"This is it? This is the Harvest Festival? I thought there would be more people to witness my mad farmer skills! Or at least a hot pot or something that everyone contributes to and we could get free food..." For once, Molly had arrived promptly on time for the festival; mostly due to the Wizard's interference.
However, the farmer was greatly dismayed by what she saw. All the Harvest Festivals she had the fortune of happening upon were all much livelier than this one. As far as she could tell, Castanet's festival consisted of Mayor Hamilton sitting behind a booth strewn with papers and looking jovial. There was also a couple other small booths and precious few people even milling about the area.
It didn't look like anyone was particularly interested in giving thanks for the harvest.
"There...used to be a hot pot." The Wizard informed Molly, "one year a...prankster...put in a poisonous mushroom. Now, there isn't one..."
"Was it the Witch?"
He shook his head, "... No one knows..."
Molly stared at her paltry eggplant; it looked a little worse for wear after its prolonged time in her refrigerator. Her only chance of winning was probably by sheer lack of participants. This prospect was actually viable, given the poor showing. Hamilton had also informed her of the various different parts of the contests, thus splitting the participation.
The farmer wondered why exactly there were so many different portions of the contest, given how few people actually showed up.
"Molly, the judging..." the voice at her side reminded her, not unlike Finn usually did. The sprite was actually blissfully quiet, flitting about from stand to stand.
She hoped the Wizard wouldn't pick up that habit too.
"I know, I know. The judging for the Vegetable Contest is going to begin." Molly, eggplant in hand, dumped the vegetable rather unceremoniously onto Hamilton's table.
The Wizard lagged rather awkwardly behind. Molly didn't blame him; Hamilton sometimes gave her the heebie-jeebies too!
"Ah, yes!" Hamilton exclaimed as Molly retreated from the table. "Well, it seems we are ready to begin the judging of the Vegetable Contest!" The Mayor announced this to the entire five or so people present, before promptly trotting off to converse with Colleen and Hayden.
Molly and the Wizard remained a respectful distance from the whispering judges.
"Hey," the farmer nudged the Wizard beside her, "how long does the judging usually take?"
"It... has been a very long time since I have attended... this festival..." The man replied, brows furrowed.
Molly took the opportunity to unroll the blanket she had stowed away in her rucksack and plunked herself on top of it. The Wizard followed suit, dropping down and pulling his legs to his chest.
"I hate waiting. Doesn't Hamilton know that there are other things I could be doing with my time?" she mumbled, "Not to mention Anissa keeps giving us these strange looks."
"I'm sorry you're not... enjoying yourself... This was my... idea." The magic user looked rather apologetic.
Molly felt slightly guilty. It wasn't his fault that festivals were so darn boring!
"Geez, don't worry about it! I thought once Hamilton's son came back, maybe the festivals would get a little more interesting, but that doesn't seem to be the case. That guy is even more serious than you anyway! Maybe Hamilton adopted him or something, they're nothing alike."
"I didn't think... I was that serious..."
"Don't worry about it. I guess compared to me everyone is serious!" Molly informed him cheerily. Finn stopped mid-flight to give her a strange look before resuming his spritely athletics.
The judges were still deliberating and Molly was getting very obviously restless.
"Did you... want to shop for seeds?" the Wizard asked her in his usual monotone.
"I don't think so, it'll be winter soon. Besides, I'm flat broke until I get the money from my crops. It better be lots, I've worked more this month than, well, probably ever!
The Wizard gave her a warm smile. "It's good... to work hard..."
"I guess so, but I still hate it." Molly drew her knees even further to her chest and hugged them. "What do farmers do in the winter, anyway? I haven't figured that one out yet."
"If... the winter is mild... there are still crops... Buckwheat and herbs..."
The farmer was dismayed. She was hoping to have a viable excuse to slack off! But the animals still needed to eat, heck, she still needed to eat! So Molly supposed it wasn't such a bad thing that she could try and work through the winter. Didn't the ground freeze though?
"Now to announce the winner!" boomed Hamilton across the event grounds.
Molly shot to her feet feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline. Her companion rose shortly after, gathering the blanket on his way up and rolling it into a tidy ball. Finn stopped his furious circles and fluttered rather comically above Mayor Hamilton's head.
"The winner," Hamilton paused and gazed happily at the small crowd, "is Craig! Congratulations! Second place is Ruth and third place is Anissa!"
