Pierce stares at Clara like she grew another head, but still seems reluctant to say much.
Jewel looks at Clara, not believing that her friend could say something like that! , or something that you can 'keep'! And you're scaring him!" She turns to Pierce and quietly adds, "Sorry Pierce. Clara's... Well, She's not filtered."
Jewel feels some movement at her neck and remembers Remy, but decides not to bring him up with so many people here. She uses her feral speech hex and whispers to him, "Sorry for the crowd Remy. Once we get to my home I'll introduce you to my parents. I'm sure Mom will be happy to have me helping more with cooking. But she might take a little time before she understands about you....
"Don't you think Pierce can talk for himself? Also he has no home with the ship gone. So unless you have a better idea... Or do you want to keep him?" Clara hollers back looking at Jewel with suspicion.
"It is not often, but sometimes I wish I had a more normal kid." Gertrud sighs.
"Today no decisions are made. Neither about marriages, nor about permanent residence. All kids go bathing and changing clothes, and I'll get the pear brandy and talk some more with the adults. We'll call you when dinner is ready, and I don't want to hear any ruckus."
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"Told youuu," Tarjun whispers loudly -and a little mockingly- to Pierce. "Wait 'til he comes of age," he grins at Clara, in a rare display of masculine solidarity.
"Come on, Mrs Jonson! D'ya think Jewie would tell a lie?" he holds Gertrud's skeptic gaze insistently. "This ain't something we made up. Clara made a wish with a well, and it somehow went all magic, and we were moved places, and then we had to come back."
"I'm not saying you're lying. It's still unbelievable and crazy."
Jewel turns to follow Gertrud's direction. Cleaning up and a change of cloths would feel really good. She hears Tarjun and grins. "Come on Tarjun. Bath and clean cloths." She shakes her head as she walks away, "And you gotta admit.... We actually lived it, but the telling of what happened does sound crazy! I half expect to wake up and this whole thing was just a dream."
As Jewel leaves together with Tarjun Clara inquires "Where shall Pierce go for the bath?"
Pierce sticks close to Tarjun without direction to the contrary.
"Definitely not with you." Gertrud replies and leaves it at that.
Once the kids are out of earshot, she continues. "Thank you for bringing them."
"Don't mention it. What else should I do? Keep them?"
"Anyway, what are we going to do about that situation? Can we even do something? I mean them disappearing. And of course the other thing, that we have an extra kid. I don't think we can take him with Clara coming on heat."
"Worst case we could ask Dwayne, if he employs him as a lumberjack."
"I can use another hand for farming. He looks strong. And we can make room." Will answers.
"Thank you." Mrs. Johnson comments. "You're not really considering to hand anyone over to that bastard's care, do you?" she inquires rolling her eyes at Gertrud.
Clara leaves as told pouting. The others are going to have fun and she is alone. And bad comes to worse: she has to get the water for bathing with a bucket! Her day is ruined.
Jewel gets back home and starts filling the wash tub with water. The orison for creating water worked great, except the water was still cold. They still had to light the fire to heat it!
While waiting she chats with Pierce and Tarjun. "There's probably going to be lots of questions from the lumberjacks. I'm not sure how much we should tell them.... Not that I'd even be sure they'd believe it." Glancing at Pierce she frowns. "Are you going to stay with us for a while? It might be a bit boring compared to your life on the ship. We've got our chores, and we play some games. I'm trying to get the woods re-planted where the lumberjacks were clear-cutting. If Bruihu stops by we can introduce you to him. Have you ever met a talking tree before? But, it might be a while before we could get you back to another ship."
Pierce's eyes widen and he begins to look around like a trapped rat. "Do I have to? I'd rather go back with Mrs. Jonson," he whispers. "I don't know anythin' about jacks."
Jewel is surprised at Pierce's response. "jacks? Oh the lumberjacks! I mean the crew that cut the trees down. That grumpy guy that yelled at us when we first got close to town is Dwayne. He's in charge of them. He has the say on what kinds of trees they cut down so he can sell them. That's why he was complaining about 'costs'. Not sure why he would think I would know what anything costs. He hasn't trained me on any of that stuff." She frowns at that thought. "I wonder if I should ask. Probably not. Then he might want me to help with his money records...."
