Harvest Moon
Verticon
"Well are you going to listen to me now?" Said a man with brown eyes and hair.
"Hold on dad I just need to clear this last jump." Said a boy with brown hair and eyes wearing a never soft shirt playing a video game. (It's a personal trademark that started as a joke. All heros start with a Neversoft shirt of my own design.)
"Tony look at yourself. Your 20, jobless and you dropped out of high school. You have no future." The man said.
"So? What's your point dad?" Tony said pausing his game.
"Come on Tony I know you can do better then this. You were the greatest quarter back in high school why did you quit?" Tony's dad said sitting down in the Tony's bed.
"I told you dad school wasn't interesting to me I felt no need to stay there." Tony said.
"So your trying to tell me you quit school because it didn't challenge you?" Tony's father said adjusting his glasses.
"Yeah pretty much." Tony said turning his game off and stretched.
He got up and walked to his closest. After looking around inside he found his favorite hat. It was a white Nintendo 64 hat with Super Mario world 64 on the back and he put it on backwards.
"I'm out dad." Tony said grabbing his keys.
"Tony wait." His father said.
"What?" Tony said popping his head in the doorway.
"Be careful son." He said.
Tony shrugged and left the house. He started up his car put on some tunes and peeled out.
"Hmm so he needs a challenge huh?" His father thought getting up.
He went into his office and sat down at his desk.
"I can't think of anything for him to do. My first born son is a high school drop out and his sister ran off with his Ex best friend." He sighed and looked at a picture of a woman.
She had purple hair and eyes.
"If my wife was still alive she'd know what to do." He thought and took his glasses off and laid his head down on his desk. As he thought about what he was going to do with Tony he fell asleep. While he was asleep a breeze swept into the room and along with it a letter. The letter floated around the room then laid to rest right in front of his glasses. The father woke up a little while later and put his glasses on and saw the letter. He opened it and began to read the letter to himself. When he finished he smiled and looked up at a picture of Tony when he had visited his grandfather's farm a long time ago as a child.
"Perfect." His father thought and left the office to put his plan into action.
"Your making me do what?!" Tony said the next day when his father told him his plan.
"That's right I'm going to have you take over your Grandpa's ranch." His father said.
"But Dad that's clear out in Mineral town! That's like the middle of no where." Tony said.
"I know that and maybe it will keep you out of trouble for once." His father said and Tony groaned. (They were at the police station and Tony's father had come to bail him out for the third time in a month.)
"Alright the paper work is all done Jack you can take you son home now." Said the jailer.
"Thanks Pete. Come on Tony lets go." His father said leading him out of the police station.
"Can you at least take my hand cuffs off first?" Tony asked.
"Not until we get home." Jack said.
"Man." Tony sighed and watched the people staring at him.
"So Grandpa is sick?" Tony said back at home.
"That's right. Your grandfather can't handle the farm like this so I'm sending you to take care of it until he gets better." Jack said.
"Fine I guess I have nothing better to do." Tony said.
"Good now lets get you on a plane and out to grandpa's." Jack smiled.
18 hours of jet lag later Tony arrived on his Grandfather's farm tired, irritated and in no mood to talk. He went up to the pathetic looking farm house and knocked on the door.
"We don't want any!" Said a grumpy voice.
"Uh grandpa it's me Tony." Tony said.
The door opened and a old man with quite an impressive build appeared before Tony.
"Oh Tony it's you. I thought you were Won trying to sell me things again." Tony's grandpa said giving Tony a bear hug picking him off the ground.
"Grandpa your killing me!" Tony said gasping for air.
"Sorry about that my boy I guess I don't know my own strength." Grandpa laughed and put Tony down.
"Hey wait a minute you're not sick." Tony said.
"Sick? Why I haven't been sick in 39 years." Grandpa laughed and Tony swore under his breath.
"Dad tricked me into coming out here. Well this is just great." Tony sighed.
"Well don't just stand there come on in." Grandpa said pushing Tony inside.
The only thing inside was a bed an old TV and a small kitchen.
"Grandpa please tell me you have indoor plumbing now." Tony begged.
"Your a lucky one Tony I just got rid of the outhouse and got a bathroom added on a few days ago." Grandpa said and took Tony's bag and tossed it a trunk.
"Alright boy we have work to do. But first things first we need to get you some farming clothes." Grandpa said.
"Work? But I just got here." Tony said and Grandpa picked him up and carried him out of the house like a sack of potatoes.
"I know you just got here but the harvest goddess waits for no man. Come first we're going to get you some overalls then we're going to get to work." Grandpa laughed and Tony groaned.
"Hey Elli!" Said a guy with orange hair and glasses.
"What?" Said a brown haired girl with brown eyes.
"I went to see if Talon had those herbs for my mom and check this out." Said the man pulling out a digital camera. He pushed a few buttons and found a picture of Tony working the fields.
"Who's that Rick?" Elli asked.
"I have no idea he must have come to town today." Rick said.
"Well let's go introduce ourselves to him. Go get your sister and I'll be there after I finish up this paper work." Elli said.
