Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Paige had inherited a plot of farm land from some long lost relative, she hadn’t expected to do so much wood cutting. The letter she got had said that there would be some mild clearing out to do before the land was useable, but cutting down oak trees was far from mild. She let her axe lean on her hip while she stretched out her shoulders. At this rate, Paige wasn’t going to be growing crops until the beginning of the summer at the earliest. At least it was better than her office job. 

Sighing, she picked her axe back up and sized up the nearest tree. No resting when there was work to be done. Paige readied herself to swing at the tree when she heard rustling coming her way through the tall grass just beyond the tree she was cutting. Of course there was wildlife to deal with along with everything else. Hopefully, it was only a squirrel. Just in case it wasn’t, she kept her axe held up, ready to swing. As the rustling came closer, she could tell it was something larger than a squirrel. 

Popping out from behind the tree came not a woodland creature, but a boy with dark, curly hair and a scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face. 

“AAAAAAA,” Paige screamed, dropping the axe and narrowly missing hitting her foot. 

Shocked at the screaming and the axe at eye level, the boy held out his ands and stumbled back, falling onto a tree stump Paige had yet to clear out. Luckily, he landed on his ass and not the guitar he had strapped across his back. Looking mildly pissed off despite being the one to scare Paige, he glanced up at her as if to say Really?

Paige gave him the same look back and said, “You go sneakin’ around on my farm while I’m cuttin’ wood and you’re the one actin’ offended?” Crossing her arms, she watched as the boy held up one finger and rummaged around in his pockets. Not taking any chances, she picked her axe back up. 

The boy pulled out a pen and a small notebook before holding his hands out in a placating gesture. When he was satisfied Paige wasn’t going to cut his head off when he wasn’t looking, he placed the notebook on his knee and began writing. 

No one lives here, usually I come out here to be alone, not to be threatened with an axe. Who are you? His handwriting was barely legible. 

She held her hand out for the notebook so she could write a response, but the boy refused to hand over his notebook. Instead he pointed at his ears before giving a thumbs up. “I’m Paige, I live here now. My great uncle or somethin’ left the farm behind when he died. My older brother didn’t want it, so I got it. Who are you?” She let the axe drop to the ground and rest against her hip again. He didn’t seem to be an immediate threat. 

Jono. You must be the new farmer everyone in town was talking about. Pro tip, we don’t greet people with axes here. 

Paige could feel her face getting red with indignation. “You’re the one who was sneakin’ around where you’re not supposed to be!” To her annoyance, Jono didn’t seem to be listening, just writing in his notebook again. 

Can I still practice my music here or will that come with the risk of murder, too? Paige could see in his eyes when he held the book up that he was joking, if still wary of her. Good. 

“Depends on if you’re any good,” she mused, looking at the neck of his guitar. “Know any Loretta songs on that thing?” 

Jono raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Don’t you know who Loretta Lynn is?”

He shook his head. 

“I’ll have to give you some recommendations, she’s fantastic!” Paige had half a mind to run inside and see if she could dig some of her records out of the boxes she still had yet to unpack. 

I mostly listen to rock music, grunge in particular. That would explain the band patches she didn’t recognize decorating his jacket. 

“Then it’ll be a learning experience for us both.” Jono nodded, before returning to his notebook. 

Where can I sit without risk of grievous bodily harm? 

Laughing gently, Paige pointed over to a patch of grass she was done clearing of trees. “Over there should be plenty safe.” 

Jono tucked his notebook back into his pocket and gave Paige a little salute as he walked in the direction she pointed. Squaring up to finish the tree she was cutting, Paige could hear him tuning his guitar. It was nice to listen to as she resumed chopping. Once he was tuned up, he started playing a song she didn’t recognize, probably something from that genre he had mentioned before. She’d have to ask for the title. 

Before long, the tree came down with a crash, interrupting the music. Paige sat down next to the stump, tied and ready to call it a day. She closed her eyes and leaned back, only to jump when she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Need to get you a cat bell,” she muttered. Jono gave her a deadpan look in return. 

Too much noise here, I’m heading out. 

“I’m sorry my chores were so disturbing.” She rolled her eyes, but he nodded like he was accepting her apology. Ridiculous. 

Jono straightened up and looked around at the small area Paige had managed to clear so far. You’re doing this all on your own?

