Chapter Text
The next morning, Gem woke to the instant realization that she wouldn’t be getting any real work done today.
I like him. Damnit.
Once she’d finally crawled into her bed last night, she laid awake for hours, counting the beams on her ceiling and investigating her own emotions. Gem has liked Grian for as long as she can remember–an innocent childhood crush that has followed her into adulthood, as close as her own shadow. Trying to ignore it has worked, up until now. But… that was before candlelit dinners and sleeping in his sweater.
Groaning, Gem forces herself out of bed and into her slippers. The coffee maker is a welcome sight, and she indulges in a full cup before finally dragging her body into the shower, trying in vain to get into a work-oriented mindset, but she just can’t focus.
That’s fine. After over 10 days of hard, consistent labor, she’s pretty sure she’s earned a day where she just takes it easy. If she forces herself to slog through days like this, then she’ll eventually come to associate the work with the negative feelings, and that’s just something Gem cannot afford to happen.
So, she takes the morning slow. She carefully braids her hair back into two twin tails, picks out her plushest socks to wear under her work boots, and dons Grian’s sweater over the comfortable tee she throws on. There are some things in the mornings that just can’t be avoided–namely, watering her crops and bringing water to the house–so she gets those done before setting off into town.
This morning, Gem wants fresh air, and maybe some companionship. A stroll through the town square will most likely result in both of those things. After their conversation last night, Gem knows Grian is busy lake fishing during the morning hours today, and part of her is tempted to go join him. The slightly louder part of her, however, doesn’t want to overstep, or interrupt his work, without good reason.
Gem being a little clingy doesn’t really feel like ‘good reason.’
With that decided, she ambles into town without really having a plan at all. She waves and exchanges pleasantries with Dr. Harvey, who’s taking his break with an espresso under the shade of a tree. She’d love to pop into the clinic for one of his Energy Tonics, but they are way out of her current price range. Passing the doctor and heading further into town, she comes across Dusty’s pen and makes sure to give him many, many pets. She hasn’t ever actually met his owner, Alex, as he moved into the valley just after she stopped visiting, but Granny Evelyn used to babysit her when she was younger, so she’s heard stories.
There are more people out and about in town than Gem had been expecting, and she doesn’t feel quite emboldened enough to go strike up a conversation with each and every one of them, but… At least she’s getting really good at handing out a polite smile and wave. It’s a good enough first step to be seen, and stop acting like a hermit, hidden away from the world on her farm.
Eventually, Gem thinks she might enjoy sitting at the fountain, maybe even read a few chapters of the fantasy novel she’s toting around in her backpack. The vision of Mayor Lewis humming and hawing in front of the old abandoned Community Center, however, immediately sidetracks her. Gem, stepping carefully up the hill, calls out a simple hello and marches over.
“Oh, hi there,” Mayor Lewis greets her. Something about his usually jovial face seems downright glum, and he gestures wanly to the decrepit building behind him. “What an eyesore… Our old Community Center just isn’t what it used to be. It used to be the pride and joy of the town, always bustling with activity,” he sighs. “Just look at it. It’s shameful.”
Gem’s face twists into a frown. Vaguely, she can remember coming here when she was very young, but the building wasn’t even in great shape then. She must have been 4 or 5 the last summer that the Community Center was open. For some reason, she just never questioned it being abandoned.
“Joja has been hounding me to sell them this land,” Lewis continues, and a flash of anger strikes through Gem’s body that startles her. “Pelican Town can use the money, but there’s something that’s keeping me from selling it… I guess old timers like me just get attached to relics of the past… Ah, well. If anyone else buys a JojaMart membership, I think I’ll just go ahead and sell it.”
Lewis fumbles with his keys, looking more forlorn than Gem has ever seen him, and she understands. JojaMart is the company that sucked all of the joy, freedom, and passion from Gem’s life. They’re the company that drained her from all of the experiences life is supposed to have–and they didn’t even have the decency to pay her well for it. Joja has taken so much from her, more than she can even stand to think about right now, and the thought of something they own being right in the center of the town makes her nauseous and angry.
There must be something she can do to stop them from taking Pelican Town, too. Not that she has any idea what that would possibly look like… She just has to find a way.
