DISCLAIMER: ALL HARVEST MOON products belong to Natsume, Inc.

CHARACTERS: Some Harvest Moon (even RF series) mixed together!

Warning: Alternative Universe.

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~ 8 ~

Sacrifice

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Claire, Gray, and Dirk were sitting in a circle, facing each other inside an empty abandoned cafe. Dirk took out some drinks from the cabinet casually, as if it was his own cafe. He gave his niece a can of grape juice and a bottle of wine for Gray and himself.

"Gray, actually I don't want to tell you about this. But because of what you said earlier about your late mother... I think you have the right to know."

Gray nodded slightly. His stoic face which barely showed any emotion made Dirk let out a chuckle before starting the serious explanation.

"Those monsters do not belong to this world. They crossed through the dimensional gates from The Rune Factory World. The gates never existed before this. But lately, the gates were formed because of dimensional cracks," Dirk explained. This explanation made Gray frown causing his forehead to wrinkle.

"The Rune Factory World? What's that?"

Dirk drank his wine before answering, "Another dimension aside from The Harvest Moon World we're living in. A fantasy world where monsters are roaming free and every soul is blessed with magic to protect themselves. You know that Zephyr and Castanet were once at war, right?"

"Yes, I know. Since then a huge earthquake hit Zephyr, the town has now become a ghost town. Completely ruined in despair without a single ruler," Gray told what he knew. He began to feel discomfort on his neck because his brain was itching as he tried to guess what had happened.

"The Zephyr rulers back then thought that they could harness the power of Rune Factory to win the long-lasting war against their eternal-rival, Castanet. They performed a forbidden ritual magic to summon The Rune Factory's God, The Blue Dragon. In short, their plan didn't work well, and it disturbed the stability of both dimensions. As a result you can see the dimensional cracks have appeared here and there and are causing the monsters to keep coming into the Harvest Moon World," Dirk ended his long explanation.

Gray was silent for a moment, thinking deeply. He saw through Dirk's golden eyes and ensured his assumptions.

"Then my mother came from Rune Factory?"

Dirk nodded without a single doubt, "Yes."

"Well, that explains a lot," Gray said, leaning back on his chair.

"Yeah?" Dirk smiled slightly as he took a glance at Gray. Meanwhile, Claire's eyes were looking at Gray in worried anticipation.

"Since I was a kid, my physical ability had always been beyond normal. Some people even called me 'monster'. I grew to hate magic and such," he explained.

"That's why you refuse to be healed by my blood?" she asked, still wearing her worried expression.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Claire, I guess I was too harsh on you that day," Gray apologized as he slightly bowed to Claire.

Claire shook her head several times, "It's okay, I understand."

Gray smiled. For the third time she saw his smile. Because he rarely showed any expression, unconsciously she was always looking forward for it. His smile was very sweet in her eyes, though it still looked a bit sad.

"So, do you also have a connection to Rune Factory?" Gray asked Claire.

"Yeah. It's a very deep connection. You know, I ..."

Claire's statement was interrupted by a hard bang on the table. Nobody would expect it was Dirk with a big smile on his lips that sent a big blow to the poor table. "Okay, that's enough! Now your curiosity is fulfilled, it's time to say goodbye, Gray!" Dirk exclaimed. He grabbed his niece's hand and walked out of the cafe. While Dirk pulled her arbitrarily, Claire turned to look back at Gray's face.

Gray did not stop them. He was only sitting still with his eyes slightly widened in surprise because of Dirk's sudden action.

"We can't just leave him alone!" Claire tried to stop Dirk by pulling back.

"It's better for him," said Dirk coldly, ignoring Claire's objection.

"We haven't told him the most important thing ..."

"Let him be. He doesn't need to know," Dirk refused to listen to her.

"How could you say that, Uncle? He needs to know..." this time Claire pleaded with all her might, but Dirk decided not to stop. He kept walking, ignoring his niece's pleading. Frustrated, Claire eventually forced her hand from her uncle's.

"He must know that he will disappear, just like me, when I arrived to Zephyr!" Claire cried hysterically. She blew up. Rising up against her uncle seemed to drain more courage and energy than she could imagine. She was breathless.

Dirk sighed, trying to keep his calmness upon Claire's emotions.

"And then? What if he knows? Are you going to stop and cancel your mission?" Dirk asked with a sharp gaze right on his eyes. The gaze and the question were hurting her heart. She was so hurt that she could only turn her face down.

"No..." she replied weakly.

In contrast to his sharp gaze, Dirk's heart was not as sharp. He was skeptical about many things. He just tried to stay strong and focus on their mission...

