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“Ah, the new farmer! In need of some fresh equipment, are you?”
Kya swiped at the dirt caked to the knees of her jeans for the hundredth time that day. “I’ve been in Pelican Town for eight months, Marlon. I’m not really new anymore.”
“Compared to everyone else you are. Come come, Clint just sent up a batch of hammers. What are you interested in today?”
Stretching her sore neck, Kya stepped up the counter and surveyed the weapons Marlon was pulling out from underneath to display. “Well, this being the last day of the growing season, I figure I’ll have a lot more time on my hands during the winter. I’ve been getting pretty deep down in the mines and I could use something that’ll do a little more damage.”
“A hammer will be perfect, then. This one here has a little more heft, but it may slow you down—nice workmanship on the handle, there. This wooden one is nice and light but it won’t pack quite the same punch.”
“Hmm.” Kya ran her hand over the smooth grain of the second hammer Marlon had indicated. While she examined her options, he looked up at her curiously.
“You’re not usually up here so late. What brings you to the Guild at this time of night?”
“I had to bring in the full harvest and turn over my field for the winter, and then I realized I was scheduled to pick up a new calf from Marnie today. That thing dug its heels in and I had to wrestle it all the way up to the barn.” Kya paused to blow a piece of hair out of her eyes. “Then I started a couple of rounds of jam and some cheese, cooked half a dozen plates of food to deliver to people in town, and hauled half a bushel of corn to the general store while I was at it. Picked up my new pick from Clint, brought Harvey coffee, and now I’m here.” She gestured around at the cozy guild, warm and firelit to protect from the dusk chill descending outside. “This is the first chance I got.”
“Keeping busy then. Glad to hear it. Oh, yes, feel free to pick it up, see how it feels in your hands—you know, you’ve changed quite a bit since you first arrived in Stardew Valley. A few of us weren’t sure you’d be able to handle the farm’s workload.”
Kya shrugged, hefting the wooden hammer to test its weight. “I don’t blame you. It’s been a steep learning curve. Someone more capable probably would have the whole property cleared out and producing by now, but I’m getting by.” She picked up the steel hammer and grimaced. “Yeah, maybe in another year I’ll have the strength to do that one justice, but it’s gonna have to be the wood for right now.”
“Excellent.” Money changed hands and Kya slipped the hammer into her belt, where it rested at her side with a satisfying weight. “Will you be celebrating the end of autumn at the festival tonight?”
“The what?”
“The Spirit’s Eve festival. Surely someone told you about it?”
Kya groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yes. Yes, they did. It starts in half an hour, doesn’t it.”
“Yes, in the town square.”
“All right.” She sighed but squared her shoulders. “I’ll be there. I’m just gonna stop by the farm first and drop off a few things.”
The night outside was crisp and cool. Kya shivered and pulled her jacket closer around her; over the earthy scents of leaves and baked pumpkin wafting up from the town, the wind smelled like snow. She picked her way past the mine and down towards Robin and Demetrius’s house. If she walked briskly along the shortcut from their property to her own, she could drop off her new hammer and make sure the door to the chicken coop was shut and make it to town in time for the second half of the festival.
“Kya! Is that you?”
Kya jumped as a dark figure came around the corner. “Robin? Sorry, yes, it’s me. I’m just coming back from the guild.”
“Oh, fun! Looking over Marlon’s ring selection?”
“Picking up a new weapon for the winter season, actually.”
Robin nodded and crossed her arms. “Well, the four of us are just heading down to the festival. Why don’t you walk with us? There are spirits on the prowl tonight, I’d hate for you to be stolen away in the woods.”
Both women laughed, but stopped abruptly when something unseen splashed in the dark waters of the river. Kya’s hand flew to the hammer at her hip before she caught herself. Slowly, they turned back to look at each other. “You know, I might take you up on that.”
Robin laughed nervously and gestured Kya around the corner. Demetrius, Maru, and Sebastian waited in a group outside the front of their house.
“Are you sure you don’t want a coat? It’s only going to get colder as the night—” Demetrius stopped mid-sentence and smiled when he saw Kya. “Ah, joining us for the festival? Robin and I were just talking, we were worried that you’d be too worn-out after the harvest.”
“I’m pretty tired, but I think I still have a little party energy rattling around.” Kya shook out her arms for added effect, earning a laugh from Maru. “I probably won’t stay too late but it will be nice to see everyone.”
