Clang!

Clang!

The raven haired woman stepped back from her work and sighed. Still not good enough. She was nothing if not her own worst critic and her eyes scoured the metal with an expert eye, picking out every dent and scratch.

It was a cool day in spring but the house proved to be sweltering hot after a particularly long session with the forge. Iroha, the newest addition to the village and blacksmith-in-training dowsed the flames and wiped at her forehead before collapsing onto her couch.

She smelt like earth and metal but at this point was quite used to it.

It was only a couple days earlier that she had wandered into the place known as Echo village in search of the mines and through some inexplicable coincidence, the only empty house for her to stay in was a forge. After discovering this, she had decided to stay for good.

The village was impossibly small and quiet but charming in its own way. The residents were nice and there was even a girl her own age- a farmer no less, someone who also worked with the land. No doubt they became friends almost immediately.

At that moment said farmer stalked into the forge.

Iroha glanced up without much surprise and tossed Rio one of the sofa's decorative cushions.

The blonde caught it swiftly with one hand and promptly buried her face into it letting out a short and muffled scream.

"What did he say this time?" Iroha asked tiredly and Rio already couldn't help but feel soothed by the foreign woman's calm voice slight eastern accent.

"Well, I guess it was nothing now that I think about it." She sighed. "We just got into another argument." It had been but a week since Neil had come into town and the pair had been at each other's throats at every meeting- and in a town of six people they ran into each other a lot. So this was not an unusual encounter for Iroha. "I think I'd feel better if he got as worked up as I do though." The farmer sighed, "His tone stays low and cold and I just feel like I made a total fool out of myself when all is said and done."

The blacksmith sighed before shuffling over to accommodate room for Rio to plop down next to her. "You know," She started, "You two really need to do something about all this."

Rio studied her new friend. Iroha was calm, hard-working and reasonable and it was because of this that the farmer learned early on that when she had advice, it was a good idea to listen.

"What do you mean?" Rio asked.

"There's only six people in the village. So if two of them are always bickering, it greatly disrupts the peace." She explained.

Rio twirled the ends of her hair. "You're right… I should find a way to get us to a better place. I keep meaning to but each time I approach him no matter what my intentions are- it ends badly. I could always just stop talking to him." She suggested.

"That's not the best solution." Iroha sighed. "If you two do that, your hostility will never lessen and it's still an uncomfortable situation for the rest of us."

"That's true…" Rio agreed regretfully. "I'll try to think of something! It's hard though, I swear I'm not this confrontational of a person, at least I didn't think I was, he just always seems to get under my skin more than anyone I've ever met before."

"I can tell." The dark haired women assured her comfortingly, "and so I'm sure you two will be able to get along soon."

Rio was about to respond but stopped as she noticed some commotion outside the window. "I think somethings going on." She said and they both stood to glance outside.

A woman and a boy they had never seen before were talking to Dunhill. "Should we check it out?" Asked Rio. Iroha nodded and they headed out the forge and to the trio. Hana and Emma must have seen from their houses too and had the same idea.

"What's all this?" Asked the old woman.

"This is Rebecca and her son Toni." Dunhill introduced. "It's a good thing you're all here actually we have a bit of a problem. These two intend to move into town but we have nowhere to house them."

"Oh dear." Said Emma.

"Luckily Rebecca here is an architect so she's got the blue prints all sorted out for her studio. I was thinking maybe we could all help collect materials." Dunhill suggested and everyone quickly agreed.

"That's a great idea! I'll just go get Neil and we can all head out now!" Emma grinned. The thought of two new villagers was enough to get everyone up in spirits- considering the inn-keeper and his son left right before Rio's arrival, this was the first time in quite a while that there was an actual increasing number of residents.

After Neil was collected Dunhill lead them all out to the river area and the villagers quickly dispersed in search of wood and stone.

Rio shivered once from the cool, moist spring air, pulling at the thin sleeves of her white shirt. Iroha smiled at her. "I've been assigned to turn the raw materials you all find into something useable so I can't collect with you."

Rio smiled apologetically, "Sounds like they've given you the toughest job."

The Japanese woman smiled, "Actually I'd say you do."

"What do you mean?" Asked the farmer.

"Don't you think this is the perfect time to set things right with Neil?" Iroha asked.

Rio paled but ultimately nodded. "You're right… ug, how many times have I said that today, you're always right. I'll try ok? No promises that I'll succeed though."

She collected sticks and stones as she searched out the dealer. Finally she spotted him next to the Goddess pond.

