A/N YOUR WAITING IS OVER! HERE'S PART 2! ENJOY! =)

Spring 20 Part 2

Rio and Neil journeyed into the river area that afternoon. Neil knew he wasn't going to make it to the city today as planned, he mumbled with displeasure of how she bribed him with milk to use him as free work by collecting supplies for building the architects house. He had plenty of milk residing in his own refrigerator, but he swore up and down to himself that hers had something that wasn't found in any of his own supply. Not to mention it bothered him more than he was comfortable admitting when she used his own line against him.

"Are you going to help me or just stare at the ground all day?" Rio asked pulling out her rucksack scanning the area to see what was lying around.

Neil huffed and took out his own rucksack "I'll take the right side, you take the left… meet me back here in thirty minutes," he warned and began to gather rocks and branches.

"Yes sir," she expressed sarcastically adding a dramatic salute, so she began gathering branches leading her to a rock path she hadn't noticed before.

The path led to an untouched side of the river, she hopped on the rocks that lead to a new destination and crossed the large log to reach another. Rio found several items she needed to build the house along with others she could ship for some extra cash. Then, she heard rustling in the bushes nearby and could have sworn she heard someone talking. As she crept up to the spot where the noises were coming from the chatter grew louder.

"Do you think she can hear us?" a boyish voice questioned.

"Would you be quiet?! If she can your loud mouth isn't helping us keep our cover!" an annoyed girl whispered in an unsettling tone at the other voice.

Rio giggled at the conversation, which caused it to abruptly end. To her astonishment, the two voices decided to give up and came out to expose themselves. Standing before the farm girl were two tiny elves one obviously male the other female. They both were about a fifth of her size. The boy wore a red outfit with a matching cone-shaped hat while the girl wore the same ensemble except purple in color. They both shared the same forest green color hair.

"Hiiii!" the boy ran up to greet Rio. "My name is Aaron! And this is my twin sis' Alice!" the girl came behind him and gave Rio a skeptical look.

"Thank you brother for that ridiculously enthusiastic introduction… And who are you?" the elven girl cocked her head gazing at the blonde.

She was pretty shocked what she saw in front of her but she finally managed to speak her name after taking a deep breath, "Name's Rio..."

Both of the little people looked at one another. Aaron looked like his was going to explode with excitement over Rio being able to see them, while Alice simply gave herself a face palm.

"Aaron, the Harvest Goddess is going to throw us in the river for being caught. Why couldn't you keep your mouth shut?!"

"The Harvest Goddess?" Rio questioned and began shaking her head. She knew she had officially lost it and was hallucinating. "Well it was a pleasure seeing you and all but I have to go tell Neil to take me to a padded room because I've gone mental."

"You're not crazy Rio," the elven girl glared in her direction, "We are harvest sprites, we serve the Harvest Goddess and help the people in the town on occasion."

"And you can see us! I can't believe it!" Aaron chimed in excitedly. "Who's Neil, eh? Your boyfriend perhaps?" the boys eyebrows began bouncing up and down while he batted his eyelashes.

"W-What?! NO! He's just… helping me out today." Rio started to say a friend, but they hadn't even agreed on that with one another. She didn't know what she wanted from him. But she couldn't help but notice the ping in her chest at the thought of his piercing eyes looking back at her.

"You know him Aaron, he's the one feeding the wild animals all the time," Alice added.

"Oh him, right!" Aaron agreed and winked at Rio, causing her to blush.

"Come Rio, we should probably introduce you to the Goddess now that this has happened," Alice stated with a sigh and held out her hand to Rio, the brother followed holding out his tiny hand as well.

Rio reluctantly reached out her hands to the sprites. Once they were connected with one another all she saw was a bright shining light and in the blink of an eye they were in front of the pond at the top of the mountain. It was known as the pond of the Harvest Goddess, but Rio never really thought twice about it even though she remembered the tales her grandfather had once told her as a child. She never believed them to be true though, just meaningless fairy-tales like the others she heard growing up. Another bright light approached followed by a motherly voice booming through the mountain.

"Dum-DA-DA-DAAA! Why hello Rio! I've been expecting you!"

"Y-You… have? You're beautiful…" Rio looked upon the graceful Goddess with her long forest green hair tied in buns on each side that cascaded down her body in longs braids.

"Why thank you," the Harvest Goddess giggled.

"Were very sorry about this Goddess, we didn't know she could hear or see us, and then it was too late…" Alice stated apologetically.

"Well of course she can silly! She is Charles' granddaughter after all!"

