Chapter 5

A Rocky Start

She freezes with anticipation

Heart racing in the heat

She hates confrontation

Yet it gets closer, closer

She tries to run towards safety

But where can she hide?

When her heart is too hasty

Killing it is the only cure

Taking a poison known as denial

She stops her beating heart

And she smiles

Thinking she won't get hurt

Molly woke up the next day refreshed and ready to start on her farm. After a quick breakfast, she went out the door, Finn at her shoulder and, after searching her yard for wild fruits and herbs to ship for money, headed toward Marimba farm. She didn't want to go back because of yesterday's awkward incident but, unfortunately, it was the only place she could buy the seeds she needed for her garden.

She had a decent plot in front of her house that had a few cherry trees, which she wasn't really sure what to do with, and was set on planting strawberries, wheat and potatoes. It made sense since, although they were more expensive to buy, aside from the potatoes, they would re-grow and ship for more than most other vegetables.

She arrived at the doorstep exactly when they opened and, thankful that Craig was working in his fields, had a rather pleasant conversation with Ruth about her two children. Both of them it seems went to find seeds that could grow in the nutrient deficient soil. Taylor, the boy she saw arguing with them yesterday, had set off to join in his sister's pursuit the day before. Molly, realizing once again how much the residents depended upon the land, felt determined to start on the first task of finding the red bell that day. After buying the seeds, she asked Ruth whether she knew about any bells but she could only think of a yellow one behind their house which was, for the time being, locked for some reason only known to Craig.

Not looking forward to that conversation, she thanked her anyways and went back to her farm to till the soil and plant her new seeds. It didn't take long before she was off to Harmonica town to ask the others about anything concerning the bells. It turned out that most of them didn't know much, if anything at all. She couldn't believe that no one knew anything about the bells, considering that they were such an important part of the town and a connection to the Harvest Goddess. But, thinking about it, Molly did notice that aside from the church the Harvest Goddess' influence wasn't present anywhere else in the town.

Maybe it wasn't just the lost bells that contributed to the deterioration of the island…

Deciding that she should move onto the Garmon Mine District, she rode the recently fixed mine cart and proceeded to the blacksmith's to question Ramsey and the rest of his family. Walking into the store, she saw Ramsey kneeling next to his smelting oven, trying to stir some ashes into flames and sighing when they burned out.

"Um, Ramsey?"

He put down his tool and turned around, the worry wrinkles in his forehead relaxing into a less-defined position.

"Molly. What can I do for you?"

"Oh, well actually I was wondering if you knew anything about the red bell?"

"Hmmm, the red bell?" he asked, stroking his chin. "I think I saw something like that in the lower mines."

"Really?" Molly said, her hopes rising. Finally, they were getting somewhere.

"Yeah, but you've never been mining before, have you? If you're not prepared, things could get dangerous," Ramsey said.

"Oh, well, is it very far down? And I don't think I'll really be mining…just searching," she said.

"But still, it'd be better if you had someone with you."

She didn't know exactly what he was getting at. Was he suggesting that he go with her?

"Oh, but I couldn't bother you…"

Ramsey started to chuckle. "Oh no, not me. I was thinking my grandson, Owen, could help you out."

"Owen?" Molly had met him briefly the day before and had the fleeting image of a tall muscular red-head with a square face and a broad smile.

"Yeah, I'll call him over now," Ramsey said, walking to the kitchen and through a door in the back.

Molly started to protest but her words faded out as he continued to walk away and, moments later, came back with a grinning Owen in tow.

"Here you go; your own personal miner. If there are any big rocks in the way, Owen will help you out."

Molly gave a small smile in Owen's direction and thanked Ramsey, heading towards the lower mine, Owen following behind her.

As they made their way down Owen started making small talk, asking how she liked the island so far, what she planned on planting, what she did before she came here, and so on. She wasn't sure how she felt about Owen; he seemed nice enough but there were times when he came off as brash and, if she was being honest, a bit cocky too.

