Zelda walked into the bustling town square carrying her basket full vegetables. She was amazed at how different the town looked, small tents had been placed around the town square holding an assortment of carnival games. Banners had been strung up across the square, high above everyone's head. Zelda had never seen so many people in town before, somehow it made the town feel smaller in comparison. At that moment the blonde really wanted to run off and explore the fair but she new she had to set up her display first. Looking around Zelda noticed that most of the display stands were set up in front of Pierre's store, she could see an empty one with Hyrule written on the outside. Zelda checked behind her to make sure her friend was still there, and to her delight Leah was. The two carried their baskets over to Zelda's stand and began arranging the various fruits and vegetables that they had brought. Leah had actually been surprised at the variety of items the blonde had gathered, she had even gone foraging and found some lovely wild berries.
"These look great, Zelda." Leah said as she placed a large cabbage onto the display. She could tell that Zelda had certainly saved her best crops for the occasion.
"Thanks, I worked really hard on these. I even asked Linus for his secret foraging spots." Zela said smiling.
"Ah Mrs. Zelda!" The two heard a familiar voice call. "I was wondering when you'd arrive."
It was Pierre who was now standing in front of his display, which the two realised was next to Zelda's. Taking in Pierre's stand for the first time the blonde suddenly became very nervous. Pierres display was impressive to say the least. A large stack of Perrier finest products towered perfectly on display. It looked like a offering one would present to a king instead of a fair.
"Do you like it?" Pierre said a little smugly, noticing Zelda's eyes widening in shock. "I only use the finest, for my display. I see this as an opportunity to show that my store delivers the highest quality of products in the entire valley."
"You've done very well Pierre." Zelda said trying not to sound defeated.
"Well yours is very… cute." Pierre said with a patronising smile.
Zelda just smiled back trying not to let him get to her.
"I don't know Pierre, I think Zelda's gonna give you a run for your money." Leah said placing a supportive hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Yes, perhaps." Pierre laughed before walking off.
"Wow I can't believe Pierre is such a jerk." Leah said in a huff, her smile fading the moment Pierre had turned around. Maybe it was the way Pierre was acting but she was surprised at how defensive she felt about Zelda. It took a huge amount of self control not to act aggressive towards the store owner, which was odd because normally Leah thought of herself as a very calm person.
"Abigail warned me that he gets kinda nasty around this time of year, apparently it's gotten worse since JoJa Mart moved in." Zelda explained sadly. "He just gets very… competitive when it comes to this contest."
"Your display is great Zelda, don't listen to him." Leah said. "He's just trying to get in your head, I'm sure you're not the only one here he's trying to put down."
"Thanks Leah." Zelda smiled. "Having you here, was a big help."
"Of course! Now the judging won't start until a few hours so let's go have some fun."
"Okay." Zelda said cheering up completely.
Leah led Zelda by the hand through the large crowd towards the closest game. Outside the tent there was a large target which made Zelda assume that it would be some kind of shooting mini game. At the entrance to the tent was a tall woman with pigtails, her striped shirt told the girls that she must have been the supervisor. Before the girls could reach the tent two young kids stepped out laughing and then ran off to find another game.
"What are the rules?" Leah asked the carnie as the two walked up to the tent.
"Simple." The woman replied. "You get twenty shots, hit as many targets as you can."
"Do you want to try?" Leah asked the blonde.
"Yea! Let's do it."
The woman handed Zelda a large sling shot and a bag of ammo before letting the two girls enter. Inside the tent there was a large cardboard scenery set up with targets scattered around, a few moved mechanically from side to side to add an extra layer of difficulty. A small screen displayed the user's current score letting them know the amount of points they had earned.
"Alright I'll go first, we can take ten shots each." Zelda said positioning herself in the middle.
"I bet I can hit more than you." Leah said smugly.
"Oh yea! Will see about that." Zelda said as she lined up her first shot.
Zelda took a deep breath before steadying her arm and firing her first shot. It missed.
"Dam, hold on." Zelda said as she took her second.
This time she actually hit the target adding ten points to the score board.
"Yes!" Zelda cheered.
The blonde continued her turn and took the rest of her shots finishing with the final score of 6/10 targets hit.
"Just call me eagle eye!." Zelda said as she pretended to aim a imaginary sling shot at Leah.
"Alright Eagle eye." Leah said laughing. "Not bad. Since you're so confident in skills how about we make our bet more interesting?"
"How?"
"Loser has to buy lunch."
"Your on! No ordinary human can match Eagle eye's accuracy." Zelda said striking a superhero pose.
"We'll see." Leah said as she took aim.
Leah released her first shot sending the small pellet flying through the air smashing directly into the center of a target, leaving poor Zelda star struck. Leah continued taking eight more shots each one hitting their target in near perfection.
"What was that!" Zelda said in disbelief.
"I used to play video games with my little brother." Leah explained with a shrug. "The twerp wouldn't shut up about beating me so I practiced a lot until my aim got better."
"That's not fair! You can't just hide the fact that you're some sling shot prodigy." Zelda said waving her arms.
"All's fair in the game of war." Leah teased as she lined up her last shot. "Now if you excuse me, I think I'll make my score flawless."
Little did Leah realise that Zelda had dawned a cheeky smile. Right before Leah fired her final shot Zelda poked the artist in the ribcage. Leah squealed and retracted but it was too late she had already fired her shot, sending the pellet too far to the right.
"Hey that's not fair!" Leah giggled as she tried to tickle Zelda back in revenge.
