Chapter Text
Cole stood outside blinking slowly at his freshly watered crops. Watering the plants was about the extent of what he’d be able to do today, labor wise.
He’d already gotten most of his plans for the day out of the way, even if it was just farm maintenance, feeding Jack, and taking far more Advil than the recommended dosage contained.
He hated having to rest. Cole was a busybody, he could never stand doing nothing all day even if he was hungover.
He hadn’t checked the mail in a while, that was something to do at least. He dragged his feet across the patio and sluggishly trudged his way over to the mailbox before opening it with a loud creak. He inwardly cursed his Pappy for having such a rusty mailbox.
Flipping through the papers he skimmed through the junk to look for anything important. Junk, Junk, a letter from his mother that wasn’t given a glance before it was tossed to the side, and two papers that looked important.
Cole opened one of the envelopes while he walked to the trash to discard the junk mail. The first wasn’t anything too important, something about the removal of a boulder, nothing that concerned him. Into the trash it went as he opened the second. It was an oddly fancy blue cardstock written with flowy cursive.
“My sources tell me you’ve been poking around in the old community center…” He read out loud, furrowing his brow as he read on. If it weren’t for the line about the rat problem, he would’ve dismissed the letter entirely as it was signed by 'M Rasmodious Wizard'.
Cole sighed as he threw the letter out along with the rest.
Fuck it, he’d go see the wizard, what else was he doing today?
—-
After a short walk, Cole found himself at the stone tower. He rapped on the door a few times, adjusting his hat as he swayed back and forth.
“Ah, come in.” He heard from the inside, much more audible than it should have been from behind a thick wooden door.
He ignored that, walking inside to see a man with bright purple hair meditating behind what looked to be a ritual circle. Strangely enough, his hair looked almost exactly like one of the girls he saw in the saloon. Pierre’s daughter if he recalled correctly. Odd coincidence, he reasoned.
“Howdy, name’s Cole.” He spoke plainly as the purple-haired man stood up and marched over.
“I am Rasmodius, seeker of arcane truths, Mediary between physical and ethereal, master of the seven elements, keeper of the sacred cha-...” The ‘Wizard’ cut himself off with a cough before continuing. “You get the point.”
Cole stood silently for a moment, not sure how to process the man's insanity. The bubbling green pot nearby did nothing to calm his nerves.
“Uh… Yeah.” Cole said awkwardly.
“And you… Cole. The one whose arrival I have long foreseen.” Cole’s looked back and forth. While he was trying to calculate the best way to leave before something unfortunate could happen, the wizard interrupted his thoughts.
“Here, I’d like to show you something.”
“...Sure.” Cole agreed hesitantly as the wizard turned to his ritual circle. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, and much to Cole’s horror, the circle lit up.
“Behold!” He cried as one of the green apple creatures appeared from seemingly nowhere.
“Oh, Jesus fucking Christ!” Cole jumped, watching in confused fear as the creature glowed and seemed to pulse.
“You’ve seen one before, haven’t you?” The wizard asked as Cole’s eyes darted quickly between the two of them.
“...Well yeah but it didn’t fuckin’ glow before!” The wizard chuckled, not unlike how you’d laugh at a foolish child. Cole found this infuriating.
“They call themselves the ‘Junimos’. Mysterious spirits, these ones… For some reason, they refuse to speak with me.”
“Can’t imagine why.” The wizard gave Cole a funny look. Cole refused to elaborate any further.
With a snap of the wizard’s fingers, the Junimo disappeared. This frightened Cole even more than when it appeared. “I’m not sure why they’ve moved into the community center, but you have no reason to fear them.”
“Oh, I shouldn’t fear the glowing green apples that have beady eyes that stare into my soul? That’s not something I should fear?”
“They’re harmless, I assure you.”
“I don’t know, they showed me this–- this weird golden box with symbols on it. Had a real weird vibe to it.”
