Chapter Seven: Lost
The next few days passed by peacefully. Dawn went to the bar at
night a little bit with Jack, but whenever she was there Kai was not. She
got her work done, and grew a nicely sized field, and she made a lot of
money. : ) She also became better friends with everyone in town, except
for everyone at the vineyard.
Kai's probably making out with Karen every night, Dawn thought,
making a scowl as she entered the bar the last night of Spring.
Dawn had begun to talk with Karen, but she didn't like her very
much. She seemed the kind of person that Dawn would be enemies with
for the rest of her life. (She had known too many in high school.)
On the first day of Spring, Dawn walked outside and was
surprised to see Ann there.
"Hi Dawn!" Ann exclaimed. "Guess what! Tonight's the Fireworks,
and I'm watching them with Cliff!"
"Wow!" Dawn exclaimed. "So, you guys are pretty serious, huh?"
"Yeah!" Ann was gleeful. "Well, I hope we have a serious
relationship. See you later!" Ann left. A little later, Popuri came over too.
"Hi!" Popuri called.
"Hey Popuri!" Dawn said.
"Guess what," said Popuri.
"Fireworks tonight?"
"Yeah. And someone asked me to watch with them!"
"Who?" asked Dawn, interested.
"Gray!"
"Gray?!"
"He actually is a nice guy. Has anyone asked you to watch with
them?"
"No," said Dawn. "I think I'll ask someone myself."
"Okay," said Popuri. "See you later!" Popuri left too.
Dawn got all her work done—which was just watering the flowers--
and was just leaving when Jack entered her farm.
"How many visitors today?" Dawn called to Jack, grinning.
"I don't know, but will you watch the Fireworks with me?"
Dawn smiled brightly. She felt good; she was going to ask Jack
herself if she could. "Okay. Do you have any place in mind where you
want to watch?"
"Not really."
"How about watching from my roof?" Dawn suggested, pointing at
her house. "I've got stairs inside leading up."
Jack grinned. "Sure," he agreed.
"I'll meetcha at six, okay?" Dawn said.
"Okay! Bye!" Jack left too.
Dawn walked to the Florist's and bought two packages of
tomatoes and one of corn. Lillia told her about the Vegetable Festival.
"If you have a harvested vegetable, you can enter it in the Festival
and maybe win a prize for it. Plus you'll be known for having the best
vegetables."
"Thanks, I'll remember that." Dawn left. She decided to buy some
treats for the fireworks, so she went to the Bakery to buy some cookies.
Dawn talked with Elli a bit and learned that she was going to
watch the fireworks with Jeff. After Dawn left the bakery, she made a
gagging sound. Did she actually FALL for that guy?!? He was, like, 60!!
Dawn went back to Ann's place and told her she was watching the
fireworks with Jack.
"How cool!" exclaimed Ann. "Where are you going to watch
them?"
"From my roof," said Dawn. "Well, I gotta go, see you tomorrow!"
Dawn went home, planted her seeds, and then foraged for more
money. By the time she got home, it was 4:30.
She put the things in the box. The shipper came and paid her.
Then Jack arrived. Dawn grinned and said as she handed him a
pack of cookies, "We can watch from the roof. These are your snacks."
Dawn led him inside and up the stairs. They sat on the roof and
ate some cookies while they waited for the fireworks.
"How often did you visit your grandpa?" asked Dawn after a short
while of silence.
"Every summer," replied Jack. He sat closer to Dawn. "We'd
always watch the Fireworks and go to the Firefly Festival. Then I'd have
to go home."
"Sounds nice," Dawn says. "I didn't visit here often, but when I
did, I didn't get to stay for Festivals."
"That bites," Jack said.
The fireworks began. They watched them silently.
When they were over, Jack turned to her. "I brought some
sparklers," he said. "Wanna light 'em?"
"As long as my house doesn't burn to ashes," Dawn said, grinning.
They lit them, and held them over the sides. Dawn waved hers
around in the air, watching how the light illuminated the space around it.
Before the sparklers died, Jack said, "This reminds me of all those
fireworks I watched with Grandpa…"
The sparklers died eventually. Dawn and Jack went downstairs,
and Dawn led Jack to the door.
"See you tomorrow," Dawn smiled.
