For once, it was a sunny day. After several days of pouring rain, even Molly had to admit she wouldn't mind watering her crops if it meant less of this doomy-gloomy weather. However, she had to admit that the extra time gave her plenty of opportunity to excel in other areas!
She was nice and recovered from the Witch Princess' little prank too. And pissed off to boot! Time to move on and find better friends and all that jazz!
"...I just don't understand how you managed it, Molly." Finn, as usual, buzzed around the top of her head.
"Well, um, bribery, mostly..." Molly paused to dab at her forehead with a dirty gloved hand.
Molly hated hard work. Well, mostly hard work dealing with crops. Harvesting was especially un-fun!
"But that's all ten wishes in only a few days!" Finn protested.
"I think that they just wanted me off their backs, really..." Molly took hold of a particularly large eggplant and plunked it in the large basket beside her.
"It's unlike you to be modest!" the sprite squinted at Molly.
"Okay, okay. I went to the Inn and waited around until nobody knew any better. And just asked around and stuff." the farmer began to drag her full basket of eggplants over towards the shipping bin, Finn following close behind.
"...I don't understand."
Molly didn't see how hard that was to understand. The residents of Harmonica Town weren't that private.
"Maybe it's my winning personality?" the farmer paused to open the bin and dump the contents of her basket into it. "Because it's certainly not my good looks or anything."
Finn remained oddly quiet.
The least he could do was help her harvest or something! She had to ship 100,000G worth of crops by the end of the season! If she would have known this, she definitely would have slacked a little less at the start of the season... Fall was a terrible time anyway!
"Don't give me that look!"
Finn stared at Molly oddly, "What look?"
"The one that screams 'why did the Harvest Goddess pick her anyway'! ...Or maybe not 'screams' exactly... looks screaming is just silly!"
"...You're silly, Molly." Finn continued to eye her warily.
"Oh yeah well, um, your face is silly!" Molly paused and squinted up at the sprite.
Finn gave her no reply and buzzed around her head some more.
Molly spared a gaze at Finn as he fluttered around. "...I miss when farming was all about collecting crops and going to a smattering of festivals in a tiny town. Not all this bell collecting, wish-making stuff..."
"What was that, Molly?"
"Oh, nothing..."
The instant Molly entered her house she heard knocking, which wasn't that unusual really. It was almost like everyone just waited until the most inopportune time to knock! She contemplated not answering it, but that would be rude and lately people had been telling her trivial information that she would no doubt use at some point. Maybe.
"Good morning." said a voice, nervously, as she squeaked open the door.
Molly squinted at the stoop, or, rather the purple Wizard shaped object standing on her stoop thrusting a copious amount of...something in her general direction.
The Wizard rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. "I tried...I mean, I made this. Er, would you like it?"
"...You're stuttering, Wizard. What are you up to? Did you put some more magical zappy juice in this thing?" Molly took the glass anyway.
Wizard averted his gaze and made some interesting, albeit subtle, gestures. "I stutter...lots...And it's vegetable juice..."
"No, you don't, you pause, but you don't usually throw any 'er's' or 'uh's' in there." The farmer tilted her head and narrowed her eyes momentarily. "Wait a minute! Vegetable juice? Are you calling me fat? Saying I need to diet? Humph!"
"It's good for you..." The Wizard attempted, lamely.
"I live on a farm." Molly ploughed on, undeterred. "I grow vegetables."
"I just want...you to stay healthy..."
Molly squinted. "You think I'm fat."
"I just..." he flushed bright red.
"You think I'm a cow, don't you?" She narrowed her eyes critically at the Wizard, running them from funky (ugly) shoes, to weirdly fashionable purple robe to the odd braid-thing in Wizard's hair. And contemplated when the last time he washed that thing was; Wizards were known to be unhygienic, after all.
"I..." he looked torn between feeling hurt and offended at her tirade.
"Or maybe you do actually want me to stay healthy...Or diet...Or maybe you don't. Hmm, this requires further pondering! 'Kay, thanks for the juice! Bye!" she retreated back inside the house to the usual disapproving stares of Finn.
"Molly...Why are you being so mean to the poor Wizard?"
"He called me fat."
"He just gave you some vegetable juice, because he worries about you and wants you to stay in tip-top shape for farming!"
"He just wanted in my pants."
Finn sighed, as per usual. "I don't know Molly; I'm starting to wonder why anyone would want in your pants. Unless maybe the Harvest Goddess knows you aren't really a hero at all and wants you to make one instead!"
"Ew, like, spawn? Do they have spawning pits in Castanet?"
