This is my last chapter for now, unless I get any messages from people wanting to hear the rest of it XD Comments are greatly appreciated!

As Lillian put the finishing touches on her pie, she checked the clock. With just enough time to spare, she threw on her newest outfit, a baby blue dress with a cream colored smock. A matching bandanna tied in her hair, she put the pie carefully in a basket and got on her pony, guiding it gently as it trotted on the mountain path. At the top of the mountain, right before the peak, was a huge gate which had been decorated for the occasion. Below the banner claiming, "Cooking Festival!" stood Ina and Rutger. The two of them were careful to avoid eye contact, although as Lillian approached them they both turned to her with big smiles. "Welcome to the festival!" proclaimed Rutger, while Ina nodded on. "Today is the day we prove that OUR town is better than THAT town because we have better food!" Rutger continued cheerfully, ignoring the glare of hatred from Ina. Lillian shot an apologetic look in her direction, then held up her pie. "I brought something to enter, Rutger." The delicious smell that wafted from the pie had all the other townspeople passing in stop to smell the aroma. With a look of delight, Rutger carefully took the pie and bowed Lillian into the festival grounds.

Standing awkwardly in the crowd, Lillian didn't know where to go until she was grabbed by surprise at the waist. Gasping, she turned and saw Cheryl smiling up at her impishly. "Heya, Lilly! Are you entering?" The little girl asked curiously, her pigtails swaying as a breeze blew past. Lillian smiled down at her and patted her on the head. "You bet I am!" she replied, winking at Cheryl. Ash's voice rang through the crowd, interrupting the girls. "Cheryl! Cheryl where are you?" Upon seeing his sister clinging to Lillian, Ash halted for a moment, then headed casually towards them. "Oh, hey Lilly, what's up?" he asked, trying hard to come off as cool. Cheryl, happy as ever to see her favorite person, immediately let go of Lillian and grabbed her brother instead, clinging to him and ruining his image of 'cool'. "Ash, Ash, guess what!" the little girl giggled, and her brother lifted her up onto his shoulders. "Yeah, Cheryl?" he asked, smiling at Lillian and wishing that his sister wouldn't always cling to him. Cheryl giggled again, unaware of the look her brother was shooting at Lillian. "Lilly's entering the contest! Now we're definitely gonna win!" When Ash gave Lillian a surprised look, she smiled bashfully and scuffed her feet. "It's nothing really, I just figured that I finally had some time and since I like cooking and all…" letting her sentence trail off she smiled at Ash. To her surprise, he grabbed both her hands with his and looked her in the eyes, his whole face lit up with delight. "I bet you'll win! I bet you're the best cook this town has ever seen! I'd really like to eat some of your cooking sometime…" Suddenly Ash realized that he was still holding her hands, and his face turned beet red. "Um…" he trailed off, somehow not wanting to let go. Lillian looked at him curiously, and he finally dropped her hands. "Yeah. Well uh, good luck!" Quickly, Ash ran off with Cheryl on his shoulders. Cheryl looked back and saw a blushing Lillian. She frowned.

Lillian was appalled at the way the festivities went after that. The Konohana townspeople were cold but friendly towards the Bluebell residents, and the Bluebell residents were the exact same way. The worst was the way Ina and Rutger fought however. While Lillian waited with the other entrants to walk up to where the gourmet was, she winced at the way the two mayors were throwing insults at each other and not even bothering to really announce much of anything to the crowd. The end of the festival was the worst by far however, for when the gourmet announced that Team Bluebell had won, Lillian watched Rutger gloat to Ina, and then saunter off. Most of the Bluebell residents weren't as terrible, but the animosity was still apparent in the air.

