There was a green spring. Crystal running water trickled over the levels of earth. Glowing lights danced about. Three small persons, one dressed in blue, another in red, the other in yellow, stood before a woman with long purple hair. Behind her, membranous wings fluttered slightly. Her face was beautiful. But it was sad.
"People forget how to appreciate," she began, closing her eyes in sorrow. "They forget kind thoughts… The heart to believe… the heart to love… And my existence." The sprites before her didn't say anything. There was nothing they could say.
"Goodbye, everyone," she said, and before the sprites could respond, a bright flash burst and she had turned into gray, cold stone.
"Ahh!!!" the red nymph exclaimed in surprise. "The Harvest Goddess has turned to stone!"
"Ahh!!!" the blue one cried out. "The Harvest Goddess!"
"Ahh!!!" the one dressed in yellow howled.
Suddenly, a person with purple hair, a poncho, and a cowboy had appeared, running frantically to stand before the Harvest Goddess. At the sight of the stone statue, his face contorted in worry and grief.
"What has she turned into?" he asked, though it seemed he didn't intend for anyone to answer. "I… I will… get you back to normal."
Jovi awoke with a jump. Her heart was thudding against her rib cage. She eased out of bed and stretched her arms in the air to wake her muscles up.
"Just a dream," she said. "What a peculiar dream. The Harvest Goddess… I've never heard of her before." Finally, after pondering over it a moment, she sighed. "I bet it was that bagel I ate before I left in a hurry to catch the bus. Something about it wasn't quite… good."
Deciding not to think about it anymore, Jovi began to get ready for the day. It was six-o'clock in the morning, and she had told herself she wanted to get started to work before eight. She pulled on a pair of overalls she had purchased in the city, which was a surprisingly hard find, for the very occasion. She stuffed her feet into lace-up boots that were made out of thick leather to protect her legs. Peering into the mirror, she twisted rubber bands around clumps of yellow hair below her ears, not as an aid in keeping it out of her face, but more as a sort of self-proclaimed fashion statement. It did look cute, alongside the overalls.
Jovi was ready to go outside. She wished she had had some food to eat before she set to work, but alas, she had none. She exited her house and stepped outside. The air was cool, but the promise of heat and humidity whispered in the wind. She took a deep breath of the country. Putting one foot forward, she yelped when it touched something squishy.
And that squishy something yelped back.
"Hey!"
Jovi's eyes darted down to see a tiny person dressed in yellow lying on the ground, looking up at her in fear.
"You almost stepped on me, yeah!" He got up and brushed himself off.
"Carlos!" Two more of the little creatures emerged, one wearing red and the other wearing blue.
"Where were you, yeah?" said the red one.
"We looked all over, yeah!" said the blue one.
"I almost got mashed, yeah! By this girl," the sprite named Carlos shook a miniature impertinent finger at the teenager dressed like a rancher towering above them.
It suddenly hit Jovi. These were the goblins from her weird dream. She rubbed her eyes and looked down again. They were there, alright, and not to mention having a minor quarrel, as well.
"If you hadn't wandered off, you wouldn't have almost gotten trampled, yeah!" slung the blue sprite.
"I wouldn't have gotten lost if you two hadn't walked so fast, yeah!" Carlos shot back.
"The Harvest Goddess would be upset with you guys, yeah! She told us not to fight!" The red one appeared to be the leader of the small group.
They continued to bicker until, above their small, high voices, Jovi hollered, "Silence, small things!"
The three sprites gaped at Jovi.
"What? You can see us?" inquired the one in red.
"It's been a while since someone could see us, yeah!" The blue one hopped up and down excitedly.
"I have a favor to ask, yeah!" Carlos waved his small arms.
What happened next was almost a blur to Jovi. The sprites proceeded to drag her up a series of cliffs and hills to the spring where her dream had taken place. On the way, Jovi learned that the sprite in red was named Arthur and the sprite in blue was called Billy. When all four of them where standing on a sort of peninsula before the stone silhouette of the goddess, Arthur said, "That's the Harvest Goddess, but something has happened to her!"
