-1Yahoo! New fic and this one is made by the help of my friend/sister. I've been playing Harvest Moon: Magical Melody a lot and I hope this fic will be okay for all of you to read. Anyway, I own none of the characters. They belong to Natsume. The personalities of Jack and Jill were made by yours truly and her "sis".

Magical Melody of Life

Prologue

Rain fell from the darken skies above. A low, chilly wind blew across the small, plain area. The fall season was quiet throughout all of the land. A couple of figures stood near a small grave. The earth beneath it was still fresh. A young man looked all round him to see the other gravestones in the small cemetery they were in. He looked back over to the young girl he had been standing next to. He moved a bit of his brown hair out of his eyes as he tried not to let any tears escape his chestnut colored eyes.

Meanwhile, the girl next to him looked up at the sky. Water fell from her brown eyes. The boy didn't know if she was crying or if it was because of the rain. He slowly approached her and placed his hand on top of her hand. The young woman just closed her eyes as she took a hold of his hand. The young man looked back at the gravestone that read, "Here lays Annabel. A great angler, but more importantly, a great mother of two. She will be missed by her children."

"Excuse me, Jack and Jill?" an old, timid voice spoke to them.

"Y-yes?" Jack, the young man, replied.

"I'm sorry to interrupt both you and your sister, but I think I have a need to say this right now." The old man took off his black, top hat. "My name is William and I'm the caretaker of your mother's will. If we can leave and head on to your own home, I can discuss the details of the will."

"All right…we'll go," Jack said as he looked over to Jill, his sister. "Jill, let's go now."

"Yeah…" Jill replied with a soft sadden tone.

The twins walked away from their mother's grave and headed off towards their home. Once they were home, Jack took off his black jacket. Water dripped from its sleeves and created a small puddle near the coat hanger. Jill took her jacket off. Part of her brown hair stuck to her face once she took off her jacket. William entered the home and took off his coat as well. He walked over to the dining table and sat down. Both Jack and Jill sat down on opposite sides while they awaited the details of the will.

"As you both now," William spoke as he took out a white piece of paper from his suit, "your mother, Annabel, wrote a will recently. In this will, it shows that everything she had now belongs to both of you. So, congratulations on that."

"That's good," Jack said, trying to smile at the man.

"However," William added in as he looked at the paper, "it is said that your mother's business is a fishing business. So far, I am not so sure if you two are capable of taking care of that job. It was by your mother's concern for you to give you an option: sell her company over to Hutchinson's Fishing Inc."

"What?!" Jack let out as he jumped from his seat.

"It is written on her will. She didn't want you to suffer, but perhaps you should read her letter if you want to know more about it." William handed over the letter and will over to Jack. Jack opened the letter and began to read it.

My darling children: Jack and Jill,

When you read this letter, I have all ready passed away. I know our lives were not that great and fishing didn't bring in much money to leave you much, but I did try my best. I just hope that when I leave this world, you two wouldn't be angry with me. Either way, I wanted to say many things to you both. I love you dearly and I am so glad you didn't leave me like your father did.

That is why I give you this option. I don't want you both to be tied to this old fishing business. So if you feel like fishing isn't your thing, then please sell it. Use the money you get from the business to make your own business and live a much happier and safer life. Don't keep the business or be fishermen if you are only doing this to keep me in memory. What I want is for you two to create what you always wanted to do: to be your own executives. Please…understand the decisions I've made.

Love,

Your mother, Annabel

"Mom…" Jack said softly as he closed the paper. Jill let out a small sniffle after she looked away from the letter.

"Jack…Jill…" William said softly. "You two have to make this decision. It is up to you to decide what to do. In addition, with that, I'll take off. You can come to be at any time to tell me what is it that you want me to do. I'll have the paperwork ready. Please, take care of yourselves."

With that, William got up from his seat, got his coat, and then left the house. Jill began to cry once William had closed the door. Jack turned to his sister and hugged her tightly. They didn't know what was in store for them, but Jack promised that he would take care of his sister no matter what. Finally, his decision came to his mind.

End Prologue

Chapter One: 2 Seasons Later…

Two seasons had passed since Annabel had passed away. Both twins had a bit of trouble in the beginning, but soon they had managed. Jack had sold the business and the property to Hutchinson's Fishing Inc. During that time, Jill managed to pack only the necessary things they needed. Most of the things they couldn't carry, so they sold their belongings off.