Paige nodded. He stared out at the field, thinking to himself. What he was thinking, she couldn’t guess. 

See you tomorrow. With that, Jono took off down the path that led to town. So he did know where it was. Hopefully, he’d use it from now on. 

“Goodbye to you, too,” Paige said, mostly to herself. Getting up, she brushed herself off and headed back to the farmhouse which needed some cleaning up as well. Maybe she could scrounge together a decent dinner rather than needing to walk into town to get food. Of the rest of the people around here were like Jono, she was happy to put off meeting them for a while.

Chapter Text

Pelican Town was…well, it was definitely a small town. Paige had grown up in a small town, so she wasn't too surprised to find out that town mostly consisted of some houses, a store, a saloon, and not much else. The museum/library out on the river bank had been a surprise, though. How it managed to sustain itself was beyond her. It also wasn't a surprise that everyone in town had known that someone new had moved in to the old farm and they all wanted to introduce themselves when Paige wandered into town. She was surprised they hadn't formed a group to bring her baked goods as a welcome but then again, the farm was kind of out in the woods. Maybe it was too far for the neighbors to venture.

At any rate, Paige managed to wander in to town at what seemed to be a relatively calm part of the day. No one in the town square meant no one trying to grab her attention away from errands she had to run. Or just the one errand, as the town only had one store for everything. As she crossed the square, Paige reviewed the list she had made, making sure there was nothing else she would need for the week. Eyes looking at the paper in her hand meant she didn't see that someone had exited the store as she was walking up and she walked right into the mayor of the town.

"Oof! Oh, Ms. Frost, I'm so sorry!" Paige took a step back and noticed Mayor Frost brush herself off as she did, the white suit she seemed to always be wearing still pristine.

"You should pay more attention when walking near doorways, Miss Farmer."

"Sorry. Again." Paige smiled a bit tensely at the mayor's brusque tone. "Hey, while I have you-"

Mayor Frost had turned to walk away, and looked slightly annoyed at having to look back. "Yes?"

"I noticed this old building up north of town, with a big clock on the front." It had caught Paige's notice one day as she had been exploring the area. Since her farm had been in a similar state of disrepair, it had intregued her. The doorframe was still pretty sturdy and she had been able to look inside without much trouble, but it had left her with more questions than answers. "I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

"Ah, the old community center," Mayor Frost said. "Shame the state the building is in now, it used to be the pride of the town. Not much we can do about it now."

"No?" Pagie asked. Seemed like they could do a lot, in her opinion.

"No," the mayor said with some finality. "I've got a busy schedule to keep, if you'll let me get back to it. Good day." With that, she walked off to do whatever it was the mayor of an incredibly small town did all day.

"Thanks," Paige said to no one in particular and walked into the general store.

The store had just about everything Paige could ever need while living here, including a surprising amount of farm supplies for a locally owend store in a small town with one farm that had been abandoned for years. Still, why look a gift horse in the mouth? The store owner was nice and could tell her

"Hey, Paige," Sean called as she walked in. "How're you getting on?"

She gave him a wave as she headed for the aisles. "Not bad, needed some groceries and some more seeds."

"Need help finding anything?"

"Nah, I think I'll manage," she said, wandering toward the aisle with the supplies she needed.

"Let me know if I can help," he said, turning back to a box of goods that needed shelving.

"Now that you mention it," Paige said, popping her head back out where he could see it, "I asked the mayor about this, but she wasn't exactly…helpful."

Sean chuckled. "Emma can be a bit prickly at first, but she'll warm up a bit once you've been here a while."

Paige strongly doubted that, but decided not to say so. "You know that old building up north of town? The community center?"

"Oh yeah," Sean smiled. "Haven't thought about that place in years. Shame the way it's gone. Used to be the pride of the town."

"Yeah? What happened?"

"Oh, y'know," he shrugged. "People moved away, took more effort just to keep the town running, meant less resources to keep up the place. It's sad, but what can you do? It's all we can do just to stay afloat."

"Right." The mayor had mentioned something like that when Paige had moved in. Apparently the farm had been a pretty big source of revenue for the town when it had been up and running. There had even been a few other farms in the surrounding area, but when times got tough, most of the land had gotten sold off. She supposed she was lucky that her aunt hadn't sold off the farm when she left. "You ever go up there anymore?"

