The sound of laughter echoed through the air as four children, two boys and two girls, ran through a massive garden, weaving between the flowers and running across a stone bridge that spanned across the river that ran through the place. They continued to laugh and chase each other until another voice caught their attention. “KIDS! STORY TIME!” The four immediately looked at each other in excitement before stampeding toward the voice. They reached the edge of the garden and ran toward a smiling woman with long brown hair and crystal blue eyes dressed in a purple dress with green-leaf themed gloves, a red and yellow scarf wrapped around her waist, a red shawl with an orange border, and a headband adorned with six green leaves. She smiled at the kids as they immediately sat down on the soft green grass in front of the old rocking chair that sat on the edge of the garden.
The woman sat in the rocking chair and began to rock back and forth as she stared at her children. “So my little ones, what will it be today? Do you want to hear about the Pevensie children? The most adventurous member of the little hobbits? Or perhaps the wonderful adventures of little Alice?” Three of the four children immediately began to chatter and babble in response.
”The Hobbit!”
”The Pevensie’s!”
“Alice! Alice!”
“No, not the Hobbit! We’ve heard that tons of times already!”
”Well I don’t want to listen to Alice’s story again so soon! How do you even follow along anyway Gardenia? It’s so confusing!”
”It’s simple Flint, you just pay attention.”
”Why Cobalt you little-“
The woman lifted a hand. “Eden. Flint. Cobalt,” she spoke sharply. “That’s enough you three.” The three children, the eldest girl and both boys, flinched at the rebuke before bowing their heads.
”Yes Mother.”
The woman nodded in satisfaction before turning to the youngest of the four children, a little girl dressed in a white dress with a blue neck bow, a blue skirt, and a white sun hat with a black ribbon. “Lily?”
The little girl looked up at her mother. “Yes Mama?”
”You were the only one that behaved yourself, so you get to decide.” Lily’s face shined with wonder while Flint, Cobalt, and Gardenia pouted.
”Really Mama!?” The woman chuckled softly at the look of joyous wonder on her youngest daughter's face.
”Yes, my little flower. Go on, make your choice.” Lily hummed as she closed her eyes and rested her chin on her fists before her eyes shot open as an idea came to her.
”Mama! Can you tell us the story of how you and Papa met?” The woman’s eyes widened in surprise as did Lily’s sibling before they all gained excited looks and turned to the woman.
”Yes!”
”We’ve never heard that one Mother.”
”Tell us mother, please tell us!” The woman raised her hands to quiet down her children.
”That’s the story you wish to hear?”
” ” ” ”Yes!“ “ “ “ The woman smiled at the simultaneous answer.
”Alright then my dear hearts. Once upon a time, many years ago, a young woman named Leafos was sitting in the ruins of her family's garden early in the morning…”
*15 Years Earlier*
It was an early morning in the Huerta family garden. The sun had yet to rise, allowing the moon and stars to peek out from behind the clouds and mountains of Pi?ata Island, though they would not be visible for much longer if the spreading redness of sunrise indicated anything. As the light continued to grow, the heartbreaking condition of the garden was revealed. The majority of the garden's terrain was sun-baked hard soil, riddled with cracks and dried out into a rock-like hardness.
The hard soil was decorated with dead grass in several places, brown, dry, and tallest pieces crumbling as they swayed in the wind. The rest of the garden had several ruined buildings and structures half buried in the ground, leaving only a hint at past glory. Sitting on one of the ruined structures was a young woman wearing an orange belly shirt with orange and red sleeves and a purple handkerchief on top of the shirt, light purple pants that have a stitched dark purple patch with a yellow sun logo, and a yellow and orange striped scarf wrapped around her waist. In addition, she wore a pair of green leaf themed gloves and a green mask decorated with leaf adornments on top that covered most of her face with the exception of her mouth.
The young woman stared out over the ruined garden with sad eyes, a crumpled piece of paper in her hand. Eventually she looked down and straightened out the copy of the flyer she’d put up months ago to re-read the text on it.
‘For Sale: 1000 Square Meter Garden.
Currently Owned by the Huerta Family.
Price: 500 Cacao Coins
Stipulation: Mandatory Helper Contract
Details: Helper will provide labor for minimum wage
Stolen story; please report.
for two years in exchange for Helpers family to be
allowed to continue to live in their current residence.’
