Grass and Wine

Chapter 1: Mid Summer's Afternoon

The cloudy sky looked even more ominous the second time Jack stared into it. As if on cue, the heavens crackled and for a moment the sky lit up as if it was the middle of a summer's afternoon.

"Well, it is the middle of a summer's afternoon…" Jack thought to himself. The rain poured down on his head, thoroughly soaking his blue and yellow toned hat, and hair that was carefully styled to stick out of it. As he trudged through the newly softened earth towards the hot springs that was 10 minutes away from his farm, he began to wonder why he came out on a days like today.

"There's been downpours like this for the past three days straight, I have no reason to go outside except to feed the animals, all the crops are being watered, I wonder when it would stop…" For as long as Jack could remember, he's been stopping over by Gotz's cottage in the mountain, and then walking up to the hot spring to grab the sweet-scented grasses that grew every season, excluding Winter. Of course the hot spring usually had more to offer than just grasses, it housed bamboo shoots and mushrooms, which he picked on occasion when he needed to. But, he usually came for the grasses. He could then sell these little treasures for 50G a piece, however, he always had another purpose for picking them.

"I never know why I have to keep seeing that look on his face, 'Thank You! That's a lot of help!' he would say, or, 'Ohhhh I love this!' whenever I gave him a bottle of wine." Jack mused. He would never admit to himself that there was just something about that man that kept drawing him back day after day, sometimes he would even work himself so hard that he would pass out, just so he could wake up the next hour with that man staring down at him.

"At least I know he appreciates my gifts," Jack grumbled as he bent down and began to pull the grass plant by its stem and tugged in an upward motion. He seemed to wander to the dark and dirty recesses of his mind when he thought for a second about what he was doing. Grasping… tugging… "Ack!!!! Must. Stop. Dirty. Thoughts." The young farmer tried his damnedess to concentrate on pulling out the roots of the plant and then stuffing it in his oversized rucksack. Doing so came with some avail, party due to drenched overalls and the cold water showering down on every part of his body. When he was done picking all the grass he wanted, he stood up and pushed away the brown hair that was plastered to his eyes. He then made his way across the green to small patch of land where the waterfall, in front of the mine, splish-splashed its way downward to the stream directly below. Jack put his rucksack down and pulled out a wet, muddy boot and held it above his head.

"Dear Goddess, what good are you? I gave you produce from my farm for 10 days straight. Do you know how much money I lost? What did I get for it? NADA, that's what! Not even one power-berry… not that I wanted one… being stronger would decrease my chances of seeing him… But what's all this I hear from the village people, that after 10 days you would grant me time in the hot springs alone with any person of my choice!? Well, you guessed it! 10 days passed by and still no hot spring date!!" The farmer leaned backwards and prepared to throw the boot into the stream, when an overpowering feminine voice entered his mind.

"Honey, put the boot down and step away from my offering table before I send you to Carter's confession room!!" she chided him. Jack obeyed, then quietly asked,

"G-Goddess? Is that you?"

"Damn straight it's me! And you got one hell of an impatient attitude, if the villagers knew you were really like this, they'd kick you out on your ass before your 3 years was up!

"S-sorry, I didn't mea…" he managed to stammer out in fear as he backed even further away from the "offering table."

"And if you would just shut up for a moment, I'll tell you why I never blessed you with anything."

"…" Jack complied.

The Goddess continued in a rather seductive low voice, "Jack, I know exactly what you desire. Power berries will not help you, and you knew this; it doesn't take stamina to see the man of your dreams. Oh! And the thing about the offerings and the hot springs, that only pertains to the opposite gender. Am I homophobic? No! Of course not! But this is how the Perverted Grand Overlord of RPG's created life, so deal with it!"

Those last words of the Goddess, "deal with it…" reverberated in Jack's mind as her voice slowly began to dissipate from his thoughts. Immediately afterwards, he began to feel dizzy and a throbbing pain pounded on all parts of his being, before he knew it, his face made contact with the soft mud of the earth and all went pitch black.


A/N: Yep! and that was my first chapter to the first fanfic i ever wrote. 3's the doctor

So, please r&r... i need helpful critisism... something, anything, lol...

im sooo tired, im gonna sleep now