"That depends. Not before we ate supper. And don't you dare gulping your soup down to tell me you are done with it. We'll take our time to enjoy this meal, talk a bit and then..."
Mrs. Johnson looks at the other kids "If someone can provide proper light, so we are not fighting in the dark. Because that is a later lesson."
"Fiat lux." Clara states and three wisp like lights dance over the table.
Listening to the conversation Jewel remembers not too long past.... "Remember when Mrs. Johnson, Gertrud, was teaching us how to shoot arrows with the bow? It was fun when we hit. But every time we missed the target we had to go find the arrows! That wasn't as much fun. And I imagine that learning to fight with a staff or axe would be hard work, like chopping down trees. We probably could have gotten that back home working with the lumberjacks! Not sure what Dwayne would have thought of that...."
Mrs. Johnson rolls her eyes at Clara showing off. She inhales as if to object to Jewel's assumptions, but then decides to enjoy her bowl of soup instead.
"Dwayne would have used your stupidity to have you work for him for free. Like with the marking of trees." Clara states.
Jewel just shrugs at the comments of her friend and brother. "Dwayne's running a business. That's why he was clear-cutting. It's bad for the land but good for short-term profit. It would be good if our village had a bunch of new families and needed to build new homes.... but we don't."
"Marking the trees that they should be cutting, and planting the saplings is what was good for the land, and it's what Erastil would want." She decides not to comment about 'stupidity'.
Mrs. Johnson chuckles when Tarjun backpedals on his clear statement.
After the meal Mrs. Johnson disappears shortly and returns with a proper stick of her own. A seven foot long staff made of a dark wood that is very light, and has a metal cap on each end that is about a foot long.
You also notice that she is wearing a silver chain shirt under her blouse. "I'm ready for our training. Are you?"
Pierce eats his stew quietly, listening to the others talk about people he doesn't know. He imagines training with Mrs. Johnson and hopes that it isn't too embarrassing or painful. "What kinda teacher are you, ma'am?" he asks. "Sometimes the sailors would slap me on the butt with their cutlasses, when I was first learning to fence. Once, I got a nasty cut on my side from Red that got infected an' all! There was this white stuff comin' out of me. It was gross." He marvels at the memory of that as he finishes his food.
"What's that?" Pierce exclaims when he sees the weapon. He also notices the silver chain but thinks better of asking about it, because he thinks it's probably magic. But his eyes go over to it several times, appraising it, and he thinks he is being subtle.
"I hope a good one, but I leave the grading to you once you're taught. We'll fight with sticks, so no cuts. But you have a fair chance to get bruised if you don't pay attention." Mrs. Johnson warns.
As Pierce inquires about her weapon, she explains "That is a proper staff for fighting. With a few perks that help if someone brings abyssal or hellish companions."
"Tarjun, get your stick and come to the garden."
She leads the way and takes her fighting stance between carrots and onions.
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After finishing his plate in under three minutes (which, coming from him, is an incredible display of self-control), Tarjun squirms on his chair until Mrs Johnson Sr allows him to get up.
"Yes ma'am!" he jumps to his feet, grabbing his staff. But still, when he faces the old lady in a defensive stance, he hesitates. "Er. What do we do now? Rehearse some moves or whatnot?"
"Some basic rules" Mrs Johnson explains.
"First, you don't need to worry about me, I can take care of myself, and if you manage to hit me, I can take it."
"Second, you are standing in my vegetable garden. Be aware of where you stand, if you trample my vegetables I'll whack you with that stick. I won't harm you seriously but I might knock you out if you don't manage to dodge it."
"As for the training - make sure you stand in a stable stance." She takes her stick points it at Tarjun's chest and then slightly pushes him, to give him an idea, what she is talking about.
Taking the stick back in two hands, she challenges him "If you are ready, attack me."
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Standing in full defense, Mrs. Johnson easily parries the attack. "Not bad. Again."
While Tarjun shakes his foot and doesn't pay attention, Mrs. Johnson swipes him off his feet.
"This is a fight, no practice in diplomacy. I told you the consequences when you step on my vegetables. No 'I'm sorry' is going to change that. Once you swing your weapon at someone, talking is over."
"Get up."
Jewel considers using her protective luck hex on Tarjun, but decides against it as Mrs. Johnson seems to be keeping the training fight 'fair'.
"Can I ask why the training has to be in the vegetables? Carrots are good, but not smashed under foot."
Pierce watches carefully, taking mental notes on how Mrs. Jonson and Tarjun fight. He laughs when Tarjun gets tripped, but he is still clearly on Tarjun's side as underdog and rooting for the boy to hit their hostess.
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"HEY!" Tarjun cries out in protest, before faceplanting on the muddy earth. "Try keeping your balance with a bad leg," he grumbles, getting back up.
Maybe it's because he's quite angry, but the next attack comes with a bit more gusto -but not much more grace. He strikes true and with a great deal of force, but it leaves him off-balance.
"I don't think we should do that on the street and I have no other room to practice." Mrs. Johnson answers Jewel. "And in real fights you don't get to choose the terrain either. Unless you are the one setting up an ambush."
As Tarjun picks himself up from the dirt and attacks again, Mrs. Johnson can't dodge the forceful blow Tarjun offers in his anger, but her armor prevents it from hurting her.
After returning the favor by hitting Tarjun with both ends of the stick she tells him "Don't start a fight when you are a cripple that can't put up with it. Life isn't fair and there are a lot of people that reside six foot under, who didn't learn that lesson in time."
"Even if the only thing resulting from this training would be you becoming humble in the face of your lack of skill it would be a worthy lesson that might lengthen your life."
