(AN) Hey. It's me, Lizzie. It's been a while. I've been cursed with insomnia and decided to be productive with it... so I wanted to write some fanfiction for my favourite game and tell my OCs story my way.

'What on earth am I doing,' Thought Avalon Pendragonache the moment she set eyes on the plot of land in front of her.

She had, due to recent events, decided her life needed a complete 180 degree turn. She needed out of that horrible crowded city with its fake people. She needed to be as far away as possible from her family home. She needed to do something with her life that wasn't keeping up appearances with people she could barely stand to be around.

A week ago she had noticed the advert at the back of a newspaper left at the table of her favourite cafe. Just a small plea, a plot of land for sale in a tiny village. And Avalon was desperate enough for an escape. Desperate enough to wake with the sun, pack her worldly possessions, and take the first train out of the city. The train plunged deeper into the countryside as the sun rose higher in the sky. Skyscrapers gave way to high rises - gave way to low rises - gave way to no rises at all. Soon most buildings were one story cottages here and there, and Avalon began to feel nervous. She had lived in the city for so long that the open sky unnerved her. And how could she live without late night sushi delivered to her apartment? She already felt regret bubbling up in her soul…

She got out at the very last stop of the train, going to the back of the carriage to fetch her one pinata she brought from her old life. Hemlock nervously but obediently followed the helper in charge of keeping things running right and timely on the train. He cheered up immensely as soon as he saw his favourite person in the world, and shook off the nervousness of being stuck in a little metal tube all morning with no hay OR apples! Avalon quickly threw her saddle over him, her bag full of her things, and lately herself onto his back (in that order).

Avalon felt that pit of regret dig deeper as Hemlock clip clopped through the town square. Or what remained of it. On first glance, most of the buildings in this dismal little village were boarded up and had weeds overtaking them. Avalon hadn't expected this village to be a ghost town…

'I guess even normal hours sushi isn't a thing here…' Avalon grumbled under her breath as they passed a fountain that looked like it hadn't held water in a decade.

Hemlock wasn't sure what sushi was, so he made a little horse huff because he at least knew his favourite person was upset.

'Let's hope this so called garden isn't a reflection of what the town looks like…' Avalon clenched her jaw as they followed a little road that was more hole than road. She instinctually glanced up the path to see where it was meandering, and felt a jolt of panic. She instantly dismounted Hemlock and pulled him along with her. She knew that if she stayed on his back, she would have turned him right back around and fled this horrible place. She approached the garden in a daze.

What Avalon had expected was an empty lot filled with grass. Maybe a bush or a tree. Some pure, untouched land left fallow that she could muck about in and work through the many thoughts buzzing around her head.

What she DIDN'T expect was…. this junkyard. It was a good sized plot of land but absolutely littered with the remains of pinata houses and garden decorations. The soil was cracked and uneven, and what grass did grow looked scrubby and full of weeds. For a moment she wondered if this was some sort of joke, that she had been tricked into being a trash collector.

'Oh, hello!'

Avalon was ripped from her thoughts full of regret as a young woman about her own height bounded out of the charming little tree house by the garden's border. She stuck a hand out to shake and beamed 'I'm Leafos. Thank you so much for coming!'

'Err, Avalon Pendragonache,' Said Avalon as she hesitantly shook Leafos' hand, her gaze drifting back to her biggest recent mistake. How on earth was that Barkbark house upside-down!?

'Pendragonache?' Leafos mumbled and tapped her lips with a finger as she thought. 'That name sounds familiar…'

'Oh, we're a very old family,' Avalon found herself blurting out. It'd be easier to get this out of the way first… 'We focus on racing pinatas, maybe you've seen the name there?'

Leafos frowned and thought to herself for a few moments, obviously not convinced that was where she heard Avalon's family name. But she quickly shook it off.

'I'll have to try to remember later. What's important is you're here now! We've been trying for ages to get someone to take care of our old garden… Sorry you had to see the place like this...' Leafos sighs as she limply gestures to what used to be the greatest garden on the island.

'I wish... you were a little more honest in the advertisement,' said Avalon, looking at what was now the biggest junk pile on the island.

'Well, we were for years, but there's some sort of… well, there's a lot of rumours about this garden-' Leafos jumped a little and waved her hands at Avalon urgently. 'Not-not that any of those are true!'

'You mean the rumour that this land is cursed, right?' Avalon crossed her arms and stared Leafos down.

The downfall of Jardiniero and the destruction of both his land and his family was infamous across the island. It signaled the end of an era, the years of peaceful gardening were over. The Island's most charismatic villain cut his teeth on this first plot and had been nothing but insufferable ever since.

'Which is completely false!' Leafos took a step back, wilting a little under Avalon's glare. 'Believe me! We had so many years of happiness before that happened! It wouldn't make sense for a curse to wait that long!'

