My shoe gets stuck in the mud again, and my foot nearly slips out. I stumble and swear softly. Even with the seashell out of my pocket, I’m still annoyed and tired. The bottom of my cloak and my trousers are very much stained by mud. Someone should lay some stonework or something. Maybe even a wooden boardwalk. That might be pretty. Wait.

That’s my job to figure out, isn’t it? I rub my nose; even the thought of that’s giving me anxiety. I don’t have any idea how I’d organize that.

Cool air fills my chest, and I focus on that. At least my thoughts aren’t dark and spiraling anymore. I can think somewhat clearly, so I choose not to think. After a while, we reach a fancy, illuminated gate that I spot from far away. This one has the largest wooden fence I’ve seen yet, and hanging from the tops are several lanterns with a yellow glow.

Kivuli says she has to talk with someone who lives here, it’s about Rory, but I should wait outside. “You’ll have to meet him eventually,” she says hesitantly. “But he’s not a very pleasant man to be around, and you’ve had enough for one day.”

“Okay,” I tell her, wondering how bad this person could be. “I trust you.” This I just blurt out. I was only thinking about it, but somehow, I say it too.

She looks at me quizzically but doesn't say anything before pushing against a part of the fence. It’s a gate, and it swings open, giving me a glimpse of what’s inside: rows of neatly kept trees with lanterns hanging between them. There’s a paved road leading up to a fancy house. I know it’s fancy because it has large white columns on the front. The gate shuts closed, and I’m standing alone on the road.

Who the heck lives here? They seem ridiculously wealthy, but Kivuli could just waltz inside without a guard or something.

Do they trust everyone in the Farmlands? I glance at the lanterns lining the top of the fence. For a second, I almost thought they were lightbulbs because the lighting is a luminous yellow. But each lantern is a glass housing for a yellow-colored slime. I can’t reach them or even see their tiny faces from here, but I wonder what they are. My guess is electricity, the way Squishy is fire and Puddle is water.

I also make a note of how this is the only house with lanterns on the outside. The other homes are lit too, but only directly around their barns and houses. Their fences are all dark. Someone important must live here. Maybe the Farmlands had its own mayor? A house that any person can walk into and request to speak with whoever's running the place.

Something tells me it’s not that simple, otherwise Kivuli wouldn’t have asked me to wait outside. And I wouldn’t have a Mayoral quest to integrate the Farmlands. How’s this guy gonna help Rory if Kivuli can’t stand him? Blah. Too many thoughts again.

I lean against the fence. It’s very quiet. Other than the breeze and the insects and my whirling thoughts, nobody else is walking this way. No carriages, nothing. I touch my hand to my shirt pocket and try to be calm. I picture Kivuli’s face, relaxed and confident, and I try to channel her strength again. It worked before with the evil spirit, and if I can turn into any creature I touch, why can’t I imitate other people’s poise too? Steal their composure with a look. Don’t we all have the capacity to do that? Fake it till you make it?

Never worked for me though. How many things did I look up online about dealing with anxiety and fears? Trying to be stronger. Trying to feel as whole and put together as everyone else seemed to be. What the heck is wrong with me? Will this always be wrong with me?

Can I ever escape who I am, or will I always pull myself back in?

Okay. The seashell’s gone. I don’t have an excuse for this. Think happy thoughts. Good thoughts. I think about the delicious stew Kivuli made me and how the rest of its sitting on the stove. I hope Rhinestone will enjoy it.

I want to take notes and organize my thoughts and remember everything I learned today. Okay, good. This is good. These are the things I want to do: Get home. Wash up. Write down everything I’ve learned so far today. Itineraries are good. They’re grounding. And just as I think I’ve found some inner peace, footsteps slosh up to me.

“Hello. Who might you be?” says a calm, masculine voice.

Oh, leave me alone, I want to say, but when I open my eyes, I lose track of my thoughts.

Standing in front of me is a handsome, shirtless man with antlers sticking out of long dark hair. He’s a skyscraper of muscle and handsomeness, and I have to tilt my head to look up at him.

“Evening,” he says with a warm smile. He must be one of the farmers. He looks tanned, like he works in the sun a lot, and that’s obvious by his muscular form. His chest is wide and strong, and those shoulders! You could go rock climbing on those shoulders.

