Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or Rune Factory…

Life on the Mist Farm

Fourth Week of Spring: Carmite Cave

Mist woke up from her bed a little more tired than usual. She splashed water on her face, changed and then went off to check on the farm. She arrived only to find that Raguna wasn't there. She went inside of the house to find that it was empty too. Mist started to get worried so she ran into town asking everyone where Raguna was.

"Raguna? Can't say I've seen him lately," Godwin told her.

"I wouldn't know," Bianca said.

"I don't follow him around like a sick puppy," Rosetta said

She finally ended up asking Lady Ann after asking everyone else. "Oh, I think he might be with Zavier, he left the other day to the Carmite Cave and hasn't come back yet."

"Wait? Zavier hasn't come back yet either?"

"I believe so, if Raguna hasn't come back yet either."

"Wait, you mean Raguna left for the cave yesterday?"

"Yeah, I saw him run towards the cave yesterday too so I assumed."

Inside the Carmite Cave (yesterday), Raguna walked in to find that the strange machine that he destroyed several weeks ago was replaced and is sending out monsters again. And like last time he sent the monster away and destroyed the machine. It was like that for a while, excluding the times where he got lost, a lot. Until he reached one part of the cave where there were giant insects everywhere. He tried using his magic attack with his sword but that made him even more exhausted. But then out of nowhere several fireballs were shot at the insects. Raguna started to hear the incantation again and followed the voice to the source of the attack.

"Hey Raguna, you need help there?"

"Zavier? What are you doing here?"

"Exploring the caves as usual, and apparently saving your butt from these insects from what I see."

"Thanks…" Raguna started to feel a little bit dizzy so he leaned on a wall. Zavier seemed concerned so he ran to Raguna and pulled out one of his potions.

"Here, take this…" Zavier opened the cap and helped Raguna drink the potion and he was able to recover enough and was able to breathe normally again.

"Thanks, I couldn't reach the one in my bag…"

"Don't worry about it, I've been here many times."

"How long have you been here for?"

"Well, a long time ago, about a couple…"

"I meant just now…"

"Oh, I would say about a few hours by now. When I went in it was mid afternoon so by now it's probably dark."

"You don't suppose we can camp out here tonight do you?"

"We could, but I think there are some monster summoning machines around this area. I don't think they'll come after us on a different floor so we just have to take out the ones here."

"That's fine, we can take it out together."

"Are you sure, you looked weak when I saved you."

"I got something left in me, let's go."

And so the two of them decided to fight off what was left of the monsters and the machines on the floor before going off to sleep. Unfortunately, these things were sending out monsters as if the thing was on high. Afterwards the two explorers were exhausted that they just laid down on the ground.

"So… How many… did you beat?" Zavier asked Raguna.

"… I guess… about 40 of them… possibly…"

"Ha… I won… I got 45 of them…"

"So… It must be pretty late, I'm going to go to sleep now…"

"Yeah, me too…"

The both of them pulled out their sleeping bags and got ready to go to sleep.

"So, Raguna… do you really like Mist?"

"Where did this come from?" a shocked Raguna asked

"Just answer it…"

"Well… I mean… I like her and all…"

"A-HA! I KNEW IT!" Zavier yelled as he sit up and pointed at Raguna.

"Well, not in that sense… I like her as a friend, that's all."

"Then why'd you give her cookies during the Spring Festival?"

"WHAT? HOW DID YOU KNOW?"

"Oh, Rosetta told me…"

"You know, Rosetta has got to stop doing this…"

"That and Cecilia saw the whole thing." Raguna gave Zavier a confused look on his face. "Why are you looking at me like that?" with a confused face himself none the less, but he continued, "How do you even feel about her?"

"I mean, she saved me… at first I thought it was just that, she saved me and I guess I kinda felt guilty for taking her farm, even though she insisted. But then we hung out on the farm a lot, she taught me how to be a better farmer, she helped me out sometimes and she really became a really close friend to me, and I think…" Raguna stopped because he was starting to feel uncomfortable… he didn't know why, he thought that he was just tired.

"I guess then that makes me your rival for Mist's heart."

"What? But we shouldn't make this into some sort of competition! I mean, not that I like her like that…"

"It's not a competition, but I will win her over with my skill…"

"Doesn't that make you seem like those macho guys that a lot of girls hate?"

"No because I have the skill to back it up. Besides, I really like her, for a long time." Raguna widened his eyes when he said this and then closed his eyes as if he didn't want to hear what he just said.

"He really feels that strongly about Mist… I shouldn't be this way, I should be fine that he likes her… besides, I don't like her like that, right? But then… why am I in pain, why do I feel like crying… how do I really feel about Mist…" There was something he didn't want to admit to Zavier or to himself, or maybe he wasn't aware of it at the time. But no matter how many ways he denied it or tried to ignore it, the truth was, he was feeling somewhat jealous.

The next day (which would be today chronologically), Raguna woke up from his sleeping bag only to find a note where Zavier was sleeping.

