Chapter Text
It was a frigid Winter day in Pelican Town, and the local farmer had been fishing on the docks for hours.
Willy set down the bait he had been boxing and sorting. He muttered to himself, that kid doesn't know what's good for 'em before opening the door to invite Farmer inside again.
Farmer, focused on giving a writhing red mullet a death glare jumped about half a foot in the air in surprise. They turned to fisherman and replied "No can do Willy, I have a red snapper to catch!" They then casted their fishing line again with a determined look on their face.
"A snapper you say? In winter?"
"Of course! Winter is perfect because I have the time and energy to fish all day without having to worry about crops." Farmer then looked into the ocean, eyebrows furrowed. Then in a more deflated tone, they added, "Although they haven't really been biting recently."
Willy let out a long, weary sigh. "That's because they only come out on rainy days, Farmer."
Farmer's eyes went wide as saucers. They slowly turned to look at Willy again and lowly grumbled "What."
"Sorry kid, looks like you're going to have to wait til spring. It doesn't rain in winter unless The Wizard is doing weird things with nature again."
The farmer looked just about ready to snap their fishing rod in half. They mumbled "You mean I spent a whole day just wA-" before cutting themself off, and standing up sharply. "Thank you for the information, Willy. I think I'm just going to go home and watch Livin' Off The Land until it's socially acceptable to go to bed. Take care." They said, sprinting away.
Willy barely got the words "You too," out before Farmer was out of earshot. He shook his head incredulously and went back inside to start making soup.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
The next day, Farmer burst into Marnie's Ranch coated in rapidly melting snow. As they tried to force the door to shut, they said "Marnie, I realized that two of my buildings have absolutely horrendous insulation, so I need some heaters." The door finally latched and they looked up.
There was nobody in the room.
They stared blankly at the empty counter before coming out of their shock.
Irritated, they immediately went back outside, resisting the urge to curse Marnie's name.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
Farmer started trekking West, figuring that asking Rasmodius to turn back time a few weeks might as well be worth a shot. It's not like they had anything else to do.
Then, an oink jolted Farmer out of their thoughts. Snapped out of their blind rage, they turned to see a purple pig, wearing a fez and sunglasses. They followed a rope that was attached to the pig with their eyes, and found it was connected to an ornate, similarly purple cart.
Farmer was once again pulled out of their head when a person remarked, "Pokye is a very intriguing pig, but I'm afraid he's not for sale, sir." The voice had a very interesting lilt to it. It sounded like the speaker was activly trying to not talk fast, but not quite succeeding. Compounded with a foreign accent the farmer couldn't quite place, the mystique was very intense.
They looked up and were met with a person with a pale complexion, teal, medium length hair, a long, blond mustache, and striking, ice blue eyes. They looked to be wearing dark blue robes of some kind over a same colored shirt.
Remembering they were being talked to, Farmer realized that they should probably correct this mysterious person's mistake.
"It's um, it's not 'sir', actually." Said Farmer, trying not to sound as flustered as they were.
"My sincerest apologies, my friend. What might I call you instead?" The purple clad person inquired, leaning on the platform in the cart window.
"Well my pronouns are they/them, and the rest of the town was calling me 'the farmer', which I realized I liked better than my birth name so now I just go by Farmer." The farmer rambled. "What about you?"
The person inside the cart was silent for a beat, then said, "Well I suppose my relationship to a so called 'name' is similar to yours. For a profession like mine, it can often be dangerous to have one singular name."
"What is your 'profession', exactly?"
"I am but a humble merchant, making a living by smuggling goods out of the Gotoro Empire!" The person then leaned out of the window, hands flat on the window sill, bent low. They had an almost scary look in their eyes, grinning triumphantly and passionately, with a slight touch of something feral. Then they composed themself, and quickly added, "And it's only me. No one else."
The farmer, a little bit embarrassed by the blush that was almost certainly covering most of their face, said nothing, and nodded in agreement.
The merchant continued, "Anyway, I am mostly known across the lands as 'The Traveling Merchant' or 'The Traveling Cart', but I worry that may need to change soon as it becomes increasingly recognizable. I also go through a cycle of false identities when I go back to the Empire to restock. I go by he, they, she, it, whatever fits the situation best.
"Do you want me to call you that? The Merchant?" Asked Farmer. "It seems more like a title, but it's pretty much what I did so it's probably not that weird."
The Merchant looked thoughtful, but said "Perhaps only when someone we don't trust is around. I there was one name I took a liking to. Sadly he was from my early days and not quite as experienced as I currently am." He gave a playful smile and said, "Call me Elias, if you think you need to."
Farmer matched her expression, and said "Of course, Elias."
Elias reverted back to the salesman-like persona they had before their conversation and asked, "Would you like to buy something, or did you just want to talk?"
Farmer asked to see what was in stock, and Elias suddenly disappeared out of view. "
Let's see," he started, extending the window sill into a platform the size of a small end table. "I've got some amaranth, a couple boxes of salmonberries, a red snapper, a nice rug, that one was pretty difficult to-"
"How much is the red snapper?" Interrupted Farmer.
"Fish enthusiast, eh?" Elias looked down at the fish, either appraising it or pretending to, and fast as an auctioneer, said "Hm, for a fish this size, and at this time of year I would normally say 900 gold coin, but because we're apparently actually friends now thanks to your magic 'make people talk and open up to you' powers I'll cut you a deal and say 825. A steal, really."
Farmer was already counting out the coins before they actually processed how high the price was. An indignant noise from the farmer was all it took for their expression to turn sour. "Did you miss the 'smuggled out of Gotoro Empire' part of our talk, Farmer? I've gotta make a profit somehow."
"You don't happen to have any heaters do you?" Farmer asked, crossing their fingers.
Elias shook his head. "No, unfortunately. They're a little too bulky to get out, and even if it was possible, they're often too expensive for most of my customers."
Farmer sighed, thanked Elias, and paid for the fish. As they went to leave, they said "Well, I hope to see you around soon, it was nice getting to know you."
They both waved goodbye, but as Farmer started to walk away, Elias stopped them and said "Fridays."
"What?" Farmer questioned, twisting back around.
"You can find me here on Fridays. I make a point every week to come back to this part of the valley." She admitted, and a hesitant smile appeared on her face.
Farmer smiled back. All thoughts of Marnie's disappearing act were gone, and they were excited for this budding friendship. They jovially said, "I'll see you then" and ran away, in classic Farmer style.
Elias watched them go, muttered to himself, "Magic powers, I swear," and closed up shop.