Story of Seasons: An Ambrosia Story

[Proto Man]

The plants were there in the ground.

Mireya wasn’t quite sure what she’d just spent the last few hours planting, but if Mitch could be taken at his word, she’d know at some point in the near future. With the farm started, the moogle had taken off after passively forcing a small tea party with her. He mentioned that he really enjoyed the track of forest where she was living, and while he didn’t come outright and say it, the half-night elf had a genuine feeling of dread that the moogle would be back in a more permanent capacity.

Just what I need… neighbors.

Once Mitch was gone, Mireya set about setting up the little storage room, and try as she did to drag it out over a few hours, it was done before she realized it. The new side room allowed her to squirrel away all of her tools, raw materials, and the majority of the equipment she used to process it. That allowed her to actually have a small space to prepare food and a larger space for sleeping and relaxation.

“Not too bad,” the woman muttered as she left through the front door and glanced at her front yard. She’d have to add some additional fences and a little pathway, but for the most part, it looked nice. With some of the trees cleared away, there was fresh grass starting to come in around her home, and after another week or so, she might have something close to a lawn.

“All good things in time.”

***

Neighbors...

A plural word. As in, more than just the one.

Mireya had expected Mitch the moogle to return at some point, and she even figured he’d set up nearby. What she hadn’t expected was for the goofy little creature to have ‘associates’ who would follow him out to the half-night elf’s neck of the woods.

Mitch the moogle was joined by three of his friends. The first was some sort of talking lady turtle who called herself Jenny. Next was a pudgy pink thing with pointy ears and short limbs. Mireya couldn’t figure out if ‘Clefairy’ was the name of the individual or just its species. Mitch’s last friend was a walking, talking pirate crocodile who went by the name Klomp. They all seemed like generally pleasant individuals, and Mireya liked them all the more when they accepted her ‘brilliant advice’ that they settle a mile away.

After the meeting with the quartet, Mireya had taken as many days as she could without going to visit them. She was on the verge of quietly packing up her belongings and huffing it to a position further into the jungle when a voice of reason in her head—Damn you, Blues, this is your fault—convinced her to go visit them.

The trek hadn’t taken more than fifteen minutes, and when Mireya exited the brush into the clearing, she was amused at what she saw.

The four friends had all built their homes in the same vicinity, with an unpaved street wide enough for a cart separating them. All four of them had goofy little one-room, one-story buildings that almost awkwardly matched their origins. Jenny’s house was made of green bricks that matched her shell, and Klomp’s abode was made of simple wood with a crows’ nest and a cannon sticking out the back window. Clefairy was in an elegant little white home, and Mitch’s house had a little pompom and wings as decoration.

“Do you like it?” The moogle said, his little frame fluttering out one of his windows upon seeing the half-night elf.

“Looks like a lot of work,” Mireya muttered as the pirate-crocodile came out of his house. The woman hadn’t noticed before, but Klomp actually had a peg leg to go with his eye patch.

“We had them boxed up,” the crocodile replied as the others joined them. “Just a matter of plugging the pieces together, you know?” The matter-of-fact tone he had seemed to imply that this should be general knowledge.

“Oh, yea,” Mireya lied as she glanced around the area. Had they really managed to remove the trees so seamlessly? Only Klomp appeared to have the physique needed to chop down a tree, and the crocodile was missing an eye and a leg!

“We’re really excited!” Jenny remarked as she pointed to the woods just east of their houses. “There’s a nice river down there, and we even think we got some caves to explore.”

“The air is so nice out here, too!” Clefairy interjected. “Although it’s so quiet compared to Ambrosia… almost a bit too lonely.”

Mitch puffed out his tiny chest. “No worries, we’re going to liven this place up, one step at a time. The four of us are going to do what we can to help you out as well, Mireya.”

“Huh?”

“Well yea, you’re going to need our support to be successful with your farm, right? We’re all very handy, and while we can’t drop everything, we’re definitely going to do everything we can to help you out!”

Mireya held up her hands and shook them even as she smiled. “That’s okay, Mitch, I’ll be fine.”

“Nonsense,” Jenny replied. “Clefairy and I have some great merchant connections in Ambrosia. We’ll be trading some of the goods we make out here for town merchandise. We’ll take your stuff as well, if you want.”

“And you already know that I have an excellent green thumb,” Mitch added. “We’ll grow the best plants and vegetables together, Mireya! And Klomp is an amazing carpenter and blacksmith. He’s really the best.”

“You over-sell my skills,” the crocodile chuckled. “Although I’d wager no one knows how to work a piece of steel like me.”

I’m never getting away from these folks.

“Sounds wonderful,” Mireya said as she cursed her inner Blues. If the preteen robot was still here, he’d be over-enthused at the prospect of working with the little motley assortment of characters. “I can’t wait.”

With that, the half-night elf was dragged to some tea over at Clefairy’s house.