Prelude.
The Very Bad Day.

In life, there are good days, and there are bad days. Molly Gibson thought that you could always tell whether a day would be good or bad right from the start, if you knew what to look for. If the day began without a hitch, the hours that followed were likely to be pleasant and untroubled. But if the morning started out less than auspiciously, there was a very good chance the rest of the day would follow suit.

Right now, looking around herself at her three siblings, Molly thought that she should have known, from the moment she fell out of bed and bruised her elbow on the hard wooden floor, that today was going to be a very, very bad day.

"You blew it!" Kevin was working himself into quite a strop. Twin spots of color burned high on his normally pale cheeks and his brown hair stuck up in random spikes – he'd been pulling at it in distress for the past several hours. "I can't believe this!"

Kevin wasn't normally an irrational, angry person, but the accumulated stress of the day so far had taken its toll on the entire family. First they'd almost been late to the train station – twice, the first time because Angela had forgotten her train ticket on her dresser drawer, and the second because their rustheap of a car had decided to give out on the side of the road.

They'd made it – just barely – only to find out that their seats had been taken. Apparently there had been a train workers' strike that morning during the earlier departure, and those who had booked tickets then had simply come to catch a later train rather than change their tickets. The Gibson children, who had the correct tickets for the correct train, found themselves left to squeeze in anywhere they could.

Angela and Molly shared space with their luggage, which had been dumped unceremoniously into the narrow corridor between the cars. Kevin managed to find a rather undesirable seat between two old ladies who were…well-padded, to use the polite terminology. He'd practically suffocated throughout the entire train ride.

And Kasey – poor Kasey, who was too easy-going to argue with anyone for space – sat in the bathroom throughout the entire ride, balancing on the toilet and trying not to panic from claustrophobia.

The trip took seven hours. Molly threw up once, Angela twice. Kevin commented that he would have liked to throw up, but the rolls of fat on either side of him made it impossible to even get up to go to the bathroom. And Kasey…well, he emerged from the tiny bathroom looking rather green, so it was probably better that he hadn't kept a running tally.

Pale, rumpled, and exhausted, they'd stumbled out onto the platform with their bags, only to find that their ride was nowhere to be found. Kasey, the one who had arranged this part of the trip, protested that he had phoned ahead, he was absolutely sure of it. But under heavy questioning from his frustrated siblings, he admitted that the connection had been a bit hazy, and maybe the man had heard Monday, not Sunday.

And that led them to where they were now: Kevin alternately white and red with rage, Kasey still defensive, Angela nauseated and weak from throwing up so much, and Molly just trying to keep them all together. She was the peacemaker of the family, a mediator by nature, but her calm nature was stretched rather thin at the moment, for obvious reasons.

"Alright," she broke in on Kevin's rant, holding up a hand. "Just stop. Arguing will get us nowhere. Kasey, how far is it to town?"

"At least ten miles," Kasey mumbled. "And we don't have a map."

"And the sun's going down," Angela observed hoarsely from her seat atop her suitcase. Kevin buried his face in his hands and sank down onto the ground beside her.

"This is unbelievable."

"Aren't there any other towns nearby?" Molly asked, swallowing the small lump of panic in her throat with difficulty.

Kasey shook his head, not meeting her eyes. Molly suppressed a groan.

Angela spoke up then. "Is there a phone around here?"

Kasey pointed wordlessly at the phone booth a few feet away from where they were. The four siblings eyed it with some trepidation. The outside had been graffitied with vulgar words and gang slogans, and the floor inside was stained with dried up gum and spit. The phone itself hung limply a few feet above the ground.

"I don't think it'll work," Angela voiced what they all must have been thinking. Kasey rubbed a hand over his face and sighed heavily.

"Well, I guess we're walking."

"Whoop-dee-freakin'-doo," Kevin mumbled as they gathered up their luggage. Molly saw Angela cuff him on the side of the head, perhaps a bit harder than was necessary. Rather than intervene, Molly instead joined Kasey in investigating a sign that pointed off along a worn dirt road. The sign read "Harmonica Town, 15 Miles" in faded letters.

"That's where we're going?" Molly asked Kasey. He nodded wearily.

"That's where we're going."

The four Gibson siblings set off, Kasey in the lead, Molly and Angela walking together behind him, and Kevin lagging slightly behind. The wheels of their suitcases bumped and squeaked over the many rocks in the road, but other than that and the sound of their footsteps, all was silent. They were too tired to speak to one another, and the thought of the long road that stretched ahead of them was a daunting one.

Molly looked up at the setting sun, feeling the sweat already beginning to form on her forehead, and stifled a groan. A very, very bad day indeed.

The sun had set rather quickly, leaving them with only the stars in the sky to see by. The four of them had gathered closer together, each trying not to lose sight of the others. Molly's imagination ran wild in the dark. Every rustle of grass seemed to signal a kidnapper in the brush, waiting to ambush four lonely travelers on an abandoned road; every screech of an owl sounded like the cry of an injured human.

Then, the cart had appeared, rattling out of the grass on the left side of the road. The very large animal pulling it loomed over them, casting their world into even greater shadow.

The Gibson children all leapt back in fear. Angela gasped. Molly let out a short scream.

"Whoa!"

A lamplight flickered on and all four of them squinted, blinded by the sudden brightness. A stocky, muscular man peered down at them with a questioning expression on his amiable face.

"Almost ran the four of you over, there!" he laughed. "I didn't see you at all. What are you doing out here so late?"

"We're trying to get to Harmonica Town," Kasey ventured. "We were supposed to be picked up, but our ride never showed."

"Harmonica Town? That's quite a coincidence – I'm headed back to Flute Fields, actually. That's just a couple miles outside of Harmonica Town. I could give you four a lift, as long as you don't mind sitting in the hay."

