Chapter Two

Help Wanted

Frey woke up late in the morning, a rare occurrence for her; she was usually awake by six in the morning, but looking at the clock revealed it was half past nine. Stretching, she froze when she realized something was missing.

"Noel?" Climbing out of bed, she searched the entire room, panic rising when there was no sign of her son. "Noel, where are you? This isn't funny-" Her heart hammered against her rib cage as she scanned the hallways. Her eyes landed on a random tourist, and she hurried over to her.

"Excuse me, have you seen a little boy around? He's about this tall-" Frey put a hand near the middle of her thighs. "-and he has green hair-"

The woman shook her head. "I'm sorry, I haven't seen him."

"You…" Frey turned away from the woman, unable to speak through the knot in her throat. She staggered down the hallway, eventually breaking into a run as she hurried down the stairs and into the lobby. There were a few people scattered about, but none of them were her son, and any one of them could be one of his lackeys-

She went to the front desk, where that woman, Lin Fa, was busy steadying a stack of papers. When Lin Fa saw Frey coming towards her, she greeted her with a warm smile. "Good morning! How did you sleep?"

Frey had only just opened her mouth when the papers slipped from Lin Fa's hands, scattering down to the floor. "Oh my-!" Lin Fa bent down to pick them up. Frey instinctively joined her, picking up the tossed papers and handing them back to her in a flurry. The elder woman gave her a look of such generous gratitude that had they been in different circumstances, the green haired woman would have blushed in embarrassment. "Thank you, miss-" Lin Fa started to speak but Frey cut her off.

"My son wasn't in our room. Have you seen him?"

Lin Fa blinked, and for a horrible three seconds Frey was so sure she was going to say no, she hasn't seen them, or she saw him hand in hand with a man claiming to be Noel's father, but he wasn't, he wasn't, because fathers do not do what that man did-but then she smiled and answered, "Oh, I saw him playing with my daughter not too long ago! They went outside, if I remember correctly..."

Frey sagged with relief. "Thank you so much. You have no idea how-" and she found she couldn't talk, because she was at the brink of tears, and she was about to make her way outside when she heard a familiar voice call out:

"Mommy!"

She turned around in the direction of the hot baths; Noel sprang out from the red door, dressed in nothing but shorts, and threw his arms around his mother's legs in a fierce hug. Surprised, Frey smiled at the sight of her son safe and sound, barely noticing Lin Fa's daughter, who followed Noel out of the bath, clad in a sagging red bathing suit.

Then her expression darkened, and she pushed Noel away by the shoulders so as to frown down at him. "Why did you run off like that?! Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

Noel shrugged his mother's shoulders off, pouting. "I was playing with Miss Xiao Pai-"

"That doesn't matter! You know you're not supposed to wander off like that!" Frey was ready to go into a tangent, but tears began pooling up in the corner of her son's eyes, and she took a deep breath. She asked in a calmer tone, "Why didn't you wake me up and tell me where you were going?"

"I was going to, but..." Noel kicked the floor dejectedly. "You-you looked like you were having a good dream. I didn't want to wake you and-and I thought I'd only be gone for a little while and I could come back before you noticed."

"Please miss," Xiao Pai chose that moment to cut in. Drying her hair with a towel, she gave Frey an apologetic look. "It was my mistake. He wanted to return before, but I was thinking you would not wake up for another few minutes and we could keep playing. I'm sorry for giving you so much distress."

Frey's grip on her son's shoulders tightened as Xiao Pai explained what had happened. Not taking her eyes off him, she pulled him back into another hug. "You scared me...don't ever do that again, okay?"

"O-okay, Mommy," Noel sniffled, rubbing at his eyes after his mother released him. That, coupled with the way he kept kicking the floor like a dejected puppy, washed away the last stains of Frey's anger.

She gave him a peck on the head and, with a smile, asked, "Hey, want to come help me find a job?"

Noel looked up at Frey, all traces of sadness vapidly vanishing in favor of hopeful excitement. "Really?"

"Really...after we get dressed, of course."

Half an hour later, mother and son were out exploring Selphia, able to properly admire the town's beauty now that the sun was up. Frey knew of a few establishments looking for hire thanks to Xiao Pai, who wrote a tiny note listing them all. She handed it with a wink to Noel, who blushed long after she was gone. It was cute, Frey mused. His first crush.

Their first stop was closest to the hotel. Porcoline's Kitchen was a large building from which the most delectable scents wafted through the open door. There were several people already inside, eating what must have been the most delicious food. Noel edged towards a young girl with a plate of cookies in front of her, a hungry look in his eyes. Frey tugged him back towards her and shot him a look of disapproval, to which he responded with a guilty smile.