Avalon didn't know enough about curses to know if Leafos was telling the truth or not, so she just stared Leafos down for a few tense moments before sighing and burying her mask in her hand. 'Curse or no curse, I've attached my name to the land deed, and something tells me you won't let me back out of it.'

A smile flashed across Leafos' face and she chirped 'Absolutely not! At least try working on it for a few days, I have a feeling you'll have fun before you know it!'

Avalon frowned at Leafos for a few seconds. Leafos looked so sweet and earnest, it was hard to try to resent her.

'If you call hauling junk away 'fun',' Avalon grumbled, and a flicker of…. some unnamable emotion flickered across Leafos' mask. But Avalon was too busy staring at the garden, sizing up how monumental of a task this was going to be.

'Avalon, have you had lunch yet!?' Leafos said, suddenly changing the subject. 'I can make us all sandwiches and I can show you the basics of what to do in the garden!'

'Oh, uh...' said Avalon as she looked behind her at her favourite Horstachio, who had been waiting obediently several paces behind Avalon this entire time. His name was Hemlock and was a very attractive deep purple variant. His saddle was festooned with a thick covering of medals from all the races he had won (and Ponockies destroyed)

'Is there anywhere I could keep my Horstachio?' Asked Avalon. 'I was hoping that I could just let him loose in the garden, but I have a feeling he wouldn't last five minutes in there.'

Leafos stared over Avalon, in awe of the colour and build of Hemlock. She made a mental note to ask Avalon if she could draw him later. The way he held himself was so jaunty... 'We use that big purple barn over there as kind of a communal barn for everyone in the village. You can keep him in there until your garden is under way. He'll be safe and warm!'

Avalon nodded approvingly at how purple the barn was.

'Oh, I should also bring my stuff to the inn while I'm at it,' said Avalon as she started to pull a very heavy looking bag off her Horstachio. It had cost Avalon a surprising amount of money because of the clever enchantment on it. It was bewitched to hold several times over what a normal bag that size could hold. Unfortunately, it did not also have a secondary enchantment to make it feel like it wasn't holding a 24 year old woman's every earthly possession.

Good thing Avalon was strong.

'Wait, you're going to stay at the inn?' Leafos was suddenly at Avalon's side, grabbing onto the other end of the bag. 'Oh no, you can't stay there, it's much too loud! Everyone stays up late drinking and carrying on, you'd have to walk a long way in the dark, board isn't included in the room fee… what I mean is, you're staying with us!'

Avalon protested, but Leafos held firm. 'We have so much space, it really wouldn't be any trouble at all!'

Avalon could tell that arguing against Leafos was hopeless, and quickly gave up. She had spent the entire first half of her day traveling from the big city, fretting and mildly regretting her drastic life change, and didn't have the energy to do much else.

'It won't be for long,' Avalon said as she lugged her bag full of most of her worldly possessions towards Leafos' house. 'I'm having a little house built for me close by.' She said with a hint of finality.

'You're welcome to stay as long as you like!' Leafos said cheerfully as she held the door open for Avalon. She was impressed by how casually Avalon carried that bag! 'It's been really lonely around here since...' she shook her head '... anyway, it'd be nice to hear someone else's voice around the house!'

Avalon was relieved to find that she didn't have to crouch to enter the house. She was so used to having to duck to avoid doorways in smaller buildings so she immediately felt comfortable.

'Welcome to your temporary new home!' Leafos said as she gestured around the living room.

Avalon was immediately overwhelmed with nostalgia that wasn't her own. A recessed area by the door held gardening boots and a very disused shovel, which Avalon found odd because Leafos seemed the type of person who wouldn't wear anything on her feet. The room was filled with several worn couches and chairs, more than just Leafos and Jardiniero would need. The walls were cluttered with art jammed into random mismatched frames, needlepoint pinata, and hundreds upon hundreds of awards.

Avalon, being a huge fan of minimalism, almost physically reeled back because she could barely tell what colour the wall was painted. Was this what… a loving family home looked like inside!?

'We have plenty of space to put you- you can stay in my bed and I'll sleep on the couch…..' Leafos tried to pick up Avalon's bag herself but couldn't budge it.

'Leafos, I'll sleep on the couch,' Avalon said firmly as she watched Leafos in amusement. 'No sense in changing everything up just for this. I'll be out of your hair as soon as my new house is finished anyway.'

'Nonsense!' Leafos grunted as she tried her very hardest to lift Avalon's bag, but it was barely moving. 'You're the guest!'

Avalon snorted and perched on the end of the sofa. 'Tell you what, Leafos,' Avalon raised an eyebrow, 'If you can move that bag to your bedroom, I'll take your bed.'

'It's a deal!' Leafos stuck her hand out to shake, a determined expression on her face.