Hi there! I'm Rhealicet, and this is my first attempt at a fanfiction. This is actually just a strange idea that came into my head and so I wrote it out. I guess it's a really long oneshot.
-----------------------
A young woman, by the name of Claire, smiled gaily as she walked hand in hand with a small child towards the spring. Five years had passed in Mineral Town, and still she was a captivating sight, with large blue eyes and voluminous golden locks. The child who trotted next to her had the same blue eyes, but her hair was a soft strawberry-blonde, inherited from her father, Gray. They were a picture of contentment and joviality as they neared the spring.
"Diana," Claire whispered. "This is Mommy's favorite place to go. If you're a good girl and offer things to the Goddess here, she might come to talk to you!"
The toddler stared wide-eyed at the spring. The idea of a woman living here was terrifying, but strangely appealing. "Really?" she squeaked, half-hiding behind her mother's legs.
Claire laughed. "You wanna help Mommy make some flower necklaces to offer to the Goddess?"
"W-will she come out?" asked Diana, casting a worried look to the calm waters.
Claire squatted to Diana's level. She ran an affectionate hand through the small girl's reddish blonde hair. "Only if you want her to."
The girl looked up into her mother's eyes. "Promise?"
Claire grinned. "Promise."
A silent pair of sea green eyes watched from the safety of her waterfall home. Claire was her favorite human, but if her appearance would startle her daughter, she would stay put. The Harvest Goddess watched quietly as mother and daughter played merrily by her home.
-----------------------
That was so long ago. Years. That was the last time Claire ever came to the Goddess's home. Too busy with her ever expanding family. Her favorite place was soon forgotten. Of course the Harvest Goddess had expected this. But still… Claire may have been only human, but she was the only one who gave her offerings. The only one who ever seemed to care. Carter may have stopped by on occasion, but… his visits always seemed to be out of respect or duty. Not out of a genuine desire to see the Goddess.
Being a goddess was an unexpectedly lonely occupation. Goddesses don't make heaps of friends; they only gather heaps of followers. Loyalty to a deity is one thing. Loyalty to a friend is another. When you lose the devotion of your followers, it is a blow, but nothing you can't quickly recover from. When you lose the devotion of a friend… it hurts. Bad. And loneliness only picks at an already festering wound…
But the Goddess did not allow herself to become bitter. She waited mutely for Claire and the little Diana to come back. But a Goddess has only so much patience, and her body was beginning to age.
Most deities stay up in the sky to watch over things. There is a weakness to this strategy, though. You lose your closeness with your people, but you stay immortal, for them to forever worship. There are those, however, like the Harvest Goddess, who would rather have a closer, stronger relationship with their people, but in deciding to live on Earth, they lose their treasured immortality. Therefore they age. Much slower than humans, mind you, but still they age. At least their bodies do. Their spirit however lives on and returns to the heavens, unless they can find another suitable "host" body. And then they would be able to live for a few more thousand years or so, before having to find another body. Kind of…godly parasites in a way.
-----------------------
"GAAAAAAAH!"
The Harvest Goddess was startled from her pool of thought, by an agonized scream. Peeking from her spring home she saw a young woman, about 25 years of age, kneeling on the soft grass bent over in distress. Her long strawberry-blonde hair hung in front of her face, obscuring the Goddess's view of the girl's face.
"Stupid parents! Going off and…and…" she hiccupped, "DYING!" She burst into a fit of sobs.
The Harvest Goddess stared a storm of emotions welling up inside her, the most dominant ones being annoyance and confusion. This girl seemed very familiar, but she couldn't remember. The Goddess cursed the wretched process of aging, and its affect on the mind.
She attempted her power of mind-reading, finding that she was embarrassingly out of practice. She was at least able to find the core of the girl's distress. Her parents went on a quick trip out of Mineral Town for a celebration of their 50th anniversary, leaving the girl in charge of the farm with her four brothers and sisters, all in their teens. However something went wrong and the ship had sunk, with both her parents aboard. There were no survivors. And now this girl, was left with the farm, and her four younger siblings.
Pity for the girl fell upon the Goddess. If the girl made and offering, she could help her… but that didn't look like it was going to happen…
An old silver brooch made a deadening splash in the water as the girl tore it off her clothes and threw it into the spring in a fit of emotion.
Good enough.
A flash of light stunned the girl as a figure dropped to earth before her. The girl stared open mouthed at the aged green-haired woman. She was once a beauty, but age had apparently caught up to the woman as she stared back.
"What's your name, child?" A voice, cracked from years of silence left the woman's lips.
The girl stared. "D-Diana…" she croaked.
Click.
The memory of the two playing next to the spring flooded back to the Goddess. A smile graced her lips, but quickly contorted into a frown. The girl's parents. So, Claire was dead. The Goddess was surprised at the lack of emotion she felt. These things happen you know. She was only human.
Diana said nothing else, but continued to stare, dumbstruck at the woman who appeared out of thin air. People don't usually do that right? Who…was this woman?
The Goddess glanced back up at Diana. "I am the Harvest Goddess. I am here because you made an offering." She gestured to the place where the brooch had splashed into the water. "What is it you desire, Diana?"
Diana stared. "I-I uh…"
She was cut off as suddenly the alleged Goddess doubled over.
"The aging!" the Goddess though startled. Already?! It was already time?! To die… No! She didn't want to! Not yet! Her withered hands grasped at the hem of Diana's shirt, pulling her to the ground with surprising strength. She needed a body! It didn't matter anymore. The daughter of a long lost friend… she'd be forgiven. Eventually.
The last sound of the night was a horrified scream…
-----------------------
Reports of a scandal flooded the area around Mineral Town. The disappearance of Diana Harvest and the discovery of a dead withered body by the spring that was said to be the home of a goddess...