“You found a golden scroll written in an unknown language?” The wizard hummed, looking thoughtfully as he stroked his beard. Cole was decidedly too hungover for this.
“Most interesting… Stay here, I’m going to see for myself. I’ll return shortly.”
“Sure.” Cole agreed, deciding he’d run for the hills once the wizard walked outside. The wizard nodded, dissipating into some weird sort of cloud before vanishing.
Cole blinked a few times, looking around rapidly in an attempt to figure out where the wizard went. After a moment of nauseous whirling around his eyes locked on the opening door. The wizard walked inside.
“Jesus Christ– Do you assholes ever make yourselves known?”
“In my visions I foresaw you being hesitant about the idea of magic, but I didn’t realize you’d be so skittish around magical creatures such as myself and the Junimos.” He looked at Cole impishly before continuing.
“I found the note.” He spoke while walking to the cauldron. “The language is obscure, but I was able to decipher it.” He took a deep breath before reading the note out loud.
“We, the Junimo, are happy to aid you. In return, we ask for gifts of the valley. If you are one with the forest then you will see the true nature of this scroll.” The wizard sighed contemplatively as he walked to the other side of the cauldron. “‘One with the forest’... What do they mean?”
“Well no clue, but clearly it doesn’t concern me, so–” Cole gestured towards the door, looking for permission to leave. Instead of giving confirmation the wizard started sniffing before exclaiming. “Aha!”
He beamed, gesturing Cole over. “Come here!” Cole figured this couldn’t get much worse unless he outright declined something the wizard asked of him, so he obliged and followed along.
“My cauldron is bubbling with ingredients from the forest. Baby fern, moss grub, caramel-top toadstool… Can you smell it?”
“...Uh-”
“Here. Drink up. Let the essence of the forest permeate your body!”
“Jesusfucking– Okay. Sure.” Cole silently hoped this would kill him as the wizard handed him a cup of his mystery concoction.
Cole took a sip, his consciousness immediately fading to black as the drink hit his stomach.
—-
Cole came to a few minutes later. Very vividly he remembered what had just happened to him, but realized he hadn’t been consciously experiencing it. Everything seemed to become green and his vision had faded out, replaced by illusions of trees and various greenery.
As his consciousness returned to him, he noticed all his hangover symptoms had strangely disappeared. On any other occasion, this would have elated him, but he felt more concerned than anything given the situation.
“Here.” The wizard handed a scroll to Cole, disregarding how disoriented he seemed to be. Cole squinted at the scroll, finding that he could somehow read it after drinking whatever the mystery potion was. “...Huh.”
“You should be able to read any new letters the Junimo may leave for you, along with this one of course.” Cole looked over the paper. On it was a surprisingly simple list.
“Daffodil, Dandelion, Parsnip, Leek…” He mumbled out loud, looking up inquisitively at the wizard.
“Perhaps those are the gifts of the valley they are seeking.” He offered unhelpfully, going back to his ritual circle.
Cole decided this was a good time to leave, business seemed to be finished and if the wizard was out for blood surely Cole would have been dead the moment he walked through the door.
“Well, uh… Thanks. For this.” He held the scroll up and gave an awkward smile, which looked much more like a grimace. As he opened the door the wizard interrupted.
"And Cole, you should really be watching your health. My brew may have helped your symptoms today, but you’re squandering your arcane abilities by poisoning yourself so often. It’d be wise of you to cut back.”
Cole’s nose twitched as a scowl found its way to his face. “Sure. I’ll listen to the crazy man with purple hair in the woods. Reckon that’s the wise thing to do.” He slammed the door behind him, leaving the old tower behind.
—-
Since Cole was no longer hungover to a crippling degree, he spent the rest of the day foraging for the list the Junimo had left him. An hour or so before it was time to go to the saloon he went back to the community center, his lungs filling with dusty air as the shoddy wooden door slammed shut behind him.
“Alright, got the plants you wanted.” He spoke out loud cheerfully, unsure if the Junimos were around to hear him. Or even understand him, for that matter.
