The night of winter eighteenth had been an odd turning point for Molly and the Wizard. They were more comfortable with each other, and coincidentally, by the end of the season Molly had bought both a double bed and had a fireplace built. Dale asked her blissfully few questions; Luke however had prodded her rather relentlessly, but with good humour.
The farmer was still among the working poor, but her farm was flourishing. Molly's animals were happy, though her crops were a complete bust, the initial plants being completely decimated by the storm and her subsequent attempt being squelched by another storm as well. It was after her second attempt that she opted to instead focus solely on her animals for the remainder of the season, it being too late for her to attempt any more crops until spring anyway. The Wizard had remained a constant fixture on her farm, leaving only a few days a week for his home in town.
The Witch Princess abhorred this development; despite Molly keeping it as much of a secret as she could, one of the witch's particular early morning attempts to greet the farmer (and probably utilize her cable) ended with mortification. This unremarkable occurrence quickly turned into a hilarious shouting match on Molly's front doorstep after the drowsy Wizard greeted his counterpart in what passed as sleepwear. Molly was taking care of her early morning chores and heard the distinct cursing and screaming, followed by accusations that he was 'stealing her Molly'. Any attempts to mediate the situation were impossible as the Witch flew back to Fugue Forest.
The farmer still attempted to visit her in the forest, which turned out equal parts effective and ineffective depending on the Witch's mood. But Molly tried and that was the point!
When spring finally rolled around, Molly was surprised at how much her animal products had earned her. It wasn't enough to meet the requirements of the Harvest Goddess; however it again allowed her to make the necessary improvements on her barn, coop and invest as much as possible in crops and grass.
By the end of this season, Molly hated farming and hard work more than ever, but had so many crops to harvest that her Wizard house fixture was soon relegated to crop harvester so that she could ship all of her produce. The Wizard didn't seem to mind, and in fact seemed more content, as was Molly.
They attended the Flower Festival together, much to the amusement of Hamilton and fuelled the gossip of the villagers further. The Harvest Sprites however, were losing their interest, to Molly's delight. The Animal Festival at the end of spring even proved to be worthwhile for Molly, netting her a win in the Livestock contest (and the concession that perhaps the festivals weren't as rigged as she thought). The telltale sign of her success came shortly after the contest, when her earnings totalled more than she needed to earn what the Harvest Goddess dubbed a 'hero' title.
On the morning of the first day of summer, Molly was woken up by Finn furiously yelling at her to make her way up to the summit of Mount Garmon. The Wizard was nowhere to be found, but Molly was used to this and rather unperturbed.
"I don't get why you couldn't have waited another hour. Just one! That's when my alarm goes off, you know that! And you know I hate hiking." she protested, as she manoeuvred through the mine at dawn. "I think you're just being a jerk. It's because Overlord gets to sleep in the bed, isn't it?"
"...I hope you're talking about the cat, Molly! Because my innocent ears don't need to hear that sort of weird human stuff if you're not..." Finn informed Molly as he flitted about the mine.
The farmer opted not to answer him and glowered in relative silence. Stupid Harvest Sprites and their early morning shenanigans!
By the time Molly reached the summit of the mountain, the Harvest Goddess and Sprites were vibrating with anticipation.
"What took you so long!" they asked in unison, reminding Molly why exactly she hated the little buggers.
"I could have been here hours earlier if you little jerks had teleported me too!" she protested, and was promptly ignored as they began what was obviously a sort of bell ceremony, under the watchful gaze of the Harvest Goddess.
It amounted to an awful lot of talking to the bells. Molly thought, with certainty, she wouldn't ring if she were a bell just because a bunch of sprites told her to. She would be a special snowflake bell that made their lives difficult!
Whatever they had done seemed to work though, as a strange looking fiery man came out of thin air.
"Are you the ones who summoned me?" he asked, in what Molly was sure was a voice that would be extremely coveted among late night phone lines for lonely women.
"Well, does it look like there are other people here ringing the bells?" she replied, indignant.