Once they had managed to sell as much as they can, they took whatever money they had gotten and began on their journey for a new home. The twins had gone through two cities in which they were very uncomfortable with. So now, the twins were stuck on the road once more. Jack looked down at the dirt ground. His blue jean overalls were dirty from mud, dust, and other muck. He wiped the sweat off from his brow using the back of his hand.

"Man, it has gotten hot," he said, "right Jill? Jill?"

Jack looked around to look for his sister. Surely, she was way behind him. Jill walked in a strange way, in which she was trying to avoid keeping her feet on the ground, or at least try not to dirty her shoes. Jack just let out a sigh and shook his head. Jill snarled a bit as she approached her brother. She took off his sunglasses.

"You know," she said, "it isn't easy not to dirty such cute shoes."

"Uh-huh?" Jack replied. "You know if you actually cared about what our future holds as much as your own shoes we'd be probably working at something by now."

"It's not my fault you're so picky with who we work for. I mean, if you let me work at that restaurant back in that city, with all those cute guys, we'd be working all right."

"They were staring at your chest the entire time! Maybe if you didn't wear only a white shirt with the shortest shorts ever, you'd not have so many people staring at you."

"Pah!" Jill scoffed. "I know I'm too cute for my own self. At least I can make friends, unlike you, Mr. Lone Wolf. Your dirty overalls with no shirt on, says 'I'm too poor for a shirt.'"

"Is all you ever do is complain?" Jack asked with a spiteful tone of voice.

"Shut up!" Jill shouted as she tried to hit her brother.

"Please, if there is an entity up in the sky; give me a sign of what to do next!" Jack said as he looked up at the sky.

As if on cue, a paper that was drifting through the wind suddenly blew over to the twins. The piece of paper hit Jill square on the face. She squirmed a bit to take off the paper from her face then looked at it. What the heck is this? She thought as she looked at the small drawing of some man wearing a top hat, mustache, and a red overcoat.

"What is that?" Jack asked.

"I don't know," Jill replied, "it's like some sort of an advertisement."

"What's it say?"

"It says…" Jill replied.

Dear Youthful Dreamers,

Are you down on your luck? Perhaps you wish to pursue a happy and joyous life. If this is what you seek, then come over to our small town of Flower Bud Town, where you can pursue a career as an entrepreneur. Our new program, the Exciting Ranch Plan has quite the opening for an opportunity like this. Therefore, if you are looking for a happy life, then perhaps this could be your chance. We await you to join us.

Mayor Theodore

"What was this all about?" Jill asked as she stared blankly into the letter. "Who'd want to be a farmer?"

"Sounds interesting," Jack replied.

"Are you kidding?!" Jill spat as she placed her hands on her hips. "There is no way I'll do farming! We don't even know the first thing about it!"

"I know, but I did read some books on it. With the very little knowledge I have, perhaps we can do decent."

"No!" Jill glared at her brother.

"Listen, Jill," Jack said in a stern voice, "we're down to our last pennies here. Mom's company plus our stuff didn't give us much. This may be our only chance left…let's make the best out of it. Besides, this is the cheapest place to live, from what I heard."

Jill looked at the ground. She shuffled her feet a bit before she let out a big sigh.

"Fine, we'll try this," she replied.

"All right! Thanks, Jilly!" Jack hugged his sister tightly.

"Oof! Not so tight!"

"Anyway, we should head off to Flower Bud Town!"

The twins continued their journey through the roughest of times. Winter had approached them, making it even more difficult on the twins. However, nothing could break their spirits, except for Jill's whining and Jack's bad leg. Either way, they traveled through places from Forget-Me-Not Valley to Mineral Town.

Spring was approaching them as they felt the cold wind begin to get warmer. Jill and Jack smiled at each other as they continued to walk down the dirt road. Their faces beamed as they saw a giant wooden board that read "Welcome to Flower Bud Town." Jill fell back a bit as Jack felt his knees wobble. Both twins landed on the ground in a near dead faint.

"We…we did it, Jilly," Jack said as he let out a pant. "See? I told you if we walked for twelve hours straight, we'd make it."

"Yeah…" Jill replied as she panted, "however, next time we'll have to come up with a better plan so we don't get so tired."

"We have to get up. We're so close yet so far."

"I'm too tired to move…why don't we stay here on the ground?"

"Jill…it's about to be night time. New Years Day is about to finish."

