It took around an hour for Haru to arrive in town. The windows were twinkling with lights in them and the town seemed neatly organised in a grid. She followed the way she knew to the store and, predictably, it was locked. She knocked loudly on the door. It took several minutes for anybody to answer, but the woman opened it. Her grey eyes were warm and she smiled warmly. “Oh, Haru! Here for dinner? Sorry it took me a couple minutes; we were just settling down to eat. We live above the store.” She looked up at the area above the store. The main front was dark but the lights twinkled merrily above the store. “Come on in.”

  “Thank you.” Haru followed Summer through the darkened storefront and up the stairs to a warm, richly furnished home. She could smell the food and spices wafting through the air, making her mouth water.

  Summer motioned for her to follow into the dining room which she did. An extra chair had been placed out. Two girls that looked around her age or so sat at the table, already eating. “Ruby, Yang, this is Haru. She took over the farm on the west side of town.”

  “Oh, that old, overgrown place?” the blonde asked. “I never thought it’d see use again. I didn’t even know the guy that owned it before, but a lot of the older people in town talk about it.” The girl grinned though. “I’m Yang! Nice to meet you, Haru!”

  “Um. Hi.” Ruby’s introduction was much less gregarious.

  Looking at the two, it was crazy they were sisters. Yang was tall, decently toned, and had long, blonde hair and purple eyes. Ruby had hombre hair cut short that started at black and went to a faint tinge of red, just like her mother. Ruby was clearly much shorter than Yang even while sitting. How were these two sisters? Ruby was practically copy and paste of Summer in a lot of ways while Yang…was not. She didn’t look anything like Summer.

  “Hello,” Haru said politely, offering a bow.

  “You don’t need to be so stiff; just take a seat and start eating.” Summer smiled and motioned to the extra, empty chair. “Just grab a plate and fill it to your heart’s content. I ade extra just in case you stopped by. I imagine you’ll need some support with meals due to how limited your money and farming supplies are.”

  Haru sat down and nodded, looking at her hands. “Yes… I know how to cook a lot of things, but I don’t have any ingredients… I did plant the parsnips that Sienna bought for me… I’m not really sure what to buy though. I need to make money, but I also need to make food.” Being this vulnerable with strangers was…odd, but there was really no way around it. She had almost no money and desperately needed the support. She knew plenty of recipes, but yeah, getting the supplies necessary just through growing it herself would take time. “And I definitely need to upgrade my backpack…”

  “Well, I sell backpack upgrades. They’re a little pricey, but it’ll go a long way in helping you keep things straight. I’d also suggest some potatoes to start if you wanna make a decent amount of money quickly. If you save up enough, you can get strawberries at the Egg Festival. It’s on the thirteenth of the month. They’ll give you multiple harvests until the end of next month too.”

  Haru blinked and nodded. “Okay… Are you telling me to sell all my vegetables though?” She frowned. She needed to make money, certainly, but at the same time, she also needed to eat. She didn’t want to leech off the villagers the entire time she was here. It would take her a long, long time to get up on her feet though. She only had 5000 gold with her. Buying anything even at Joja would quickly strip her of resources to buy new produce with.

  “Either you can come here to eat or you can go to Rand’s; he took the long way around and told me he also offered you a chance to eat with his family. He lives up in the mountains. You can either go north, then east from your farm, or you can go east, then north by the old community center if you continue past here. We don’t mind helping you eat. If you wanna save stuff, you can, but we want you to feel comfortable enough to ask for help.”

  Haru frowned but nodded. “Thank you then… Is there another way to get money other than produce?”

  “Try fishing. Chrom and Ionius have been out for a little while, but they should be coming back soon-ish. Within the next week, I’d imagine. I’ll give them a call each day until they respond. They’ll be happy to help you out with a rod at least.”

