Hey, Happy Story of Seasons release in North America! And that's not an April Fool! :D

Thanks for reading, and go enjoy the new game!

Two

Minori frowned, rubbing her weary eyes and letting out a heavy yawn. Blinking away sleepy tears, the girl sat up in her bed and stretched. There was no natural light in the room, but she knew she had slept in.

Her bed creaked as she swung her legs off the side and batted her blanket away, feeling hot and heavy. She jumped up suddenly and reached for the ceiling, letting out a satisfied sigh. Making up for lost time, she quickly smoothed out her bedspread and wriggled out of her night gown.

"Mini?" Her mother's voice called from the other side of the door with a light rap. "Are you still sleeping?"

"Erm-!" She squeaked, freeing her head where it was caught at the collar and frizzing her wild hair. "No, Mother!"

"Well, then, what have you been doing in there all morning?" She remained persistent.

Untangling her arms from her pajamas, Minori eyed the shadow lingering in the hall light underneath the door frame as she ran around her room to tidy up and complete her fib. "Just… straightening up!"

"Oh."

Dresses, socks, and undergarments bundled in her arms blocked her line of view, but Minori didn't slow. She dashed across the room and propped her boots up to look neat, hoping no one would notice the powdered white paint on their soles.

There was silence beyond the door. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief, sitting atop her loaded hamper, when the door knob turned. Minori dived with a yelp, snatching a cream colored dress left hanging over the back of a chair and pulling it over her head. She just managed to get the skirt down when her mother entered.

Bright, skeptical blue eyes scanned her bedroom, lingering over the mementoes she hung up on the walls. "Hm… It looks nice. You might want to think about dusting though."

Minori tossed her hair over her shoulder with a wide smile. "Um, right!"

Her mother's eyes went back to the ripped scraps of paper lining Minori's room. With a basket of laundry under her arm, she went to the wall and laid her hand against one thoughtfully. "I really don't know why you keep these things if you don't even know what they are…"

"Oh, Mother…" Minori huffed with a good humored eye roll. She took advantage of her mother's turned back and fluffed up her hair, finding her red hat discarded beside her bed and pulling it snug atop her head. "Can't I have any hobbies?"

Chelsea laughed, turning away and dodging an end table on her way out. She leaned against the door, giving Minori a knowing look. "Well, since you slept through breakfast, we're already finished, but I left some bread and butter for you on the table. By the way, your skirt's caught in the back."

Minori flushed, frantically pulling her dress down over her undergarments and smoothing out the wrinkles. Ashamed she had tried to fool her mother and for the fact that she was caught, Minori hung her head. "Thank you, Mother…"

"Well, hurry up. Your father's back from the garden," Chelsea said.

Minori's eyes lit up with excitement, back to her perky self. She giggled and hurried out the door, giving her mother a quick kiss on the cheek in passing. She sprinted down the thin hallway and nearly collided with the kitchen counter when she skidded to a halt in the brightest room of their little house.

"You're up late."

Trying not to act too suspicious, Minori gave him a respectful bow in greeting. "Morning, Papa!"

He looked much older than his wife and child but only because his hair had greyed in his early years. The man took another sip from his coffee mug where he was leaning with his back to the blue cabinets. He eyed his daughter without showing emotion.

Minori spotted her breakfast plate and hurriedly sat herself down, munching on the soft white bread and avoiding her father's gaze. She looked at the neat little dishes lined up in the open cupboard, the sink full of water and soaking cups, skipped over her father, and watched the small amount of sunlight streaming in through the back door where her mother's garden got the best light.

Chelsea entered to ease the tension, setting down the laundry basket now laden with Minori's clothes, too. She sighed and took a seat across from her daughter as if they were having an intervention. Which, they were.

Unable to ignore the stares of both of her parents, Minori swallowed hard and fiddled with the bread on her plate, ripping it into little crumbs. They knew.

"Honey, you know we only want what's best for you," Chelsea began, making Minori's stomach nervously churn.

"Where were you last night?" Her father cut in.

"Vaughn!" His wife scolded.

"How did you know…?" Minori meekly looked up, scared to be punished.

Chelsea and Vaughn exchanged a look before he took the lead, her mother turning her head to look at the floor. "You locked the door. I didn't."

Minori chastised herself. She should have been more careful! She thought she would have been safer since her father had left. Her mother went to bed rather early, but it had made her careless. She should have known he'd always be watching the little details…

"I just wanted to see a bit of the world. The real world," she sighed, feeling a lump rising in her throat.

"Dear, it's dangerous out there! Especially all on your own," Chelsea fussed, gathering the caramel colored hair on her shoulder and running her fingers through it. It was a habit that she always did when she was stressed.

"Humans aren't to be fooled around with," her father added, taking another swig of coffee.

"It's just…" Minori struggled for words. She gently pushed her plate away having lost her appetite. "I never get to go outside…" You're too over-protective…

"You're far too young!" Chelsea shook her head, her face growing pale as she worried. "Minori, you could so easily be… be killed! We can't have you running circles around… around who knows where."

"How far did you go?" Vaughn asked the important questions.

Minori bit her lip, twisting her napkin into a rope. "Just… the grate."

"The grate!" Her mother gasped, hands flying to her mouth.

"Just for a peek!" Minori pleaded. She wouldn't dare tell her parents she actually left the grate… and climbed the window… and went through the screen…

Vaughn sighed, understanding his daughter's wanderlust but unable to ignore its consequences nor his own worry for her. "When you're older, and you've matured, I'll take you out. You don't know a thing about surviving out there, Min. You wouldn't make it."

