"Hopefully not." Mrs. Johnson sighs. "Less talking, faster walking!"
Wallking up behind Pierce Clara takes a sniff, and decides, besides him being due for a bath, he doesn't smell too bad.
"What are your thoughts on marriage?" she inquires, as she speeds up to walk besides Pierce.
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"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."
Tarjun shrugs. "That, or I checked what those pirates brought on the ship to eat. I thought there'd be more ribs!"
""What are your thoughts on marriage?"
"Don't answer that," the eleven-year-old warns Pierce in his usual unsubtle way. "It's a trick question."
Jewel shrugs but keeps walking with Mrs. Johnson's comment. "There were a lot more potatoes and rice than cabbage. But they didn't really have much meat. I think the captain or first mate was just being cheap. They told me the meat was for the captain and first mate, and the flavor in the stew was for the crew...."
She snickers at Tarjun's "warning" to Pierce....
Pierce appears confused. "Huh?" he asks. "How is it a trick? I dunno. Do people get presents when they get married? I'd like that. One of the sailors on the ship was married, an' he said it made goin' away much better." He shrugs.
"There is a big celebration with the whole neighborhood and presents. I think mom once said, every family settling in Oakstead gets all the wood for a house. And for presents you get a goat or a chicken or something like that." Clara tells.
"But then you have your own house and everything and you have to do all the work yourself." she adds pensively.
"So you're going to live with your parents all your life until they die?" Clara inquires in disbelief.
Jewel has trouble repeating Clara's words because she is laughing so hard.... "'and you have to do all the work yourself'!?! But then you have kids and once they've grown up some you can trick them into doing all the work!!!"
She keeps laughing and walking along. "Gotta get this discussion done before we get home. I'm sure our parents would have a lot comments to add!"
"What's wrong with boats?" says Pierce, a tad defensively.
"Boats are great if you are the captain." Clara throws in her two cants worth.
Jewel glances at Clara with a smirk. "If you have the skill and demeanor to be a Captain. But I'm sure not all ships are sailed by pirates. A regular merchant ship might be better."
She turns to Pierce and adds, "There are dangers on land too, but at least if you're on land it can't sink and drown everyone."
"Walking sucks." Clara objects.
Pierce watches Clara and Tarjun warily, unsure if he wants to get between them and their squabble. "Isn't it weird how th' ground rolls around? Walking on land is much harder than walking on th' deck."
After a long day of arguing about the big things in life and nitpicking about a lot other things while walking, finally the lumbermill comes into sight.
"You're living in this backwater dump. If you can't tell if we're there, I for sure can't. How many sawmills are there on that river?" Mrs. Johnson replies slightly annoyed.
Jewel is tired and foot-sore when they finally spot the sawmill. The site revives her somewhat. "Home! Mom and Dad! How many days were we gone?"
"How much did the lumberjacks mess up while we were gone?" She speeds up her stride, possibly wanting to be home, possibly angry anticipating damage to the trees.
As Jewel comes closer to the saw mill the door flies open and an angry Dwayne comes out.
Jewel is surprised, and delighted for a moment to see Dwayne.... Then when he starts yelling at her she spins through all the possible emotions, fear, anger, sorrow. How was she supposed to know what anything costs? She'd never even thought about money before this nightmare of an "adventure"!
She is barely able to stay standing as the yelled words strike with a perceived force. She bursts into tears and tries to reply.... "No. I don't known about money. How many days? We've been trying so hard to get back that I lost all track of time. I wasn't sure even where we were. It's not like we ran away...."
Feeling Jewel's distress Chirp flies at Dwayne, screaming in her own voice words that a bird should never have learned! "#$%%&*$ @$#%^$&$* !#@%$ $%^&$^&**!"
Clara ignores Dwayne "It's not like he has a say when it comes to us."
"Still the old charmer, and helpful as always." Mrs. Johnson replies with a look that would make a lake freeze over.
"Move on kid, we're here to meet someone else." She puts a hand on Jewels back partly for consiling, partly to move her along.
Those who can connect the dots find, that the free spirited, "let every man find heaven in their own fashion" attitude of Desna can have a hard, stone cold side if someone tries to take that freedom by bullying.
She doesn't stop, but simply moves on to the Johnson house.
Dwayne shouting turns some heads, but the lumberjacks keep on working once they see that it's not about them.
The woods look ok. Not as good as when Jewel would have marked the trees, but also not cut down completely. The job of planting new ones isn't done though.
Dwayne suddenly doesn't seem in the mood for argueing anymore for some reason and moves back into his office.
Once the group closes in on the house Mrs. Johnson tells Tarjun "Walk over to your house and get your parents. I don't want to tell everything twice."
Pierce instinctively tries to make himself small and unnoticeable. He fidgets and looks around nervously, not really sure what happens next.
"Shelly come, the kids are back!" Will comes out of the house running towards Tarjun, grabs him in a big hug and lifts him off the ground.
Clara barges into the house. "Mooooom, Daaaad, I'm back!"
"Clara!" Gertrud drop everything and comes to check on the kid. She picks the girl up. "Thank god, you're back! Are you ok?"
Then she notices her mother in the door. "Hi mom." she tells with much less enthusiasm.
"Hello Gertrud. I see, the pleasure is all mine." Mrs. Johnson replies in kind. She musters the interior of the house.