"Yeah, no kidding." Jovi studied the statue, hardly able to believe all of this was happening.
"She turned into stone one year ago and has been that way since!" Billy looked forlorn.
Carlos tugged on Jovi's shoelace. "Please! I want you to return the Harvest Goddess to her former self, yeah!"
"Umm… sure. What do I have to do?" the girl asked.
"A lot of notes are needed to return the Harvest Goddess to her former self, yeah!" Arthur explained.
"I want you to collect a lot of notes, yeah!" Billy said.
"Notes? Like on a sheet of music? So all I have to do is get a bunch of songs and bring them here? Or… do I have to… sing?" She asked the last question in a quiet voice. Jovi had been self-conscious of her singing voice her entire life.
"You won't have to sing," said Carlos.
"But those are the notes we mean, yeah!" Billy added.
Jovi heaved a sigh of relief. But a new problem presented itself. How on Earth was she supposed to collect music notes? Her thoughts were interrupted by a "Humph!" behind her. She spun around, nearly falling over, to see the person with purple hair from her dream.
"I guess you found another person that can see you guys, huh?" He crossed his arms and scowled, looking Jovi over. "Give up already."
"Jamie!" The sprites bounced over and skipped about Jamie's feet.
"Jamie! We're gonna find notes together, yeah!" Arthur grinned. Jamie's arms uncrossed and were thrown downward in anger.
"Stop bugging me!" He shoved the poor little sprites out of his way with his feet. "I don't wanna hang out with you guys! She got that way because of humans in the first place!" Jovi could tell right off the bat that Jamie was not a happy camper.
Billy ran over to Jovi and hugged her boot.
"But the Harvest Goddess told us to get along with people, yeah!"
Jamie humphed even louder and more crossly, then spat, "You guys do whatever you want to do. I'm the one who'll rescue her, you'll see." And with that, he stormed out of the spring.
The other two sprites leapt to Jovi's toes.
Arthur said, "Jovi, do your best, yeah!"
Billy informed, "If you do a lot of things, you'll get a lot of notes, yeah!"
"Oh, I think I see how it works, now," Jovi said, enlightened.
"Take this; it'll help you, yeah!" Carlos handed Jovi a blue square with a screen. Upon closer inspection, she found that it was a pedometer. "If you carry the pedometer with you, it'll count your steps and you'll be able to tell how hard you've worked!"
Grateful, Jovi hooked the step-counting machine onto her overalls. Jovi waved goodbye to the little sprites, who were each wishing her luck and waving as well, and started to leave the spring, but was stopped upon feeling a warm, rushing, bubbling sensation inside her. A stream of colorful waves filled the space and in Jovi's hands, a little music note appeared. It fluttered happily.
In a cheerful, ringing voice, the note said, "It's difficult to take the first step, no matter what you're doing. The first step of life note."
Awestruck, she whirled back to the elves and showed them the little note. They seemed equally amazed.
"A note!" Arthur exclaimed. "You've picked up a note!"
"So you get different notes like that, yeah!" Billy beamed. "There are a hundred notes in all! You can get them all if you do your best!"
"Five notes make a musical instrument, so after you've collected five notes, I want you to come back to the Harvest Goddess Spring, yeah!" encouraged Carlos.
The warm note disappeared in Jovi's hands.
"Cool." She grinned.
After a back-breaking trek downhill, dodging rocks, slipping on weeds, Jovi looked up the road where her cozy cottage was to see a girl with short brown hair waiting outside her house. Jovi hurried over, not liking to keep people waiting for her.
"Hi there," Jovi said, catching her breath.
"Hello," greeted the girl. "You are the one who signed up for the Exciting Ranch Plan, right? I'm Ellen, and we also run a ranch. It's right across the road, so it looks like we'll be neighbors! Nice to meet you!"
"Yeah, I'm the new farmer. I'm Jovi." Jovi extended her hand. "It's nice to meet you, too."
