A/N: Okay, this is a very "eh" chapter. I was in a jolly (lol) mood while typing this, but halfway through I started to feel melancholic. So the perspective is slightly, uh… ironic, if I have to pick a word. Deemed another filler chapter, but I promise I'll find some way to advance soon. A lot of people seem to think Bianca stole the FG… did she? Yes she did. Not. Or did she? o.o
Thank you Forty Two42, Momo-chan12, Taisaya-Ryu, jalm, The Legend of Soul Emblem, Moonlit Dreaming, and Blaze909 for reviewing. Sorry if I can't get around to replying, I get mixed up because I always forget who I replied to and who I didn't…
(Ew, I did a Word Count, and my A/Ns take up over 3000 words in total. Should I start cutting them down?)
Disclaimer/Warning: I don't own Harvest Moon or the main storyline.
A Kardian Tale
It was the next day, and Raguna couldn't take it anymore. He just felt too stuffed up.
He pulled on a heavy, heavy, may I emphasize heavy, old coat he found stowed awaysomewhere in his cabinet, deciding to go out and search the town building by building for the precious Glove. He was already panging from guilt, and he didn't want the sensation to last any longer. He buttoned up the worn coat and hurried off into the twisting rain. Luckily it was raining still— if anyone were to come his way, he was certain he'd accidentally spill his dark secret.
Just as he was hurrying into town, he gave a slight turn of his head and shrieked when he looked at his plants. They were dead, wilted, and utterly destroyed. Shaking his fist impassibly to the sky above, he tried to dismiss it— at least postpone his worrying for later— and ran all the way, not stopping until his feet touched the Town Square. He may as well search the town beginning from its core.
He ducked under the benches and scanned the tiny gap below it, his thick coat weighing him down like stone. Then he trudged left to right, peeking through rows of bushes and flowers. At last he gave up. The Friendship Glove was nowhere in sight.
Sighing, he continued down the road for the next destination, and the next, and the next, all to no avail. It was as if the Glove had disappeared from existence— his existence, anyway.
He froze when he heard someone calling his name. Not technically his name, however, but he was certain they were referring to him in the very least.
"Hey, Farm Boy," an all-too familiar voice called. He turned around and was met eye-to-eye with Rosetta, who jogged up to meet him. She was clad in a thin white rain-jacket. "What are you doing out here in this kind of weather?"
Raguna chose to avoid her question. "What are you?" he disregarded smartly.
"I had to go to Camus's to drop off a shipment of stuff he ordered. Turns out he wasn't even there." She snorted indignantly. "Wuss."
"Oh. Of course." Raguna shifted uncomfortably, especially when she shot him a lazy glance. It was as if everyone could see right through his skull, and into the hidden secrets of his mind… he was cracking, piece by piece, and he knew it. He had to end things quickly.
"Well, it's been nice gloving, I mean, friendship, I mean, seeing you," he babbled listlessly. "But I guess I should be going now, haha, crops to tend to, people to see, places to meet, hahahaha…'
Walk. Just walk away, his innermost voice commanded, forcing him to thrust himself away from Rosetta. She looked like an onlooker of a train, sending chills down his spine.
"Where are you going?" she questioned, making him jolt. She was… following him.
"Home, where else would I be going, why else would I want to?" he jittered, bursting into nervous hysteria when she looked him in the eye.
He was BREAKING now… just one more word, and everything would be revealed…
Walk. Walk. Walk.
But Rosetta was practically attached to his hip, pacing beside him harmoniously.
"Why are—"
"I SWEAR I DIDN'T LOSE THE FRIENDSHIP GLOVE TABATHA GAVE ME!" His hands flew to his mouth at the very spoken words.
RUN! RUN! RUN! his mental warning blared.
Rosetta stared, looking bemused. "Are you high or something?" she asked flatly.
