"Yes, why are you not using words when doing your magic?" Clara repeats the question, stemming her hands into her sides.
"Yes, why don't you say magic words?" Clara repeats the question, her hands stemmed in her side.
Pierce looks shifty. "Whaddya mean? Din't I just use magic words to do it, like the rest of you?" When he sees that this answer doesn't satisfy Tarjun or Clara, he sighs and glares at the ground. "I don't know," he says lamely. "It's always been like that. Maybe it's 'cause of where I come from. I just think it an' it happens."
Jewel looks at Clara and Tarjun in wonder. "What do you mean Clara? We both use magic without saying words. You don't have to say levitate, or fall slow and safe, or breathe water. And I don't have to say anything to be able to speak with animals, or use my charm magic, or to protect someone. We just use words, or gestures and such when we cast spells. Maybe some casters have magic to cast without that stuff. None of us have been to magic school, so none of us know much about magic other than what we can do."
She pauses, then grins at Clara.... "Clara? You're not saying that you WANT to go to a magic SCHOOL!?!"
"What's a school?" Clara inquires, as she has never heard that word.
|
"Wait, I can't be the only one who has to do the magical mumbo-jumbo," Tarjun protests. "You all say weird stuff when you cast spells!"
"School's boring. You have to sit still while grown-ups talk." The boy shudders. To say his parents had once wanted him to go to such a dreadful place... He was glad they had quickly dropped the idea!
"Clara and I use words and gestures when we cast spells, just not when we use our hex magic. Some magic needs that. Some doesn't."
"School's not boring! It's like when Dad is doing the service for Erastil! It's about learning important things in life! For Clara that would be Desna, not Erastil...."
"Remember back when the ghosts were teaching us things? About what we'd need to know as Guardians? Wasn't that fun!?!"
|
|
"But we didn't have to sit and listen to them all the time," Tarjun objects. "We could actually do stuff. Outside. And talk with each other and all."
"And the service for Erastil is boring! It's all the same thing, like," he takes on a comically deep voice. "Community's important, take care of each other, snipe out the little animals, and remember to say your prayers every day if you wanna get married!" He shudders.
Jewel openly laughs at Tarjun's description of Erastil's teachings. "That shows how little you pay attention. Do you sleep with your eyes open?"
"Yes, community is important, and proper leadership, and not wiping out nature just to expand the community. Live in peace with one another. But the history of Erastil is also important. Remember the story of the battle against the Beast during the age of creation? That monster was.... or is since it is still alive! so powerful that even the combined powers of several Gods could only contain it. That beast is still alive today, and if it were ever released it would destroy everything! The Gods would have to start all over and make all of creation again. how do you sleep through stories like that! I just wish I could tell it as good as Dad does."
"And Dad has never said anything about saying prayers if you ever want to get married! Marriage and family are important to the community, but nobody has said that you have to pray to find someone to marry!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Phew!" Clara comments.
"How would you, or anyone else for that matter, know what stories the Gods share with each other? When Erastil sits down for dinner with Jaidi, how do you know that they aren't discussing what the people are doing? And they both deal with communities and harvesting so maybe picking up potatoes might be something they'd discuss. Maybe they'd be interested if you built a tool of some sort to make it easier to pick up potatoes!"
"I sometimes like hearing their supposed opinions in sermons. To make fun of it later." Clara tells.
"What are we going to do now, that we're all clean?"
"Well, while our parents are deciding where Pierce can stay we could show him our tree house or the shrine. Check to be sure nothing got messed up while we were gone? I think I might want to run by where the lumberjacks have been working to see how much damage they've done. I might be able to sneak in and mark what they should cut tomorrow, and figure out what I'll need to plant to fix things."
Pierce watches the other children bicker and thinks about how alien it is for him to live in a community focused on a god. He perks up when Jewel mentions their tree house. "What's a 'tree house'? Is that where tree folk live or something?"
"Yes, we are tree folk!" Clara replies. "And sometimes cave folk too. Let's go and check!"
And off she goes in the direction of their playgrounds.
Jewel follows Clara and adds to Pierce, "See that's one of the good things about being kids on land. We get to play."
Pierce nods, and shrugs. "Okay," he says. "I'm not very good at climbing, though, because the captain wouldn't let me go up the mast after I accidentally spit on him." He puts a strange emphasis on the word 'accidentally' that suggests he didn't accidentally spit, but rather didn't intend to hit the captain.
