Shhhh if you really wanna know why I've been gone so long ask me on tumblr cause I'm not gonna waste space here explaining it shhhh
Oh yeah. This chapter will mostly be Tina's POV, but after this one, we'll get back to Jamie's side of things. I have to develop Tina's character somehow! Hope she doesn't seem Sue-ish, I'm working on it.
Summer 23rd
A splash was heard as Tina jumped into the river next to her land, allowing the cool water to ease away frustration that could only be caused by the brutal summer sun.
"Ugh!" she groaned. "When is this heat wave going to end?!"
Mocha, her faithful canine companion, sat on the bank. A slobbery, chewed stick rested in his jaw. He stared on at the girl with a blank look. The heat was probably bothering him too, she mused. Propping herself up on a rock, she rested her head atop crossed arms, her face adopting a look not entirely unlike that of Mocha's.
"It's ridiculous," she continued, as though the dog could actually understand, "If it gets any hotter my crops are going to just burn up!"
There was even a point or two in which, upon walking outside of her house to tend to her vegetables, she could have sworn she saw the husks of corn wrapped up in yellow flames. Wringing the excess water from her pigtails, she grimaced. Once upon a time the girl treasured the days of summer, but this year the heat seemed to turn everything stagnant and suffocating. When was the last time she'd found a Music Note? Better yet, what was she supposed to do with those things, anyways? They had to be the key to unlocking the enchantment on the Harvest Goddess, that was obvious.
"Hmmm…" she pondered. "Oh! Why didn't I think of it before?"
Mocha turned his head questioningly, the spit-coated stick tumbling out of his jaw and onto the grass. Tina rose herself onto the bank, a cascade of water spilling down her bubblegum swimsuit and tanning legs. She reached for an orange bundle of cloth on the side of the stream and pulled it over her head.
"I can just go ask Carlos, Arthur, and Billy! Maybe they can help me figure something out," she continued, shrugging the dress around her hips. Not half an hour later, she was jogging for the path as the base of the mountain area, her bare heels now caked with dried dirt and bits of grass.
"Hillbilly!" Jamie called nastily from his pasture. Tina stopped for a moment, eyeing her rival in quiet contemplation. Maybe he would know something about—
"What are you lookin' at, weirdo?!"
Nope, never mind, talking to him would get her nowhere. In a split second, she stuck out her tongue, and continued on. He squeezed the animal brush in his hands in rage.
"Coward!" he accused at her retreat.
Maybe he was right, but Tina didn't have time for games with him that day. It was high time she kicked things into gear; not just on her ranch, but with her mission as well. As the dark entrance to the cave appeared on her horizon, Tina hoped the sprites were there. Every other time she'd seen them, it was they who'd found her, appearing probably by magic. The moment she stepped into the cave, a gust of sweet, cold air washed over her body. She took a moment to bask in its bliss, catching her breath.
"Tina!"
"Hi, Tina!"
"It's Tina!" chorused three little voices. The primary hued sprites bounced over to the rancher, hugging her ankles. Tina smiled warmly at the dear sprites, crouching down to caress them.
"Hey there you guys, I was just looking for you!"
"Do you need our help, Tina?"
"We can help you, yeah!"
"Let's help Tina!"
She drew them close, laughing.
"Calm down, you three! And yes, I am here because I need your help today. It's about the Notes! I need you guys to tell me everything about them."
Arthur swung his arms at his sides. "You need to use them to wake up the Harvest Goddess, yeah!"
"You remember, right yeah?" Billy nodded.
"Well," she sighed shortly, "I do remember that part, but what I want to know is this. How do I use to Notes to wake her up?"
The three sprites suddenly adopted the same expression, one that looked a lot like the face a person made when they walked out of an exam and realized they bubbled in their answers one row off. A painful silence wrapped around the cave, and they darted glances at each other.
"Don't tell me… You guys don't know."
"Uhhhh..." Carlos enunciated, one finger held up as though he were just about to argue.
"Y-you gather them all, and then bring them here, a-and then she wakes up… yeah!" Arthur recited with a questionable level of confidence and a nervous smile.
They turned to Billy, who still held the halted expression on his face.
"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DOOOO?!" he cried suddenly, his impish features twisting into a frown.
"You guys don't know?!" she repeated, panic settling in.
Yanking on her pigtails, she ranted, "How do you guys not know? What do you mean you don't know?!"
"Buh—but—but the Harvest Goddess never really told us how they worked, yeah!"
"So we just figured all you had to do was bring them here, yeah!"
