Chapter Text
Arasha placed the pine tar into the chest, and she was expecting the usual green junimo, whom she had named Apples, to pop out as he usually does. To her complete surprise, however, at least 20 of the Junimos emerged from the shadows and began to celebrate the donation. They danced around her feet, and she smiled as she watched their gratitude ritual for the first time. She had never seen a display quite like this, and she crouched down and extended her hand to Apples, who did the same. The junimos ran frantically around the room, and before her eyes the room begins to change. She was used to the small changes that happened when she made her donations - dust disappearing from the bookshelf, spiderwebs dusted from the corners, small repairs in the wood on the floor. But this was different. Suddenly the room was filled with bright furniture. The lightbulb was replaced with new, warm lighting that illuminated the whole room, rendering her torch suddenly obsolete. Craft boxes appeared in the corner of the room, as well as a sewing machine, a craft table and a big red chair. There was brand new wallpaper on the walls and the bookshelf was suddenly filled with books. It looked exactly like it had 15 years ago, and she felt a warm rush rise up her spine at the nostalgia. The Junimos disappeared into the walls and only Apples remained, his tiny hand still clasped around Arasha’s finger. She looks down at him with a tear in her eye. “Thank you.” She has no idea if he can understand her language, but he seems to understand the intention. He begins running towards the staircase, and Arasha follows him upstairs.
The pantry and kitchen were almost unrecognizable compared to how they had looked 10 minutes ago. There was a huge dining table in the kitchen all of a sudden, and brand new floors. There was now a huge oven and countertops and a refrigerator, all seemingly brand new. The pantry had floor to ceiling shelves filled with all kinds of ingredients and fresh vegetables. The rooms looked like they had been pulled straight from her memories, almost identical to how they had looked during her childhood, save for the more modernised appliances.
Arasha stared in awe for a while. She had known that her donations were going to spark some minor changes - a fixed floorboard here and a dusted shelf there - maybe enough to convince Mayor Ian to consider a redecoration. What she hadn’t expected was a complete restoration.
Apples jumped impatiently to get Arasha’s attention, and she continued to follow him down the hallway. He lead her down another hallway and down a creaky flight of stairs to what she assumed used to be the boiler room. A rusted “Do Not Enter” sign hung half fallen on the door, and inside was just more broken floorboards, broken pipes and a huge boiler with the door hanging off the hinges. She shone her torch around the room and noticed another chest, identical to the one in the craft room. She took a look at the chest, and noticed a symbol on the lock. The symbol had what looked like a diamond engraved on it, a symbol that the craft room chest didn’t have. Her hands brushed over the lock and pulled it open. It didn’t take much force for the rusted lock to snap and the chest to open, but all that was inside was some dust and a single white quartz gem.
The only sound in the room was a static dripping coming from the old boiler. Her hand reached gingerly into the chest to pick up the quartz, which crumbled slightly under her touch. As it left the chest, it began to emit a soft white light. Apples approached her, pointing towards her satchel insistently. Arasha looked between the stone and her bag, trying to decipher what Apples was trying to tell her. Her hand reached into her bag and felt around, finally coming to rest on an earth crystal that she had found while getting rid of some of the rocks on her farm. As her hand came to rest, the light of the crystal began to pulsate. She removed her hand from the crystal and it stopped, and then as she placed her hand on it again it began to pulsate once again. She removed the crystal from her bag and placed it in the chest. As she did, she heard the boiler behind her begin to creak. She turned around and saw the Junimos working together to attach the door back to the boiler. Their tiny hands carried tools she hadn’t noticed before, and even Apples was suddenly wearing a tiny helmet and holding a welding torch. The boiler creaked as it was mended, the rust disappearing as if it had never been there in the first place and the dents beginning to pop out. With a final groan of the boiler, the Junimos skittered away into each and every dark corner of the room. Arasha took a step closer, running her hand along the newly restored metal. The machine felt warm to the touch, and it let out a healthy hum as if it had simply been turned on. She felt the room slowly begin to warm, and watched as the dust rose from between the floorboards, as it had in the craft room before.
She kept her hand there for a minute or so, taking in the rising warmth of the room. The building was truly beginning to feel alive again. She felt a wave of nostalgia and let out a contented sigh. Her mind wandered, and suddenly she remembered that she wasn’t the only person who knew about this.
“Trevor!” She exclaimed to herself, realising that she needed to show him the new kitchen. She took off up the stairs and out the front door, running as fast as she could towards the ranch.