The four of them looked at each other – should they trust this stranger? He seemed nice enough, but so did a lot of kidnappers, up until the actual kidnapping part. But really, how was one man going to kidnap them in a horse-drawn cart?

"Say, what are your names?" the man in the cart asked them.

"Kasey, Angela, Molly, and Kevin Gibson," Kasey, ever the spokesperson, pointed to each member of the family as he said their name. The man's eyes widened.

"Oh, so you're Hanna's folks!"

The four of them gaped at him. "You know Aunt Hanna?" Angela ventured. The man grinned, as though he were about to tell the punchline to a very good joke.

"Of course I know Hanna. She's my wife, which makes me your Uncle Cain!"

More shocked looks all around. Aunt Hanna was their father, Hiram's, sister, who had stayed behind to manage the family farm rather than follow her brother into the city. Hiram had kept in touch with Hanna over the years, so the siblings knew some rudimentary details about their aunt's family, but there were no photographs hanging in their house.

Molly looked up at Cain out of the corner of her eye. The image fit, she supposed – Father had said something about Hanna marrying a rancher, and this guy fit the bill perfectly. It wasn't just the thick, strong arms or the confident, capable movements of his hands; there was something in his voice, a reassuring quality, that made Molly think he could do anything from calming a stampeding bull to coaxing a stubborn horse, just by talking to it.

"Wow," Kevin spoke up for the first time in several hours, surprise bringing him out of his dark sulk. "So you're Uncle Cain. This is a coincidence."

"It sure is. Strange though – I thought you kids weren't arriving until tomorrow. Didn't you say Monday, not Sunday?"

All eyes turned to Kasey, who looked away sheepishly. "The phone connection wasn't so great," he muttered. "I don't think I made it so clear."

Cain laughed easily. "Yeah, that happens. Our phone connection doesn't work so well outside of town. So it's a good thing I happened by! Otherwise you kids would have been stuck walking all night!"

"Hooray," Kevin muttered under his breath. Angela elbowed him.

"Well, we should get going, then." Cain hopped down from the cart. He was shorter than Kasey, but far broader in the shoulders. He gathered a few of the bags from around their feet. "Let's get your bags in first."

The four siblings glanced at each other, then set to picking up their suitcases. Cain surveyed the array of bags with a questioning look. "You didn't bring much stuff, did you?"

"Dad's supposed to be sending boxes over in a few days," Angela explained. "This should last us until then."

Cain shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Hop in!"

The four of them did as they were told, arranging themselves atop their luggage among the straw. Cain clicked his tongue and the cart-horse started forward at a reasonable pace, the cart bouncing a little along the road. "So, where are you four headed, exactly?" he questioned.

"Dolce Farm," Kasey replied. "We're supposed to head into town to speak with the mayor about the deed."

Cain laughed. "At this time of night? Hamilton will probably be snoring in his bed by now. He likes to sleep early."

"Isn't there anyone else we could talk to? We don't have a key to the house."

A few seconds silence while Cain considered this. "Well, ordinarily the Mayor's son would be around to take care of that, but these days it's been hard to catch Gill in the office at all. He's busy with some project of his own – heck if I know what it is."

In the yellowed lamplight, Molly caught sight of the distraught expression on Kasey's face. "Where will be stay then?" she asked him. Kasey gave a little groan.

"I guess we could try and find an inn or something in town…"

Cain broke in. "Nonsense," he said briskly. "You'll just stay at Horn Ranch for the night. Hanna will probably be happy to see you."

"Oh, no," Molly protested. "It's all right. We wouldn't want to trouble you – "

"It's no trouble, really. We've got plenty of room. And anyway, you're family. Hanna would send me to sleep with the chickens if she learned I made family pay for lodgings in Harmonica Town." He laughed, but there was a tinge of sadness in his voice now. "The town's economy hasn't been doing so well, unfortunately. Ships can't sail into the harbor anymore, so no one stays at the inn.

"Actually, it seems like there's something wrong with the entire land. The wind doesn't blow as strongly, the fire never burns quite hot enough, and nothing seems to want to grow properly in the earth. It'll be hard going, if you four are starting a farm here – "

"We're not," Kevin broke in, adamant. "We're only staying for a year, until Dad finishes taking care of business."

"Ah." Cain's head bobbed as he nodded pensively. "Well, even so, just giving you fair warning. Don't expect too much out of the town right now. It's a nice place with nice people, but we're going through some tough times." He glanced up at the lamp dangling from a pole atop the cart. "This thing's burning low. I'm going to put it out, okay?"

"But…how will you see?" Kasey asked.

"Oh, I don't need to see. The horse can see just fine even in the dark. He'll lead us home, no problem."

He blew out the lamp, and they were cast into darkness. Molly watched the outlines of her siblings' forms, illuminated only slightly by the light of the moon and stars overhead. She gave a little sigh.

Banished to a little town in the middle of nowhere for an entire year. Could there be anything worse?

A/N:

Well. It's been forever since I've been on this thing. I actually haven't been inspired to write any sort of fanfiction for quite a while, but after playing Harvest Moon: Animal Parade - and god, it is such a fun game - I really wanted to write this story. I thought bringing all four of the playable characters into the tale would bring a sort of different element to it than the usual "new guy/girl arrives in town and changes everything." Of course, since there are four of them now, I'll be taking some creative license with the original game storyline.

Their personalities, too, will be mostly my own creation. Since they don't do much other than gesture when they talk, it's a little difficult to attribute any sort of character traits to them. From what I understand, Kasey and Molly are the two characters from Animal Parade, while Kevin and Angela are the two from Tree of Tranquility. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Pairings for now are secret (that's my way of hiding the fact that I haven't decided who should end up together). It'll be difficult - some of the characters in this game are just too darn cute!