Minori sunk in her chair, not bothering to argue back. Even though that's what he always said. 'When you're older.' 'When you have experience.' Well, maybe if you decided to take me out there and teach me, I wouldn't seem so helpless to you…

Chelsea looked pained, her eyes darting back and forth between her husband and the daughter she still saw as a baby. It was obvious the silence was getting to her. "Mini! Why don't you help me with the chores today? Enough of this dark, terrible talk."

When Vaughn looked ready to protest, Chelsea held up her hand to him as she firmly stood. "No, Minori understands. It's dangerous out there. She won't be doing it again."

Minori felt like she'd start hiccupping sobs any moment as her mother spoke for her. She could feel how disappointed they were with her. Her parents had struggled all their lives to live in this little house underneath the Trade Station and raise Minori in a rough world. Still, even through her guilt for disobeying them (as she would no doubt do again), Minori knew she needed to be out there. Outside of these floorboards. Seeing the world. Making a life of her own. Really living.

She had little choice but to quietly answer: "Yes. Of course…"

Chelsea smiled, but Vaughn could easily see his daughter was reluctant. Though she was sweet and cheery like her mother most hours of the day, he could see Minori bottled up her thoughts and emotions just as well as he always had.

"Great! That's all settled then," her mother cheered, spritely scooping up the laundry basket. She turned to Minori who was collecting her breakfast things and moving them to the sink. "The water's ready out back, so let's hop to it! Lots of laundry today!"

Chelsea disappeared with a spring in her step and a happy tune. Her voice echoed throughout the house as she tried to lift the dour mood.

Minori, still downcast, stacked her plate next to the sink. She had to lean around her father in order to do so. Vaughn stared down at his young daughter beside him, his gaze unwavering. His eyes were a mysterious shade of violet, making him warm and approachable yet also daunting and distant. Minori wondered what her own honey brown eyes imprinted upon others.

"When you're older, Min," Vaughn repeated. He parted her messy bangs and planted a kiss on her forehead. "I promise."

Minori gave him a hopeful smile which he returned. She nodded.

"Now off you go. Your mother needs help with the chores. I'll show you what I brought back later," Vaughn gave her hat a ruffle with his large hand.

Minori giggled and straightened her cap. "Okay…"

Vaughn watched her run out as quick as she had come in. He shook his head, still with a thoughtful smile on his lips.

Mother and daughter spent the rest of the day busily going to and fro. Minori crushed seeds her father had brought back into meal so her mother could spend the day making different seed cakes and bread. She collected the tins they left out to catch the rain water, putting it in their clean water basin inside for drinking and cooking. She swept the whole house through with a stiff crow feather. She alternated scrubbing the clothes in the wash basin and hanging them on the garden line to dry as the sun began to set.

The sunshine filtered down through a rusted, wrought iron grate. It was much bigger than the thin-slotted one Minori was forbidden to go through inside on the Trade Station floor. This one was thick and high above their heads, grasses surrounding the half circle and ivy weaving its way through the slots in an intricate web.

Minori sat underneath it, sprawled out like a starfish in her mother's little garden. The thick smell of herbs surrounded her. It wasn't a flower garden. It was a 'practical' garden. Chelsea harvested all sorts of yummy seasonings from the patch to make their food less bland. Her mother was a good cook, but she didn't trust many plants other than the ones in her garden. Minori remembered when her father brought back a strange spice that burned her tongue and fizzled in her throat. She couldn't describe it much, other than it was very warm. And her mother had decidedly not liked it. It was new for Minori, so she almost missed the unpleasant sensation. She loved a good variety.

The first twinkling of stars started to blanket the milky sky. The wooden planks that wove their back porch and kept the garden in check weren't comfortable, but Minori loved to lay there and look up. Even through the grate, the sky seemed so vast and never ending.

I wonder if it ever stops… Minori wondered, holding forward her hand, palm up to the sky. She looked between her fingers at the passing wisps of clouds and tiny, blinking stars. And iron. Always iron.

She sighed, letting her hand drop and fall across her stomach. Her hair was itchy around her neck, so she had it spread out like a fan, crowning her head and making her red hat look like a bulls-eye.

"One day…" she promised herself, still whispering to keep it private. "I'll be big enough. And my house will be in one of those big trees. I'll never have any iron. And I'll be in the sky."

Minori closed her eyes, hoping time would pass as she did so, and when she would open her eyes, these cravings would all be in the past. Unfortunately, all she saw when she opened her lids was the same sky, only slightly darker. There was a rustle next to her.

She sat up slowly and saw a penny toad attempting to hop through her mother's bush of thyme. Minori reached in, but the toad scrambled back. Standing, she leaned over and picked up the toad around the middle. It was small, even to her. She held it in her arms, and stroked its speckled head. It blinked its yellowed slit eyes in different succession, wherever her hand was closest when she gave him a pat.

She walked away from the garden and set the little toad down out of the way. "There you go."

It quickly lunged away, taking a few hops to be safe. Then it sat in quiet content, folding its legs close to its body and expanding its throat.

"Rrrrrrreeeeeee!"

The shrill noise coming from the little creature made Minori's hair stand on end. Her hands flew to her ears as it cried again, practicing its vocals. Minori glared at it, sticking her tongue out. "Some thanks!"

"Rrrrrrrrr—!"

"Oh, never you mind!" Minori scolded it. She hurried back inside, closing the door behind her and bolting it for good measure.