A/N: Hey guys! Updating another chapter of this fanfict. I didn't abandon the 'Inside the Glass' story. I shall update it soon within the couple of few days. Life been hectic, but I finally managed to find time to post this thing. I hope you guys enjoy it!
Disclaimers: I do not own Harvest Moon or any of its characters (a sad reality)
Acknowledgement: Thank you for my Bestie to proof read this story. I gratefully thank you for your effort.
I woke up with a startle when I heard a knock at the door. Finn fell down from the bed as I woke up and started complaining about how rude it was to wake someone up by making them fall to the floor. I ignored the jabbering he made and put on my cardigan, opening the door. There, stood Bo with pride sparkling in his eyes. "The bridge is done! Now you can go to the Garmon Mine District." He said. I beamed at him and thanked him for his hard work. After that Bo left me with his cheeks colorized a little bit. I chuckled as I closed the door and walked towards my drawer. I changed my clothes, wearing a yellow skirt and a yellow tank top with boots and gloves. After that I walked to the fridge and took out a bottle of milk I bought and drank it.
"We can go to the Garmon Mine District now! Come on, Hikari! The Harvest Goddess is waiting!" Finn exclaimed while wiggling impatiently. I rolled my eyes and looked around for my rucksack. Taking it, I put it on and looked at Finn. "Now I'm ready." Finn twirled with delight and flew towards the door. I walked slowly and yawning, I opened the door and shivered as the cold wind hit me.
"Here we go." I mumbled as we made our way towards the Garmon Mine District. We crossed the bridge that could be used thanks to Bo's hard work all night long and when I first stepped on the district I was awed by how majestic the land was. Different from the Harmonica Town or the Flute Field, this district was like a castle made from boulders. It was wonderful and gave a certain strong image for the district. I smiled and looked at Finn. "Well, gotta explore first!" I said mischievously and ran to the first shop. Finn threw fits because of this but he couldn't do anything.
"Hello!" I said to the man behind the counter. He was probably around my aunt's age and he had a big belly. That was rude, but that was the first image I got of this man. "Hello! Haven't seen ya 'round? Ah! Ya must be the rancher the mayor has been talking about." The man said.
"Yes! That would be me. I'm Hikari! Nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you! I'm Dale. You'll move to that old ranch? I'll bet that the barn could do some fixin'" He said.
Not just the barn man, not just the barn. I said in my mind.
But then Dale sighed, "But I can barely work these days." That was certainly interesting. When I introduced myself to the people at Harmonica Town, the people complained about things like they couldn't work properly because the fire was far too small to make decent food. Or because the wave of the sea was very high that ships couldn't travel to the town, which made the suppliers for these people unable to come. Or like at the ranches said, the wind was not blowing so they couldn't make decent feed for the animals and that made them moody and the soil was just horrible that the crops just took time to grow. I guess this was what Finn had been trying to say and what the Harvest Goddess had wanted me to help with.
"The trees had grown slower and lumbers are really hard to get. Also I'm worried about my son who has been gone for a while to gather lumbers. He went to the Fugue Forest near Flute Field, and that forest is like a maze." Dale stopped and pinched his nose bridge as he went on, "And my idiot son has no sense of direction…" he said. Yikes! That's suicide! I thought.
"Well anyway. If you ever see my son, please tell him to come home. His name is Luke." Dale said.
"Will do! See ya!" We waved and walked out from the carpenter. I went into the other shop, and I met Barbara and Simon again, who turned out to be Barbara's husband. He came worried about their daughter, which Barbara told me she might be in the mine right now. Well, that girl is an interesting one, I thought. Also, we met a very flamboyant man, Julius, who worked at the Accessory Shop though it was closed right now. I met an old man name Ramsey and he had an apprentice as well as his nephew, Owen. He's at the mine right, or so that's what Ramsey told me.
When we walked out from the Blacksmith, I looked at Finn pleadingly and since we're already at the Garmon Mine District, Finn let me to check the Mine and meet Owen. Owen turned out to be a muscly red hair man, who had a bass voice and was very polite as well.
"Ah! You're the new rancher!" He said after he stopped hitting the boulder.
"I'm Hikari, nice to meet you!" I bowed to him.
