June the 20th 2012
This is Our Home
©Elise the Writing Desk, Heart no Kuni no Alice©QuinRose
Harvest Moon Save the Homeland©Natsume
Ciel Phantomhive©Yana Toboso
It's Elise here. Skip this author note as you please!
This is based from (and the result of playing too much) Harvest Moon FoMT. I put in some characters from Harvest Moon StH and Ciel Phantomhive is starring here. Also there's going to be an OC I made. Why? Because I need more girls, honestly. But the story mainly revolves around HnKnA characters.
And please point out my grammar mistakes. English is not my mother language, you see.
Chapter 1: Meta Farm
Julius put down the water hose, squatted, and started to view the new farm his father had bought for him in the last six months. It was rough, but worth the time he spent—unlike in the big cities, time passed slowly there, and it felt meaningful. Despite how rare he went out to socialize—he wasn't good at this—the townspeople there were nice to him, and there weren't many of them, so he knew everyone. He recalled how ignorant the people from big cities—that he couldn't remember most of them.
The long-haired young man wasn't one to be active socially—rather, he was afraid of attachment, which was why he asked his father to hand that old farm to him. It was his grandfather's farm, from his mother's side. He had visited the farm once, and nothing had change ever since; except for how he recalled that the town was bigger when he was a child, but he didn't expect more nor less.
Within six months, Julius had spent his time growing new crops and plants. The field was rather wide than he couldn't fill most of them, so he grew some green grasses to cover the emptiness. On Winter; from December, the farm was deadly cold, and nothing lived on the farm. He spent the Winter to clean up the field and prepared the house and stuff to welcome the Spring; planting season. Of course, he received help from a young teen named Ace, who asked to work there. And that May, the crops and the orchards were blossoming, green and healthy.
It was only a matter of time until their first harvest; he would get his first hard-earned payment, and he finally could pay for Ace's efforts for the last six months. Everything was going smoothly, and Julius couldn't ask for more.
However, there was a question that he couldn't find the answer.
The young man raised up and stretched his arms. Julius dragged his eyes onto the crops fields, looking for Ace, whom he thought was watering the crops. The brunette teen wasn't there, though he wouldn't worry. There weren't so many places to visit in that town, so it wouldn't be hard to find him.
Speak of the devil...
"Julius! Come here!" Ace waved from afar, he was coming from the Meta Farm's entrance. Worried and curious, the raven-haired man quickly approached. The young lad seemed extremely panic.
What surprised Julius the most, there was a girl on Ace's back, unconscious.
"Who is that?" he asked.
"I have no idea. I just found her at the beach. Gowland wasn't there, I tried to go to the Clinic, but I ended up here instead..." Ace explained. Julius rubbed his temple.
Ace was a directionally-challenged person, so Julius had never expect him to go around—he even had to escourt Ace back to the Inn, where he lived, or the brunette would never get there until dawn.
"Alright, take her to my house and cook something for her. I'll go get the doctor."
Ace lifted the girl firmly on his back again and went to the small house in Meta Farm. After making sure the girl was comfortable on Julius' bed, he put on his apron and started to cook. Cooking was something that Ace would never get wrong, something he had done to survive, until he found Meta Farm, where he cook for his own amusement, and work by helping Julius on the field; he was a homeless young teen, so he was glad to find something that he could call as a job.
He cooked some rice grail and warm thick onion soup, and then heard the girl groaned weakly. Ace turned off the simple stove, taking a glass of water with him, then approached the girl on the bed.
"Can you sit or get up a bit?" he asked. The girl dragged herself with the last of energy she had, and Ace carefully helped her to drink the water. She was pale and obviously hadn't eaten for Lord knows how long. The brunette boy scowled when he felt something odd, and put a hand on the girl's head, and surprised by the high fever she had.
"Here, let me fix your pillow." Ace fixed the pillow so she could sit without effort, and went to take the food.
After quite a while, Ace helped her eat until she could eat by her own.
"Better now?"
She weakly nodded. "Thanks..." she murmured with hoarse voice. Finally Julius came with the doctor. His name was Gray Ringmarc, and he quickly act without questioning anything.
"I think...she caught a fever." Ace said. Gray nodded knowingly.
"That's true, but I'm afraid it's worse than a Spring fever." The doctor added.
"Where did you find her again?" Julius asked, crossing his arms and observed the girl.
"She was deserted from the ocean...I think, because she was lying there on the shore when I was collecting some beach herbs." The brunette teen explained again. "Is she going to be okay?"
"Of course, she will. Just make sure she drink this parasetamol," Gray put a bottle on the nearest table, "...and good thinking, for letting her eat rice grail. Her gastric needs some adaptation before she could eat heavy food."
The girl opened her eyes wider this time, and blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes. The men in the room fell silent, observing her intently. They were having some thoughts in their mind. Ace was excited for some reason, for he had not seen new faces in town. Gray, on the other hand, was worrying something very bad. Julius was torn, he had no idea what to do for the girl. She had no money, she couldn't possibly staying at the Inn for free...He hoped she'd knew where to go.
"Where...am I...?" she asked. And at that, Ace realized her eyes were turquoise, like deep fishing pond, or the hot spring at Summer. Refreshing color.
"You're in Meta Farm, in Essence Island. I'm Dr. Gray, this young lad is Ace, and this is Julius, the owner of this farm." Gray replied. The girl groaned in pain and rubbed her head. That was when Gray noticed the scar on top of her head. He pulled her hand and scowled.
"Can you remember something?"
Ace and Julius exchanged worried looks at that question. The girl frowned, obviously was thinking hard, and Gray's worst fear came true. The young doctor gazed up to Julius.