He’s glistening with rain-wet, illuminated by the glow of the slimes, and it’s hard to look at anything else. His dark hair’s kinda long and messy, but his friendly smile is very disarming, and I wonder how many women swoon around him on a daily basis.

“Well?” he asks, laughing a little bit. “Miss. How can I help you?”

“I...” I’d been staring. My cheeks burn with embarrassment. “I’m just waiting,” I tell him. First Mia. Then Isabelle. Now this guy. Maybe I just have a thing for attractive people in a countryside setting.

“Do you have... business with my father?” he asks. The way he pauses on business is a little weird, and he scrutinizes me from head to toe. Not that there’s much to see. The cloak conceals me nicely.

Something about the way he’s looking at me feels wrong. I can’t place it. It’s a gut feeling, an unsettling awkwardness that reminds me of when I’d stepped into Rory’s house. But it’s not cold.

“Your father?” I ask, blinking at the way his pecs move with every breath. He has really nice nipples for a guy.

He nods toward the fence behind me, and the way the light moves across his face is distracting. His nose. That sharp jawline. Those brooding, roguish dark eyes. His antlers are large, but not as big as the man I’d seen in front of Blossom Water Market. But that man had been covered in fur; this man isn’t. Maybe he’d shaved.

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He’s only wearing trousers, but they’re rolled up to his knees, and he’s barefooted. Isn’t he worried someone might think he’s suspicious like that? But if his father’s the rich guy who owns that big house, I guess he can get away with it. Probably helps that he’s a very attractive man. I mean his abs and the muscle that leads right down to his... nope. That’s too distracting, so I look at his chest again. He’s built like a firefighter or a superhero, like some marble statue of a great legend come to life.

I realize I haven’t answered him, and I shake my head. Then I nod. “Well. Not me. I’m with Ma’am Kivuli. She went to speak with him.”

“Ah,” he says. Then his brows furrow. “Is everything alright?” His face is rather honest. It’s cute and endearing, and I think he might’ve easily been a movie star on Earth... but there’s a shallowness to it that’s bugging me. Like there isn’t much behind those brooding eyes. The only thing I can’t tell is if it’s sinister or harmless. Maybe he’s just a hunk.

“Yeah,” I say. “Everything’s fine.” I don’t know what else to say, but he cheers up with that.

His friendly, radiant smile returns. “That’s excellent then.” He holds out his hand, arms absolutely bulging with muscle. A large vein throbs on his bicep and it’s very distracting. “My name’s Roshan,” he says. “Roshan Cooper. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I feel like a tiny mouse cornered by a predatory cat. A tiger or a lion or something. I don’t want to touch him. I’ve touched enough people for one day. I don’t want him to touch me, and I don’t want to see that message again. .

But who am I kidding? I want to. He smells like storm clouds, and of course, it’s the Dewdrop Slime mind bubbling to the forefront of my thoughts begging me to feel his large hand.

Control yourself, girl.

“Oh, sorry,” he says with a bashful grin. He bows his head apologetically, giving me a better view of his antlers. “I don’t mean to be in your face like that. My father calls me rambunctious, but you know, I just like being friendly. You have my deepest, most humble apologies, miss.”

I don’t know how to respond to that. Generally, if someone tells you they’re “great” or “nice”, they’re the furthest thing. But I nod politely, half wishing I’d shaken his hand. I think about having his well-built body. I’d be handsome and enormous and strong. But then he’d know something’s up with me.

There’s a flutter of wingbeats, and a bird lands on Roshan’s shoulder. It’s a small bird, but it’s got shiny white feathers that glow golden in the yellow light. It has a long extending beak, and its head twitches every which way, gazing at Roshan the way I imagine many, many people do.

“Hello, hello,” he says, scratching the bird’s head gently. It whistles with joy, rubbing its wings against Roshan’s ear. He grins. “One of my dad’s songbirds. He always welcomes me home. I don’t know how he knows, but he just does.”

The songbird is super cute, and it whistles a pretty tune. I almost want to ask if I can touch the bird. To stroke its feathers and acquire it. Then maybe I’d finally learn to whistle. But it seems strange to ask for that after rejecting a handshake.

“Anyways,” he says, eyebrows raised. “I just got back from my swim. Would you like to come inside? Have some dinner with me? Maybe a drink or two?”

I stare at him blankly again. He was out swimming in the storm? What the hell? I vaguely remember a river running through the Farmlands on the map, but we haven’t seen it yet, but wouldn’t that be a dangerous place to swim during heavy rainfall?

