Hey everyone! My name is DreamingShina, and this will be my first fanfiction here on ! I've been a lurker here on the site for quite a few years, but finally decided to give some writing a shot and see where it goes. So here is my first story for Harvest Moon, Meteor Shower. This will be a WizardxAngela pairing, and the rating as of right now will be a T. However, that may change as the story progresses, so we shall see what happens. Any sort of comments or criticisms will be welcomed, as I am here to improve my writing and get a certain style going. So don't be afraid to give me ideas or concerns in your reviews!
Disclaimer: All mentioned characters, names, and places are not of my creation. They belong to Marvelous Entertainment, Natusme, and the Harvest Moon team who created Animal Parade. I just write stories for them.
If someone were to ask me, "Do you believe in fate?", I'd have honestly replied that it was nothing but a silly notion. A dreamer's ideal. I would much rather take matters into my own hands than leave it in the hands of something I could never see. I was a practical woman, and most of my life I worked to get what I wanted. Thank my parents for that. They taught me much of what I know today.
Still, I wonder what they would have said if I told them I would be a farmer girl after dropping out of college, working on a small island that barely anyone knew or even heard about. Or that I would encounter a sprite by the name of Finn, soon to become one of my closest friends in my new life. Or that I was destined to save Castanet Island and the Harvest Goddess by ringing the bells to bring life back to the desolate little place. Yeah, they'd have gotten a good laugh out of that. Even I would have scoffed at the idea.
Yet here I was, plucking out tomato and onion plants from the ground and creating furrows in the unused plots for future crops to be planted. My eyes gazed out to the corn stalks growing beside the cherry trees, nearly ripened and ready for picking as my animals contented themselves to the sun shining down. It had been a tough couple of weeks starting out, but I was proud to say that my farm was starting to look like an actual farm now.
My thoughts soon drifted off to the next step the Goddess had given me.
"The green bell is your new task, Angela. If the strength of the wind is to return and bring back what Castanet needs to revive itself, you must have it ring. Find the bell and have Daren return what once was lost." Finn exclaimed that Daren's pedestal was at the Horn Ranch windmill, but to our dismay both the bell and sprite were missing when we arrived. "I suppose we could go ask the Witch," Finn said.
I gave him an incredulous look. "The Witch? There's a witch living here?" Finn huffed. "Yes, but she lives in Fugue Forest. I hear she's pretty scary too! She could possibly help us out, but I don't know if it's such a good idea."
Of course, we had no other choice. After much consolation given to Dale for letting me have the key and trekking through the forest's twisted paths, we soon came upon a hut in the middle of a swamp. "That must be her house!" Finn said.
Guess what the sprite spoken of was true. I nodded, faintly noticing the tremor of my hand as I cautiously opened the door. "Hello? Miss Witch?" No one answered. Instead, a large croak was what I received. "WAHHHHH!" Finn's scream made me turn in fear. I was surprised to see nothing but a large pink frog sitting on the table, a black hat perched on its head. The Witch's pet, perhaps? "It's going to eat me, Angela! Save me!" The frog only croaked once more. Sensing no danger (of course Finn still clung to the collar on my shirt as he eyed the frog down), we set out looking through the house, in every nook and corner, but there was no sign of the Witch anywhere. With a heavy heart and sigh, we soon left.
Which left me to where I was right now. No Witch, no Daren, and no bell.
My chin leaned on top of my hands, balancing atop the hoe that had finished its job for the day. It would be useless to talk to anyone about my situation. Call it intuition, but I felt that my task had to be kept secret, as crazy as it was. That and people probably wouldn't have believed me anyway if I did talk about it. Not many people decided to go into Fugue Forest on a daily basis, let alone as far into it as I have. No, asking about a Witch with supposedly magical powers would have gotten me many odd looks. The townsfolk would have thought I was nuts.
But who am I supposed to ask? The Goddess doesn't have any power to find her, and the Harvest Sprites are too afraid to see for themselves. It was becoming immensely frustrating. "Maybe I need a break," I mumbled. The Ocarina Inn sounded like a good place to do just that.
