o offer the woman something in return. This was a lot of cloth and she knew how expensive cloth could be. She dabbled in making her own clothes before, though it wasn’t exactly her main source of them.
She grabbed her backpack and went outside, getting into her backpack and getting the watering can. She quickly watered them and looked around. For now, there wasn’t much to do until Yang came…or was Yang expecting her to come over? She wasn’t sure. She would definitely need breakfast, so it was probably best to just go over there.
Or so she would’ve thought had she not heard the roar of an engine that cut through the quiet ambiance of the valley.
A yellow and black motorcycle pulled up just on the outskirt of the fence surrounding the farm and Yang pulled her helmet off. “Hey, Haru! You done for the morning or do I need to give you time?” she asked.
Haru walked over and tucked the watering can back inside her backpack. “No, I’m done for the day… We can head out. I was just wondering about breakfast.” Yeah, she definitely needed some food. She was used to eating relatively early and was glad to have Yang here. She wouldn’t have to walk for a couple of hours to reach the shop. Yang’s motorcycle would get them there much, much quicker.
“Honestly, for now, I can come get you to have breakfast rather than making you walk if you want,” Yang offered. “Unless you want to go to Rand’s.”
“That’d be appreciated.” She smiled at Yang.
“All right then, what time you normally wake up?”
“Um… I woke up a bit before dawn this morning. I don’t have a clock unfortunately.”
“Lady Raftina might be able to hook you up with something magical until you can afford one.”
“I suppose we’ll have to ask her.”
Yang nodded. “We can hit up the tower while doing our little tour of the valley. Most people live in town, but Chrom lives on the shore, Rand and Asuna live in the mountains, and then the Belladonnas, Morty, and Lady Raftina live in the Cindersap Forest, though the Belladonnas aren’t that far from your farm. Directly south, then a little bit east.”
“I…haven’t made any inroads into the amount of weeds and trees yet. I promised Asuna I’d work with her tomorrow that we could start moving some of her foragable plants and herbs to an area I set aside for her.”
“Oh you met her? She’s nice but…definitely very odd. She lives pretty much entirely off what the valley offers. She was the former heiress to RECT Inc, you know? I don’t know what made her leave such a prestigious family and become a vagrant that lives off the land. It’s a really weird life decision. She doesn’t really bother the people of the valley…but she’s definitely weird.”
Haru frowned but didn’t say anything. To judge someone for a life choice… She wasn’t the type to do that. “I see. Well, should we head over to your house for breakfast?” She really felt like discussing someone and their life choices without them nearby was…distasteful at best. She knew that the upper-class girls had liked to gossip but she hadn’t thought that would happen in this quaint little valley. Then again, it also made sense… She supposed people were prone to gossip regardless of their station in life and where they were. It was unfortunate, but it was the reality of things.
“All right then; get on behind me and hold on.” Yang got back on her bike and Haru tentatively got on behind her. Honestly, even a normal bike would’ve made getting around the valley easier, but she wasn’t exactly the most fit of people… Sigh. She really had no way of getting around the valley any easier than walking.
Yang revved the engine a bit and they started off at a moderate pace. “You’re going a lot slower than I thought you would.”
“No need to go overboard with a first-time rider especially when we really aren’t going that far,” Yang said. Haru nodded a bit but still hung on decently. Even going at a slower pace wouldn’t be pleasant when all she had on were normal clothes. She knew bikers wore leather, though Yang hadn’t put any on. Maybe it was just the fact they weren’t going that far as well as the fact they weren’t going at a high speed… There were roads in and out of Stardew Valley other than just the bus stop. “So what kinda food you like?”
Haru blinked at the question. “I’m honestly not too picky… What your mom made last night was good.”
“Do you have any favorite dishes?”
“They’d probably be…beyond your means. I will admit my favorite foods are more upper class like me.” She looked down a bit. She liked things like lobster and caviar, but now, she wouldn’t complain about anything. She was just glad that people were willing to feed her. Otherwise, she would have to live off of foragables without much else. Maybe some roasted fish if she could bring anything in. She really needed to figure out how she was going to make money… She was so low on funds and she was thankful that Sienna had offered her some crops to get her started, but after that, she was pretty much on her own…
“You’re upper class? What are you doing in this ho-dunk little village?”
Haru fell silent at that, not wanting to tell.