On the way back, Cam caught up to her and walked alongside her pony. He noticed that she was down, and in an attempt to cheer her up, asked her if she wanted to hang out with him before going home. The two talked for hours about many things before she finally explained why she'd been so upset before. "Cam, I just don't understand it." She said as the two of them sat by the stream. Cam looked over and saw that she had her knees pulled up to her chest, and was staring sadly at the water as she watched the fish play. Unsure of how to comfort her, he pulled at his cap nervously and looked at the water himself. "You mean this whole feud between Bluebell and Konohana, right?" he confirmed. When she nodded, he gave a long sigh of remorse. "Well, I don't understand much myself, to be honest. I mean, I lived here as a child and then left for a bit, and came back and they were still fighting. They've always been fighting." At this revelation, Lillian looked up curiously. "You left Bluebell? Where'd you go?" Staring into the distance, Cam said, "I wanted to explore the world and find out more about flowers and cultivate my skills. At least, that's the story I gave Ash, and Laney, and anyone else who asked me that two years ago when I left. Truth is," Cam continued, surprised that he was able to talk to her so easily, "I've never understood any of this fighting and I've always hated it especially after it destroyed my family. That's why I left-to get away from all of it." Lillian, watching him quietly, sat up and said gently, "But you came back." Cam looked at her, and for the first time he was actually looking her in the eye as he said ruefully, "What choice did I have? This is all of I've got left." Realizing that he'd said something far too serious, he pulled his hat over his face to cover up his expression but Lillian grabbed his hand and to his surprise yanked his hat off his head. He found himself looking directly into her eyes again, and felt her soft hands reach around him. The next thing he knew she had pulled his head into her lap and she was holding him tightly. "It's okay," he heard her whisper, and he could feel her whole body shaking. "It's okay, Cam. You don't have to tell me everything. I don't want to see you make that face." Pulling free, he looked up at her and saw that she was crying. "Lillian!" shocked, he stared up at her until he realized that she had put her finger on his cheek to stem his own tears. Putting his hand up to his face, he suddenly understood that she was crying because he was crying-and in the small amount of time she had known him she had already picked up on the fact that when he let any emotions show it was serious. Abruptly, he sat up and scrubbed furiously at his eyes. When he was done, he looked over and saw that she was still crying but trying to stop the flow with her arms. Without thinking, he reached out and wiped away her tears. In a warm voice that she'd never heard him use before, he looked at her gently and said, "Hey now. Stop that. You'll ruin that pretty face of yours if you keep it up." He leaned in closer and brushed her hair out of her face. Shocked by this sudden behavior Lillian stopped crying and stared up into his eyes which were reflecting her own. "Cam?" her voice quivered, and in that instant Cam realized what he was doing. Pulling away swiftly, he crossed his legs and put his hands between them, blushing furiously at what he had been about to do. "S-sorry," mumbled Cam. To his surprise, Lillian smiled, looking as beautiful as ever despite the fact that she'd just been crying not two minutes ago. "Thanks, Cam," she said cheerfully, standing up and walking to the edge of the brook. Then, twirling around she pointed at him and with her smile said, "I'm going to get these towns to stop fighting, once and for all!"

The next morning, Lillian set off for the tunnel. She'd heard about it from Laney and Georgia, but neither of them had been able to elaborate much on it and had been too busy to come with. From a distance, the entrance didn't look so menacing. However, up close Lillian found the tunnel entrance to be a bit terrifying. There was something mysterious about how dark it looked inside. Suddenly changing her mind about whether or not she wanted to really go into the tunnel or not, she stepped backwards and crashed into someone. There was a scuffle as she untangled herself from the other person, and to her surprise she found herself face to face with Ash, who began to apologize profusely. Once the two were on their feet and dusted off, he grinned at her. "Somehow I always manage to bump into you. Funny, how that works," he said, beating the last of the dust off his hat. As he put it back on his head, he looked at the tunnel, and then at her. "So what are you doing around here anyways?" Ash asked curiously, leaning back against the nearest tree. Lillian smiled and shrugged. "I was just checking out the tunnel that I'd heard about, but it looks so dark that I'd rather not go in there just yet. What are YOU doing here, Ash?" At her question, Ash's grin faltered a bit and he sighed. Drooping forward, he shook his head. "Avoiding Cheryl. I love my little sister, I really do! It's just…a guy's gotta have some alone time, don't you think?" Lillian laughed at his dejected expression. He looked so conflicted about whether or not he should be with his sister or enjoying himself! With a smile, she offered him a hand. "You should relax a bit more. Come on! Let's go over to Konohana; there's someone I want you to meet."

