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"Charge!"
"Go for it!"
The Secret Forest was usually a quiet, mystical place, heavy with the scent of ancient mahogany and damp moss. Today, however, it sounded like a chaotic playground.
Behind the sturdy wooden fences, the newly arrived animals adopted by the Fairy Swarm stood together in a ragged, confused row on a makeshift starting line drawn in the dirt. The Little Fairies sat triumphantly on the backs of the bewildered animals they had claimed, holding handfuls of sweet, fresh fodder in their tiny hands like steering wheels.
Due to their incredibly small size and magical nature, the fairies' weight didn't place much of a physical burden on these young animals. Each animal would occasionally take a lazy bite of the fragrant fodder offered by their tiny riders, contentedly chewing while waiting for the next loud command.
Hovering a few feet above the ground, Cirno raised her arm high, a localized flurry of snowflakes swirling around her in her excitement.
"The first Mount Forest Trekking Competition officially begins! Everyone, get ready!"
The fairies tightened their grips on the fluffy wool and bristly hair of their mounts.
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One! Go!"
At Cirno's sharp command, the Little Fairies kicked their tiny heels. A chaotic stampede of cows, sheep, and pigs surged forward, kicking up a cloud of loose dirt and leaves right past Leo, who stood by the fence with a completely blank, bewildered expression.
Leo had originally come out to the pasture just to see if the free-range animals were getting used to being outside. Instead, he was forced to witness this absurd scene. Heaven knows how strange and hyperactive the thought processes of these fairies were; taking full advantage of their feather-light weight, they had turned his expensive, interdimensional livestock into racing mounts and actually organized an underground forest trekking competition.
Huff-puff, huff-puff.
Running wildly in the lead was a pink, tender little piglet, its four hooves moving so fast they practically left motion-blur afterimages over the grass. Whether in their youth or maturity, pigs are deceptively fast, and this one left the other animals far behind in the dust. While the calves and lambs were still taking a leisurely, confused stroll, the cheering fairy riding the piglet had already vanished from sight deep into the dense woods.
"By the way, where is the finish line?" Leo asked, rubbing his temples as the dust settled.
Cirno had already flown away, chasing the racers, and Aya Shameimaru—who had tagged along with her camera purely out of boredom to document the chaotic event for her newspaper—also took flight, her black wings snapping open to follow the pack.
Only Leo and Daiyousei remained standing by the wooden porch of the Hero's Hut.
"It's a lake with special effects. Cirno and the others found it a few days ago. It's beautiful, and the lakeside is covered in flowers."
Daiyousei fluttered over to the outer wall of the Hero's Hut and pointed to a large, hand-drawn map pinned to the wood. The Little Fairies had apparently explored most of the Secret Forest over the last few weeks. Looking at the chaotic crayon scale, Leo realized the entire forest was incredibly large—almost the size of the original Stardew Valley map itself, drastically expanded by the world's fusion.
The lake Daiyousei mentioned was located far in the deep south of the Secret Forest. It was depicted as a massive body of water formed by the confluence of three winding rivers. The area around it was heavily shaded with various colored wax pens to represent flowers. Each flower was drawn slightly differently in style, suggesting the entire Fairy Swarm had sat down and proudly drawn them together.
"It's a bit far. It's fine for you since you can fly, but walking all that way would be exhausting for me," Leo sighed, doing the mental math.
If the messy, crayon-drawn scale the Little Fairies used was even remotely correct, Leo felt that physically walking through the dense underbrush to get there would take him at least three or four grueling hours.
"Just use this. This magic circle is called the Three Fairies of Light Magic Circle. The three of them were the first to find the lake, and then this magic circle appeared at the Heros Hut, so everyone named it after them."
Daiyousei led Leo around the side of the hut. Hidden in the tall grass was a glowing, intricate geometric pattern carved into the earth, surrounded by a ring of smooth, beautiful river stones. Daiyousei was the first to step directly onto the glowing runes. After the magic circle flared with a brilliant, blinding white light, her physical form distorted and she vanished into thin air.
Teleportation magic (like the Warp Totems and Obelisks) existed in the original Stardew Valley game mechanics as well, so Leo wasn't afraid. He confidently stepped forward onto the stones. He felt a sudden, weightless pull in his gut, and in the next blinding moment, he appeared directly by the shores of the distant lake.
Whoosh.
A heavy, incredibly dense wave of spiritual energy washed over him. Just as Daiyousei had described, the vast, crystal-clear lake was entirely surrounded by a vibrant sea of blooming flowers, reflecting beautifully on the water's glassy surface. Moreover, the air itself carried a special, pulsating energy; simply taking a deep breath of the sweet, floral-scented air made his lungs tingle and his fatigue vanish, making him feel much more refreshed.
"Eh? Sister Yuuka?"