"Apparently, she lost her memories in the ocean." He turned to the girl carefully. "Can you tell me anything you can recall?"
The girl's eyes flickered weakly and she looked down, holding her head with both hands. Crooning silently, she finally spoke in her slightly clearer voice.
"Floating...in the ocean...and...storm..." she murmured weakly. "...I could only remember I was on a beach, and there was the storm...suddenly, I'm already...here."
Apparently that was something very important; her memory. And she was very sad to forgot it. Julius scowled, then noticed the small rucksack on her back, he abruptly took it.
"Julius, can't you be gentle!" Gray scolded him, but then fell silent when the man was busy searching in the rucksack. There was nothing inside except for an expensive, new journal, that was still wrapped with plastic.
The girl's eyes widened, and she snatched that journal from him. She abruptly tore the plastic wrap and searched in the new journal.
"It's new, there's nothing that possibly written on it..." Julius said.
"I think...they're my family." The girl suddenly spoke, and she looked up at them again, this time with a bright smile. "Look!" she showed a black-and-white photo that was attached to the journal. There was the girl, a woman and a man, they were waving to the camera in front of the dock.
"It seems that journal was made for you." Gray noted, and stood. "Now the problem is, where is she going to stay. For all I know, there aren't any empty house left in this town."
"Why don't just stay with Julius?" Ace chirped with a grin, but then it faltered when Julius gave him a disagreeing scowl. He couldn't afford to live with a stranger under the same roof, let alone a girl! Julius shook his head and voiced out his opinion, and Ace sighed in defeat.
"Well...she could stay at the inn?" Ace shrugged with hope.
"I'm not sure she has money on her, Ace. How can she pay the rent?" Gray shook his head slowly.
The three fell silent, busy finding solutions in their minds, when suddenly a soft voice broke their trains of thoughts; "I'm sorry."
Julius gazed down to the girl, and saw the young girl was smiling wearily. "I've been causing trouble for you all so suddenly." She said softly, "But...if it's fine with you, I will be very grateful if you let me stay until I can walk again and I promise I'll leave right away."
No one said anything. Gray and Ace regretted what they had said earlier, and Julius seemed flustered. They just realized they weren't being polite to spoke about her as if she wasn't there in the first place. The blonde girl just stared down on her lap, expressionless. It was too awkward that none knew what to say; but not Julius. He was silent all the time, thinking for the solution, and wondered why the girl wouldn't ask something she should've known what to do. However, she needed encouragement, and none would know what to say. So it had to be him.
"I don't mind if it's just the rent payment." He spoke up again. The other two men turned at him, surprised. "We're going to have our first harvest soon, so it won't be a problem to pay her rent. Unless Blood wants his money now, I can only pay half of the rent for the time being. How about that?" he awkwardly stared at the girl, whose eyes widened.
She was surprised, and opened her mouth while thinking of something to say, but Ace clapped his hands.
"You're so smart, Julius! Yeah, I don't mind to share room, by the way!" the brunette grinned, and faltered again as he got some suspecting stares from both Gray and Julius. "...Okay, maybe not sharing room."
The girl swallowed and found her voice again. "Using...your payments?" she asked timidly, but happy at the same time. Julius smiled, a little embarrassed to know that he had made her happy.
"Then you're not alone, Julius." Gray put his hand on the young man's shoulder, "I'll ask the townspeople to help the payments."
"And don't worry for the food, it's on me!" Ace grinned to her proudly. The girl, on the other hand, was surprised and obviously embarrassed.
"Th-The townspeople?" the girl gaped in total shock, "I can't let you do that! It's like I'm...I'm...well, I've been making too much trouble already, so I just can't—"
"It's fine, it's fine, they wouldn't mind." Gray finally smiled at her to ease her burdened feeling, and patted her hair. She seemed troubled and was deep in thought for a while. Suddenly she spoke again, softly.
"Then...please let me do the work too." The young girl stared at Julius with determination in her eyes. "I can't just accept all he kindness, I want to return it too!"
She sighed, and smiled, this time truly grateful and happy to know that she was in good hands. Gray smiled again, and Ace laughed, patting the girl's head. Julius' smile grew too, as he felt warmth in his heart.
Soon after Gray left, Julius and Ace escourted the girl to the Inn. Ace needed to return without getting lost, and Julius wanted the Inn keeper; Blood, to meet the girl and talk to her so he could consider if she could stay or not. The blonde just followed both of them faithfully, as they traveled apart from Gray and waved at him vigorously.
The cool breeze wiped them, scattering some green leaves from the trees above them. The girl laughed and went chasing the leaves, Ace followed suit while laughing heartily. Julius smiled and inhaled the breeze, remembering how he wouldn't be able to get such fresh air back at the town. He told both of them the differences he got between the city and Essence Island.
Ace scoffed and commented that it was one of the reason he left the town; to find things to do without annoyance—despite how he turned to be the annoyance—and because Essence Island had not many places to go, he didn't get lost to far. The girl said she couldn't remember about city, but she just believed what Julius had said, and told him that she would prefer Essence Island than the city.
Suddenly something rang in Julius' head, that he remembered something. He asked what's her name. She smiled brightly and replied with her soft cheerful voice; "It's Alice."
Ace excitedly pointed the big building that was the Essence Island's Inn, and quickly dragged the girl to enter the building. Julius was left behind, but he laughed heartily as he opened the door again and entered the inn. There was just something so ridiculously warm inside him that he couldn't help but laugh.
xX=*=Xx
To be continued...
#The farm and the island's name were based off 'Meta essence' energy used in American McGee's Alice.
# Meta is a word from Italy means: goal, limit or home.