Disclaimer: I do not own the Harvest Moon Franchise or any of its plot/characters/etc, all rights to Natsume Serious Fun.
Synopsis: She was always running. Constantly. Never stopping. And I just wanted to run with her.
…
She was always running. Constantly. Never stopping. Her movement was quick and efficient; she raced around the island with more purpose than anyone I'd ever seen before. I asked her once, why she didn't use her horse more often, she replied simply with "I don't want to get slowed down by having to tie him up at every stop I make, or having to mount and dismount all the time to do my foraging. I don't think Nimnoga would be very happy himself to be left in a saddle all day either. Running like this is just… better."
Sometimes I'd find myself gazing after her as she went by the house in the morning, always at a smooth loping sort of pace. Her name was Angela, but we all called her Angie. Every now and then, usually when it was raining or during the last few days of a season, you could see her walking calmly along the beach or just taking a ride on her monstrous chestnut gelding, Nimnoga. Otherwise? Well she was constantly in motion.
For most of us, it grew to be dizzying, trying to keep up with her. Not for me. Every time I saw her race by it was all I could do to watch rather than running after her. She was fast, so fast, and I knew that even if I followed I probably couldn't catch up. Would probably just make a fool out of myself… Sometimes, when I was jogging out to the forest, she would run by and I would watch her disappear into the distance. Sometimes I wondered what it was that always had her so busy, always had her running. Running away from me…
We met in the forest one day. I was cutting wood like normal, since it was really all I was good at. Bo was the real prodigy, and we all knew it. Even though I was the son of the carpenter all I was really of value as in the business was a beast of burden. I was the most skilled in the entire town with an axe but I couldn't carve filigree into the leg of a table to save my life. Angie came around the corner just as I landed the final blow on the base of the tall pine and it started falling fast, right towards her. It was a good thing she was running, like always, or she probably would have gotten hurt pretty badly. She darted out from beneath the creaking limbs and knocked me right off of my feet as the wood splintered on the ground.
The two of us were a mass of tangled limbs for a few seconds and then I discovered us to be in the position of me flat on my back and her straddling my hips. She blushed deeply and rolled off of me before springing to her feet, leaving me in a slightly confused state for a moment or two before I rose and brushed the dust from my sweaty body. Amazing that with all the running she does Angie wasn't drenched in perspiration the way I was. She spat out a few apologies which I brushed off in an embarrassed way as I struggled with trying to find wording better than "Sorry I almost dropped a ginormous tree on you". Before I knew it she was gone again though. She had clambered through the limbs of the tree I had chopped down and I peered through the leaves to watch as she wound down the path and away again, snatching up various fungi as she went.
I never did find the words to say to her.
…
Author's Note: What do you think, keep it going or leave it at this?
