"So, you're the new boy in town I've heard so much about, are you?"

“Boy?” Alexander’s response was as prompt as it was snippy, his eyes narrowed.

In all fairness, Victor probably could have gotten away with calling Mike Tyson boy at some point in his life. When you are a seven-foot-tall mountain of a man, the number of people willing to call you out on discourtesy was understandably low. Even so, it was an odd insult for a man who, for all his bulk, was clearly several years Alexander's junior.

“Ah-ha. Sorry, sorry.” The young smith replied in mock surrender, his hands raised on either side of his face in a way that made already prominent biceps look positively ridiculous. “The way Sandy was gushing about you, I thought you’d be younger.”

“I’m sorry. Gushing?" Alexander asked eyes narrowed.

“I... uh, how about we start again.” The gargantuan man thrust his hand in Alexander’s direction in a desperate attempt to change the subject. “I’m Victor Varian, part-time smith, armorer, tinkerer… suffice to say I wear a lot of hats.”

“Alexander Adamson.” Alex shook one enormous hand as he considered his own response. The handshake surprised him; he hadn’t expected such a beast of a man to have such a limp handshake. “Town farmer, for now anyway.”

"Marie mentioned that you'd be coming by," Victor replied with a wide smile, retrieving his hand from Alexander's firm grip. "I was starting to become a little bit offended by how long it took." A meaty slap to Alexander's shoulder put the lie to the other man's words as he continued. "But now that you're finally here, all is forgiven. So, how can I help you "Town Farmer?"

Alexander considered Victor as he formulated his reply. The young shop owner was not at all what he’d expected when he’d first laid eyes on the sprawling wood cabin and attached workshop. Alex had expected another of the old guard, a man in his early fifties, at the tail end of a long life of hard work, not some discount Dolph Longrien who looked as though he could ‘break him’ with one arm. Blonde, handsome and humungous, the youth’s nervous expression had no place on his face as far as Alex would have ever been concerned.

He’s probably only a year or two older than Sandy. Alexander thought incredulously.

"I'm thinking about expanding into more than farming. Marie told me I should, but to be honest, it has been a few days getting the lay of the land, as it were." Alexander responded at last. "She said that you were the one who boarded up the mine on my property and that you'd be the one to talk to about getting it cleared out."

“She’s half right.” Victor nodded. “My father was the one who sealed up the entrance, but seeing as he’s not around anymore…”

“Oh. I’m very sorry to hear that.”

The boy studied him for a moment, then burst into sudden laughter. "Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. He retired and decided to go traveling. See the world." Victor waved a hand around towards the piles of equipment and supplies that filled the inside of the workshop. "He left the business to me, so yeah, I would still be the person to come to."

“And how much can I expect it to cost me?”

Victor waved away the idea. “If you decide to stick around you’ll be doing all manner of business with me, consider this a complementary favor from me to you.”

Considering I’m supposed to be saving your whole damn town from being bought out from under you, you’d think that I could deserve a few more favors. Alexander had to bite his tongue to keep his ingratitude from showing.

“That would be appreciated.” He said instead. “Any estimate on how long it will take you?”

The juvenile mountain glanced at a nearby clock, "I can probably have it done before the end of the day. I'll clear out whatever is at the front as well, so you won't have any trouble before the morning."

“Clear out?” Alexander repeated.

“The fiends.” When Alexander stared at him blankly, Victor frowned. “Marie did explain that the ‘mine’ is a fiendhome, right?”

“She… did not.”

The smith rolled his eyes. “Thank you so much for that Marie.” He grumbled, stepping away from Alexander to move behind a nearby counter. “I’m surprised that you didn’t recognize the rubble of the watch post. They used to keep an eye on it before the farm was built and one of your predecessors took charge of keeping the area clear.”

“I’m going to have to ask you to back up.” Alexander stopped him. “I’m more of a… I guess you’d say I’m more of a city boy. I’m not really familiar with fiends. Or their homes.”

Victor’s eyebrows knitted together, first in confusion, then in consternation. “She just had to leave everything to me, didn’t she? Sandy told me you were a little-“ Victor bit back whatever word he had in mind, in favor of something more diplomatic. “-new, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad.”

“Another bit of ‘common knowledge.’”

“You could say that.” Victor laughed. “Fiendhome is sort of a catch-all term used to describe any place where there is a wellspring of natural energy. In the case of Birch Branch that wellspring is rather enormous, large enough that its effects can be felt even on the surface."

“The farm’s quickened growth rate?”

“Quite right.” Victor smiled. “Unfortunately, the same natural energy that empowers your soil also harms any flora or fauna that spend significant time near the well itself. Prolonged exposure to natural energy results in the creation of Fiends, monstrous, violent creatures that will attack anything not similarly manipulated by the energy of the well.”

“Are you sure you’re not just talking about a big chunk of plutonium?” When Victor proved far less than amused at Alexander’s quip, he sighed and offered a different question. “These fiendhomes are common?”

"Not as common as they once were. New ones still pop up from time to time, like unexpected volcanoes, but by and large, the guardians have pinpointed or closed the majority of the world's dangerous fiendhomes.”

“So the one on my land isn’t dangerous then?”

Victor lifted his hand, letting it waver this way and that to indicate his uncertainty. “The guardians did use to keep a watch post on it. I think they would have liked to have capped it back then, but the positive effect it has on the farm, on Blue Hills in general, seem to outweigh the danger posed by the fiends.”

Alexander considered the other man’s words. The whole thing sounded like the plot of some strange JRPG, but given the total lack of explanation for how other fantastic aspects of this new world behaved, he found himself almost relieved that there was at least a vague explanation for the monsters on his property.

“I suppose this is the point where you give me a sword so that I have something to defend myself while I’m down in the mines?”

Victor studied him quizzically for several seconds and then reached beneath the counter. The fabric bundle was smaller than Alexander had expected, which made sense, considering the weapon wrapped within was not the gleaming longsword he’d expected, but a burnished 9mm pistol.

"I mean if you want to go old school…"