"No, I'm fine. I just was looking... NO! I wasn't looking." He searched the landscape for an escape. "Hey, look, rain!" It was the first thing that came to his head. He pointed exuberantly, causing Rosetta to turn her head. Then he slipped far from view, running until he got back to his farm. He dropped to his knees as he reached his dilapidated farmhouse, groaning against the wooden floorboards.
"…Hey Raguna!" an abrupt voice chirped, causing him to jolt violently.
"…Mist, what the heck are you doing here?!"
She explained briefly, "Oh, you know, I was bored, and it was raining, so I thought I should come here and visit you. Hope you don't—"
"— mind, I don't," he interrupted feebly. Then he collapsed onto his bed. "…Bleh." That was all he could say.
xoxo
Lady Ann, the innkeeper, looked up the instant Nicholas and Ceci came hurrying inside the kept building, annoyed from being disrupted from her reading-hour. She put down her novel and let out a sisterly gasp when she saw they were dripping wet from the rain outside.
"What are you kids doing in here?" she demanded, abandoning her post to tend to them. She put her hands on her hips as she awaited a reasonable reply, more annoyed by the fact that they were contaminating the just-mopped floorboards rather than how they might catch hypothermia.
"We… were… running," Nicholas gasped, he and Ceci panting like stray dogs. He paused for emphasis. "We were playing… at… the beach. Started, to… rain. Got… wet."
"…Your point?"
"My house was locked," Nicholas continued, slightly irked that his story wasn't getting the attention he wanted, "and Ceci's is kinda… far. And this is the closest place from the beach, besides Leo's, but he's a blacksmith."
"And that matters why?"
Nicholas shrugged. "He scares me."
Lady Ann stared at the two children, as if they were puzzling to her. To her, though, they were leaning more on the annoying side. She swept over to the door and shut it briskly, then turning to face the two once more, ceding.
"Fine, you can stay at my stupid inn," she growled. "Just don't run around or track mud anywhere. And take of your da… darn shoes."
"Wooo! Score!!" Nicholas hooted, but Ceci remained.
"Are we allowed to go upstairs?" she asked, with her default innocent, small-child, cutie-pie façade in session.
"Sure, whatever," Lady Ann said, flicking a limp wrist at them. "Zavier's problem, not mine. Lazy kid is the only one around here without a job…" She muttered to herself as she returned behind the counter, picking up her book, and only after a few moments did she realize Nicholas and Ceci were still standing wetly by the threshold. "Well, take off your muddy shoes and get upstairs!" she snapped, hustling them instantly.
The kids jogged up the stairs, whispering to each other the entire time.
"I wonder if Lady Ann has marshmallows," Ceci pondered aloud. "Maybe we could eat them while we dry in front of the fireplace."
Nicholas wallowed in the allusion. "Marshmallows? Heck yeah. I want hot dogs and burgers too."
Ceci giggled at this, causing Nicholas to blush and beam all at once. However their fantasies were interrupted by a light snickering coming from one of the upper rooms. They followed the noise, coming to a halt before the doorway.
The snicker repeated itself, followed by a hearty roar. Then derisive cackling that sounded like gagging through a tube, and then a high-pitched giggle soon afterwards. They peeked in simultaneously, stifling snorts when they saw Zavier posing in front of a full-length mirror. Now his hands were on his hips, a slight pout on his face. Then an enormous, Jasper-like guffaw escaped his lips fakely.
Ceci was first to blatantly break the ice. "Uh, Zavier, what are you doing?" she asked, trying to hold her laughter in.
Zavier whipped around, noting their presence for the first time. "Nothing, I was just—" His eyes widened at the fact that he'd just been caught in his hysteric masquerade. "I w-w-was…"
"Trying to teach yourself how to laugh?" Nicholas sneered, remembering the incident about all the rumours he had spread and remembering his hate towards the frivolous boy.
"No," Zavier shot back defensively. "I was just… practicing my victory laugh." Ceci thought she heard an echo: "Yeah… my victory laugh."
