Chapter 2 The Pain of Math

After a few days, Jill finally got the taste of farming. Dirt and water. Though she didn't really mind. Anything that was better than maths was good for her. She dreaded maths. She cursed it. As she watered her turnips, her uncle walked by, watching.

"Hey, Jill! How are those turnips doing?" He asked. Jill turned around.

"Just fine." And she finished watering the row of turnips. It was the last row of the lot of 99 seeds made, which was basically the whole plot.

"I'm going to go visit Lumi now. See ya uncle Tak!" She shouted, jetting out of the place.

"She's one energetic one, like her mother, and her father." He said, smiling at her somewhat awkward enthusiasm. Definitely ironic.

As she walked into town, it was silent, well, except for the occasional bird call. And the pitter patter of the light drizzle of rain. As she walked past the bar, she could hear something.

"……Pha…..ye…..eal…." And she was dead curious. She walked to the entrance and walking in, seeing Griffin and Muffy talking.

"Ah, Jill. Nice timing." Muffy said, as she had opened the door. She turned around.

"Nice timing for what?" She asked, clueless.

"This is what Phantom Skye left us." She looked at her again, yet still clueless, as she walked up and took the piece of paper. She couldn't explain why, but her heart was beating like crazy.

I'm going to bless your bar with my presence at midnight for a drink. Phantom Skye.

She sighed as she gave the note back.

"Must he be that desperate?" She muttered to herself. The two turned around and faced her.

"Did you say anything?" Muffy asked. She shook her head and smiled, with the most unreal looking face you've ever seen. Though those two she was facing were thick-headed.

"If he steals our drinks… let me do the math…" Griffin said, as he got the calculator. Jill cringed and her face instantly changed. She started to twitch. She knew what was coming next, so she left. But before leaving, she shouted.

"I-I'll be back by-by 10- or possibly 12-12!" She shouted, bursting out the door, tears falling from her face, as she ran towards the Mansion. It was impossible to tell which her tears were and what the rain was.

By the time she got to the mansion, she was soaked to the bone, and the tears didn't really help too. Hearing the word 'math' didn't really help her heart that much. She sat by the fountain, staring at her distorted reflection. She then sensed someone behind her.

"Hello." She turned around to face her –ahem- friend, the Witch Princess.

"Witchy." She acknowledged. She scowled at the name choice.

"Sorry. Witch Princess." She said again, correcting herself. Did I forget to mention that she absolutely hated that name?

"What are you doing out here?" Jill laughed, slightly, though it had the tinge of sadness.

"Many things. For instance, crying, waiting for my best friend, watching the fountain." She, as in the Witch Princess sighed and dragged her out of the rain, into her cabin.

"You have to learn that mourning over death isn't going to do much." She said, giving advice. Yet again, Jill was entirely shocked.

"You have to be kidding me. The Witch Princess giving me ADVICE?" She said, cracking up. The Witch Princess smiled.

"Well, at least I got you out of your weeping state; otherwise I would've turned you into a frog." That's when she stopped laughing, as looked at her, afraid. She stepped back a little bit. And then a little more. And then something was on her face. Something large, soft and fluffy. She plucked it out of her face and found…

A towel there.

"This is all a dream. This is all a dream." Jill muttered as she used the towel to remove the water out of her hair. It took a while, but after a few tens of minutes, all of the water was out of her hair. She then pinched herself. Quite hard.

"Why did you pinch yourself?"

"Because, if this is a dream, I shouldn't be able to feel pain." Big, big mistake.

"If you wanted to inflict pain on yourself, why didn't you come here first?" Jill cringed at the thought of doing what the Witch Princess wanted her to do. Possibly, become her trusted 'test subject'. Which was the last thing she wanted to do.

"I'll pass." She said, immediately. She stood up and walked to the ladder, climbing it. There, she was a ledge, and the contents of the potion. Which was currently pink. Last time she came, it was blue. Apparently, pink was the last stage. Apparently. Of course, Jill didn't know much on witchcraft. But she knew it wasn't good. Good for her anyways.

"How long until it's done?" She asked, as she took a whiff. Once she did, she regretted it immediately and went back down.

"Five more years." She said, dryly. She wasn't happy that it took FIVE DARN years to boil a potion. On estimation, it would've taken another six years or so for the potion to carbonate.

"Well, thanks for the advise anyways." Jill muttered as she walked out of the shed that the Witch Princess had claimed as her own.

A few hours passed.

And it was only about 9:30 that night.

Jill stood outside her house, under the small amount of shelter that her house gave. She felt that her house was too stuffy in her opinion. And that's when she saw Uncle Tak.

"Jill! What are you doing there! Go back inside this instance!" He shouted. Jill looked shocked for a little bit, before shouting.

"Sorry! I have to go help Griffin and Muffy soon! Thought I could get some fresh air or something!"

"Oh." Was all he said, as he shut the door. The rain had minimized to a soft drizzle by now. Jill opened her rucksack, and found something inside. Well, duh, of course there was something in there. But what she found inside was a silver locket.

"Oh, what's this?" She asked herself. She took the locket out of her bag, and opened it, finding something stupendously strange.

She found a picture of a two adults. One with silver hair, the other with brown hair. The one with brown hair had brown eyes and a remarkable obvious blue hat. The one with silver hair had his eyes closed, but he was laughing like crazy.

"....eh?" She said, as she shoved the locket in her pocket. It was already 10! She looked like there was nothing wrong for a few seconds before running down the path to the bar.

"I'M LATE!" She shouted. But the rain had managed to hush her voice down a little.

It was about 10:10 when she got to the bar, quite wet and muddy. Griffin and Muffy looked at her before rushing to her.

"What happened to you?" Muffy exclaimed. Griffin had already gone off to the back to get a towel.

"Well, I tripped in the dirt a few times before getting here." He mumbled. Since the place was pretty soundproof, they could hear her mumblings.

"I see..." Muffy said, taking the towel off Griffin's arm and undoing Jill's ponytail. Her hair landed in a dishevelled mess just under her shoulders, with many knots and a lot of mud in it. She started to dry her hair when she smiled something incredibly nice, although incredibly familiar.

"Where's the nice smell coming from?" Griffin asked.

And Jill had no idea what they were talking about. She even didn't know there was such a nice smell.

A/N: Hello! Sorry for not updating in a LOOOOOOOONG time. But I had never planned to restart this story for a while. But due to popular demand, I did. Don't expect me to update often, maybe once a month or something like that. But anyways...

Enjoy! And I so don't own Harvest Moon, btw.