Disclaimer: I am not in association with Natsume, XSeed, Marvelous, etc. or other parent companies of the Harvest Moon franchise. Look around you; this is fanfiction. No monetary profit, all fun.

Hello, there! Why did I write this? I have a few other stories on the board, promises to keep, two jobs to work, and a social life to cling onto. So… Here I am! With no real reason. Except it came to me, and I wanted to write it.

This story is based off of the upcoming Story of Seasons (previously Harvest Moon: Connect to a New World/Land). I've done as much research as I could on the Japanese Connect to a New World/Land, but I haven't seen a blink of the game. Mind, I've taken creative liberties and stretched it some. I was going for a rustic, Miyazaki feel. I wanted to try something new and experiment with this new setting of Oak Tree Town and see how far I was off or how close I was. This also means that everyone has their Japanese names since there were few English ones released at the time. (Yes, this was already being written before E3 went and changed everything. Totally didn't ruin any of this. Ha. Sarcasm.)

I'm generally talking about this story in the past tense because I've written over half of it offline beginning in the summer of 2014. I've been editing and him-hawing about posting it all this time, yes. My original goal was to make this as a sort of expression of my excitement for the upcoming Story of Seasons, but the release date is finally upon us, and this story isn't going to get done in time. But I wanted to post it before then in tribute, and… ah. Long story short, I will be uploading chapters whenever I can and as consistently as possible. Kind of episodic that way, so it's not over-whelming, but updates are still frequent to keep things fresh! And now that this is up and hitting the ground running, I'll be able to update my other stories once again, too.

TL;DR So to sum up my ramblings (seriously sorry about how airheaded I am right now wah):

-This story is still in progress, even though it's mostly done
-It's based in Oak Tree Town from the new Story of Seasons
-The names from the local villagers are the Japanese ones
-None of my other stories are going to suffer anymore, and this one is just joining the queue
-Thanks for reading!

Without further blah, thanks for stopping in, and I hope you enjoy my story based off of Studio Ghibli's The Secret World of Arrietty. :)

Prologue

Heartbeat so fast it quakes the entire body beyond control.

All of those scary stories felt so close now. The squashing, pinching, catching, grabbing hands crashing down. Taken away forever, eaten, caged, killed.

Silence but for a dull buzz centered somewhere deep in her ears. Sweat gathering at the temples.

There was something strange that imminent death did to people. Fear, panic, release, anger, sadness. All of these cluttered emotions get pushed down and away as something else takes over as time freezes over.

Limbs numb and feeling detached. Helplessness, yet a clinging desperation somewhere in the pit of her stomach.

The entire existence of her pitiful life was stretched out before her in a sad, little slideshow of fragmented disappointment. No matter how much she wanted to believe it, she wasn't special. She'd die like everyone else.

Stifling hot but so cold with dread.

She imagined she'd be old. Maybe go in her sleep. Lying in her little bed with peaceful dreams. She was a little too rebellious for her own good, sure. But this? This wasn't how it was supposed to be. She couldn't be another story to add to the books parents read to their children at night. To tell them not to be like her. To not make her mistakes. To learn from her… and live.

Mouth widening with the eyes in an expression of dumb shock and horror…

Minori didn't know how she would respond to the face of death. She couldn't be one of those poor, unfortunate people who had to feel this way. To be all sensing yet completely numb to everything around her at the same time. To be rooted to the spot, even as she was falling backwards. Stiff. Flailing. Confused. Knowing.

Caught.