  “Okay. Thank you.” She felt like a broken record at this point. But she couldn’t help but be thankful to these people who were so generously helping her. She thought small towns would regard people with suspicion, not welcome them into the fold. Especially one as small as Pelican Town. There weren’t that many people here, maybe a couple dozen. She hadn’t had time to explore yet, but the town was so incredibly small from what she’d seen when approaching the store. There was a gas station but that was about it as far she could see for employment… Well. And Joja too, she supposed. Though she hadn’t gone there yet.

  “It’s really no trouble, Haru. This community has seen a lot of influx. I grew up here, but moved back once my uncle died because someone needed to take over the shop and nobody else in the valley really understood how to work registers. I was on my way to becoming a professional opera singer in Nana City on the other side of the country. But, well, Stardew Valley seemed like the best place to raise my girls.” She smiled at the two who sat near them.

  “I think it was a pretty good decision, Mom. I couldn’t ask for a better upbringing.” The blonde—Yang—looked at Summer with a smile, then at Haru. “We still had to get up early to go to school in Zuzu City, but it was worth it. Coming home and just messing around in the valley was one of the best parts of being a kid here. We learned to go fishing, how to grow our own food to a degree, and swam in the ocean. If you’d like, we could show you the sights tomorrow. How’s that sound?”

  Haru nodded a bit. “Okay.” She paused. “Do…you understand who Raftina and Morty are though…? They seem…odd.”

  Summer rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah, Morty’s tower has been here as long as anybody can remember, going back generations, and Raftina’s been there just as long.”

  Haru frowned. “I’ve never heard of anything like magic before though. It seems antithetical to science.”

  “There are forces well beyond what anybody can understand. You’ll see a lot of stuff around the valley that doesn’t make much sense. There are monsters in the mines and then there are all sorts of spirits and other stuff around the valley. Few people connect with them, but Summer Young seems to have a strange knack with said forces,” Summer explained. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Morty took her on as an apprentice at some point. For the most part, we just stay away from them, though Raftina’s a lovely woman. Kind, caring, and compassionate. If we need emergency medical care beyond what conventional medicine can do, we go to her. Doctor Abarao is pretty good, especially for a small town, but Raftina clearly has a long time of healing behind her and she’s a potent mage.”

  Haru sighed. “None of this makes any sense to me…”

  Summer nodded. “If you didn’t grow up here, it definitely is a lot to take in. I grew up with Raftina giving me medical care and being midwife to women that grew up in the valley, and then left. I always thought she would be my midwife, but that changed when I decided to move away to go to college. But if you need anything in a short amount of time, she’s definitely the one to go to.”

  “She did give me some clothes and such… Though that does remind me… There’s no washer or drier in the old house.”

  “Oh, you can easily use ours on days you need to wash. Or just go to Rand’s house. I don’t think you’d fancy doing things by hand, right?” Haru shook her head. “We’ll let you use our washer and drier then. No big deal.” Summer smiled.

  “Thank you… You’re too kind.” She honestly would be drowning in being overwhelmed if it weren’t for these people. She would probably literally starve if she didn’t have their support. She was glad that they were more than willing to help her. She hadn’t expected such kindness from a small town in the middle of nowhere. She had seen so many movies where small towns were suspicious of people that moved in and she didn’t doubt that had a kernel of truth. But this small town was incredibly kind and warm… She wasn’t complaining; she was just surprised.

  “By the way, I should warn you about Ionius and his family.” Haru blinked. “They’re displaced royalty from a far-away war and came to the valley about sixteen years ago. And, well, in their culture, it was an acceptable practice for him to have concubines on top of his first legal wife. He brought his wife, the concubines, as well as all of their children. Tobias is the oldest and Rand’s apprentice.”

  “I did meet Tobias earlier… He was helping Rand with the house a bit.”

  “There you go. Some of the kids like Edelgard, Leopold, and Alina know pretty much nothing but the valley. Tobias was oldest, but he adapted to living the commoner life pretty well. He’s a hardworking young man and won’t turn down helping anybody. He’s pretty good with his hands.”

  Haru nodded. “I see…” Well, if that wasn’t quite the shock. She hadn’t expected there to be royalty here, or at least former royalty. And Ionius was a fisherman…? That was crazy to think about. What a downgrade. To go from king to fisherman… But if it supported his family, who was she to say anything against it?

