Clara leads the way to the bedroom throws her street clothes off and jumps into the bed, hiding under the thick featherbed.
Rémy hides away from this rodent eating woman. No chance he is going to show his face around her.
|
"Yes," Tarjun whispers to himself triumphantly, before obligingly putting the bunny back in its cage. Since he's not sure of finding him again tomorrow, he takes a strip off one of his sleeves to tie it around the rabbit's neck like a makeshift collar.
He's rather surprised to find a proper bed in the bedroom instead of a bedroll, and happily lies down to sleep... So long as he doesn't have to share with Remy.
The next morning Mrs. Johnson wakes you all before sunrise. She is already in full travelling garb and has her stuff packed for the journey.
Either she is eager to get on the way, or eager to get you out of the house - hard to tell. She also has lunch pack prepared for everyone. "Out of bed already. Get ready for the way home, we're leaving soon."
|
|
Tarjun gets up with some difficulty. He's never been a morning person, and the training with Mrs Jonson has left him with sore cramps in his legs.
He gets dressed nonchalantly, before remembering the rabbit he left in its hutch. He walks past Mrs Jonson hurriedly to fetch it, and comes back to the front door with the rabbit curled up in his arms. "We take it with us then?" he asks. "And can we have breakfast? Is that part of the plan?"
Without any packs of traveling equipment Jewel is able to get ready pretty quick. She does check to be sure that Remy is hidden with her before they leave.
"I'd like to take some cuttings or seeds for a couple of the herbs that I didn't recognize. So I can add to what Mom has."
"You go tyour bag with food. You can eat on the way. It's a long way and I don't want to clean up again before we can leave." Mrs. Johnson tells Tarjun.
"Not a bad idea, but hurry." she tells Jewel.
Once all are out of the house she locks it with a big iron key. Then she leads to the river, to walk upstream.
As Annesley is in civilization and with the farms spreads out quite a bit into the land the first hour is like a stroll in the park. With trodden paths and a smoking chimney in sight here and there, some goats jumping over the meadows.
Jewel gets an idea what happens, if you don't look out for the trees and the forest is gone in wide areas.
Glad to be strolling along and finally believing that they finally going to get home, Jewel enjoys the sights.... but quickly gets bored with it.
"Mrs. Johnson? Where are all of the trees? And the birds and little animals? And why do the fields have to be so big? Where does all this food go? There's so many people that they've pushed nature away. I don't think I would have ever learned to talk to animals if I grew up here." She frowns at that wondering what her life would have been like. She might have lived on a ship like Pierce?
"Pierce? What was your life like before you joined a ship? Sorry I never asked, but I never thought about it before."
|
|
Unless talked into bringing a cage in which to put the rabbit in, Tarjun is content with carrying it in his arms as he walks, gleefully unaware of any logistically issues this might cause in the near future.
"Yeah, you come from Rahadoum, right?" he chimes in. "What's Rahadoum like? Your parents are still there?"
"Civilization is a good thing. Where there are no trees, there are no wolves or bears hiding that will jump at you and eat you. And you need a lot of wood for building a city. And all the people need wood for their hearths. So it's a win-win for the people. And there is more than enough forest left."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Jewel listens sadly to Mrs. Johnson's words. How could she be so blind when her daughter understood so well?
"We've faced down wolves. And we brought a bear home for Gertrud. And I never felt remotely as scared facing them as I did on that ship against the pirates, or facing that noble on our journey. The animals aren't evil, people are. If their homes are being destroyed, or their natural hunting grounds cleared, then they might attack people. But they do it because they can't understand the change or they're just plain hungry. And clear cutting the trees without re-planting is just short sighted. You'll just have to go farther afield to gather that wood that you need for building or your hearths. That would be why the lumberjacks around our village are cutting so much more than we need. They're shipping it to places like this where the forest is gone. If we hadn't started working with them.... If Erastil hadn't sent the Stag, or Bruihu, they might still be clear cutting, ruining the homes of the animals around our village."