"Not recently. Why? It's just an old building, lass." Sean put down the flower seeds and turned to look at her.

"Oh, I was exploring town and I took a look in one of the windows and thought I saw something." It had looked like an apple with legs and arms, but there was no way that had been real.

"Ah, yeah. The rats have probably moved in. Should set some traps so they don't come down to town." Sean turned back to his shelving.

"Smart idea." Paige drifted off. That's what it must have been. A rat. A very weirdly shaped and colored rat.

"If you're interested in more of the history of that building, I'm sure the library has some more information for you." There was an idea. The library had to have more information.

"Thanks, Mr. Cassidy, I'll have to go look."

It didn't take too long for Paige to find everything she needed and check out, so she found herself with her arms full of bags standing outside the town library. She should have planned better, but it wasn't worth walking all the way back to the farm only to come into town again. Hopefully, there would be a table where she could put her stuff while she read.

Opening the door revealed a huge open room with shelves and, yes, tables all open for her to use. The front desk was empty, so Paige decided to find an empty table to drop her bags at and start looking through the shelves herself. As she rounded the corner, a familiar head of curly brown hair came in to view.

"Well, if it isn't guitar boy."

Jono stood up and make a face. "Please don't tell me I have a new nickname." Instead of a notebook like before, he had a small device that looked like a label maker with an extra screen. When he typed into it, the device read the phrase out loud in a robotic voice. Seeing that Paige had noticed it, he typed out, "Lightwriter. Easier than the notebook, just didn't have it on me at the farm because I didn't expect to see anyone."

"Reading anything good?" Paige nodded at the stack of books on the ground next to him.

"Nah, doing a bit of reshelving."

"Oh…is that allowed?" She hadn't met the librarian yet, but she doubted they would take kindly to someone rearranging the books.

"Well, I am in charge here, so yes." So he didn't spend his days playing guitar in places he shouldn't be. Good to know.

"Then maybe you can help me find what I'm looking for," she asked. "I wanted to do a bit of research on the old community center."

Jono stared at her for a moment, but apparently didn't see anything worth commenting on, because he simply nodded and led her to a shelf with books on the town's history. He pulled a few off the shelf and handed them to her before pulling out the lightwriter again.

"Let me know if you need anything else. I'll be around." He gave her a little two finger salute and headed back off to organize his books.

"Ok," Paige said softly to herself. "Time to figure this out."

The library had been a dead end. Of course it was. It was crazy to think that she would have found anything. Paige knew that. It was an old building on the edge of the woods, of course there were rats. That's all that the weirdly shaped creatures in the building were. There was no reason for her to be back here again. At night. With no one else around. But she had to be sure. She'd never seen rats like that.

Squaring her shoulders, Paige pointed her flashlight squarely at the door to the community center and readied herself for the cloud of dust she knew she would kick up when she opened the door. She took a deep breath and reached out for the door handle, only for a twig to snap behind her. She spun around, light toward the ground, looking for a rat or something else, only to see a big pair of combat boots. Trailing the light up the boots revealed Jono for the second time that day.

"You again? What, are you following me or something?" She let the flashlight drop enough so that it wasn't in his eyes but kept it high enough so he could type out a response on his lightwriter.

"Hey, not my fault you got to town and started coming to all of my hang out spots."

"You hang out here? In this abandoned building?" Paige gestured up to the ivy covered, crumbling building.

"What can I say? It has a certain kind of charm." Jono shruged and squited as if he were trying to smile under his scarf. "And someone took over the old farm I used to spend my time on. Had to find a new place to practice guitar since I don't know any Loretta Lynn yet."

Paige supposed that made some sort of sense, though why he insisted on practicing in abandoned areas and not his own house made no sense to her. She opened her mouth to respond when Jono typed something else out.

"Also I live up on the mountain. Up the path we're both standing on."

Oh. That made a lot more sense for the time of night. "Well, don't let me get in your way. Good night."

"What are you doing out here?" Jono looked over her shoulder curiously at the building. "Not like you really have a reason to be out here this time of night."

"I uh…" Paige tried to think of a reasonable explanation for why she was out here. "I saw some rats in the building earlier and the mayor asked me to set some traps."