Once in a while they stopped and he showed her how to use the hammer to mine the ores and gems. She wasn't very good at it since it took someone with strength and stamina to get very far, but Owen was obviously an expert. He swung the hammer around with ease and before long they had a pile of ores and gems ready to be processed.

Soon they reached the tenth level and had to come to a stop.

"That's odd, since when was this giant boulder here?" Owen said, examining a boulder the size of a small tool shed blocking the way to the latch door that led to the lower floors.

Molly looked around the boulder and saw a copper colored stand of some sorts not too far away. She looked a bit closer and realized that the stand must be the stand for the red bell but, investigating further, Finn reported that the red bell was missing.

Finn shrugged. "I don't know why it's not here…it wasn't too long ago that it was."

Molly frowned. She knew the villagers wouldn't be of much help, especially since the majority didn't even know where the stand was. Now what was she supposed to do?

In the meantime, she figured she could work on getting the boulder broken down so when they do find the bell they'd actually be able to reach the stand.

"Owen?"

"Yes?" he responded, still eyeing over the boulder.

"If I wanted to break down that boulder…how long do you think it'd take?" she asked.

"You want to try breaking it down? I don't know Molly; it would take an experienced miner a couple of days to tackle this giant. If it was you…well it might take weeks. No offense," he said, frowning.

Molly groaned. Just one thing after another.

"You really want to mine the lower levels don't cha?"

"Uh…" Molly didn't really want to mine but how could she tell Owen she wanted to return a bell to the stand when he didn't know about their meaning? So she lied and said she was really interested in learning to mine.

"Well, in that case, I can try to clear it out of the way for you!" Owen said, raising his hammer.

"Oh, you'd do that for me?" Molly asked, surprised by his generous offer.

"'Course, it's no big deal. I've been slacking on my weight training lately so this would be good exercise," he said, starting to pound on the rock already.

Molly gave a small smile. It didn't surprise her that he lifted weights; his muscles were the size of his head.

"Wow, thanks Owen. That's really nice of you."

"Don't mention it, but this means that you'll have to return the favor and go out to eat with me," he said, winking.

Molly felt her stomach tighten.

"O-oh, well…"

Owen started laughing loudly, amused by her reluctant reaction.

"Don't have a panic attack Molly, its just dinner. And besides, I already have someone I'm interested in."

"Oh, you do? Well…I guess its okay then," Molly said.

"I see how it is, it's okay now that you know I already like someone else so you don't have to worry about me liking you?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

Molly knew he hit it on the mark but she wasn't about to admit it.

"I…that's…not it," she said, averting her eyes.

Owen just shrugged, deciding to let it go.

"Well, alright. So I'll work on this and you go think about what you want to eat then," said Owen, continuing to hammer away.

Molly smiled, thanked him and made her way back to the surface without much difficulty.

"That was really nice of him, wasn't it?" Finn said, spinning around. "Now we'll just need to find the red bell and ask Alan to ring it and play his song!"

Molly agreed and was about to voice her concerns over how to find the bell when she saw Bo, his face against the side of the Carpenter's. As she got closer she heard him counting off numbers like he was playing hide-and-go-seek. Not sure whether to say hi or not, she paused and just as she stopped he shouted "50!" and turned around to see her standing there.

He flushed and smiled shyly. "Oh, hi Molly, what're you doing here?"

"I was just in the mine. Playing something?" she asked.

He blushed again and nodded. "You must think I'm silly, huh? Chloe asked me to play kick the can with her. She looked so bored I couldn't refuse."

"No, not at all. I think it's nice that you're playing with her."

He smiled at her. "Thanks. But, I'd better hurry or she'll beat me again."

Molly waved bye and was heading back towards her house when she saw Chloe charge past her.

She turned and watched as Chloe sprinted to kick something that looked suspiciously like a red bell. It took her a second to realize that it didn't just look like a red bell – it was the red bell.