“Come inside with me, Farmer Gem,” Lewis instructs after finding the correct key. Gem doesn’t trust her tongue, but she does follow.
The inside of the building is in worse condition than it originally seemed. Whole sections of floor are missing, the windows are smashed out, and, weirder than anything, there’s a small structure in the back left of the room.
Lewis seems to notice it at the same time Gem does, eyes turning unnerved and confused. Then, as if something unseen washes over him, Lewis’ eyes slacken a bit, and he halfheartedly mumbles, “I guess Vincent and Jas have been playing in here…”
Something feels off in this building. Lewis rambles on about the condition of the building, but Gem can’t shake the feeling of being watched. Then–there! Right behind the mayor’s head there’s a… What is that thing??
A small, green, almost apple shaped something is bouncing in the corner, as if trying to get her attention. She points it out, but it vanishes into thin air before Lewis can see it. Suddenly, he’s looking at her with disconcerting eyes.
“Are you alright, Gem? Do you feel ill?” Lewis asks her. Gem can almost feel the judgement in his tone–or is it concern? She can’t tell. Either way, she tries to play it cool.
“Sorry, I… I just thought I saw something in the corner,” Gem explains. Did she imagine that? Is she ill?
“Well, I wouldn’t doubt that,” Lewis exhales, some terseness leaving him. “I’d bet this place is plumb full of rats.”
Rats… Yeah, rats would make sense. Maybe it was just covered in mold, or a moss of some kind? But how did it vanish? Gem is on the brink of convincing herself that she saw nothing out of the ordinary when the little creature appears again. Once again, it’s out of Lewis’ eyeshot, but this time she tries her best not to react at all, and it vanishes again as he goes to turn toward it.
The mayor heaves a hefty sigh, unconscious of Gem’s near-panic. “Well, I’m gonna head back home and get some lunch in this old body. Whattaya say I keep this place unlocked from now on? Maybe you can help catch that rat if you have the spare time!” And with that, he walks away, leaving Gem alone in an abandoned building with a tiny little sprite, or something, that apparently only wants her to see it.
Well, no thank you. If there’s a haunted building in town, Gem will be damned if she’s caught in here alone.
She’s out the door and heading toward the mountain before she realizes where her body is carrying her–the mountain lake, where Grian is peacefully working. Gem being clingy wasn’t a good enough reason to bug him, but her seeing mysterious bouncing creatures that can vanish and appear at will probably (definitely) is.
She finds him exactly where he said he’d be, sprawled out on a thin wooden board connecting two tiny islets in the center of the lake. He doesn’t spot her until the sound of her boots slap heavy on the wood as she all but jogs over to him. At first, Grian’s eyes light up at the sight of her, but upon noticing the almost certain panic and confusion in her eyes, he immediately stands.
“Gem? Are you alright?” he asks, reaching for her arm as she comes up close enough. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
“I did,” she deadpans. “I think. Or something… green, and bouncy. In the Community Center.”
“A slime? In the Community Center?” he asks, head tilting in confusion.
Gem doesn’t really know what he means by that, so she just shrugs and says, “Sure, I have no clue. But it just… appeared in front of me. And then vanished again. Twice.”
She knows the shock of it is making her sentences sharp and jumbled, but she just saw something impossible happen in front of her, so she isn’t very sorry about it.
“Okay, don’t worry,” Grian says, not seeming very concerned at all. “I’ve never heard of slimes being able to apparate or anything, but they’re quite common monsters in the cave. I have to deal with them a lot when I want to go cave fishing, so I should be able to handle it. Can you show me where you saw it?”
Gem nods, digesting his words. Common monsters in the caves… right. Sure. Wordlessly, they walk back down the mountain to the Community Center. Along the way, Grian fishes inside his massive pack and takes out a sling-shot and about a dozen small stones. He just carries that around?
Gem leads him into the crumbling building. They wander around in the room for a bit, Grian with his weapon at the ready. Gem is about to give up and admit she’s just crazy or something, when she finally sees it again, bouncing in the hallway to the left of them.
“There!” she shouts and points, ready for it to vanish as soon as Grian turns, but… it doesn’t. It just stays there, bouncing at them. She hears Grian make a soft noise.
