A/N: My first Harvest Moon fanfic. Well? Read on!
The scenery past by rapidly as the train gathered speed. The whirring of the engine quickened and images flickered in and out of the girl's eyes. Exhausted, she nodded off to sleep; all pretense and stiffness forgotten for the need of slumber. Hours later, she awoke with a start, just as the train finally came to a halt.
The little girl, Celia, stepped off a train with a carpetbag clutched in her small hand. After a few months of meetings and letter writing, her parents had managed to arrange a marriage for her just as she had turned four. She was to go to Forget- Me- Not Valley, where she would be taken care of by the matchmaker until her marriage…
---
Vesta was waiting for her at the train stop, with hands behind her back. She really hoped that this arranged marriage was better than the last one she had arranged. With any luck, she could tie off the deal within ten to twelve years. She would even host the wedding in Forget- Me- Not Valley. She shook her head from such thoughts. She was one to plan ahead, almost way too much. 'Worry about the present, Vesta!' she reprimanded herself.
"Ah, you must be Celia," Vesta said, approaching the diminutive girl who was stepping off the train. The little girl nodded and shook Vesta's hand, looking down all the while.
"Well, let's be going then," Vesta said, heartily, trying to break the awkward silence that had already begun to settle in. Celia nodded once more and the two figures made their way to the wagon that had been waiting for them.
---
"My name's Marlin, pleased to meet you," said a small boy with rather voluminous hair.
"Hi, Marlin," Celia said politely, shifting her bag from one hand to the other to shake hands with him. Marlin, rather flabbergasted by her shyness, said no more as Vesta ushered Celia to the loft; where she would be sleeping.
Vesta quickly showed her around and then returned to her plants, which needed tending. Celia, quiet as ever, sat down on her bed and looked out the window, lost in thought. She felt…hurt… that her parents had gotten rid of her so fast. Without her parents, she felt so lost in the world. A small pearly tear slid down her cheek and she sniffled loudly.
"Are you alright?" Marlin said, climbing up the last stair to her loft. Celia quickly brushed away the tears and looked down at her feet.
"You must miss them a lot," Marlin said quietly "I know I did." Celia looked up. Marlin was starring very hard at her dresser with an almost pained expression on his face.
"What happened?" she asked softly. Marlin sat down beside her on the mattress.
"They died," he said hoarsely, "In a car crash…" he suddenly sat up straightly. "But it doesn't matter anymore; I can't change the past so why bother?" he stood up and then glanced at Celia. His expression softened once more and he patted her on the back, not knowing what else do to do to comfort her. Celia nodded silently and stared out the window.
---
Marlin stepped out of the small house that lay on the side of the farm. Just ahead, a sleepy town was in sight. People were walking in what can be perceived as a purposeful, yet somehow still a lackluster sort of walk. In this town, there wasn't much change or excitement. Marlin sighed. Sometimes he longed for the hustle and bustle of the city, where change happened by the second. No day was ever the same in the city as Marlin knew it, but Forget- Me- Not…
Marlin walked across the bridge and slowly made his way to a well treaded path, to the woods with the sparkling Goddess Pond sitting towards the edge. He sneaked a peek at the other farm that was on the way to the woods. It was really old and everything was either rusty or broken. Vesta had once told him that an old man had built the farm when he was younger but now he was getting on in his years, and the only thing he could do was lie in bed and wait for life to leave him.
He was just rounding the edge of the farm and back towards the path, when he saw a woman in her mid- thirties with frizzy brown hair and an old worn apron coming out of the house with a look of worry etched on her face. At a closer look, Marlin saw that her hair was put in a messy bun and was falling apart, strand by strand. She put her hands on her hips and scanned the horizon of her vision until she came upon Marlin. She looked at him in dull surprise, perhaps because there was a lack of visitors. However, despite what Marlin must have feared, her lips curved upward and her eyes, slightly jaded nevertheless shone with joy. She waved to him but hearing a small, rasping voice coming from the small house, hurried inside.
Marlin, completely taken by surprise, turned the other way and headed back to Vesta's farm, not noticing any of his surroundings. He wasn't exactly scared, moreover bewildered. If there was a new- comer, the whole town would know before the day was out, but it seemed as if the woman had been living there for quite some time.
Perhaps, she didn't want to be acknowledged as a new- comer. Perhaps she was just taking care of her aged grandfather until he either got better or died. Perhaps…Marlin's mind came up with a lot of explanations but it didn't explain everything. Why didn't the town help out the old farmer? Whenever someone was sick, people would be crowding around, helping however they could.
---
"Vesta?" Marlin asked at supper in the little house that night, "Can I ask you a question?"
Vesta nodded her head, inclining in slightly in Marlin's direction.
"What happened to the other farmer that lives next to the woods?"
Celia looked up curiously at Vesta.
"Well, he was a fine farmer until he got too old, I suppose." She started, "Lately, he's taken to the bed, coughing and wheezing a great deal. He hasn't long to live in my opinion."
"But…who was that woman--" Marlin started, Vesta looked at him through hard eyes.
"It is no business of yours, Marlin," She said hardly. And then slowly her voice softened:
"I don't know how you'll take it, but that's the old man's daughter. He had a family but he also had a dream of farming. He had bought a farm here and wanted the rest of his family to come live with him, but his wife refused." Vesta added in an undertone, "She's a city girl, through and through; never been to a farm in her life." Vesta cleared her throat, "Anyway, the wife took the kids and they split up. Unfortunately the old man's been having some health problems and his wife decided to come out and help him, he's her husband after all."
---
Later that night, as Celia got into bed and drew her covers, she couldn't help but think that despite the rather boring nature of the town, exciting things can happen—perhaps that might happen in the form of a new person. A cold, early spring draft blew through her window curtain, making them flutter excitably. Celia shivered, drew the covers closer to her and quickly fell asleep.