"This is Pinewood Farm."
Adam Yakovich paused with dragging his suitcase, looking past his redheaded guide to take in his surroundings. A forest, interrupted with sparse plains suitable for farming, a nearby lake with lily pads and algae, and finally, a desolate building, weathered with age and slowly falling apart. The wooden paneling looked rotten, the roof was missing shingles, there was also a missing shudder. Attached the the side of the house, the porch stretched around the house's perimeter, covering a small section filled with firewood.
At least the chimney seemed relatively stable.
His guide, a redheaded woman who introduced herself as Robin, waited as he took in the property. Adam tried not to grimace, but she noticed anyway.
"What's the matter? Sure, it's overgrown, but there's some good soil beneath that mess!" She grinned. "With a little dedication you'll have it cleaned up in no time."
She led him to the door of the house. The town's newcomer imagined how bad the inside must look along the way. Robin stopped by the porch steps and handing him a key. "And here we are, your new home."
The door to said home opened with a rickety squeak of it's hinges. Out stepped a man with greying hair, wearing suspenders and an old, patchwork hat. "Ah, the new farmer! Welcome! I'm Lewis, Mayor of Pelican Town." He approached the two of them, stopping next to Adam and observing him. "I haven't seen you seen you were this tall, Adam." He gestured down to the level of his knees. "You look just like your grandfather."
At a little over six feet, he definitely wasn't down to Lewis' knees anymore. He had the russet hair and fair blue eyes that ran in the family. Because he had been working a desk job before moving here, he didn't have a strong build, and his skin was pale from a lack of sunlight.
The Mayor continued, "It's not everyday that someone new moves in. It's quite a big deal!"
There was a moment of silence before Lewis turned towards the old home. "So... You're moving into your grandfather's old cottage. It's a good house, very rustic."
Somewhere out of sight, they heard the sound of a brittle shingle finally giving up, sliding down to the grass below.
"That's one way to put it." Robin quipped. "Crusty might be more like it."
Before Adam could contemplate how the place looked crusty, Lewis scowled. "Rude!" There wasn't much threat behind his tone, Robin laughed.
"You're just trying to get him to pay you for repairs." Lewis continued. The redhead put on a look of mock surprise that he would dare suggest such a thing.
The whole exchange made Adam crack a smile.
"Anyways," Lewis reached out and shook his hand. "You must be tired from the long journey. You should get some rest."
Despite the several hour long bus ride to the valley, he still had enough energy to settle in.
"Then tomorrow, you can explore the town and introduce yourself. I'm sure the townspeople would appreciate that."
Adam watched them leave, except when he went to go inside, Lewis turned and called out to him. "Oh, I almost forgot! If you have any products you need to sell, put them in this crate here." Next to the elderly Mayor was a large wooden box, with a lid partially sealing it. "I'll come by every night to collect it."
Then they left, for real this time, leaving Adam to enter his new abode.
Thankfully, despite his worries, the interior was in better condition than the outside led him to believe. There were plenty of gaps in the wooden walls and floors, but those could be fixed easy enough. He checked if the house had power by turning on a nearby lamp, which lit up with a dim, yellow glow.
Apart from the lamp, there was a single bed with a headboard pushed into a corner, a small end table, and a tiny potted cactus resting on top of the table. He left his suitcase next to the bed, continuing to observe the room. Next to a fireplace, which looked well used but otherwise fine, was an old TV. Old enough that it only had a handful of channels. Empty shelves lined the walls, among a few decorations like an old wooden shield, complete with a metal coat of arms, a simple mirror, and finally two windows. One window was boarded up, with a draft coming in through the broken glass. In the center of the room was a desaturated red rug without any holes; on top of that rug was a large, wrapped package, it even came with a bow.
Adam quirked a brow. He opened it and pulled out a folded letter, followed by a handful of tools, some sort of rock, a watering can, and lastly, dozens of packages labeled as 'Parsnip Seeds'. He nudged the box away and examined the note. "Just a little something to get you started..." He muttered aloud. The sender was Mayor Lewis. He'd have to thank him later.
He knew it would be a long process to fix and repair everything. First things first, he needed to clear up space so he had room to grow crops and earn money.
The farmer lined up the tools against the wall, next to the door. Until he got a better look at the land, he wouldn't take any of them, so he went back outside and marked off a square chunk across from the door. The markers were actually just four large, sharp branches jammed into the ground. Waist high grass, fallen limbs too large to move by hand, and several trees all filled the space within. Fortunately, there didn't appear to be any boulders or rocks.