"It's not really climbing. There's a rope ladder. But don't start a game of tag or anything like that with Clara. She'll just run up the ladder, then when you follow her up she'll jump.... and float down to the ground faster than you can climb."
"There is no honor in defeat!" Clara objects.
Pierce thinks about that. "Sometimes I played tag on the ship, but I wasn't allowed to jump over the rail. That was against the rules. Seems like we could say that jumping weren't allowed. Still think you'd win, Clara?"
"Sounds a lot like someone making up rules to win when they can't without. Hey, your legs are faster than mine, how about we make a rule, that using legs isn't allowed." Clara rants. "I haven't seen you running, I have no clue if I could win without jumping. If you're fast, you'll get me before getting up. And why can't you jump? It's not that high. Or are you a sissy like the other two?"
Clara tags Pierce and starts running. To the treehouse, up the rope ladder and once up on the platform she spreads her arms like wings and jumps down like a diver into a pool. Just before hitting the ground with her face, she curls up does a roll over the ground and ends up standing on her feet again.
"See, without magic I'm even faster down than with featherfall."
Jewel just strolls along following Clara. When she jumps down Jewel has to admit (to herself) that the landing was good. "It's not being a sissy to avoid sprains and fractures. Even with the curing spells that we have broken bones don't set themselves."
She climbs up the ladder and moves out on the platform, looking around the area. "It's a nice view up here. And the breeze feels good. It almost feels like being up the mast on the ship.... Well, maybe a little. I didn't get up to the nest at the top. I imagine the view that high would really be impressive." Glancing back towards the house she adds, "I suppose we could set up some targets and get bows. A little target practice might sound good to our parents. And from up here a miss should just stick in the ground, not fly yards away past the target."
|
|
"It's not being a sissy to avoid sprains and fractures. Even with the curing spells that we have broken bones don't set themselves."
"Yeah, how do you think I got that?" Tarjun pats his bad leg -not that it prevents him from climbing to the tree house using the branches rather than the ladder.
"I suppose we could set up some targets and get bows. A little target practice might sound good to our parents. And from up here a miss should just stick in the ground, not fly yards away past the target."
"Eh. So we ask Mrs Johnson then?"
"See, that's what you get when you listen to too many sermons from Erastil guys." Clara warns Pierce. "I'll go fetch the bows - without asking." Clara teases Tarjun and runs off.
Jewel sits for just a little bit longer then sighs. As Clara runs off after the bow and arrows she climbs down. "But I do need to check out the trees to see what the lumberjacks cut and how many saplings I need to transplant. And mark the trees for them to cut tomorrow and the next day.... I'll be back in a bit, and join the target practice then." She jogs away calling back over her shoulder, "If Clara suggests using live targets.... just say No!"
|
|
Tarjun finds himself alone with Pierce in the tree house. It's a bit awkward.
But the boy could never abide quietness for too long, and he's the first one to break the silence. "So, um... What did you use to do for fun, on the boat? Play cards? Play an instrument? Steal things? Did you have fun at all?"
Pierce stares awkwardly into space, perhaps like he is scanning the horizon on a boat, though there are too many trees in the way to see anything. He is silent for a long while.
Then he shrugs. "Fun? Not really. There was a bard on the ship who told stories sometimes, and I liked those. Ghost stories were my favorite. He died, though." He pauses.
"Some of the men would fight, and they would bet on the winner, but I wasn't allowed. Once I tried to help the man who was teaching me the rapier win, with um, you know, magic, but I got in big trouble for that. Do you know how to read? Lots of the crew didn't, but I was lucky enough to get apprenticed to the captain's clerk, and he sometimes let me read the notes they got from the ship's owners. And there was one book of stories from something called "the Roadfinder's Society" about this magical place called Osiria, I think? I only got to read it once or twice while I was learning, but it was pretty exciting."
He sighs. "I guess I'm lucky to be here, but honestly I don't know what to do. This place is so different from everything I've ever known. It's gonna take me a while to get used to it. But don't worry about me, you just do what you do. I bet it's nice to be home."
After a while Clara returns with three small bows and a quiver full of arrows. With the need to show off again she levitates up to the treehouse - she has her hands full, so it isn't completely unnecessary.
"Where's Jewel." she inquires as she finds only the gloomy boys.
