[The alarm went off, it was 6 AM. Jason was ready to get to work around the farm. He had 39 starting actions]

[Tess’s Almanac: 91st day of Summer! It’s the day of the Summer Festival. Warm and bright today! Come out early and help set up, and we’ll have a proper party tonight! Oh, and ignore the loud explosions coming from the countryside]

Jason rolled out of bed and walked up to the windows as quickly as possible. As he gazed out over his farmstead, he saw Angus already stabled next to Lady, along with several sacks of oats propped up by the door. Jason smiled, then turned and took the stairs two at a time as he raced down to the kitchen.

Tess looked up at him and flashed a grin at him as he came into the room. The table had been prepared, and he was somehow unsurprised to find that nearly everything there was green. Apparently, on such a wonderful day, it was completely licit to force him to eat healthy. He sighed and started to eat, and Tess beamed at him.

“Our first festival as an engaged couple!” She grinned.

“We were technically engaged at the Spring Festival.” Jason pointed out.

“Yeah, but you remember how it was.” Tess shrugged. “Everyone sorta made the party about us - I mean, I know it wasn’t actually, but Viola and Paulina and Theresa dressed me up, and there were all the dances, and this time, it’ll just be us. You know?”

“Yeah.” Jason flashed a crooked grin. He finished eating, then shrugged. “What time do you think Jeremiah will be getting here?”

“About half an hour.” Tess shrugged. “Now, I only know that because I rode out of town with him, but…”

“Why’d you ride out of town with him?” Jason frowned in confusion. “Is everything okay?”

Tess chuckled. “Yeah, everything’s fine. He used up more gunpowder than he had intended to use yesterday, so he had to go buy more from Paulina before he could finish making them all. He also apparently had to go buy a bunch of new canning jars for Delilah.”

At that, Jason chuckled. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.”

“No, not in the slightest.” Tess sighed, then shrugged. “On a related note, I’m going to have to learn how to can. It actually looks kinda fun, you know?”

“It does at that.” Jason slowly rose from the table and started walking toward the front door. “On a related note to that, actually, I may need you to keep your warrior skills honed.”

“So I can fight off all the monsters?” Tess frowned.

“No. I found something up in the woods… Oh, I can’t exactly remember when.” Jason shrugged. “I meant to mention it to you, but we’ve been so busy I haven’t really had a chance.”

He explained about the old dungeon as they got their boots on and strode out into the yard. When he finished, Tess nodded slowly.

“I’ve heard of things like that before. They’re not terribly common, but every now and then, old dungeons don’t get closed up properly. `They usually don’t have any more monsters spawning in them, but they’re kinda fun to go look around.” A sudden smile split Tess’s face. “Hey! You’ve never actually been inside a dungeon, have you?”

“Not a one.” Jason shook his head. “Most of them don’t allow you inside unless you’re a warrior class, and the ones that do… I mean, come on. I know it might be fun, but no one takes you seriously if you go through a slime dungeon, you know?”

Tess laughed. “I know it’s a bit of a stereotype, but I have to admit, slime dungeons are fun. It’s like fighting your way through the the inside of a giant’s nose.”

“That was not an image I wanted in my head.” Jason chuckled as they walked out onto the porch. They soon walked up to the field, which was still matted with the Juun bugs. Most likely, they were still following the hormones left by previous Juun bugs, as there was almost certainly nothing left to eat. It would be good enough for a test, in any event.

Almost exactly half an hour later, Jeremiah came trotting in through the driveway. He was pulling a cannon just behind his horse, while Weatherhand came along with a wagon piled high with cannonballs. As they set up, Weatherhand dismounted, waved to Jason and Tess, and then unhitched the horse from the wagon, climbed up, and rode off. Jason looked after him questioningly, and Jeremiah shrugged.

“I need him to handle some new recruits we just got down from Illumitir. I can’t tell how many of them are eager young souls looking for a solid income, and how many of them are criminals trying to run from the law. He’ll be able to sort them out in my absence, in any case.” Jeremiah rubbed his hands together. “Now, shall we get this party started?”

Jason flashed a grin. “Let’s!”

They quickly wheeled the cannon into position, and started getting things ready. Without Weatherhand there to help, Jason was put in charge of pouring the gunpowder, Tess was in charge of wadding, and Jeremiah rammed the cannonball in himself. They took turns lighting the cannon, of course, as that was by far the funnest part of the job.

When the first shot went off and smoke filled the air, the cannonball exploded wonderfully over top of the field. A fine mist came sprinkling down onto the Juun bugs, and Jason held his breath. He walked closer to the edge of the field and watched, and a grin soon split his face.

The moment that the spray hit the ground, the Juun bugs all launched themselves into the air. At least, most of them did. He thought he saw a few that still persisted in crawling across the ground, but the number was low, and that was the important part. The trio exchanged a round of high-fives, and they got to work.

That, of course, was when Jason realized just how much work the process truly was. The cannon, weighing several hundred pounds, couldn’t be easily moved even by all three of them working together. In order to spray all eighty acres, they were forced to hook up the cannon to one of their horses, drag the cannon to the next position, fire it, wait for the thing to cool, drag it to a new location, and fire again. It wasn’t the worst job that Jason had ever done, but it wasn’t the quickest, either.

They had finished about half the field by the time that lunchtime came around. All of them, eager to get into the festival, agreed to keep working. Tess left her post for a short time to run back to the house to make up some food, but she soon enough brought it back out, and during one of the five-minute cooling breaks, they scarfed down as much as they could. As soon as the cannon was ready to move again, off it went.