Leo blinked, looking around the colorful expanse. They had come via the instantaneous teleportation magic circle, so the racing Little Fairies were still miles away, struggling through the woods. But standing quietly among the blooming flowers on the grassy bank, Leo saw Yuuka Kazami. The terrifying Flower Master of Gensokyo was elegantly holding her signature parasol, silently and peacefully admiring the vibrant blossoms.
Leo hadn't seen Yuuka since their last brief meeting during the initial banquet. He had genuinely thought she had already returned to Gensokyo through a Gap and didn't expect to see her relaxing here in his expanded backyard.
"Yes, I like quiet places. There are few people here, and the flowers are nice, so I usually stay here. If you need anything, you can find me here."
Yuuka turned her head, her crimson eyes softening as she nodded politely to Leo, briefly explaining her living situation. In her normal, undisturbed state, Yuuka Kazami was actually quite gentle, elegant, and very easy to talk to. Those foolish youkai back in Gensokyo who were brutally killed by her had simply danced wildly in the Flower Tyrant's explosive minefield—destroying her precious flower fields or maliciously bullying Little Fairies was truly seeking death, and absolutely no one could stop her wrath once ignited.
"If you like it here, I'll pick some flowers to take back and plant. I still need four more to unlock the five flower fields. I'll fulfill the conditions as soon as possible. Usually, no one comes here, so if you want to stay, you can, but you'll have to figure out the housing situation yourself."
Leo crouched down, carefully snapping the stems of four different, vibrant types of flowers, planning to run them through the mechanical Seed Maker back at home to turn them into plantable seeds. He just didn't understand the impossible biology of this place—why were spring, summer, and fall flowers all perfectly blooming here at the exact same time?
"Thank you for the trouble. I owe you one. If you have any problems you can't solve, you can come to me. If you want to plant flowers from different seasons, you should use the water from this lake. This lake water has a very strong life force, allowing flowers to grow regardless of the season."
Yuuka gave a rare, genuinely normal and warm smile. Despite her terrifying reputation, she didn't actually like fighting and killing. It was just that some arrogant people always liked to disturb her peaceful flower viewing, so she regrettably had to annihilate them all to maintain the quiet.
"It's not that extreme, but I actually do need your help with something. Since there are so many flowers here, I plan to put a few beehives here to collect honey. Are you afraid of bees?"
Making a standard beehive required wood, iron bars, coal, and sticky maple syrup. Coincidentally, Hatate Himekaidou had just given him a jar of premium Tengu maple syrup a couple of days ago as an apology gift, which could easily be used to craft the beehives. Artisan honey had many highly profitable uses, such as in cooking, glazing grilled meats, or brewing mead and honey water.
"Bees... there aren't any other insects besides those, right?"
Yuuka, the supreme Great Youkai who could effortlessly destroy heaven, earth, and shatter the very air with a wave of her parasol, had a sudden, momentary stiffening of her elegant expression. Her shoulders locked.
If you asked her to fight the Lunar Brain, Eirin Yagokoro, in a brutal head-on deathmatch, she would go without a second thought or a drop of sweat. But when it came to insects... bees were barely acceptable; they were an indispensable, necessary part of a flower's growth cycle, and she was used to them. But if it were any other creepy, crawling, multi-legged insect, she would instinctively blast it with a concentrated Master Spark Magic Cannon from eight hundred miles away just to be safe.
Yes, the fearless, invincible Yuuka Kazami was actually a bit terrified of bugs. It was just incredibly fortunate that the magical rules of the Stardew Valley world currently had no ambient ambient insect swarms; otherwise, Yuuka would have already turned into a highly destructive, human-shaped mobile Magic Cannon launcher, vaporizing the forest.
"Now that you mention it, you've reminded me. In the future, when people from other worlds come, I should perform a thorough disinfection to prevent invasive species."
Leo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The ancient youkai of Gensokyo possessed massive supernatural power pressure, so ordinary Earth insects didn't dare approach them. However, as more diverse worlds like the Uma Musume universe were added to his trade network in the future, it was inevitable that someone might accidentally track in a foreign, invasive insect species on their shoes, which could devastate Stardew Valley's pristine, pixelated ecology.
Leo finished filling his canvas backpack with the magical flowers. He pulled out his phone and quickly sent a text message to Kagerou Imaizumi, asking the werewolf to come over to the lake.
Since Yuuka confirmed the glowing lake water here could forcefully make flowers grow regardless of the strict seasonal coding, he wondered if it would work for his high-profit cash crops. It would just be physically hard on Kagerou, who might have to travel a long way carrying heavy watering cans to hydrate them in the future.
As for exactly why the lake water here had such logic-breaking special effects, Leo didn't know and frankly didn't care to investigate. He hadn't ever downloaded or played the massive Stardew Valley Expanded (SVE) mod in his past life, and he didn't know the deep lore or background story of this specific magical area.
As long as it was usable, useful, and made him a profit, it was fine. There were already more than enough completely unscientific, dimension-breaking things happening on his farm every single day; a bit of magical, glowing lake water didn't really make a difference to his bottom line.