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2nd Year

Spring

The farmer made himself a constant presence that spring, building up repertoire with the people of the valley, gaining their favor and affection, befriending them, winning their hearts slowly but surely as Penny had suggested he do the year prior. Still he was a mystery, and few were sure what to make of it. The swamp of the witch was unsealed that spring, when Rasmodius asked of him a favor. Namely to get back a item from his ex-wife the witch, from her hut located there... And in that swamp the farmer could feel the darkness of the magic permeating that place no matter where he went… Nevertheless he completed the task, returning the item to Rasmodius and noting, with some amusement, his question as to whether she seemed to live alone. He wondered if perhaps the wizard didn't yet harbor some measure of feeling for her. When, though, Rasmodius told him of her threat against the valley last autumn, amusement turned to caution...

"And you have told me this only now why?" he questioned, the slightest hint of a frown on his lips.

"I should have told you then, I know, but… but I thought it was all talk. Recent matters have made me uncertain of whether it was talk or not," Rasmodius said.

"And you are afraid," the elven king deduced.

"I am… For my child especially…" Rasmodius answered. "The witch may find allies, and if she does she will use them."

"The witch you need not concern yourself over," the elf king said. "I will tend to the matter."

"Thank you," Rasmodius replied before leaving. The elf king watched after him in silence.

Stardew

All eyes were upon him at the Flower Dance, dancing wraithlike in the twilight, enchanting all who saw and moving some even to tears. He had waited until after the pairs had danced, this time, before taking to the field himself come evening's fall. One by one, every villager drifted to sleep watching. Then he was joined by creatures from out the forest, encircling the mortals and dancing around them. When the residents of the valley awakened, it was in their own homes, in their own beds, and no one knew what it was that had happened say for the select few who understood that the farmer was not in fact the elven king's vassal… And while they'd all slept, he'd gone on the hunt…

The witch was holed up in her swamp, stewing and brewing and plotting against her ex-husband and all the residents of the town, and especially plotting against her husband's illegitimate daughter. When she heard the uneasy shuffling and sniffing of her goblin guard, she frowned and moved to investigate. She saw it hunched over, sniffing the air, growling, looking terrified. "What is it? What's happening?" she demanded testily of it.

"Can't you smell it?" the goblin growled, increasingly more agitated. "Can't you sense it's presence?!"

"What presence? What is 'it'?! What could possibly be in this swamp more frightening than I? Now back to work! She ordered. Suddenly the goblin freaked out and turned, fleeing in dread and leaving the shocked witch alone. She looked quickly around. What was it? What was here that was driving off her minion? She scowled darkly and walked out of her hut, peering around. She summoned her broom and climbed on it before flying around her swamp. Nothing seemed out of place. She frowned, flying a little farther, then suddenly stopped. She felt… a presence. She landed and squinted into the darkness. There. In the distance there was a… figure. She couldn't make it out. She frowned and cautiously started towards it, holding her wand at the ready. "Who trespasses in my forest?!" the witch called out indignantly. The figure didn't move. In fact, after a moment of being still it started to approach. She stopped in her tracks, tensing up. What was this?

"The witch of the swamp thinks he trespasses," a little voice said.

"But how utterly foolish, that she should think him the trespasser," another said.

"He is the forest, and the forest is him," a third said.

"Witch, witch, it is not he who is in a land not his own," a fourth whispered.

The witch whipped around, eyes wide in alarm, and scanned quickly for the voices, trying to spot them. She looked up in the trees and caught her breath. There, sitting in the bows of the dead trees, were humanoid figures with pointed ears, watching her from high above, eyes expressionless. She cast spells at them immediately. They shrank to a tiny size, sprouted wings, and flew quickly out of the way before returning to the trees again.

"She offends his people."

"He will not be pleased."

"Wicked witch, cruel witch, be wary what you offend."

"He comes, he comes, hush now, hush. The king is come."

