"I told Sebastian to win Abigail something at the fair yesterday," Sam was ranting to me while I fished the next day. "But he totally chickened out and didn't do it. How could trying that have gone wrong?"

"You weren't thinking something along the lines of a giant teddy bear, were you?" I replied. "To be honest, I thought the prizes were pretty lacking."

"Did you see that rarecrow?" he asked. "I was thinking he could win that for her. It's totally her style."

"…You know, you're right," I replied. "It looked weirdly anime-like in the face."

"Yeah," he agreed. "But… ugh, I swear, Sebastian is impossible when it comes to love."

"Well, hey, something like that can take a lot of guts," I said. "I'd personally worry I'd come off as weird, especially if I was giving it to someone I liked romantically."

"You would?" Sam asked. "If nothing else, he could have played it off as a friendly gift. Nothing wrong with winning your friend a scarecrow."

"Hmm," was all I could think to respond with. I mean, I'd never had a friend win me a scarecrow before, so I wasn't one to talk.

A few seconds went by before I thought of my next question.

"You seemed pretty intent on winning star tokens yesterday," I noted. "What were you shooting for?"

"The rarecrow Sebastian was supposed to win Abigail," Sam answered. "That was my backup plan, to have the tokens there and ready so he could just retrieve the rarecrow and give it to her. But by the time I had them saved up, I couldn't find either of them anywhere. Actually, all three of you had left. So I settled with the fedora."

"Ooh, a fedora," I said.

I looked at him for one more second, trying to picture what a fedora would look like on him. And how his hair would react to it.

"…I may be able to encourage you a little," I then said. "I mean, it was a fortune from the Fortune Teller, so it may not mean anything, but… Abigail told me what hers was."

"Oh yeah?" asked Sam.

"I guess her fortune said she'd go on a grand adventure partnered with a man whose name starts with S," I said.

"Wait… really?" he reacted. "...Well, that could mean me, too."

"Or Shane," I said, laughing a bit at the image of Abigail and Shane going on some kind of grand adventure.

"I don't see him going on any adventures with anyone," Sam said, laughing a bit as well.

I wondered if this Shane guy was okay. Alas, there probably wasn't much I could do about it.

Something bit at my line, and I reeled in a sardine. As soon as Sam saw it, he seemed to remember something.

"Oh, that reminds me," he said, reaching into his jacket pocket and withdrawing what looked like a little book of some kind. "I found this in the woods yesterday. It talks about fish, so I figured maybe you could get something out of it."

I took the book off his hands and looked it over. It was wrinkled as if it had been submerged in water in the past, and had brown leather covers.

With a little bit of difficulty, I opened it up to see the title: "Secrets of the Legendary Fish."

"Well, it's about fish, alright," I said.

I turned the page to see a brief introduction.

"Fishermen speak of five rare and unique fish that can only be caught by skilled anglers," it read. "Once caught, they will never appear again."

For a moment, I wondered if this was a fairytale. I turned the page either way, to find a black-and-white picture of what was probably a blood-red fish.

The page next to it contained a whole research article, but I scanned over the introduction to find that this was the Crimsonfish, and that it lived in the ocean in the summer.

The next page had a picture of a skinnier fish with a creepy smile and huge eyes, which was called the Glacierfish and only appeared in the winter, at someplace called "Arrowhead Island" in "Pelican Town's Cindersap Forest."

"Cindersap Forest?" I asked. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

I was thrown off hearing Sam so flabbergasted when he replied "That's the forest here. If you leave the beach and head toward my house but go past it, that's Cindersap. It's where Marnie, Jas, and Shane live."

Feeling my heartbeat quicken, I said "So… these fish are here?!"

"That's what it says," said Sam. "…What about the rest of them?"

I turned the page, seeing one of those fish with the bulb coming from their head, which was the Angler. The article mentioned Pelican Town again, saying this fish could be found in the fall, "north of town where the river flows down from the mountains."

The next two pages had no picture, but the title of the article said enough: "Strange, Twisted Fish Could Be Living in the Sewer." It didn't take long for me to find Pelican Town mentioned in the article, either.

The next pages didn't have a picture, either, but the title was just "Legend." The introduction, mentioning Pelican Town one more time, said rumor had it the "Legend" lived in a log submerged in the mountain lake and only came out on rainy spring days to indulge in some frog eggs.

After that was a sort of conclusion page, not seeming to provide any new information.

I checked my watch and stood up. The afternoon had just begun, so Willy's shop would be open. I was willing to bet, then, that Willy was in there, and I needed to ask him about this.

"Hang on," I said to Sam. "I'm gonna ask Willy about this."

Sam nodded, and I opened the door to the shop, to be greeted by Willy's smiling face.

"Hi!" I smiled.

"Hello!" Willy smiled back. "You wanted to ask me about something?"

"Er, yes," I said, a little taken aback that he'd heard that. "Sam found this book talking about the 'legendary fish.' I figured it was fiction, but the articles in here are seriously detailed, and mention Pelican Town."

Willy's entire demeanor changed, from joyful to serious, not gravely serious, but more of a sophisticated serious.

"The legendary fish're real," he confirmed. "In fact, I've seen the Anglerfish before. I've never been able to catch any of them myself."

Well, that answered both questions I really had. Were they real, and would I be wasting my time trying to catch something that's already been caught? The answers were a lucky yes and no.

"Are you thinkin' about takin' on the challenge, lass?" Willy asked, reading my mind. "You've become a fantastic angler. I think if you put your mind to it, and use good bait, all the Legendaries could be in your hands by this point next year."

A year, eh? That sounded like a challenge to me.

"Awesome," I said, turning to leave. "Thanks so much."

"No problem at all, lass," he smiled. "Take care, and good luck!"

Part of me felt confident. The other part knew I'd desperately need all the luck Willy could give.