Dirk bent down slightly, aligning his eyes at the same level with his niece and said softly, "Claire. You know that I love you, don't you?"

Claire nodded.

"I know. You don't want me to do this, but we have to do it. I have to give back the blood that I've borrowed from the Blue Dragon of the Rune Factory..." Claire repeated what she had said when she was told by Konohana's major about the mission.

Dirk smiled. A very faint smile, actually, because the smile seemed very sad.

"And then, everything will be on the right place, just like it has to be... me, and all things associated with the Rune Factory are going to disappear..." she continued.

Dirk tried to raise a smile, but he couldn't afford it. Only some words came out of his mouth after that... "I'm sorry, Claire..."

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~ 000 ~

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Gray could not believe what he had heard. He intended to chase after them, even though he himself didn't know why exactly he did it. But...

I'm going to disappear?

Claire will disappear?

What kind of mission is she bearing?

Borrowed… blood?

Aaah... I don't understand any single word they said...

But...

Disappear?

It means… just like those monsters...?

Just like my mother?

Gray's head felt hot because he couldn't guess or speculate about anything. But his confusion didn't last long. A scream from the distance made Gray, Dirk, and Claire activate their alert mode. They were reflexively running towards the source of that scream. Sure enough, once again the monsters appeared. This time the monster was in human form, with two hands and two legs, just like the one Gray defeated in Forget-Me-Not Valley. But this one had a stout-body and was holding an axe as a weapon. The monster cornered two kids in front of him.

Dirk's huge hammer popped up and he attacked the monster without wasting a second. Even though the monster seemed to be strong, Dirk's hammer broke it easily. Soon, its body was dissolving into turquoise lights that flew to the sky.

"What are you doing here? I thought everyone had already evacuated to the west?" Dirk asked with an unfriendly tone that caused the two children to become frightened and cry.

Claire tried to calm the kids, and finally one of them told her what happened. Both of them were siblings, and they used to live in this area. Their mother was sick and they wanted to take the remaining medicines which was left in their house.

"You cannot do that without telling adults. Haven't they told you that monsters may attack you anytime, anywhere?" Dirk scolded them.

The brother wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and said innocently, "but aren't there guards on patrol?"

Dirk laughed cynically. His talkative and motherly habits tended to show up when he was with children. "Listen, even in this town, we don't have enough guards to protect every corner. If I hadn't happened to be here, you'd both be dead meats. What do you think your sick mother would say if she lost her two lights?"

Claire chuckled from hearing her uncle's scolding and lecture. Dirk was getting angry easily; he liked preaching to people, and had a high sense of justice. She remembered the time when she was a lot younger. Her uncle indeed scolded her a lot. For Claire, who was growing up without parents, Dirk was a father, mother, and brother at the same time. All this time, that beloved uncle of hers was always thinking about her happiness. She was very thankful for that. So it was her turn to think about his happiness. For the sake of all the living beings in this world, Claire had to complete an important mission. Even if it meant she had to sacrifice her own life.

"Uncle, you have to stay here. This town needs you," Claire said, smiling. She looked at Gray who had silently witnessed the incident. "I'll go with Gray," she said without a single doubt.

Gray was still motionless because of the shocking conversation he had just heard. She didn't know that he had overheard her conversation. But following his instincts, Gray planned to continue his journey with Claire. No matter what kind of mission she was bearing.

"It's okay. I'll take her to Zephyr safely," Gray guaranteed with his usual flat face. It had never been easy for Dirk to let go of Claire, either this time or the very first time they started the mission. Back then he could hold himself because he couldn't disobey the orders from Sheng and the elders. But this time he had to hand over his beloved niece to someone he barely knew. He couldn't help but wonder if everything was really a fate from the Harvest Goddess.

Actually, Dirk wanted to go to Zephyr so bad. Aside from accompanying Claire, it was his hometown. Yes, his hometown. But just like what Reina had said, he was bearing a mission from Sheng to 'reduce the number of casualties as much as possible until the crack between the two worlds could be closed'. As a resident of the only village blessed with magic, and the one who was blessed with magic abilities, it was his duty to protect the common folks. Maybe that was why Sheng told him and Reina to completely hand over the closing gate mission to Claire...

After thinking carefully, Dirk finally approved Claire's request reluctantly.

"Take care of her," Dirk messaged when they were going to separate. "And when the time comes... I beg you not to hamper whatever she's going to conduct," Dirk said in a bit of a threatening tone. Gray just responded with a slight nod, pretending not to know about their mission.

"Please do not worry, Sir. I've been to Zephyr before," Gray tried to gain his trust.

