I was awakened from my deep sleep by a loud knock on my door. I shot straight up in my bed and glanced around. Where the heck was I? The knocking continued.

"Lillian? Lillian? It's me, Ina. Do you mind if I come in?"

I leapt out of bed and hurriedly changed into the clothes she had given me the night before. I looked down at myself. The outfit consisted of a bright orange skirt, a white singlet, a blue cardigan with matching leggings, and a pretty red headband. I smiled; it reminded me of the bandanna my mother always wore.

"Lillian, are you in there?" Ina called.

I snapped out of my daydream and ran to answer the door, almost tripping over my sleepy feet in the process. Ina was standing there, and she looked like she hadn't slept a wink.

"Good morning," she said drowsily, but with a surprising amount of dignity still in her tired voice, "I've been up all night searching for Yuripi with Kana, our horse trader. I'm glad to say that we found her, but she isn't in very good condition-"

"Where is she?" I asked, "Is she here?"

Ina smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, don't worry; she's just over there with Kana." She pointed to the barn, where my pitiful horse and a man with a ponytail stood watching us.

I grinned and twisted around Ina before running like an idiot towards my waiting horse. Yuripi whinnied pathetically when she saw me and I threw my arms around her white neck, stroking her dusty grey mane. Then, without thinking, I turned and threw myself at the man and hugged him tightly. When I realized what I was doing, my eyes shot open and I jumped back in embarrassment. Ponytail guy was staring at me in surprise.

I clasped my hands together awkwardly and giggled sheepishly. "I am so sorry about that."

The mans shocked expression softened into an amused smile. "Ha-ha, no problem. Ain't nothing wrong with a hug from a pretty girl every once in a while," he said, chuckling.

I blushed a deep red and looked at my feet, now even more embarrassed. The man placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and grinned. "No really, it's totally fine."

I laughed nervously. "So, uh, thanks for finding Yuripi for me, um…"

"Kana!" he offered a little too enthusiastically, "I'm Kana. I run Kana's Animals just next door to your farm."

"Nice to meet you Kana. I'm Lillian," I smiled sweetly.

Kana patted Yuripi's shoulder and frowned slightly. "So it turns out your horse took a fall after she threw you. Come look at this." He took my arm and led me around to Yuripi's right hind leg. I gasped.

There was a deep gash the length of my forearm across her hip. I bit my lip and tried to force the tears away that were threatening to spill over. What a fantastic way to start the day, I thought.

"She will heal, right?" I asked, twiddling my fingers behind me.

"Yeah, don't worry too much about it. I've seen a heck of a lot worse things happen to horses, and they usually turn out right as rain," Kana assured me cheerily, "I can keep her in my stables for a while if you like, I can get the local doctor to take a look at her."

I looked up at him. "Really? That would be great. I mean – I'll miss her, but I don't know if I'll have the time to properly take care of her with that wound…"

"Then it's settled, she can board at mine for a while," Kana grinned, "Though, you don't have to pay for anything. Consider it a house-warming gift!"

"What, are you sure? What about the treatment? Medicine is expensive!" I protested.

"Nah, it's totally fine."

I stared at him, as if he would suddenly change his mind. When I realized he was serious, I felt my face light up.

"Thank you so much! Oh wow, this is such a big help, thank you!" I practically yelled. There goes my good first impression, I thought, Less than five minutes and I've already shown ponytail guy what an awkward person I am.

With that, Kana took the rope around Yuripi's neck and began gently coaxing her to move forward. I winced as Yuripi took a very stiff step. Staying with someone who looked after horses for a living would be good for her.

We slowly made our way out of my farm and toward a small house with a large fenced area full of horses of all sizes. I ran ahead and stood on one of the wooden railings of the fence, leaning over as far as I could to look at the horses. I had never seen so many beautiful horses in one place before.

"Do you really look after all of these horses yourself?" I asked, turning around and sitting on the fence as I waited Kana and Yuripi to catch up.

"Sure I do, how else do you think I got these biceps?" he joked, pulling a silly face and flexing his muscles.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. Then something caught my eye; across the road from Kana's house was an archway that looked to be leading into the side of the mountain I had climbed the night before. But there didn't seem to be a light at the end of it, as if it had caved in or something. I cocked my head to the side. Kana saw me staring and turned to see what I was so interested in.

"Oh, that. That's just the tunnel between here and Bluebell. But you'll have to go the long way over the mountain if you ever want to visit, the tunnel fell apart a while ago," he said matter-of-factly.

"Why doesn't anyone fix it? Seems a waste of time to climb all the way over the mountain to get somewhere when you can get there in five minutes."

Kana sighed. "I dunno, it's kinda considered taboo or something in both villages. People seem to think it caved in because the Harvest Goddess was mad. Besides, the villages hate each other a heck of a lot, I don't think they'd use the tunnel even if it was repaired."

I stuck my bottom lip out. "Oh well, I suppose once Yuripi's healed up climbing the mountain won't take so long. I'll just have to wait 'til then."

When Kana had Yuripi treated and let out to graze he looked up at the sky. "Seems about time for lunch time. I'm heading down to the Tea House, you wanna come? I could introduce you to the rest of the villagers if you like."

I nodded. What was with this guy? He was so friendly; he acted like he actually wanted to hang out with a clumsy girl like me. I felt like I had known him forever, though it had only been, what, half an hour at the most?

The village was absolutely gorgeous. It was the beginning of spring, and cherry trees lined the simple dirt streets. The houses were colourful; each one had one or two pretty lanterns hanging from the roof. A shimmery river ran straight through the village, and a bright red bridge arched over it. I felt like I was in a Japanese fairy-tale.

Kana laughed and ran his hand through the loose hair that fell over his eyes. "Yeah, it's pretty, right? Oh, see that girl over there, with the old man? She's Nori, and the man is her grandfather, Gombe. They run the farm and a shop that sells all kinds of seed. You'll be seeing a lot of them if you're going to be a good farmer."

He pointed to a tall pretty girl with extremely long, shiny black hair. She was wearing a flowing pink dress with a matching headband. Kana called to her and she turned and waved.

"Come, let's get you two introduced," he said, taking me by the arm again.

Kana dragged me over to the fence she was behind and leant against it. "Hey Nori, this is Lillian, the new farmer Ina told us about. She's a little quiet, so be nice to her, okay?"

Nori turned to me and smiled warmly. "Hi Lillian, it's really nice to meet you! Come visit if you ever need any help, I'm sure my grandfather would be more than happy to give you a few tips."

I pushed my fringe out of my eyes and smiled shyly. "Thanks, I really appreciate it."

"Say, Kana, I thought you'd be down at the Tea House? I just popped in there a little while ago, and they're all there waiting for you!" said Nori.

Kana's tanned face went white. "You mean that was today? Oh crap, I totally forgot about that. Mako's gonna pound me!"

Luckily, I was spared the torture of making small talk (which, may I point out, I am rather awful at), because Kana told Nori goodbye almost immediately and began leading me toward a big building over-looking the river, which I assumed was the Tea House. I chuckled to myself and allowed myself to be pulled along behind him.