"Well, I'm Owen, Ramsey's apprentice. Nice to meet you." He said with a smile. Then, he started talking about the fire problem and his attempt to find the reason of the problem. He was such a hard worker just like what Ramsey told me. I was so happy when he gave me a hammer, though it was old but still usable. I thanked him and watched him go down to the mine. I put the hammer inside my rucksack and walked out from the mine.
"Alright! Let's go to see the Harvest Goddess now!"
"Okay… Okay…" I said and we walked towards the Harvest Goddess Pond.
To our dismay, or Finn to be more exact, we can't go to the Harvest Goddess because there were plenty of animals closing the path. Totally mad animals, thathowled and shouted and just made any noise that animals usually made. I loved animals, but if you asked me to actually attempt to tame a wild one, an angry wild animal, that would be something that I would rather not do. Of course, Finn the optimistic one or should I say the desperate one, tried to talk to them.
"Let us through. We need to go to the Harvest Goddess." Finn said.
But the animals just got angrier and the only thing we could do for now is to retreated back to the Garmon Mine District.
"What should we do? The animals won't let us through!?" Finn said, his face was filled with sadness because we were so close to the Harvest Goddess and yet we still couldn't meet her. I gathered that much Finn, I thought sarcastically after I heard his voice of dismay. Honestly, I didn't know why but I had to be the one to put up with this childish, annoying and pushy harvest sprite. I wouldn't mind a harvest sprite as a company, but I would prefer a much mature and nicer harvest sprite. I guess Finn was still the young harvest sprite, and that was what I concluded when Finn threw another fits about the complication we had then.
"Hikari, do you know anyone who could help us? We need someone who can help us to make those animals understand that we wouldn't cause any harm to the Harvest Goddess." Finn said. I sighed, because I knew I would be the one who was going to do all the work that these magical creatures were supposed to do. I shook my head to erase that dark thought, because I was here to stay. So, if I hated the fact that I'm the only one who could help these people and the Harvest Goddess, then I was not suitable to be the new rancher of this land.
"Well, we should ask the people around here first. Since they probably are used to dealing with these wild animals. Let's go to the Carpenter." I suggested to Finn, which he followed me happily because I had started to act seriously about this matter. To be perfectly honest, I wanted to help the Harvest Goddess as well, but I also just wanted to stop Finn from throwing fits when the speed of this mission was not to his liking.
"Oh, I see. So you wanted to become friends with the animals, huh? Well, let me show you something first. Let's go outside." Dale said after I explained to him about the wild animals situation I had.
We walked outside the Carpentry, and Dale showed me a few tricks he had taught to his dog, Boss. I clapped and was amazed at how much Boss listened to Dale and how well he understood the trick Dale commanded him to do. "Now you see, to become friend with animals, you have to gain their trust. Without trust there would be no point being friends with them. Of course, it would take time." Dale explained to me after his small demonstration.
"Now, for a beginner like you. You should use this animal whistle." Dale said as he searched his pocket for this animal whistle that he talked about. But after a while, Dale seemed to be having a hard time finding the whistle. "That's weird, I know I had it here, just now." He said as he put his hand on his chin, and his face turned into a frown. Then, he clapped his hands once, "Oh! I must have dropped it when I went to the general store. You should ask Barbara if she saw it or not." Dale suggested to me. I nodded and mumbled my thank you to him and went to the general store. This search for the animal whistle turned out to be more like treasure hunting. Because, Barbara told me she didn't see anything and perhaps her husband might be the one who had found it. She also told me he probably went to the Accessory Shop where he could refine it. When we arrived at the Accessory Shop, Julius told us that the whistle was not that valuable, though for me it was extremely valuable and I couldn't imagine how he couldn't see it, and he also told me that Simon had planned to give it to Chloe.
So our searched ended at the Blacksmith where Ramsey told me that Chloe had a cool new thing and was given by Simon and she was probably showing it off to Owen who was probably inside the mine as we speak. So, feeling annoyed by now, Finn and I went to the mine. To our relief, Owen had the whistle with him because he was afraid that the animals would hurt Chloe because whenever she blew the whistle, animals would come near her.
"Thanks Owen. I needed this!" I thanked the bulky man.
"No problem!" he said with a smile before returning to his work, hitting the boulder.
"Come on, Hikari! Let's try the whistle!" Finn said.
