19 Spring, Year 3

Finishing the Crafts Room

On Friday I go for a stroll in the forest, spot a wild horseradish growing near some bushes, and remember that last list on the scroll in the empty room in the community center. I quickly dig it up and gather the other things, then go to the old building when it starts getting dark.

One after the other, the flower and the four vegetables disappear in a thrill of the air. As expected, a little bag of seeds – which will grow into those same plants again – appears in their place. I pick it up and absentmindedly stuff it in my pocket while looking at the scroll. All the lists have now been replaced with rewards. There seems to be nothing left to do.

And nothing seems to be happening. I shrug to myself and get up. Go home, bake that bass I caught in the lake yesterday – Jodi passed me a tasty-sounding recipe...

As I take a step toward the door, a little puff of smoke pops up only a yard before me and a junimo appears. Looking straight at me. It makes a noise, a strange kind of mewing sound.

I'm not exactly stunned with shock anymore, but my heart still makes a little jump. Every time I've come in here I've walked through the place looking around me, partly hoping not to disturb, partly trying to catch a glance, and I've never seen a thing. Now one is standing there staring at me, and... these creatures look really unsettling. On closer inspection, this creature seems to have something sticking up out of the top of its head that I can only compare to a leaf.

It's like a gigantic apple that someone threaded iron wire through for arms and legs, and stuck googly eyes on.

Another puff of smoke goes off right next to me, and another, and the whole room seems to be filled with those little mewing noises. They appear everywhere, hopping from one foot on the other with their thin little arms in the air, making noise, and I'm kinda starting to get kind of worried. Is this what they do to say thanks? Are they going to attack me?

A flash of light blinds me – I have no clue where it comes from, but I spend a good minute blinking to get my vision back. When I can see again, all the junimos are gone, but the room around me looks completely different.

Gone are the holes in the outer wall, the faded wallpaper, the layer of dust and grime. Now the carpet looks plush and clean, the wallpaper new, and a bunch of... stuff has just appeared. A plush pink sofa. A cupboard with sewing supplies and an actual true-to-life spinning wheel. Closed pots of dye and an easel with a cup of new-looking brushes. A low table with what looks like a set of acrylic paints on it.

I spend probably an hour just staring at everything, going through the room and touching things, opening pots just to be sure that they're actually what the labels say. This is incredible. I'm going to have to come back tomorrow just to make sure it's actually real, because I simply won't believe that it's not a dream anymore by then.

So this is what the junimos meant, in their first message, with 'helping'? They'll restore the community center, room by room, as I give them the associated materials? Hell yeah.

I should make a list of all the stuff they ask for. If I remember well, everything required for the boiler room came from the mines, but the lists on the bulletin board for example require different kinds of things from crops to gemstones to fish. Tomorrow I'm going to make a list so I won't have to come back here to check every time.

And I guess I might as well make an effort to push past the next levels of the mine. I'm going to need a better sword though, I'm gonna have to go count my money.

And I've had a sheep's fleece lying around waiting to weave cloth from, I just need a loom to do it – I've been selling the wool on its own for now, but the junimos want woven cloth, and I'm perfectly fine learning another way to make clothes aside from crochet. I should get Robin to make me a loom, she's told me she knows how to do it.

There is no indication whatsoever that the junimos are on a timer. It could take me years and years to finish this job and it'll probably be fine. But now I've seen what exactly it is I'm working toward, I'm just excited to make it happen.