The Runaway: A Stardew Valley Story

Lakewood Farm

The bus rattles. Violently. I've already taken too many trips to the miniature bathroom located in the back, and the three other riders keep giving me irritated looks. Still, the nausea is overwhelming, and I'm prepared to be sick yet again when...

"Now approaching Pelican Town!" the driver roars over the sounds of the road.

Relief washes over the turn in my stomach, and I start to gather up my belongings which now include a pack of underwear, a toothbrush and paste without the Joja logo, and a water bottle also devoid of the Joja logo. Nurse Candy didn't seem to mind my only criteria when she offered to pick me up a few necessities for the road. She claimed she didn't like the way JojaMart smelled anyways.

After leaving Josh's home, I headed straight for the one person who could help me get to safety -- Grandpa. Mother declared him unfit for the life she wanted when I was a child, and if you ask her what became of him, she'll say he moved on to Better Places. Better Places may sound like a euphemism, but it's actually a poorly managed senior care center on the opposite end of Zuzu City. There, my grandpa was admitted under false pretenses of going senile and developing late-in-life delusions. No one believes that his daughter is some big-shot real estate tycoon.

No one except Nurse Candy, it would seem.

Mother and Father stopped visiting after they ironed out the last of the paperwork, but I remembered how kind my grandpa had been even as I grew up. When I was old enough to hail a taxi, I would steal my parents' credit card and visit as often as I could. Father never let me learn how to drive because he claimed women need to learn their place at home. I suppose he was frustrated that my mother never did.

I clutch the little backpack tighter to keep the tears at bay as I remember how upset Grandpa had been to learn why I hadn't visited in over a year.

"Do your parents think you're cattle to be sold and traded? You're their daughter! I did not raise Hiera to be so clouded with greed."

But the hurt in his tired eyes only continued as I explained the situation.

"Grandpa, the Jones family is very powerful," I said quietly. "They have the resources to find me wherever I go. They will hunt us down and force us to stay with that... that monster."

"Us?" he had asked.

My head hung in shame. "I-I'm pregnant," and the words felt like sand in my mouth.

Grandpa had just taken my hand and whispered, "Then, I think congratulations are in order, Junox." I smiled at the name Grandpa told me belonged to my late grandma. Grandpa always claimed I reminded him of her, and the nickname stuck. 

Together, Grandpa and I began to formulate a plan. Nurse Candy, who had tried her best to look like she wasn't eavesdropping, was sent out to buy what little supplies she could and a bus ticket to somewhere Grandpa promised no one could find me.

"I lived there when I was a boy, and moved back after your grandma passed and your ma moved to the city," Grandpa had explained. "When I got word that you were born, I tried to find somewhere a little closer to family, but that blasted daughter of mine got me first."

I held my breath the whole bus ride waiting for police sirens or a state-wide missing persons blast on someone's phone, but all was quiet. Slowly the well-paved city highway had given way to bumpy county roads. It took hours to navigate the mountain pass between Pelican and Zuzu, but I kept my eyes on the lush foliage beyond the windows. Only when we passed a park sign reading "Welcome to Stardew Valley," did the knot in my stomach begin to fade.

"Last call for Pelican Town!" the driver screams at the remaining riders as I begin to descend the stairs. Without another warning, the door slams shut the moment my feet hit the earth, and the bus rolls away.