"What victory? Against the closet monster?" Nicholas was quite enjoying himself.
"Nooo. Victory of when I finally find a treasure in the Carmite Cave!" A concave laugh exploded from his lungs, causing the kids to cringe.
"No offence, Mister Zavier, but you can do so much better," Ceci said through a giggle.
Zavier glared at her. "Just you wait, I'll make an amazing find before you know it. I'll invest it and be pouring in millions. I'll buy a mansion bigger than Bianca's!"
Nicholas pierced through his bubble of spectre of ambition with ease. "Aren't you, like, grounded from going?" he said in his most innocent, cutest voice.
"Well, yeah, but I'm just making plans for when I can get back." He scowled furiously. "How do you brats even know I was grounded? Is Mom saying things again?"
"Yeah, we heard her muttering about the time you got knocked out in Carmite Cave and Raguna had to come to save your sorry butt," Nicholas fired back, smirking when Zavier cocked his mouth open but no words came out. A few thoughtless moments past, tumbleweeds drifting through his head, and finally he waved his arms madly in the air. "You two are annoying!! Get out!!!" he hollered.
Nicholas and Ceci burst into importune laughter as they raced back downstairs. Lady Ann caught them with a mock glare, snapping her book shut.
"Where are you kids going?" she said, her tone tied between exasperation and acrimony.
Ceci pulled on her shoes. "We're going—"
"—back home, thanks for keeping us," Nicholas filled in hastily, not wanting Zavier to come down and start a commotion.
They exchanged single glances and fled from the inn guffawing without another word. Lady Ann stared after them, her glower turning into one of an eye-roll.
"…So why do children even exist?"
xoxo
Sheepish laughter exploded from Raguna the instant silence settled into the room. When Mist stared at him, he shut himself up automatically, gearing his in the other direction, his face a nice shade of red.
"…So," Mist broke the ice, in a much more tactful way than Raguna, "what's your favourite vegetable?"
Raguna was unsure if this was her idea of a pick-me-up. "Uh, I don't know, you?"
"Turnips, for sure." She sighed dreamily. "They're so juicy and yummy. I could live off eating turnips."
"…Right." He shuffled awkwardly. "…I guess my favourite is… uh… corn?" Did he even remember what it tasted like?
"Corn, huh?" Mist's facial expression seemed to darken noticeably, earning another forced hee-hee from Raguna. "That's Rosetta's favourite too… corn on the cob."
"Are you guys, uh, friends?" Raguna offered when he found nothing else to say.
"We used to be." Mist shrugged off the slight profile of contempt. "I don't know. We haven't talked in a while."
"I saw her just a while ago," Raguna bleated before he could stop himself.
Mist eyed him. "Did you? Where? Why? What did you say?"
"Uh…" As long as it'll lead away from the Glove topic… "I was heading back from the Town Square and she was heading back from Camus's and…"
"Why were you at Town Square? Why was she at Camus's? Who was first to initiate conversation?!"
Raguna sighed.
Just cooperate… his mind muttered.
xoxo
In the meantime, Zavier was upstairs in the cozy inn, oblivious to the fact that he'd been responsible for Raguna's cataclysm of a misadventure. He slammed the door, disallowing anymore visitors, cursing to himself back in his room. He did a bellyflop and landed on his bed so hard it creaked for mercy. Lady Ann yelled at him from downstairs, and after apologizing with terror, he pulled something out from beneath his pillow.
"Not even two dumb kids will find out." A mischievous glint appeared in his eye as he stroked the leather material cradled against him. "Sure I'm grounded, but… if I can't have any fun, then Raguna can't, either."
After a long, hard stare, for the first time he gave slight thought regarding how the new farmer could've gotten his grutty hands on such a fine item. Shrugging, and not extensively caring, he deposited the Friendship Glove back to its hiding place, sighing with contentment.
Damn, he rocked.