I had Neil in the nursery putting Sophie into a dress I bought from the tailors- a simple blue dress with white polka dots and a collar.

Dressing the baby was easy, convincing Neil to lose the edgy-look was significantly harder. He finally settled for just a black sweater, but it was a struggle.

I glanced at my watch and paced the floor once. "She should be here any minute." I said, even though probably no one heard me. I glanced out the window one last time and finally saw her making her way down the path "She's here!" I called out.

The door knocked, and I rushed over and welcomed her in. "Marielle! Hi! Welcome to Echo farm!"

"Rio sweetie!" She said pulling me into a tight hug. "I was so surprised; your farm looks lovely! All the buildings look brand new! You must have done a lot of renovations this year!"

I smiled, "Well, this is my first-year farming, so I had to make everything from scratch."

"Well, give the town carpenter my regards, everything looks like it came right out of a picture book!" She said.

Neil came in from Sophie's room, holding the baby. I gave him a once over approvingly, he looked way less scary than at the festival. Sophie probably helped. "The town mayor runs Rio ragged, she is also, not by choice, the town carpenter," he explained.

Marielle gave me a look of astonishment, "Well, isn't that amazing!"

"She built most of the houses in town too," he added.

"Well, colour me surprised!" She said gripping my arm, "Neil! You must be so proud!"

I glanced at him to see his response. We really hadn't checked our story beforehand. Were we playing a couple? He technically never asked me to do that and we never actually told her we were… Whatever he says, I'd play along.

"The whole village is," he said coolly. I almost felt a little frustrated, that gave me nothing to work from! I was just going to have to keep walking on eggshells until he finally tells me what he wants me to say. I wasn't going to dig him into a hole by starting a lie. I was getting nervous, I felt like no matter what I said I was going to screw up.

"Aww, you two are cute," she gushed.

I lead Marielle to the kitchen table and Neil got Sophie set up in her chair.

"It smells great in here Rio," she said.

I grimaced. "Yeah, Neil cooked…."

He glanced at me, "Well we didn't want to send her home with food poisoning."

I rolled my eyes and helped him bring the plates and food over.

She paused and looked around, "Sorry, I don't quite know the etiquette for this country, I'd hate to do anything to insult y'all, do you typically thank the Harvest Goddess before your meals?"

"Uh, not typically…" I said,

"and she's made our lives a bit complicated as of late…" Neil added snarkily. I kicked him under the table. This guy is so clueless.

I smiled at her, "But we'll happily say a few words if you'd like."

She shook her head, "Oh no, don't you worry about that, we haven't done that for a while in our country,"

"What caused you all to stop?" I asked curiously.

"Oh you know… the usual. One of our farmers got lazy so the Harvest King turned our Goddess to stone and banished her from this realm … Now corruption is running rampant- harvest sprite underground casinos have been an increasing problem… Well, it'll all be fine, we're just going to leave it to that one farmer to sort everything out." She said casually.

I gawked.

She shook her head, "Now don't you worry your sweet little head Hunny, I'm sure she'll get her back."

I seriously had no idea there was so much responsibility in being a farmer… what have I even signed up for? At least it's nice to know that people are asking too much of us no matter where you go.

"Still," she sighed, "You got to miss her. We even miss her magical shenanigans."

Neil and I both scoffed.

She looked at us in amusement, "Sounds like you two have a story! I miss Goddess stories!"

"Well she accidentally brought our daughter back here from the future, for one," Neil said in annoyance.

I looked at him in shock. Mute shock. Well actually, I worked very hard to keep my expression neutral. It is very hard to keep up with someone else's story, but I didn't want anything I did to give anything away.

He looked at me, "Well, I wasn't going to lie to her about any of this. It's not a good idea to lie to a business partner."

"Right..." I said.

He gestured at me to her. "We're not even dating."

"Ah… yes… sorry Marielle, that I didn't say anything..." I said. "Sophie is apparently our daughter from the future... it has made this a... complicated season."