Frey made her way to the counter, where the owner and chef greeted her with a jolly smile. They managed about a minute of conversation until he started to hit on her, at which point of time Frey rushed out, her face red as the chef called out after her declaring his love.

Their next stop was the flower shop a few blocks away. It was run by an elf named Illuminata, who was friendly enough, but stared at Frey with narrow eyes, her hand fiddling with her monocle the entire time. When Frey reached the part about a job, Illuminata apologized and said she'd already hired someone, but to come back later in case they turned out to be another common criminal.

Frey exited the shop, dejected. She looked over the list Xiao Pai gave her one more time, and sighed. She'd never even touched a weapon before, so the blacksmith was a no go, and clinics made her sick. That left the grocery store. She made her way to Blossom's General Store, her head high and her back held up straight, unaware of how drastically her life was about to change.

The door was unlocked, but no one was in sight. Her determination fading, Frey wandered in hesitantly, her grip on her son's hand tightening as she called out, "Hello? Is anyone here? The door was open so..."

Noel was silent, his eyes roaming around the area until landing on a sole chocolate bar resting on the counter. "Mommy, look!" His eyes lit up, he made to grab it, but was stopped by his mother.

"Noel, don't touch that. It's not yours."

"But I'm hungry, and it's been forever since I had any sweets."

Frey protested, "You had chocolate three days ago!" but the look on her son's face, and the reminder that a lot had happened since then, caused her to sigh and relent. "I'll get you some chocolate later, but leave that one alone. It's someone else's, and it's not nice to steal someone else's things."

"Oh, don't worry about it!"

This was a new voice. Frey turned to the right, where a young man descended from the second floor of the building. He had a serious case of bed hair, and his eyes were half closed, but other than that he was the perfect symbol of energy. His ears, upon further inspection, were slightly pointed at the tips, which meant he was either half elf or a dwarf. "That's mine," he continued. He swiped the chocolate bar from the counter surface and twirled it around in between his fingers. "But you know, I wouldn't sharing it, if you want."

Noel looked ready to accept the offer, but then hesitated, and looked up at Frey. She merely shrugged with a small laugh, to his relief, and he was quick to approach the man-who, Frey realized, was still dressed in his pajamas. Had he really just woken up?

The man crouched down so he was face to face with the seven year old and shot him a wide grin. "What did you say your name was again, kid?"

"I'm Noel." Noel said, and held out his hand for the man to take.

"Nice to meet you, Noel! The name's Doug." The man, Doug, grasped Noel's hand, gave it a good hard shake, and the boy giggled. "I haven't seen you in town before. You new here?"

Noel nodded. "Yeah! Me and my Mommy just came yesterday, on this huge airship. It was so cool, wasn't it Mommy?"

Frey smiled. "Very. I was a little worried at first, when I saw how high up we were, I just about fainted! The distance looks smaller when you're on the ground, doesn't it?"

"I couldn't say. I've never been on an airship before." Doug laughed. It was breezy, carefree, untainted and uplifting. Frey felt better just listening to it.

"So, what brings you here...?" Doug trailed off as he broke the chocolate bar still in his hands in half. He handed one piece to Noel, who eagerly popped the entire thing in his mouth.

"Frey," Frey supplied her name. "I'm Frey, and I was wondering if maybe I could talk with Miss Blossom about...whether maybe she could give me a job."

"A job? Here?" Doug rubbed the back of his head. "I don't see why you'd want to work at the general store. It's SUPER boring...and I should know, since I do work here. But anyway, the store's closed today, actually. Granny Blossom's not feelin' too good. Which reminds me...how'd you guys get in here, anyway?"

"The door was open."

"It was?" Doug's eyes widened, and he muttered under his breath words Frey couldn't hear, though she thought she detected the words "have to stop" and "one of these days".

Frey frowned. "I hope Miss Blossom feels better..." she coughed. "Um, when do you think she'll be better? I'd really like to talk to her as soon as possible..."

She tried not to let it show how desperate she was, but it must have broken through somehow because Doug's expression softened. "Tell you what. I'm not sure when old Granny'll be up, but I'll talk to her about it later today and see what she says. That sound good?"

"Did you hear that, Mommy?" Noel swallowed the rest of the chocolate down and beamed up at her. "You got a job!"

"Whoa, I said maybe, kid!"

But Frey thanked him all the same, her eyes wet and her voice shaking with hope.

More than a month, and I hate this chapter btw, it's so rushed. I also changed the summary a whole lot, which is because...SPOILER: I changed the plot. Which I guess is not a spoiler because it's not like you guys knew what I was gonna do anyway.

Ugh, I haven't played Rune Factory in awhile, and I've been really into Phoenix Wright games, so I'm afraid that's leaked into this chapter's tone-but there's nothing for it, I guess. Please forgive any OOCness, and I'll see you guys next update~