And he’s inviting me to dinner? Drinks? Is he... is he interested in me? I just realized he’s the only one in the Farmlands who hasn’t looked at me in disdain. Even after I told him I’m here with Kivuli. His friendly demeanor never wavered. Everyone else practically spat on us. Is he just cool like that? Or is he flirting with me?

But why?

I shake my head, maybe a little too earnestly. “I’m going to head back with Ma’am Kivuli. It’s late.”

“Ah,” he says, his face falling. “Maybe next time, then. Have a lovely evening, miss.” He walks by me, close enough so that I think I feel the heat emanating from his muscles, and pushes the fence open. Then he pauses and turns, inhaling deeply through his nose, eyes closed. “By the way, your scent. It’s very... very distinctive.”

Oh, god.

[Mayoral Quest: Integrating the Farmlands]

[Progress: 3%]

WHAT? It went up because he sniffed me? What?

“What’s your name?” he asks while I reel in shock from the notification.

“Samiya,” I tell him breathlessly. “Or just Sam, I guess.”

“Samiya...,” he repeats my name like he’s tasting it, and he smiles wide. The songbird whistles on his shoulder and flutters up to his antlers, hopping from one to the other as though they were branches. “It’s a very pretty name. The End of Storms Festival is coming up. You should come. I’d love to have a dance.” With that, he winks, and his muscular form vanishes behind the fence, leaving me flustered and red-faced and wondering how in the hell he could just say something like that and leave.

Even his butt was muscular. I picture myself in his body. Walking so confidently and boldly. The easy, assured smile. The ease of someone who is comfortable. Someone who trusts themselves. To hold my head up high, antlers proud. I want to know what it’s like to have antlers. I want to have his lustrous hair and run my fingers through it. I want to rub that jawline. I want to know what the rest of him looked like.

Whoa, now.

I inhale sharply, blinking at the yellow slimes above. My heart’s racing like mad, and that’s a thought I don’t want to tug on just now. Best to push it out of my head rather than imagine myself in a man’s body.

But it’s difficult to stop thinking about something that you can’t stop thinking about.

The fence opens again, and my heart skips a beat wondering if Roshan was back to sniff me some more. But it’s Kivuli who emerges and shuts it behind her, and I sigh with relief.

“I never like talking to that man,” she says roughly. It seems to have soured her mood, and I wonder what Roshan’s dad is like.

“So why did you?” I ask, trying to keep from sounding strange. Trying to sound relaxed like I’d been waiting out here patiently and nothing had happened. “Will he help Rory?”

“Yes,” she says. “I’ve asked Farmer Cooper to look after them. He owes me, and I’d rather that coin go to Rory instead, so he’ll hire Rory’s father.” She explains that the Coopers are the most prominent family in the farmlands.

“That’s good,” I whisper. My voice feels small. I’m worried about Rory, but now I’m thinking about Roshan and his cocksure ease and comfort. He’s basically a trust fund kid, isn’t he? But he didn’t seem like too much of a jerk, just a little self-obsessed. But if their family will help Rory’s, then maybe they're not too bad.

Kivuli’s hair bounces as she walks. She doesn’t put her hood back on, and her strides seem to be longer now, like she’s in a hurry to get as far away from the Cooper’s as possible. “It seems you’ve left quite the impression on his youngest boy,” she says.

My cheeks redden, and I almost stumble. What? What did he say about me? Why? “I uh... I met him outside.”

“Are you interested in him?”

How do I answer that? “I don’t think so,” I say unconvincingly. Is she asking me about what I’m into? It’s not like I haven’t given that some thought. I find lots of people attractive. Maybe too many, but that’s all I’ve ever done with that. Window shopping. Just looking and fantasizing.

“Careful with that one,” says Kivuli under her breath. “With that whole family. The Cooper men have a penchant for young things and trouble.”

Trouble. Oh, dear.

The wind picks up, and a welcome coolness envelops me. I drop my hood and unclasp my cloak, and I shiver. I’m sweating so much, it’s a little ridiculous. No wonder Roshan could smell me. I’m overheating! I’m gonna melt.

When we exit the Farmlands, I get a notification that we’re leaving, but I fixate on the 3%. When it went up after we helped Rory and his father, that made sense to me. But after Roshan sniffed me?

Why?