Standard disclaimer: I do not own "Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Welcome Amiibo)", any of the characters, sayings, or anything. The only thing I have, if you will, is the name of my mayor and the town's name. This fan fiction is strictly for entertainment purposes only.

Additional author's notes and comments will be below.

It was the start of a new morning in Mistgate. Inside a yellow tent, a young woman had just woken up. After grabbing her glasses from the top of her suitcase, she sat back down on the blue sleeping bag, and thought about the previous day's events. She had just moved from her old home in the city to a smaller town called Mistgate, the first time she'd be living on her own. When she'd arrived, she learned that not only was she the newest resident, she was also the new mayor. At first, Ariel had thought that it was some sort of joke – an April Fool's type of thing. Perhaps her parents had something to do with it, though she couldn't think of a valid reason why. Later, after speaking with Isabelle in the Town Hall, Ariel had learned that, at least to the residents of the town, it was not a joke, and that someone really had told them that she was their new mayor. She had then been sent to Main Street, to a business known as Nook's Homes, and to the raccoon who owned and ran it named Tom Nook, as she would need a place to live, and there weren't any vacant houses.

That was how she came to be in this tent. Tom Nook had asked her to choose where she would like the house to be built, and she eventually chose this spot after walking throughout most of the town. It was situated just south of the river; near two other houses and close to the cobblestone bridge. He had placed a roped fence around the area, and stuck a sign in the ground that read 'This spot reserved for Ariel's new home.'. Realizing that in the meantime, she would need some way of staying out of the elements, he had given her this tent. Isabelle had brought over an old, but still working, red lantern so she could have some light when the sun went down. The next day, she had spoken with Tom Nook again, and learned that the down payment for her home would be ten thousand bells.

"Pocket change, really." He had said, as if most people had that kind of money just laying around. Fortunately for her, Ariel's parents had put aside some bells every year since she was born, so that once she was an adult, she would be able to get a place of her own. Since she was now a mayor, that solved the problem of finding employment. Tom Nook had been most pleased when she paid the whole ten thousand bells in one go, on her first day at that, and said that construction would start right away, to be completed the next day. She had then packed up the tent and, with Isabelle's help, moved over to the town's campsite for the night.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps just outside of the tent, followed by the sound of mail being deposited into the mailbox. She went outside to see who it was. Standing there was a white pelican with oval-shaped black eyes, wearing a green postman's uniform and a navy-blue bag.

"Ah, hello there, mayor!" the pelican greeted.

"Hello."

"I'm Pete. It's my job to deliver the mail to the residents of Mistgate." He said. "Normally, I don't make the first round until nine, but since you're new, I thought I'd come by a bit earlier and explain how the mail system works here."

"All right."

"Well, it's not too different from the city, really. When you have mail, as you do now, you'll see that flag standing up and blinking." Pete pointed to said flag. Ariel nodded to show that she was listening.

"While there isn't too much of a rush on when you get your mail; it is up to you, after all, please be aware that once the mailbox is full, I won't be able to cram any more into it, so please clear your mailbox periodically."

"Okay."

"Do you have any questions for me, mayor?"

"If the mailbox is full, what happens to the mail that can't be delivered? Does it get marked as 'Unable to Deliver' and returned to the sender like they do in the city?"

"No. Since this is a smaller town, we're able to keep undelivered mail at our post office without having to worry about overcrowding. In the event that your mailbox is full at the time of my delivery, I'll place a note on the outside to let you know. I won't disturb you if you're sleeping or busy."

"Okay. Thank you, Pete."

"Not a problem, mayor. Do you have any other questions?"

"No. Not right now, anyway."

"All righty then. If you do have any questions, feel free to come to the post office at any time. It's open 24/7. You may not see me there, but you'll definitely see either Pelly or Phyllis. Pelly is a white Pelican like me, and she's there during the day. Phyllis, Pelly's sister, is a purple pelican, and she's there during the night. Well, I'll be on my way now. Have a good day, mayor."

"I will. Thank you."

She watched Pete walk back across the bridge before going to the mailbox and opening it to see what her first mail in Mistgate was. There were two letters – one larger than the other. Ariel grabbed that one first and saw that it was from her mother. It read:

'Dear Ariel,

I can't help but be a bit nervous about your first solo journey.

I'm sending you something to help you along.

I'll try not to worry.
- Mom'

Still in the envelope was a present box, wrapped in blue paper. Pulling it out, Ariel carefully opened it to find an item leaf. Going back inside the tent, she tossed the leaf up, and with a puff of air, it turned into a red two-seater sofa.

'Thanks, mom. That's one less thing to buy.' Ariel thought to herself as she picked up the sleeping bag, her suitcase, and the lantern, and put them into her pockets. She then turned and pushed the sofa to the right side of the tent before taking the sleeping bag back out and draping it on the sofa like a blanket. 'Not to mention, it'll be more comfortable sleeping on this than on the floor of the tent.'

Once she was satisfied with the sofa's position, Ariel took the lantern out of her pocket and placed it on the left side of the tent; leaving some space between it and the tent itself. She then took her suitcase back out and put it at the bottom of the tent, near the entrance, and went to get the other envelope from the mailbox. She opened it to find a strange letter. It read:

'To Ariel,

Congrats on your newfound mayorhood! To be honest, I was supposed

to be the mayor, but one thing led to another…and now it's all up to you!

I'm rooting for you!

- Keep it a secret!'

Ariel frowned. What in the world was going on? At least she now had confirmation of what she'd suspected ever since arriving in Mistgate; that she wasn't supposed to be the mayor. At least, not at first. But then, who sent the letter? And why would they want it to be a secret? Realizing that she hadn't read the envelope before opening it, Ariel picked it up again, only to find that it was labeled 'From Unknown Sender'. There were no other markings on it, either, no writing, no stamps…nothing.

