!" he snickers, taking a glance at Jewel to see if she reacts to his bad joke.
Once his hands are clean, he sits down to enjoy his slice of apple cake, not caring particularly much about using cutlery.
"So this treasure map of yours, Mrs Johnson, how long have you had it for?"
"This parchment was a gift I got from a merchant in the town we lived before moving here."
"We mentioned where we'd go, bought a lot of stuff from him in preparation and after paying he handed it over, telling that he had it for years. But it collected only dust on his shelf and we might be able to put it to better use. I totally forgot about it, but as Clara told, that you play pirate, I remembered it and it still was where I packed it back in the day."
Jewel washes before sitting down for the snack. She politely uses a fork for the cake and has to restrain herself from taking bites too large for proper manners. It tasted very good, possibly due to being hungry? "The cake is very good. Thank you."
"So the merchant had a treasure map but hadn't even considered trying to find it? Odd. I would think he'd try to find it and then sell that map after taking the treasure. Aren't most merchants greedy?" She frowns as she takes a drink of the milk.
"No. Most merchants are just people like anyone else, trying to make a living by selling wares. He couldn't be bothered to check for the treasure himself. He was more the anxious type when it came to the wilderness. He shuddered at the thought alone of going where we went."
"He could have come with us. But then he would have had to leave his business. And that what hinders most people doing anything out of the ordinary. The daily chores."
"I had enough of them too, so I forgot about it."
Jewel finishes her cake and milk, then gets some water. "Makes sense. Whatever the treasure might be it probably wouldn't help with the day-to-day work of living here. Fun to imagine what it could be though. Gems or jewelry. Maybe something magical. But it would have to be something valuable but not usable for whoever buried it. Maybe a crown stolen from royalty and people from the kingdom searching for it! But it was stolen long enough ago that nobody remembers it."
She thinks some more while she drains her water from the glass. "I just hope it's not something gross! Like a box with the heads of some people that were important hundreds of years ago, but now just disgusting rotting slop under empty skulls...."
"Let's go find out!" She gets up rubbing a spot on her left hand. She hopes she isn't developing a blister. She had several when they had worked on digging the trench for the pit, and her cure spell didn't seem to help. Maybe Erastil didn't like her wasting his magic on fixing things that weren't really wounds?
She heads back out to the 'dig site', picks up the shovel to start again.
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"Maybe another map to an even bigger treasure!" Tarjun suggests. "I hope no one found it already." He gasps. "Someone could be looking for it right now!" He finishes his slice of cake in a single, huge bite. "Thank you Mrs Johnson!" he says, though the words come out muffled from all the food still in his mouth. "Goodbye!"
He follows Jewel to the hole they already dug as quickly as he can. To his relief, no nosey people seem to be standing around to see what they've done.
"You sure you wanna go back to it straight away?" he asks his sibling. "I saw you rubbing your hands and stuff back there. You alright?"
As the kids keep digging, it attracts attention. Will comes along and rolls a wooden construction. It is like a barrel, just not bigger in the middle and without top and bottom.
"You're getting deep. Use this, that it doesn't cave in and bury you." He just topples it into the hole and then leaves again. Later he brings another one and a ladder. The rings are five foot in diameter and also about 5 foot high. They just slide in deeper as the dirt is removed at the bottom.
Gertrud keeps briging snacks and encourages the kids to keep going. "I'm really curious what it will be that you find. At least I'm sure it wasn't a squirrel who made the map. Or you'd find a cache of nuts. I didn't expect a game of pirates would get me that excited!"