The young woman’s frown deepened as she read the flyer. “What a joke,” she mumbled. “To be reduced to this… the land is worth a hundred times this, at least.” The woman’s eyes went dim as she began to recall the night at Arfur’s Inn all those months ago.
*Flashback, 1 year ago*
The same young woman sat at the bar of an inn, chugging a mug of milk from full to dry in less than a minute before slamming the wooden tankard onto the bar and wiping her mouth clean with the back of her hand. “Arfur,” She yelled to the barrel-masked man behind the counter. “Another!” The eponymous owner of the inn turned to look at the young woman, eyebrow raised behind his mask as he finished wiping out a tankard.
“Leafos, that’ll be four whole mugs of Baileys Shamrock Milk in the last hour. I’m cutting you off, the last thing you need right now is to burn your family's last cacao coin by getting drunk.” The newly-named Leafos slammed her hands down on the counter and stood up to stare the innkeeper right in the eyes.
”Like you even care! Now shut up and pour me my drink.” Arfur put the cleaned mug down before folding his arms and glaring at Leafos.
”I do care, Leafos. It’s why I let you sign on to twice the normal limit of helper contracts. Don’t you dare insult me like that again young lady, I know you’ve been through a lot these past months but I’d like to imagine I’ve dealt ya a pretty favorable hand all things considered.” Leafos looked to the side and grumbled as she sat down, refusing to dignify the rebuke with a response. Arfurs face softened behind his mask as he leaned down to look Leafos in the eyes. “Leafos, you know you can talk to me. I’m the village confidant, I’m the one everyone goes to when they can’t talk to anyone else cause they know I’ll take their words to the grave. Willy knows it, Lottie knows it, even your father knew it before… well, in any case, you can vent to me.” Leafos stared into her empty mug, seemingly ignoring Arfurs words. The man sighed and began to move away when she spoke, voice small and shaky.
”No one’s shown an interest in the property.” Arfur turned back toward Leafos who was staring into her mug, eyes glassy with unshed tears. “It’s been on the market for over six months. I’ve been reducing the rent cost, making the terms more favorable, even resorted to using the family name for advertisement. Why hasn’t anyone taken the offer yet?” She looked up at Arfur, the angle allowing him to see the heavy bags under her eyes, the sunkenness of her cheeks, and the odd looseness of her clothes. “I’m working 18 hours a day with these contracts and I’m barely making enough cacao coins to keep up with the hospital bills and cover the food bill.” She looked back down at the empty mug, hands gripping her head tight enough to make her mask creak, voice small and shaky with fear, unshed tears, and frustration. “What am I doing wrong?” Arfur looked at her for several seconds before sighing and reaching under the counter, grabbing a bottle labeled ‘Maximum Nutrition Milk.’ He pulled off the cap and filled up Leafos’s tankard without a word, causing her to look at him in confusion.
”Sip that slowly, you drink it too fast in your state, it will come right back up. Don’t worry about payment, this one’s on the house.” Leafos looked back down at the mug and took a sip, brow furrowing at the mineral taste. “I know it’s not the tastiest thing in the world but it gets the job done. Now, you perk up your ears and listen real good, ok?” Leafos nodded before taking another sip. “Under normal circumstances, your land would be sold by now, you’d be making rent money, and finally getting a day off for the first time in months. These are not normal circumstances. The Sour’s have been hitting everyone’s wallets with their troublemaking. Doc and the Watchlings have been the busiest they’ve ever been but for the most part, the truly dangerous Sours only show up at the high-ranking gardens who usually have the coin to spare to fix the damage or hire the Watchlings needed to stop it. New gardeners don’t, and with the amount of work your garden needs to be profitable again, most of those won’t take the risk. They would be willing to buy it since that doesn’t come with an extra monthly fee, but not rent it. I know some of the old hands don’t want to disrespect Jardinieros toes by renting out his garden, but there are plenty of gardeners who normally wouldn’t think twice about renting or buying your family garden despite the work it needs, most for no other reason than it originally being Jardiniero’s garden.” Leafos frowned at the blunt assessment but said nothing. “Frankly put, we both know why your garden hasn’t sold and why even if you offer it for way less than we both know its worth, no one will take the offer.” Leafos frowned, her blue eyes freezing into chips of ice.