"Wait, Chloe –," she started to say, but it was too late. Chloe kicked the bell so hard it flew and landed in her houses chimney.

Finn's mouth was hanging wide open as Chloe started to cheer and gloat to Bo about her tenth win in a row. Soon enough he recovered and started flipping out.

"That was the red bell and she just KICKED it. KICKED IT AND NOW IT'S IN A CHIMNEY. What are we going to do?!"

"Calm down, Finn. Let's just ask her to get it out and let us take it back," Molly said, proceeding to do just that.

When she asked Chloe she said no problem and took them back to the Blacksmith's where they found out from a disgruntled Ramsey that the chimney was clogged up.

"It's clogged?" Molly said.

"Yes, and I have no idea how it got this way, it was fine a moment ago…" Ramsey said, at a loss over the strange event.

Molly stared at Chloe who was fidgeting a couple feet away. Chloe met her eyes and smiled sheepishly.

"Uhm, Grandpa? Actually…I, er, was playing kick the can and sort of…kicked a bell into the chimney…," she said, not looking anyone in the eye.

"Chloe, why are you always getting into trouble? Honestly, now what are we going to do?"

"Can't you get it out somehow?" Molly asked him.

"Well," Ramsey said, thinking for a moment, "I suppose we could create a small explosion that would send up a cloud of smoke and hopefully dislodge that thing."

"And how would we do that?"

"I'd need a few ores from the mine. An iron, copper, silver and gold one would do the trick I think."

Finn groaned next to her.

"I…understand," Molly said, sighing. Then, remembering that Owen gave her the ores they mined earlier this morning, she started pulling them from her rucksack and setting them on top of the table.

After sorting through them they figured out that the only ore she needed now was a gold ore. Gold ores were difficult to get, especially since she was limited to the first ten floors, Ramsey told her.

"Since Chloe was the one that took that bell out from the mine and got it stuck she can help you find that last ore. Isn't that right Chloe?" he said, hands on hips.

"Sure!" Chloe said, pumped up for another adventure.

Molly wasn't sure how this little girl could help her mine but she accepted the offer nonetheless and they decided it'd be best to go right away. So, Molly headed down into the mines again, Chloe following behind her and Finn, unknown to the little girl, was sending her dirty looks every five minutes.

Thanks to Chloe and her familiarity with the mine, getting to the ninth floor, where they were most likely to find a gold ore, didn't take as long as Molly had expected it to take.

After an hour of hammering away, she heard Chloe yell from the other side of the room. Jogging over, she saw something gold shining between the girl's small hands.

"You found a gold ore!?"

Chloe beamed and nodded. "Yup! Now we can go make that huge explosion! Oh, and you can get your bell back."

Molly smiled and thanked her, taking the ore and sticking it in her rucksack. Entering the blacksmith's for the third time that day, Molly handed Ramsey the gold ore and he started to make preparations.

Almost as soon as he made the fire and stuck the ores in, a small explosion, contained by the forge, sent up a plume of smoke and they heard something heavy tumble down the roof. Running outside, Molly looked up and held out her hands just in time as it fell down, landing squarely in her arms.

"Wow, good catch Molly!" Chloe said, hopping up and down.

Molly smiled and, as an apology for the trouble Chloe caused her, Ramsey invited her in for a late lunch and, re-energized, she exited the shop an hour later.

"So, what now?" Molly asked Finn.

"Of course we need to get it back to the bell stand in the mine!" Finn said.

"But we don't know if Owen is done or not…" Molly said. She really didn't want to go back in that mine.

"Oh yeah, he said it'd take a couple of days, didn't he?" Finn said, disappointed.

"So…I guess we'll just have to wait until he finishes, huh?" she said, trying to hide her relief.

"I guess so…"

"Well, it's only our third day so the fact that we even found a bell already is pretty amazing, don't you think?"