“…Wait for later. Got it. Well, anyway, Mom’s more than willing to make food for anyone that needs it. If you went to the Stardrop Saloon, you could also buy food.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have much money on me.” Her father had been so cruel to her… He gave her barely anything to survive at all. It really was only the generosity of the people here that was keeping her afloat. If it wasn’t for their kindness, she’d have only one set of clothes which weren’t good for working and pretty much nothing to eat. She would definitely need to start fishing some days to get some money coming in for more crops… But she would really need to get with Asuna before she could start clearing the land. She needed to know where plants were that Asuna used so that way she wouldn’t destroy them as she cleared land.
“That’s pretty sad. Well, if you can get away from your farm for one day of the week, my mom might be willing to put some cash in your hand. We’d have to clear it with her first.”
“That…would be really helpful, but I’ll also be giving a fair bit of it back to her… So I’m not really sure how good that would be for the economy of the area.” She wasn’t sure how well the economics around here worked. Such a small town probably didn’t have the best economy… There was a gas station, the saloon, the store, the doctor’s office, Joja Mart, and the fisher shop as far as she knew… It didn’t seem like a place that would have a super thriving economy as far as she was aware.
“Hm, I guess that is a good point. Maybe Katerina would be willing to take you on as a worker. She could usually use some help in the evenings to serve people.”
“Maybe. I’d have to speak with her first…” She just really needed money. She didn’t want to work for Joja but it might be the best place… Then again, a full-time job wouldn’t give her much time to work on her farm which is what she needed to do. She wanted to see her grandfather’s farm thrive again and she couldn’t do that if she was working full time at Joja. She knew it wasn’t the best, but at the same time, what else could she do? Inconsistent funds would only go so far… And she needed necessities. Raftina had been kind enough to make her some clothes that would last for a while, but she would still need to buy clothes and such… She really didn’t have many options right now.
“Katerina’s a bit of a bleeding heart and she’ll probably happily give you a part-time job. Just don’t expect time-dollar pay. Money tends to be pretty tight around here and most people go to Joja over my mom’s shop since prices are cheaper there.” They pulled up to the shop, rolling into a garage which had two cars in it as well as room for the motorcycle. Yang had called it a name, but she hadn’t committed it to memory. There was a bike leaning up against the wall which had a fair number of cobwebs on it. She glanced at it but said nothing.
“I see. I wouldn’t expect top pay… I’d just want some pay even if it’s only a few hours in the evening.” She was only eighteen, but she could legally drink. She hadn’t really touched alcohol yet, though… She just had no real desire to drink. Especially now that she was on a really tight budget and she wasn’t sure where her next paycheck was coming from. She just… She hated this. She hated all of this uncertainty. She didn’t want to go back to the abuse from her father, but she wanted the certainty of having all her needs met, at least physically even if they weren’t cared for emotionally. It was better than this.
“We’ll have to talk to her later. For right now, let’s get you some food. C’mon.” Yang led her through a door that led to a stairwell which went into the apartment above the shop. “Do you know anything about metalworking?”
Haru shook her head. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, there’s a blacksmithy run by Garret Stampede and Elmina Niet. If you knew anything about metalworking or forging, that might be another potential job avenue, but if you don’t…”
Haru shook her head. “I’ve never touched anything like that in my life.”
“Though…your tools. I’m guessing you have tools?” Haru nodded. “They can probably upgrade your tools if needed. I can only imagine how decrepit they are from having sat around on your grandfather’s farm all these years out.”
Haru nodded. “Yeah… They are pretty light and such. I see fairly large logs and stumps on my farm and I’m not sure if they’ll be able to cut through them or not.” Clearing all of the land was going to be a nightmare, but it wasn’t like it was something she needed to do right away. She only needed a small amount of land for a small amount of crops. Her stamina was going to be a big deciding factor in how many crops she could take care of and she knew it. For now, though, she was just worried about by taking things on day by day rather than worrying about the future… Everything was so uncertain for her right now.
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“Garret and Elmina will be your go-to people then. You can usually buy some ore at their store, but it ain’t gonna come cheap.”
“Of course not… And I’m not really worried about upgrading anything immediately either. I really only need what I have right now.” She smiled. Yeah, she wasn’t concerned about it right now too much. She wasn’t going to be clearing her farm anytime soon or anything like that. She needed to meet with Asuna tomorrow to sort things out with the plants… She really hoped that they’d be able to work something out with each other. She didn’t want to take away a major source of foraging form Asuna, and it wasn’t like she would be expanding to a large field anytime soon either. Maybe in due time, but not right now. “What are they like…?” She couldn’t help but worry a bit over what the people were like.
