Ralph wandered the forest north of Olive Town as he kept an eye on the few tourists who had decided to venture away from the beach and shops in town. There was no sign of the bear anymore, which was a relief. Ralph usually liked all the animals in the forest, but it was still his job to protect the citizens of Olive Town and anyone else who might venture into the forest.

Why had the bear come so close to town? And why had it been aggressive with the farmer girl? She had never shown any indication that she was in the habit of aggravating the animals, and she usually was quiet and content to enjoy the peace of the forest whenever Ralph saw her wandering around.

"Um, hi, Ralph." Ah, speak of the devil and he appears.

"Hello," he said with a faint smile to the farmer. She'd moved to town just a few weeks ago to take over the land her grandfather had built into a farm when he had helped found Olive Town back in the day. Ralph had to hand it to her, the girl was doing well given her circumstance. His dad had just been down to the farm to build her a small cabin, and he'd told Ralph that the farm was coming along quite nicely.

"I…I wanted to thank you for yesterday. You really saved me from that bear."

She was smiling at him. The farmer was usually so serious and often seemed troubled—probably by the amount of work she'd taken on in not only building up her farm but also in helping Victor to improve Olive Town. Ralph hadn't seen her smile before, not fully. Every once in a while the corners of her mouth would twitch up slightly and she'd look at peace. But…

Ralph had never noticed how pretty she was.

Well, that was a lie. He'd noticed that she was pretty. He would have to be blind and deaf not to know that she was pretty—especially with the way his own father and several of the other parents in Olive Town were trying to encourage their children to help Olive Town's population grow.

But with her smiling up at him with a kind expression in her vivid green eyes and the sun shining on her brown hair… "Uh, it was nothing. Just doing my job." He rubbed the back of his neck and rocked back onto his heels. Even for late Spring, Ralph suddenly felt too hot. His uniform felt too hot, and his very skin felt too hot.

"Uh, right. I just…wanted to thank you again. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't helped me. So…here. Your dad mentioned that you like this, and I happened to have some extra from dinner last night. So, uh, here. As a thank you gift."

He stared down at the bowl she'd unceremoniously shoved into his hands. "Thanks, I really like this. You have good taste." He smiled back at her and took a moment to smell the soup. It was salty and hot and everything delicious. "I love shellfish soup."

She grinned. "There's tons of clams on my farm, so I make it a lot. I guess I'll have to share more of it with you."

"Yeah."

"Well, I should get back to the farm. There's always more work to be done around there." She turned and started walking away. Just before she was too far away, though, she turned and smiled at him again. "I'll see you around, Ralph. And hopefully next time you won't have to come to my rescue…again."

"I don't mind rescuing you." Wow…had he really just said that?

Before he could hide his head in his hands and ignore the world, she giggled. He fought the urge to hide or shrink into himself and instead offered her a small wave. With a wave back, she giggled again and smiled. "See you around, Ralph."

Well, Ralph is totally my favorite bachelor so far in PoOT (POT? That feels like a bad abbreviation…). I haven't seen any fanfiction for this game yet, so I hope y'all enjoy this! Full disclosure I'm only partway through Y1 Summer in my game and am nowhere near being done, so…please no spoilers in the reviews or in my DMs please. But I hope you enjoyed this! Please review and tell me your thoughts.

Also...I just realized that this is the first Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons fanfiction that I've published. Huh. I have another in the works right now, but we'll see if I ever actually finish it and publish. Well...perhaps be on the lookout for it. Or don't.

~Nerd