With the sun starting to peek in through the weathered hole in the roof, first light peeped into the shack. Upon first contact with Rumble’s leaves they quickly unfurled as the branch like arms whipped out to soak up the sun.

And so with a welt starting to form, I opened my eyes quickly dismissing the pain in favor of looking down to my right shoulder, a shoulder that was draped in brown hair. With my arm numb with sleep, I attempted to let the precious woman down gently as I got up. Stretching my arms, I couldn’t help but to smile at the memories made the prior day..

With the memories in mind, I set off to start cooking breakfast while contemplating what would be the best way forward from now on. Obviously I now knew that she liked me, but at the end of the day I was still inexperienced with this sort of thing. “Ugh, what do I say when she wakes up?” I quietly asked myself.

“Huh?” Mia asked groggily.

“Uhh… I was just talking to myself! I almost have breakfast ready.” I hurriedly said in embarrassment, only to be met with a sleeping Mia repositioning herself on the floor. “Its easy to forget how deeply you sleep sometimes….” I laughed.

With Rumble and Mia still fast asleep after having finished my breakfast, I decided to leave the finished breakfast near the still warm hearthstone to stay warm for the sleeping girl while I went on my way out into the field. With a gentle repositioning of the door, I made my way out of the shack.

Stepping out into the early morning light, I felt the late spring sun start to burn the dampness from the field. With fog only in the far distance, the view was quite beautiful. With nothing but rolling grassy hills as far as I could see, the view really added a sense of scale that was still unbelievable when compared to how my early years were confined. But as confined as they were, the memories were not bad, but honestly not quite as good as I felt the future was going to be.

With a quick final peek back into the shack, I set off down the path towards the fields for my daily weeding. As I made my way towards the “profit fields” as named by Mia in our business interface, I noticed an unexpected sprout. Our new “Peace-bloom” had sprouted!

“Awesome! I’m glad the heavy rain didn’t wash away too much soil from it.” I said aloud. Having partially forgotten about it after such an eventful night, I was really glad to have seen the two small leaves poking up out of the soil. So with extreme care, I rebuilt the washed away mound surrounding it. Worried that another heavy rain would wash away the remaining soil, I felt it necessary to add a little extra for our “Specialty crop” as it was also labeled in our interface.

Standing up to wipe the sweat from my face, as the sun had made the whole area one giant sauna, I was greeted by a soft tug on my arm. Looking over with a feeling of awkward bliss, I saw Mia smiling sweetly at me with cheeks colored a soft pink.

“Thank you for the breakfast, I really appreciated it….” Mia shyly said.

“I make you breakfast every morning, you don’t have to thank me everytime.” I replied.

“I know but I just really wanted to tell you.” She quickly responded. “You should not make a girl say so much… I just really wanted you to know that I appreciate it and it is one of the things that I like about you.” Mia finished with her green eyes not quite meeting mine.

My face hot with embarrassment I said, “I am happy that you enjoyed it, I hope to do it some more.” I tried teasing her.

With a quick widening of her eyes and a smile crossing her face, Mia nodded and replied smoothly. “I should hope so, you really made a show of it yesterday.” she teased me right back.

With not a single response within a mile of my thoughts, I just laughed, nodded, and pointed towards our most valuable crop field. “Our peace-bloom sprouted, I just got done shoring up its mound. The rain last night didn’t seem to have harmed it, but I was worried that another might wash it away.”

Still smiling, Mia stared at the plant for a long moment before replying. “I am not sure how long it will take to bloom, but my guess is that it will take quite a few seasons. The information concerning it was extremely sparse, at least for how much coin we spent on it. But it did mention that it is a perennial that lasts multiple years. How long that may be… your guess is as good as mine.” She finished with a look of frustration.

“What is wrong? Did you figure something out?” I asked.

“Yes and no, I just remembered that we do not know how long it will take to actually transform this venture into an actually profitable part of our business.”

“Oh, well we will find out eventually. There is nothing we can do besides waiting.” I told her.

“I know, but it is frustrating to plan around.” she huffed.

“Well, lets forget about it and focus on our immediately profitable crops then. We should get to them before the day really gets hot.” I said before turning towards the field.

Having started to take a step down the path, I saw Mia still staring at the source of her hope and frustration. Knowing that I had to lighten her mood once more, I decided to seize the chance in a spurt of courage. Grabbing her hand, I led her gently towards the fields.

~~~Mia~~~

This plant was so frustrating! It was both a great boon for the business and a non-performing asset! I loved the plant in the home, but the lack of information was driving me crazy! And so just about as I was going to huff in frustration, I felt my whole body go stiff at a touch before being led down towards the front fields. Now realizing what was happening, the tips of my ears grew hot and I could not help but smile.

Looking up at the man leading me, I worried that he would notice my sweaty palms but quickly relaxed after having noticed how muddy his hands were already. And so our trip down to the front of the farm passed by way too quickly, not having given enough time to really enjoy the moment.

“I wonder how much today’s haul will sell for.” Brad asked, trying to draw my attention towards the fields.

Jerking my thoughts back to business with a sense of bliss still coloring my thoughts, I quickly started to estimate what we were seeing.