2nd chapter! Finally!

I was hoping to post this last month but it kind of got away from me. Oh well. It's actually fall now and u know what that means... Autumn Festivals! Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, there will be none of those. So sad. I love those so much.

So I wrote about an Old Corona Autumn Festival in this story. Also, we meet a new and important character.

The next morning was beautiful and exciting. Ophelia had made French toast for breakfast and she and Varian were heading out into town. It was fall, so that meant harvesting. Old Corona was busy but also very festive this time of year.

There was lots to see and buy. Not to mention lots of achieves.

People showing off their skills for prizes in areas like wood carving, wool weaving, pumpkin carving, blacksmithing, growing the biggest vegetable, and raising the finest livestock. There were also games and contests for others to participate in like archery, horseshoe tossing, pie eating, dart throwing, bobbing for apples, and many more.

Shop owners also had their doors open with great deals for whatever they made and sold.

So naturally, the whole village was abuzz.

Quirin was needed helping with the best produce judging, so he spit off from his children. Varian and Ophelia walked down the main street, hand in hand, marveling at everything available to do, buy, and see. In her opposite hand, Ophelia carried a big covered basket. As they passed the long table that was setting up for the pie eating contest, Ophelia smirked.

"You gonna try your luck at the pie eating table again, Vary-Berry?" she asked him.

Varian stopped them to look at her. "Are you kidding?" he chuckled a bit. "The last time I did that, I couldn't even look at a raspberry for a whole year." That was three years ago, but he was still adamant on going through that again. The raspberry pies were delicious, but after the first two, the flavor had turned on him.

"But you won," she continued. She knew he wasn't gonna want to do it again but it was fun to tease him a bit.

"Hey, if you wanna keep calling me Vary-Berry, I'm gonna need to keep liking berries," he told her. She noticed this year the pies were blueberry. Varian loved blueberries. She'd hate it if he couldn't even stand the sight of them over a little contest.

He won the argument. "Okay, fair enough." They continued on. A little further down the road, they came across another fun event. "What about the bobbing for apples?" she suggested.

Varian sighed. "Why not?"

Varian went up against seven other people at the same time. The first person to get all ten apples out of their water tub and into a bucket won a ribbon.

Some might think it was cheating for Varian to be wearing his goggles over his eyes during the contest, but nobody spoke up after he had already won.

The apple farmer running the contest pinned the golden ribbon on Varian and shook his hand. The small crowd of people watching clapped politely, but there wasn't much praise from them other than that. Except of course for Ophelia's constant cheering and hollering.

As they were walking away, Ophelia handed him a towel from her basket to dry his face while holding onto his arm. She tried not to let it show how annoyed she was with the other people for their lack of enthusiasm with Varian's victory. Instead, she made up for their inadequate praise by showering him with congratulations and cheek kisses.

They stopped at a few stands to look at the special things the people were selling. Ophelia was especially excited to see the candle maker had created candles that smelled like different delightful things. She bought a lovely apple and cinnamon scented one. Varian found them fascinating and bought one too; lavender, to help him sleep better at night.

After making a quick stop at the caramel apple vendor, the couple made their way over to a small crowd gathered around a farmer's pen. The owner was showing off his prize-winning truffle pig, who just had a litter of piglets just a few month ago.

"Awww! You're so cute," Ophelia approached the fence and leaned down to get a closer look. There were so many of them, squealing and running around. Varian stood close and watched the piglets too, still eating his caramel apple. "Who's a cute little piggy?" she gushed.

"These aren't just pigs, little lady. They're truffle pigs," the pig farmer told her from inside the pen, leaning against the barn wall.

As Ophelia continued to look around, she noticed another pen right next to the bigger one with all the piglets and their mom. It was smaller and fenced off from the main one, and its only occupant was one very tiny female piglet.

"Why is that one all alone over there? Why isn't she with her siblings?" Ophelia asked the farmer as she walked along the fence until she reached the smaller pen's fence. Varian followed her.

Upon seeing the human girl approaching her, the little piglet run up to her and started sniffing her and snorting happily. Ophelia crouched down and held out her hand to the curious little sweetie, setting her basket down beside her. The piglet leaned her head into Ophelia's hand.

"Oh, 'cause she ain't sticking around for much longer," the farmer answered.

Ophelia raised her head, concerned. "What does that mean?"

"That little one there is the runt. Plus, she don't sniff truffles, even if it's right in front of her face. Far as I'm concerned, she ain't a truffle pig at all. A non-truffle smelling pig ain't worth nothing to me," the farmer told her, walking up to the fence on the opposite side of the small pen. "Town's butcher is coming later today to pick her up."

Ophelia's blood froze under her skin and she shot back up straight. "What?!" she exclaimed. This man was going to sell this adorable little piglet to be killed just because she can't sniff out his precious truffles?