  “I’ll just warn you about Helga, Magda, and Gete. Helga was a classically trained mage and her two daughters are absolutely spoiled brats. For the most part, though, the royal kids aren’t that bad; it’s just those two that are troublesome. They refuse to get jobs or help anybody else. Despite it being so long, they still see themselves as royalty and don’t want to do anything to contribute to the valley at large. Their magic would be incredibly useful, but there’s not much we can do about it at this point.” Summer sighed and shook her head, raising her arms. Yeah, that had to be frustrating. Haru was going to do her best to contribute to the valley in whatever way she could, of course… She didn’t want to take advantage of these people’s kindness…but it would take time for her to build up. She couldn’t just suddenly have a flourishing farm from nothing when the land had been abandoned for decades.

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  Haru nodded. “Okay. Thank you very much for the warning.” They really sounded unpleasant… If the rest of the kids could adapt to life in the valley, why not them? Tobias had no doubt been set to be on the throne eventually, but the fact he humbled himself and worked as a carpenter’s apprentice… Well, it really did say a lot about his moral fiber.

  “Honestly, if you can find Juliane, she’d be another person willing to help you out to the best of her ability. She’s always treated the children of the valley extremely well. When Katerina is at work, she’s often the one taking care of Xander.”

  “Katerina? Xander?”

  “Katerina runs the saloon in town and Xander is her son. She also treats Aqua and Shiro well. She takes care of them when their parents are busy. She’s really the childcare provided in the valley. Xander should technically be in school, but…” Summer frowned. “Katerina tried to put him in school, but it was so stressful for him that she had to pull him out. He’s a largely non-verbal Autistic boy. So far warning that he’ll probably cry when he sees you for the first time. He uses AAC in order to communicate, but he just doesn’t deal with a lot of things well at all. He’s a sweetheart, but yeah, change does not come to him easily. He’s eleven now, turning twelve in winter. Thankfully, Juliane is an adept teacher.”

  “This place sounds really close knit…” She frowned again. Would she ever truly fit in here? She had no idea. She really just wanted to be able to run her farm successfully and hopefully it in in due time. The people here were kind, but did they truly want her to be here? Then again, Sienna hadn’t just turned her away either. She hoped and prayed that she’d be able to establish here in due time. She just… This change would take some adjusting and she had no idea how to handle it all.

  “It is, but we also welcome new people. We’re a community of support. We have a few college-age students here that go over to Zuzu City college because it’s way cheaper to live here in the valley than in Zuzu City. Dimitri and Claude have become pretty close friends with Edelgard.” Summer laughed. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if all three of them shacked up together and became a trouple.” She chuckled. “But seriously, if we’ll accept a weird polycule from a foreign nation, we’ll accept pretty much anyone. It’s no trouble for new people to move here as long as there’s space.”

  Haru nodded a bit. “Okay.” She had no idea what to say about Dimitri, Claude, and Edelgard though… She’d have to go around the valley tomorrow and introduce herself to everyone. She looked at Yang. “You said you’d take me around the valley tomorrow…?”

  Yang grinned. “Yeah, sure! We’ll getcha to meet everyone in the valley. May just save Chrom and Ionius. We’ll also get you introduced to the Belladonna family who live just to the south of your farm. They sell animals and they’re where you’ll want to go if you need animals. I know you probably can’t afford any animals right this second, but in due time, they’d probably help up your business if you bought them. Though, of course, the initial cost will probably be high. You’ll need coops and barns from Rand and Tobias while the animals will also cost on top of it.”

  Haru sighed. “That’s way out of my price range for the time being…” She shook her head. Yeah, that was going to take a while to get. She had no money to get a coop or barn, let alone upgrade them. And she’d need somewhere to store the food. That would be another expense… She had no idea what it took to build any of that stuff. She’d have to ask Rand for a rundown at least for the far future. She wouldn’t be able to make anything but vegetables for a while… She wasn’t super happy about having to deal with all of this. Her father only gave her the bus ticket, the clothes on her back, and five hundred gold. She didn’t have enough money for really anything. And she didn’t want to rip people off either… She felt bad enough taking food from others when they had their own bills to pay, but she wouldn’t survive on her own without their kindness.

