Chapter Two

Introit of Destiny

It was snowing that day as Luke strutted into the town hall with a large grin just as Gill had finished stapling together the pages of the latest town leaflet. Brushing off the flakes of snow that had settled on his clothes as he was en route, Luke glanced up at the mayor's son with a cheeky grin as Gill stared back disapprovingly. As different as night and day, the two young men had never got along with one another. Gill's blue eyes met Luke's golden ones for a moment and the mayor's son felt a shiver of contempt run up his spine at the sight of the lumberjack; Luke had been the bane of his existence ever since they were kids.

"What do you want?" Gill asked Luke scathingly as Luke put his gloved hands onto the desk that separated them.

"Where's your dad?" Luke asked, leaning over to peer into the back room. "I need to ask him something about that farmhouse."

"He's not here," Gill replied dismissively, his eyes gliding down Luke's messy attire disdainfully. "And what do you want to know about it? I hope you're not planning to use it as a playhouse for Bo and Chloe again."

Luke's face fell. "How did you know?"

Gill rolled his eyes. "You better stop playing around in that house Luke. We want it to be habitable when the new owner of it arrives."

"Oh, someone's bought it already?" Luke asked, his eyes widening. "I didn't think anyone was going to buy that dump."

Gill shifted uncomfortably. "Well, no one's bought it yet. We just put the ad in the newspaper last week."

"Then can't we play in it till then?" Luke asked, his eyes lighting up hopefully. "At least until someone's shown some interest in it? We promise we won't make too much of a mess of it."

"No," Gill replied, frowning. "Now run along and chop something or whatever it is you do."

"Come on Gilly," Luke whined, clasping his hands together pleadingly. "Just let us play in it till someone decides to buy it. Please? Do you want me to get down on my knees and beg?"

"Please don't, that's disgusting," Gill replied, flinching back and grimacing at the look Luke was giving him.

"But it's not like anyone's going to seriously consider buying it yet. You said it yourself, you only put the ad in the paper last week," Luke reasoned. "And really, how much damage do you think two little kids are going to do to that big ol' farmhouse?"

"It's not Chloe and Bo I'm worried about," Gill replied, narrowing his eyes. "And I said no. No means no."

Suddenly the phone rang and the pair of them froze. The high pitch ring startled both of them. It startled Luke because he hadn't been expecting it and it startled Gill because he had a feeling he knew what the call was going to be about. Hesitantly, he reached out and picked up the phone.

"Good afternoon, this is the Harmonica Town Hall, how can I help you?" he said into the receiver, frowning at Luke who had begun pulling faces at him in a childish attempt to get him to laugh.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone before a female voice answered, "The farm. I'm calling about the advert."

"It's a chick?!" Luke asked in astonishment, having just about strained his ears to hear who it was.

Before Gill could stop him, Luke leaned forward and tapped the loudspeaker button on the phone so that the woman's voice resounded throughout the town hall as she said, "I just wanted to ask a few questions about the property, if you don't mind."

"Hot," Luke whispered to Gill as the blonde went red-faced with anger. He reached out to press the loudspeaker button again but Luke slapped his hand away. "Dude, let me hear it," the lumberjack hissed.

"Goddess Luke, you're such a retard," Gill said louder than he had meant to. Remembering that there was someone waiting on the other end of the phone he hurriedly said, "Sorry about that. What was it that you wanted to know about the farm?"

Once more, a long pause preceded the woman's response. Luke shot Gill a questioning look and Gill merely shrugged.

"When the advert says it's remote, how remote are we talking about?" she finally asked.

"It's about a thirty minutes walk from the local towns and the roads leading up to it aren't wide enough to run cars down it. It's as remote as you can get without it being too inconvenient," Gill replied. "Are you interested in buying it?"

Again, there was another pause, but it was shorter this time. "When can I move in?"

"Excuse me?" Gill asked in disbelief.

"When can I move in? If I were to buy it now, how quickly can I move into the property?" the woman asked again, her voice turning steely with impatience.

"W-Well, as soon as all formalities are sorted out, you can move in whenever you like. The building is empty at the moment," Gill replied, flashing Luke a triumphantly smug smile.

Luke pouted before loudly announcing, "It's a shithole by the way."

Gill glared at Luke hard for a second before his blue eyes dropped back down to the phone in dismay. Had Luke's big mouth just ruined their chances of selling it?

"It doesn't matter about that," the woman replied almost instantly, not seeming to care that someone had blatantly been listening in on their conversation. "Whatever the condition of the building, I'll buy it. Please send my solicitors the contract and other necessary documents for the sale of the property. Do you have a pen ready to take the details down?"

"Y-Yes!" Gill exclaimed, grabbing a pen out of his pen pot and pulling a pad of paper towards him.

She gave him the address, telephone number and email address of her solicitor. Gill scribbled the details down frantically as Luke moodily leant against the table and frowned down at him, clearly put out that his plans for the derelict farmhouse had been thwarted by this woman on the phone. Luke was tempted to grab the phone and tell her that the house wasn't for sale anymore, but he knew that if he did such a thing he'd end up eating one of Gill's knuckle sandwiches. Surprisingly, Gill's fists hurt quite a bit; something that he'd found out when they were in eighth grade together and he'd tried to steal the other boy's tomato juice.

"Please send over the information promptly," she said once she was done giving Gill the details. "I want to move in as soon as possible."

"May I ask one thing?" Gill asked, putting down his pen and stretching his fingers out uncomfortably.

"What?"

"Why do you want to move to somewhere so remote so quickly?"

Yet again, there was a pause before she replied in a hardened voice, "It's none of your business. Just send the papers."

Then she hung up.


The Harvest Goddess stared up at her tree sadly as one of her sprites, Finn, sat on her shoulder weeping. The tree that was tied to her life force was no longer full of vitality as it once had been, but instead had grown withered and dry, having been completely forgotten by the local humans. As the tree continued decay over time the Harvest Goddess had felt her own life begin to wither away and now she was so weak that she was unable to leave the confines of the tree's private sanctuary.

"Finn," the Harvest Goddess began, taking the sprite off of her shoulder and cradling him in her arms like a mother would a baby. "You must do something for me."

"I don't want to leave you!" the sprite wailed, burying his head into her chest as he sobbed. "I'm scared you won't be here when I come back."

"This is why you must go. You are the only one who can do this Finn. You're my only hope," the Goddess soothed. She stroked the sprite's head as he continued to sob into the front of her blue dress, clutching at the wispy fabric. "You must find someone for me. Someone who can see and hear us. Someone who will help. A pure heart."

"But Goddess, pure hearts are hard to find nowadays," Finn sniffled, looking up at her with tear misted eyes. "None of the humans in this area are able to see us. The closest we've been is the mayor's son, but he lost the ability to see us long ago. Being sent away to the city changed him."

"Someone is coming," the Goddess told him, her voice sounding faraway as she looked into the sky knowingly. "You must find them and bring them to me."

"A pure heart?" the sprite asked, his eyes widening. "You're sure?"

"It's drawing near. I can feel it," the Goddess said sadly.

"Why do you sound upset about it then?" Finn asked curiously, floating out of his mistress's arms.

The Goddess looked away thoughtfully for a moment before sighing. "A pure heart comes, uncorrupted by the world, but it has no faith."

"No faith?" Finn parroted. "No faith in you?"

The Goddess smiled weakly. "No, she believes in magic and the supernatural realm more than she wishes to. She would readily accept my existence if she were to meet me in person," she said, turning to look at her sprite. "It's humanity that she has no faith in. She has no faith in the human spirit."