Authors Note; Disclaimer I do not own any of the Harvest moon characters, they are a trademark of Natsume. Note this is a first person fanfiction, if you would be so kind when you have finished reading to comment on whether or not you found this style to be good or not, I'm particularly interested to see if I can make this work out properly to what I want it to feel like.

I'm kneeling in front of his grave, lost in thought about what to do, I'm reaching that point in my life, where once my mind's made up there's no turning back. On the one hand I have my father's blacksmith business, which has been with the family for years, and in the other, I have the Old Summer farm's. I can feel my mother's hand on my shoulder reassuring me although I can tell deep down; her heart is closed to me, torn between the past and the present. I can feel the winter wind with its bitter chill biting at me, it's howling and roaring mocking me and my choice.

By the way I'm George. George Thomson, son of Mary and Gray Thomson aged 23 and half, a resident of Mineral Town, where a telephone is a rare and expensive commodity, although thankfully, TV wasn't. Satellite had arrived over thirty years ago to sort that out, but the choice was pretty poor and apart from the occasionally rerun of some out of date TV soap opera there isn't anything worth watching. My great grandfather Saibara, Grandpa Sai, died when I was seven leaving the Blacksmith business to "that no good grandson of mine!" to quote my dear old grandpa.

What the hell's happened for me to be in charge of two destinies? Two fates? To answer that question I have to go far back into my childhood.

I can remember most of what's happened to me from about five years and up. Right from the start I can remember him, the old man that ran the farm, he was a pillar of the community, he lived and breathed for it, and had kept the 'Old Summer' farm alive for many years, through Mayor Thomas's time to Mayor Harris (the present mayor, after he retired from his patrolling days) against Mayor Harris wishes, he's been wanting to sell it,so the town can set up an attraction for tourists, the truth is I don't want tourists here. My first real memories of the old man were when I was five and me being curious little guy that I was I wandered onto the farm.

It was a hot and dry summers day and father was busy working at Grandpa Sai's shop, normally I would have stayed at home with Mother but I had wanted to go and see 'daddy work'. Once I was there I became really bored and was close to melting point. I decided to go out and rest in the shade outside. I slammed the back door loudly as I can recall thinking it had broken, but I'm not sure if Grandpa or Father would have even heard me had I blew up half the shop, they were always so damn absorbed in their work, Grandpa to earn a living, father to impress his mentor he never succeeded once. I started my great escape out onto the main street; there really wasn't much to the layout once you got to know it. I knew at the top of the street was home at the library, while at the bottom was 'daddy's work' I was curious as to what lay at the cross roads after the shop, so I wandered down the street to the cross roads and seen the farm, for the first time that day. It captivated my full attention, and with its green fields and sounds lured me in, hook line and sinker.

I wandered into the farm's grounds and was looking around to see the cows and chickens (the only farm animals I knew of at the time). Instead I began to make my way towards the small pond past the large house, hoping to see the little fishes, and to 'play' with them. I don't know why I wanted to see them, but I was just drawn to them because of the way the water gleamed and glimmered, it was beautiful. Once I tottered over I could see there where indeed fishes, but I couldn't get them, they where too deep to reach, fortunately my five-year-old brain presented a great solution. A makeshift fishing rod, even better there was tree next to the pond, which would help me on my way to fishing. I walked over to it looking for a fallen branch. I found one that was perfect for me. I made my way towards the pond and was about to cast that branch into it, when I heard someone's voice, faint and distant, coming from behind me.

"Hey! Kid what do you think your doing?!" came the voice "Get back from that pond before you fall in!" then I heard a Dog barking, it sounded like a giant demon dog come to eat me for trespassing, I turned round to see my 'monster' it was a little dog, just about the same height as me bounding towards me, to the five year old mind this was too much, I turned back round and ran like hell, I didn't notice the blue overalls running towards me.

"Arrggghhh!!! Bad Doggy, Bad Doggy!" I screamed, "Nooo!! Don't eat me!!"

The demon had caught me, it's tongue panting from the effort to catch me, it just looked at me and wagged its tail.

"huh?! Doggy not bad?" I pondered.

"Yes the doggy isn't bad, he won't eat children they've too many bones! he's called Koro." said a voice.

I heard a laugh from the side of me, a rich deep laugh, I looked round to see a tall man, with a big bushy moustache, and deep brown hair flecked with streaks of grey in it, he was a kindly looking man, wearing dark blue overalls, wearing a baseball cap like Father.

This man gave out an aura of kindness, and understanding, you felt safe with him, like nothing bad or evil could ever happen to you with him. "So, kid, what's your name?" said the man slowly so I could understand, "Where's your mummy and daddy?"

"My names George." I said innocently unaware what an effect this simple statement would have on the man."Mummy and Daddy working. What's yours Mister?" I asked.

There was no response; I shook the man in blue to get an answer, none came. Then the man rose out of his stupor and answered me in a flat, lifeless voice, it scared the damn hell out of me. The aura around changed too, from a happy, kind carefree feel to a cold, hostile aura.

"My name is Jack and I run this farm, George, I'm sorry but your going to have to go home now, I'm very busy, today's a harvest day for me and I need peace and quiet in order to do it. Come back some other day Kiddo." Jack said in the same slow way so I could understand him. I didn't think any of it, I had heard excuse like this all the time when I visited places like the Blacksmiths shop, but it was usually my dad that told me this sort of stuff. "

Okay Mister Jack, see you around." I said in my own carefree way, I couldn't detect the feeling in his voice, I was too young.

As I left I seen him walking off back to his fields to tend to his crops, with Koro in pursuit his tail wagging. So off I wandered back to Grandpa Sai's shop, both of them unaware of my own little adventure. I dreamt that night of running a farm wearing the same dark blue overalls like Jacks and having a dog like Jacks.

How ironic. In a way that child hood dream could come true , I can remember my parents thinking I was going through a phase when I said to them I wanted to be a farmer, the feeling stuck, and grew more with my next encounter with the old man, if there were any other to do this, I would but the only forward would have me disowned, by father. If there were any other way...

There we are. End of chapter one. This fiction isn't going to played out in the present, it's all based on George reflecting upon his past, and what decision he's going to make. At the end he'll have mad up his mind. Later on I may have point of view changes, but they will be blindingly obvious. Please, give me your comments, and thank you for taking the time to read this fanfiction. I will try to add more when I have the time.