"Ah, that's what you came in earlier for. Research on the 'rats.'" The lightwriter read out the quotation marks around the word rats, indicating that Jono knew more than he was letting on.

"What do you know about the old building?" Paige asked suspiciously.

"That there's more than rats in there. And you should be careful when you sneak around at night." Jono's eyes crinkled like he was laughing.

"I can take care of myself," said Paige. She could handle a couple of forest creatures living in an old abandoned buidling. But Jono's face turned serious at her response.

"Not saying you can't, but there's more to this valley than you think. Don't want to end up like me, do you?" He gestured to his face.

"What happened to you?" She hadn't asked before because it had seemed rude.

"Nothing good," he typed shortly. "Just…be careful, ok? Would be a shame to destroy such a pretty face."

Paige had no idea what to say to that, and it must have shown on her face because Jono resumed typing.

"Anyway, if you're really that curious, I can show you around the building tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow? We're here now aren't we?" Paige crossed her arms.

"You make a habit of exploring delapidated buildings with men you barely know in the middle of the night?" He had a point.

"Ok fine, tomorrow. 8 a.m. sharp."

"Noon. I'm not a morning person."

"Of course you're not." Paige rolled her eyes. She should have known from the dark clothes and vaguely emo personality. "Fine, noon tomorrow."

"Looking forward to it." With that, Jono took off down the path to the mountain again, leaving Paige to walk back through town on her own. Jono was going to driver her nuts, but she needed to get to the bottom of what was going on in this town.

Chapter Text

Paige had not spent the whole morning wondering about the community center and what Jono wanted to show her. She had actually had a very productive morning. She finally had some plants to harvest (a few parsnips, but still, she had grown them herself!), planted new ones, and managed to build a halfway decent scarecrow. By the time she needed to head out, Jono was the last thing on her mind.

In fact, he had been so far out of Paige's mind that she arrived 15 minutes late. Strangely, he didn't seem all that put out by her rudeness. Instead, he waved before remarking, "Get lost on your way here?"

"No, got a little tied up at the farm. Sorry I'm late." She gestured to the community center. "Feeling more up to explaining than you were last night?"

Jono couldn't smile, but Paige could swear he was smirking somehow. Maybe the tilt of his eyes? "Had to prepare some supplies." He held up a flask and wiggled it as he held it out to her. "Here, take a drink."

"What's in the flask?" Paige had grown up around enough moonshine to know you didn't take swigs out of random containers people handed you.

"Better if you don't know, trust me. It's not poison or alcohol or anything. Just tastes bad. Helps you communicate with the 'rats,' though." He looked at her expectantly. Did he really expect her to just take his word on this?

"I am not drinking anything without knowing what it is beforehand."

"It's a potion."

"A potion," Paige raised an eyebrow.

"Helps you 'become one with the forest' or something. Only way they'll talk to you." Jono looked genuine, so either he was a very good actor or exceptionally stupid. Both were possible.

"What's in this 'potion'?"

"…some baby fern…moss grub…caramel-top toadstool. Nothing harmful, I swear. Just some stuff I found foraging."

"I'll pass, thanks." She was not drinking a flask full of whatever Jono had found in the woods that made him believe the rats were talking to him. She had enough going on without potentially drinking poison or getting high.

He shrugged and put the flask away. "Suit yourself. Don't blame me when you can't understand them." Without a backwards glance, he walked off toward the building.

"What is 'them?'" Paige asked, try not to seem like she was rushing to catch up to him.

"The rats." Was he always this obtuse?

"I know that," she grumbled. "But what are they really?"

Once again, Paige got the sense he was smirking at her. "Why don't you go take a look?" With little fanfare, he shoved open the creaking door and gestured for her to go in first. Not serial killer-y at all. Maybe she shouldn't be doing this. Too late to turn back now, though. Something was happening in this town and she would find out what.

Cautiously, afraid that the roof might collapse at any moment, Paige stuck her head in the door. There really wasn't much to see, just an old fish tank in one corner that could really use some dusting, a fireplace with a blank plaque above it, and a little hut made out of sticks and leaves. Almost looked like a children's play house. Seemed safe enough.

Deciding she wasn't in any immediate danger, she decided to brave stepping into the building. Hallways branched off to either side of the main room, and some exploring revealed even more abandoned rooms full of old furniture. There was even a huge old bank vault in one room. What the town needed with that escaped Paige. However, the building lacked one important thing. Living creatures.