"See you tomorrow," Jack replied, leaning over and kissing her.
Then he left.
Dawn smiled, feeling fluttery inside, and hopped in bed.
***
The next morning, Dawn left early after tending to her crops and
her dog and horse. Dawn finally named her dog Kirby, since he was a
boy. She talked with some villagers and ate lunch, then went into the
forest.
Dawn decided to forage as much stuff as she could today, and
make lots of money. She wanted to get more extensions on her house.
Dawn picked a couple of berries by the fisherman's tent, and
caught a couple of (medium) fish too. She moved to by the carpenters
cabin and foraged for fruit and walnuts there, too. She went in the cave
and got some herbs. Then she went to the Goddess' pond and got the
few things in there. Dawn stopped and looked at the pond.
"Sometimes I really wish there was a goddess here," Dawn sighed
to herself, gazing in the water.
Dawn's ears twitched, as she thought she heard a very, very faint
sound, like leaves or twigs crackling. Dawn glanced at the woods on her
left, and shuddered at the sight of the forest. It looked like you could
easily get lost in there.
Dawn moved back to the river and looked over the edge. She
was at a point where the water was pretty far below. She climbed the
tree up to the higher point of the mountain to catch the view. She gazed
around, able to see mountains and Jack's farm and Flowerbud Village,
and what looked like a couple of buildings far out on one of the nearby
mountains.
Dawn leaned cautiously over the edge slightly to look at the water.
It looked pretty, at this time of day, with the sunlight shining down on it.
Suddenly, Dawn felt something tighten around her ankle. Her
ankle twisted sharply; a sharp pain went up it and she tottered and lost
her balance, falling over the side of the cliff!
Using instincts, Dawn twisted around quickly and grabbed wildly.
She caught a protruding root a couple of feet from the top of the cliff.
Dawn burned with anger. Who would do that?
Dawn tried climbing up, but when she set her foot to a small point
of the rock that stuck out, it broke off and her foot slipped, so she lost
balance completely except for her hand on the root. Her other foot
screamed with pain. Dawn guessed it was sprained.
She glanced nervously at the water far below her. She felt a pang
of panic, and then looked back up again at the top of the cliff, beyond her
reach and beyond her ability to reach.
She tried to climb up a bit to reach the cliff top, but she slithered
badly again as her hand on the root began to sweat and slip.
"HELP!" she called loudly. She hated this; giving in to help.
"HEEEEEELLLP!"
She kept calling for help, surprised that nobody had heard her yet,
and finally, just as her hand began to sweat so badly that she was in
danger of falling off the cliff, she saw Jack's head peep over the side of
the cliff.
"JACK!" screamed Dawn, in his face. "Help me up!"
"Okay, okay!" Jack reached down as far as he could, and
grabbed Dawn's hand holding the root. With his other arm, he grabbed
her other hand and pulled her up back to the top of the cliff.
Dawn panted, trying to get over her fear and to get her breath
back.
"Thank you!" she exclaimed. "I thought I was going to—Ouch!"
Jack had noticed how Dawn's ankle had looked and poked it.
"I think your ankle's sprained," he said, matter-of-factly. "C'mon,
I'll take you to my house and get your ankle bandaged."
He helped Dawn to her feet, and was helping her walk when they
found Dawn could not walk at all. So Jack pick Dawn up.
"Hey," Dawn said, going red, "you don't need to carry me. This is
embarrassing…" But she really liked this; she could get a close-up on
Jack's muscular arms as they carried her.
He took Dawn back to his house. His house was pretty shabby; in
fact, it was quite like Dawn's own house. He set her on the bed and left
the room, coming back shortly with some bandage wrap and an ice pack.
Jack bandaged up Dawn's ankle and placed the ice pack on it.
"How'd you sprain it and fall off the cliff?" Jack asked her while he
was wrapping her ankle.
"Oh…Something tightened around my ankle while I was looking
down at the water. It sprained my ankle when I turned around to see why
it had tightened, and made me lose my balance." Dawn sighed. "I think
somebody did that to me…"
"Why? Do you have any enemies in town?"