"Angela!" a high pitched squeal reached my ears, blonde pigtails bobbing over as Maya gave me one of her large bear hugs. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!" "Sorry, I've been busy," I replied with a sheepish grin. The waitress gave me a frown, cheeks puffed out in a pouty expression. "Well, it's my break anyway. Let's go sit somewhere!" She dragged me to a table by the kitchen, giving Colleen a small wave in hello. "The usual, dear?" "You know me too well."
Maya, as loud and boisterous as she was, was one of the first people I came to know here on Castanet, and thus my closest friend. Sure, she was annoying at times and even childish at others, but she was a generally nice person and I enjoyed her company. Colleen soon returned with a blueberry juice in hand, taking the money I owed her. "I hope you haven't been overworking yourself, Angela. You need a break every once in a while too, you know."
"Don't worry, Colleen. Just doing my job, is all." She gave me a smile, but answered in a stern voice, "Well, if you ever need help don't be afraid to ask, okay? You can't always be working and skip out on eating regular meals. It's not healthy."
Of course, Colleen wouldn't understand why I had been working nonstop the past few weeks. The blue bell had been a pain to ring since Ben had forgotten the melody. So we needed to find a way to have him remember, which involved a crazy contraption Paolo created and items that I would have to work in attaining them. In the end, though, the plan had pulled through and the blue bell had been rung.
"So! Guess what happened." Maya's voice broke me out of my stupor, and I gave her a questioning look to the wide grin on her face.
"Uh... you finally made your apple pies stop exploding?" The girl scowled at my jab to her horrid cooking skills. "No, you dummy! I asked Chase to the Summer Festival." Both eyebrows now raised, curiosity piqued. "You wanna know what he said?" she whispered. I took a sip from my drink, about to answer her before her delighted squeal beat me to it. "He said yes!"
Chase was the local chef, working over at the Brass Bar. He excelled in his profession and held an air of confidence to what he did, much to Maya's pleasure and envy. So of course, the girl felt the need to latch onto the peach-haired man and learn a thing or two from him, at the same time hoping to garner some attention. The cooking piece never worked out, no matter how hard they tried. Still, Chase held affection for the bubbly woman, and it was nice to see Maya's feelings reciprocated for once compared to the aloofness the chef originally gave her when they first met.
"Glad to see it all worked out!" I replied, giving Maya a smile. She squealed again.
"I'll have to thank the fortune teller when I see him again. It's thanks to what he said that I asked Chase to begin with!"
My brows furrowed in confusion. "A... fortune teller?" I knew most of the people here on the island, but not once has anyone mentioned a person handing out magic tricks and horoscopes to the townsfolk for money. Why hadn't I met this guy before?
"Oh, you don't know?" Maya asked. "There's a man here in town, up near the church that tells people their fortunes. Most of the girls go up to ask about their crushes and whatnot, or just for advice on certain things. You should go meet him! Maybe he can tell your fortune, if you want to know. Maybe see if there's a guy for you to look out for?" She gave me a sly smirk with her last sentence.
The idea was a little farfetched to me, I will admit. Fortune tellers, from my past experiences in the city, were nothing but a bunch of phonies out to get people's money in exchange for stupid excuses as to why their love lives were going downhill. I never fell for their silly tricks, thankfully, but I've met a few poor fools who unfortunately lost a lot to them, at least money wise.
Then again... was a fortune teller really as preposterous as seeing Finn floating right next to me, or the Harvest Goddess giving me her guidance? Witches and magic, sprites and goddesses... Practical me from back then would have never believed it if I told her. Now it was difficult to see almost anything here that didn't have magic in some form or another.
"Maybe he can help us find the Witch!" Finn added in. That peaked my interest. There wasn't much else I could do at the moment to find her, and if what Maya said was true, maybe he could be the key to getting what I needed. Suddenly I was filled with renewed vigor. It was a bit of a long shot, but it was better than not trying at all.
"Thanks, Maya! I should get back to work, but I'll see you tomorrow?" Maya grinned. "Of course!"
It wasn't all that difficult to find the house, Harmonica Town being as small as it was. Finn located the small building atop the hill, motioning me in his direction. "Here it is, Angela!" I peered at the sign in the front, the words Wizard's House scrawled on the board.
"A wizard? I thought he was a fortune teller." Shrugging, my hand knocked on the door a few times. Silence was given before a soft-spoken voice soon answered me.
"Come in..."