His lone figure stood before the sparkling water and she looked away- despite everything he still was ridiculously good-looking. It wasn't fair that he had such a rotten personality to go with it, when he was alone like that and he allowed his face to drop to neutral, she was reminded that he was indeed the boy from the coffee shop.

He bent down to inspect a fallen branch and she took this opportunity to approach, feeling safer when he was lower than her.

"Hey." She said in a friendly tone, trying to start off their conversation no differently than how she'd talk to Iroha or the other villagers.

For a moment he almost looked surprised by this lack of hostility. "What?" He asked, "Shouldn't you be searching for stuff too?"

"I was," She defended, "Am." She corrected.

"Well then what do you want Rio? I'm not in the mood to fight with you today." He told her and then stood after packing the stick away.

She grimaced. "Listen… I don't want to fight with you anymore either, its exhausting. I really hate this new side of me that's been showing through recently."

He didn't respond and she bit her lip, "What I'm trying to do is fix this messed up thing we've got going on here."

He sighed, "Couldn't you think of a better time?"

"Let's play a game." She said suddenly and the look he gave her was unfathomable. "Who can collect more materials?" She continued.

"What's the incentive?" He asked, surprising her. She had expected him to turn her down, so she hadn't thought that far into the rules of the game.

"Hmm. How about the loser has to do something the winner tells them to." She proposed.

"Fine." Neil agreed, surprising her yet again.

She nodded, "Alright then… So we're really doing this. Ok."

"Better get a move on farmer." He said gruffly, shaking his pack, "It seems I've already got the lead."

She froze, she was just trying to think of something to bring them closer but she hadn't actually had time to consider the consequence of what would happen if she lost. Most likely he'd just tell her to leave him alone unless she needed to buy something from him but she didn't know him well enough to be sure. He was unpredictable, and he hated her.

She quickly dashed off, now desperate to win. As a botanist she did have some advantages, for example, she recognized a very rare type of mushroom when she first came. It was poisonous to eat but had another special feature, it was springy and shockingly sturdy.

She could easily jump off them and reach areas of the forest the rest of the villagers couldn't. By accessing these hidden areas she managed to collect a lot of sticks and rocks that hadn't been picked over.

At the end of the day She ended up heading to Iroha at the exact same time as Neil. He dumped his pile and she dumped hers and the winner was clear without even a need to count.

"I think it's safe to say I won." She said slyly.

He grimaced and just for a moment she thought she might have seen a flash of fear in his eyes. He was probably realizing all of the things she could make him do just as she had considered before.

"So what do you want from me?" He asked dryly.

She paused. She hadn't really considered what she'd ask if she won, she was too busy worrying about what he'd ask. "Hmm I don't know…Why don't you just help me out on the farm tomorrow? You're not working then so…"

"Done." He said quickly before she could change her mind and began to stalk off.

"six thirty tomorrow!" She called out after him and he nodded.

Iroha watched the exchange and nodded. "Good job." She told Rio, "That was probably the first time it didn't end with you screaming bloody murder at him."

Rio sighed, "That's probably only because he wasn't in the mood today."

"Well now you have tomorrow too to make him respect you." Iroha pointed out.

Rio sighed, "I just hope I don't regret this."

There was a clap on the back of her shoulder and Rio jumped. "Rio, just the girl I was looking for!" Dunhill beamed.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Well," Started the mayor, "We've got all the materials together now but we still need someone to build the house and I believe that person's you!"

"Me?!" She asked in wonder.

"I used to get all sorts of letters from your parents! Apparently you're quite the jack-of-all trades! I'm expecting a lot of great things from you! I also hear you breezed through wood shop!" He told her.

She felt sick, building a house was just too much. At the same time Rio Gold's one fatal flaw was her complete inability to let other's down so when she began to decline and Dunhill's face fell she quickly agreed before she even knew what she was doing.

He grinned widely and she vaguely registered another pat on the back, a couple smiles from different residents and then she was standing alone beside the river with a blueprint in her hand,

She sighed deeply and finally began to move, if she wanted to get done in time she'd need to start now.


Yup, boring transitional chapter I know, sorry. At this point onwards I'll be straying more from the actual game play events- I just felt I needed them to start out. I'm DEFINITELY not giving every character such a long introduction.

I don't know if I'll keep doing individual responses to reviews. They take a lot of time and for the most part, people tend to say the same sort of thing so it's sometimes really hard coming up with different responses. Plus after like twenty collective chapters of this in this story and the other I feel like my responses are kind of getting automated anyway. Maybe I'll just give a general response... I feel bad though, I like to write them to show you guys how much I appreciate you taking time to reveiw- :( sorry

To everyone- Thank you so much! *spreads love all over the place* Ug, you guys are awesome!