Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon.
Note: For those of you reading my other stories that happen to check this out...sorry. This story took over my head and won't let me write anything else. On the good side, my writer's block is gone.
Sideways
Meeting Taro gave her the idea. Getting shipwrecked gave her the chance. Now she's giving ranching a go.
You could say Chelsea's life has been turned just a little bit sideways.
Chapter One
The city port, usually a place bustling with activity, was fairly quiet. In the soft glow of the morning sun people made their way about with a brisk step, intent on their destinations. A few stifled yawns, feet shuffling and dragging along the boardwalk –many of these were sailors who had recently docked from a night voyage and were ready to be home in their warm safe beds.
Sea birds landed on the wooden walkways, strutting around as they searched for deserted scraps of food which would become more plentiful as the day went on.
Passing by the sea birds, Chelsea whistled a nonsense tune, her brown hair dancing lightly in the breeze as she walked leisurely across the port to the boat the ticket in her hand indicated. Unlike many of the people around her, she had no reason to hurry. It would be a little over an hour before her boat departed, so she had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery of the docks.
After checking in, receiving the key to her room, and dropping her stuff off, Chelsea found herself up on the deck watching the sailors move around getting the ship ready for departure.
Moving off to the side of the ship to avoid being in the way, Chelsea spotted another, smaller boat docked next to the one she was on. Sitting in the middle of the small sail boat's deck was a young man roughly her age if she had to guess. Wavy strands of brown hair spilled from beneath his purple bandana while his chocolate eyes focused on the work of his hands which looked busy repairing a fishing net.
For several moments Chelsea thought the young man had a deformed shoulder until the deformity moved on its own and she realized with surprise that is wasn't a deformity, but a little black bird. The bird's feathers were the same color as the young man's tank top, allowing it to blend in quite well if it didn't move and had its eyes closed.
The bird, as if it could sense it was being watched, turned its head towards her and blinked. Smiling, Chelsea whistled a few notes in greeting only to blink in surprise when the bird answered her by copying the notes she'd used exactly. Sure, sometimes birds would sing back to her, but none of them had ever repeated what she'd originally whistled to them.
The young man stopped what he was doing to look at the bird on his shoulder, confused. Chelsea could see him talking to it, but couldn't hear his voice. The bird seemed to respond to the young man who after a few moments shook his head as if in exasperation and went back to working on his nets. The bird though, turned its attention back to Chelsea, blinking and staring at her as if it was expecting something.
When Chelsea didn't do anything, the bird eventually repeated the notes from before. Chuckling, Chelsea repeated the notes and added a few new ones to the end which seemed to delight the small bird as it whistled back the extended tune. The young man had stopped his work again, seeming thoroughly perplexed at the bird's seemingly sudden tune making.
Feeling bad although the sight was amusing, Chelsea whistled the tune again, drawing the young man's attention. His eyes narrowed for a moment until she repeated the notes again only for the bird on his shoulder to copycat her; then his eyes opened wide with realization and he seemed to be laughing, a large grin on his face.
Grinning back, Chelsea waved at the young man. "You know there's still a bit of time before we depart Miss. There's no rule saying you have to stay on the ship until it leaves," one of the sailors from the ship said in passing who'd watched the entire exchange between her and the bird.
Nodding, Chelsea slipped down the deck and crossed the gang plank, dodging a family of four who were just checking in. Within a minute she was standing next to the young man's boat, looking up at him from the dock. There was an amused look on his face.
"I was wondering why Popper here was being so talkative. Normally he's pretty quiet unless he's mimicking me." Reaching out the young man grabbed Chelsea's hand and helped her jump aboard. "The name's Denny. Can I ask who you are?"
Smiling, Chelsea introduced herself. "So, Popper's this little guy, right?" she asked, tilting her head ever so slightly to the side as she studied the bird.
"Popper! Popper!" the bird chirped happily. Shocked, Chelsea burst out laughing, "I didn't think you could talk!" Popper just let out a noise that Chelsea could only guess was his way of laughing.
"Talk, sing, whistle –this little guy does it all," Denny explained fondly before scrunching his face a bit. "Weird though, it's rare for him to copy people besides me. He'll talk to 'em sometimes, but never mimic."
"I just sort of have a way with animals sometimes," Chelsea replied lightly, taking a look around the boat. "So is this boat all yours?"
"Yep, sure is." The pride was hard to miss in Denny's voice. "I've owned her for a while now, and she carries me wherever I want to go. There's nothing like life on the sea when you've got a good boat like this one."
Walking over to the nets Denny had been working on earlier, Chelsea nodded. "I haven't been on too many boats, but the ocean is always really nice and relaxing. Are these fishing nets?" Joining Chelsea, Denny nodded.
"Yep. Normally I'd be out fishing right now, but today I'm doing maintenance on all my equipment." Sitting down, Denny started looking over the net. "What about you? Do you fish?"