"Not that I know of…I at least know everybody, but I don't talk with
the vineyard people at all…"
"Maybe it was Kai or Karen…" Jack said thoughtfully, then
clamped his mouth closed. "Why am I thinking like that? I don't think
they have anything against you, Dawn…But they don't really seem to like
you…Kai and I are still friends, of course."
Dawn smiled weakly. She noticed that the sun was setting. "I'd
better go home," she said.
"I'll help you home," Jack answered.
They left the house, Jack helping Dawn. They were heading
toward the hill up the back side of Moon Mountain when Jack stopped.
"Do you hear something?" he asked.
Dawn stood still and listened. She could hear a sound, as a
matter of fact; there was stomping on twigs and dry leaves, and it
sounded like a person. Then the sounds stopped.
The sun had set by now; the stars were beginning to come out as
the last bits of light sunk below the surface behind them.
Jack and Dawn were quiet for a moment, holding perfectly still.
Then suddenly an animal stepped out of the trees in front of them.
It was a gigantic brown bear.
Jack turned around. "Run!" he said.
Dawn tried to run. Her ankle hurt horribly but she was able to.
The giant bear dropped to four legs and began to chase the two.
They were going to go into Jack's farm, but the gate was locked for a
strange reason.
"Why's it locked?" Jack muttered distractedly.
"No time to waste here!" Dawn squeaked, grabbing Jack's arm.
"That bear's going to get us!"
They ran past Jack's farm, with the bear following them. They ran
into the forest, trying to lose the bear.
After a long time, Jack and Dawn slumped down against trees.
"We lost him," Jack said, panting for breath.
Dawn didn't reply; she needed oxygen too badly.
After awhile, Dawn said: "Where are we?"
They both looked around. All they saw was trees, trees, trees.
Above them were a few patches of night sky among the leaves.
"I think we'll have to sleep here tonight," Jack said, looking weary.
"We'll find our way back in the morning."
"Good idea," Dawn murmured. She was getting tired.
Dawn took off her backpack, which she remembered was full of
food, and rested her head on a rock, lying down curled at the base of a
tree.
"If you want I can start a fire," Jack offered.
"No thank you." Dawn felt like being left alone for a couple of
moments.
After awhile she fell fast asleep. She did not hear Jack go to
sleep before she did.
The next few days passed by peacefully. Dawn went to the bar at
night a little bit with Jack, but whenever she was there Kai was not. She
got her work done, and grew a nicely sized field, and she made a lot of
money. : ) She also became better friends with everyone in town, except
for everyone at the vineyard.
Kai's probably making out with Karen every night, Dawn thought,
making a scowl as she entered the bar the last night of Spring.
Dawn had begun to talk with Karen, but she didn't like her very
much. She seemed the kind of person that Dawn would be enemies with
for the rest of her life. (She had known too many in high school.)
On the first day of Spring, Dawn walked outside and was
surprised to see Ann there.
"Hi Dawn!" Ann exclaimed. "Guess what! Tonight's the Fireworks,
and I'm watching them with Cliff!"
"Wow!" Dawn exclaimed. "So, you guys are pretty serious, huh?"
"Yeah!" Ann was gleeful. "Well, I hope we have a serious
relationship. See you later!" Ann left. A little later, Popuri came over too.
"Hi!" Popuri called.
"Hey Popuri!" Dawn said.
"Guess what," said Popuri.
"Fireworks tonight?"
"Yeah. And someone asked me to watch with them!"
"Who?" asked Dawn, interested.
"Gray!"
"Gray?!"
"He actually is a nice guy. Has anyone asked you to watch with
them?"
"No," said Dawn. "I think I'll ask someone myself."
"Okay," said Popuri. "See you later!" Popuri left too.
Dawn got all her work done—which was just watering the flowers--
and was just leaving when Jack entered her farm.
"How many visitors today?" Dawn called to Jack, grinning.
"I don't know, but will you watch the Fireworks with me?"
Dawn smiled brightly. She felt good; she was going to ask Jack
herself if she could. "Okay. Do you have any place in mind where you
want to watch?"
"Not really."
"How about watching from my roof?" Dawn suggested, pointing at
her house. "I've got stairs inside leading up."
Jack grinned. "Sure," he agreed.
"I'll meetcha at six, okay?" Dawn said.
"Okay! Bye!" Jack left too.