Both girls smiled warmly. They knew they would be good friends.
"My ranch… well, my family's ranch, is called Blue Sky Ranch. It's mainly a livestock farm, so we sell animals and animal products. If you're ever in the market for some critters, you should come see us."
"Thanks, that's a lot of help. I wouldn't know where anything is, and I would probably get lost," Jovi admitted, embarrassed.
"Oh, it's no problem," said Ellen. Then, remembering something, the brown-haired girl clapped her hands once. "Oh yeah! I wanted to ask you a big favor." She sped over to a clump of weeds and grass, reached in, and, like a magician pulls a hare out of a hat, Ellen lifted a squirming puppy of the greenery. She brought the creature over and set it before Jovi.
"Aww!" Jovi was a sucker for baby animals.
"This puppy was in our most recent litter, and we can't find anyone who wants a pet, so would you…?"
Instantly, the puppy was snatched into Jovi's arms.
"I'll take really really good care of her! Thank you so much! I'm going to call her Muffin!" The new farmer squeezed the dog affectionately.
Ellen's face went blank, and then she looked at the ground.
"J-Jovi?"
"Mhm?" Jovi replied through a face full of brown fur.
"That dog is a male."
This time, Jovi's face went blank. She giggled nervously.
"O-oh. Sorry. In that case, I'll name him Finn."
The puppy named Finn barked approvingly, and the two girls laughed.
"Thank you for taking care of Finn for me, and I hope everything goes smoothly for you!" Ellen departed, vanishing into the large ranch house next door.
Jovi kissed the top of her new pet's head and brought him indoors, since it was starting to get dark. She set him down on the floor in front of the TV screen and sat down beside him. He licked his big paws and gnawed on a bit of wood he found on the ground. Jovi turned on the screen and a program fizzed into action.
Tomorrow's weather sees clear skies and lots of sunshine. Make sure to water those plants!
"The weather here is a lot nicer than the city's," she told her dog. He whined. "We weren't allowed to have pets in our apartment building. The superintendant was allergic, but I think he was just an old grouch." She thought for a moment. "Speaking of grouches, what's that kid Jamie's problem? I just got pulled into giving the Harvest Goddess a hand, and he got all upset. I hope he's not like that every day…" She trailed off.
Jovi looked down at Finn, who had fallen asleep in half-lick of his paw. Murmuring words of love, she picked him up and set him on the foot of her bed. She changed out of her overalls and into a nightshirt. Then, she slid under the warm covers and picked up her diary.
Dear Diary,
Today was strange. To start off, I had a weird dream of a pretty lady turning into stone and a boy with a cowboy hat vowing to return her to normal. Then, when I woke up, I nearly stepped on a pixie. Obviously, not everyone can see them, because he and his two little friends were a bit taken aback by my awareness of their presence. Then, they dragged me up a mountain and to a spring where the same lady from my dream was. It turned out the entire vision was true, like a flashback or something. Anyways, the sprites, Carlos, Arthur, and Billy, told me to collect music notes to make instruments to free the Harvest Goddess. All I have to do is live life and I'll get music notes for certain tasks I accomplish. I wonder what sort of things I have to do.
After they told me that, the same boy with a cowboy hat showed up all huffy and started getting all worked-up about me helping the Harvest Goddess. He said that he was gonna show me what for. That he was gonna free her himself. The nerve of that guy! I think he woke up on the wrong side of the cot.
When I got back from that little outing, this really nice girl named Ellen who lives across the way showed up at my house and gave me a puppy. I named him Finn and he is the most adorable thing to walk on four legs.
Now, it's time for bed, but I'll have more for you tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be really nice and I'm going to look for something to plant. I wonder what grows in spring.
~Jovi
Satisfied, Jovi lay the diary down and scooted farther under the covers. She felt warmth radiating from the compression where Finn lay, snoring. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep, crickets chirping and owls hooting a melody of the nighttime atmosphere.