His boots clicked along the dilapidated wooden floors until he reached the old craft room. He crouched down and placed the foragables in the old box. “There we go.” He smiled, his face contorting into horror as a Junimo popped up from the bottom of the box.
“Jesus– god you things are scary!”
The Junimo reached from seemingly nowhere, batting its pure black eyes as it held up a bag of seeds. “...Huh.” Cole smiled, less on edge now that he’d been given a gift. “Spring seeds…” He mumbled out loud.
The Junimo packed all the foragables he’d brought into a bundle, hopping out of the box after the fact. It made a series of high pitched warbly sounds that Cole somehow understood to mean ‘Thank you!’
“Oh. Well, you’re welcome!” He smiled, clutching the seeds at his side as the Junimo scurried off. Cole took this as a cue to leave. He stood up, dusting his jeans off as he made his way back to the front.
Before he reached the door a Junimo appeared at his side waving cheerfully. “Cya, little fella.” He grinned as he pushed the door open with a harsh shove, letting it slam behind him as he stepped into town.
—-
After a brief run home to drop off the seeds, Cole arrived at the saloon. Shane was there first today. They both locked eyes and Cole felt his stomach drop.
He still needed to apologize, which usually was something that came easy to him. For some reason though, the prospect of apologizing to Shane felt much more daunting than it did with anyone else. He felt himself feeling strangely shameful, much more than he usually felt when he’d done something wrong.
He sighed and walked to the bar, sitting across from Shane.
“Howdy.”
“Hey, yourself.” Shane returned, not bothering to look at Cole.
“...I, uh. I’m sorry.”
“What?” Shane looked over with a puzzled expression, “Why?”
“For leaving last night. Acting like a dick about it.” Cole drummed his fingers against the counter.
“Oh. That.” Shane grimaced, “It’s fine. I could tell you didn’t want to talk about it, but I kept bringing it up anyway. It’s on me.” He sighed, taking a long drink of his beer. Cole kept his eyes on Shane, trying to decipher how bothered he was. Clearly at least more than he was letting on.
“...What?” Shane asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You look sad.”
“Thanks, asshole.” He glared and slid a second beer to Cole. Cole shook his head and pushed the beer back to Shane.
“Not drinking?”
“I overdid it last night. Best skip today.”
“What? You barely had anything to drink.”
“I barely had anything to drink here.” Cole corrected, Shane gave him a vaguely concerned look at this. He looked as if he wanted to say something but felt he couldn't. Cole worried he had put him on eggshells after up and leaving last night.
“Go ahead.” Cole sighed.
“Go ahead and what?”
“You got that look on your face, like you wanna ask me something but you’re too scared to.”
Shane scoffed and rolled his eyes, cracking open the beer meant for Cole as he finished his own.
“I won’t run like last time, swear.”
“...Fine.” Shane sighed, “Why’d you go home to drink instead of just staying here?”
“So I could get drunk enough to stop functioning. Typically you wanna do that in the safety of your own home.”
“One of those nights?”
“Yeah.”
Shane nodded, a guilty expression settling on his face. “...Sorry if I caused that.”
“S’all good. Not your fault I can’t face my past.”
“I can’t either, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Oh yeah? what demons are you runnin’ from?”
“How’s it fair for me to tell you if you don't tell me?”
“Got me there.” Cole snickered, folding his hands in front of him.
They paused for a moment as a comfortable silence filled the air.
“...You ever met a wizard?”
“What??” Shane nearly choked, so startled by the sudden derailment of the conversation.
“Yeah like– this guy that dresses like a wizard, he’s got purple hair. Wears this hat that looks more like a cowboy hat than a wizard hat, but it’s all black and gold.”
“Are you fucking with me?”
“Okay well– I don’t know if he was actually a wizard.” Cole quickly backtracked. There’s not much you can do to salvage a conversation after saying something like that.