"Yeah, when you put it that way we're doing really well!" Finn said in good spirits again.

Molly smiled and, suggesting they go tell the Harvest Goddess the good news, they headed toward the Harvest Tree.

After taking a few steps, her rucksack started to shake violently and, yelling, she threw it off her back. The straps flew open and the red bell hopped out on its own.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Molly asked Finn, shaken up.

"Uhhhh."

"I am not an 'it'," said a voice coming from the bell.

Over the red bell a small figure started to take form and a harvest sprite, almost identical to Finn besides being a bit larger and wearing the color red instead of orange, waved up at them.

"Hello! My name is Alan, and I'm a harvest sprite! The leader, actually."

"Uh, nice to meet you. I'm Molly," she said.

"And who are you?" Alan said, directing the question to Finn.

"I'm Finn."

"You're a harvest sprite too, but I've never met you. Kind of small, aren't you?"

Finn blushed in embarrassment. "I-I was born after the island started to deteriorate."

Alan looked at him as if questioning his authenticity.

"Finn has been a big help. Since all of you other sprites haven't rung your bells, we've been looking for you so we can bring the island back to health," she said.

Finn smiled thankfully and Alan frowned a little.

"It's not my fault my bell was stolen from the mines. But now you can bring me back and I can play my song. So, what're you waiting for? Let's get going!" Alan said, marching in air.

"Actually, we can't yet. The entrance is blocked," said Molly.

"What?"

"Until it's out of the way we can't get you back to your bell stand," Finn answered.

Alan started mumbling incoherently and then threw up his arms in frustration saying, "Then until that happens I'm going to go back into my bell," and disappeared just as he said.

"He's…a bit of a handful, isn't he?" Molly said. Finn nodded and together they headed back to her farm.

They both were talking about how tiring the day was while eating dinner when Molly heard a knock on her door. When she opened it, Cain was on the other side holding a rope that was keeping a small black calf a couple feet from his side.

"Hey there Molly, I hope you're doing well?" Cain said with a friendly smile.

"Hi Cain, I'm doing fine. How are you?"

"Oh I'm doing just fine. I was thinking earlier this afternoon that you didn't have any animals to fill that big barn of yours yet. One of our cows just had this calf here and I figured we had enough already so, if you want, you can raise this one."

Molly's eyes got huge as she took in what he said. A free calf to raise? Could she do it?

"Oh, that's too generous of you, are you sure it's okay? I mean…I've never raised anything other than a cat, you know," Molly said, not quite believing that Cain would just give away a calf.

"Haha, don't worry about that. I'll teach you everything there is to know. I've even filled up your barn with fodder already," he said.

Molly didn't know how she felt about him going inside her barn as he pleased but she smiled and accepted his offer nonetheless.

"Then I guess I'd better take her then, thanks so much!"

Cain shook his head and said no problem and led the calf into the barn with Molly following behind and taught her what she needed to know.

"The last thing you need to do now is name it," he said, patting the small calf on the behind.

Molly took a moment to think about it and named her new calf Raven, after the bird.

"Raven, huh? Like the bird?" Cain asked.

"Yeah, since Ravens are black. I thought it'd be a nice name…"

"It sure suits her. I think she likes it too," he chuckled as the calf nudged Molly's thigh.

Molly smiled and patted its head.

"Well, if you're all set here I'd better get back to the ranch. Hanna will yell at me if I'm late for supper. I'll see you around Molly, take care."

"Bye, take care! And thanks again!" she said, waving until he reached the main path.

"Wow Molly, you have a calf now!" Finn said, excited for her.

"Yeah, when she grows up we can get our own milk and stuff."

"Woo!" Finn continued to celebrate and they left to go back to the house. Looking back on the day, Molly thought that they accomplished a lot. She started her garden, found the red bell and obtained a new baby calf. Maybe it won't take so long to heal the island after all.

"Alright, let's go finish our dinner, Finn."

"Mmmhmmm!"