Making herself comfortable on the deck of Denny's ship, Chelsea shook her head.
"I've gone fishing a handful of times, but I've never really lived near anywhere I could go fishing. Plus, all the fishing I've done was with a rod, not all this stuff that you've got." Laughing, Denny nodded as Popper chirped, "Not this stuff!"
"You have to be a true fisherman to head out to sea in a boat and fish with nets like I do. It lets me catch lots of fish that I could never catch with just a rod. I'm actually looking for somewhere new to dock with new fish that I haven't caught before. You wouldn't happen to know any good places?" Undoing a tangle in his net with deft fingers, Denny glance over at Chelsea hopefully, but she only shook her head.
"Sorry, I haven't heard of anything like that." Denny sighed before waving it off.
"That's alright. So, what about you? That boat you were on is headed to some pretty far off places. You got plans or somethin'?"
Leaning back on her arms, Chelsea stared up at a pair of sea birds circling in the sky for a few moments before answering. "Hm…not really. I'm just kinda gonna keep going until I find a place to start fresh. I'm tired of my life being the way it is, so I thought traveling around and making a new one somewhere else sounded like a fun idea." Chuckling awkwardly, Chelsea glanced over a Denny. "Sounds a bit strange, huh?"
Shaking his head, Denny smirked. "Not at all. I get like that too which is why I find a new port to settle at every couple of months. Lucky for me the sea is vast, so I should never run out of new places, and as long as I have Popper here with me I don't have to worry about getting lonely."
"Lonely, lonely," Popper chirped. Smirking, Chelsea was about to say something when a call of "all aboard that's coming aboard" came from her boat. An hour had passed by faster than she'd thought. Getting to her feet, Chelsea hopped off Denny's boat.
"Hey, good luck finding a new life," Denny called after her.
"New life, new life," Popper chirped before repeating Chelsea's notes from before.
"Thanks you two, and good luck with your fishing Denny. Maybe we'll meet again someday!" Waving, Chelsea managed to slip back onto her boat just before they pulled the gangplank up.
"Calling it a bit close there Miss," the sailor from earlier said with a smirk. Nodding, Chelsea stood at the ship's railing and watched the port and Denny's ship grow smaller and smaller until they were nothing but a spec and eventually vanished.
Not wanting to waste such a nice day, Chelsea found a comfy lounge chair on the top deck to relax on, enjoying the warm sunbeams. The warmth and steady rocking of the boat coupled with the soothing sound of the ocean quickly put her to sleep until she was woken up several hours later by a sailor so she could go to dinner.
Inside the dining room, Chelsea found an empty seat at a table with four other people. They seemed somewhat familiar and it took her a minute to realize they'd been getting on the boat when she'd gotten off. "Is this seat taken?" she asked, directing her question to the eldest of the group, an old man with a bald head and sharp eyes shaded by bushy white eyebrows which matched his mustache, to show respect.
"Nope. Feel free to take a seat young un." Smiling and nodding her thanks, Chelsea sat down. It had been a long time since anyone had called her a 'young un'. "My name's Taro," the old man introduced himself, "and this is my family."
"I'm Chelsea. It's nice to meet you."
"Oh, Chelsea, that's such a pretty name," the woman at the table said with a sweet smile. Her long pink hair was pulled back with a fancy braid of sorts for decoration. She was very nice looking in Chelsea's opinion. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Felicia, Taro's daughter, and these are my two children, Elliot and Natalie."
Nodding to the other two, it wasn't hard to see that they were related to each other and their mother. The pink hair gene was obviously a dominant family trait. The boy, Elliot, nodded shyly while Natalie came off much more aloof, giving a nod and staring coolly at Chelsea, making her wonder if she wasn't welcome. She was glad that the open seat was between Taro and Felicia so she didn't have to sit next to Natalie.
"So Chelsea, where are you heading? This boat stops a lot of different places." Glad that Felicia had distracted her attention, Chelsea explained how she was looking for somewhere new to settle down and start fresh. "Is that so? What a coincidence! That's exactly what we're doing."
"Really? How come?"
"I'm sick of crowded places. That's why," Taro declared with a passion. "I spent most of my life on a ranch. Can't stand having people pushing in on me from all sides, so we're going to find a small town somewhere to take up residence."
Curious, Chelsea shifted in her seat so she was facing more towards Taro. "You were a rancher? That's so neat! What was your ranch like? Did you just grow crops or did you own livestock too?" Her questions made Taro look so happy she wouldn't be surprised if he started floating out of his seat.
"Oh, did you have to ask that? Now he's never going to shut up." The snide comment came from Natalie, but Taro either didn't hear her or was just ignoring her. Thumping his chest proudly with his fist he began to tell Chelsea all about being a rancher.
"When I first started out, the ranch I'd bought was in poor shape, but that's the reason I could afford to buy it. Things were bad, but I knew with some elbow grease and determination I could turn that old farm around and make a living from it."
