Claire soon came to a second fork in the road, where Karen and Ann had come from. A breeze wafted by suddenly, carrying the scent of fresh grapes and—yes, wine. Out of curiosity, she ditched the main path in favour of this new one. She'd barely taken a few steps when she discovered the source of the berries: a small vinyard was nestled besides what appeared to be a winery. Claire read the nearby sign: Open 10 AM to Noon, every day except Saturday – We sell wine and juice!

Checking her watch, she noted that it was 9:40, and indeed, the sign on the winery's door read "CLOSED". She couldn't resist taking a peek in the window, though. A slim, relaxed-looking woman with dark hair was seated at a desk, doing paperwork or something. Claire quickly ducked her head down as the woman looked up. Then she heard a voice behind her, making her jump and hit her head on the windowsill.

"Augh..." she groaned, rubbing her head, then looked up to see the source of the voice. There were two people dressed in the same tan uniform and baseball cap, moving around in unison Then she shook her head to clear it—ah, that was better, she thought. Now there was just one of them, and he was standing still. That made more sense.

"You know, it's rude to spy on people," the boy said, frowning and tugging at the rim of his hat. Claire got up and dusted herself off, matching his frown with one of her own. "Well, it's also rude to sneak up on someone like that," she said. "You should apologize."

"Fine," the boy said, and a small smile crept onto his face. "I'm sorry I scared you like that."

"Then, I'm sorry I spied on someone," replied Claire. The boy reached out his hand, and she shook it with a grin. "The name's Gray," he said. "Claire," said Claire. "I'm the new farmer over at Bluebell."

Gray gave her an odd look. "You actually bought that old wreck of a farm?" Claire sighed miserably.

"Yeah, I wasn't really expecting it to be as bad as it is." Then, to change the subject, she asked him, "What do you do around here?"

"I'm the blacksmith's apprentice," answered Gray. He didn't look too happy about it. "But my grandfather—he's the blacksmith—is really hard on me all the time. I'm about ready to give it up thanks to him." Then he glanced down at his watch. "Speaking of which, I really need to get to the shop around now. Come by if you need any tools worked on."

Claire nodded. "Definitely! See you, Gray." He nodded curtly and was off. So she wasn't the only one with work issues, thought Claire. At least she didn't have some geezer yelling at her back on the farm. And the neighbours weren't too bad, either! With a newfound swing in her step, she set off again on the path.

But she'd barely made it two or three feet before something fluffy, squawking, and quite agitated came barelling up the road at her, then jumped up and landed squarely on her chest. Claire was too surprised to react beyond falling backwards and staring at the chicken (which was now flapping around crossly and getting feathers all over her). Then she looked up in alarm as a dog—the same size as Toby, but a darker brown—came dashing after the bird. It pounced on it, and the two of them fell off into the road, a tumbling mess of fur and feathers.

A/N:

I think Gray's a little more reserved in the game, but I kept his straightforward attitude. Ah—by the way, I'm not *necessarily* going to be using the canon pairings here.

Poor Claire. Just when things were starting to look up, she gets attacked by poultry.

That's two bachelorettes and one bachelor down! Who will Claire run across next? Can you make an educated guess? Find out in the next installment of: It's a Farmer's Life! *cue dramatic music*