On a seemingly endless stretch of road, a yellow taxi cab's wheels blazed across the asphalt. A male in his late teens sat in the car's backseat and was shook awake from a sudden jerk of the car. Slowly coming back to consciousness, the teen's face grew a wide grin as he looked out the window and spotted a large hay silo and some houses in the distance. He could finally see the village! He had been in the car for hours now, heading towards Flowerbud Village. The boy let down the car window and allowed the wind to sweep through his brown hair.
"Hey," the cab driver turned around to face his passenger, "Are you sure that we're heading the right way, Mister…uh…"
"Jack." Reminded the young man, "And I'm absolutely sure that we are."
"This place just seems so dead…"
Jack closed his eyes and smiled, thinking back to his memories of the small village. It was 'dead', as any ordinary person from the city would say but that was probably what made Jack love Flowerbud Village in the first place. As a child, Jack would often visit the village and spend time with his grandfather who ran one of the local farms. The days that Jack spent in the village were calm and peaceful and he grew very fond of the place but as he grew older, he started to visit it less. The last time that Jack had visited his grandfather, he was about 7 years old. The last time he had visited Flowerbud Village, was last Winter. Unfortunately, that last visit was to attend his grandfather's funeral, not to make any fond memories.
"Excuse me."
Jack looked up; the driver had broken him out of his thoughts.
"Huh? What is it?" he asked.
"The road seems to stop here." the driver replied.
"Oh! It's supposed to!"
"It's supposed to?"
"It's a small village. They don't have proper roads for cars."
The driver looked perplexed, "What?" he asked.
"It's a really small village." replied the young man, "I'll take it from here."
Jack opened the door of the car and went to the back of the car to open the trunk.
"Do you need any help?" asked the driver.
"No, thank you. I didn't bring that much." Jack stared at the one suitcase in the trunk of the car. It was all that he had. He pulled it out and looked at the dirt trail before him. He smiled and turned around,
"Thanks for the drop!" he told the driver. The driver simply nodded, turned around his car and drove off, leaving behind a cloud of dust. Slightly coughing at the cloud of dust that had spread around him, Jack picked up his suitcase and began his trek down the dirt trail into Flowerbud village. It was a rather long walk and the sun blazed above him,
"It's hot!" he exclaimed. He set his suitcase down onto the ground and carefully opened it. A simple hat laid on top of the clothes that he had packed, he picked it up and put it on.
"Much better!"
"Phew!"
Jack had finally reached his grandfather's farm and it was… barren. The time between his grandfather's death and now hadn't been kind to the farm. The crops were dead, weeds were growing all over the planting grounds and any animals that had been housed in the farm were most likely taken in by the other farm in Flowerbud Village. Fortunately, the farm's infrastructure wasn't damaged at all. The stables, chicken pens, and barn looked as good as new as did the house his grandfather resided in.
"Oh, the house." Jack whispered. The young man picked up his suitcase and made his way towards the small house. He opened the door and was welcomed with a surprisingly clean and comfy interior. The house had wooden tiles and wall panels. There was a small bed in the corner, a TV, wardrobe and bookcase against the wall and a table in the center of the room. There also seemed to be some sort of chest in one of the corners of the room. Jack walked towards it and opened it,
"Oh, tools! Obviously…" he chuckled.
Jack dropped his suitcase down onto the ground.
"Home sweet home!" he said.
He stretched his arms and yawned, "I wonder if I should go to be-"
"Creeeek"
Jack turned around, someone had opened the door. Staring at him face to face was a short man. He was dressed in a red suit and had a red top hat on top of his balding head. There was something slightly comical about the man's appearance, especially his big brown moustache and glasses that hung low on his face. Jack knew that he saw the man when he last visited but he hadn't stuck around long enough to get acquainted with him, or any of the other villagers for that matter.
"Who are you?" the question was asked by both in unison.
The man adjusted his glasses and glared at Jack, obviously trying to appear menacing despite his appearance,
"Why I'm the mayor of Flowerbud Village! The owner of this farm died a while back, who do you think you are? You can't just come waltzing in here like nobody's business!"
"Father, hold on." A timid looking girl with big glasses came up beside her father. She had long black hair and wore them in braids.
"Maria!" the mayor puffed his chest out, "There's a burglar in here. Go call the constable!"
"No, father! This is Pete's grandson." The mayor grew quiet and looked at Jack, eyeing him from head to toe. Jack put on a nervous smile. Mary went on,
"He was here last Winter for his funeral. He's supposed to be taking over the farm."
The mayor adjusted his glasses, "I see. Maria, go home then. I won't be needing you to help me clean."
"Okay." Maria looked towards Jack and blushed before running off. Jack could have sworn that he heard her whisper "I'm sorry." before she ran off.
"Maybe she's shy around strangers." he thought.
The mayor walked up to Jack, "I'm sorry about that. I don't have a good memory. If Maria and my wife didn't keep me in check I would forget that I'm the mayor of this place! I usually come here every so often to clean up because I knew that someone was coming to take over the place." the mayor laughed and put his hand out to shake Jack's.
"I'm Theodore! The mayor of Flowerbud Village! And you are?"
"Jack." answered the teen.
"I see. And you plan on taking over this farm from your grandfather?"
"I do, sir."
"'Sir'. You're polite, aren't you, boy? I like that. Are you sure you're up for this though? This is going to be a hard job, you know!"
"I know that." Jack looked out behind the mayor at the barren farmlands, "But I'm going to try my best!"
Theodore smiled, "That's the spirit. Well, I guess you're fine here, then? I'll be going now."
The mayor walked out of the house and then turned around, "If you need any help or advice, just ask. Hey, how about I show you around town?"
Jack looked back toward his bed and turned back to face the mayor, "I'm fine. I don't want to burden you and it's getting late."
"I see." the mayor nodded, "I'll let the people who you'll need most be aware of your arrival. Goodbye then, Jack!" the mayor tipped his hat off to Jack and walked off.
"Goodbye!" Jack waved before closing the door. He laid his back onto the door and sighed,
"Everyone has grown up and I haven't been here in years. What am I getting myself into? Can I really do this… hm?"
Jack spotted a picture atop the bookcase opposite him. He walked towards it and picked it up. It was a picture of him and his grandfather. Behind the two of them were a picture of a few of his grandfather's animals and Jack was holding up a tomato. Jack remembered that he grew that tomato; he remembered how happy it made his grandfather. Jack remembered not even eating the tomato, his grandfather keeping it as a 'memento' until it had gone bad. Jack laughed at the memory. He turned away from the picture and looked out the window at the still barren field.
"I'll work hard, grandpa."
We feels now.
This story will take elements from both Back to Nature and regular, old Harvest Moon 64. I suppose I'll do a write-up of exactly what's been kept/dropped/altered at some point when it becomes necessary. One thing that I'm absolutely sure will be "weird" will be that Gray and Ann are brother and sister and their father is Doug like in HM64 but Saibara is also related to them as he's their maternal grandfather, remember how their mother had died in HM64? Well... yeah. Anyways, let's have some fun, reader guys! I'm new to writing so I'd love you if you review. Slash stuff will come later, I like a gradual build up to romance not just BAM! LOVE! BAM! SEX! Jack's going to be hard-working, optimistic, always getting back up when he's down sort of thing but he's not going to be a Gary Stu, I promise you.