The five of them walked down together, Maru excitedly explaining the best toppings for caramel apples. They could smell the festival before they could see it: roasted vegetables, candy, woodsmoke, apple and blackberry and pumpkin pies. Purple and orange pennants were strung over the road at the entrance to the town square.
As soon as they made their way down the staircase, Maru dashed off to the food table and Sebastian wandered over to an enormous metal cage that stood in front of the clinic. Robin and Demetrius shared a fond look and waved goodbye to Kya as Pierre beckoned them over to one of the tables.
Kya’s exhaustion lifted a little as she looked around. People were eating, talking, shivering and holding their hands over decorative candles to warm them from the chill. Paper bats and pumpkins were stuck to every surface. Dry leaves skittered along the cobblestones as though hurrying home before the frost could catch up.
She was a little disappointed not to see Harvey in any of the groups of people clustered around the tables. Between the harvest and getting the barn set up she’d barely seen him at all in the last week. He had been busy with a patient when she’d dropped off his coffee that afternoon. The festival would be a good chance to talk for a while and catch up on both of their autumns—if she could find him.
“Kya! Planning to try your hand at the haunted maze?”
“Lewis! I don’t know, is it difficult?”
The older man pressed a cup of what smelled like spiced apple cider into Kya’s hands and she cupped it gratefully. “Let’s just say the kids aren’t allowed in. Rasmodius spent the whole day preparing it. It’s supposed to be pretty frightening.”
Kya thought back to the greenish spectral form she had hacked to pieces with her sword in the mines the week before. “Yeah? Maybe I’ll give it a shot.”
Lewis beckoned her towards the path that led to the fountain and the playground. “It’s up that way. And Kya? You’re a capable one. If you find anyone having a breakdown in there, maybe you can escort them out.”
“I’ll do my best, Mr. Mayor.” She took sip of cider and coughed when it burned her throat going down. “Is—is there whiskey in this?”
Lewis winked. “Good luck!”
“…All right. Thanks.”
The haunted maze didn’t look too threatening. Dark hedges stood about eight feet tall on either side, and Kya thought that they would at least block the wind a little. She took another long drink from her mug and stepped inside.
All of the festival’s sound faded away in the space of a heartbeat. Thick silence enveloped her; clammy white mist oozed along the ground and sent goosebumps up her legs.
“Rasmodius really outdid himself on this one,” she muttered, and set off.
The maze was a cramped tangle of false openings and dead ends. Kya walked past the doorway she needed three times before she even realized there was a place to go through the hedge. She passed unsettlingly-realistic rotted hands which protruded from the earth to grasp at her ankles and enormous hairy spiders, poised to strike. At the end of it all, she actually had to put her hands out in front of her and step through what appeared to be solid greenery; it melted away from her fingertips and she slipped through. She felt her way along a damp tunnel in the pitch dark and finally came to the chest which held the golden pumpkin.
She lifted the solid metal trophy and slipped it into her backpack. Retracing her steps was a little easier but still nerve-wracking, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she recognized the three-way fork that meant she was near the entrance.
“Ah!”
“Oh my—Harvey?”
The shape she had bumped against turned around, but she didn’t need to see his face to recognize Harvey’s bottle-green coat. His glasses were slightly askew and he seemed to be shaking. “Oh, Kya! Sorry, I—I didn’t hear you coming.”
“Are you all right?” She put a hand on his arm and squeezed sympathetically. “Did you get lost in the maze? It’s pretty confusing.”
He flushed and looked away and down. “No, um, I’ve actually been, uh, hiding. I got scared.”
“Oh!” Kya fought back a smile. For someone who ran the clinic with ease and confidence, Harvey sometimes had a tendency to get jumpy. Instead of sharing her amusement, however, Kya crooked her arm and offered Harvey her elbow. “We’re near the entrance. Want to go back out to the festival?”
Harvey linked his arm with hers and positioned himself next to her, relief evident on his face. “Please.”
Kya just nodded, temporarily taken aback by the force of her delight at feeling his warmth against her side and his arm twined around hers. He kept close while they walked, tucked slightly behind Kya’s shoulder, and she could tell his firm grip was to keep his hand from shaking.