She rubbed my back, "Don't worry sugar pie, I just jumped to my own assumptions. I am highly impressed that you two have come together to raise her!" She shook her head, "Goodness, I miss the trouble the Harvest Goddess used to get us into."

"You can have ours," Neil and I both said flatly.

A load off of my mind, we ate and talked. With the ice broken, Neil did a pretty good job at talking about his plans for the alpacas and his work as an animal dealer. I listened with interest, I had no idea just how much he did and how much he was trying to still do. I was kind of impressed.

By the the the meal was done, Marielle looked elated. "I must say Neil, I am excited to get in business with you!"

He nodded calmly and I had to wonder what he was really thinking. "Likewise," was all he said.

She ruffled his hair like a mother and he did an admirable job of not objecting. "Such an ambitious young man, I never would have guessed! Maybe in the future, we can talk other kinds of livestock, and of course, I'll have to introduce you to my friend from the silk country- she does a lot with llamas!"

"That would be great," he said in surprise.

I couldn't help but grin for him.

She turned to Sophie and sighed. "Aw bye cutie, I suppose I won't be seeing you for a while..."

I purposely glanced away. I've decided not to deal with issues past this winter until I get there. Completely out of character, but this isn't exactly something you can even plan for.

She grinned at the both of us, "You know, I'm glad I met you both so early on, now I'll get to come to your wedding, and you can bet Rio, that I'll have the best baby shower gift when that time comes!"

Neil and I didn't dare look at each other so I can't say what his reaction was but I felt a little panic in my chest and I pushed it back down. Compartmentalizing was becoming difficult. "Uh... yeah, if that happens..."

She gave us a pitying look, "Aw you two, you don't even realize how perfect you are for each other!" She nudged Neil, "But I'm getting ahead of my self, first you gotta lock this down. Put a commitment ring on this girl ASAP."

Neil glanced at me and I quickly looked away.

"I think you might be hurting things here..." he said.

She backed away quickly. "Oh right, you're right. I'm sorry. Well, whatever happens, I'm sure both of you have bright futures ahead on you!" She opened the door and smiled at us, "I'll be off now, thanks again for the lovely dinner!"

With Marielle gone, we were left with a topic lingering that neither of us had wanted to have to address.

So we didn't.

"Rio..." he said.

I looked at him and made an expression that probably came off as more troubled than I meant to.

"Thank you," He said and a real genuine smile cracked across his lips. I couldn't help but smile back.

"I'm proud of you, Neil," I said truthfully. "I had no idea how much work you put into your job, and everything turned out better than you expected."

He leaned his side against the wall contentedly, "With her partnership, I'll be able to get you all sorts of livestock over time. Cabin country exports everything from jersey cows to silkie chicken."

"I was surprised at how well you guys talked, it didn't seem like you needed us at all!" I joked.

His eyes bore into mine seriously and I couldn't look away. "None of this would have happened without you."

What was this panic I was feeling? I turned around frantically and spoke a bit too fast. "Oh well, then I guess you're welcome! Anyways, I should probably get Sophie to bed! You should do the same!"

"Oh..." I heard his voice say. "Yeah, okay. See you tomorrow... I can look after for the next couple of days since I'm off."

I just nodded. "Yeah..." I said quietly.

I heard the door open and close and I was alone with Sophie. I looked at her hopelessly.

What was that?

I sighed, I kind of knew... but I thought under these circumstances maybe this time it wouldn't be a problem.

Aha.. well obviously I didn't finish in time for the prompt so hey, now we'll just keep going until it's done. I've definitely sacrificed a lot of 'quality' by trying to hammer something off before bed each night so maybe now, without the time limit, I'll be able to flesh this out in a little more depth than it was going to be

Originally I thought maybe I could be done within two chapters today but I'd have to exclude so much content (as I kind have been doing as I went along) and the ending would have to be very forced. (Rio's not ready people!) Plus I found this chapter really hard to write...

Ultimately, I have decided not to force an ending since I've went through this much effort already.

The sheep festival is only on the 18th there are so many days left to work with!