Groaning, Natalie got up and left the table to go get her food from the small buffet that had just opened up. After a moment Elliot followed after her. It was obvious to Chelsea neither of them was overly interested in their grandfather's story, or maybe they'd both just heard it too many times to want to hear it again.
"Ah, I'm sorry. You probably don't want to hear an old man's story," Taro sighed sadly as he watched his grandchildren walking off. Shaking her head, Chelsea reached over and grabbed one of Taro's old weather beaten hands and clasped it between both of hers.
"I love hearing stories about people's lives, and I'd love to hear yours. I was almost too little to remember my grandpa when he passed away, but I have a few pictures of him on a ranch that he ran and owned. My dad was never very fond of ranch life and doesn't have much to say about it, but I'd love to know what it's like to be a rancher. Maybe after dinner you could tell me about it?"
"You're not just trying to patronize an old man are you?" Taro asked, but Chelsea could tell he didn't really believe the words himself. She couldn't blame him, all her life she'd been told she that she just gave off this honest aura that made it nearly impossible to doubt what she was saying. Giving Taro's hand a quick squeeze, Chelsea shook her head lightly back and forth.
Smiling, Felicia stood and left the table while Chelsea remained silent, politely letting Taro regather himself. His eyes look almost watery at her words, and he clasped her hand in a surprisingly strong grip for one so old. "I'd be happy to tell you about it Chelsea," he said after gruffly clearing his throat.
Dinner was rather uneventful after that although Natalie stared at Chelsea like she'd grown a second head when she found out that Chelsea actually wanted to hear her grandpa's story. Elliot tried to start a polite conversation to cover up for his sister's rude behavior, but that only made Natalie angrier. By the end of the meal Chelsea had a newfound respect for Felicia who had to put up with the siblings bickering on a daily basis. On the other hand, it made her sad to see the two of them fighting so much.
"I know this isn't exactly my place to say anything, but I don't think you two should fight so much," Chelsea finally commented as the meal was winding down. Natalie gave an angry huff and even Elliot seemed a bit put off.
"Mind your own business!" Natalie snapped. "It's not like you're little Miss Perfect. I bet you fight with your siblings all the time!" Her words stung, but Chelsea brushed them off as best she could while Felicia chided her daughter.
"I'd never claim to be perfect Natalie," Chelsea told the other girl when Felicia was finished scolding her, "and maybe I would fight with my siblings…if I had any." At her words a strange silence filled the table before Natalie snapped again.
"See? You don't even have any siblings, so what are you doing trying to tell us how we should act? Just because you're older than us doesn't mean you can tell us what to do!" Shoving in her chair roughly, Natalie left the dining room in a huff.
"I won't be as rude as Natalie, but I have to kind of agree with her on this one," Elliot said after a moment, getting up and pushing in his chair.
"You two!" Taro snapped after them.
"I'm sorry Chelsea," Felicia said, placing her hand on Chelsea's shoulder. "My children can be a bit…"
"It's fine Felicia. Sorry for riling them up even if I didn't mean to. I feel bad that you have to put up with that bickering all the time." Folding up her napkin, Felicia smiled as she laid it next to her plate.
"The arguing does get tiring, but at least as long as they're arguing I know they're both healthy and well. I think I'm going to go for a stroll around the deck now. I just love a nice walk." Biding Felicia goodbye, it was just Chelsea and Taro left at the table. Most of the rest of the dining room had also emptied out.
"So…" Chelsea said a few moments of silence had passed. "Do I still get to hear the adventures of Taro the rancher?"
Sitting in the dining room as the ship's staff cleaned up, listening to Taro's stories, Chelsea found herself being completely enthralled by them. It was simply amazing the things Taro had accomplished in his life. One minute she could be laughing as he told about when all of his chickens got loose and ran into town, and the next she was grinning as he told about winning his first horse race, leaning forward eagerly as he described the final seconds when he managed to pull into the lead.
Before she knew it, the clock in the dining room read almost midnight and she was fighting back yawn after yawn. "Wow Taro, your life is so incredible. Living on a ranch sounds like a lot of hard work, but it also sounds really fun."
Nodding proudly, Taro seemed to be overflowing with happiness at the rapt attention his stories had received. "I'd be happy to tell you more about it tomorrow if you'd like."
"Really? I was going to ask, but I didn't want to impose," Chelsea said happily as they walked down the ship's halls to their rooms. "There's so much more I'd like to hear about."
"And I'd be happy to tell you about it. I just wish my grandchildren were as interested as you are." Laughing embarrassedly, Chelsea stopped outside her room.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then Taro. Have a nice night." The old man nodded and walked down the hall whistling a happy tune which sounded familiar to her. She'd have to ask Taro what the song was tomorrow.
It was just as she was sitting down on her bed to take her red boots off that the storm hit.
Well? Did you like it?
My goal is to avoid the rather cliche storyline most Chelsea fics seem to have.
Let me know what you think. Just click the review button below. =)