Chapter 4

Tea, Amnesia and Letters

The Harvest God did not take what I said very well. At first there was the shock of the realization, and I must say that it was quite unsettling to see someone who had only hours ago been one of the most powerful deities of nature have to deal with such a realization. After the shock had worn away, he reverted to anger, attempting to throw a chair at a window at one point, but luckily he only managed to lift the chair slightly off the ground before he realized that his godlike strength had left him. Afterwards, he'd turned in my direction. By this time he was half fuming mad and half scared out of his mind. He grabbed the front of my coat and dragged me into his face. I heard Penelope let out a concerned yelp behind me, but I was not about to be scared by the god.

"What did you do to me Wizard?!"

"I've told you already. You're mortal. But I had nothing to do with making you that way. You startled the Witch and she dropped a bottle containing the spell that made you this way." I said as firmly as I could. He still hadn't let go of me.

"What business did she have tampering with spells that powerful?! Why didn't you stop her before she went making things like that!?!!"

"I tried to! Believe me! …now if you could kindly let go of my coat, I would be glad to help set this all right again. Your situation isn't completely hopeless."

At that simple realization, the god's expression softened and he quietly let go of me. He still looked stern, but at least he wasn't as scary as he had been only moments before. Now he was willing to talk like a sensible man. And that was precisely what we did.

"What can you do Wizard?" he asked simply.

"Let's not converse here. You seem to be feeling much better now. We should go to my home. We can discuss this all over coffee…"

"I prefer tea."

"Very well then. We'll brew some tea as well. Point being that we ought to talk in a more private location. From what I've been able to gather, the village doesn't know who you are, and it would be simplest if we didn't have to explain it to them."

"I agree," he said almost immediately afterwards.

Later on, he told me his main reason for agreeing with me here was that, frankly, he was quite embarrassed of this incident and wanted as few people to know of it as possible. This was how things operated from then on, and it came to complicate things later down the road.

Before leaving, we had to convince Doctor Jin that our new mortal friend was indeed feeling well enough to go. It was indeed an awkward situation because it was then that I had to lie on the spot in order to hide the fact that this was the real Harvest God. Really if we had tried to tell the truth, I'm pretty sure that Jin wouldn't have believed us. He was more the type to be skeptical when it came to amazing things like this. Sure he believed in the Harvest Goddess like everyone else in Castanet did, but only because so many people had gone to the Goddess Spring and seen her with their own eyes.

"Just who is this man? How do you know him Sir?" he asked me first.

"I've never met him before yesterday night," I lied, "The Witch and I found him on the mountaintop. We don't know why he was there and frankly neither does he. There was an accident that's a bit hard to explain and he must have somehow hit his head against a rock because this poor man has amnesia. Why he can't even remember his own name."

"Amnesia you say?" Jin looked quite intrigued. "I remember studying amnesiacs in medical school. It's a terrible thing when the brain gets bruised in that way. You must bring him here again if his amnesia hasn't been cured after a few weeks. If the injury is mild, his memories should come back on their own with time."

"Alright Doctor Jin. You know best." I said. At one point I glanced back at the Harvest God, and I could see clearly on his face that he didn't like the idea of playing the part of a poor clueless amnesiac. But he was just going to have to deal with that. "My wife and I figure that since I was partially involved with what happened to him, we should take him in until he's able to remember on his own like you said."

And with that we began to head home. It was late afternoon outside and suddenly I realized that we all had been unconscious for quite some time. Penelope informed me that the children were at home being babysat by Finn. Personally I considered him and most of the other harvest sprites as a sort of child too, but his wife was very close friends with Finn, enough so that she trusted him with looking after the children. I however was a bit worried about it.

The Harvest God was following us rather silently most of the way, which made me feel uneasy at times. He got quite a few stares and strangle looks as we passed through the town, probably to do with how he was dressed and simply that he was new to the village in a sense. But once we had crossed the bridge leading towards Dulcimer Farm, he finally decided to start asking questions.

"How long will it take you to undo this spell, Wizard?" he asked me sternly.

"I'm not sure honestly." I told him, "Before next new-years I hope…"

"Don't kid around with me! I'm serious! Will this take a day? A week? A season? How long will I have to remain in this feeble dying body?"

"You aren't dying…"

"Yes I am. All mortals are. It's a very slow sort of dying but it's dying nonetheless. I feel it in my flesh constantly now that my power is gone…"

At this, my wife let out a slight chuckle, "Harvest God, you're way too dramatic. You ought to have more faith in my husband. If he says he'll fix something then he'll fix something. He's never let me down before."

This succeeded in both cheering me up and burdening me at the same time. I was glad to know that my wife had so much faith in me, but I also felt compelled to not betray that confidence she had in me.

"Oh look! We have mail…" Penelope suddenly announced as we neared our home.

While she had scurried off to go check the mail, I turned in the Harvest God's direction, "I honestly can't say how long this will take, but I wasn't kidding when I said I hope to fix this before next new-years. If it isn't set right again before then, I'm afraid the change will become permanent."

The god's face went white with terror for a moment, but he shook it off, trying to keep his composure from now on.

"But that's a year from now. Surely you'll be able to set things right by then."

I nodded, "I don't see why I wouldn't be able to. Now why don't we make that tea and coffee we talked about earlier…"

And so we began to head towards the door, but just before we were able to, Penelope suddenly approached me. She had a concerned look on her face, and was now handing me a letter that had come in the mail. Curious, I was quick to look upon its unfolded contents. The letter read like so…

Dear Penelope,

It's me. Your little sister Alice. I know it's been a long time but I'm afraid I'm in a bit of a bad situation. You see, I had a job in the city up until now, but there we cut backs and I was laid off. I have nowhere else to go, and you once told me that if I ever needed you that all I had to do was come to your doorstep. Well I definitely need you right now.

I was thinking that maybe I could help on your farm until I get back up on my feet. I've never worked on a farm, but you've been at it for a while so I guess you could probably teach me anything I need to know. Plus I hear you're married with kids now. I can't wait to see my niece and nephew.

I'll be in Castanet by Spring 2nd. See you then Big Sis.

Love,

Alice

(( A/N: And so the name Alice won by rather overwhelming majority. Thank you for voting, those of you who voted.))