When they finished, the sun was just starting to set, and Jason sighed deeply. The field was almost completely clean, and while it wasn’t perfect (and he had no idea how they would respond once something green was growing in the field again), it was a better result than he had seen yet that year. Jeremiah stood tall and whistled through his front teeth.

“Now there’s something you don’t see every day. It’s a good day’s work, everyone.” He clapped his hands, and hitched up the cannon to his horse. “Let me know how it works when you start planting tomorrow. If it’s going to actually keep them away, I’ll figure out something to get it applied to all the farms in the area. I’ll have to charge something for it, I’m afraid, but if you all can actually get some crops harvested, I think it’ll be worth it. And don’t worry, I won’t gauge you, I’ll only charge for the supplies themselves.”

“I’d be immensely appreciative, and I’d gladly pay for it.” Jason nodded. “How much was all of this?” Jeremiah suddenly started to twist his boots back and forth in the dust, and Jason persisted. “Jeremiah? If you start doing this for everyone, you’re going to have to accept compensation. I’ll have to find out sooner or later.”

Jeremiah scowled, then shrugged. “Oh, all right. Each cannonball came to about a thousand shandys, with most of the cost in the actual metal itself. Gunpowder’s pretty cheap, and so is the repellant.” He climbed up onto his horse and started riding off. “Now get off to town! There’s a festival waiting, and I for one don’t plan on missing it!”

Tess and Jason waved at him, and Tess nodded at Jason.

“I’m going to head back into town to get changed into something a bit more suitable. I’ll see you in there?”

“I’ll be there soon.” Jason nodded. Within a few moments, Tess was riding off for town, and Jason made his way into the house. He took a quick shower, largely to wash off the smell that had drifted onto him, and then changed into a proper dress tunic. With that, he ran down the stairs and climbed up onto Lady.

By the time he arrived in Summer Shandy, the sun had set, and the party was in full swing. Tess was nowhere to be seen, nor was Jeremiah. Delilah and several of the hired men sat at one of the tables eating the great banquet, while Paulina, Theresa, and Viola sat a bit further down. There were several empty seats by the girls, and Jason quickly walked over and sat down.

“Jason!” Paulina flashed a small smile at him. “I could hear that cannon going off all day. Everything worked out well enough?”

“Hopefully.” Jason nodded and started scooping a bit of food onto his plate. The majority of the feast had been picked over, but there was still enough that he was able to scrape a good meal together. “Have you seen Tess?”

Theresa nodded. “She came riding through here… Twenty minutes ago? She ought to be out soon enough, but I don’t know how fancy she’s going to try to make herself.”

Jason nodded, then finished filling his plate and sat back a bit. He chatted with Paulina and Theresa about a few things (Viola mostly kept to herself, and all things considered, he couldn’t really blame her), and within about five minutes, the door of the Guild Hall swung open.

Jason felt a smile breaking across his face as Tess walked out to join the party. She was in her gilded dress armor, complete with a metal skirt, rubies and diamonds set in elegant designs, and a helmet with brilliant red plumage. She sat down next to Jason and started filling her own plate, then glanced at him.

“Oh, Jason, you didn’t have to wait for me!”

Jason just shrugged. “I mean… We are engaged. We have to do at least a few romantic things.”

Tess whacked him upside the head, but had a smile on her face as she did so. Even as they started to eat, the band began to get a bit more lively, and a number of the townsfolk began to pull tables aside to make the town square into a great dance floor. Constable Hank walked out into the middle of the area and began to dance a jig that was positively painful to watch, but since he was the constable, no one really said anything. The townsfolk began to push him out of the way as they started dancing across the area, and Jason sighed deeply. Oh, how he loved it here in Summer Shandy.

“You know, we never had anything like this up in Illumitir.” Jason commented. “There were a few holidays, but everyone just celebrated them in their own homes. The idea of an entire neighborhood… An entire village getting together, it would have been unthinkable.” He sighed deeply. “It’s just lovely, you know?”

Tess nodded. “I never saw anything like it either, during my time on the road before settling down here. It’s just so… Peaceful.”

KA-WHUMP!

A fiery blast erupted from the edge of town, slightly down the road a bit. Everyone jumped… And then a second explosion went off directly above the town. Fire filled the air, and Jason leapt to his feet.

Suddenly, though, he became aware that something was falling down from the sky. He slowly held up his hands, watching as flower petals began to drift down around him like snow.

“Happy festival, everyone!” Jeremiah came striding up, a broad grin plastered across his wide face.

“Jeremiah Scott!” Delilah leapt to her feet. “Those petals had better not be from my prize rose bush! To say nothing of firing a cannon when there are people around!”

“What better time is there to fire a cannon?” Jeremiah protested.

“It was his idea!” Weatherhand called out.

“You agreed!”

Jason was subsequently greeted with the sight of Jeremiah fleeing through the town, with Delilah hot on his heels brandishing a turkey leg. Everyone laughed, and Jason turned to look at Tess.

“Care to dance?”

She smiled back at him. A few minutes later, they were out on the dance floor, swirling around in time to the music. Their feet swept lightly across the carpet of rose petals, and Jason sighed deeply.

The previous season had been hard, but now it was over. They had managed to drive off the Juun bugs, at least mostly, and besides, winter was coming on fast. The cold weather would kill the insects, just like it had killed the monstertraps. He had a life in Summer Shandy unlike anything he had ever dreamed of. He had a wonderful woman pledged to become his wife.

He was living in a dream, and he knew that he would never let anything ruin that reality.