"She said she needed to go look at the trees," Pierce mumbles, proving that at least he's paying attention to what the other kids say.
Jewel goes over to where the lumberjacks worked expecting the worst but is pleasantly surprised to se that they were clear cutting.
She looks around for Dwayne and cautiously approaches him. "Um. Dwayne? I'm sorry we were gone. But we really didn't have any choice. It was magic, and we did everything that we knew how to do to get home. We escaped the magical maze, and then the lord's dungeon. And then we.... well, I made a bad choice and we got shanghaied by pirates. I think Clara had fun on the ship. But as soon as we were able to escape we found our way home and we're back."
"Can I start marking the trees for choice cutting and continue planting the saplings to replace what was cut? Or did you replace me?"
|
|
"Some of the men would fight, and they would bet on the winner, but I wasn't allowed. Once I tried to help the man who was teaching me the rapier win, with um, you know, magic, but I got in big trouble for that. Do you know how to read? Lots of the crew didn't, but I was lucky enough to get apprenticed to the captain's clerk, and he sometimes let me read the notes they got from the ship's owners. And there was one book of stories from something called "the Roadfinder's Society" about this magical place called Osiria, I think? I only got to read it once or twice while I was learning, but it was pretty exciting."
[/b]
"Oh, cool," Tarjun lamely comments after Pierce is done talking. "I know how to read, but I don't like to remind my pa and ma 'cos then they insist on making me read boring stuff. Like prayers to Erastil and such. I just don't like it."
He does perk up as Pierce describes his favorite book. "Did it have pictures in it?" he asks excitedly. "I like books a bit better if they have pictures -oh, look, here come the bows."
"We dunno where Jewel is. You ever heard of a place called Osiria?" he asks Clara.
"That sounds a lot like bullshit to me, but you managed to persuade Mrs. Johnson and it doesn't change anything if I believe you or not." Dwayne replies somewhat grumpy.
"Yeah, no. You better get to work before your crazy tree friend shows up again."
"Osiria? No."
Totally oblivious, Jewel looks away as Dwayne uses language that should be inappropriate around a young girl. "I understand sir. I have trouble believing it even though I lived through it. It was.... scary. I'll get started right away and if Bruihu shows up I'll explain everything to him. You know he's really nice. I don't think he'd really hurt anyone unless they attacked him, or maybe started burning down an area of the forest."
She gets to work marking trees for cutting, studying how they would fall so they'd be easier to work but not clear cutting the area. Some of the brush really needed to be cleared anyway so what was left behind could grow better.
"I'll bring in saplings for re-planting tomorrow. We've got another boy with our group now. His name is Pierce. He was on the merchant ship that..... Never mind. But his name is Pierce and he seems really nice."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Pierce attempts to rally his spirits with the promise of physical violence. "Let me see one of those," he motions to Clara. "What should we use for targets? Got anything squishy?"
"It's not too windy. We look for different colored leafs and make targets on the ground with them." Clara replies handing a bow to Pierce.
"Cabbage makes good targets too, but mom gets mad if I take those for target practice."
Jewel finishes up marking the trees for cutting, tomorrow and the next day, then checks on the saplings to decide which type of saplings to bring tomorrow morning. She is surprised to see that someone had planted a few while they were gone. She considers thanking Dwayne, but decides that he might take it wrong and instead pretends to not notice. "Thanks Dwayne! I'll be back in the morning."
She runs back home and sees from a distance that Tarjun appears to be joking with Pierce about holding the targets while others shoot.... She slows to a quick walk shaking her head. Good thing both she and Clara have healing spells. Hopefully they won't need the healing scepter too....
"I'll set up some targets over here. I know the range is a little long" "but we can't always shoot at the easy ones! Climb up and shoot from the platform once I'm out of the way." She quietly casts mage armor on herself 'just in case'....
"I can throw the arrow with my hand at that distance!" Clara complains. And throws an arrow with her hand to prove it.
Jewel watches as the thrown arrow falls.... short of where the targets are set up. "OK. I'll set up some more, farther out for those that want more difficult ones. Those aren't composite longbows you know!"
But, with that she moves out to 75' and adds 6 more targets, then again at 100', 125' and 150'. "How's this Clara? Do you need any beyond here? Remember that this is for fun as well as target practice. I know your mother could hit them this far. But you don't have her bow." She mutters quietly, "or the strength to pull it." She moves away, watching for any arrows fired toward her.