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Seeing her Father Jewel practically flies into his arms.... "Mom! Dad! I missed you so much. It was so terrible!"
It takes a bit before she can release her grip, but eventually she does. "Mrs. Jonson. I mean, Mrs. Johnson's mother, brought us home. She wants us all over there. It's a long story."
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The air is knocked out of Tarjun's lungs as he finds himself trapped in the tightest hug his father has ever given him. Although he wriggles to loosen the squeeze, he's rather pleasantly surprised by such a rare display of affection, and returns the embrace.
"How long were we gone?" he eventually asks when the overwhelming emotions have subsided a little.
"Over a week! We thought the spiderwoman, or those pale dwarves might have come to get you. There was no trace! Even the dog couldn't find any tracks! Like the ground opened and swallowed you."
"Yes, let's move to Gertrud to hear what happened."
A lot of hugs and tears later all sit together at the large dining table in the Johnson house. Mrs. Johnson Sr., Gertrud Randolph, Will, Shelly and the kids. Also Paddington and Wookie are around and very excited.
"So tell, what happened." Gertrud demands from no one specific.
"I threw a pebble into the well you made us dig and wished us to be somewhere more interesting. And..." she snaps her fingers "we were gone." Clara opens the story.
Jewel waits for Clara to add anything, but she seems content to have barely started the story. "We didn't understand what happened exactly. But we were somewhere underground. There was a long tunnel with a terrible, big creature made of jelly that burned if you touched it. Acid like, not fire. And the tunnel led to a big room with a short guy, dwarf, and a pile of treasure. It was his treasure, and he had paid a wizard to put him there to keep his money safe. He wasn't very nice, telling us that we had to leave. There was another door so we left, but it just led back to the jelly creature."
"The jelly cube didn't move fast so we were able to kill it while staying just enough ahead of it. But, there still wasn't an exit. We wished to get out of the trap, and the short man went with us, to a castle. I think the man in charge of the castle was a baron? and maybe a wizard? He was mean. He asked how we got there, and we told him but he didn't believe us. He put us in prison cells down below the castle, saying that we'd better tell the truth. We talked with the servant that he left there, and tricked him into letting us out. Then we escaped and ran away."
"We still didn't know where we were, but I called on magic from Erastil to help. I got a direction, but not distance, so we walked that way. That got us to a town. The people there weren't very nice. We were hungry, and tired. Tarjun tried making some music in the streets and some people gave him money. That helped. But then we were looking and asking for directions, trying to find out where we were and how we might get home. We tried asking if we could earn our way on a ship. The mate on one ship let us board saying that we could work for our passage. But once we left the port they showed us that they were a pirate ship, and we had to work as part of their evil crew or they'd flog us and throw us in cages below deck. Or if we really resisted, or broke their rules, they would tie a rope to our arms and legs and drag us under the ship. One of the crew was caught stealing and they did that.... My healing magic couldn't help with him once they pulled him back up...." She stops her part of the story here, tears streaming down her face and silent sobs taking her breath.
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Tarjun discreetly gives his sister a light kick under the table when she mentions the baron locking them in his basement. He doesn't want to get his parents too worried. His face crumples when she begins to sob, and rubs her back to comfort her.
"Anyhoo," he takes over. "That's how we met this guy! His name is Pierce," he gestures at the kid for emphasis. "And he was on the ship with us! Well, he's been there for longer than us, actually. How many years?... Maybe that's not relevant."
"Long story short: meanie captain got kicked out from his own ship, and Sandara took over -I think she had magic powers or something, and also she was the only one who was nice to us. And then we convinced all the pirates to sail to Annesley, 'cause we knew Clara's grandma would be there, and we knocked on her door and said we wanted to go home. Also, Pierce didn't want to stay on the pirate ship, so there you are! Walked all the way back to Oakstead."
"Did you know that ships can make you sick? I thought being a pirate would be more fun. But Pierce did bring something from the ship," he winks conspiratorially at his new friend.
"And I got this rabbit!" he proudly sets down the rabbit's cage on the table. "I haven't picked a name yet. Maybe Thumpy? Or Fluffles."
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"Pierce was on a merchant ship that the pirates entered. And then the crew was divided and we ended up on the merchant ship with Pierce. He is no pirate. At least not for long. And I took over the ship! I set the mean pirate captain on fire and then I became captain! I just let Sandara handle the details of everyday work."
Between sobs Jewel adds, "He was the mate on the pirate ship. But on the captured ship he was the captain. And he was meaner than the actual captain. Even when he got on fire he just fought. Burning to death and he didn't even try to put the fire out. He just fought... He was so mean!"
"I can confirm that we have an abandoned ship mooring close to Annesley since the kids knocked on my door. The rest you have to take their word for." Mrs. Jonson Sr. comments.
"When is dinner. I'm hungry." Clara shows her priorities.
"That's unbelievable. Every part of that story is totally crazy." Gertrud voices the obvious.
Pierce looks disgusted at Jewel's description of the keelhauling. Obviously, he's never heard this story before. He seems reluctant to talk, cowed by all the adults. He gives Tarjun urgent looks when he brings up that he took something from the ship, not exactly subtle.
"I'm Pierce," he says lamely.
"Yeah right, I brought one more kid than you lost. And I'm not taking him back with me."
"Mom, can we keep him? Maybe I'm gonna marry him."