This chapter kinda skips a lot of the story, but putting the whole year and a half into play would have been pointless. Thanks for reading, please R&R.

Chapter 10: Caught on two lines

One year and two seasons later

Dante had waited and restored the farm patiently waiting for Karen to return, and with each dieing day it became more and more clear that she might never come back. The farm had blossomed since then, the sheep and cows were grown and he had extended the barn so that he could hold all 20 of his animals. Also the chicken house had been enlarged and he could now house all of the 10 chickens that he owned. He also now had a hothouse and the farmhouse was fully extended and it now had a separate room for the two beds, a nursery, and kitchen, dinning room suite fit for a king, and was now very large and spacious.

Spring was here and he completed all of the tasks he had set for himself, all except for making up with Karen's father. So Dante arranged to have dinner with her father. Her father turned up but he did not look pleased, at least, not until Dante took him inside, showed him around and fed him home cooked meals. Karen's father seemed to see that he could support Karen but the man was not sure for how long he could keep up his wealth. Dante showed him to the barns and the hen house to show the ever-rising produce he had, even in winter Dante could support himself and probably the rest of the town. That night over dinner Dante decided to tell Karen's father what he had brought him here to tell him.

"Look, as you can probably gather, I did not ask you over for dinner just for the sake of your company, I have asked you over so that I can prove to how I plan to provide for your daughter…when…she comes back" He refused to say the word 'if'.

"I can see you would like to get right to the point, with that I would like to say this; I can see that you do have a way of supporting my daughter and have faith that she will come back even though she may never…you have my approval and I promise to stay out of your way with Karen, but I swear, if you hurt her in any way humanly possible, I will come after you with the rest of the town behind me, so be expecting me if you set a foot wrong in her presence" Said Karen's father with an uneasy look on his face.

It seemed hours passed before Karen's father spoke again, and when he did, it was not exactly what Dante had wanted nor expected to hear.

"Look, I know just a second ago I promised I would stay out of your way when it came to Karen, but I felt uncomfortable. Now I realise why that was, rumours have spread that you are tagging Elli along while Karen is gone, everyone knows about you two up on the peak of Mother's Hill. Maybe this isn't so but you had better set people straight if you want my approval" Said Karen's father.

After the dinner had ended and Karen's father had left Dante had to think about what people had actually been talking about. After a while Dante realised that they were talking about him and Elli practising for the Music Festival. They never said anything to each other; it was always a silent time except for the sounds of the flute and ocarina. Though they never said anything they communicated more that way than they did talking. With this line of thought he decided to go to the Peak of Mother's Hill and see if she was there.

Fable followed of coarse but during the year Night had grown and climbed the mountain quite easily. Night climbed the mountain with Dante on his back and kneeled down to make it easier for Dante to dismount. Dante heard the sad sound of a flute, it was not that the flute player could not play, infact they could play perfectly, but the song was sad.

Dante pushed his way through the bushes to find Elli sitting and playing her flute. It was spring, though Dante could tell that sometimes it was relaxing to be up there playing for no other reason than because you wanted to. This was the first time in a while Dante had been up here with Elli, mainly because she hadn't turned up or he hadn't been able to be there. She took one look at him and her face flushed crimson red and she looked away. He didn't quite understand the gesture but he did understand that she was embarrassed, probably because he had turned up out of nowhere and was listening to her play.

On second look at her face he realised she was embarrassed because she had been crying, thus the sad flute music. He didn't know what to say or do, but he did know that if he tried to pry the problem from her she would withdraw from him completely. How did he know that, how had he known that that would be her reaction, he did not know, all he knew was that he was so certain he was right he would have bet both hands on it.

Instead of insisting on asking what was wrong he pulled out his ocarina and imitated her song that she had played, she slightly smiled and played it again on her flute. They imitated the song she had played over and over, Fable howled softly to the songs and Night lay down and watched intently. Dante smiled at her and made the tune a little more up beat so that it sounded happy; she smiled back and imitated his change of music. Soon they got to play happy songs, they smiled together and continued to play.

Dante could feel her eyes on him, and he could not help but let his roam towards her. He looked her up and down trying to keep his eyes from hers, he noticed she had changed her clothes to nice hiking clothes, he noticed they were Karen's style clothing, thoughts came to his mind but he pushed them down, jumping to conclusions would get him nowhere. He looking into her lovely brown eyes that were watching him intently, he couldn't help but smile, it felt so right. She smiled back and continued to play while looking into his eyes.

Dante continued to play with one hand while he reached into his rucksack and grabbed a bunch of Moon Drop Flowers and offered them to Elli, abruptly she stopped playing and just stared into his eyes. Dante did not know how long they were staring but he began to believe that maybe she did not like flowers. Elli came closer and put her hand around the bunch of flowers, she made no move to take them but in an instant she was kissing him, a soft and tender kiss filled with affection and lust. She just continued to kiss him and for what seemed like hours he did not know whether he should kiss her back or not, he was but he could pull away now and get away with it. Dante loved Karen, he had since he had met her, but he had sort of got to know Elli first, he had bonded with her more, even though no more than a few words had ever passed through them, volumes had been said through their smiles, stares and music.

Dante put his arms around Elli and drew her into a hug while they continued to kiss. It seemed that that one kiss lasted a life time, though it still made Dante feel guilty, he had and still did love Karen, but now he also had feelings for Elli. Karen was gone now and had been for one and a half years, he was even more certain that she was not coming back, now he had to move on without her, he had to keep creating a future to make up for not having a past.

The sun was beginning to rise when Dante awoke to find Elli in his arms. They slept together that night though nothing happened between them. He was glad nothing had happened between them yet he was disappointed at the same time. She woke soon too and lay there staring at him with loving eyes. He got up and helped her onto Nights back; he remembered she had trouble down the mountain so he led Night down the mountain with her on Night's back. He took her back to her home with her grandmother and her little brother Stu. Elli got down of Nights back, pet Fable and Night and hugged Dante even closer to her than before. She went inside pleasantly and said nothing, not even good-bye. She hadn't said anything to him at all during the past events though they communicated so much without words. She was silent and happy to be that way, just like him, he didn't like being pressured into talking or confessing his feelings, with Elli he didn't have to say anything to understand or be understood.

He spent the rest of the day caring for the animals and tending to the pastures and, of coarse, thinking about Elli and Karen. He felt a little at ease knowing that Karen might not ever come back, but at the same time that thought brought tears to his eyes. Elli was so sweet, innocent and unsure; Karen was so opinionated and out-there. Both personalities appealed to him, and both girls had reeled him in like a fish that was caught with the hook in it's mouth, except he had no way of getting the hooks out, it was like there were two hooks, one connected to Karen's line, the other to Elli's and both were pulling just as hard and it was tearing him apart inside. What was he to do, if Karen came back he had such a decision if he was allowed one at all.

He wrote it all in his diary which was, by now, pretty full, soon it would contain as much as it could hold, in these two years he was making up for having no past now, now he had a messed up and complicated past that looked like it was going to get even more complicated as the days rolled on. He read a passage from his diary..

'Karen brought me some fish for my fishpond today; some of her own fish that she had caught. I always thought she was nice but now I can see how genuine she is, people judge her as someone without feelings for anyone but herself, but after that gesture I knew that they were wrong, people's rumours are always wrong, aren't they?'

He did long for Karen, but he loved Elli, the only thing that he could think and the only thing he could feel.