"All's fair in the game of war." Zelda said through laughter as she unsuccessfully fought of the artist's attack.
The two girls collected the tickets they earned and moved on through the fair. Zelda pointed out a large strength tester. A large muscular man with a moustache was standing next to it flexing his arms. Moving closer the girls noticed Alex was currently trying out the game for himself. Alex was Stardew Valley's resident jock, always pushing himself to try and be better. Alex lived with his grandparents and dreamed about becoming a pro football player someday in the future, the girls weren't surprised to find him at the most manly game at the fair.
"Hu!" Alex huffed as he slammed the hammer onto the small stone platform sending the small ball shooting up the device until it hit the bell at the very top, letting out a loud clang as it made contact.
"Good job, you are true manly man." The burly moustached carnie said to Alex flexing his muscles as he spoke.
Leah had to cover her mouth to try and muffle her laugh as she watched Zelda mock the carnie by mimicking his pose from behind. Quickly correcting herself as the strong man turned around, the two watched as the man checked them up and down.
"Wish to test yourself, little girl?" The man said with a hearty laugh.
"Ok sounds like fun!" Zelda said running up to the machine.
"You're going to try, Zelda?" Alex said surprised as he noticed the blonde stepped up.
"Why not?" Zelda said picking up the large hammer from of the ground.
"Careful." Alex said helping Zelda steady herself as she swung the large hammer over her shoulder, nearly losing her balance in the process.
"Thanks" she smiled at him.
Zelda planted her feet and with a huff slammed it as hard as she could onto the stone platform. The strong man and jock were both surprised as the ball moved a little more than halfway up the device. Leah laughed at the two's reaction as she was less surprised, remembering the blonde was much stronger then she looked. Leah still hadn't figured out how Zelda could be so strong at times and yet still look so dainty.
"Ha! You surprised Hugo, little flower." The strong man laughed. "Hear take some tickets you earned them!"
"Thanks" Zelda said taking the tickets with a childlike grin.
Running over to Leah gleefully, the two moved on.
"What next?" Zelda asked, shoving her recently won tickets into her pocket.
"I'm getting kinda hungry." Leah said with a shrug.
"Me too, I think there's food up the hill." Zelda said as she pointed out someone carrying a hot dog coming from uphill.
The two walked up the hill to find a large amount of stands selling different kind of food and sweets. Zelda could see Gus at a stand making burgers and rushed over. Gus was selling his so called 'famous survival burgers'. Zelda ordered one interested in what all the fuss was about, she was happy to say she wasn't disappointed. Turning around with her food in her hand she suddenly realised that Leah wasn't with her. Worried she had run off without the artist she began searching the area for her friend. Luckily she was able to find her friend quite quickly as she appeared with a large cotton candy.
"Sorry did I run off?" Zelda asked worriedly as the two found a park bench they could sit on.
"No don't worry, I just went to grab something sweet as you ordered your burger."
"Wait wasn't I supposed to pay? Here let me just…" Zelda said trying to fish out some money from her pocket.
"It's fine." Leah said quickly stopping her. "You can make it up to me latter."
"That looks good! I should get one myself." Zelda said as she took the last bite of her burger.
"You want some?" Leah asked as she tilted the treat towards the blonde, offering her a piece.
Zelda hesitated for a second before taking a small piece off and began to munch on it. Leah watched in amusement as the blonde's face turned to delight as she chewed. For some reason her Leah couldn't stop thinking about how cute the blonde looked as she ate the fluffy pink treat. The sight brought a small shade of pink to the artist's cheeks.
The two girls returned to Zelda's display after an afternoon of fun. The two had a great time playing carnival games and hanging out, returning just in time for the judging. Zelda stood in front of her display as Leah watched from the crowd, Lewis walked by carefully marking each display with a clipboard. After a tense couple minutes Lewis finally addressed the crowd.
"It's been a great year and it's wonderful to see displays a beautiful as these that truly show everything that this valley has to offer." Lewis said proudly. "I'd like to thank all of our participants for their hard work, each display is a perfect representation of everyone's personality. Yet of course the hardest part of my job comes again, I have to decide a winner. So it is my great honour to announce the winners of this years display competition! In third place… Marnie Moore!" Lewis shouted letting the crowd cheer before continuing. "In second place… Zelda Hyrule!"
The crowd once again cheered, Leah was clapping a little louder then the rest.
"And in first place…" Lewis continued. "Pierre Carter!"
The crowd cheered and watched a Lewis award ribbons to each winner. After the ribbons had been handed out the crowd started to part. Zelda came running up to Leah and wrapped her in a big hug. Leah was surprised once again, the gesture bringing a large blush to her face but she quickly returned the hug. Leah felt as if time slowed down, feeling the genuine warmth from her friend. Being so close to the blonde made her heart race, and she couldn't understand why. Leah was slightly saddened when her friend pulled way but that feeling quickly changed as she saw the joy on her golden evening light shone from around her lighting her up perfectly. She was glowing, her smile only adding to her shine. Leah could only focus on Zelda, the rest of the world was just an indescribable blur around them. God she's beautiful, Leah thought. Then in that moment Leah understood how she felt about Zelda, why her heart always raced when she close and why it felt so amazing being near her. It was as if she could finally read the answer from a book that had been written in another language. The answer being so simple and obvious, yet it had eluded her till now. As she laughed and congratulated the blonde on her accomplishment she couldn't help but keep saying two words in her head over and over.
"Uh oh"