"WAAAAAHHH, SHE'S GONNA BE A STATUE FOREVERRRRR!"
Tina sat down; she could tell she would be there for a while. Holding her hands up, she tried to placate the agonized gnomes. Surely there had to be some answer to the problem. And knowing the Harvest Goddess, she'd maybe even dropped some hint somewhere that they were supposed to pick up on.
"Guys, guys!"
They ceased their worried ranting—save for Billy, who was still sniffling a bit—and stared, their minds full of doubt, at Tina. She drew in a deep breath and smiled.
"Look, maybe this is a little scary, I'll admit that, but I'm sure we can work something out! The Harvest Goddess just wouldn't leave us high and dry like this, would she?"
Dragging their feet in the ground and wringing their tunics, while Arthur shrugged, they mumbled affirmative responses of "Yeah…" and "I guess, yeah…"
"Of course she wouldn't! Now, all we have to do is figure out what she would want us to do. Why would music notes be important to the Goddess?"
Immediately, the three of them answered. "The Harvest Goddess loves music!"
Carlos clapped his hands together. "Maybe she wants us to sing the notes as a song, yeah!"
Billy wiped his nose on his sleeve and added, "She used to sing for us lots, yeah."
"But wait," Arthur interjected, "How should we sing them? Is there an order we should do it in?"
Tina put a fist to her chin and her brow furrowed.
"Well… I guess we should sing them in the order I got them?"
"How many do we need? There's lots of them, yeah!" Arthur said.
Shifting slightly, Tina tried to remember if she'd been told anything about the amount of notes there were out there. The Harvest Goddess didn't say anything specific, but something told her it would take a lot. And if she had to sing them in order…
"But the Notes that I do have… I'm not even sure which ones I got before which!" she frowned.
"Aren't the notes colored, yeah?" Carlos asked. "Maybe we have to arrange them by color and then sing them!"
"That seems like a good idea, yeah!"
"It would definitely be way easier," she chuckled. "Well then, I guess I've got some practicing to do! It's been a while since I sang so seriously."
A daunting possibility struck its way into her psyche, and Tina began to worry all over again. "Hey, do you think it'll still work even if I can't hit the notes?"
The sprites exchanged glances once more, and at this point Tina deduced that that was decidedly not a good thing.
"Well… The Harvest Goddess would be happy if anyone sang to her, no matter how they sounded, yeah… But when she turned to stone she couldn't control that, yeah." Billy recalled.
Carlos pouted and fiddled with one of his pointed ears. "If she couldn't control whatever made her become stone, then maybe she won't be able to help what breaks the curse, yeah."
The cavern's atmosphere became still once more, and Tina found herself almost at a loss for words.
"I… I'm not so sure I can even do that…" she admitted softly. The sprites startled, and Billy's eyes threatened to overflow with tears. Singing was something she'd always loved to do, but she was by no means an expert. In fact, when it came to really high notes, she was horrible. Even her friends would tell her that any attempts to sing high soprano notes would likely summon wandering dogs. Her eyes fell on the statue of the Harvest Goddess. The grey features seemed to be crying out in despair, frozen in a moment of pure terror and helplessness. The gentle, motherly figure, who had watched over the land for who knows how long finally needed someone else to help her… and Tina began to fear for the first time that she would let her down. Behind her, Billy sniffled.
"No," she said hotly, shaking her head. Billy looked up, and Carlos raised an eyebrow.
"No way, we're not giving up this easy! If we're going down, we're going down fighting! Maybe I can't hit some notes now, but I can learn, right?! If I try hard enough, I can do it!"
The sprites began to cheer, offering phrases of encouragement that overlapped. Tina smirked and tugged on the ends of her bandanna, tightening the cloth.
"All right then! From now on, I'm going to practice singing, and I'm going to practice every day! There's no way I won't get better, right?"
"Yeah!"
She pumped her fists at her sides, a renewed sense of vigor flowing through her and making her spirit soar. She could do this! It would take plenty of work, but it was bound to succeed. If it didn't… No, she wouldn't let herself fall into that poisonous way of thinking. Negative thoughts and catastrophizing wouldn't revive the Goddess. 'Keep your chin up!' she coached internally.
With a low grunt, she leapt to her feet.
"Okay you guys; plan Magical Melody is a go! I'll report back as soon as new developments pop up and stuff!" she saluted. The sprites returned the gesture in tandem, and with a wave, Tina was off into the world of sunlight and sprinting down the rocky path. Trees whizzed by, a blur of green and brown with the sound of a rushing river growing ever faint. Her feet faltered; she stumped the ball of her foot in a rut on a particularly sharp bend. As she catapulted into the air, narrowly avoiding a head on collision with a stump, she heard a mean-spirited cackle.