At that moment, both their stomachs began to growl loudly.

"We need food!" Jill whined.

"We need a home first," Jack said. "Now, come on! We need to find the mayor. I hope with the amount of money we have left we can afford to get a somewhat decent home."

Jack wobbled a bit as he slowly got up on his two feet. Jill was still on the floor, not wanting to move. Jack scoffed a bit as he lifted up his sister up on her feet. Both wobbled as they walked down the now stone path. Eventually the twins had reached the town square. Their eyes almost popped out from their heads as they saw quite a feast before them.

Their mouths began to salivate as they tried to walk over to the food. Both soon fell down to the ground in a dead faint. All during that time, the townspeople were beginning to take down everything and put the food away. A young woman with long blue hair managed to see the twins on the ground. She quickly walked over to the mayor and began to inform him about the two unidentified characters which laid on the ground.

Jack opened his eyes to see that he was no longer outside on the ground but inside of a building. He was lying on a soft, white bed. In front of him was a white curtain in which divided whatever medical room it was in half. He looked over to his left to see his sister on the other bed, dead asleep. Jack slowly sat up. He shook his head a bit, as he tried to remember what happened.

"Man…my head is hurting right now." Jack let out softly. "I feel like I feel on concrete."

"Stone to be exact," corrected a voice from Jack's right.

Jack looked over to see a young man who looked a bit older than he did. He had short, jet black hair and a pair of ebony eyes. His clothing consisted of a dark green button up shirt, which had a black tie that hung from his neck. The pair of dark colored pants almost covered his black shoes. The young man pulled out a pen from his long white lab coat and began to write things on the clipboard he had been carrying in his hands.

"Who are you?" Jack asked.

"Oh, pardon me," the young man said, "my name is Alex and I'm the doctor of this town. Maria, the mayor's daughter found both you and your wife unconscious on the ground."

"Oh…hey! Jill's not my wife! She's my twin!"

"Oh, my apologies. I knew that you two are related since you both looked alike. Anyway, I just had to let you both rest here for a bit until you feel better."

"Wait!" Jack said as he clung onto Alex's coat. "I need to see Theodore. Jill and I were looking for him because of the Exciting Ranch Plan. We need a place to stay."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that for tonight," Alex replied as he smiled, "you both can stay here until you heal up."

"No, no, I'm fine!" Jack got out of bed. "See? I'm fine! Please…I just need to talk to the mayor so we can get a house. I don't want it to be that there are no more available and we end up on the street again."

"On the street again?" Alex let out a sigh before he smiled at the young, eager brunette. "Fine, I'll call on Theodore to come and see you. I was on my way out since there was an emergency that needs my assistance. You stay here and rest while the mayor gets here. Oh and one more thing, make sure to eat something. Often when you fatigue it is because of lack of food, water, and rest."

"Yeah…I'll keep that in mind."

Alex excused himself as he walked out from the infirmary and out into the night. Jack sat on his bed. He looked over at his sister who was still fast asleep. He stretched out his arm and began to poke her. Jill just let out a snort then rolled over. Jack just rolled his eyes. Suddenly, the sound of the door opening caught his attention. A figure walked through the doorway and to the patient's room. The man was the same man that was on the flyer.

"Well, howdy there!" the man said as he smiled at Jack. "It's good of you to visit. I'm Theodore, the mayor of this village. It's a pleasure to meet you. My daughter, Maria, found both of you passed out close to the town square."

"Oh, so you're actually the mayor of Flower Bud Town?" Jack asked as he pointed a finger at the mayor."

"Yes, but don't point at me, it's rather rude. So what's your name again? I don't think we've got ourselves acquainted."

"My name is Jack," Jack replied. He pointed at Jill. "And that's my sister, Jill."

"Oh yes, it's Jack and Jill right?"

"Yes…you heard that right…Jack and Jill," Jack said with an annoyed tone. "We've heard almost all the jokes regarding that."

"Ha, ha, I'm sorry," the mayor chuckled, "Either way, aside from such names, I need you to look at three lots for me. I heard from Alex that you wanted to see me about the Exciting Ranch Plan. First, chose a lot and a house from the following."