"Be quiet, Molly! Be quiet!" whispered Finn, panicked, "That's the Harvest King! Stop talking, now!"
Molly didn't see what the big deal was. She busted her rump doing all the stuff the Harvest Goddess asked and she would be damned if some big shot in a toga was going to mess up her hard work!
"Hmm... The Goddess Tree is dying?" the large man questioned, after conversing briefly with the Harvest Goddess, "Follow me."
Molly muttered some more unsavoury things, but was blissfully glad that the Harvest King had the good sense to teleport them all to the tree. The farmer wasn't sure she could walk back down the mountain.
They spent a great deal of time staring at the backside of the Harvest King as he attempted to evaluate the tree; or at least Molly did anyway.
"...You're shameless..." Finn informed her.
"Shouldn't you be watching with bated breath?" she muttered back.
The Harvest King drew back momentarily to tell the group how bad the damage was, but wasted no time fixing it. Molly was relieved one of the Harvest Deities was sensible.
With a bright flash of light, the tree was back to a vibrant, healthy state. There was an incredible amount of rejoicing, and Molly felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest.
"Remember to nurture this tree so that its power grows. That way, it may be shared with other lands." Uttered the Harvest King, and Molly felt the familiar weight settle back on her chest.
She earnestly hoped that wasn't in her job description too. Nobody made any mention of it, at any rate, and after entirely too much celebration, she was granted a teleport back home. Finn followed her back, but she was expecting that particular occurrence. The arrangement was familiar to them now.
Upon her arrival, the first thing she did was flop gratefully on her new, large bed.
Molly was awoken later by an added weight on her bed, and a familiar palm moving intently across her shoulders in a comforting gesture. "...I forgot to feed the animals and water the crops," mumbled Molly into a pillow.
"...I did those things... Molly, the land..." the voice in her ear was quieter than usual.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I saved it and did heroic farmer things," yawned Molly. "Can you make dinner?"
"Of course..."
"Great, thanks. I feel like such a bum. I haven't done any chores today." Molly rolled over to face her companion.
"Molly..."
"What?" asked Molly, still exhausted, "Did Bess go into labour or something on you? If she did, I'm sorry, that was supposed to happen any day now..."
The Wizard smiled at her, fondly. "No... The animals are fine..."
"Then what is it? I'm beat..." Molly wasn't in the mood for playing guess-what-I'm-trying-to-say.
"...I suppose I should thank the Witch..." he stopped his gentle ministration on her shoulders, "it's because of her, I met you..."
"You met me before that, remember?" the farmer informed him as she stretched an arm, "Besides, you would have come across me anyway, I'm invasive like that. But that wasn't what you were going to say, is it?"
"Molly... My name..." the Wizard said quietly, as he continued to stroke her shoulders once more, "Call me Gale."
"Oh," she said, rather unexpected by this progression, "that's better than Mr. Wizard. Wizard sounds sort of kinky, like I'm role playing Dungeons and Dragons or something... " Molly grinned.
Gale was used to this sort of humour, and merely smiled. "Molly... I love you. I shall be by your side, always. Faithfully."
The farmer's sleep addled mind pondered this for a few moments, "Well, it had better be faithfully or it won't be for very long!" she yawned, "I love you too. But I still don't think there's enough room in my house for your giganto-telescope."
Gale made a muffled sound that may have passed for a laugh. "...I'll keep it in town then... Molly... You're different. You exceed my expectations... in a good way."
The farmer laughed lightly, "Now haven't I been told that before? Different in a good way." Molly moved her aching body to the edge of the bed, and sat side-by-side with the Wizard before resting her head on his shoulder.
Gale gazed down at her with an indeterminable expression. "I haven't lived as long as the Harvest King or Harvest Goddess..." he whispered gently, "But I wouldn't trade a long life for the opportunity of having met you..."
"Well here we go again, you've found yourself a friend that knows you well, but no matter what you do you'll always feel as though you tripped and fell. So steady as she goes." - The Racounteurs