Pinata Island was always at it's full potential in the early mornings of dawn. The flowers would begin to bloom, the dew that had set upon them the night before gently shaking off onto the ground below. The Candaries would begin to sing softly, and the other pinatas would rise out of their homes, ready to start their day. There were no words that would describe the splashes of yellow, orange, and red that mixed into the sky, slowly turning blue by the hour as the sun rose. Everything was finally waking up from the night of slumber.
One gardener in particular was a prime example of this, as she was wide awake at the current hour. She was a young girl, roughly between the ages of sixteen to eighteen. Her hair was a light honey color, that curled and frilled in quite a messy way, and she had a sweet smile that would always greet anyone with warm intentions. She was currently fixing her yukata, a colorful kimono-like outfit that didn't require near as many layers. Although, this outfit was a tad costumed since the clothing did not reach her ankles like a traditional one would, and the sleeves did not hang off from her hands nearly as much. This gave her a much easier way to move about, and she didn't have to suffer on the hotter days on Pinata Island.
This gardener was known as Seiko Vanfloss, a well-known participant of the local P-Factor just about every week. Her garden often bloomed with different kinds of bushes and trees, needed to produce the fruit that was necessary for her pinata's to learn tricks. Her trusty trick stick was probably on hand more then her shovel, and her newgats were always her top prize winners. Of course, she always had many other pinatas that were also eligible for the competitions, even the nocturnal ones, who were always ready for the nightly P-Factors if it ever happened. She wasn't a regular winner, but that didn't keep her from trying again the week after.
Now we come to a question- what was this girl doing up so early?
She stood proudly in her garden, her camera in hand. She was ready to burst with excitement, her eyes caught on the soft petals that rose proudly from the flower below. Seiko wasn't the best when it came to growing flowers- trees didn't require as much attention when it came to growing as the delicate plants did. She could grow the much simpler flowers, such as daisies and sunflowers, and recently has been having success with the snapdragons, but orchids were another story. It was almost like growing the flowers was some kind of taboo, as they would always die when she didn't expect it. Hiring a sprinkling helper didn't help as much either, because the helper she got was sort of a ditz who had a hard time figuring out what was left and what was right. But that all didn't matter now, because she had a healthy orchid that stood proudly in the soft grass. Now she was just waiting on a dear friend of hers to come and marvel at the sight.
"Where is she..." Seiko muttered, turning around. She put her hand on the forehead of her mask, looking carefully over at the path near the village. She squeals, seeing that her guest was finally arriving.
However, this guest of hers did not share the same enthusiasm.
This guest was a dear friend of Seiko's, probably her best friend. Her name was Madeline Builder, although she preferred to be called Maddie. Like Seiko, she was also a brunette, although her hair was much lighter in color, and just barely brushed her shoulders. Her hair was currently in a tangled mess, even with her bandanna tied around it. She was dressed in her usual, casual orange and black patterned clothes, although they were crooked like she had put them on in the dark. Her feet dragged behind her, dirt gathering up on her boots as she made her way to the garden. Needless to say, Maddie was the opposite of a morning person, and Seiko better have a damn good reason for alerting her at the crack of dawn.
"About time you got here! I have been waiting forever," Seiko says, her enthusiasm obvious in her voice. Unlike Maddie, Seiko was much brighter in the mornings. She was always up bright and early, and would have gone to bed only a few hours before. Sometimes Maddie wondered if Seiko even got any sleep half of the time, or if she just drank a load of coffee the villager tinkerer, Bart, would always make for her out of a few acorns.
"Now, what is so important that I had to wake up hours before the morning Candaries would?" Maddie says, a slight croak in her voice. If she wasn't wearing her mask at the moment, the bags under her eyes would be as clear as day.
"Look," Seiko said, a very giddy tone adding a high-pitched sound to her words. Maddie looked down at the ground, her eyes catching onto the orchid popping out of the ground. Her mocha colored eyes stared at the white petals, no expression seen inside of them as Seiko snapped a few pictures to put in her journal later.
"Is there an invisible pinata or something I'm supposed to be looking at?" Maddie asked. Seiko giggled, rolling her eyes.
"No, I was talking about the flower. Can you believe it? After so many failures, I finally have a fully grown-"
"You woke me up, at the break of dawn, just to make me look at a flower," Maddie snarled, looking at her friend with dangerous eyes. Seiko nodded, unaffected by the look of death.
"I sure did," She chirped. Maddie slapped the forehead of her mask, slowly dragging her tired hand down her face.
"I. Fucking. Hate you," she growls. Seiko raised a brow, wiping a lock of hair out of her face.
"Why?"
"You woke me up at the brink of dawn," Maddie leans in closer to Seiko's face. "For a flower."
"I know, can you not believe it? Now if only I could grow snapdragons, and my garden will be complete," Seiko said, a dreamy look on her face as she folded her hands over one another. She was right- snapdragons and orchids would fit perfectly into her Asian influenced garden, adding the last bit of color and details that she needed for her garden to be in full bloom.
It was a shame Maddie didn't have the same look on it.
"Oh my God, I can't believe you made me get out of bed for this," she muttered, a huge yawn overcoming her. Seiko huffed, placing her hands on her hips.
"You could at least act like you would be happy for me. Leafos would," she jeers. Maddie rolled her eyes.
"She would throw you a party for growing a carrot," she retorts. "Besides, why didn't you wake her up instead?"
"Because she's asleep, and that would be rude," Seiko said, as if it were plainly obvious. Now the longest stare down took place as Maddie looked at Seiko, blinking her eyes a couple of times.
"I'm done. I'm so done," she finally says after a while, throwing her hands up in the air in defeat. Seiko had a questioning look on her face.