Dawn walked to the Florist's and bought two packages of
tomatoes and one of corn. Lillia told her about the Vegetable Festival.
"If you have a harvested vegetable, you can enter it in the Festival
and maybe win a prize for it. Plus you'll be known for having the best
vegetables."
"Thanks, I'll remember that." Dawn left. She decided to buy some
treats for the fireworks, so she went to the Bakery to buy some cookies.
Dawn talked with Elli a bit and learned that she was going to
watch the fireworks with Jeff. After Dawn left the bakery, she made a
gagging sound. Did she actually FALL for that guy?!? He was, like, 60!!
Dawn went back to Ann's place and told her she was watching the
fireworks with Jack.
"How cool!" exclaimed Ann. "Where are you going to watch
them?"
"From my roof," said Dawn. "Well, I gotta go, see you tomorrow!"
Dawn went home, planted her seeds, and then foraged for more
money. By the time she got home, it was 4:30.
She put the things in the box. The shipper came and paid her.
Then Jack arrived. Dawn grinned and said as she handed him a
pack of cookies, "We can watch from the roof. These are your snacks."
Dawn led him inside and up the stairs. They sat on the roof and
ate some cookies while they waited for the fireworks.
"How often did you visit your grandpa?" asked Dawn after a short
while of silence.
"Every summer," replied Jack. He sat closer to Dawn. "We'd
always watch the Fireworks and go to the Firefly Festival. Then I'd have
to go home."
"Sounds nice," Dawn says. "I didn't visit here often, but when I
did, I didn't get to stay for Festivals."
"That bites," Jack said.
The fireworks began. They watched them silently.
When they were over, Jack turned to her. "I brought some
sparklers," he said. "Wanna light 'em?"
"As long as my house doesn't burn to ashes," Dawn said, grinning.
They lit them, and held them over the sides. Dawn waved hers
around in the air, watching how the light illuminated the space around it.
Before the sparklers died, Jack said, "This reminds me of all those
fireworks I watched with Grandpa…"
The sparklers died eventually. Dawn and Jack went downstairs,
and Dawn led Jack to the door.
"See you tomorrow," Dawn smiled.
"See you tomorrow," Jack replied, leaning over and kissing her.
Then he left.
Dawn smiled, feeling fluttery inside, and hopped in bed.
***
The next morning, Dawn left early after tending to her crops and
her dog and horse. Dawn finally named her dog Kirby, since he was a
boy. She talked with some villagers and ate lunch, then went into the
forest.
Dawn decided to forage as much stuff as she could today, and
make lots of money. She wanted to get more extensions on her house.
Dawn picked a couple of berries by the fisherman's tent, and
caught a couple of (medium) fish too. She moved to by the carpenters
cabin and foraged for fruit and walnuts there, too. She went in the cave
and got some herbs. Then she went to the Goddess' pond and got the
few things in there. Dawn stopped and looked at the pond.
"Sometimes I really wish there was a goddess here," Dawn sighed
to herself, gazing in the water.
Dawn's ears twitched, as she thought she heard a very, very faint
sound, like leaves or twigs crackling. Dawn glanced at the woods on her
left, and shuddered at the sight of the forest. It looked like you could
easily get lost in there.
Dawn moved back to the river and looked over the edge. She
was at a point where the water was pretty far below. She climbed the
tree up to the higher point of the mountain to catch the view. She gazed
around, able to see mountains and Jack's farm and Flowerbud Village,
and what looked like a couple of buildings far out on one of the nearby
mountains.
Dawn leaned cautiously over the edge slightly to look at the water.
It looked pretty, at this time of day, with the sunlight shining down on it.
Suddenly, Dawn felt something tighten around her ankle. Her
ankle twisted sharply; a sharp pain went up it and she tottered and lost
her balance, falling over the side of the cliff!
Using instincts, Dawn twisted around quickly and grabbed wildly.
She caught a protruding root a couple of feet from the top of the cliff.
Dawn burned with anger. Who would do that?
Dawn tried climbing up, but when she set her foot to a small point
of the rock that stuck out, it broke off and her foot slipped, so she lost
balance completely except for her hand on the root. Her other foot
screamed with pain. Dawn guessed it was sprained.