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Tarjun visibly winces when Clara's grandmother calls him a 'cripple' to his face -though the satisfaction of getting one hit in soothes his anger somewhat. "Lack of skill?" he scoffs. "I ain't doing too bad! Better than you at my age!"
And just to drive the point forward, he attempts to pay Mrs Johnson in her own coin, and swipes at her legs. When shifting his stance, he squashes another carrot under his foot -consistently unaware of the rows of vegetables.
Mrs. Johnson smirks as Tarjun gets bold and tries to get her off her feet - not even close. But her attempt to disarm him fails. "Anyway, I don't think my carrots can take any more of your training."
"Erastil, provide your healing grace to those hurt by today's training, and if you can heal carrots to that would be great!" Jewel channels healing energy to all within 30'.
"If we'd known an errant wish would send us off on adventure maybe we'd've taken the weapons of the Guardians with us. Instead we had nothing but our wits.... and magic. But I think we did OK."
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" "Anyway, I don't think my carrots can take any more of your training."
"Yeah, to be fair, that probably wasn't a good idea," Tarjun relaxes his stance. He grins at Clara's grandmother, more than a little happy to have held his ground in front of an experienced fighter. "But that was interesting!"
"Anyone else wanna have a go?"
"Nah, I'm good."
Pierce twists his face in conflict, but shakes his head. He doesn't want to be embarrassed by getting tripped by Mrs. Johnson, and certainly doesn't want to risk her ire by trampling more of her vegetables.
Jewel holds her hands down at her side when she hears Tarjun's question. "No thanks! I don't have a weapon and don't want to fight. That's why I normally just have magic ready to protect and heal. I didn't wish us out on this adventure! It's been interesting, but.... kind of dangerous!?!"
"At least it wasn't boring!" Clara defends herself. And it totally wasn't her fault that Tarjun got whipped and Jewel thrown into a cage.
"Let's collect the broken carrots and feed them to Stardayroast." Clara suggests and starts collecting the trampled tops and digging out the rest of the ruined carrots.
Surprised at Clara's sudden burst of energy Jewel asks, "Who is Stardayroast?"
Mrs. Johnson chuckles. "I have rabbits. And back in the day I told Clara not to get too attached to them, because they will become Starday roast. She didn't get it back then. But ever since all my bunnies are named Stardayroast according to Clara."
"Sundayroast is really cute! And fluffy! Come I'll show you!" Clara tells and runs ahead with two hands full of trampled carrots she collected.
In a kind of cabinet in the corner of the garden live numerous rabbits. All are blue-grey with hanging ears. On three stories you find at the top a big one, a big one with small babies at the bottom and in the middle five that still need to grow. The big ones might have well above 10 pounds.
Each story has a grate to look into (or out of) and a solid wooden door.
Clara opens the middle door, throws the carrots in and grabs one of the rabbits.
Pulling it out at its neck fur she holds the unlucky rodent and pets it. "Wanna feel how fluffy it is?" she offers.
Jewel follows along to see what Clara wants to show them. Seeing the rabbits though she steps back, getting several steps away. She understands raising animals for food, but doesn't want to get attached.... and they were so cute!
"Ah, I think I'll pass on that. You know me, and I'd want to chat with them.... Not a good idea." She goes back inside. Seeing Mrs. Johnson she nods and looks for something else to do. "One of my hexes is talking to animals. They're not very smart, but it's still too easy to get attached to the cute ones!"
"Maybe too many mouth to feed, so rabbits are too small?" Clara speculates.
"Each their own." Mrs. Johnson replies to Jewel.
"Your beds are prepared upstairs. Once you are there, it's silence. I'm going to bed already. Good night."
Jewel considers Mrs. Jonson's words. She didn't feel tired, but was that because they were someplace new, somewhat exciting but finally safe? Probably. "Good night. I'll tell the others."
She heads back out to the others. "Hey guys. Mrs. Johnson is going to bed. Says we have beds prepared upstairs but to be quiet when we go up. The word she used was 'silence'." She spots Tarjun petting one of the rabbits. "Tarjun? Are you making friends with that rabbit? Might have trouble eating it later? That might be why we don't have any rabbit pens around at home."
"How old do rabbits become if you don't eat them? I'm sure you can befriend it now as it would be dead anyway when you get to visit my grandma again."
"Rabbit makes a tasty stew." someone whispers in Jewel's ear.
Jewel whispers back, "I know. That's why I really don't want to make friends with the silly creatures. They're not smart, but they are fluffy and soft, and so cute!" She turns away so she doesn't have to watch while Tarjun throttles the rabbit he is holding....
"Let's go to bed. I'm tired and I'm really looking forward to a bed that is not rocking." Clara suggests.
"What are bunnies good at? Besides being fluffy and tasty?" Clara inquires.
Clara inhales to object, but decides against, as she doesn't want to be labeled fluffy and declaring herself tasty would only invite stupid comments.
"If you want a pet, you can ask my granny if you get one. But that's nothing like chirp or weasel."
Pierce prepares himself for his first night away from the sea, at least as far as he can remember. He appears puzzled by all the attention the food animals are getting, but elects to remain quiet-- figuring that it's a land thing and he doesn't want to make Tarjun mad at him.
Jewel hears Tarjun's request, and hopes Mrs. Johnson says No! For once she agrees with Clara. The bunny is useless for anything other than being cute, and it is nothing like their familiars! She quietly heads to her bed for the night. Again Clara is right.... It will be nice to have a bed that isn't swaying with waves! She mentally calls Chirp to herself, glad that she doesn't have to hide her anymore.
"Remy? Are you here? We're going to bed down for the night.
Mrs. Johnson sighs. "For sure you're not taking it to bed. They s%~# all the time and I don't want that inside. Put it back into the stable."
"Tomorrow you can take it along. I'll put it on the list of things Gertrud has to pay for."