“Like a lot of people in the valley: warm and kind, though perhaps a little bit wary of outsiders.” Yang’s words were laced with something else. She was pretty sure Yang was talking about Asuna. She didn’t understand why… Why would people treat her so badly? Well it didn’t sound like they treated her badly; she just wasn’t necessarily the most welcome there either… Would people welcome her fully or would it take time for them to warm up? She just… So many uncertainties, so little time to figure things out… “They’ll do your business for you if nothing else. They do business with the Adventurer’s Guild, but with the mines having been blocked off along with the Guild… They’ve been hurting for money lately.”
Haru frowned. “I see.” Yeah, that was concerning. She didn’t have any money to give them right now because it wasn’t like she had any way to buy much. She was still so thankful that Rand and Summer were willing to give her meals free of charge. Or, at least, she hoped they weren’t keeping a tab or tally. She wouldn’t be able to repay them anytime soon. She hadn’t thought about that until now… She hoped they weren’t that kind of people. She really needed every bit of support she could get.
“For now, though, you can’t go into the mines for anything… Hopefully Joja will have that rock cleared soon. There is a lake in front of the mines, but getting a boat up the river would be a headache for Chrom and Ionius since it’s not like they have many small boats.” Yang shook her head. “Anyway, do you have any questions about the valley so far?”
Haru shook her head. “I’m just taking in things bit by bit. I’ll learn as I go. There’s no real rush to do anything, right?” The valley seemed like a quiet, peaceful place. There didn’t seem any rush to do anything. She really just wanted to spend time to build her farm up and get to know people. She did want to at least introduce herself to most everyone if possible. She really just felt like nobody rushed and rushed in this valley. It was small, quiet, and quaint, at least from her initial observations.
Yang shook her head. “No, not really… Most people here do have cars to go over to Zuzu City, or a motorcycle in my case, but for the most part, we just stick to the valley. We don’t see much need to go to the outside world unless there’s something we really need like higher-end clothes or something…not that anything like that really happens in the valley. The closest would be the Feast of the Winter Star where we tend to a secret Santa thing where we swap gifts with other members of the valley. But, for the most part, we can get what we need between the shop here and Joja.” Haru heard Summer sigh. “I know, Mom, I know, but…”
“I hate it, but even I have to shop at Joja for stuff. A supermarket in town is nice because I can’t really carry stuff like clothes and such… And it’s not like we have thrift stores. I don’t really have a frozen section or anything either. We do need Joja even if they are sucking away a lot of my business…” Summer sighed. “Plus, we haven’t had a big farmer in so long that my stock of seeds is just burning holes in my pockets.”
“Well, hopefully I’ll be buying seeds from you… I just need more money.” Haru looked down.
“It’s not your fault for any of this, Haru. Don’t put it on yourself. I make enough to be comfortable and stay afloat. That’s pretty much all I need. As long as I can put food on the table and pay the bills, I’m fine. You moved here without much notice, right? So it’s not like I’m going to blame you for having overgrown land and being poor when you only have so much gold. Nothing about this is your fault.”
Haru nodded, though her gaze remained down. “I was sent here against my will. I’ll just leave it at that.” Yeah, she didn’t have anything to do with the valley aside from being sent here by her father… He’d just sent her off without a care in the world. She hoped she’d be able to stay afloat by her own wit and tenacity… Though with only five hundred gold to start, it really wasn’t a lot. She was thankful that Sienna had been kind enough to get her some seeds to start… It was a small profit margin, but profit was profit.
“By the way, Haru, as you’re scything down bushes and stuff, you might be able to find some seeds that are indeterminate,” Yang put in. “We call ‘em mixed seeds. They’ll be free crops for you.”
Haru blinked. “So…free money basically?” That was the only way she could think of it. Mixed seeds, huh? That would be incredibly useful. Anything she didn’t have to pay for would be fine by her. She looked at Summer, worried the woman might be angry at her daughter, but she didn’t sense any animosity from her. Summer just shrugged. Well, that was good… She knew Summer would be relying on her for seed business, but for right now, she really couldn’t buy much of anything from her. She really just wanted to start turning a profit sooner rather than later so she could make her own meals. She had seen plenty of things in the shop that would be useful like flour, rice flour, sugar, and such, but she had to reserve that until she could start reliably making money. She hoped and prayed that she’d start turning a decent profit sooner rather than later.
“Basically. We find ‘em a lot in the Cindersap Forest. Though with all the weeds and stuff on your farm, I imagine you’ll get plenty from clearing the weeds away.”
Haru nodded. “ Though I won’t start doing that until I meet with Asuna tomorrow…”
“Huh, so you’re letting her use some of your land?” Summer asked.
