The Piper Boy (A OUAT Fan Fiction)

Chapter 1

*3 Weeks Ago*

It was the same thing everyday. Nothing changed in such a small village. To Amily it was as if everything stayed in the same grey blur it had always been for her entire life. And she was scared things would never change.

Even the people she encountered everyday seemed to say and do the exact same thing. Her daily walk to the market was probably as exciting as the day got.

"Morning Amily!" said one familiar grocer. Amily tried to name him but couldn't. A friend of a neighbour perhaps?

So she smiled and kept browsing through the same things she browsed through yesterday.

After purchasing some dried fruit, nuts and cheap cow-hide blanket Amily spotted something she had not seen yesterday. Strawberries! Just the smell of them bought back memories from her childhood, when everyday was an adventure. After returning home covered in dirt from wrestling pilgrims or defending pixies her father would give her strawberries, freshly picked from the neighbouring village's farms. But as Amily grew older and her father's cough grew louder there came no more strawberries. Maybe just a few would cheer him up...

"Morning!" she said cheerfully to the vendor.

He wore a hood and Amily couldn't see his face. His back was bent and he paid her no attention. Whatever had his attention at his feet must've been captivating. He didn't even bother to murmer a response. Amily tried again, persistent.

"I'd like to buy some strawberries, please" she grinned sweetly. The vendor grunted in curiosity. And, still without looking up from the floor, he asked:

"How many?" he grumbled. His voice was nothing more than a hoarse bark.

"Six please" said Amily politely. Even six of the small berries would cost more than her sweet pennies.

"That'll be twelve silvers" he voice became clearer now with the prospect of money on the horizon. She guessed not many people could afford strawberries in the harsh winter. Buisness must have been hard but twelve silvers was unimaginable. Amily tried to think of an alternative.

"I'm sorry I only have eight pennies" she said slowly.

"That won't even buy you one strawberry, hon." said the vendor and Amily could see a yellow-toothed grin beneath the hood.

"Is there anything else I could give you?" she asked pleadingly.

Finally the face revealed itself. An ugly one but younger than she expected. He probably couldn't match her father's age, though ills had aged her father by a century. She tried to avoid cringing away from the ugly man and stood her ground. Amily managed a small smile.

"I like your necklace" grunted the vendor.

Amily sighed. She should have seen this coming. She weighed the options in her mind. What mattered more, the strawberries that would bring at least a smile to her father's weathered face or some pendant from a grandparent she couldn't remember? Slowly Amily unclasped the pendant from around her neck and placed it in the vendor's wrinkled, calloused hand.

"I'll need the pennies too" The vendor had a customer and she was desperate. He'd get what he wanted without question.

Rolling her eyes in frustration Amily pulled the pennies from her purse and held out her hand for the strawberries.

"Happy now?" she slammed the pennies on the counter loudly. The vendor seemed unaffected and seemed to mimick her sweet smile from moments ago.

"Have a nice day" he said sickeningly.

***

Amily ran all the way home. She couldn't wait to show these strawberries to her father. They'd share them like the old days and it would be like nothing's changed. She sighed happily as she reached the steps to her family's old cottage.

Practically bounding to her father's room she threw open the door.

Silence hung in the air as Amily took in the scene before her. Her mother knelt beside her father's bed and she looked pale. On the opposite side of the room were her siblings, her older brother Marcus and the youngest, Timothy. They both looked sullen.

Amily gasped and ran for her father's side. She knew what came next. The only time the family had gathered like this in a room was when her father hadn't stopped coughing for several minutes and they waited for what they thought was the end. But there was none of that now. Everyone knew what was coming, this was the end.

"Papa...I..." she stuttered, completely unprepared for what was coming.

But all at once she saw her mother's paleness, her brothers' sad surprise and her father's vacant eyes and gasped in horror. While bargaining for strawberries and browsing the supermarket for the fifth time this week, it had already happened. Amily's father was dead.

"Papa!" she sobbed. "I... I bought... strawberries" she whimpered out the words and leant her head on her father's now cold arm, not holding back tears. Amily didn't even notice when her family left the room.

 ~Hey guys, sorry this chapter is a bit sad... and has nothing to do with Pan. I thought I'd stretch it out a bit~