"Um, no, more like children."
"Oh, wait, how do you know about this stuff anyway? You're secretly as corrupt as I am!"
"Noo, it's just the miracle of-"
"No, no, no! I can't hear you! The last thing I need is this talk from a Harvest Sprite! I'm going to go...milk a cow or something productive like that! And no I will not make you creepy sprites some farmer-wizard spawn! Well, maybe someday, but not today!"
Bess the cow was unhappy, like every other day, and Molly could identify with her. It was tough work sitting all day, and eating and getting milked and eating some more. Actually, Molly thought that sounded like a pretty darn good life, without much physical effort, especially since Bess was her super special cow friend and didn't have to worry about turning into ground Bess or anything unpleasant. It was just too bad that Bess hadn't realized her good fortune and was perpetually miserable and never gave her shining milk to ship.
"You ought to be more grateful, you know. I don't know why I decided to use my hard-earned farm cash to buy you anyway. Not to mention all the extra work it is to grow your food," she informed Bess.
Bess didn't particularly care, and gave her yet more Decent Milk. Molly brushed her anyway, to show her that she was a nice and kind person, instead of spiteful, which was probably closer to the truth but she couldn't let Bess catch on to that secret just in case she might actually, maybe be warming up to her. Molly decided she could live with the Decent Milk, provided that one day she could ride Bess like Cain emphatically explained as he pawned the cow off on her.
"Molly..." ventured a voice through the crack in the barn door, causing Molly to curse at herself for not shutting the door all the way.
"Finn, I really don't want to continue this talk with you again..."
A distinctly silver head poked in the doorway. "This is...Wizard. Who is this...Finn?"
Molly cursed her poor hearing and inability to differentiate between tones of voice. "Um, um, he's my cousin! In Mineral Town! I was um, just talking on my cell phone to him, yeah, that's it! He was um, judging my...farming practices...or something. Why are you here again anyway?"
"I wanted to apologize...I think I may have offended you and I..."
"You think, huh? Well, it's not a big deal or anything. Not a big enough deal for you to take time out of your daily wizardly hibernation anyway." The farmer gave Bess a particularly enthusiastic pat, and attempted to look like she was hard at work.
"About that cat...at the church grounds...winter is approaching, I was wondering if you...intended to adopt him."
Molly nearly cursed at being reminded of her impending shipping deadline, but was quickly distracted. "Huh? Mr. Kitty? Why, did you want him?"
"I like cats...But, I think he wants to be with you, Molly...Besides, with me is not a good place for pets..." Wizard inched closer to Molly, making the distinct clomping noise of heels-on-wood.
Molly gasped, loudly, "What's that supposed to mean? Don't tell me you're a crazy-"
"No, no, please...don't misunderstand. I have...potions...that are not good...for pets."
"Oh," the farmer made some exaggerated pondering motions, "well, I guess that really isn't any good for a cat. If you think he'll come with me, I'll take him. What's one more animal on this farm, anyway?"
"Good, I'm glad...We should prepare to see him...together."
"I really don't understand how you're so stuck on this 'together' thing." Molly said dryly as the Wizard inched particularly close to her and Bess. He ignored her comment, and Molly silently applauded his new survival tactic.
"Tomorrow...is supposed to be a nice night..." the Wizard ventured after a few uncomfortable seconds of watching Molly pat the increasingly distressed cow. "How about we meet at the church grounds...around 4 o'clock?"
"To try and find the cat...right?" the farmer attempted to clarify; though she was increasingly skeptical the trip was going to be about finding Mr. Kitty.
"Yes...to find the cat..." Wizard looked slightly disappointed, but flushed a nice shade of red all the same.
Molly wondered if Finn and the Harvest Goddess were conspiring to get her knocked up before she could ruin any more of their plans for the island, but quickly decided that Finn lacked the cunning and the Harvest Goddess probably had better things to do. Now, if this was the Harvest Goddess that her other cousin (Molly had a decidedly eclectic bunch of farmers in her family that, coincidentally, had small-town life altering jobs to do) across the ocean mentioned in Leaf Valley, she might be in for some surprises. This train of thought abruptly led to an in depth pondering about the communication lines of harvest Goddesses.
By now, Wizard was sweating a little bit, probably owing to her lack of response. Molly decided this was a good thing. "'Kay!" she finally chirped before leading him out of her barn and promising to meet him tomorrow.
"I don't know Bess, what do you think?" asked Molly, as she peered at the Wizard's retreating frame from her barn doorway.
Bess snorted, unhappily.
"Yeah, that's what I thought."