Both sprites looked at Rio in surprise. "You are?! Wow! Now we have a new friend Alice! And she's so pretty too!" Aaron beamed.

Rio blushed at the sprites comment as she smiled at him "How did you know my grandfather?" she asked the Goddess curiously.

"Oh I knew him for a long time he could see all of us too! He was a wonderful man and brought so much for the good of Echo! We were so saddened when he passed, but know that he is at peace and he's watching over you smiling!" The Harvest Goddess gave her a reassuring smile as a tear dropped down Rios cheek. She returned the smile thoughtfully and thanked the Goddess.

"Well Rio, please come back and visit often, you may bring any of your prized veggies and drop them here in the pool! I will come see you very soon and keep doing your best! Here's some items to help you build that house!" the Goddess gave her everything else she needed to complete the task.

"RIIIOO!" a familiar voice yelled some distance away.

"Oh no! That's Neil, he's looking for me I was supposed to meet him back ages ago!" Rio covered her face with her hands and shook her head, "What am I supposed to tell him?"

"I wouldn't worry your pretty little head over it! I'll see you around Rio! Toodles!" and she vanished back into the pond.

"It was nice meeting you Rio! Do come back and see us! We will come see you too from time to time!" Aaron grinned at the farm girl and she smiled back at him.

Rio turned around to start walking to find Neil, already pondering what excuse she could possibly come up with for her absence. Then she felt something push her, causing her to trip and she began rolling uncontrollably down the mountain.

"What did you DO THAT FOR sis?!" Aaron looked at her in shock.

"Don't worry about it… the Goddess will protect her," Alice gave herself a victorious smirk and the twins disappeared.

"RIIIOO!" he was beginning to get worried he had been searching for a while now and no sign of her. He continued to walk further up the mountain as he heard a commotion coming in his direction.

Rio was violently rolling his way, she screamed "Ne-il!" as she continued to bounce on the dirt towards him.

He saw her and started running to her. He reached out his hand but couldn't stop the force of her coming down the path. She barreled onto him causing Neil to roll with her. He instinctively was able to grab hold of her and held her head to his chest as they fell down the mountain fiercely hitting debris along the way.

They finally slowed and came to a stop at the bottom of the mountain right at the entrance of the river. Rio was still on top of him in his iron grip. She could feel his heart beating like it was going to jump out of his chest at any moment. The tension of his muscles could be felt all over triggering her to think things she shouldn't be thinking… Neil was lying there catching his breath with one arm still tightly wrapped around her waist.

"Neil…" she said quietly.

"What?"

"You can let go of me now."

Neil's heart fluttered and Rio felt it, his cheeks simultaneously turning bright red. "Right…sorry," is all he could muster and he let go of her. She sat up on top of him for a moment to catch her breath and gather her bearings. Her band that usually held her hair up in a bun vanished from the incident; her hair flowed softly all the way down to her waist when she sat up. Neil hadn't seen her hair down other than the night at her house when it was wet. Sections of her golden locks curled up slightly at all of her curves, and the scent of honeysuckle hit him in the face as it flowed in the light breeze.

The sun was beginning to set behind her making the farm girls frame illuminate in front of him. Her eyes glowed in their blue and green hues when her eyes met with his. He thought to himself this is the closest he will see to an angel on this planet…his blush started creeping back.

"What are you staring at?" she questioned with pink growing onto her cheeks.

Neil shook his head and huffed out a ball of air "Nothing…Idiot." Rio gave him a crooked smirk and started to stand up. She then felt a sharp pain travel from her right foot up her leg.

"Owww," she winced in pain and shifted her weight to her good leg.

"Oh great, what the hell did you do?" he growled and approached her injury to examine it. He had her sit on the ground so he could take off her boot. He was very gentle as he removed it just in case it was fractured. "I don't think it's broken, but you need to keep it elevated when you get home and it should heal in a few days. That means take it easy on the farm and don't do anything stupid," he said scowling at her, she nodded in agreement.

"Well let me gather all this stuff now that it's been thrown everywhere and I'll go straight home after," she stood back up and began limping near the first branch to snatch when a hand grabbed her arm.

"You're going home now, I'll come back and get it later…idiot, don't be ridiculous." With that he wrapped his arm underneath hers on her injured side and progressed out of the area back to the farm.

"Thanks," the ends of her mouth curled upwards feeling her heart skip a beat feeling his grip on her. She had to ease the situation before she thought too much of it so she added a satirical "My hero..." and looked upon the animal dealer.

"Shut up!" he snarled and continued in stride with her, but he couldn't deny that his heart skipped a beat as well when he thought of how she looked on the mountain moments ago.