A/N: Well, here's the next chapter! This week, I've got something that will take up a lot of my time. the week after that, I'm on vacation with no internet. So updating will be slow. I'm sorry! Thanks to all reviewers! Please read, review, and enjoy!

Goddess

Chapter 3

She woke up that morning, unknowing that the sun rose at the exact same time. Thankfully, she could not feel the heat from it better than anyone else... So far.

Stepping outside, feeling a headache coming on, she looked around her surroundings with a weary glance.

Everything seemed perfectly normal. However, if she wanted to run the farm properly, she needed plants, animals, and money. She felt a slight shiver at the thought of growing plants. If she grew seeds, and they grew as plants always did with her, she would have a mob of angry and questioning villagers on her hands.

"Silly, just control them, it's not that hard," a lofty yet slightly sad voice countered from just above her.

She almost jumped out of her skin.

"My dog is enough, I don't need the birds talking to me too!" She cried, on the edge of a mental breakdown.

"I'm not a bird. How hard is it for you to look up?"

She did as she was told, and floating above her was a woman with green hair, clothed in tight-fitting flowing white robes. Her green hair seemed to glow, and although it was slightly curly, there was not a tangle in sight. She laughed, but her eyes did not laugh with her.

"Y-you-"

"I'm the Harvest Goddess." She glanced lazily at Jill before murmuring, "Don't scream."

Seeing as that was what she was about to do, she glanced into the Goddess' eyes, wonder showing.

"You're quite dense. The first time I showed myself to that Carter man, he threw himself on his knees and cried for salvation before I said a word." She reached out a perfect white hand to Jill. "Well? Are you going to come up here so I can show you what to do with those blasted plants? They'll suck up all the energy you can muster if you don't show them who's boss."

"You mean to tell me that-"

"What did you think was happening when those plants grew out of control on your little date?"

Pain stabbed through Jill as she realized that this woman knew what had happened to her, knew what was going on. Which meant that, in some way, she had to be responsible. "It wasn't a little date," she hissed quietly, wishing she had the nerve to punch the woman.

"All right, all right." She turned serious. "I'm sorry." She smiled weakly, and the sadness pouring from her eyes was like a slap in the face to Jill. "You have no idea what's happening to you, do you?" She asked softly, gently. "I think it's the cruelest thing that Anila could come up with to bring us into our position."

"Anila?" Jill's anger vanished, leaving her only with the same amount of sadness mixed with curiosity.

"Never mind that. All right, go get some seeds so I can show you what to do."

"I deserve to know what's happening to me," Jill whispered, voice trembling, blue eyes wildly searching the Goddess' eyes for an answer. "Why am I... Like this? Why are you telling me these things?"

The woman's green hair quivered as she bit her lip. She had not been put in a situation like this before. She had been on the other end, though, and she knew the answer she had to say.

"You'll know soon enough."

Cliff pushed his ear against the floor.

"Are you listening in again?" Asked Gray from the corner. He lay on his stomach on his messed up bed, eyes purposefully scanning the pages of the worn book in front of him.

Cliff had a slight blush as he sat up. "Gray, she's talking again."

"What a shock," Gray said. "Ann talking. That explains my shattered ear drum. Thanks for shedding some light on the situation, Cliff, because I was completely baffled."

Cliff was not one to get into a fight, and he sensed that Gray was being particularly moody for a reason, so he let the insult drop. Not that he cared about it, anyway, he reminded himself fiercely.

"But Doug's out tonight, Gray. I'm sure of it. I saw him leave. Who could she be talking to?"

"Her boyfriend," Gray muttered, not paying attention to Cliff's truthful situation.

Cliff's blush disappeared, but his face remained a tomato red. "S-she doesn't have-"

Gray shut his book loudly, eyes on fire with some sort of wild fury that Cliff had never seen before. "Ann can have a million people over, for all I care," he hissed in a fury, "Just as long as I can get some decent sleep around here, and a room without a stupid roommate who won't shut up about his crush talking to herself!" He flipped around, threw his book on the floor, and pulled the covers over his head. The light went out, leaving a puzzled, worried Cliff. His roommate might be shy and moody, but he certainly was never outright cruel to anyone like this.