“Ah, Gem… That’s not a slime at all,” he says just above a whisper. “I think it’s a junimo. I’ve read about them before, but I’ve never seen one. They’re supposedly the natural spirits of the valley.”
Gem watches as Grian puts away his sling-shot and starts to approach, beckoning her to follow. She isn’t very sure about it, but she does. As they approach, it bounces farther down the hallway.
“I think it wants us to follow it,” she whispers, so they do.
The junimo bounces into a room and waits for them. There’s a weird golden scroll laying in the center of the room. It looks… magical and out of place, so she assumes that it must be what they’re being led towards. They make eye contact and nod, seemingly in agreement, and enter the room. The junimo vanishes as they get close to the scroll.
Grian gingerly lifts it and unrolls it in front of the both of them.
“Any chance you can read that language?” Gem tries.
“I was about to ask you the same,” he frowns.
The script is swirling and beautiful, but completely illegible. Gem feels a pang of disappointment she can’t quite source and huffs a sigh. “Well… now what? That junimo clearly wanted us to find this.”
“I’m not sure… The guys at the Adventurer’s Guild might know, though. I’m scared to ask around about it, in case there’s a reason the junimo came to you and not them. You said it hid from Lewis, right? There must be a reason for that…” Grian thinks aloud. “I’ll do some reading and see what I can find.”
Gem nods and finally releases the tension in her shoulders. The fear she felt is gone and is replaced by the strangest urge to help the little creature, now that she’s pretty sure it isn’t going to lure her to her death or anything.
“Did you seriously say there were monsters in the caves?” Gem asks, suddenly coming back to herself.
“Yup. Lots of ‘em. Is that my jumper?” he asks in return.
Oops. Gem had forgotten about it entirely, suddenly smoothing down the front of it self-consciously. “Uh… nope,” she lies, and ignores the indignant look Grian gives her in return. “Don’t change the subject. What do you mean monsters? Like… zombies? Ghosts?”
“No zombies, really, but ghosts, skeletons, slimes, shadow creatures… They’re the reason the Adventurer’s Guild exists. Did you not listen when your grandpa told you to stay away from the caves or a monster would kill you?” Grian disbelievingly asks.
“I didn’t think he was being serious! I thought that was just something they told the kids to keep them out of the caves, or from running around the mountain at night,” Gem reasons, and Grian either sees the logic in it or just doesn’t care to argue further because he drops the judgemental look.
“I can take you with me sometime, if you don’t believe me. But you’ll have to promise me to stick close by and let me keep you safe,” Grian offers.
The thought of monsters isn’t necessarily the most exciting thing in the world to her, she can’t lie. But she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious…
“I’d like that,” she finally settles on. “But just the once.”
Grian seems pleased with her answer, so she feels a little better about it already. Neither of them seem too anxious to keep spending time in the rundown building, so they file out in silence.
“Welp, that was exciting,” Grian exhales, and Gem giggles. “I’m right tired after that.”
“Now that you mention it, I feel pretty drained, too,” Gem says, taking note of the weight of her footfalls, the fading of the adrenaline stealing all of her energy. She laments, “I just wanted to go on a walk.”
“Not working today, Farmer Gem?” he teases, lightly elbowing her as they slowly drift toward the benches by the fountain. Gem tries her best to ignore the bubble of feelings that come both from the contact, and from the reminder as to why she took the day off in the first place.
“I worked, a little,” she argues, but it’s boneless. Sighing, she sinks into the wooden bench, and continues. “I just didn’t want to spend all day swinging a pickaxe, for once. I thought a walk would be a nice, cozy way to spend my morning.”
“So much for that,” Grian laughs. “Well, it was still too cold for any of the spring fish I’m looking for to be biting yet, so I’ve got the day off, if you wanna spend it together.”
She makes a point of letting the offer hang in the air, and hums loudly, almost obnoxiously, like she’s considering it very hard. “I guess that works.”
“Nevermind, you’re the worst,” Grian says, trying and failing to keep a smile off of his face. “I’m going home.”
