Disclaimer: I do not own harvest moon, or any of the characters in it.

Chapter 1- A New Beginning

Chelsea

"All aboard for Flower-bud Village!" A man yelled from across the pier. *Sigh,* I can't believe I'm actually leaving the city. I guess it's for the best, but I can't help but miss my mum. I felt tears spring into my eyes. My mum passed away 3 weeks ago in a car accident when she was picking me up from work.

"Leaving in 5 minutes! All aboard for Flower-bud Village!" the man yells again. "Damn...Well; here goes nothing" I mutter to myself as I approach the boat. "One ticket please!" I say; the whole while trying not to wretch over the edge of the pier; watching the sea bringing back memories as I stepped onto the ramp. "Okay miss, that'll be 100G." I sigh as I hand over the money. I begin boarding the ship, but as I step onto the deck, my arm is grabbed and I'm turned to face the man again. I look at him questioningly, and he grumbles under his breath. "Sorry miss, but I have to ask you a few questions..." he trailed off, watching my face drop. I felt myself sigh again unconsciously, and wondered to myself. Boy was I sighing a lot lately! "Fine; go ahead" I finally replied.

"Alright, I need your name, age DOB and gender." I looked him in the eye, and saw mild discomfort in them. Well, serves him right for asking such a stupid question, I mean; he's already called me 'miss' how many times? Then again; I am dressed like a boy. You'll rarely ever see me in anything that isn't a type of pants. Wow. My life officially sucks!

"Umm...Okay..." I mumble. "My name's Chelsea, I'm 20 years old, my birthday is the 21st of winter, and I'm a female human being." I hope he got the message about how frustrated I was right now. "Thank you Miss. Sorry 'bout the inquisition; please enjoy the ride." He grumbled under his breath, eyeing me apologetically. I shrugged at him, and stepped onto the deck. As I looked around, I realised; this was either a very small ship, or the cabin area was bellow the water. Either way; it wasn't going to be an easy task to forget I was basically travelling in a bathtub across a huge body of water.

As I walked around the deck, I looked at the rivets and machinery that held the boat together, and counted the molluscs attached to the hull of the ship. We haven't even left yet, and I'm already dying of boredom...This is gonna be a long ride... As I explored the rest of the ship, I noticed a small family of 'pink' red heads, but that wasn't what caught my attention about them.

"ELLIOT! You're such a klutz!" A pink haired girl around my age yelled. "You're so useless and annoying!" She continued; pointing her finger at a guy who looked so similar to her, he could only have been her brother. He was reasonably tall; but not really 6 foot, had pink hair with a fringe that went to the edge of a very dorky pair of glasses. The first word that occurred to me was NERD!

As I assessed him from a distance, he turned around and saw me watching the argument, and blushed. "Umm...Hi! I'm Chelsea!" I said holding, holding my hand out to shake. "Hello...I'm Elliot, and this is my sister Natalie."

"We're moving to Flower-bud Village. What are you doing there?" Natalie asked curiously; glaring at me suspiciously. I have a feeling she's a straight forward person, and will say anything how it is; not as a pretence. She continued to eye me, slowly losing interest in the conversation. "I'm hoping to start up a ranch! I've wanted to do it since I was a kid, and I'm sick of the city!" I reply enthusiastically. I hope she takes this answer to heart, because she isn't getting the story behind the decision. Thankfully, she was satisfied with my answer, and believed me fully. So she's honest and strait forward; we are going to be awesome friends!

"Oh, you should meet my mum and Taro then!" She bubbled, looking at me eagerly while dragging me across the deck. "Taro used to run a ranch when he was young, and my mum runs a shipping business. We could ship your crops and stuff, and Taro could show you how everything works." She spoke with a glimmer in her eyes. I guess she had the same brainwave about me before. Besides, we were basically already best friends, so I decided to freak her out, and sweep her into a bear hug. "Awesome! Thank you!" I yelled; laughing at her face when she registered what had just happened. She ended up hugging me back though. I guess the situation could have been worse, I mean; I barely knew her, and here I was, giving her a hug. It was like we'd known each other forever! We are definitely going to be awesome friends!

"Humph" someone said. I turned around and saw an old man who had more hair in his eyebrows, than anywhere else on his actual head. "Taro!" Natalie yelled. "This is Chelsea, and she wants to be a rancher!"

"Now Natalie; is that any way to talk to your grandfather?" asked a beautiful pink haired woman who could only be Elliot and Natalie's mother. "I'm sorry if they've been a little overbearing on you!" She smiled. I tried to find a connection between Taro and Felicia, and to my amusement, found nothing. It's almost like she got all her physical attributes from her mother.

"Enough useless chatter; let's go eat dinner!" snapped Taro as he hobbled off towards the ship's deck cabin. "Come on; you too Chelsea!" he yelled at me as he continued walking; expecting me to follow.

"Come on; we can have 'proper' introductions over dinner when Taro's fed" Felicia smiled. She is possibly the nicest person I've ever met.

Before long, I'm seated at an octangular table between Natalie and Elliot; across from Felicia and Taro. "Hello, I'm Chelsea and I'm planning on starting a ranch in Flower-bud Village" I said, starting the main conversation.

Felicia smiled to me, and bowed her head in respect. "We're honoured that we could meet your acquaintance Chelsea! My name is Felicia, and this is my family; Taro, my father, and my children, Elliot and Natalie." I smile at everyone around the table, and thank them for being so kind to me. Soon the food arrives, and we begin eating.

"So Chelsea, why do you want to be a rancher?" Taro asks me between a spoonful of soup. Great; here come the hard and painful memories. "I've always wanted to live on a farm I guess, and grow crops and raise animals." I say while gulping my steaming porridge between words. "My mum grew up on a ranch, but she had to sell it to move to the city..." My throat chocked up with tears. Natalie noticed my discomfort, and changed the topic of conversation.

"Uh...It's okay gramps; I reckon that's a bit nosy. Besides, I bet you're pretty exhausted from being up all day..." she trailed off. I almost died of laughter at the look on Taro's face after she brought it up; priceless!

"Thanks for dinner today! I really enjoyed meeting you all, and I'll see you tomorrow!" I said as I stood up from the table. They all smiled up at me, and said goodnight. They are all really nice people.

As I slowly made my way to my room, I peered out of one of the tiny port holes lining the corridor, and saw a flash of light. I felt my stomach drop at the thought of being at sea in the middle of a storm. I found it physically harder to get to my room. My stomach continued to churn as the waves became rougher and larger. I crawled to my room to avoid becoming nauseous. Once I reached the door, I slammed and locked it behind me. I lay down on the blue bed in the centre of the room, and tried to calm my heartbeat as the storm became worse.

The lightning became louder and more frequent, and the rocking ship began to twirl in the waves. I heard a deafening crash, and jumped to my feet. I heard people shouting and running in the corridor outside my room. I took that as a notice to get out of the room. I grabbed my backpack and ran into the corridor; getting pushed and yelled at until I made it onto the deck. The ocean spray swirled violently above my head.

"Chelsea! Over here!" I heard someone call my name. I whipped my head around, and saw Taro's family getting into a lifeboat, and started running towards them. It was the last thing I saw before I blacked out...

A/N

Hi! Sorry about taking the story down before, but I forgot the Disclaimer, and so, I have to repost the story. It should be updated fortnightly, and it's due to be a long story, so enjoy!