"See? I'll be fine. Gray's a nice person!" Claire was still trying to convince her uncle. Dirk smiled, and then turned back his gaze on Gray with his threatening eyes.

"You men and women traveling alone, but don't you ever think to do anything funny to her," Dirk sent a death glare to Gray.

"U, Uncle!" Claire protested with her cheeks flushed. His uncle was always over protective of her, and sometimes it was just too much.

Gray snorted.

"I can't guarantee it. Nobody could handle what's down there," Gray said something ambiguous and a bit vulgar. It made the uncle-niece pair lose their composure. Especially Dirk, his face was red with embarrassment and anger.

"You! Filthy hunter..."

"Come on," Gray cut Dirk anger and walked towards his horse which was tied up in front of a house. Gray looked at Dirk who was saying his farewell to his niece with a hug. But instead of saying 'see you again', they said 'goodbye'.

~ 000 ~

Gray was riding the brown horse through the autumn winds along the path of the Flower Bud Forest. He decided not to enter Castanet and took a long way route through the forest path instead. Although normally passing through a town was better, Gray worried the situation there would be the same as in Flower Bud. After a long ride for hours, Gray felt Claire's hold on his waist were weakening. He halted the horse and looked at Claire who looked sleepy.

"Let's rest and grab something to eat?" Gray offered. Claire nodded.

As they were in the forest far away from residential area, hunting was the only option if they wanted to eat meat. Fortunately, they had bought food supplies from Flower Bud. At least they had breads, cheese, and jerked meat.

They made a fire to warm themselves. Claire was waiting by the fire while Gray went to the river to fill their water supply. Gray arrived shortly thereafter.

"Wow, you caught some fish!" Claire exclaimed when she saw Gray carrying four medium sized fish, enough for both of them.

"Better than bread, right?" said Gray proudly.

Claire took the fish and began to stick thin woods through its mouth. She embedded the stick on the ground, positioning it so that the fish would be cooked without being too burnt.

Gray and Claire sat by the fire while waiting their dinner. The night was very quiet and cold. The silence was shattered when Claire called out Gray's name. He was sitting on the opposite side from Claire.

"Gray,"

"Hm?"

"You can ask anything, I'll answer it now," Claire said. She was hugging her knees and covering her whole body in a brown blanket. Gray could only see a half of her face.

Gray looked up at her, trying to read her expression. It was a guilty face. And Gray could guess the reason she made such an expression: because her mission –whatever it was, would sacrifice not only her life, but also Gray's life.

"The knife you gave to me... is it yours?" Gray asked. Claire was surprised by the ordinary question which had absolutely nothing to do with the monsters or herself.

Claire smiled slightly, "it belonged to my late father."

Gray nodded. That's all. Claire was waiting for him to speak, but he didn't even talk. Feeling restless, she finally popped up her head out of the blanket and staring at his eyes in a jittery manner.

"Will you listen to my story?" Claire asked. Gray raised his eyebrows, a little surprised. He did not intend to interrogate her, but apparently it was she herself who wanted to tell everything.

"Are you sure?" Gray asked.

Claire scowled at him, "because you're not going to ask!"

Gray was a little surprised to see Claire's sulking. So far he had only seen her cheerful and sad face.

It was kinda cute and made him draw a smile on his lips.

"Just tell me. I'll listen," Gray said, still smiling. The smile somehow made her face get warmer.

"There's something different about you," Claire pointed out.

"Ha?"

"You smile a lot. This afternoon you even threw a joke to my uncle. Moreover, it was a vulgar one," said Claire, making Gray's face a little flushed.

Gray realized it. Unintentionally, he started to do things he had never done since Cliff's death. Somehow it felt natural to be with Claire. He didn't know why, but he felt comfortable with her.

"Is there any reason? I'm not a statue. I can smile, too," Gray tried to elude. Claire smiled. She looked up at the stars scattered on the sky and retold the stories her uncle once told her: about herself, the Rune Factory, and the battle of Zephyr and Castanet.

~ 000 ~

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(to be continued…)

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A/N:

Heyaa! Thank you for the review, Fre! And as always, thank you for your help, Mnemah-san! xD

Yep, the romance's pace in this story is kinda slow… I think I was influenced by Ghibli's stories, where the romance just flows slowly like that, and unknowingly, they're already acting like they're in love with each other. Thought my other stories are mostly focused on romance, this HALRRH is focused on its fantasy-adventure. Maybe, later, if I've finished this, I'll publish my other romantic HM fanfic in English.

Okaay, see you later! Thanks for reading~