"This is rigged!" Molly whispered furiously, "Craig wasn't even here until, like, five minutes ago! And they're all one family! What is this bull-"
Finn fluttered back to her shoulder opposite the Wizard and gave her a nearly-comical warning stare.
"Would you like to... leave now?" whispered the familiar masculine voice.
Molly nodded furiously, still upset at the outcome of the contest.
The Wizard moved his arm casually around Molly's side, making only the barest touch as he discreetly corralled her towards the exit of the festival grounds. Finn railed at the farmer about manners amid the post-victory chatter of the winning contests clambering to the podium as the couple bid their hasty retreat.
"What now?" Molly mumbled as soon as the celebration faded from view, "I thought that event was going to kill at least the better portion of the day! I even got up extra early to take care of my chores!" she sulked.
Stupid small town contests with their rigged votes! It wasn't fair. Nobody liked her or her produce and she was never going to get any recognition for her hard farmer-y work!
"I could... make us coffee?" The magic user offered, with a small smile.
The farmer shuffled along the dirt path with a pronounced pout.
"You always make us coffee, I feel sort of bad." She informed him, though she knew her own coffee making skills weren't exactly up to snuff. However, she did have her own coffee maker; perhaps that was a step in the right direction.
"You don't need to feel bad... I don't mind..." her companion informed her with a small smile, as he alternated his gaze from her, to the narrow path that connected Molly's farm to the other surrounding fields.
The sky was quickly clouding over, unsurprising since winter was fast approaching. It created an odd sense of foreboding in Molly, causing her to shudder in the chill breeze of the afternoon and cross her arms in an unhappy attempt to seek more warmth from her beat-up red jacket.
"It's a long walk back to town, and it's still early. I guess we could have coffee at my house, but don't get any funny ideas! And you'll still have to make the coffee! I'm no good at that." Molly informed the Wizard, who consented to this arrangement with obvious mirth written across his features.
Finn stopped near Molly's face and suppressed a very obvious laugh. She resisted the urge to grab for the smarty-pants sprite's face.
The snow started to fall minutes after the pair entered Molly's house, which was blissfully clean, the farmer was proud to boast. The Wizard was unperturbed by the slow-falling little flakes, and set to work in her kitchen, as if he belonged there. Molly occupied herself by preparing a small snack of sweets for them, and some treats for her eagerly mewling cat that had made its current mission to rub as much hair as possible onto the Wizard's legs.
Snacks prepared, Molly set them on her beat-up old table and turned on her equally bedraggled television for the weather report. The Wizard soon joined her and they sat in amiable silence, a rare occurrence for the boisterous farmer.
"I hate the snow, and the cold, and pretty much everything about winter." Muttered Molly, as the droning voice on the television reminded her to expect increased snowfall and to harvest any remaining crops. Finn, who had taken to a perch on top of her bookshelf beside the aforementioned TV, nodded in agreement. It was perhaps the first time they had ever agreed on anything.
"Molly... " the Wizard started, after pouring their drinks, though he stopped mid-sentence.
The woman toyed with a sugar cube before plunking it in her drink. "What is it? You haven't done that in a while, y'know, trail off and stuff." She informed him, taking a long sip and pretending to be enamoured with the weather news.
"It's nothing..." he finished lamely.
She eyed him curiously. "I really hate it when people say that. Obviously, when you say 'nothing' you mean something and just don't want to say it. Come on, you're a big, bad wizard!"
Well, actually, Molly doubted very much that he was bad or big for that matter. But you never know with the wizard-y types! They're mysterious! Though, the sudden snow was even making her feel slightly melancholy, though not enough to start sentences and not finish them!
"This is... hard for me to say..." he began again.
"What? Is my coffee that bad? I'm pretty sure we get it from the same place!"
He shook his head, "No, the coffee is good... I enjoy... the time we spend together..."
"That's all? You're just getting sentimental? I mean, um, I like spending time with you too! You make better coffee than me, somehow!" the farmer reached for a cookie.
Molly failed to see why that was worth the cardinal sin of saying 'nothing'! She thought it was going to be something more monumental. Maybe he decided he wanted the cat after all? Or he had suddenly fallen for her farmer charms? She had to admit, neither were very plausible (which was good, she did want to keep her cat, after all).
"...You don't... put enough coffee in the filter..." he smiled.
He had insulted her coffee skills! Usually, she would furiously proclaim that it would 'be on like Donkey Kong'; however even she had to concede he was probably right on that point.
