Spoiler alert: Please do not read if you don't want to spoilers for the third arc of Rune Factory 4 (in other words, the epilogue arc after you technically finish the game, getting you the trophy on the second floor of the trophy room).
The song Fields of Gold by Sting is appropriate to listen to, for the mood I'm trying to convey.
Welcome back, Venti.
As much as the dragon's disappearance from one small town of Selphia was eventful, her return was not. It was a summer night, a cool refuge from the humid days. The dragon materialized in the throne room under the cover of the moonlight as if she had been quietly there after all this time despite the two years of absence.
Ventuswill exhaled softly and waited.
A defeated Frey returned at the stroke of one o' clock in the morning of the new day (another day without Venti? She wondered if her heart would survive another venture the following night, wandering the halls of Leon Karnak), walking with such weakness in her step that a stand byer would wonder if she could endure the next shifting of her weight without crumpling.
Venti, she could scream, I thought I heard you tonight.
"You're late. Haven't you heard of curfew?"
Frey froze mid step; I thought I heard you tonight.
"Hello? Is Frey home?"
She recognized that haughty voice anywhere.
Ventuswill blew a small puff of air in Frey's direction. "Sky above, I think my ward has gone a little deaf over the years."
A tear dripped from Frey's trembling upper lip. "I'm a grown woman, I'll have you know. A perfectly normal young woman who doesn't have curfew, is not deaf, and has an extraordinary best friend she hasn't seen in forever."
"I want to meet this best friend of yours; she sounds splendid."
Frey let out an emotional sob, half wanting to admonish Ventuswill of her hot air and the other half wanting to…! "I did too."
Volkanon stepped inside later that morning to find Frey nestled and hidden under Ventuswill's wing.
He wailed.
-At Peace-
In the days following the revival of Ventuswill, the people of that small town of Selphia made sure to make apparent to the guardian dragon that her presence had been sorely been missed.
The inhabitants paid many visits with complimentary offerings of fine crops and thoughtful gifts. Ventuswill enjoyed their attention, basking in their warm affections. But with every face that she saw, it became clear to her that there was still one, a very plain one at that, who eluded her despite being a virtual suitemate.
"What happened to that whelp's whole set of questions and news that she promised?" Ventuswill grumbled to herself, settling into a more comfortable position. After the upset Frey had been lulled to sleep that first night, she had left wordlessly to never come by again.
Ventuswill was sure she hadn't scared Frey off. The earthmate had been smiling all through her deep slumber with wind dragon feathers caught between her fingers. Then why…?
As fall turned into winter, the villagers increasingly became curious with not the dragon but that of the dragon's savior. As much as Ventuswill had been in the spotlight, enthusiastically using this opportunity to demand for offerings of sweets and the much longed for pancakes, the town realized that Frey had been not.
"Where do you think she is?" suddenly asked Doug, fresh from another bout of friendly unfriendliness with Dylas. His jaw smarted from their wrestle and he rubbed it gingerly during the time-out.
"What makes you think I would know, bastard?" Dylas was sure his ear was going to fall off. "Probably at home, wearing the ear off of Ventuswill just like you. Now shut up."
"I do not, you damn horse!"
Leon, near by the spectacle, held his fishing pole out by a stream while mulling over the woman in question. He rested his chin on a palm, watching the slow bob of the float ball in the waters. His usual pig tailed prey wasn't in sight and he suspected the same for Venti as well.
For the first time, he learned what it was like of his renascence in the modern era to be without his waker. He had to admit, it was more dull. She was the point in his blunted teasing, that much was obvious, but also the swelling waves that polished his crudely carved facets and nurtured his notable qualities. With her absence, Leon felt as if the piece of an artist, set aside as a work in progress, concepts and multipart beliefs not ready to face the public.
Indeed, where was their rosy cheeked champion? Certainly not in the streets of Selphia: the inhabitants could barely catch wind of her presence when Frey slipped out to the forests surrounding the town.
-At Peace-
"My lady?" Vishnal said, not quite catching Ventuswill's sharp aside, "was there something you needed?"
Ventuswill gave a disapproving snort through her large snout, sending power snow to fly about. She did not waste time in voicing her feelings. "Where has Frey been?"
Kiel thoughtfully stroked his chin. "I haven't seen her lately, now that I think of it."
"I thought the castle's foundations would be shaking from her nagging by now," the dragon agreed. "Perhaps I should pay a visit to her rooms. My fitting through the corridors matters little."
Come to think of it, Vishnal was the one who was in charge of overseeing Frey's daily rise and fall. "Vishnal, what say you?"
He squirmed under the native dragon's scrutiny. Vishnal said humbly, "She retires to her bed early and is gone long before I go about waking her at dawn, Lady Ventuswill."
"She did go through much to see you come back," Kiel reasoned. "I'm sure she's recovering."
Ventuswill stamped a clawed foot, flapping her wings with a temper. "I'm quite sure she's doing just that, what with the thriving rows of hot-hot fruit just out back!
"It has been months, and all I see of her continued good health are those infernal crops, planted, watered, harvested!" The snow fled from her proximity, leaving behind the clean marble underneath.
"Perhaps it was a ruse," Ventuswill continued with a sniff, "and she really doesn't want to see her best friend."
"There, there," Blossom soothed. "Give her some time. She has certainly wanted to see you most, despite her distance at the moment. Frey will come around."