"When I get enough money to afford a plane ticket back home." Tony keep telling himself then he swang his hoe in the air to role play what he had planned for his father when he got back home.
"Tony quit swinging that Hoe around and get back to work. You have to till 200 squares before the day's through." Grandpa said pounding a boulder with his Mystic Hammer.
"200 squares?! With an iron hoe? I'll be out here all night!" Tony said yelled.
"Well you better hurry then you're not going coming into the house until you do." Grandpa said yawning and went inside and locked the door.
"Damn it." Tony thought and got back to work.
Rick and Elli appeared near the front gate with Rick's sister Popuri right behind them.
"Is that him?" Popuri said.
"Yep." Rick said.
Tony was so mad at his grandpa he didn't even notice them.
"He looks like he's mad about something." Elli said and watched as Tony attacked the ground in as sense by striking the hoe against it so hard hard he broke it and swore loudly.
"Maybe we should come back another time I don't think he's in a mood to talk right now." Rick said.
Tony looked over at them and started walking up to them.
"What do you want?" He asked crossly carrying the pieces of the hoe with him.
"We uh saw that you were working on the Talon's farm and we just thought we should get to know you." Elli said.
"Well don't bother I won't be here long. As soon as I make 5000 GP I'm out of here." Tony said.
"Hey haven't I seen you somewhere before?" Rick said.
"Probably I used to come here every summer when I was a kid." Tony said.
"Hey yeah you're the kid that found my chicken for me that one time." Rick said.
"Oh yeah I remember now Rick right?" Tony said his bad mood disappearing.
"Yeah your Tony right?" Rick said.
"Yeah I am." Tony smiled.
They all started talking for awhile and Grandpa watched from the window.
"They've been talking for awhile. If he doesn't get back to work soon he's never going to finish." He thought.
"Hey we're going to Forget me not valley in a few days want to come with us?" Popuri asked.
"Sure I'd like that." Tony said and Rick handed him a Silver hoe.
"Here I don't need it anymore and you're going to be out here for a long time if you don't hurry up soon." Rick said.
"Thanks." Tony said tossing the old one away.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow then." Tony said and got back to work.
"There finally done." Tony said wiping the sweat from his brow. (Even with the Silver hoe it took him 7 hours to finish because he had to rest in the hot spring a few times.)
Tony went to knock on the door and Grandpa opened it before he could.
"Morning Tony oh good job you finished the fields." Grandpa said.
"Yes I did now if you'll excuse me I'm going to bed." Tony said heading for the house when Grandpa stopped him.
"Sleep? There's no time for sleep my boy a hurricane is coming and we need to get the animals taken care off." Grandpa said picking Tony up again and carried him to the barn.
"Grandpa I can walk you know." Tony said and Grandpa dropped him with a plop.
"I know you can walk but you drag your feet wherever you go just like you father." Grandpa said giving Tony a pitch fork.
"Now go feed and brush Bessie. Be gentle with her she's expecting a calf." Grandpa said.
Tony hopped into Bessie's pen and she looked up at him and mooed.
"Hey Bessie how are you girl?" Tony said patting her head.
Of all of Grandpa's Livestock Bessie was his favorite. Even his lack of sleep and bad mood didn't stop him from grooming her correctly and feeding her just right.
"There we go." Tony said.
Bessie mooed and licked his face.
"Ah I'm happy to see you too." Tony said rubbing her face with his own.
Hey Tony hurry up the storm's coming!" Grandpa said at the door. Tony put a blanket on Bessie and ran to the door. The wind made it hard to shut but together they closed it and then they locked the door and headed for the house. Grandpa made it there first and the wind knocked Tony over.
"Help!" Screamed a voice.
"What was that?" Tony called to Grandpa.
"I don't know get in here before you get yourself killed!" Grandpa said.
"Someone please help me!" The voice screamed.
"I'll go check it out." Tony said and left to find it's source.
"Tony don't the hurricane is almost here!" Grandpa said then swore and shut the door locking it.
He boarded up the windows blocked the door with a chair so he could let Tony in when he came back.
"I hope that grandson of mine comes back." Grandpa thought.
Tony was being buffeted by the storm and small bits of rock and soil were cutting is face and the other parts of his rain soaked body that were not covered by his overalls.
"Hello!" Tony called.
"Down here!" The voice called.
Tony was standing on the beach and he saw someone in a cloak trapped under a boat and bleeding quite badly.
"Hang on I'm coming." Tony said.
He grabbed the boat and lifted it up and off the cloaked person.
"I can't feel my legs." It said looking up at Tony.
The cloaked figure was a girl but her hood prevented him from seeing anything but her mouth.
"Hold on I'll carry you back home." Tony said picking her up.
He tried to move up the beach but the winds were to strong and he fell backwards hitting his head on a rock nearby and they both tumbled into the sea.
"Shot I guess I picked a bad time to play hero." Tony thought as he was pulled out to sea.
The girl was screaming at him but Tony couldn't hear anything but his own heart beating as he sank under the water and disappeared under the waves.