Adam was glad he wore jeans, going through that in shorts would've been itchy like crazy.
He had to leave and come back with the appropriate tools, starting with the scythe. He honestly could say he never held one until today. Going off what he'd seen in movies and documentaries, he gripped both handles and swung at the tall grass. The blade cut through a portion of grass before burying itself into the dirt with a dull thud, leaving Adam struggling to pull it out. He tried again, failing many times, having to stop and grab what he realized was a whetstone halfway through to sharpen the scythe. Eventually, he got the tall grass short enough that he wouldn't have any trouble tilling it up.
Adam had to take a break, sitting on a wide tree stump close by, catching his breath.
Next up he used the axe to steadily chop fallen limbs into manageable pieces. He carried the logs and began to form a stack next to the firewood. Already, the farmer could feel the burning in his arms from the exertion, but he got the job done. All that was left now were the trees themselves. six in total were marked to be cut down. All spruce trees.
Although at first he was nervous about which way the trees would fall, he realized he could easily move out of the way, and that it wasn't close enough to any structure to damage.
By now he was feeling tired, so he didn't bother to clean up any of the trees he chopped, instead just leaving them where they landed for the next day.
Once Adam returned inside, he put the tools up and took off his boots, tossing them to the side. He tugged off his pants and shirt on the way to bed, wanting to keep it as grime free as possible.
He stared at the ceiling and thought about his life leading up to now. His father died when he was too young to remember, leaving his mother a depressed alcoholic that took out her issues on her only son. Adam's paternal grandfather stepped in after a particularly bad incident when he was nine, taking custody and bringing Adam home with him to a little town in Stardew Valley. He spent the next few years happier than he ever remembered feeling, the peace and isolation of the simple life good for him, until grandpa passed away. leaving only a letter to the young kid, and the instructions to only open it when he felt hopeless again.
Since his mother was still deemed unfit to care for him, he spent his teenage years living with a few different foster homes during that time. He honestly forgot about the letter during that time. It remained sealed for years, until the day he was struck with a realization while in a cramped office cubicle, working a dead end job at Joja Corporation. Adam couldn't do it anymore, his lifestyle needed to change, so he quit halfway through the work day, going home to the only cheap apartment he could afford to debate what to do. He didn't recall the letter right away, it took him awhile to stumble on it while he was packing his things.
Adam was now the owner of the old farmhouse in the valley, much to his surprise. He packed light, a single suitcase with extra clothes, some hygiene products. It dipped into his savings to hop from bus to bus until he reached Pelican Town, the place he now called home.
Adam sighed. He wasn't too optimistic about how much moving here would help. It was worth a shot, at least.
He fell asleep while thinking about the mental checklist of tasks he still had to do to fix his grandfather's farm. His farm.
Adam had no idea what time he woke up, only that it was before sunrise. Birds could apparently be very noisy when there weren't sounds to interfere like in the city. He spent some time to fully wake up and leave the house.
He worked on chopping the trees up and moving them out of the way, before switching tools to drag large ruts in the dirt. He threw clumps of stubborn roots out of the way. Afterwards, Adam filled the watering can and grabbed the box of seed packets. Reading the instructions, he planted the appropriate number of seeds the correct distance apart, watering the whole lot when he covered the seeds in a layer of dirt.
Adam used all the parsnip seeds, throwing the empty packages back into the gift-box to be gotten rid of later. He rinsed the dirt off his hands in the nearby lake before taking everything back inside.
The rest of the day was spent introducing himself to some of the townspeople, subsequently learning the layout of the town.
He stopped by the building too small to really be a hospital, he didn't take the chance to transfer his old medical records, and he wanted to have one on file in the meantime. He met the doctor, a man named Harvey, and his nursing aid, Maru. Maru, as it turned out, was Robin's daughter.
The farmer visited the general store next door, the couple that owned it recognized him, but he couldn't recall them in return. Pierre and Caroline introduced themselves, glad to see him back in town, and called their daughter, Abigail, out of the back to do the same. Her purple hair stood out more-so than her mother's green. He didn't remember her, which he felt he should've considering her unique hair color. He left, buying something to eat for the next few days. Pierre happily invited him to come back any time.
He checked the notice board in between both buildings, looking for a local map, and finding one that was still kind of vague, but enough for Adam to get the basic layout of what surrounded the town.
He returned home to drop off the groceries. Afterwards, he followed a different path, north of his property.