'What now?' Ariel thought as she sat on the sofa.

'…Maybe I should talk to Isabelle and show her this letter? Tell her that I wasn't joking when I said that I'm the wrong person, and that I'm not the mayor? Oh, wait. I can't. I mean, I could show her, but…how do I prove that this wasn't written by me? It was typed, so it's impossible to do any handwriting comparisons, and since there aren't any stamps or writing on it, other than the 'unknown sender' label, I have no real way to prove that I didn't make this up to try and "back out of the job" or something.'

She sat there for a while, trying to figure out what to do. No matter what she came up with, she kept coming back to the fact that she couldn't prove that the letter wasn't written – typed – by her or someone she knew.

'Well…the villagers don't seem to be suspicious. In fact, they all seemed happy to have me in their town and as their new mayor.'

*flashback to the previous day*

After getting off the train, and being stunned by the strange yellow dog's statement that she was the new mayor, Ariel decided to talk to the villagers and see what they had to say before going to the town hall. Surely, they'd correct the dog and tell her that she wasn't the mayor and that whoever it is hasn't arrived yet? Seeing a tall, gray and white eagle wearing a brown and white diamond-patterned shirt standing near a bulletin board, Ariel decided to start with him or her.

"Hello. My name is Ariel." She had said, politely.

"So, you're our new mayor, eh? It's nice to meet you, skree-haw. I'm Avery." The eagle replied.

"Um…well…"

"Oh, there's no need to be shy, skree-haw. You'll do fine. I don't want to keep you, so you'd best hurry to the town hall."

"…Right."

Looking around, Ariel saw a small purple mouse, and went to them next.

"Hi, I'm Ariel, and –"

"Nice to meet'cha, Mayor Ariel! My name's Rod!" The mouse interrupted. "Let's train together sometime, ace!"

"Well…okay…"

"Great! I'll see you around then, ace."

The other villagers reacted similarly. None questioned who she was, or why she was mayor, which confused her to no end. Giving up on trying to convince them otherwise for the time being, Ariel had decided to go to the town hall with the yellow dog, whose name she still didn't know, but felt too awkward to ask. When they arrived, the dog had moved to stand in front of a long, average height desk, and faced her.

"Mayor, this town hall will be your base of operations." She said. She then introduced herself as Isabelle, and said that she was Ariel's secretary. Ariel had been relieved to hear Isabelle's promise to help her when and where she could, as she had no idea how to be a mayor, and didn't want to cause any disasters. Isabelle had then gotten her started on her new job as mayor; getting her name down on the registration papers (though she already knew it), and then realizing that Ariel didn't have an address yet, and thus sent her to Tom Nook's business; Nook's Homes over on Main Street.

After getting situated in the tent, and later re-situated at the campsite, Ariel had gone around to the villagers in order to talk to them again, and started getting to know them better so her approval rating would go up. They all seemed friendly, although Blanche had come across a bit standoffish, Avery came across as a bit of a grouch, and Rod was blunt and had a bit of a habit of interrupting when he was excited. So far, she was getting along best with Merengue and Clyde, the two calmest villagers. One thing they all had in common, apart from not questioning her about her new job, was that they all felt that calling her "mayor" all the time felt too stiff and too formal, so they would prefer to call her Ariel more. She had agreed, as she wasn't comfortable taking a title that she was certain wasn't hers, even if it was being handed to her.

*End Flashback*

She sat there for a while longer, thinking. Eventually, she reached a decision. Standing up, placed the letter into the letter space of her pockets and headed out of the tent once more.

Mistgate needed its new mayor, after all.

Author's Notes: So...yeah. Nothing really special, to be honest. I apologize about any spacing issues with paragraphs. I'm still not completely used to this site. If you spot anything off with the formatting, feel free to let me know, and I'll fix it.

Now, as for this story: I decided to start with "day two", rather than the day of arrival. Other than the two letters here, most of the ones in future stories will not be quoted word-for-word. Also, most of what the other residents will say will also not be word-for-word, but rather the gist/general idea of what is said, as I don't want to just be quoting the game all of the time (that would likely be copyright infringement anyway).

The city that I mention periodically in this (and some of the other) stories is a reference to the game "City Folk". I haven't decided on a name for it yet, so for now, it'll just be called 'the city'. I know that your parents in the game do not actually send you any money, and the items as a leaf thing that you see in your pockets (inventory) is just something I decided to keep.

In the actual game, you plant the Town Tree on the day you arrive, but for these stories, I've made it where you do so on the second day instead. And yes, I know that you never stay in the campsite (you build it sometime later, after getting the permit to do so), but I made it so you (and other new villagers) stay there until construction/expansions are completed. As for animals just visiting, they'll stay in the campsite too (just imagine that there's room for more than one tent).

I've tried to find ways to make the interactions seem more plausible. As the game itself is very polite, you generally get along with all of the residents over time, which can make the whole thing come across as a bunch of "Mary Sues" when used as a written story. I'll be going over the personality types and traits and try to write for them. I may even see if I can find the movie "Dōbutso no Mori" to watch.

For those who don't know: in Animal Crossing, each of the villagers (except the mayor and the NPCs) have a phrase that they say at the end of (some of) their sentences. You can change them later, but they start off as the following (for my original villagers):

Avery: Skree-haw
Blanche: quite so
Clyde: clip-clawp
Merengue: shortcake
Rod: ace

As always, constructive criticism is welcome. Feel free to point out any spelling and grammatical errors. I do check (both by re-reading and using Spell Check), but things can be overlooked.