Dear Readers,
The next morning, my mother woke me up. She's a big, kind looking lady with a blue dress and a white cap. She gave me a pilchard sandwich to take to my father instead of giving me breakfast! Ah well...
The music here is a nice gentle town theme. I headed outside and it played some festive music, marking this day of the pilchard harvest. I actually like midi music instead of orchestrated music. It just seems to go with games better for some reason. Or maybe I'm just so used to it in games.
My father Pollack is a fisherman. The item stand next to my house sells Pilchard pie. I guess we're a fishing community and it can be seen with names like Pearl, from oysters; and Pollack, which sounds like Pollock.
The lady nearby asked if I wanted to be a fisherman when I grow up since I'm a local lad. The man next to her says he's not usually up by this time but this morning he walked all the way from Estard. I guess that's the next town on this island.
The item shop had a locked chest and no one was inside. I headed back out.
The little boy in front of the mayor's house was all excited about the festival and said how Mayor Mayde's... distant ancestor started it. Seems to go back a very long way. The man in green here wished he could sail with my father's crew and said they may be sailing further north this year.
I went into the mayor's house and spoke to the mayor's wife, Mrs Mayde, who was sitting at the dining table. She greeted me good morning and had great praise for me as a helper to my father. The nosy Maribel is their daughter! Yikes! She said Maribel ran off somewhere this morning. I spoke to their maid, who was singing about being made to be a maid. They have a nice model ship above their dining room table.
I went upstairs and had a look around. Looking in mirrors has some interesting dialogue like in other Dragon Quest games. About having a flushed face, about having a spot and about flashing my most winning smile. Hmm... maybe I'm at girl-noticing-age? I found a hairband in Maribel's room.
I visited my neighbours, an elderly couple. They have great admiration for my father, saying he's the greatest fisherman this village has ever seen. They said their own son was going to be taking the helm this year. Very proud parents. They were looking forward to seeing what weird and wonderful fish they were going to be seeing and feasting on this year. I found a seed of resilience in their basement.
I spoke to the Priest again and he said he couldn't believe I was already sixteen years old. Ah so that's how old I am in this story... Actually the whole fishing community thing explains my hat. The anglers in Fantasy Life have very similar looking hats, except with fishy face features!
The lady by the town gate was there to greet visitors, and also to stop me from leaving.
Two ladies were chatting by the jetty. The older lady wishes she married a fisherman and said they were great heroes. Wow! Being a fisherman sounds like the best thing to be here! The young lady hopes her husband will get back from the trip safely.
The sailor in the red bandanna and a-shirt was put out about having a cold, saying he should be saying "Ahoy", not "Ah-choo". He came from Estard as well.
I boarded the ship, where my father and Mayor Mayde were talking about fishing spots. My father's expertise told him they'll have to fish somewhere other than the usual spot and the Mayor didn't seem sure about it.
They greeted me enthusiastically and my dad asked in good humour if I was ready to do some work "for a change". Ah... it's the life of a sixteen year old kid alright! First things first though, he had to have the pilchard sandwich my mother made him. I was curious enough to look up "pilchard" and it's some kind of sardine. Huh, learning new stuff here!
By the way, one of the things I love about Dragon Quest games is the way the text scrolls when you wriggle the D-Pad, or by pressing any other button really. Little touches like that I love, and I can do it with the 3DS circle pad too and hold it in a direction to keep the text scrolling! Woo!
The sailor on deck welcomed me aboard for my first fishing voyage and said my father was the best fisherman in the business. Below deck, another sailor was talking about younger sailors and the natural enthusiasm vs experience issue they had.
In the chests I found a cypress stick and a set of wayfarer's clothes. I equipped them. The two sailors by the map in the next room, one of them was the husband of the young woman outside and had heartache to be leaving her to go on a voyage. He asked me if I understood his pain! The other one was excited to be heading to a different fishing spot than before.
Downstairs from here I spotted a familiar orange hood behind some barrels... It was Maribel! She told me to get lost or I'd blow her cover. The chef came out and spotted her and told her to leave. She really wanted to come along fishing. She had the same desire as Kiefer and myself about wanting to see what kind of world was out there and also couldn't accept that we were on the only island in the world. She said she'll get me for this, and she left... Hmm... I wonder if this was an event that had to happen? What if I just left her there? I'm not sure...
The sailor in the next room was another one who talked about how famous my father was, but he also mentioned my father's brother, whom he said was infamous... hm...
The chef was in the next room. I found a chimaera wing here. He said he was nearly finished peeling the potatoes. He also said he noticed me getting an earful off of Maribel and laughed at how spirited she was.
I went back to the deck. The music stopped and it was just sea sloshing sounds. My father said it was almost time to set sail and I had to stay here at home as I was only a codling. He said I'll be a great fisherman someday since I'm his son, but for now I had to stay at home and look after my mother. He's like a Greek god of a man with lots of muscles, white open chested tunic, a prominent beard and a big manly smile.
I left the boat. They mayor stayed on board. He wears his hair pulled back and also has a mustache. He ordered the crew to set sail and a dramatic piece of music played while they hoisted anchor and shoved off. Quite nice! Also, better than the sailing moment in Dragon Quest VIII, where they just played the overture again.
Then it was back to me on the jetty with the regular town theme. There was no one else here on the jetty with me besides a dog and the sneezing sailor.
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