Ventuswill relented in the subject but was still far from placated - her moods had soured over time from getting none of her dreadfully longed for pancakes. "I have half a mind to set fire to her fields," She bemoaned, "I had enough of hot-hot fruit anyway."
-At Peace-
There were cherry blossoms in the sky when Leon went looking for Frey. According to current town rumors (it wasn't hard to get in the flow of information, when the population was small enough), Frey had turned into some sort of nocturnal being.
He huffed at this. Baseless words. She was as human as the rest of them, and there was no reason that Frey would have lost her warmth between now and the time she had last visited the Forest. If Kiel was at the bottom of the gossip, fanning the fumes, there was nothing to worry for in that regard.
Still, Leon worried for her nonetheless. And so did everyone else, underneath all of their quirks and lighthearted chatter. Clorica admitted him into Frey's wing in the castle.
"Only you," she slowly conceded.
Frey was not home. Leon sighed. But at the sight of the bed looking slept in, there went the conversion into a blood sucking monster theory (what use was that book worm if he didn't know how to utilize his readings?). Plus, there was a bowl of half eaten oatmeal on her dining table. Still warm, he noted. She must be...
Leon headed out to the fields. There were rows of barley, the yellow shrouding any possible view of the monster barns on the far end from his vantage point. Amidst the crops, Leon found her with her hair undone (by the gods, she was beautiful) sitting on a naked patch of loam, content and gazing at the passing clouds.
"Frey?"
The aforementioned woman turned her head to see Leon approaching. "Leon? What are you doing here?"
He raised an eyebrow. "I could ask the same of you."
"Farming?" she asked as if it weren't incredibly obvious.
He knelt down beside her. "Like a hermit for half a year?" Leon's arms encircled her as he too joined her on the floor. "I haven't seen you in weeks, Frey. I've… we've been worried."
She blinked, slowly noticing the fact that her behavior might have been upsetting. "..I have been acting strangely, haven't I?"
"Quite. And by that, I mean enough to scare me half to death."
She laid her arm on his, resting her head on the cradle of his clavicle. "I'm sorry."
"Mmmmn," Leon buried his nose in her hair, "I may forgive you, if you give me something nice." Her scent was enough to put his heart at rest. He rolled onto his back, pulling her down with him.
"Leon!" Frey scolded.
He chuckled. "Relax, my dear. I mean nothing. You may begin with begging for forgiveness." The barley waved in the air, springing back in the face of gentle spring winds. He could see how sitting in the middle of the field was attractive. Rolling hills of gold.
He was hot to her touch, the rough but fine yellow sands of an arid landscape. She missed this feeling, Frey realized, finally understanding the length of time she had been gone without it. She had been absent for so many days.
And there was still nothing but quiet patience for her. He had been waiting this time not for Ventuswill but for Frey.
She reached for his ears, the furred ones above his scalp, and stroked them lightly.
"Has there been a verdict?"
I don't know how to explain myself."
He did not need her explanation so much as he needed her. "Then don't."
Frey looked into his eyes, confused. But the sweltering love she found in his being for her was panacea for her addled mind and knotted tongue and Frey scrambled for words – anything, anything to feel it more.
Frey closed her eyes. "I feel it's all a dream."
Leon closed his own as he gripped Frey for - gods know what - his or her support. On some days, he expected his family and friends to be alive, and on others he started up a cold sweat wondering where Frey and Selphia gone. He wasn't sure if he was in a dream, himself.
"I've just been happy, and I've wondered if it wasn't a figment of my imagination."
Exactly. "And yet Ventuswill complains constantly to the nearest person that you're not happy?"
"I have forever to talk to her."
But forever was a long time. "…What if Ventuswill disappeared again?"
"She won't," Frey shook her head. "Not in my lifetime. Not while I can give her a good wallop if she tries a stunt like that again."
A booming laughter erupted from deep within Leon's core, rumbling and resounding out of his chest. "Venti would eat you for that!"
"No, I'd taste terrible." She pushed against him with embarrassment.
Leon continued laughing until he was sure his lungs were out of air, and then laughed some more.
"Don't worry, you're not going anywhere either," she assured, a thumb running along his facial markings under his eyes. "I'll make sure of it."
He ceased his noise immediately.
Frey caught Leon between her legs as she leaned down to his face. Her hair spilled down, ocean trysting with fresh water in secret estuaries.
"I have an answer now, if you so please," she whispered.
Leon ran a nose along her cheekbone, pleased in her initiated their proximity. "What is it?"
"Marry me."
She didn't taste terrible; Frey tasted of a wholesome shining future.
-At Peace-
"Venti?" Frey stuck her head into the native dragon's room.
"Humph, who dares to speak to the Divine Wind?"
Frey gave a small guilty smile. "…Pancakes?"
"Ooh!" Ventuswill's eyes lit up as she gave up all pretense of crossness. "All is forgiven, come here, come here, come here!" Her wings fluttered with excitement.
The small smile bloomed into a full blown one, and Frey disappeared only to come back with a plate topped by seemingly unlimited layers of fluffy bread.
"I hope you brought honey!" squealed Ventuswill.
"And some good news," Frey promised.
I wrote this first, then found that fields of gold matched the atmosphere and changed it a bit accordingly.
Edited Feb. 21, 2014 to correct mistakes, rewrite some sentences, etc, and actually introduce scene dividers because 's doc manager has been a little fussy on what it accepts. It was a bit irritating.
Overall, they're minor edits, though I hope the language and story will flow more smoothly now.