The witch looked quickly ahead and screamed upon seeing, in the trees right in front of her, the figure she'd seen looking out, tall and imposing and regal. Her heart pounded hard in her chest as she stared at the thing lingering there in shadows of the dark. She gripped her wand and quickly regained her composure. "Come no closer faery king. You don't belong here. Be gone lest I cast an enchantment upon you not even your fae magic can save you from!" He didn't speak, but the wind began to pick up in the trees slightly.

"She challenges him. She thinks herself a match."

"The folly of all mortals."

"She knows not to whom she speaks. Mercy on her, elfin king. Mercy on her."

The creature stirred, moving a little. "Stay back!" the witch shrieked angrily, preparing a magical blast.

"The fair folk dance, the fair folk sing, the fair folk step in the magic ring. Tread not here 'til the light of day or the fair folk steal your soul away…" the voices sang eerily in the wind and trees.

"Gold and silver shine all 'round, and a thousand lights on the dancing ground. Oh come not here at the fall of night, where the fair folk dance in the waning light," they sang. Eerie sighs and moans accompanied the lyrics as the fair folk began to climb eerily out of the trees on all sides.

"Tall and proud and wondrous fair, the people of the dark and air. Hold high the iron that they fear, when the fair folk call don't let them near," they sang.

The witch began backing away, eyes wide and darting all around in slowly mounting fear. She didn't understand why she felt fear! She'd deposed fairies before, so why suddenly, seeing all of this, was she so terrified...?

"He plays his games upon her mind, her heart and soul he firmly binds. See the elf king linger there, encroaching on the witch's lair," they sang, fading and reappearing anywhere and everywhere, never returning to the same place twice.

"Memories sorrow, illusions grand, the ruler of the fairy land. His mind a maze, with bow and blade, he set upon the witch's glade. There's nowhere to run and nowhere to flee, he is the forest and the forest is he," they sang.

She turned and fled. It was like she was compelled to. She ran to her broom and mounted it and flew away as quickly as she could!

But he was there…

No matter how fast she flew, how erratic, he was there, always there! A glimpse out the corner of her eyes, a figure standing in the path before fading, a breath tickling the back of her neck, an icy touch on her wrist. By the time her hut came into view she was half wild with terror! She raced into it and as she turned to slam shut the door, she saw him there. Lingering. Watching… She screamed, slamming it shut and enchanting it and her whole hut with layers upon layers of spells and incantations in a desperate effort to keep him out and block his illusions. She stood still and mortified, heart pounding, and tried to calm down. She swallowed as her mind slowly began to become her own again.

It had stopped being hers…

She caught her breath at the realization. He had held her mind in the palm of his hand… For a long moment she didn't breathe. When finally she did, it was a shaky breath that she let out. She sat, keeping watch late into the night, and when she was sure he, it, was gone, she dared to crawl into her bed and rest…

She awoke with a horrified and terrified gasp, to the feel of a hand covering her mouth and nose and another upon her throat...

She tried to shriek and tried to thrash, but her body wouldn't move and she couldn't even find her voice!

"Should you turn your magic against the people of the valley, it will be with me you contend," his voice hissed darkly in what seemed like both of her ears simultaneously, going straight to her head. Then it was gone, and she jerked awake in bed with a scream and frantically looked around. Nothing was there. Shaking, she swallowed and turned to the window. She shrieked in horror. There, peering in, was a face! Then there was darkness…

Stardew

"The witch has been dealt with. For now, at least."

"Then-then she is she alive?"

"You thought otherwise?"

"I sensed, I felt, I heard, her screams…"

"A part of you loves her still… She lives."

"Hmm… Why do you say 'for now'?"

"Because a desire for revenge can be, sometimes, stronger than fear. Or fear can be forgotten…"

Stardew

"In his breath blows the wind, in his tears the crystal raindrops fall. The willows bow to his majesty, the flowers love his mystery. Upon a chair fringed with gold he sits, and a single look is all he will allow before he is gone from the eyes of those who see," Evelyn said to Jas and Vincent, who listened in rapt attention to her story of the elf king. "Once upon a time there also was a fairy queen."