Gem grabs his arm before he can stand and try to move away, “Nope. You’re stuck with me now.” Grian fakes like he’s trying to pull away, but lets himself be dragged without complaining.
They make it down the hill and onto the stone of the square before he thinks to ask where she’s taking him.
“My house,” she replies, not elaborating. Mainly because she has no idea why exactly she’s dragging him to her house. All Gem knows is that she isn’t going to pass up on the opportunity to spend time with Grian.
There’s a warm air on the breeze, like the universe is reminding them that winter really is finally over. The trees that will soon fully shade the bus stop path are already budding. There are a lot of things in the world that Gem still doesn’t know. There’s so much for her to learn. But today, at least, she’s walking on a beautiful path, arm linked with her best friend, and they have no responsibilities. Life can’t get much better than that, she thinks.
“Sorry for the mess,” Gem says as she opens the cabin door and leads Grian inside. She kicks off her boots and gestures for Grian to do the same. “The farm takes up so much of my attention these days that I haven’t really bothered to, like… put away laundry or do the dusting.”
Grian neither responds nor–apparently–cares. He saunters in and immediately starts opening cabinet doors, poking his nose into pretty much anywhere he can. Gem just smiles and lets him be. She absentmindedly flicks on the television and sinks into the loveseat, happy enough just to watch him fiddle around.
Right now, he’s inspecting her linen storage. He pulls out a soft pink patchwork quilt, a gift from Pam from Gem’s 8th birthday, and tosses it to her. She raises an eyebrow at him, and her silent question isn’t left unanswered for long, because Grian flops down right next to her, steals the TV remote from her hands, and flicks through until he finds what he was looking for–a movie Gem doesn’t recognize. The blanket is then spread out across the both of them.
Apparently they’re watching a movie together.
Gem has no reason to complain, nor does she have a reason to interrupt the comfortable silence to ask needless questions. She just pulls her legs up underneath her and pillows her head on Grian’s shoulder.
It’s not a surprise when Gem falls asleep less than 10 minutes later. She’s never really been a movie person.
* * *
It’s warm. Very warm.
Before Gem can even open her eyes, she tries to throw off the blanket, but it just won’t budge for some reason. Groggily, and begrudgingly, she cracks her eyelids open. She’s not in her bed, she realizes, and then–she remembers.
Craning her head–and finally beginning to fully awaken–Grian is still beside her, his arm thrown lazily around her shoulder, fast asleep. The TV is off, meaning he must have made the decision to nap here consciously. Suddenly, she’s extremely happy that he’s still sleeping so he can’t see how pink she’s turning.
The clock on the wall tells her that she’s been out for a little under three hours, and there’s still plenty of daylight left. Her rumbling stomach reminds her that she didn’t bother with breakfast this morning. Deciding to try and make them a simple lunch, Gem spends an awkwardly long amount of time trying to untangle herself from Grian without waking him up, but she eventually succeeds. She takes a moment just to watch him, chest rising and falling in a gentle pattern. It’s been a lifetime since they had a sleepover on that sofa–well over the 10 years they’ve been separated. They outgrew it when they were 8 or 9.
Well, they thought they had. Clearly, their nap today proves that wrong.
The kitchen is directly joined with the living room, so Gem sets about her gathering in as close to silence as she can manage. Her pantry selection is paltry, but she’s creative. She scrounges up the ingredients for a simple radish and potato stew, and brings it to a simmer in her trusty soup pot.
Gem’s about halfway through kneading a simple focaccia when there’s noise from the living room. Bleary eyed and sleep rumpled, Grian is yawning and stretching. His glasses are still a little askew when he makes it into the kitchen.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” Gem smirks, even though she doesn’t really have a leg to stand on in that front.
Grian just makes an indecipherable noise at her and falls into her shoulder, unabashedly using her to support his weight.
“Still suck at waking up, huh?” she teases, and receives another grunt in response, making her laugh. “You’re hopeless.”
She lets him hang off of her until the bread needs to go into the oven, planting him in a kitchen chair in the meantime. She also takes the time to put on a kettle and make them some energy boosting tea, since Grian clearly needs it.
Everything in this valley is steeped in nostalgia, and this routine is no different. Grian has always been slow to rise, and Gem has always been a morning person. It’s comforting to know that when it seems like everything is constantly changing, some things stay the same.