The snow continued to flutter outside as they sipped their coffee, and Molly resumed her usual one-sided conversations with the usual host of two-word replies or sounds of agreement from her companion. This continued well until her second cup of coffee, when she was abruptly interrupted mid-tirade about the complexity of mining.
"Molly, we should take a walk..." the Wizard informed her.
What was he plotting? She had just told him how much she hated all things snowy and cold!
"But it's snowing, and that probably means its cold!" she protested lamely.
"I... want to talk somewhere else. The snow isn't... that bad."
"Fine, I guess. But remember I'm doing this under protest! Where are we going? I should probably feed Bess again first." she grumpily replied.
"The lighthouse. I'll meet you there at four o'clock then..."
Molly sighed. At least he helped her clean the dishes before he left.
He was right, the snow wasn't bad or accompanied by the gale force winds she thought it would be once she set foot outside. The weather was still entirely unpleasant, but Bess was surprisingly docile this afternoon and even possessed a semblance of affection for the farmer. Molly was shocked, but entirely pleased with herself.
At least something was going right today.
She was still ten minutes late to her meeting with the Wizard at the lighthouse, though she was more upset by the absurd meeting place to be very concerned about her punctuality. Why the lighthouse? All that was there was the irritating kid that tried to goad her into doing crazy things, probably for his own amusement.
If the Wizard was put off by her time of arrival, he didn't show it. In fact, he looked quite sheepish and rubbed the back of his head in apprehension as soon as he noticed her. Molly failed to see why he was suddenly nervous; they had spent all day together almost!
"...Greetings."
"Yeah, okay, what is it? It's cold out here! This better be darn good! Please don't tell me you murdered somebody or something crazy." Molly glowered at him.
"Witches and wizards don't tell people their names..." he began.
"Yes, I noticed!" the farmer interrupted.
The Wizard was undeterred, "It's said that those who know your name... can control you."
"Control you? Like some sort of pleasure slave or something? That's harsh, but um, I wouldn't flatter yourself or anything..." Molly nearly laughed at the thought.
The Wizard's face suddenly turned an intense shade of red as he rubbed the back of his head again, "...Not exactly. But I want you... to know my name... If you have feelings for me... I want to share it with you."
Molly had to admit she was caught unaware at the confession. Despite what she told herself, she knew she was far from a desirable commodity among the village men, or men in general really and in her pessimism in the romantic department chose to blatantly ignore many of the (now obvious) advances. He was her friend, of course, but this progression caught her completely off guard.
It was strange, this sudden realization that she was important in a romantic sense, to anyone. Sure, she'd had men in her life back home, but those incidences were isolated and in her teenage years. Even she had to admit she'd matured a bit since then!
"I..." she started, void of words for perhaps the first time, "You know I like you, but I wasn't going to come out and say it, and this is an entirely different sort of like, that you're talking about. This is more of a surprise-punch-in-the-face-we-might-one-day-get-married-and-stuff sort of like you're talking about."
He looked entirely dejected, "I see..."
"I mean, I don't know how you do it here in this town, or how it was back in your day or whatever... Well, I guess I do now, but usually this sort of thing is followed by a trial period! Unless someone is pregnant, I guess, but um, I'm not so it's not like we need to rush in and shotgun a wedding or something!" Molly informed him, flustered.
"...What do you propose?" he looked comically puzzled at Molly.
"That, um, I don't know, we date or something? So I can come to terms with you as more than my friend? You know, spend more time together now that I know this, go places, do things that couples do." The farmer felt her face burn as she fumbled through the suggestion; it was like the Wizard had been cooped up in his house for so long doing Wizardly things he didn't even know how contemporary courtship worked!
Molly wondered if Finn and his gang were watching these proceedings and laughing at the sheer awkwardness. That was always a kick in the teeth; when a sprite who exuded social clumsiness amongst his own kind was laughing at you fumbling awkwardly to talk with another human. Now, she was hardly a paragon of social grace, but this was a different matter entirely!
"I see... That's enough... for now. My feelings will not change. But this idea... is good. As long as... I'm not dumped." He smiled rather charmingly at Molly, who gave him a meek one in return.
"I think that's the most I've ever heard you talk at once! I'm shocked! And you even threw a funny in there! I'm a bad influence..." she flustered.
"You are... a good influence." He moved close to her and gave another awkward peck on the cheek, though this time Molly was almost prepared. "I'll... walk you back home. The snow is... unpleasant."