(A/N: First contest entry for the Writing Festival at a discussion forum I stumbled upon by chance. The theme that chance decided to give me is apparently Alternate Universe. Hmm...I might just name my second voice/writing muse 'Chance'...)

CHAPTER 1

Her blonde locks bounced wildly as she ran across her farm towards the small bridge in between her property and the forest. A few more jogs, and she will come upon a flight of stairs towards where she first met the Harvest Goddess. Though, her destination for the moment is not the breathtaking miracle of the waterfall, nor the temptingly reposeful hot spring, but rather the old mining cave. The old uninteresting mining cave.

"Augh, I really should get myself a rubber band!" Claire huffed while slipping her one able hand between her dreadfully messy tresses and the nape of her neck, before pulling back her long hair from swabbing her sweaty neck. Her other hand, however, is busy holding up a large newly upgraded hoe over her frail shoulder. Actually, it's the very existence of that hoe that made her running unsteadily up the hill.

Since arriving in Mineral Town, Claire is rather well-known for her habit of overworking herself. She was a local patient in the clinic, since she kept passing out on her field more than enough times. Everyone dubbed her a workaholic, as the blonde never really stop to take a breather even once, except to sleep. Heck, she doesn't even allow herself to sit down for a decent meal, as she just ate while working.

The townsfolk did tried to slow her down, but Claire just kept on striding her way to her next task. The farmer always complained of so much work she has to do but she was provided with such a short amount of time. The black lines forming under her eyes are mainly because of her habit to sleep late and wake up extremely early...just to try and finish her job.

"Have to upgrade hoe, got to find gold ore...today, quickly, don't waste time," she sort of chanted in between breaths as she rushed her way at the entrance of the mining cave, when out of a sudden, bumped into this rock hard...thing. Claire only managed to keep standing on her feet by supporting herself at the side of the wall, though she did dropped her hoe. She only realized what she slammed herself onto was actually a person by that grunt of pain emitted from inside the cave.

"Oh...it's you. The Uma guy..."

"The hell is 'Uma guy'? The name's Gray!" The man seemed already pissed off by the tone of his reply, and Claire didn't need more clues to figure that one out. The shuffling noise from inside the darkness of the cave indicated that he's probably standing and dusting off his clothes. True, Claire never really cared to meet all the townsfolk, or even greet them on normal terms, so their names were all but vague to her.

"Yeah, whatever, just get out of my way. I don't have time," her tone quite fits as the town's local snob anytime of the day. Claire was crouching to try and pick up her hoe, with much difficulty by her draining strength and energy from the sleepless nights watering every seed she planted. It's only to be expected.

"Like crap I care..." Claire could faintly hear the man's mumbling as he stepped out of the cave with quite a number of ores occupying his arms. Though apparently, he's been in that cave for too long that the sunlight blinded him for a while.

Then the accident happened.

One of his ores dropped, and Gray happened to trip on it. The blond farmer, who was just about to stand up to her full height with the weight of the hoe over one of her shoulders, who did not even achieve her balance yet, can do nothing but yell by the sudden rain of ores. That yell quickly altered into a high-pitched scream when the heavy metal blade of her hoe tilted downwards by the blonde's unstable footing, this automatically made Claire took a few backward steps in an attempt to regain her balance...until she realized there's no more ground to step on.

Her hoe fell first into the Harvest Goddess Lake with a loud frightening splash. Just by the sound of it, one could tell it's dreadfully deep. Claire's arms are flailing, desperately trying to balance herself back to the front. Though, that's a rather difficult attempt when both her heels are not even touching the ground. Her last view before she slipped off is Gray on all fours with his eyes wide, staring straight at her.

The moment Claire touched the water, she squinted her eyes closed by instinct. As she fell deeper and deeper into the lake, she felt a strange current flow around her, almost as if circling her, like she's trapped inside a cyclone of water. Bubbles rotated all around her, Claire even felt the temperature of the water heightens for a short while before turning completely cold again.

"Aghh!" The moment she reached the surface and bobbed her head up, the blond farmer took in a quick breath and gasps of air. Her hair practically covers over her whole face, so Claire yet again muttered expletives of her hair while wishing she owns a rubber band.

Quickly forgetting the strange occurrence of the water earlier, her first reaction is to yell towards Gray up there, but when she looked up, she sees a...flower? The plant just slowly flows down in the air and landed precisely on her wet blond hair. Her mouth was still hanging open by that intended yell and it was only closed when a figure stepped nearer to the ledge of the lake she's in.

'Wait...that's not—'

A man around his late teens, sporting a blue cap positioned backwards, a few bangs of brown hair sticking out of his head accessory and large curious eyes, appeared in her view.

'That's definitely not the Uma guy...'

(A/N: Might probably be a three-shot than my intended one-shot. Hmn. Well, Chance, all up to you. Reviews are very much appreciated, thank you for reading! ...By the way, is this category supposed to fall in the Crossover section?)