"You know, you could have just told me there was nothing in here instead of dragging it out like this and trying to convince me to drink your 'potion,'" Paige said as she re-entered the main room. "Woulda been a lot easier."

Jono was sitting cross legged by the little hut and put his finger up to his lips when she came into view.

"Why? Not like anyone's here."

He rolled his eyes and gestured for her to come join him. Sighing internally, Paige walked over and sat down across from him, the entrance to the hut between them. If this was all some elaborate prank, she'd-

Before she could finish that thought, a bright light appeared and a little creature, the size and shape of an apple appeared in between them. It was even yellow like an apple, but it had little stick arms and legs and an antenna where the stem should be and an admittedly adorable little face staring straight up at her.

Paige could do nothing but stare as Jono reached over and pet the thing—she had no idea what it was, had never seen anything like it before—on the head.

"What…" she started, the question dying on her lips as a thousand others replaced it.

"They like to be called the Junimos. They're nature spirits, best I can figure. They like this place because not a lot of people come in here now, but they don't seem to mind the occasional visitor as long as they're mostly left alone," Jono replied, clearly having typed this out beforehand. "Reconsidering the potion now?"

"Not on your life." Fascinated, she reached out a finger and stopped just before touching the thing, like how you're supposed to let the barn cats sniff you before you pet them. The Junimo hesitated for a moment before reaching up its tiny, sticklike arms and grabbing the tip of her finger.

"Oh good, they seem to like you." Before Paige could say anything, he put the light writer aside and picked up the Junimo and deposited it in her out stretched hand. Oddly enough, the little creature seemed perfectly content with the change in position.

"This can't be real. I'm dreaming," she muttered to herself. Magic wasn't real. Nature spirits weren't real. But here was a little critter that she couldn't explain any other way.

"The Junimos are the least strange thing you'll find around here." How could he be so casual about this?

Just as Paige opened her mouth to ask that exact question, the Junimo hopped out of her hand and scuttled down the hall toward what Paige thought was the craft room. Sharing a look with Jono that told her this was unusual, they both got up and followed the little thing.

It made its way into the center of the room, where a gold plaque now sit. She could swear that hadn't been there before. Maybe it had been covered in dust that blew away? Or got wiped away by the tiny creatures while she had been gone? No, that was ridiculous. But so were any other possible answers. Shaming her head, Paige decided that was probably better left unquestioned.

Jono, much more at ease, had already walked over to the plaque and seemed to be reading it. When she looked at it, all Paige saw were strange symbols. It didn't look like any language she had ever seen before.

The voice of the light writer caused her to jump when it broke the silence. "The Junimos have a message for you. 'We the Junimos are happy to aid you. In return, we ask for gifts of the valley.' And then they list off a bunch of things you can forage around here."

As soon as Jono finished his explanation, the Junimo scuttled out of the room and back the way it came.

"Right…" Paige said. "What do nature spirits want with plants? You think they'd ask for something that would be hard for them to get. And what do they mean by aid?"

"Fuck if I know, they've never asked me to bring them anything or left me messages." He actually looked put out by that, and she could almost feel bad for him if this whole situation wasn't completely ridiculous.

"…I guess it can't hurt if we work together? Since you sees to understand them and all…" Also would make her feel less crazy if someone else was also running errands for imaginary spirits.

"Y'know, I've still got that flask here-" He mimed patting his pockets for it.

"Stuff it, Starsmore. You'll just have to be my translator." Paige noticed the way his eyes lit up in silent laughter. "So what do we need to find?"

"Here, let me write down what they want." Jono pulled out his notebook, and true to what he said, wrote down a list of flowers and wild edibles that Paige had seen around the valley. "Most of this is out of season, and some of it is hard to find. Might take a while to actually get everything they want."

"So it's like a scavenger hunt for the whole year?"

"Seems so," Jono shrugged. "I'm late to open the library. If you join me, we can look up where to look for some of the more exotic stuff."

What else did Paige have to do with her day? "Lead on, MacDuff."

"You know, that's actually a misquote from the original Shakespeare-"

"Come on, Jono, you can explain on your way to work," Paige said as she grabbed him by the arm and led him out of the building. She had never met such a talkative librarian.