"If everyone just decided that there's always more than enough forest left, it won't be long before there's no forest left." Jewel pauses. Her mind is racing with what she wants to say, but she doesn't want to be disrespectful. She doesn't understand much about the world. This 'adventure' had shown her that. She bends her head down and just walks in silence for a while....
|
|
"Civilization is a good thing. Where there are no trees, there are no wolves or bears hiding that will jump at you and eat you. And you need a lot of wood for building a city. And all the people need wood for their hearths. So it's a win-win for the people. And there is more than enough forest left."
"I dunno," Tarjun simply comments. "It looks a little sad, without all the trees and stuff. There's no way you could play a decent hide-and-seek in those parts."
"To everyone their own. That's why Gertrud moved into the woods and I didn't"
"We lived here most of her childhood. I don't really know why she left the town. She married Randolf and together they decided to become hillbillies."
"We only see each other when she comes for shopping, like once a year or so. And now a second time."
Jewel continues in silence while she walks, thinking. What if she had grown up in Annesley? Would she have the same view as Mrs. Johnson? Would she be a cleric of Erastil? Or any God? Would Chirp have found her and guided her to be a witch? Or would some other familiar from a different patron have guided her? Her life would have been much different....
"How long is the trip? I don't recall ever coming here."
"It is boring as hell and I'd sit together with the same five people all the time. Why would I do that? I've been pondering leaving Annesley at times because it is just a small town in the middle of nowhere."
"So if you ever ponder moving to Magnimar or something, please tell me. I might come along."
"I wonder what it is like in a big city. The pirate city was busy, but it was not a nice place."
"Magnimar? I've heard of it. A really big city, and probably at least as dangerous as the pirates. I don't want to go there. Right now I just want to go home!"
"Magmimar is one of the biggest cities around. I don't know if you could put Annesley ten or a hundred times into Magnimar. And it has a city guard and a prison. So I'd say it is pretty safe, if you're not a pirate. Especially if you are wealthy and can live in the better parts of it."
"It is far away if you've never been out of your village. But for far travelled adventurers like you are, it's just another boat trip away." Mrs. Johnson jokes.
"Ok, noted. For the next pebble in the well, wish for Magnimar." Clara comments
"We could go for the moon?" Clara replies, her interest piqued.
Jewel actually stops walking for a second at Clara's words. "NO! You don't even know if there's air on the moon. Maybe we should wait until we've grown up before you start wishing us around the world anymore!"
She jogs to catch back up to the group. "Not just a couple of weeks. I've got to undo whatever mistakes the lumberjacks have probably done. Trees take time to grow, and I don't have the magic needed to speed that up!"
"When am I grown up? Two weeks? Next year? I'm for sure not sitting for years in that boring village. I want to see the world!" Clara states.
"Two weeks? One year? Clara, You're a year younger than me. Don't you want to grow up? I want to see the world too. But I'd prefer to know where I'm going and what I'll be facing. And I'd prefer to have a chance at getting respect from the adults. As kids you know we'll always be seen as kids by any adults that we would have to deal with. Even with the powers that we have we're just kids. We need to enjoy being kids. Play when we can. And take some time and learn about the world."
"I'm ten already! I'm only five years away from being married and having kids of my own! I need to live life to the fullest til then!" Clara objects.
"Married? To who? Or what? One of the lumberjacks? They're all stupid and ugly. We're kids until we grow up, and then we can be adventurers and travel the world."
"Once we get home we can be kids again. Play and have fun. Maybe you can teach us how to levitate, or featherfall, or breath underwater. I could try to teach you how to speak with animals if you wanted...."
"I don't know what you want. Being married is cool. You have a guy hanging around who does what you tell him. I just need to find one that doesn't smell so bad."
"And mum told, as soon as you have a guy, the kids come automatically. But that's what you have the guy for. He can take care of them."
Mrs. Johnson snickers and mumbles "Poor Randolph."
|
|
"I don't know what you want. Being married is cool. You have a guy hanging around who does what you tell him. I just need to find one that doesn't smell so bad."
"And mum told, as soon as you have a guy, the kids come automatically. But that's what you have the guy for. He can take care of them."
"This sounds like hell!" Tarjun moans. "And mom sure looks like she's doing more stuff at the house than dad does. He's always out!"
"If the smell's working to repel girls, I'll never bathe again."
"Jewel, do you have magic to make him clean?" Clara inquires silently.