Grian slowly comes back to the waking world once he starts sipping his tea, and Gem serves them lunch not too much later. The conversation is quiet and directionless.
“I need to go buy eggs,” Gem says at some point, rinsing out her favorite mug.
“Marnie?” Grian asks, to which Gem nods. “I’ll come with you.”
Gem is more than fine with that.
The first interruption comes the second they step outside. “You’ve got mail, Gem.”
Curious, she turns, and he’s right–the little red flag is raised. That wasn’t there this morning when she left, nor when they came back. Odd.
Inside is a deep purple envelope with nothing but her name on the front, a bronze wax seal holding it closed. Her breath catches in her throat as she reads the first sentence, then stops and starts over, reading aloud this time.
“‘My sources tell me you’ve been poking around inside the old community center. Why don’t you pay me a visit? My chambers are west of the forest lake, in the stone tower. I may have information concerning your… ‘rat problem.’ – M. Rasmodius, Wizard,’” she reads, completely stupefied. “Is this some sort of prank?”
Grian takes the letter from her and reads it for himself. “Is that weird old man really some sort of wizard?”
“Someone actually lives in that tower?” Gem asks. “I guess that makes sense…”
“Do you wanna go?” he asks, folding the letter and handing it back to her. A weird bubbling rises in her stomach. Fear, she realizes. Fear and confusion and bewilderment.
That junimo… It was clearly asking for her help, wasn’t it? If she can help the junimo, maybe she can help keep JojaCo from getting the community center. And if there’s really a chance this… ‘wizard’ can help, then Gem wants to try.
“Will you come with me?”
“I don’t think I’d feel comfortable with you going alone,” Grian tells her, and some of that fear ebbs away.
“So much for my eggs,” Gem laments once again. One of these days, she promises herself.
* * *
The trek to the tower was a little tricky. Gem and Grian got turned around twice, and once somehow ended up at the Flower Dance clearing, before they finally stumbled across the stairs to the tower.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Grian asks her. “We can leave now and never talk about it again if that’s what you want.”
“I appreciate that, but we’re already here. We might as well see what he has to say.”
With that, he nods, and they approach the door. Gem raises her fist to knock, but the door unlatches and swings open before she makes contact with it.
Great. Cool. Not creepy at all. She swallows her fear and pushes inside.
The interior is startlingly cold. Dark stone makes up the floor and climbs up the walls. To her left, a giant cauldron boils and steams with something noxiously green. To her immediate right is a simple table, and just beyond it is a strange sigil etched into the floor, odd lights speckled throughout it. There’s arcane tools and symbols and so much that Gem can’t even begin to recognize.
And there in the center is a tall man unlike any Gem has seen before. He sports a purple beard and hair, tucked under a black leather cap. He wears dark robes with gold attachments. And oddest of all, there’s… magic. Real magic, floating in the air around him. It’s the only way Gem can describe the way the air shimmers where he stands.
“Ah,” the strange man says. “Come in.”
They do. The man steps closer and introduces himself. “I am Rasmodius, seeker of the arcane truths. Mediary between physical and ethereal. Master of the seven elementals. Keeper of the sacred cha– you get the point,” he drones. “And you two, Gem and Grian… the ones whose arrival and reunion I have long foreseen.”
Gem catches Grian’s eye, and he looks just as confused as she does. After a bit of silent back and forth between them, he just shrugs. They’ll just go along with whatever this man says, for now at least, and suspend their disbelief.
“Here, I’d like to show you something,” Rasmodius says after observing their ‘conversation.’ “Behold!” He makes a symbol with his fingers, and suddenly, the little green junimo from the community center appears in the middle of that strange sigil on the ground.
Gem has to fight her urge to run toward it. Seeing it held like this, seemingly unable to move its small body, angers her in a way she hadn’t expected, but the wizard just keeps talking.
“You’ve seen one before, haven’t you? They call themselves the Junimos… Mysterious spirits. For some reason, they refuse to speak with me,” he says. Probably because you summon them and hold them against their will, Gem struggles not to say.
