#willy stardew valley

Another short-story! Based off the prompt: “Write a story about two randomly assigned villagers.” (I was assigned Willy and Sebastian.)

Title:Rain, Smoke, and Fish

Word Count:904

Summary: Willy finds company one rainy day on the docks.

Willy stepped outside of his fishing shop and home and inhaled a great, satisfying waft of sea-salty air. A pleasantly cool rain drizzled on his face, and his lips curled into a smile. It will be a mighty fine day for catching red snappers, he thought.

He closed up shop and carried outside a bucket, some bait and a tackle, and his lucky iridium fishing pole. As he went for his usual fishing spot just in front of him, facing the vast ocean, he noticed to his left a shadow standing at the edge of the dock. No, not a shadow. A person. Robin’s son. The one who always wore black.

Willy rarely ever saw Sebastian, with the exception of Friday nights when he would slink into the arcade area of the Stardrop Saloon to play billiards with his friends. They never spoke, however. He was content to drink beside the quiet blacksmith, and Sebastian was content to speak with as few people as possible in the day.

Willy cast a line into the water. A minute passed with no sign of biting. He caught a whiff of smoked tobacco. The boy held a lit cigarette between his fingers. Before he knew it, Willy was setting alight his own smoking pipe and too enjoyed the soothing feeling nicotine brought to his senses.

The rain began to pick up. Willy fished in his coat pocket for his hat, and slapped it on his head. He heard an umbrella open up. The shadowy figure nearby now stood out with his red and white umbrella. Sebastian swore under his breath. His cigarette had dropped onto the dock, soggy and thoroughly extinguished.

Sebastian propped the umbrella against his shoulder. From the pocket of his sweater Willy caught the sight of a box of cigarettes, kept tucked safely at the edge of the pocket to shield them from the rain. Sebastian dug deeper into his pockets, and finally fished out a lighter. He opened it and tried to ignite the lighter. It must be an older lighter just out of fluid. Sebastian repeatedly pressed the button of the lighter, and on the rare times a flame lit, rain extinguished it just as quickly.

“Hey kid,” Willy found himself saying. He extended to the boy his own lighter, recently refilled with lighter fluid. Slowly, Sebastian trudged over to him and accepted the lighter. Quickly he was able to light a cigarette and return Willy’s lighter; Willy barely had time to blink before the lighter was returned to his hand.

“Thanks.” Sebastian muttered.

Willy simply grunted. Suddenly, a line dropped into the water. Willy held his pipe between his teeth as he gripped his fishing rod tightly and reeled in… a flounder.

Drat. Willy dropped the fish into his bucket; it could still turn over a decent profit, but the red snappers were more difficult to come by; while flounders could appear in any weather, the red snappers exclusively surface when it rains.

No matter. He still had a long day ahead of him.

“Are you going to be selling that flounder?” Sebastian asked.

Willy was surprised to hear him speak again, but tried not to show it as he cast another line into the water. “Aye,” he replied.

“How much?”

“100g is the usual price. Grab it now, you can have it for 80g.”

Sebastian hummed for a moment. Once more he plunged his hand into his pocket and took out a wallet, from which he took out 60g. He shrugged. “Sorry.”

Having never seen him purchase a fish before, let alone at his shop, Willy decided he could afford to drop the price some more. “If you tell me what you plan to do with it, I’ll take the 60g.”

Sebastian immediately put the 60g into Willy’s hand and grabbed the fish - properly, by its gills, to his surprise. “The old man in the mountains showed me how to make sashimi. I’ve tried all sorts of fish with the recipe, and they still taste good. But flounder’s my favorite.”

“Ah.” Willy said, contented. Good on Linus for talking with him. “Did he get around to teaching you how to fish yet?”

Sebastian shrugged.

“Would you be interested in learning how?”

Sebastian shook his head.

Willy shrugged his shoulders. It was rare to find someone who would consider it these days. Folks dislike the idea of holding a slimy fish by its gills as you take it out of the water, then go on to fillet it for food later. That’s what the JojaMart was for.

Although… maybe he could persuade this Sebastian to give it one try. That’s assuming he retained older not recently practiced talents however.

“Tell you what: you still planning on going to the saloon Friday night?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll meet you in the arcade. You, me, and the pool table. If I win, you get a fishing lesson. If you win, you get my next two flounders.”

“Five.” Sebastian counter-offered.

“Three.”

Sebastian thought for a moment over a lungful of tobacco, then slowly exhaled the smoke and nodded. “Alright. Three.” Sebastian then began to walk back to the beach. As he passed Willy, he said: “Be ready to lose, old man. I’m still undefeated ‘round these parts.”

“One opponent hardly counts, kid.”

Sebastian chuckled as he walked out of hearing range. Willy found himself smiling, and suddenly wondering who could help him practice billiards before Friday.