I rolled my eyes and walked out from the mine and went back to the path that led to the Goddess Pond. The animals, still there, were looking as angry as before. But this time, I had the trusty animal whistle. I took it out and blew it, and the animals stopped from their rampage and looked at me curiously. "They like it Hikari! Blow it again!" Finn said happily. I blew it one more time and this time rather than throwing a fit at me, the animals were dancing happily. Finn flew towards the animals and he seemed to be in a conversation with them. Well, shouldn't be surprised there since he is the Harvest Sprite, I thought as I put back the whistle inside my rucksack.
"They said they were sorry. They thought we were to harm the Harvest Goddess and they just trying to protect her. Now, they realized that we wouldn't do any harm to the Goddess so they would let us through." Finn explained to me.
I sighed; honestly, I couldn't imagine how I could harm the Harvest Goddess. I liked this place already and there's no way I would do any harm to it. It was the perfect land I wanted to stay and if I'm lucky, stayed forever and have friends and family. Well for now we could wait on the family part, I thought wryly. For now, I needed to face the Harvest Goddess, after all this delay we had.
"Hurry! Hurry! This way!" Finn called me to hurry up.
I ran through the tall grass and found a big pool and a huge tree across it. The pool was like those you could find in the older days castle, but it was now all ruined and we could cross it using the crumbled wall. I took a deep breath and crossed the pool, standing in front of the huge tree. Suddenly, light started burning my eyes and after my eyes had adjusted with the sudden brightness, I saw the Harvest Goddess make her appearance. She had beautiful long green hair and she had the prettiest dress I had ever seen. Not to mention the wings, which made her even more… goddess like. I thought goddess would be like those Greek gods and goddesses but I never really thought I would be meeting one, so I guess I couldn't complain much about it.
"Thank you for coming, Hikari. I'm the Harvest Goddess." The beautiful lady said.
I guessed that much, I thought sarcastically.
"I'm the one who called you here." She added.
To be perfectly clear, she had not exactly called me, because I was moving here even before I had met Finn. But alas, I'll just let it be, because in the end I was the one helping Finn so far. "I need your help to save this land." She said sadly.
"Finn told me that. What exactly happened here?" I asked the goddess, since Finn never really told me about the problem, except that the land was withering.
"You see, as the power of this tree has weakened, so has the power of nature." She started explaining to me. "Water, earth, wind and fire have lost all their vitality and strength."
"Even the people have noticed the weakening of the elements within the land…" she continued. So far I'm following what she said. The plants were weakening and that's why the land was also losing it's elements. I nodded. Finn suddenly flied towards the arms of the Harvest Goddess and I just couldn't resist rolling my eyes when I saw that. And here I thought he would be content with the fact that I'm finally here, listening to the trouble of the land.
"In order to restore the power of the nature, you must ring the 5 bells scattered across the land." She continued after comforting Finn. I nodded, since that's all I can do as I listened to this overwhelming troublesome situation. The land was going to die if I don't ring the 5 bells, that was pretty much what I had concluded of this situation.
"I have asked the Harvest Sprites to ring their bells… Nature's power must weaker than I had thought, though. They may now all be too weak to do so." The goddess continued. This situation is direr than I thought it would be, but so far I followed and understand what she talked about. "If the bells aren't rung soon, nature's power would be lost. People will no longer be able to live here. Hikari, please help us." The Harvest Goddess requested me.
I loved this place already, I could see great potential of this land, and I had high hopes that I wouldn't have to leave this place when I arrived. I would do anything so that I could stay in the land with these nice people around me. I nodded to the goddess. "I'll help. I may only be here for two days but I could see wonderful potential of the land and I could want to stay here to enjoy its beauty to the fullest." I said. The Harvest Goddess smiled at me. Then she took out a red berry and gave it to me. "Thank you, Hikari. I shall give you this to help you in your quest." She said after I took the berry. Then, she continued explaining that I needed to find the 5 bells and the bells could only be ring when the sun was out. So basically I could only ring the bell from 6 AM to 6 PM.
"If you have any questions, just visit me here. Thank you for willing to help us." The Harvest Goddess said with gratitude. I nodded and looked at Finn, who was still floating near the goddess. "Time to go Finn, we need to start searching for the bell!" I told the little sprite. I waved at the Harvest Goddess and ran from the Goddess Pond ready to search for the first bell.
Thanks for reading this! Review please. I also don't mind a constructive criticism.
Thepiapen28