He casually releases the spirit, and it vanishes. “I’m not sure why they’ve moved into the community center, but you have no reason to fear them.”
“What about the golden scroll it led us to?” Gem finds herself asking. So far, she doesn’t like this man… he’s only as good as the information he can give her right now. “It was written in a language we can’t read.”
“Hmm? I shall go see for myself. I will return shortly,” Rasmodius says. Grian opens his mouth to say something, but the Wizard vanishes into thin air before he can.
“What is happening?” he says to her instead.
“Genuinely, I have no clue,” she answers. “I–”
She’s cut off by the front door opening and the wizard saunters in.
“I found the note,” he says casually. “The language was obscure, but I was able to decipher it: ‘We, the Junimo, are happy to aid you. In return, we ask for gifts of the valley. If you are one with the forest, you will see the true nature of this scroll.’”
Gem and Grian make eye contact again–do they believe him? They have no reason to, but no reason to think he’s lying, either…
Rasmodius approaches his cauldron, mumbling to himself. “Ah!” he suddenly exclaims. “Come here, both of you.”
As they listen, he continues, “My cauldron is bubbling with ingredients from the forest. Baby fern, moss grub, caramel top toadstool… Can you smell it?” Gem and Grian sniff. It does smell earthy and natural, like walking through the forest right after a rainstorm. “Here, drink up. Let the essence of the forest permeate your body!”
She almost refuses. Almost turns out walks out the door. But Grian takes her hand, squeezing it reassuringly. He wants to help the junimo, too, she realizes, and they both agree that this is probably the surest way…
Hand in hand, they take the ladle, and sip. Gem feels immediately wobbly on her feet, and her vision greens. There are no words that can accurately describe the psychedelic whirlwind of plants and leaves that her entire world becomes. She has no idea how long it lasts. When she finally comes to, she feels weirdly numb, but she can feel something in her. Something has taken root, literally, and she’s almost certain she can sense something green and pure within.
It worked.
“You should be able to read their scrolls, now,” the wizard tells them. “Now, I have many important works to attend to, if you don’t mind leaving me.”
Wordlessly, almost as if compelled, they stand and walk out of the building, through the forest, and to the entrance of Emerald Hills Farm. For some reason, Gem doesn’t really want to talk about what just happened. It feels like a secret. If the junimos only wanted those who are one with the forest to understand them, then why would Gem go around talking about them?
Without ever verbally agreeing to it, Gem and Grian both cut through the farm and head straight to the community center.
There are no junimo visible when they get there, but in the same room as before, there’s a different set of scrolls. Listed inside are several different compiled lists of items, all seemingly related to the foragables of the valley. Spring items, Summer items, Fall and Winter items… even some more exotic items. It also lists wood and stone on another scroll.
“These are the gifts they want?” Grian asks. “It’ll take us ages to get all of this, even if we work together… at least the full year. Half of this stuff we won’t be able to get anytime soon.”
“I know… but the first scroll apparently said that they could aid us if we helped. I at least want to try,” Gem says.
“Definitely,” Grian agrees. “For now, let’s focus on the spring bundle of items, and maybe the construction-themed one. I figure you’ve probably got some stone and wood from clearing the farm, yeah?”
Gem nods. “Not this much, but it’s a start.”
They talk a bit more about the items listed, about timelines and planning, and about what the junimo might grant them, but eventually the sky turns golden.
“Let’s talk more about this later,” Grian says. He rerolls the scrolls and leaves them where they were found.
“Right. It’s a lot to digest…”
They walk in tandem until they reach the bus. Grian’s hair always seems to glow during golden hour. Gem feels a little silly for being so distracted by it, but she can’t help it.
“Talk tomorrow?” Gem asks.
“For sure,” Grian confirms. “You look really nice in my jumper, by the way.”
Gem jolts, surprised by the sudden combo of call-out and compliment, but Grian is halfway down his trail home by the time she can think of anything to say.
That jerk, she thinks. She looks down at herself, navy sweater hanging loose on her frame. At least he thinks it looks nice.
Gem’s world has expanded considerably over the course of a single day. Monsters, magic, junimo… It’s almost too much to think about.
Tomorrow. She’ll think about it tomorrow.