This trail went up into the mountains, but wasn't a strenuous walk. Next to a photogenic lake was a nice looking house, very sturdy and simple in design. A motorcycle was parked out front, and a telescope could be seen in the back yard. A small sign hung on the door, one of those cheap OPEN and CLOSED signs you could flip around on a string. The shop of whatever kind was open, so he walked in.
Robin stood behind a honey toned counter, polished with a varnish finish, and smiled when he came in.
"Hello again, Adam! How've you been settling in?"
He smiled politely. "Fairly well. I'm not lacking in anything to do, that's for sure."
"Speaking of which, if you ever want some help fixing that place up, you can always come to me. I'm a carpenter. Provided you have the resources and can cover the cost of labor."
"I'm a little low on money, but I'll think it over." He honestly would. Taking all the help he can get was a good idea.
"If you help me with the work, I'll cut that fee in half." She offered.
Adam grinned. "Deal." Then he changed subjects. "I met Maru at the Doctor's office today."
Robin's expression brightened as she leaned against the counter. "That so? She's my youngest, although I've only got two." The redhead turned towards a nearby hallway, filled with projects in varying degrees of finished, both wooden and mechanical, and yelled. "Demetrius! Come here!"
The sound of shattered glass followed, causing Robin to wince and mouth 'oops' at Adam.
Soon enough, a man come through the hall, pulling a pair of goggles up to his forehead. He wore a faded white lab-coat, with all sorts of items filling the pockets.
Robin smiled. "Hon, this is Adam, the new farmer that just moved into town."
Demetrius looked at him, taking in his appearance with a glance. "Nice to see you again, Adam." Yet another adult that knew who he was when he couldn't say the same.
"Sorry, I don't remember many people from when I lived here. I never really went into town as a kid." He was struck by how weird that was, he only remembered things on the farm, or related to grandpa himself.
The couple waved him off. "Don't worry about it." It was Robin who spoke. "I'd introduce you to Sebastian, but he's not home right now."
Once he left the carpenter's shop, he followed a wooden bridge made of planks, which led to a cave and a locked building. The sign on the building read 'Adventurer's Guild'. Adam was curious about the cave, so he entered.
Inside the dimly lit area, Adam realized the place was an old mine network. A mine-cart sat to the side, lacking power to function. The same could be said for an elevator positioned on the back wall. A ladder was in the center of the room, leading deeper into the dark.
Above the ladder stood an elderly man, with a wooden prosthetic leg, eye path, goatee, leather cape, and a scabbard looped through his belt. His icy eyes focused on Adam the moment he entered. "Markus. No, nevermind." Markus was the name of his grandfather.
"My name is Adam."
The old man hummed to himself, moving to stand closer, heavily favoring his good leg. "The boy isn't a boy anymore, is he, Markus?" Before Adam could wonder if the man was even senile, he continued. "Do you remember me, lad?"
Adam shook his head 'no'.
"Well, I wasn't missing parts the last time you saw me." The man laughed at his own joke. "I formed the Adventurer's Guild with your grandfather decades ago, I was his friend, Marlon." He pointed to the hole in the ground below next him. "We used to explore these old mines together. It's been years since anybody went down there, but it's a good source of ore, if you can deal with everything else."
Adam rose an eyebrow, not liking the ominous implications. "Like what?"
Marlon just shook his head. Adam frowned at his reluctance to talk.
"Do you have Markus' scimitar?" The veteran adventurer asked, hand rested on the hilt of his own blade.
Yet again Adam shook his head. His mother had sold it when he inherited the weapon. She told him it was because a child his age had no need for a sword, but it was probably because she wanted the money to fuel her bad habits.
Marlon sighed. "That's unfortunate. You won't get far in the mines if you decide to go without a means of defending yourself." He undid his belt, pulling the scabbard and blade inside it off the strip of leather. "Take mine, I've recently bought a new one from Clint, anyways." He waited for Adam to take the blade before redoing his belt.
Adam pulled the sword from it's sheath, noting the rust creeping up the standard piece of metal, as well as the large handle and cross-guard.
"I bet the elevator here still works, why don't you find another door? See if you can get it running again. Do that, and I might consider letting you join the guild." With those closing words, the old man left Adam to his thoughts.
He wasn't prepared right now, so he left the mine and returned home, still carrying the sheathed sword.
Adam propped it up against the wall next to his tools, stripping down on his way to bed. He was going to bed early, so he would have the energy to get that elevator working. He wanted to join the guild.
It was actually more than a want, he felt obligated to, because his grandfather helped create it.