Remembering the girl with the self-straightening blonde hair, and Ann's strange words in her one-sided conversation, he shook his head and stood up, muttering.

"Something is seriously wrong in Mineral Town."

"Happy birthday!" He placed an arm around her shoulder and gave her a peck on the cheek as she blushed.

"You really didn't have to," Jill said, taking the green box covered with delicate blue flowers in her hand shyly.

"Of course I did!" He gave her a squeeze and her mother smiled knowingly at her from across the deep brown oak table.

She gently began to tear off the wrapping paper, smiling at him as she did so.

When she was done, it revealed a simple blue rose pendant, its stem a delicate curve. It hung on a silver chain, and he gently took it from her hands and hung it around her neck.

It felt warm to the touch, and though it wasn't diamonds or rubies, she felt it was her most precious possession.

She walked slowly over to the mirror, and stared at it for a full five minutes.

She clasped her hands around it, and was surprised to feel a soft beat, like a heart. Though it somehow sent a warm chill down her spine, she still loved it so.

He placed an arm around her waist, and she looked at the two of them in the mirror, together, seemingly perfect. But as he placed a kiss upon her forehead and went back to his chair, she still stared at herself in the mirror, mesmerized.

The pendant represented her fears from that dreadful night, her worries with every new crack that appeared in her life's mirror, and everything she had ever experienced with him.

She slowly clasped her hands around it again and closed her eyes as the slow, steady beat greeted her. And so she promised to herself to never, ever, to take it off.

Jill had refused to do anything the Goddess said. If she didn't have answers, then she wouldn't comply.

The Harvest Goddess knew that she should have forced her to do it anyway, should have taken control of her body or not let her stay inside her house.

But she reminded the Goddess so much of herself when it happened. So much of her stubborness, her wanting to know, her knowledge that it was her RIGHT to know.

She forced herself to halfheartedly try and pull her out of her little shack, only to be greeted by shocking resistance and a wall of fury and hurt like she had never seen.

She realized, with a shock, that her time and power as the Goddess was waning, faster than ever. She didn't have much time at all.

Jill had arrived late, maybe too late.

As she thought this, she felt a dark force coming upon her.

"Having problems?" He sneered. "You Goddesses are all alike. You become, you live, you die. It's a pathetic cycle."

"And what do you do?" She replied, weakly. "Take lives? Ruin all we've ever worked for? Make our job harder?"

"Me? I used to be where you are. I used to run everything in that stupid town."

"And then you turned sour, and now they're without a God or Goddess. Idiot!" Her eyes flashed. "You had it. You gave it all up willingly. I refuse to take the blame for your problems! You're lucky I don't get rid of you!"

She felt him grow sour, then triumphant. "You mean you can't get rid of me." His voice grew slightly louder. "And I've already worked something out for the future."

"You fool," she hissed, all patience she had gone. "You'll die just like I will!!"

"I may die." His hooded face nodded, as the horrible feeling he gave off increased. Jill, inside, turned in her sleep as nightmares began. "But you should remember that I, too, can find a replacement."

The Goddess' eyes widened with fury, fear, and surprise. "You wouldn't dare!! Don't you already do enough?! Every year at a certain time you destroy everything!"

"It's called Winter, my dear," he cackled. "And it's about to become a lot worse."

Her mouth flapped open and shut as he went away. But as the shock was gotten over, she realized what she had to do. Then, her mouth set in a determined line, she went to get seeds, and then to wake Jill. A contest had begun, a contest that held the town in the balance.

And the Harvest Goddess could not lose.

A/N: Thanks to all reviewers! Normally I'd leave personal messages, but something about it is down on my computer so I can't access the reviews! Thank you so much to those who did! Well, goodbye! The next chapter will be up soon!