"It's not always boring though. Besides Bruihu, we've fought some goblins. Dealt with a couple of ghosts. And there was the dark elf spider lady, and those dwarves from underground that were trying to escape from her." She grins and adds, "And anytime you're looking for trouble, just find Clara!" She giggles a bit at that but then shakes her head. "Just kidding. Clara's nice, but she comes up with some strange ideas at times."
"The one ghost was pretty nasty at first. But once we figured out why he was nasty we just had to learn how to get him right with Erastil again. After that he turned out to be pretty nice."
Clara walks to the new well to get some water with the bucket...
Once the not-quite cold water in the wash tub was almost knee deep Jewel pulled the curtain for privacy. She had a wash cloth and the scrubbing sand, a towel and a clean smock for after. "Give me a little privacy and I'll be quick."
Doing as she stated she scrubbed quick, rinsed, dried and put the clean cloths on. She gathers the dirty things that would need to be attended to and takes them outside. "I'd suggest dumping the water to start clean. The pot on the stove should be hot soon. Just summon some more in the tub and in the pot once you've dumped it in. I'll start the cleaning of cloths while you guys clean up."
"Wasn't Sandara the other cleric on the ship? Her God was Besmara, right? Goddess of pirates or something like that?" Not really waiting for the answer she heads out to clean and hang her cloths to dry.
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"That's right! Wait, she worshipped the goddess of pirates?! that's soooo cool!" A beat. "Maybe," Tarjun adds, a lot more hesitantly. He'd just remembered the keelhauling. "I think. Anyway, she was the only one who was kind of nice, so maybe Besmara's a good goddess?"
To take his mind off such theological considerations, he hops in the wash tub and draws the curtain. He spends so little time behind it, it's almost like he's made it his mission to wash himself as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, he steps out looking a lot cleaner than when he first got in.
Knowing him, though, that won't last.
"You go, Pierce!" he grabs the nearest towel to rub himself dry.
Clara puts the bucket down and cranks the lever of the well to let the bucket down into the water and then the other direction to get it back up again.
'This is going to take forever. I wish there was a simpler way.'
Once Jewel gets to the laundry board she casts create water several times to fill that wash tub. Glad that it isn't winter and freezing cold she starts scrubbing the cloths. Wringing out the first item she takes it over to the line to hang it for drying. She spots Clara lugging a bucket back from the well and wonders why she doesn't use magic to create water. Then she remembers, that isn't a witch spell....
"Hey Clara? You want some help with that? I forgot that you don't have the spell to create water...." If Clara agrees Jewel goes over to provide water for her, returning to her laundry after.
"Sure, dragging that bucket around is no fun." Clara replies and water some flowers with the content of the bucket.
Once the tub is filled she sticks her hand in and inquires "You have some magic to warm the water too?"
Jewel touches the water and shakes her head. "I don't know of any magic for that. I can make a weapon burst into flames, but the fire is put out if it goes into water...."
"I heated up some of the water on our stove top. But it didn't do much more than just barely take the chill off of it."
"Well, ..." Clara grabs the soap and jumps into the tub, splashing everything around. Then she starts washing her clothes, that she is still wearing. This turns the whole water into some milky dirty murk.
Jewel turns and heads back to her laundry.... "Don't drown!"
Jewel takes Tarjun by the hand and leads him toward the laundry tub that she had been using. "Are you calling Clara holy!?!" She grins obviously not expecting, or even wanting an answer. "I am doing the laundry. Where's yours?"
"I sure wish witch magic included a cantrip or something to do the cleaning! It would make this stuff so much easier! Do you have any magic to heat water? Or maybe heat the metal of the tub so the water gets warmer? Created water isn't as cold as well water. But it isn't very warm."
"You don't need to make such a fuss just because I'm bathing. It's not like I've never done that before."
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"Are you calling Clara holy!?!"
"You know she's the opposite," Tarjun retorts, then whispers: "You seen her go into that tub- swear she's kept the pants on as well."