Dear Raguna,

If you found this letter, that most likely means that I'm not here any more. I woke up earlier than you so I decided to take a quick look around the area. It still clear of monsters but then I took another look around and heard this loud roaring sound coming from the next basement floor. It sounded like some sort of large beast was down there. So I decided to cut my losses here and go back to the town, I obviously want some of my mother's delicious food. So I left, if I were you, I would run too, but you'll probably want to search for the ores and stuff in here. Oh and I also taken the liberty of replacing your empty potion bottles with my full potion bottles.

Later,

Zavier

"You know, you could have just said, 'I'm a wuss and I left' and not make me read this thing…" Raguna said. He was a bit irritated that Zavier left him in a cave to fend off the remaining monsters. But one thing did intrigue him a little. "But what was with that loud roar that Zavier mentioned? It shouldn't be anything bad right?" Unfortunately his luck, is a lot worse than his cooking. But he decided to go though the rest of the cave and see what was this beast he was referring to, or did Zavier try to find some sort of stupid excuse to leave. Unfortunately Zavier's letter was right; Raguna heard this loud beast like roar. Unlike Zavier, Raguna wanted to figure out what that was so he decided to decend to the next underground level. There he found many more monsters wishing Zavier was here to help him.

Eventually he got to the end of the cave to find a sealed door disappear before his eye opening up to a large dark hallway. Another loud roar shook the caves a little bit. But Raguna caught attention to the roar itself. "Something feels weird about that roar… its as if something's wrong with it…" So he decided to run into that hallway to see what is inside it, only to be followed by someone with a backpack full of magic books.

When he got inside he was awe struck at what he sees before him.

"No way, is that a Greater Demon?" He was somewhat surprised that he remembered that but is even more surprised at who and how did they even summon a Greater Demon here. But then Raguna noticed something. "It looks like its in pain… I guess then I have to take it out and send it back." And so Raguna decided to charge the Greater Demon. He was able to slash the Greater Demon a couple times but Raguna discovered that this thing was tougher than all of the other monsters he had fought. Unfortunately, he found out its strength as well and Raguna was swatted to the wall. The Greater Demon started to come towards Raguna and proceeded to punch him some more. And then he heard some incantations.

"Droplets of the air collide into one and shoot your water into a stream. Water Laser!" a pressurized water stream shot out of the hallway leading to this area knocking the Greater Demon away from Raguna.

"Who… is that?" Raguna asked. And then a person walked into the room and to his surprise… "Mist? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing… I didn't see you on the farm, so I realized that you were in the caves. Although along the way I noticed that Zavier was lost so I helped him get out." Mist noticed a couple things. Some of his clothes were torn and most importantly, she saw some blood stains on his clothes and in some places where he was cut. She ran towards him to hopefully help his wounds. "Are you okay? Where are your potions?"

"Well… I didn't think I would be fighting this thing so I used them up already."

"Here take mine." She helped him drink up the potion and was able to heal some of his wounds. But the Greater Demon started to attack again. This time Raguna was able to fight a lot better than he was originally. That is until he mad it go berserk.

"Hey Mist, what's going on?"

"I think it's going berserk… watch out!" The Greater Demon started to swing its arms everywhere and ram into walls. Then it started to charge Raguna but he was able dodge the attack. But he failed to notice that Mist was in the way of that attack. Mist noticed this and started to run but got tripped by the falling debris. She got up and tried to run again but it was too late. She felt paralyzed by the Greater Demon charging at her but then she got pulled away by Raguna and the next thing she saw was Raguna getting crushed by the Greater Demon. She was in complete shock but she calmed down enough to cast Aqua Laser again. She knew that if she just keeps casting her spells, eventually the Greater Demon will get her too. So she ran to Raguna in order to help her with one more spell to cast the Greater Demon away.

"Raguna… will you help me cast something?"

"Why? Can you not cast anymore?"

"No, I can possibly make this spell stronger but you need to cast the spell at the same time I do."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, but we have to hurry." She pulled out a different spell book and opened it to prepare for the spell, "here just read this line to chant the spell"

The two of them began to read the incantation for the spell, but the Greater Demon started to charge at the both of them, "Ignite the flames and become the spheres of destruction, Fireball!" Immediately several fireballs struck down the Greater Demon and like Mist said, these fireballs had more impact than normal ones. But these flames also pushed back Raguna and Mist to the wall. Luckily the Greater Demon disappeared and they were able to finally rest from that experience.

"Is it gone?" Raguna weakly said.

"Yeah, we beat it, it's gone back to the first forest."

"That's good…" Raguna slowly closed his eyes and ended up laying on her lap

"Raguna? Are you okay?" Mist said as she started to shake him. "Raguna? This isn't funny…" This caused her to shake more vigorously. She lifted him and sat him up and started to yell his name repeatedly. She took a good look at him and she noticed all of the blood on him. "Raguna! Wake up! Please! Wake Up!" She realized now what had happened and started to cry, "Raguna don't leave me! Raguna! RAGUNA!!"