When Philip saw his sister riding up on her pony he forgot everything else and charged at her furiously, a happy expression on his face. "LILLLLLLLLYYYYY!" Nearly knocking her off her feet, he grabbed her in a big hug and swirled her around, much to her embarrassment as Ash was with her. Setting her down, he began inspecting her. "Have you been eating well? How's your farm? Are things too hard for you there? Do you take your vitamins? Have you been washing regularly? Do you-" Lillian cut her brother off with a punch to the gut that had even Ash wincing. She then turned to Ash and rolled her eyes. "This pain in the butt, is my big brother Philip." Straightening up as if the blow hadn't even hurt him, Philip took in the lean farmer boy on the white horse. Grinning lazily, he offered a hand. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Philip, and you're?" He was surprised at the strength of Ash's grip-for someone so thin he was quite strong. As Ash introduced himself, Philip threw his arm around Lillian's shoulder and motioned for them to both come inside.

"So tell me then-have you ever wrestled my Lilly?" Philip sat at the table grinning at Ash while Lillian looked off into the distance, resisting the urge to strangle her brother. Ash, surprised by the question, shook his head and set down his cup. "Can't say I have, Philip. Actually, I didn't think someone as sweet as Lilly would wrestle anyone." As Philip began laughing loudly, Lillian covered her face in shame and Ash shot her a questioning look. When Philip finally stopped laughing and wiped the tears from his eyes, he looked at Ash. "See, my sister is sweeter than sugar. She's so innocent and pure and cute! But that's only part of who she is," exclaimed Philip. Leaning in, he put his elbow up on the table and winked at Ash. "She's actually very tough and can defend herself quite well. Shall we give you a demonstration?" The way in which Philip had said the last sentence came off sounding perverted, and Ash, in all his farm boy innocence, turned red immediately and began to shake his head. Lillian, thoroughly embaressed at this point, swung a punch at her brother and proceeded to knock him off his chair. Standing up, she dusted off her skirt and looked at Ash, her cheeks burning. "We're going now. I've had enough of this idiot for one day." As she turned to leave, Ash was surprised to see Philip leap up and begin fawning on her. "Awww, Lilly don't leave! Come on, come on, stay and play with me, we never get to play together anymore!" Lillian kept walking, totally unfazed by her brother's puppy-like antics. He persisted all the way to her pony, begging her to stay. When it became apparent she was going home no matter what, Philip pulled a pout that would have had most girls (and even some guys) back to him in an instant, but Lillian only waved at him and started to urge her pony home, Ash bringing up the rear on his horse.

Though they had been silent most of the way, Lillian finally turned to him and apologized. "Sorry about my stupid brother," pouted Lillian. "He's always been like that-overly doting and fawning all over me because I'm his little sister. So, I'm sorry you had to see me like that," having finished her apology, Lillian didn't expect Ash to answer. To her amazement, he began to laugh. "Lilly, I'm glad I got to see you like that. It wasn't very lady-like, but I like that I know now you can mostly take care of yourself. Also, it made me feel like I was right; spending alone time away from siblings isn't always a bad thing, is it?" Laughing, the two friends found that they were already on Lillian's farm. As Ash turned to go, he bumped into a tree, causing the leaves to fall all over Lillian. "Sorry, sorry!" Brushing leaves off her head, he noticed that some of them were tangled in her hair and he began to pick them out while she protested that she could do it herself. "Ash, I'm fine," she said, trying to brush them off her dress while he continued to pick the leaves out of her hair. Lillian looked up and found that Ash was staring down at her, looking just as startled as she was. Her hair slipped through his fingers, soft and silky, and he slowly brought his hands down to cradle her face. Almost unaware of what he was doing, he cupped her face between his hands gently and brought it up while he leaned down until their noses were touching and his head was slightly tilted, his eyes half closed. Her whisper snapped him out of his trance. "Ash?" His eyes opened fully and found his face reflected in violet ones. And he realized what he doing and in an instant dropped his hands to his side, his face burning up even more than Lillian's. "I…I've got to go. Good-night, Lillian." Jumping on his horse, Ash ran away before Lillian could ask him what had just happened.