Disclaimer: I do not own the Harvest Moon franchise or any of its characters, plot, etc.
Until she arrived, I never thought of myself as lonely. I had always had my books, my studies, my stars… But when she came into my home, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead from dashing around the island, her spikily bobbed brown hair sticking out about her vaugely burnt pale skin, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to not be alone anymore.
Akari from Natsume Ranch. She was my first visitor in a very long time. The residents of Castanet Island considered me to be a mere fortune teller, but I was in fact a wizard. The girl, Akari, was new to the island and, as far as I was aware, had come to restore the power of the Harvest Goddess. When she came to me it was to find out where the Witch Princess, Vivi, had gone. Apparently Vivi had some connection to the Green Bell, which needed to be found and rung.
To be perfectly honest, I had no interest whatsoever in helping Akari get to Vivi at that point. Vivi's own stupidity had put her in that situation. I had warned her that a spell such as the one she was going to cast would do no good for the Goddess, and would in fact probably backfire on her. Of course, she did not listen and ended up as a frog in the midst of her own magic weaving. Being a somewhat bitter being, I did not find it to be my duty to help Akari and listed off some of the most difficult ingredients to find, which I said I would need in the potion to return the Witch.
Akari's eyes had widened with worry when I told her I required perfect butter, a hibiscus, and good cornmeal. For Akari, these would be nearly impossible to attain. She would have to amass a large amount of funds and time to create perfect butter which could only be gotten from churning perfect milk from her own cow. She would need to grow at least a good quality ear of corn in the middle of monsoon season and then mill the grain herself. Finally, as if the first two weren't enough, she would have to complete the blue bell to calm the ocean waters enough to take the ferry to get to Toucan Island for a hibiscus flower. I'm not entirely sure what loathsome feelings made me give Akari the task of gaining such difficult ingredients when I could have managed a much simpler potion with the same results, but perhaps it was my desire to keep her around a bit longer.
She would come to check in on me every few days, it was somewhat unnerving, but I saw through my crystal ball that she was in fact trying very hard to gather the ingredients for the potion without any questions asked, but she still managed to come see me. Every day she tended the corn she grew in hopes of a single good, perfect, or shinning quality ear to put into the mill. After that she brushed and hand fed the little black cow, Stella, in hopes of a perfect milk. For the rest of the day she did every little thing she could think of to get the money for her own butter churn, her actions varied from plucking up every mushroom or toadstool she could find to tirelessly fishing and mining.
Twice I was astonished by her dedication when she walked in the door with ingredients for the potion, a wide grin on her girlish face as I pronounced that I was impressed. Perhaps Akari underestimated the difficulty of attaining a single hibiscus blossom on Castanet Island, but it was the last thing she attempted, and I pitied her for that.
Akari struggled bitterly with ringing the Blue Bell. After finally getting the key to the cave that housed the bell the silly Blue Sprite had forgotten what his melody was. She had a fair amount of difficulty deciphering the little boy Paulo's vague diagram of the music apparatus in Harmonica Town that played the Blue Bell's melody and when she did work it out it only got more difficult from there. She had to go fishing, had to search the depths of the mine to find a rare black pearl, and had to raise a brand new duckling to get a single "egg from a quacky bird".
In the end, I suppose her ingenuity won out and she finally set the apparatus in motion and the forgetful sprite rang his bell. Akari purchased a ferry ticket and made it to Toucan Island, got a hibiscus bloom, and delivered it to me all in the same day. Her dedication to the task made an impression on me, an even deeper one than her audacity to come into my home and ask for help had. Something about her was different; she cracked into my shell of… loneliness.
My heart sank as I mixed the potion that night, using the shaft of moonlight filtering through the dusty windowpanes to guide my tired eyes. It was strange, to feel emotion again, to desire the company of this girl. I was very nearly afraid, afraid to lose her once she no longer needed my help. The Goddess was decidedly more important than what I felt though, as an immortal I shouldn't hold on to emotion anyway. If only to help the Goddess, I would give Vivi the potion so she could help Akari restore nature. I don't remember how long ago it was that I came to Castanet Island with Vivi, but I remember that when I did, the Goddess was singing… It had been a long time since I heard the Goddess's voice ring across the land… I sipped from my coffee and tried to forget about the girl, she would never last in my life anyway, not as a mortal.
Alright, first upload for this account. It's just drabble, quite honestly its poor quality as far as my work normally goes. Let me know what you think, if anyone out there in the wide world of the internet actually reads this.
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~~Painapurru