"Did he love her?" Vincent asked.

"No, my dear. He loved long, long ago and loved no more after his queen died," Evelyn answered. "But the fairy queen and her king were his friends."

"But now the fairies follow him. Where is their queen and king?" Vincent asked.

Evelyn smiled sadly. "Gone. Probably long ago. That is why they follow him now. And he lets them because as they lost their queen, he lost his people. They have only each other now…"

"Is he the last?" Jas asked sadly, looking upset.

"I do not know, my dear," Evelyn replied.

"Filling their heads with fairy tale nonsense. Bah," George complained, flipping through a newspaper.

Evelyn frowned at him then smiled apologetically at the children. "It seems George is getting cranky now, dears. Run along now. That's enough stories for today."

"Goodbye granny," they said together, hurrying out to head home.

Evelyn watched after them with a smile, then turned, frowning at her husband. "Dear, I do wish you would stop trying to squash their hopes and imaginings."

"And I wish this nonsense about faery creatures roaming the forests would end," George replied.

"Don't you believe at all?" Evelyn asked.

George was quiet. Finally, he put down the paper and looked over at her. "I believe," he said finally. "And I believe that people are starting to conveniently forget the fear they had of them once before… When they stop fearing, then the true danger begins. That's why you need to stop feeding those children's wild imaginations! Before they get it into their heads that that thing that lingers in that forest is their friend. They want to like him, fine, play with him, sure, but lest you forget, Evelyn, just how dangerously fond of children those things are. Remember the stories of the changelings, to start?" Evelyn shifted a little uncomfortably. "Exactly. You get caught up in the wonder and fantasy of it all, you start to forget their nature. It's all part of the games they play. Sometimes they let things go, sometimes they use them." Evelyn was quiet. "She travelled to the standing stones and crossed into the green, where all the host of elven folk were dancing there unseen. Through the night she bargained with the queen and fairies all, who sent her home at dawning with a babe beneath her shawl," he quoted from a song he knew his wife liked to listen to sometimes.

Evelyn winced. "How their home was joyful with a son to call their own, but soon they saw the years that passed would never make him grow. The fairies would not answer her the stones were dark and slept…"

"A babe was all she asked for, their promises they'd kept," he finished. "Never forget what that thing is and what it's capable of."

Stardew

The witch poured through her tomes determinedly, desperate to find a way to weaken and destroy the threat she found herself faced with. This elf king who lingered in the valley now and had made it his home. Damn that creature! Damn them all! She'd thought the elven folk had all gone extinct long ago. At least from this place! And that he had gathered to him the scattered remnants of the fairies and the junimos… She raged at the thought. But there had to be a way. A way to be rid of him, a way to drive him out! There had to be a… She stopped, suddenly, at a book.

"The Changelings?" she read out. Her eyes began to brighten in realization. "The changelings," she said again. She grinned wickedly. "The changelings, the changelings!" she cheered before cackling madly and hugging the book to her chest. "The changelings!"

There were children in the village. Two alone and no others. The people were not so oblivious as to not know of the stories of the Fair Folk and their obsessions with mortal children. All she would need to do, the only thing, was make those children disappear... Make them disappear, make it seem as if the elf among them was to blame, and the villagers would do her job for her. A hunt would begin, and with luck there would be no fae creature left in the aftermath in the whole of the valley…

A/N: When I first started writing this story I had no idea so many would like it. I'm grateful for all the reviews, they mean a lot. I wasn't entirely sure how a story like this would go over in Stardew Valley and I'm happy it's gone over well. I'm sorry for the delay in updating, but when I went into this, not sure if it would work very well, I went into it with only the first year thoroughly planned out. Most of the rest of my ideas I hadn't written down yet and I wasn't sure I would. Now that I know it's gone over well, I certainly will. I'll try to do my best to post seasons as I finished them for you all. Again, thank you for your support. The reviews really motivate me. Anyway, ideas are welcome, and my ideas themselves are free to use if anyone should want to. I'm not totally happy with this chapter, but maybe I'm being a bit over critical.