"Quite the pathetic klutz, aren't we?" he taunted.
"Quite the pathetic stalker, aren't we?!" she spat in turn, biting her lip to stem the sharp pangs of pain in her knees and the tears at the corners of her eyes.
His face twisted into a sneer, ignoring the "stalker" comment, arms crossed defiantly at his chest.
"Are you really crying from a little tumble like that? Hah! What a weakling!"
Standing as quickly as she could with wobbling knees, she stomped forward to flail her arms out full-force at Jamie's chest. The childish attack was anticipated by the priggish rival, who promptly stood his ground. The result was a still-standing Jamie, who had only jolted ever so slightly, and an even more upset Tina who was close to blowing steam out of her ears. He sneered smugly. She dug her nails into her palms.
"You… you suck!" she screeched, kicking up clouds of dust as she stormed off. Jamie laughed once more behind her, basking in the victory that only served to fluff his already inflated ego.
As the sweltering day wore on, Tina busied herself with chores, racking up as much profit as she could to distract herself from the ever-increasing spots of sweat on her clothes. Dog days of summer were now highlighted by the refreshing, almost freezing cold showers she took before changing into a flowing nightdress, tonight's being a soft yellow that reminded her of lemonade. Tina threw herself onto the bed with a satisfied sigh. The clock at her bedside read 7:05, and Tina gawked. Was it really that early?
"I still have to practice singing," she whined to no one in particular. But as she felt the drag of fatigue coaxing her to close her eyes, it became harder and harder to keep them open and her mind alert.
"Just a quick nap…" she yawned to herself. "Just a lil' nap, and then… I'll…"
The next time her eyelids fluttered open, it was dark outside. The alarm clock now read 12:47.
"Well… it's a good as time as any to get some practice in," she reasoned. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stood slowly, now aware of the bruises forming on her legs. A hiss passed through clenched teeth, and she gingerly made her way to the riverbank where she left her shoes in the afternoon. Slipping them back on, she closed her eyes to concentrate on the world around her, summoning the Notes she'd acquired one by one. It was a strange phenomenon, and she was never really sure how she was able to summon them, she just… was. All she had to do was concentrate, think of the notes, and then, bam! There they were, floating next to her and glowing softly in the night air.
"Now then, colors, colors…" she muttered to herself, arranging the handful of lights with gentle nudges. One orange Note began to glide away, hovering over the river, and Tina stretched a hand to grasp it. As if sensing her unspoken command, the Note swung back to her side.
"Hmmm, but what about your sound?" she asked to another floating, teal hued Note. Lifting a curious finger, she tapped it. The Note suddenly released a wave of soft color, and a smooth pitch rung out. It was a relatively easy sounding note; not too high, not too low. No problem! Tina stood straight, cleared her throat, and did her best to imitate it.
"L-laaaaa!" she lilted, cracking at the end. Clearing her throat harder, she blushed and gave it another try.
"Laaaa!" A giddy grin broke out across her cheeks.
"I did it! Hah, I did it! Okay, okay, again with… this one!" she squealed, poking another note.
After toying around with the Notes for a minute or two longer, she learned the melody for each one. A hop, skip, and 5 minutes of poking the balls of light later, they were each arranged in rainbow order—or at least, as close as she could get to a rainbow. Stringing the notes together, Tina sang her impromptu verse, each time a little differently. As she sang she felt a strange lull seep into her heart. It was calm and loving; warm and strong. The feeling bade her to sing in a new way, lingering out some notes, while letting others curtail. It was an almost familiar song; like something she'd loved as a child but forgotten as the years passed. Strolling along the banks, she decided to take a walk to see the waterfall at night, the Notes trailing behind her.