  “Well, we can still get a quote from Rand, right? That way you can see what all you need to save up for in order to build up your farm.” Yang smiled at her. “We can hop on Bumblebee and go around the valley.”

  “Bumblebee…?”

  “My motorcycle. It’ll be faster than going by foot. Unfortunately, I can’t just lend her to you since I need her to go back and forth between the city and I doubt you have a license.”

  Haru nodded. “I…wasn’t allowed to learn to drive.” Yeah, that definitely sucked. She wasn’t able to drive anything at all. She was just going to have to deal with walking everywhere… She wasn’t looking forward to that, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. “Would there be any faster way to get around the valley than just walking?”

  “I think Rand can build a stable for you. Not sure about the horse, though. You’d have to ask the Belladonnas about that. They’re the animal people around here…both literally and figuratively.” Yang winced a bit. “I shouldn’t have phrased it like that…”

  “Oh, they’re Faunus?” Haru had no issue with that personally… If she had, she would’ve completely flipped out when she saw Sienna. But no, she really had no issue with Faunus existing. Though she was pretty sure they’d be in the minority of the valley… She hadn’t met many Faunus in the upper class. She wasn’t sure if it was systemic inequalities or anything like that. She’d rather not think about the harsh reality of a lot of these things when she wasn’t educated on them or had any real knowledge on Faunus and their socio-economic realities.

  Yang nodded. “Blake and her family are really sweet. They’ve been in the valley for several generations.”

  “To my understanding, Ghira did leave for a few years to try to find someone to marry and he found Kali,” Summer said, and she laughed again. “Kali’s the sweetest. Lady Raftina is incredibly kind and warm, but Kali is on another level. She can and will adopt anybody that she sees as suffering. So don’t be surprised if she offers you a bunch of stuff for free. And she absolutely will feed you if you come over. She usually has something going in the oven. She loves to bake things and give them to the residents of valley. I make some damn good chocolate chip cookies and nobody can quite beat me on that, but everything else? Kali has me beat on it. I just don’t have time to dedicate to baking since I have to man the shop.”

  “I mean I take over two days a week, but still. Mom’s always doing something related to the shop,” Yang said.

  Haru nodded. “I see.” By this time, everyone had finished and it was getting pretty late. “Thank you for dinner… I should probably go now.”

  “Well don’t be a stranger, you hear?” Summer said. “You’re free to come here whenever you want. We have a shrine to Yoba that we let everyone use if you’re so inclined to.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind, though I was never particularly religious…” She had never been taught much about religion and neither her mother or father had been the type to be dedicated to a deity. Sometimes her mother had prayed before she died, but that was as far as it went to Haru’s knowledge. She didn’t know much about Yoba or the teachings that came with it… Her grandfather might have been more religious, but he had never spoken of it to her. She just hadn’t really been exposed to religion or anything like that.

  “Well, the library has plenty of books if you want to go read more about Yoba.” Summer smiled. Haru got up and bowed, then left the store. Summer really was a kind woman and Yang didn’t seem too far off. Though…how were they related? They really didn’t look alike at all, and the naming conventions… Summer Rose versus Yang… It was weird to think about. But that wasn’t really any of her business.

  Now that the valley was dark, it felt much more foreboding… She wasn’t sure how safe the valley really was at night. But she would be busy a lot during the day and need to eat with people later in the day. She just… She’d escaped from her father’s house at night and knew how to avoid the guards and what areas to not go to, so she was no stranger to walking in the dark. But in a place she didn’t know or understand… The feeling of safety she had when walking around was completely gone.