"I don't-"
"DONE," Maddie repeated, stumbling out of the garden.
Hours had passed, and Seiko was still as bright as she was earlier in the morning. Despite the events earlier in the morning with Maddie, she just helped herself to another cup of coffee and went on. By now, her only female worker Sprinkling was making her rounds in the garden, happily caring for every plant that needed a drink of water. Her pinata's began to come out and frolic, except for the nocturnal ones, who had crawled back into their homes to sleep.
"Come on Hoshi, I know you can still do it," Seiko says, kneeling on the ground. Her eyes were focused on a little Newtgat, one that was bright orange rather than pink. Although he didn't look like it, he was quite old for a pinata, having been Seiko's first pinata, way back in her early years. He was also one of the few pinatas in her garden that had learned both of his tricks, although nowadays he was getting a little too old to be able to jump around like he used too.
"Come on, you just did it yesterday. Just once for me, okay?" Seiko urged. Hoshi looked up at her, slashing his tail a bit. He tried to stand up to do his trick, but wobbled around and fell instead, deciding it was still too early for him to prance around for his gardener. Seiko decided to give up as well, patting his round little belly.
"Alright, fine, we can try again later," she says, unknowing about the two figures that were approaching from behind.
"TALLY-HO, BOSS!" A loud voice screeched from behind. Seiko screamed, falling over from where she was kneeling. She got back up immediately, her face a tad flushed from her embarrassing reaction.
"I told you two not to do that to me," she growled, brushing the dirt off of her yukata. The two visitors were none other than Danny and Doug, who were also known as the Diggerling twins. Despite all Diggerling looking exactly the same, they were the only two known to be related, thus them being known as twins, despite Danny's two year lead on Doug.
"Sorry, he can get a little too excited about work," Danny mutters, slouching his shoulders against the ground. Unlike his boisterous brother, Danny tended to be on the quiet side, and would apologize over just about everything, whether it was his fault or not. Seiko patted him on his big golden helmet.
"It's alright. Just have some fun in the mine today- I can't wait to see what you guys come out with this time," she says cheerfully, beaming at her worker. Danny, rather then smile back, gave her a weird look.
"You're awfully cheerful this morning," he comments. Seiko nodded, leaning over to the ground. Near the snoozing Hoshi was her faithful journal, filled with all sorts of pictures of her pinata's doing tricks and plants she has grown. She flips to the last recorded page, that held the picture of the orchid that had bloomed earlier that morning.
"I finally grew the flower of my dreams," She says, squealing a bit. Danny gave her a half smile, although he didn't see what the big deal of the flower was. Seiko had the worst luck with flowers, but to see her get excited over a colorless plant every other gardener had grown was a bit... over the top.
"Where is Doug, anyway? Did he already go into the mine?" Seiko asked, shutting her journal and looking around. Danny looked too, and just in time to see his brother approach with a hand behind his back.
"Golly, I didn't mean to scare you like that, boss," Doug says, chuckling a bit. Seiko waved her hand, smiling as she did so.
"Do not worry about it, Doug."
"I got you something to make up for it though," Doug says, drawing a circle in the dirt with his foot. Seiko giggled a bit.
"Like what, another rock?"
"Nope!" Doug said, holding out his hand. Seiko's smile immediately fell, her face going from cheerful to crestfallen. In Doug's dirty fingers was the white orchid she had grown, plucked right from the ground and everything. She gasps, dropping her journal as it splat against the ground, some of the pictures falling out of their pockets inside.
"... What, don't like orchids?" Doug asked, oblivious to the anger that seemed to bubble up inside of the gardener, seeping out of her clenched fists. Danny gave his brother a warning look, holding up his pickax.
"Run," he said. Doug raised a brow.
"What?"
"Run. I'll hold her off as long as I can," Danny said, taking a stance.
"Ugh, I swear, if she ever wakes me up that early again, I will..." Maddie trailed off, her words in a bit of a slur. Her friend, the well-known desert dweller Sahari, couldn't help but laugh at her tired friend as she slumped over the box she was carrying. Clearly, she was running a delivery errand for her mother, the store owner known as Lottie. Unfortunately she had already forgotten where she was going, or what the heck she was doing with a box in the first place.
"What am I even doing with this thing again?" She asks, looking down at it. Sahari shrugs.
"I dunno. I just followed you for the fear of you collapsing in the street," Sahari says in her matter-of-fact tone. Whereas her friend Seiko never slept, Maddie had to sleep for at least fifteen hours a day, more or less, otherwise she would act like she was gonna die otherwise.
"Well, since I don't know," Maddie says, tossing the box behind her and kept walking. The box smacked against the ground, and the sounds of something breaking was heard, although neither one of the girls paid any attention to it.
"So, all this over an orchid, huh?" Sahari says teasingly. Maddie shrugs, yawning slightly.
"I swear, she gets way too excited about everything," the Builder girl says. "It's going to be the end of her, whether it's by my hand or-" Maddie stops after a loud shriek sounded through the air, sounding exactly like the gardener herself. Sahari and Maddie looked at each other, and then down the road as Doug suddenly ran by, a scared expression on his face as his golden uniform clanged around wildly. The girls looked at each other again, silent for a moment.
"... Fifty coins he did something to the flower," Sahari mutters, looking over her shoulder to see Doug diving into the inn, out of sight before his boss would arrive looking for him.
I am so sorry I am being so bipolar about my fics. I thought I wanted to use my new characters, but I missed my old OCs a whole lot, and so I decided to re-write some of my old fics and give them some real personality rather then use them for comedic purposes only. Not that they aren't going to be funny anymore. The funniness will never die.