”Lester,” she growled, the name like poison on her tongue. Arfur nodded.
”Yep. Most people on the island have put it together by now that declining one of his generous offers usually brings Ruffian or Sour trouble, and if they haven’t, declining the next ‘generous’ offer usually confirms it. He’s made it pretty clear that he wants that garden of yours and that he’ll be mighty displeased if anyone else gets it. Most folks on this island that prefer to pay off Lester to leave them be don’t do so as a means to fight back, they do so since their pride won’t let them work for the man. Even the most grizzled of them won’t spit in his eye by buying your garden.” Arfur sighed as Leafos glowered into her drink. “I honestly wish I could tell you that offering to sell your family’s garden at a rock bottom price would eventually work, but I don't want to give you false hope. It's the only thing you can do at this point without selling out to Lester for whatever price he gave you, but my gut is telling me that won’t fix any of your problems.” He reached out and patted Leafos on the shoulder, causing her to look up at him. “Still, it’s worth a try. Who knows, maybe it just might work.” Leafos looked back down at her drink, drained the rest, and stood up.
”Thanks Arfur. I’ll… I’ll think about it.”
*Flashback End*
She had thought about it and one week later, the flyer had been replaced with a new one offering to sell the garden for a much higher price. Of course, it had received no attention, and so she had continuously dropped the price from the original price of 50,000 cacao coins to the current price of 500. It had been up for almost 4 months at this point and she was exhausted. Several of her contracts had expired as she’d been unable to renew them in time and had resorted to working even longer hours at the ones she did have to keep up. It hurt to admit, but with tax season coming up, if the garden didn’t sell soon, the garden was going to end up as Lesters whether she wanted it to or not as Pi?ata central would claim the land as collateral if she couldn’t pay the taxes and auction it off, an auction she knew Lester would win. She sighed and looked at the rising sun off in the distance. “Please… if there’s someone… anyone … who would be willing to help us… Please let them come soon.”
*One hour later, Pinata Island Docks*
The first ship of the day had docked at the harbor and most of its cargo was in the process of being unloaded. As one of the crates was lowered onto the dock, a young man dressed in a pair of baggy white pants and a large white tunic with a brown sack slung over his shoulder. The young man had lightly tanned skin, golden eyes, and spiky black hair pulled into a ponytail that swayed in the morning sea breeze.
Taking a deep, satisfied breath, the young man walked down the gangplank to the dock before making his way further inland. After several minutes of walking, the young man found what appeared to be some kind of billboard covered in flyers and advertisements. At the very top of the billboard was a much larger and flashier advertisement. “ ’Sign up today to become a franchise gardener of Professor Lesters Perfect Plantations, and start the garden of your dreams! Terms Apply.’ Huh. That’s a bit of a mouthful.” The young man lowered his gaze and began to look over the flyers posted on the billboard. Most were advertisements of some kind for a business or activity on the island. The others were job postings that seemed promising but would have to be investigated later. There were even some plots of land and offers of pi?ata for sale, but the plots were outside his price range and he didn’t even bother looking at the pi?ata. For now, it seemed he would have to work as a ‘helper’ of some kind to make enough money to get a garden of his own.
The young man had just started to turn to continue his journey into town when the sea breeze picked up and made the flyers ruffle, revealing a hidden flyer behind the others. The aged yellow paper immediately caught his attention and compelled him to lift up the flyers hiding it. The flyer almost flew off in the wind but he was able to catch it just as the parchment caught the breeze. It was relatively plain but the familiar image of an eight petaled flower or sun on the top of it caught his attention immediately and prompted him to read the rest of the flyer.
‘For Sale: 1000 Square Meter Garden.
Currently Owned by the Huerta Family.
Price: 500 Cacao Coins
Stipulation: Mandatory Helper Contract
Details: Helper will provide labor for minimum wage
for two years in exchange for Helpers family to be
allowed to continue to live in their current residence.’
The young man raised an eyebrow before looking up at another flyer advertising a plot of land half the size for 15,000 Caco coins. “Well, thats interesting.” He turned back to the flyer, reaching up to idly rub the wooden pendant hanging around his neck as he stared at the eight petaled image. “Very interesting indeed.” He spent a few more seconds staring at the flyer before folding it up, and slipping it into his pocket and continuing on his way.