"I had to do my laundry as well?" he sighs. He's obviously wearing the same clothes he had before he bathed. "Be right back..."
"I sure wish witch magic included a cantrip or something to do the cleaning! It would make this stuff so much easier! Do you have any magic to heat water? Or maybe heat the metal of the tub so the water gets warmer? Created water isn't as cold as well water. But it isn't very warm."
He seems to think about the problem, before casting Create Water. He puts one hand under one of the little clouds, testing the temperature of the rain. "No," he finally says, shaking his hand dry.
He sets off to find spare clothes and get dressed. When he returns a few minutes later, he has his back turned on the tub. "Is Clara decent?" he calls out. "Like, as much as she can be?"
Jewel giggles at her big brother and nods. "Clara is Clara, and she's doing her laundry while wearing the cloths...." She decides to tease a bit. "You know mom would say that you just got those cloths dirty because you put dirty cloths back on your body, then switched and put your dirty body into those cloths. Maybe Clara's got the right idea?"
"I'm not that horrible to look at!"
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Pierce waits for Tarjun to leave before he undresses and bathes, making sure the temperature of the water is comfortable with his prestigitation spell. He is extremely jumpy and nervous and keeps looking around to make sure no one is spying on him or jumping out of the woods to catch him unawares. After he is done, he surreptitiously casts prestidigitation again to clean his clothes before he puts them back on. Then he runs off to discover where Tarjun went, finding Clara and Jewel instead. "Ho there," he says, politely turning his back when he sees what they are doing. "Why do you got your clothes on in the bathtub?" he asks, puzzled.
He nods as if he is still puzzled when Jewel explains, his brow furrowing even more. He seems to mentally wrestle a bit with something, then finally volunteers, "You can't do that with your magic? Um, I... I can. I don't know why they're different, but it's pretty easy. You just say 'Make them clean,' and snap your finger like this, and they clean themselves. I thought everyone could do that!"
Seeing how Pierce has nice clean and dry clothes, Clara jumps out of the tub. "Do me next!"
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Seeing how Pierce has nice clean and dry clothes, Clara jumps out of the tub. "Do me next!"
"See, you don't think you look bad 'cause you don't have to stare at your mug every day," Tarjun retorts. "We do!"
He raises both eyebrows as Pierce describes how his magic works. "That sounds sooo clean!" he exclaims. He thinks longingly of all the times he could have avoided a stern talking-to by his mother if he only could have cleaned his clothes with a snap of his fingers...
"But er, no, we can't do that -but maybe we can learn! For the longest time, the girls were the only ones who could make light, and now look-"
He extends one arm, palm up, and a sphere of light slowly comes out of his skin. For a moment, it looks like he's holding a translucent ball, before it begins floating like a will o' wisp. "Pretty cool, huh?" he boasts.
Jewel takes a break from her laundry to watch and listen, choking back a laugh at Clara's antics.
When Tarjun casts his light spell she casts Dancing Lights, making it take a human form and 'walking' it over to his sphere....
"Lame. The only thing 'pretty cool' is the bathwater." Clara shoots this magic competition down. "Can you make me dry? Or do I have to go, get a towel?" she inquires from Pierce.
Pierce sighs. He attempts to look impressed at the different light spells, but his heart isn't in it. He shrugs and peremptorily performs the arcane gestures and verbal component for prestidigitation on Clara's clothes.
"No, because it is cold." Clara snaps her fingers saying "Fiat lux." and makes four floating torches. "Everyone and their mom can make magical light."
"Thank you!" she tells Pierce, as she suddenly isn't soaking wet anymore.
Jewel watches and listens as Pierce casts his spell. "Well.... You've just made yourself indispensable. Now we just can't let you go back to a ship. We'll need you here using that magic constantly to clean and dry things." She hesitates for just a moment. "Hey! Can't you add flavor to food with it!?! That would have helped a lot in the kitchen of that ship. The only 'spice' that they had was salt!"
Pierce looks surprised. "I never thought of that," he admits. "But I liked the salt fish that the cook made before the pirates came. Maybe she used magic, too."