Siiiiiigh... Well the other day I was happily playing Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life. Then, just out of nowhere, my character died. I cried. And then I cried again because the Heaven Chapter feels so... different. It's just a freeplay mode... and nothing happens, and none of the stuff that was discussed at the end of the game (the cutscenes before the credits) has actually happened yet. And yeah, I guess I did have a wonderful life, but it's just so... depressing... to go back and keep playing it.

Well, now that I'm done being an emo kid, I don't want to go play GameCube, so here's a story instead.

NOTE: Most of the time, this story is told from the point of view of Ashlii, who is the daughter of Jill and Skye (There is a particular reason I chose Skye; I'll adress it in another chapter). Sometimes I will have to switch this mid-story to get in other events that are taking place. I'll let you know with squigglies ).

ANOTHER NOTE: I pretty much moved all of the HMDS peoples into the AWL world. It's much easier to reference things when you've seen them in 3-D.

.I.D.o.n.t.O.w.n.H.a.r.v.e.s.t.M.o.o.n.

--Chapter One--

--Winter 13, Thursday--

Wheee! I'm so excited!! Tomorrow's Mom's birthday, and we're surprising her first-thing in the morning. Well, me and Dad, that is. Jay-jay's spending the night at Tyler's. Jay just loves to help Celia and Marlin with the crops. Of course, we do have crops here, but him and Tyler are the best of friends, so he likes to go over there a lot.

Well, back to Mom's birthday. We made a cake earlier today, and Dad said he was gonna set it on Mom's nighttable before going to bed. At the moment, I'm trying to think of something to write in this card that really means something; not just the typical "Have a happy birthday, Mom!". It's not as easy as you'd think. I don't want to be too tacky, and I don't want to make it too long, and I have to--

CRASH!

Oh God. What just happened? It came from Mom and Dad's room... What just happened?

"Dad? What's goin-- oh. my. god!!"

Mom's in a heap on the floor. Motionless. (So is the cake, but that's not really important now.). What's happening?!

Dad has just now snapped back to reality and is trying to help Mom off the floor.

I'm just standing here, completely dumfounded. This isn't happening... It can't be!! Siigh... No matter how much I'm trying to convince myself, I have to face reality: this really is happening.

"Ash!"

"Yeah, Dad?"

"Go get help. Now."

--

Gah. I'm running as fast as I can, but I feel like I'm not going anywhere... Ugh... I have to stop and catch my breath or I'm gonna die... I-- Ah! Dr. Hardy! (Now that I think about it, he should have been the first person that I had thought of, but my mind is busy with other things right now...)

So instinctivley, I'm sitting here banging on his front door like it's the only thing left to do in the world...

"May I ask who's knocking at 3 in the morning?" Dr. Hardy seems to be in a good mood right now. Too bad for him, 'cause this whole situation is gonna kill it... "Oh, Ashlii. What can I do for you at this hour?"

"Mom. It's... she's.." I don't want to say it. I don't know why, but have this feeling, that if I say it, it's gonna be true. Can't he just... read my mind... or something...

"I... I think she's dying..."

Of course, Dr. Hardy hadn't stuck around long enough to hear what I said. He had taken off as soon as I mentioned Mom.

--

I'm sitting in the kitchen with Dad. It's kinda like in the movies when you see people in a hospital waiting to find out if the person's okay or not. Maybe this will be like one of those happy movies, where everything is just fine... please?...

Dr. Hardy just walked out of mom's room. He's not willing to look at either me or Dad. There's a deafening silence filling the room.

... No...

"Ashlii. Go pick up your brother..."

--

Great. More door-knocking...

"Hello, Ashlii" Celia's all smiles, as usual. I feel like she shouldn't be smiling, due to the situation I'm in. But really, at this point, the only people who know what happened are me, Dad, Dr. Hardy, and probably by now, Takakura.

"Are you here to pick up Jay-jay?"

"Yep!" I, on the other hand, have no reason to be smiling like this. I just don't want to worry Celia. You know how she gets.

"Yay!!" Jay's such a noisy kid... "It's sissy! Yaay!"

"Have a good weekend. And tell your Mom that I'm wishing her a happy birthday!" ... I wish she wasn't so polite...

"Sissy, guess what?"

"What?" More fake smiling.

"Me an' Tyler did crafts yesterday, and guess what?"

"What?"

"I made Mommy a pretty necklace for her birthday!!"

"..."

... Jay...

--End of Chapter One--

So, yeah. I do have plans for further chapters.

NOTE: Yayyyy! This is the longest single chapter I've ever written. (I usually write really short chapters...)

(I can't seem to get the stupid thing to save my horizontal rulers. Anyone else having this problem?)