  She started back to the farm, starting to pass by the bus stop when she heard something rooting around in the bushes. She froze, stiffening entirely. She wasn’t sure if she should call out or what. It could be a bear for all she knew. From what she’d seen, Stardew Valley was relatively wild. She wasn’t used to the country like this; she was used to the city which had racoons at absolute worst. Maybe dogs. She didn’t know if there was a deer or something far, far worse like a bear.

  The rustling stopped and a girl in a dress stood up. There were a few street lights near the bus stop, so she could see the dress was light pink. Her hair was a soft, light shade of brown and pulled back in an elaborate plaited braid. Haru had short hair, so she’d never really experimented with braids, but she’d seen other girls her age with braids like it. “W-Who are you…?” Haru managed to stammer, her voice tiny in her throat. She was absolutely terrified but at least it was just another human… A girl maybe a few years older than her. Then again, anybody could be a threat…

  “Oh, I’m Asuna. Who are you? I’ve never seen you around the valley before.” There was no accusation in the woman’s voice, just curiosity and a bit of emphasis.

  “Haru Okumura… I’m taking up my grandfather’s farm on the edge of town.”

  Asuna blinked. “I had no idea someone was moving in there again.”

  “It…was relatively short notice.” She didn’t want to give a stranger the entire tale on why she was suddenly in the small town.

  “I see. Well, it’s a bit sad for me because I forage there.” Asuna held out a basket that contained a fair few forageables. “There are a lot of good plants there that were leftover from when the former owner moved out. I never met him, as I only moved here about half a year ago. There’s a lot of lavender and other herbs there…”

  Haru blinked. “Well… I’m not going to be clearing out all of the land anytime soon. I’ll probably need to clear it all eventually, but for the foreseeable future, I don’t have any need of most of the land. Maybe you’d like to come over tomorrow and show me where the things are that you forage? I could probably clear some of the land and move the plants there.” If someone was benefitting from that land being more wild, she saw no reason to take that away from them… She didn’t know what was up with Asuna, being out so late and foraging, but she was happy to try to work with her so that way she didn’t lose a major resource in her life. It sounded like she would be losing that if Haru cleared all of the land.

  “You don’t have to allow me to use it; it’s your land now. Legally, you have every right to push me off and away from it.” Asuna looked down.

  Haru shook her head. “I really don’t mind working with you to continue to use it. Right now, I really don’t have much use for most of it. Maybe sometime I’ll build up more, but for right now, I just have a small plot of land I use. I don’t want to potentially take resources away from those who need them. Do you forage for all your food?” She really had no trouble with helping somebody else use the land. If it was a major part of her diet and completely necessary for her, Haru really had no trouble offering a piece of it to her in order to use. Maybe in a few years, the farm would be built up far more, but for right now, she really had no need for all of the land.

  “I…would really appreciate it. There are a lot of vegetables and herbs on the land that I use. The valley is one of the most abundant places I’ve been in, but that land is some of the most abundant here in the valley… The soil is really good because it’s been left for so many years and it’s not been tilled or worked. Maybe I could drop by tomorrow or the day after and start working with you…?”

  Haru nodded and smiled. “I might not be around tomorrow because Yang offered to take me around and introduce me to everyone in the valley, or at least a good chunk of them. So maybe the day after. If you want to farm or anything like that, honestly, you could use some of the land.”

  “I forage and fish for a lot of my food, but I don’t really have money… I used what my brother gave me to travel the world for several years, then came here when I heard how abundant and beautiful the valley is. It’s proven to be absolutely amazing.” Asuna smiled a bit. “So not tomorrow but the day after. That sounds good. Thankfully, I do know a lot about plants, so I can help you dig things up carefully and move them to a better place.”

  “All right then; I’ll keep the day open aside from watering my parsnips. Did you have anything else you wanted to say?”

  Asuna shook her head. “Not really. It was nice to meet you, Haru.”

  “It was nice to meet you as well. I hope you have a good night.” She bowed to Asuna and then continued to the farm. She flicked the light on and looked around at the small kitchen and dining room. The bedroom was behind a door as was the bathroom. Haru went to the bedroom and changed into the pajamas Raftina had given her, then curled up and went to sleep. What an unexpected day…