The mayor pulled out from his pockets several packets of paper plus a bundle of pictures. Jack looked at the stack of papers for a bit. He got off from his bed and woke up his sister. His sister was not amused by this, but soon changed her outlook when she saw the stack of papers and pictures. Each stack was in threes. One of the places read "village center: Not a lot of space, but convenient." Another one read "ocean side: The land is spacious but not fertile." The last one read "river side: Convenient for fishing but…"

The Village Center was a very small piece of land. However, Jill did like the idea of being surrounded by everything in town. Jack looked at the Ocean Side and really liked the idea of such a huge piece of property not to mention the peace and quiet one can have. Both twins squealed in delight as they looked at where they wanted to live.

"This one!" They both shouted as they raised their preferable home. Jack and Jill stopped and saw that the other didn't agree with the other.

"This piece of land is good! It's convenient and we can go anywhere plus we're surrounded by people!" Jill shouted.

"Ugh! That's too noisy! This piece of land is so spacious and we can plant so many things here and we're away from the noise!" Jack insisted.

"What if there's a burglar or a murderer? We don't have that many neighbors around us!"

"The chances of a place getting robbed would be in a crowded area!"

After much arguing, the mayor didn't know what to do. He sat on the nearby chair and waited for them to come to a conclusion. After fifteen minutes, the twins came to a conclusion. The third option would be the best.

"We must live…" Jill said.

"…on River Side." Jack finished her sentence.

"Wha?!" Theodore said. "Fine, it is your property now, just sign the packet that says 'River Side' on it and with a fee, it will be yours."

Jack picked up the River Side packet and began to read the pages. It wasn't much to read except for boring details about what you can do and what you can't do on a property. Theodore gave Jack a pen from his pocket. Jack looked over at where to sign and signed his name. He passed the papers over to Jill and she signed as well. They handed over the packet to the mayor as well as a fee.

"All right!" Theodore said as he picked up all the paper work. "Now you're both all set! Oh, a word of advice: it's best to find out how to work on the farm by talking to the villager. I don't want to start off by saying too much, but please don't forget this. Please be careful not to throw things away on property other than your own. I'd like to register the name of your ranch so please pick a name for your place."

"Hmm," Jill said, "what should we name it?"

"I don't know," Jack replied, "I'm never good with names."

"How about the Jack and Jill farm?" Theodore asked. "Or maybe the 'Went up the Hill' farm?"

"No!" Jack and Jill growled.

"Ha, ha, ha! Just joking…please don't kill me."

Jill and Jack thought about that one really hard. They had no idea on what to name a farm. It took them a while, but soon a couple of names came to them. One of them was their last name and the other was the name of their old hometown. Finally one name did pop into their head that didn't want to leave them. Jack and Jill smiled at each other.

"You thinking…" Jack said.

"…what I'm thinking?" Jill asked.

"I believe so! Mayor Theodore, the name of our ranch will be the Annabel Ranch. We named it after our mother."

"Uh huh," Theodore said as he wrote the name down on the contract packet, "that's a good name. It's all ready late today, so please rest. I'll show you to your house. If you're well enough, follow me."

The twins got out from the infirmary and followed Mayor Theodore out. It was all ready dark as many of the citizens of the town had left their lights on. The twins looked around at how pretty the town was. Unlike the city the had lived in for a while, this place had a softer, and calmer tone. The lovely sakura trees were blossoming in the early spring days.

As they walked over to their small house, the building in front of them had a visitor looking at them. A young woman with short, brown hair and sparkling brown eyes looked out from the window of her home. She had a yellow and orange dress with a white apron and brown shoes. She looked over at fascination at the newcomers.

"Hey Ellen," said a voice from behind the girl, "what are you doing?"

"Oh, Dad!" Ellen replied as she smiled at her father. "I see that we have newcomers."

"Oh?"

The man approached Ellen. He had a friendly, happy-go-lucky smile on his face which showed his buck teeth. He had been balding as his entire forehead as well as part of his head had his brown hair falling out. His attire was a red button up shirt with a pair of blue jeans and cowboy boots. He wore his cowboy hat by the string which it hung from.

"Are they the ones that fainted at the town square?" the father asked.

"Yes, they are," Ellen replied.

"Apparently they are ranchers too. It seems we might have some rivalry, eh, Blue?"

"Tch, whatever," replied Blue.

Leaning against the door was a young man with short blond hair and icy cold blue eyes. Covering his blond hair was a blue cap which had the initials "USI" on them. He wore a checkered, red shirt with a black undershirt. His blue jeans were held together by a black belt while his boots were almost covered by his pants. He let out a slight scoff.