Jamie rubbed his eyes, but ignored the dryness, casting his rod into the mouth of the waterfall once more. He'd recalled that a rare fish, usually seen at the end of summer and the beginning of fall, could be found in spots like this and were active late at night. A vague memory told him he'd caught one before, but whether or not his mind was playing tricks on him was irrelevant. Ever since his rival had appeared and began her attempts to usurp his position as the Goddess's fated savior, Jamie had become even more serious about discovering new ways to seek out Notes. According to his estimations, he'd need perhaps 100 to revive her. If that was the case he had a long way to go. The meager 23 he'd collected within the last year and a half were a far cry from his end goal. He needed a new plan. A better plan. So, at the start of this year's summer, Jamie decided on one. Instead of steadily building off of each achievement he'd made, he would try to recreate them all within the year. Which of course, meant he would be very busy. His "to do" list for this year included: win in every festival competition (even if he'd won it before), catch every type of fish in Flower Bud, reach the bottom of both mines, ship every type of gem and mineral, plant and ship high quality produce of every crop and flower, and ship animal products of the highest caliber from each animal. The only stump in his plan so far was the festival dilemma. He'd participated in the Swimming Contest, which he'd won before, but this year the match was cut short. 'Hmph!' he scowled. 'And all because—' he paused suddenly, pictures of the past flashing in front of his eyes.
"She's drowning!"
"Help! Someone, HELP!"
"Why don't you go home before you drown?"
—that idiot had to go and drown!' he imploded. 'All of this is her fault!'
He let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding and clutched a hand to his stomach. Why did he feel so sick all of a sudden? Shaking his head, he chalked it up to the muggy summer's eve air. Glimpsing down at the water, he frowned. What if all of his work didn't count, what if none of it counted, all because of her?! He would have won that dumb race if it hadn't been for her, so it's not like he could help it, right?
"I swear, if she's ruined this for me, I'll throttle her!" he cursed lowly.
He glanced up at the moon. If his guess was correct—which obviously, it was—it was probably very late at night. Approaching one in the morning. He reeled his rod back in and stood. Then he heard it: a distant sound, but it was… music? Yes, music, coming from near the waterfall! He made his way north up the riverbank, winding through the trees. Jamie could barely see his feet in the blackness, but after living in Flower Bud for so long, he no longer needed to watch his path. He knew every inch of this land, after all. It was his. His to protect from filthy humans and stupid, pigtailed rivals! Momentarily, the world in front of him tipped dangerously, and Jamie promptly righted himself before he could fall into the roots and rocks below him. A frustrated huff escaped his lips. Most of the time he didn't need to watch the path. Just a minor slip-up, that was all.
The music continued to call him, a siren in the night, and Jamie found himself utterly enchanted by it. It was soft, and welcoming… Like something he once treasured, long, long ago. Like home and something else strange and wonderful.
'Like the Harvest Goddess!' he startled. He'd started to forget the way she sounded, in those days that seemed so far gone. Back when she was living and well, and happy. Some days, especially on spring days he recalled, she would sing songs to the sprites and him. It was the most beautiful voice he'd ever heard—and he could swear he was hearing one almost just like it now. The closer he came upon the sound, the more he discerned that it was not quite the voice of his slumbering Goddess, but something indescribable, some mysterious quality it held made it seem so much like hers that he almost didn't realize. Who was this that could sound so hauntingly like her?
Finally, parting a pair of low branches, he hit the mouth of the waterfall, where it formed a pond that the stream bled out from. What he saw across the water made his stomach lurch. Fear and awe mingled in his chest, the instinct to stay and the instinct to leave clashing. Above the sound of his pulse hammering in his ears, he could hear perfectly now the short, repeating melody floating across the water, attached to the figure meandering on the other side.
It was obscured by the mist and the darkness, but in the moonlight he could see the vision. It was a woman, he realized. A woman with hair to about her shoulders, in some sort of dress that quivered in the breeze. Strange lights danced around her, illuminating her figure, and he could have sworn she was gliding above the ground. Every now and then she would twirl, dancing shyly but gracefully. There was a sweetness in her voice that beckoned him, pleaded with something deep within him to follow that voice and partake in its song. Trapped in a haze, he thought to speak, but the shout died in his throat. Was she even real? If he called out, would the illusion be broken and scattered to the corners of the world? His hand shot forward above the lake, a small sound barely escaping from his lips, when the girl began to wander away into the shadows. Just as suddenly as he heard the song, it was gone.
The wind wrapped around him, and Jamie shivered despite the warm air. For the first time, he didn't feel very safe in the forests of Flower Bud. But as he turned to hightail his way home, he stopped one more time to gaze out at the moonlit lake, still feeling echoes of the enticing cantata coursing through his veins.
Huh. I feel like this is kind of a weird place to stop, but my brain was like, "No Aerois. This is all we need. This chapter is done now!" and I was like "Are you sure brain?" and it was like "Yes."
Sooo… yeah. I know this one took a long time—believe me, I'm painfully aware of it—but I hope the long chapter makes up for the wait. I hate to deprive you guys of romance after such a long time, but there is a plot to follow! Hang in there. Thanks for your continued support!