Left, left, right, and suddenly they were back out of the maze and the sounds of the festival washed over them. They both relaxed their postures slightly. Kya felt very aware of the heavy pumpkin trophy in her backpack and the soreness of every muscle after a day of hard work.
“Watch out!”
She stopped short and looked around to see who had shouted. Marlon stood next to the large metal cage, a hand extended towards her, one of the bars behind him knocked out of place and resting on the ground. Several paces in front of him, and walking right towards Kya, was a battered and chipped skeleton in rudimentary leather armor. As it walked its shuffling, loose-jointed walk, it reached up and pried out one of its ribs and lifted it above its head.
“Oh no!” Harvey exclaimed, loud enough to cover Kya’s expletive.
She tugged her arm out of his grasp and pushed him behind her, crouching a little out of habit. She’d only ever seen one walking skeleton, deep in the mines, and even then she’d only watched it from behind a boulder and then dashed to the ladder that would take her down another level.
The handle of her new hammer bounced against her legs as she crouched, and, suddenly remembering its presence, she grabbed it in both hands and raised it over her shoulder, prepared to strike.
Every other citizen of Pelican Town was still with shock as they watched the skeleton shamble towards its target. Even Marlon’s sword was still belted at his hip, useless as he gaped at his escaped specimen.
Kya waited until the skeleton was a few steps away and lunged toward it, swinging with her full force. The head of her hammer collided with the monster’s pelvis with enough force to knock it backwards a few feet. She gritted her teeth and steadied herself, ready for it to approach again—when it drew back its hand and threw its rib with shocking accuracy.
It bounced off Kya’s temple with an almost hollow sound, and as the impact reverberated through her skull she could almost taste it. Someone gasped.
Kya’s arms sagged, unbidden, but for the moment she was still upright. She took a step towards the skeleton.
“Was that supposed to—”
“—hurt?” She blinked at the sudden change in light quality. Everything was white and very bright, and she seemed to be laying on her back. When she tried to look around, her head throbbed.
“Oh, no, don’t move just yet.” A blurry figure appeared over her and then slowly materialized into Harvey’s face. He had circles under his eyes and a concerned wrinkly between his brows. “Kya? Do you know where you are?”
Kya smiled sweetly up at him. “I’m at the Spirit’s Eve festival, but it’s very bright now. Is it daytime?”
Harvey sighed and checked his watch. “No, it’s—it’s 3:30 in the morning. Do you remember what happened at the festival?”
“We were in the maze…”
“And after that?”
Kya frowned and tried to hold onto the memory. “Was… was there a skeleton? That seems wrong.”
“It does, doesn’t it? And yet here we are.” Harvey sighed again and pushed his hands up under his glasses to rub his eyes. “Marlon brought a few skeletons up from the mines to show off. One of them got loose and you tried to fight it. It knocked you out with one of its ribs.”
“Oh.” Kya blinked against the light that she now realized meant that she was in the back room of the clinic. It felt like it was piercing her eyes and scraping the inside of her skull. “Is everyone okay?”
“Yes, Marlon took care of it after you went down.”
“Sorry, can we—can you turn down the lights a little?”
Harvey disappeared from her field of view for a moment and half of the lights overhead switched off. When he reappeared, Kya gave him a weak thumbs-up. “Thanks. Have you been up this whole time?”
“Yes.” Harvey’s shoulders sagged. “I wanted to make sure you were all right before I went to sleep. I may have, uh, dozed off for a little while there… but mostly yes.”
“You should go to bed.”
Harvey gave her his best stern doctor look—not at its most imposing at this hour of night. “I’m not just going to leave you alone down here.”
“Well, I don’t think I’m up for walking home tonight…”
“Don’t be ridiculous, I won’t send you home yet.” Kya rolled her head to the side and watched him sit down on one of the other low cots against the wall of the clinic. “I’ll stay down here with you tonight. In case you need anything.”
Kya grinned, but stopped when it sent a pang from your head. “Thanks, that’s very sweet. I’m sorry, this probably isn’t how you wanted to start your winter.”
Harvey smiled softly and then failed to stifle a yawn. “I don’t mind. Besides, you physically shielded me from a walking skeleton today.” He chuckled. “We’ll give you a concussion evaluation in the morning, all right?”
“Sure.”
“All right.” Harvey leaned over and flipped a switch to dim all but the emergency lights, leaving the room dark enough to be comfortable for sleep. “Good night, Kya.”
“Good night.”