"What's wrong, Blue?" Ellen asked. "A bit jealous of the new competition?"

"Feh, as if," Blue scoffed, "I give those city slickers about a week before they give up and leave this town."

"Aww. Anyway, what if they do make it? Anyway, the boy is quite a cutie and his sister is cute too. Maybe you and she could get acquainted."

"Ellen, stop trying to be matchmaker with me. You've already tried that with Nina and it didn't work. Anyway, just go give them whatever present you wanted to give them and stop prying into my personal life."

Ellen just giggled as she walked over to Blue and began to playfully tease him. Blue just growled a bit at his cousin's teasing, but since she was his only cousin, he allowed it for now. Hank just chuckled a bit as he took a sip from his drink that he had in his hand.

Meanwhile, outside, the twins and the mayor had arrived at the destination. It was a rickety, old wooden house that seemed to be in somewhat mediocre shape. It looked so dark and lonely from the outside. Jill didn't like how this was going, but she couldn't complain about it for sure. It could have been a lot worse.

"This is a used house and all ready has most of the items such as a bed, a fridge, a television, tools, and many more," Theodore said as he unlocked the door. He gave the keys over to Jack. "If you'd like, please rearrange them later. The tool box also holds basic tools, so it'd be a good idea to put them in a rucksack. There's a lumber shed behind the house. There's also a mailbox and a shipping box."

"Wow, thanks Mayor Theodore!" Jack exclaimed as he smiled widely.

"Well then ….good luck." Theodore said as he waved to the twins goodbye before he left.

Jack and Jill walked inside to see their new home. It was quite small and very cramped up, even for the two of them. The bed was quite a small bed which it appeared that only one person could sleep on it. There was a small kitchen with a knife set and a sink on the right side of the house. A small pink television was kept on top of wooden boxes. In the middle of the home was a wooden table. On the left side of the house were a shelf and a refrigerator. Jill walked over to the calendar that was hanging on the wall.

"Hey," she said, "this calendar is quite recent. In fact, it's perfectly new."

"Odd," Jack said. "All of this stuff looks like it had been hardly used. Do you think the previous owner must have given up and left from the Exciting Ranch Plan?"

"Or maybe…" Jill whimpered as she felt a dead shiver, "this place was built over an Indian burial ground and it's haunted!"

"Knock it off, Jill!" Jack shouted. "First off, even if it was built on top of an Indian burial ground, there is no such thing as…"

A loud tap had cut off Jack's sentence. Both twins embraced each other as their hairs stood on end. They looked over to see where the noise was coming from. Apparently one of the windows of the house was left open and the wind managed to move it. Jack, let out a sigh of relief as he walked over to the window and closed it.

"See?" He said. "There is no such things as ghosts, you scaredy cat."

"Oh yeah?" Jill replied. "Then why did you hug me so tightly?"

"I-I…was doing it so that you would feel secure after all, it is up to the brother to protect his sister from everything, even her childish fears."

"Liar!" Jill shouted as she threw the rucksack at Jack. The rucksack managed to hit Jack square in the face. "First off, I'm older than you! I was born three and a half minutes before you. Next, my fears aren't childish, you brat!"

"Okay…" Jack replied as he took the rucksack away from his face. "Anyway, let's go to sleep, okay? We have a big day tomorrow and we have to learn how to plant things."

"I hate doing such work; it's not right for a lady to do menial labor."

"Shut up! You're such a lazy bum!"

"And you're such a slave driven bum!"

"Anyway, we should get to sleep…so I suggest we take turns sleeping on the bed."

"Sounds good," Jill responded.

"I go first!" Jack replied.

"H-hey! Wait a minute!"

"Good night, Jill," Jack said as he got under the bed covers.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Jill jumped on the bed, knocking Jack off from the bed with the covers. Jill took off her boots and pried the covers away from him. Jack got back on the bed and tried to push Jill off from the bed. Both twins continued to fighting until finally they made a truce about sharing the bed. However, it was still too cramped up.

"We need a bigger bed," Jill said flatly.

"We will…" Jack replied, "when we get more money."

"Night."

"Night."

Both twins fell asleep that night. They felt a bit happier, except for the fact that the bed was so tiny. That night, the twins had a strange dream…

Ah, first chapter finished! I hope you guys really liked it so far. Anyway, my co-writer and I have been RPGing our way with this story, in hopes to actually come up with a good plot. Till next time!