Varian, who was also stricken with this awful news, accidently dropped his half-eaten caramel apple, which landed in the small pen.

Ophelia wanted to scream in objection to this horrible plan but stopped herself when she glanced down to see the runt sniffing at her basket on the ground right by the fence. The piglet quickly ran over to Varian's discarded caramel apple on the ground, picked it up with her mouth by the stick, and carried it over to Ophelia. As she placed it on the ground in front of the kitchen maid, Ophelia was puzzled.

What was she doing?

Then the piglet stepped to the side of her and nudged her nose toward her basket again, then she snorted.

Something in her basket? What did she have in…?

It suddenly struck her what the little one must be trying to do. But just to test her theory out, Ophelia reached in to the basket and pulled out one of the candles they had bought.

The lavender one.

Ophelia held the candle out to her, letting her sniff it. The piglet squealed in irritation and backed away, her head shaking like the smell was much too potent.

Intrigued, Ophelia put the lavender candle back and grabbed the other one. The piglet sniffed it but this time, she snorted, like she was happy, before grabbing the half-eaten caramel apple in her mouth again and offered it up to her.

Varian and Ophelia both laughed and looked at each other, both amazed by her intelligence. Ophelia looked up, back at the farmer. "See? She's plenty smart. She knows how to sniff stuff out," she told him.

This little piglet could tell the difference between the two candles and identify which smelled like the treat Varian had dropped. She could smell the apple in the candle even from in her basket.

The farmer, however, didn't look impressed. "I don't need a pig that sniffs out apples, I need truffle-smelling pigs," he huffed.

Ophelia huffed back, not liking his attitude. She looked back down at the piglet, eating the caramel apple as Varian held it up for her. She smiled, her heart warming at the sight. "You know, I myself don't care much for truffles. I'm actually allergic to mushrooms," she said to him as she stood up straight. Her mind was made up. "Would you be willing to sell her to me instead?"

The farmer looked at her oddly for a moment before sighing, then scratching his chin in thought. "Well…butcher did say she was too small to have much meat on her," he thought out loud.

"How much was he gonna give you for her?"

"A truffle piglet is worth 30 gold pieces. Since she don't smell truffles like she's supposed ta, I told him half price."

Ophelia smiled. "Then I'll give you 15 for her."

"18," he said. Ophelia looked at him like 'are you serious?' "What? I've already promised her to someone else. You want her, you gotta top his offer," he explained.

Ophelia grunted. That did make sense but still. "Fine, 18," she huffed before going into her basket and pulling out her small pull-string sack of coins. She counted out her coins but sighed when she came up short. "I only have 13," she said to Varian as he stood up with her.

A second later, Varian reached a hand into his pant pocket and pulled out five more coins. "Here," he said, placing them in her other hand. She looked from the coins to back at him, a bit surprised. "She shouldn't suffer just for being different," he told him, closing her hand around the coins with his own. He gave her a smile.

Ophelia didn't know what to say. So she settled for dumping the coins into her sack before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek.

When she pulled away, Ophelia tossed the sack to the farmer. He took a moment to go through it, checking the total contents. "Take her. She's all yours," he said, waving them off and pocketing the money.

Ophelia cheered. Varian opened the gate, letting her walk in. She grabbed the towel from inside her basket and stooped down in front of the piglet. The little one happily ran into her waiting arms. Ophelia picked her up, wrapping her in the towel as she walked out. She and her boyfriend politely thanked the farmer before walking away down the road.

As they walked, the piglet cuddled into Ophelia's arms as she tried wiping away some of the mud on her with a corner of the towel. She was glad she was so small. If she was the same as her siblings, she probably wouldn't have been able to carry her at all.

"So what if you don't like truffles? You're still a truffle-pig," she cooed to the sweet little piglet as she scratched her belly. As she said that, a thought came to her. "You know what, that's what I'll call you."

"What?" Varian asked her.

"Truffles," she said to him.

Varian stopped walking, which made Ophelia stop too. "You're going to name a truffle-pig that doesn't like truffles, Truffles?" he clarified. It sounded a bit absurd being said out loud. Varian looked up in thought, his hand on his chin. "Irony on top of irony," he pondered for a moment before looking back at her. He smiled. "I like it."

They both laughed as Varian came over and rubbed the piglet's—Truffles—head, welcoming her to the family.

Some might think it's weird naming a truffle pig Truffles (especially if she doesn't like truffles), but I say 'yes, it's weird but I like it'. I honestly couldn't think of a better name after thinking of this. It just stuck with me.

Since this is accentually a fall story, I hope to have it complete before the season is over (maybe late Nov. at the latest) or sooner if I can.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay respectful, and stay tuned ;)