Jewel is stunned by Clara's comments. "What? Clara, Are you kidding? I hardly know where to start on everything you just said! Married means that you have a guy hanging around that does what you tell him? No it doesn't, unless you are using magic to keep him under control! And then it doesn't last forever and it doesn't require that you marry him anyway. And the kids don't just come automatically! Haven't you watched any of the animals that your folks raise? The baby animals don't just happen, and human babies don't either. And the guy isn't the only one to take care of the babies. In fact, in the early years I think the mother usually does more for taking care of the baby than the father.... You have watched baby animals nursing on their mother, right?"
She turns on Tarjun, "And you! You start stinking up home Mom and Dad will hold you down while I soak you with all of the gallons of water that I can create until you are clean!" She glares at him, then shrugs. "But you haven't really got anything to worry about. Other than Clara there aren't any girls in town...." She gives Clara a wicked grin at that thought! "Unless you are going to marry her!?!"
"Ewww, no."
"One more reason to go to Magnimar. There have to be more boys than in Oakstead. Granny, where did you find grandpa?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Pierce? What was your life like before you joined a ship? Sorry I never asked, but I never thought about it before."
"Yeah, you come from Rahadoum, right? What's Rahadoum like? Your parents are still there?"
Pierce has been quiet and introverted ever since he left the ship, and for some reason he doesn't respond to the kids' direct questions. He merely shrugs and looks off in the distance. It might be that he's not handling the change from cabin boy to land-lubber very well.
"I don't really remember anything before The Man's Promise," he mumbles. "Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm 'posed to do now that I don't got all those railin's and boards around the edges of my home."
He wrinkles his nose when the conversation shifts to getting married. "The best thing about gettin' married is that then you've got somethin' to come back for when you die. Like, lots of good ghost stories are about someone's wife hauntin' them after she's dead, 'cause she pined away from bein' lonely or somethin' like that. But I dunno if that's worth it. You can be a ghost for lots of reasons."
A sly smile hushes over the face of Mrs. Johnson. "It's not important how I met my boy. You should see that you find someone who likes the same things as you like. If you like dancing go looking for someone at the village dance. If you don't like dancing, look for those that don't dance."
"And if you don't know what you like, that's the first thing to find out, before you look for a spouse."
|
|
"We've seen ghosts," Tarjun nods. "They definitely weren't married. Or if they were, they didn't make it look good."
"So basically, I've gotta find someone who knows they don't like no spouse," he says triumphantly.
"It'll be great not being on a boat anymore! Like, you don't get sick. And the landscape actually changes!"
Jewel chuckles at Pierce's comments about ghosts and ghost stories. "We've already dealt with real ghosts. One was the previous Guardian of Erastil. The other was a Cleric of Erastil that tried to take some shortcuts with necromancy. He was destroying things because his body hadn't been buried in the shrine like he wanted. We had to figure out how to do a proper ritual of atonement to get him Erastil's forgiveness so he could go to his final rest." She considers that for a moment, "I guess that would be like you mention, having something to return to when you die. I always just figured that home was a good place to live, when you weren't out learning about the world."
When Tarjun mentions the boat, and the 'unchanging' landscape Jewel stares off to the horizon. "Actually I kind of enjoyed being on the boat on the water. I just didn't like the pirates, and hurting people. Maybe if we had found a decent merchant ship it would have been more fun!"
"Pierce? How long were you on the Man's Promise? You look like you're about the same age as the rest of us."
Clara gets an idea. While Jewel and Tarjun keep Pierce busy with talking, she falls back to approach from behind to take a sniff and check how Pierce smells. She stops to tie her shoes.
"Pierce? How long were you on the Man's Promise? You look like you're about the same age as the rest of us."
Pierce shrugs. "Uh, I guess it was four or five years? I don't really remember. Everyone tole me it was my birthday a couple of times, but I don't know how they knew. We din't have a lot of parties on the ship." He looks curiously at Tarjun. "How old are you?"
"Eating cabbage for weeks? How would you know what that is like? Sometimes I wonder if you are four, or twenty, rather than your actual.... well, I'm fairly certain that you are eleven. Time passes and we grow up, eventually."
"Maybe we should ask Mom when we get home. It shouldn't be.... Mrs. Johnson? How long is this trip? Will we be camping along the way? Or needing to forage for food?"