An Oarfish's Dreams

You're In Good Hands - Chapter 1

Willy looked out his misty window. It was raining pretty hard in the Valley today. Rain brings the rarer fish to swim, he thought. The fisherman grabbed his trusty rod, bait, and soup and headed out to the docks.

After hours of fishing, it was already the afternoon. Willy grabbed his things and headed to town. As soon as he left the docks, he noticed a young person along the shore.

"Hey! Are you okay over there?" Willy shouted. They didn't respond. He set his equipment down and started jogging over. The face-down young adult had orange-red hair and pale skin with freckles. They had a very feminine figure and no clothing. The odd thing about them, however, was not the fact they washed up on the beach naked but it was the fact they had a fishtail.

Willy leaned down and gently shook the fish-person's shoulder. They groaned and shivered. Looking around for help, Willy remembered the old cabin a couple of feet away. He gently picked up the person and took them to the cabin.

The cabin luckily had a bed that wasn't in the worst shape. Willy gently put the odd person down and was about to walk away when he noticed the fish-person had legs all of sudden. This was when he realized the person was male. Willy shrugged it off, thinking the fishtail was in his imagination and left to get food for his unexpected guest and him.

---

Elliott looked around. Why was he in this house? It smells like home but it sure isn't. He sat up and realized his tail was gone. Getting up from the bed, the young man almost fell over. He was not used to his legs just yet.

Waddling around the house was a difficult task but he managed after a while. Elliott found some clothing to wear.

"Not my style but it will work," Elliott whispered to himself. He put on the old button down and dark brown jeans. The clothes felt freshly cleaned but he could be sure. At least they smelled like fish and the salty sea.

Elliott looked around the cabin. The floorboards are slightly torn but safe to walk around barefoot and there are spider webs everywhere. An old wooden desk laid in the left corner and a piano close to the soaking wet bed. The desk had papers and pens laying in the drawers. The piano looked very well-kept and still worked. As soon as Elliott slightly touched one of the keys, he jumped.

"*sigh*... I should head outside. Maybe there's someone that'll help me get back home."

---

"Thanks for the food, Gus!"

"No problem! Glad to help there, Willy! So who's this young man you found by the ocean?"

"I don't know. He washed up on shore and was unconscious. I took him into that old cabin along the tree-line. Hopefully, he should be awake by now. It's been a couple of hours since I brought him in."

Willy started worrying about the man. Is he okay? Did he find the clothes I left him? The young man seemed to be breathing still when Willy dropped off the clothes so he should be okay.

"H-Hello?" The door opened with a squeak. The young man peeked around the doorway. Willy waved him to come over. He realized the man didn't have shoes. That's what I forgot, the fisherman thought.

"Oh! Hello, you must be the young man Willy here was talking about."

"I guess so. Hello, my name is Elliot. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Ah, so that's your name, young man. Well, I'll glad you're doing okay. I'm Willy, the local fisherman in Stardew Valley."

"Fisherman? You catch fish?"

"Yes, well, I take care of them for a while and sell them to others in the Valley. It's a decent business."

"Okay, I'm glad. Fish deserve to live as much as you do..." Gus broke into a slight sweat, worried this man might be upset about the fish that he serves until Elliott finally said, "...But some are pretty tasty, though!" Gus sighed with relief.

"I forgot to ask, what is your name, good sir?" Elliott turned the cook with a warm smile. At least the guy was friendly but he did seem a bit full of himself.

"Who, me? I'm Gus, the owner and cook of this bar. I can fix you up something right quick if you'd like? We don't get a lot of new faces around here."

"That would be lovely, thank you." Elliott seemed to glow, he smiled so brightly. Who is this guy and why is he here?

---

Elliott sat in the bar. It felt cozy in here and the people are so nice. He was trying to think of what to talk to Willy about but he worried about speaking too much of his home in the sea around the others. They didn't seem very interested in him but still...

"So, how are you feeling, lad? Head still hurtin'?" Willy suddenly spoke. Elliott almost jumped.

"A little, but I'm doing fine, thank you for asking," the young man said, petting his hair out of nervous habit. The older man seems interested in his health. It threw him off.

Gus walked out of the back room and placed a plate of food in front of both of them. It smelled absolutely amazing. "Here you go, guys. Dig in!"

"Thank you. I haven't eaten in a little while," Elliott beamed again towards the chubby man as he smiled back. Elliott grabbed a fork and began eating the spaghetti. While he's never eaten the dish before, he's seen the human folk eat it before. It looked simple enough.

It wasn't. Sauce almost spilled onto his shirt and Elliott panicked. He didn't want to seem childlike but Willy took notice and grabbed a napkin. "Here, lad. Gus must've put too much sauce for ya," the man chuckled. Elliott became red in the face and slowly took the napkin.

"Let's head back to the beach when you're down, OK?" Elliot nodded meekly to the fisherman's question.

I'm glad he cares...