(A/N: Obviously I don't own Harvest Moon.

Hikari/Molly will be reffered to as Penelope in this fan fiction. I have yet to decide upon a name for Akari/Angela, but you can influence my decision by voting in the poll on my profile.

The pairings are…

Molly/Hikari x The Wizard Gale

Angela/Akari x The Harvest God Ignis

And all rival pairings are paired together too

That is all.)

Chapter 1

Rumor Has It

It is not often that circumstances of this nature come to be. It is all so utterly unlikely that anything this strange would have ever happened. More often does one get struck by lightning while Jupiter and Saturn are aligned on leap-year , than these sort of events take place. I cannot possibly express how hard to believe this story will be, but nonetheless it is completely true. I witnessed it. I took part in it. And now I sit here, writing out these events so that the whole truth will be in writing.

I am the Wizard called Gale. I can tell you my name, because I have made plans to have this book released only after I am dead, which likely will be a while. Nevertheless, this story began on the day of New Year's eve. As with every year, I went with my family to the festival held in town, looking through the booths at all the new and unique items that villagers sold there in the fading twilight. My two children in particular loved the New Year's festival for different reasons. My oldest, Stella, being the silly girl that she was, always insisted on buying some seemingly trivial object from the booths, most often things that are shiny. I never understood what use she had for them, but I bought them nonetheless. Seeing her smile was worth it. My younger son, Ray, was a bit different however. He had always been more practical and analytical when it came to most things, except for food. That was his one and only weakness. He absolutely could not turn down anything tasty no matter how deep-fried and unhealthy it was. Most of the year I had pushed healthy food choices with him, but today was New Year's Eve, so I figured that he could afford to have a few treats.

And then there was Penelope, my endlessly kind and cheerful wife. I had been rather alone before she came into my life. I suppose you can say I was so lonely that I hardly realized it myself. But after what felt like a rather short period of time, she completely changed everything about how I lived my life. That in itself deserves a separate book so I shall be brief on this subject. When it came to New Year's Eve, I remember it being the first steps in her trying to get me to socialize. I have never been a people person, but on New Year's Eve during our first year of marriage, she insisted that I come with her and meet people. By the time both our children were born, most of Castanet had become rather comfortable with me and I with them. I was no longer an enigmatic person to them, and a few (First Toby, and later on Julius and Luke) realized that I was a wizard and not just a fortune teller with no name. I had been apprehensive at first, but I grew to trust the people. Castanet was a good town with good people. Penelope taught me that.

But I digress. The tale began that night on New Year's Eve when I happened to be conversing with Toby at the time. He had finished whatever he had gone to do that night and I was waiting for the results of the fashion contest to be announced. I really didn't care for that contest, but Penelope had entered, so it was only right that I care a little about the outcome. That and Stella really got a kick out of that kind of stuff. So as I waited, Toby and I calmly small-talked at each other about the lights or the food or how nice the stars look in wintertime. But somehow, I don't remember why, our conversation ended up on the Witch.

"I saw her outside of the forest a few days ago." Toby said calmly, "I'd heard you mention her a few times but I'd never actually seen her until just recently."

"You saw the Witch?" I was probably a bit more surprised than Toby about it, "What was she doing outside Fugue Forest?"

"I don't know. Maybe she wanted some fresh air. That forest is a pretty dark place after all. I'm sure even the Witch gets tired of it."

"Yes, that's possible, but I've never known her to go outside the forest unless out of necessity. It probably isn't my business though."

With that our conversation floated elsewhere until eventually the contest results were announced. Penelope had gotten second place with Julius snagging first…again. I don't claim to know much about fashion, but I suppose that the guy who has his own TV show on it would probably have an advantage. Penelope, always the positive one, was rather happy to get second place, so I was happy as well. At this point though, Candice and Penelope had begun chatting, and the children were busy being children with Angie, so I figured it only made sense to talk with Julius. And oddly enough, as with my previous conversation, the subject ended up shifting to the Witch.

"Wizard, if you happen to see the Witch any time soon, I want you to give her a message for me." Julius told me, "She stole a ruby from the refinery shop and I have proof of it!"

I was rather surprised at this, "The Witch? Stealing gems? That doesn't sound like something she would do at all. She may be unpleasant at times but she is no theif."

"Well as I said, I have proof. I found strands of silver hair at the scene. Who else has silver hair in all of Castanet?"

"…Toby?"

"Oh don't be silly. Why on earth would Toby of all people ever want steal anything? And what's more, his hair is not silver. It is a very light shade of sea foam blue." Julius had always been specific when it came to colors.

" They weren't that hard to find either. I don't know how but she must have broke in late at night. Mira and I are really worried about it. Do you think we should make better security?"

"Did she steal anything else?"

"No…just one ruby," Julius paused at this, "You know, now that I think about it, there were at least six or seven fully refined gemstones that she could have stolen too, but she only took the ruby. That's rather peculiar of her."

Indeed it was. So I told Julius that I would confront the Witch later on and gave him simple advice on how to Witch-proof his valuables from then on. He was rather thankful for the advice, and next thing I knew, I was back with my family cruising around the streets. The children had met up with other children and so Penelope and I decided to sit down on a bench to watch them play. Normally I would have felt calm and at peace doing such a simple thing as sitting with my love and watching children play, but of course my mind kept going back to my previous conversations regarding the Witch. Of course it was only a matter of time before Penelope noticed something was wrong.

"Dear? Is something bothering you?" she asked simply.

And with a sigh, I answered, "It's the Witch. I've heard some troubling rumors about her."

"What sorts of rumors?"

And then I proceeded to explain to her what Toby and then Julius had already told me. It felt good to get such things off my chest. This and it is simply unwise to keep such matters to one's self. She seemed to understand quite completely the reasons for my suspicion, and after I had spoken, she gave me yet another piece of valuable testimony. The pieces of the puzzle were fitting together now.

"Candace told me about the ruby being stolen too. But she also told me something else." Penelope said, "Apparently the day before the ruby was stolen, the Witch outright asked Mira if she could borrow a ruby. Candace was in the shop when she asked you see. Of course Mira refused, and the next day the ruby was gone."

"Did she have any idea why the Witch wanted a ruby?"

"Apparently it was for a spell. She didn't say more than that. Are you familiar with any spells involving rubies? I'm sure you'd know more of that sort of thing than me."

I paused for thought, "Well, usually when a gemstone is involved, it's used as a way to concentrate a spell. Depending on the gem's color, it causes magic to change its affect. But usually Wizards and Witches prefer crystal because it concentrates magic without changing the original spell. It's all quite complicated…"

"So, why would she want a ruby as opposed to a crystal if crystals are better? What would a ruby do that a crystal would not?"

That was when it hit me. My eyes widened quite suddenly as the realization came, and Penelope clearly noticed. True I could have explained it to her, but that would have taken too much time. Time was not something I had much of at this point, that is, if my theory was correct.

"Forgive me Penelope, but I must go. Now. I'll be back as soon as I can." I said, getting to my feet.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" she asked me.

Without missing a beat, I replied, "I'll tell you later. No time."

At this point I took the road uphill and towards the mine car, which was the quickest route I knew that lead to Mt. Garmon. For you see, I was almost certain of what the Witch planned to do. And I'm sure she must have had the purest of intentions about doing it, but the chances of failure were very high, and with dire consequences. I had to at least warn her of them. It was the right thing to do, even if we had a tendency not to get along. And it was upon that mountaintop that this whole charade began, quite by accident.