“I ran into her last night on the way home from dinner. Right now, I really don’t need much land at all. I have a small amount of crops. I’ll probably expand as time goes on, but for now, I only need a little bit. I don’t want her missing out on plants that she finds vital to her foraging.” Wasn’t it just common decency to treat people with kindness? Then again, she knew how cruel people could be… Her father had thrown her out onto the streets essentially. She was old enough she could be thrown out without any issue… She had put up a fight against Sugimura whom she hadn’t wanted to marry at all. Especially not after he had attempted to force oral on her…
She shuddered at the thought and tried to push it away.
“Something wrong?” Summer asked.
“Just…an unpleasant memory I’ll be fine.” She left it there. These people were being kind, but she didn’t feel comfortable telling them about her darkest memory offhandedly. She just really wanted to put Sugimura behind her and ignore what her father had done to her. She needed to make her own way in the world now and would hopefully be able to do it… The people of the valley seemed kind thus far, so she hoped that she could make it with their support and warmth.
Summer didn’t look convinced but let it drop. “Well, it’s your land so you can do whatever you want to. We used to have a community garden next to the community center, but like the center, it fell into disrepair…”
Haru blinked. “A community garden?”
Summer nodded. “The Center fell into disrepair after Joja came to town about ten years ago. Old Lewis refused to allocate funds to get it back in working order. We still meet for holidays and stuff, but yeah, without the center, the town just doesn’t feel the same.”
Yang nodded. “I remember growing up and doing all sorts of arts and crafts and activities there. Katerina was great with us kids and she’d even do magic tricks—parlor tricks and sleight of hand, mind, not the sort of magic Morty and Raftina can do.”
“Yeah… I can imagine Sienna will want to bring it back, but there’s no way it’s up to recent building codes. It’s been completely overgrown by weeds and vines and stuff.” Summer sighed. “It’d take a massive amount of fundraising to get the community center back to where it used to be. Because of Lewis, Joja was able to move into town. Most people have purchased memberships… Due to the deal that was struck with Lewis, if one more person buys a membership, then they can replace the old center with a warehouse. It’d be great for Joja but a massive loss for the community…”
Haru frowned. “I see… I’m so sorry.” It sounded like the Center had meant a lot to the people of the valley. Granted, that was just from one family. Maybe others saw it differently. She felt like poking into that wound might be a bit too much right at first after being introduced… She hadn’t seen the Center yet, but from the way Summer described it…it had fallen into incredible disrepair. “Couldn’t Raftina or Morty restore it with their magic?”
Summer shrugged. “No telling. They’re…in a weird place with the community. They live on the outskirts of it and attend the holidays and events, but by the same token, they’re kind of removed. They’ve seen the valley transform from pure nature to an agrarian society and beyond. I’m not sure what they think about the community that’s sprung up… Also, it’s Lady Raftina, not just Raftina.”
Haru blinked. “She didn’t stress that to me at all…” If it was important to her, why not tell Haru? That didn’t make a whole lot of sense to her. Everyone else called her Lady Raftina, at least that she had seen.
“It’s just something we do out of courtesy to her. She is an actual goddess, so it only makes sense to give her some level of respect. She fought pretty hard against Lewis in a lot of his policies—he wasn’t the best and, on his death, it was seen that he made a golden statue of himself. None of us were particularly happy about that. He siphoned off town funds for that monstrosity. No wonder the valley is in such a state. Apparently she saw through him and his nonsense better than any of us did. We thought he was the kind mayor, but no, he was doing a lot of shady shit.”
“I see… My grandfather’s letter did mention Lewis and they were apparently friends.”
“That’s… Hm. Then again, none of us knew how awful Lewis was until he died. Only Lady Raftina was the one to see through his bullshit and attempt to stand against him. The bridge to the quarry has been broken for years, same with the main bus we use to get between here, Zuzu City, and the Calico Desert, the minecarts are busted, and a bunch of other stuff. He’d just let the infrastructure suffer so he could siphon funds off the top.”
Haru frowned. “That’s…” She really didn’t like it. Lewis had apparently been pretty terrible. She looked down at her plate and saw she had pretty much finished. Same was true of Yang, Summer, and Ruby.
“Well, we should probably get going. And Haru, don’t worry about the dishes; Ruby’ll put them in the dishwasher.” Yang grinned and stood up. “C’mon; let’s go mosey around town and meet some people!”
“Okay.” She dipped her head to Summer as she stood up. “Thank you again for breakfast.”
“It’s really no trouble.” Summer smiled. “Now get going.”
Haru nodded and followed Yang back down to the garage where they got on Bumblebee and headed off into town.