“But he uh–” Cole cut himself off again, avoiding Shane’s gaze. He couldn’t tell if the look he was giving him was concern or skepticism, probably both.
“Well, it doesn’t matter since you haven’t met him. I was just wondering.”
“...Right.” Shane sipped on his beer again.
“I was gonna say sometimes it feels like we’re the only two normal people in this town, but honestly you may be the only normal one.”
“No one in this town is normal.” Shane grumbled as he wiped his mouth, “You definitely aren’t, but I’m not either. I think the closest we have to ‘normal’ is Alex, and that kid clearly has some kind of complex.”
“Who is he again? The big ole buff kid?”
“That’s the one.”
“He and that pretty girl are an item, right?”
“Pretty girl?” Shane furrowed his brow, his expression equally scornful and inquisitive.
“Not like that, asshole. I mean– She’s the kind of girl everyone would call pretty in high school. She's a cheerleader type of pretty. Not my type at all.”
“What is your type then?” Shane's face went back to a neutral expression as Cole searched for an answer, his mind going blank.
“Never put much thought into it, I suppose.” Cole paused, “I guess I like black hair. My wife had black hair.”
“So, your type is just how your wife looked?” Shane snickered as Cole glared, uncharacteristically irked by this line of questioning.
“Okay, hotshot. What’s your type then?”
“Don’t have one.”
“Now how is that a fair answer?”
“I just don’t care how a person looks.” Shane shrugged, “I care a lot more how they act.”
“Well then how do you like em’ to act?”
“Kind. They’d have to love animals.” Cole's face turned from an irritated scowl to a dumb smile, pleasantly surprised Shane was entertaining this topic at all.
“Honestly as long as they’re nice, I don’t care about much else. I’d want them to be good with kids, though. I could never be with someone who can’t get along with Jas.”
Shane stopped after that, scowling as he looked back at Cole. “Really?” He groaned seeing Cole’s goofy grin, “Quit looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” Cole asked innocently.
“You know what you’re doing.”
“Just shocked you’re being so open, is all.”
“I won’t be for long if you keep making such a big deal about it.”
“Noted.” Cole smiled and dropped the matter to move onto other things.
“You know, we never see each other outside of the saloon.” Cole started, “How about we do something outside of here?”
“With what time?” Shane asked as he looked away.
“The time we spend here.” Cole paused, “You like fishin’ much?”
“Hate it.”
“How do you like nature, we could go up to the mountains?”
“Nope.”
Cole rolled his eyes, predicting where this was going. “If you don’t want to hang out with me, you can say so. Just figured you’d warmed up to me enough to get to that point.” Cole sighed through his nose and looked at the wood of the counter.
Shane hesitated, groaning before he spoke. “Fine.”
“Fine, what?” Cole raised a brow.
“Fine, I will go do something with you. Two conditions.”
“Shoot.”
“No fishing and you’re bringing beer.”
“How d’you like whiskey?” Cole gave a cheshire grin.
“You should’ve led with the whiskey part.” Shane tried to glare, hiding his grin behind his can. Cole noticed this but ignored it for fear Shane would change his mind.
“You are warmin’ up to me. You just won’t admit it.”
“Fuck off.”
“Well, if you insist.” Cole laughed as he stood from the stool. For half a second he thought he saw disappointment in Shane’s eyes, but surely not. He convinced himself it was his imagination.
“I gave you my number before, but I’m sure you got rid of it, so…” Cole mumbled, grabbing a napkin nearby and scrawling on it with a pen from his pocket. “Here. Text me whenever. I’ll save your number and get to you tomorrow about what we’re doin’.”
“Alright.” Shane mumbled, shoving the napkin into his jacket pocket.
“Okay. Well, see you tomorrow, partner.” Cole grinned before going to pay his tab and leave for the day.
He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of excitement as he left the saloon, finally, his persistence was paying off. This was the first step to a friendship, an actual friendship, with Shane. He’d make sure not to mess it up.
He had to.