She glanced nervously at the water far below her. She felt a pang
of panic, and then looked back up again at the top of the cliff, beyond her
reach and beyond her ability to reach.
She tried to climb up a bit to reach the cliff top, but she slithered
badly again as her hand on the root began to sweat and slip.
"HELP!" she called loudly. She hated this; giving in to help.
"HEEEEEELLLP!"
She kept calling for help, surprised that nobody had heard her yet,
and finally, just as her hand began to sweat so badly that she was in
danger of falling off the cliff, she saw Jack's head peep over the side of
the cliff.
"JACK!" screamed Dawn, in his face. "Help me up!"
"Okay, okay!" Jack reached down as far as he could, and
grabbed Dawn's hand holding the root. With his other arm, he grabbed
her other hand and pulled her up back to the top of the cliff.
Dawn panted, trying to get over her fear and to get her breath
back.
"Thank you!" she exclaimed. "I thought I was going to—Ouch!"
Jack had noticed how Dawn's ankle had looked and poked it.
"I think your ankle's sprained," he said, matter-of-factly. "C'mon,
I'll take you to my house and get your ankle bandaged."
He helped Dawn to her feet, and was helping her walk when they
found Dawn could not walk at all. So Jack pick Dawn up.
"Hey," Dawn said, going red, "you don't need to carry me. This is
embarrassing…" But she really liked this; she could get a close-up on
Jack's muscular arms as they carried her.
He took Dawn back to his house. His house was pretty shabby; in
fact, it was quite like Dawn's own house. He set her on the bed and left
the room, coming back shortly with some bandage wrap and an ice pack.
Jack bandaged up Dawn's ankle and placed the ice pack on it.
"How'd you sprain it and fall off the cliff?" Jack asked her while he
was wrapping her ankle.
"Oh…Something tightened around my ankle while I was looking
down at the water. It sprained my ankle when I turned around to see why
it had tightened, and made me lose my balance." Dawn sighed. "I think
somebody did that to me…"
"Why? Do you have any enemies in town?"
"Not that I know of…I at least know everybody, but I don't talk with
the vineyard people at all…"
"Maybe it was Kai or Karen…" Jack said thoughtfully, then
clamped his mouth closed. "Why am I thinking like that? I don't think
they have anything against you, Dawn…But they don't really seem to like
you…Kai and I are still friends, of course."
Dawn smiled weakly. She noticed that the sun was setting. "I'd
better go home," she said.
"I'll help you home," Jack answered.
They left the house, Jack helping Dawn. They were heading
toward the hill up the back side of Moon Mountain when Jack stopped.
"Do you hear something?" he asked.
Dawn stood still and listened. She could hear a sound, as a
matter of fact; there was stomping on twigs and dry leaves, and it
sounded like a person. Then the sounds stopped.
The sun had set by now; the stars were beginning to come out as
the last bits of light sunk below the surface behind them.
Jack and Dawn were quiet for a moment, holding perfectly still.
Then suddenly an animal stepped out of the trees in front of them.
It was a gigantic brown bear.
Jack turned around. "Run!" he said.
Dawn tried to run. Her ankle hurt horribly but she was able to.
The giant bear dropped to four legs and began to chase the two.
They were going to go into Jack's farm, but the gate was locked for a
strange reason.
"Why's it locked?" Jack muttered distractedly.
"No time to waste here!" Dawn squeaked, grabbing Jack's arm.
"That bear's going to get us!"
They ran past Jack's farm, with the bear following them. They ran
into the forest, trying to lose the bear.
After a long time, Jack and Dawn slumped down against trees.
"We lost him," Jack said, panting for breath.
Dawn didn't reply; she needed oxygen too badly.
After awhile, Dawn said: "Where are we?"
They both looked around. All they saw was trees, trees, trees.
Above them were a few patches of night sky among the leaves.
"I think we'll have to sleep here tonight," Jack said, looking weary.
"We'll find our way back in the morning."
"Good idea," Dawn murmured. She was getting tired.
Dawn took off her backpack, which she remembered was full of
food, and rested her head on a rock, lying down curled at the base of a
tree.
"If you want I can start a fire," Jack offered.
"No thank you." Dawn felt like being left alone for a couple of
moments.
After awhile she fell fast asleep. She did not hear Jack go to
sleep before she did.