"Hey! Hey Mark! Hey Mark get up!"

"Ugh, Charlie be quiet!" I shouted as I slowly opened my eyes. I pulled the pillow out from underneath my head and started to lightly swing at Charlie who stood beside my bed.

"Hey, come on man, it's like eight in the morning." He told me as he blocked the pillow. "It's time to get up."

I dropped the pillow on the ground and sat up while I rubbed my eyes.

"Yeah whatever…" I grumbled. Wait a minute, eight o'clock? "Where's Taro?"

Charlie shrugged. "I dunno, I only woke up a while ago. I didn't see him anywhere when I stepped outside."

"You went outside and didn't tell me?" I asked. Sheesh, just listen to me, I sound like a parent already.

"Well yeah, I'm not that young." He glared.

"Whatever." I muttered again as I jumped off the bed.

"So what are we gonna do?" He asked. "My dad's still not back yet."

"I don't know." I answered as I snagged my hat off the ground and put it on my head. "I should probably go and check on Chelsea first before I start anything with you."

"Aw, worried about your girlfriend?" He asked in a teasing tone.

My eyes widened. "What? No! I thought we told you we're not dating or anything!"

"Calm down Mark." He said as he raised his hands up and backed up. "I'm kidding I'm kidding."

I sighed as I stood up. "Sure you are… I just want to see if she's up or not that's all. We have work to do."

Charlie began to follow behind me as I headed out into the main room and out the door. When I stepped outside I took a quick peek over at Taro's house through the window and saw Elliot, Natalie, and Felicia roaming about the house but no Taro. I assumed that since he wasn't there he must have been at the farm and continued up to the farm. Heading out to the field once there I walked up to one sprouts in the soil gently grabbed onto one of the leaves branching off of one.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asked.

"I'm checking to see if they're wet so I know if Chelsea watered them yet." I answered back.

"That's not weird at all." He remarked. Like you pounding on that rock wasn't? He looked up at the sky for a moment before looking back at me. "So are they wet or what?"

"Nope." I replied as I let go of the leaf and stood up. "I guess she's still asleep or something."

I quickly head towards the farm house as Charlie followed closely behind.

I lightly tapped on the front door. "Hey Chelsea, you in there?"

It was probably only a few seconds until I heard the doorknob click..

"Huh, Mark, what are you doing here?" Chelsea asked as she opened the door. She spoke wearily as she yawned and rubbed one of her eyes.

"It was getting a little…" I paused for a moment and thought about the time for a second. "Ear-late, something or other? I guess I just wanted to see if you were up is all."

She gave me a tired looking smile. "Awe, that's sweet of you."

"Oh, it's nothing really." I replied a little nervously. "So, um, where's the watering can? I figure I'll go and water the plants while you get ready to come out."

"It's in the toolbox, just a sec." She answered before stepping out of view for a moment and reentering with the doorway with the watering can. "Here you are."

I took it from her hands and headed back towards the field. "Thanks!"

"I'll be out in a minute!" She shouted to me and Charlie.

I heard the farm house door shut as Charlie and I stepped foot back on the field and I began to water the plants. While I did I couldn't help but notice as Charlie continued to eye that large boulder on the other side of the field, crazy kid. As I finished watering the last sprout I was too busy to notice the shadow that began to loom over me and found myself falling back at the sight of Chelsea standing almost directly behind me as I turned around.

"Ah, Chelsea you scared me there." I told her as I looked up at her. Even though she blocked the sun from my view I could still see she had her usual bright shining face on.

"Heh, sorry about that Mark." She laughed as she extended her hand out to help me up. "I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"Eh, it's alright." I replied "No harm done."

She smiled. "That's good. So are you all finished here?"

"Yep, I watered every last one of them." I answered.

"Great… So what do we do we do now then?" She asked.

"I don't know. Let's go find Taro. I'm sure he's got something for us to do." I said.

The two of us started to walk towards the town area while Charlie continued to stare at the boulder for a moment before turning around.

"Hey! Wait for me!" He shouted as he began to run after us.


Back in the town area past the hills we noticed Felicia examining the outside of her house. I had to wonder if someone as chipper as her was satisfied with living in such a rundown looking place but since she hadn't complained yet I could only assume for that she was.

"Hey there Felicia." Chelsea greeted as the three of us approached her.

"Oh, hello you three." She greeted back. "What brings you three here?"

"Nothing, we were just wondering where Taro is." I answered.

"I believe he's over at the beach waiting for Charlie's dad to return." She answered back.

"To the beach!" Charlie declared with enthusiasm as he raised his arm up and pointed to the sky.

Down at the beach we quickly spotted Taro standing out on the dock and headed over towards him. However, we didn't even get a chance to open our months to speak before he turned around to face us.

"So what brings you three out here?" He asked before being able to even see that there was actually three of us.

I simply froze up in either awe or fear. I honestly couldn't tell.

"We came to see what you were up to." Chelsea answered for me. "And I guess I was a little curious as to why you didn't stop by this morning."

"Well I'm just waiting out here for when Chen returns." He replied. "I also didn't stop by today since there really isn't anything more I can teach you two at the minute."

"Really?" Chelsea and I both asked in unison.

"Well, yeah." He replied with a raised eyebrow. "I mean all you'll have to do is water the crops every day until they're mature and ready to be harvested, that's about it. I might stop by every now and then if I can think of anything else but from here on out you're pretty much on your own."

"Really? That's great." I said a little happily causing Taro to shoot me an angry look. "I-I mean the fact that there isn't much work to be done, that's great."

Chelsea started to giggle and covered up her mouth as her laughter started to get louder causing Taro to turn back to the ocean as he mumbled something under his breath.

"Wait a minute." He began as he pointed his cane out towards a boat in the distance. "Chen's back."

"Yeah! My dad's back!" Charlie exclaimed happily as he jumped up and down a few times.

"What? Were we that bad at watching you?" I asked.

He stopped jumping and put on that innocent look of his. "Well it's not like we actually did anything…"

Chelsea started to laugh again as I rolled my eyes. We're on a partially abandoned island, what could he expect?

We all kind of stood around and twiddled our thumbs patiently as Chen's ship continued to approach us at a rather slow speed. As it got closer to the dock we all took a few steps back as Chen carefully navigated the ship against it. Once he had the ship adequately settled Chen emerged from the cabin and tossed a rope over for Taro who proceeded to tie it to one of the dock's splintery posts.

"Dad, you're back!" Charlie shouted happily.

Chen looked up at him and smiled before picking up two crate looking objects and stepping onto the dock. "It's good to see you too Charlie."

"Welcome back Chen." Taro greeted. "What do you have there? Supplies or something?"

"In these crates?" Chen asked rhetorically as he lifted them up a bit. "No, I have quite a few supplies back in the ship. These are the shipping bins for the island."

"Shipping bins?" I asked.

Chen humored me with a brief laugh. "I'll explain once we get to town."

Chen led the walk back to town with the rest of us close behind. In the town square area Felicia, Elliot, and Natalie all seemed to be waiting for us.

"Oh Chen, you're finally back." Felicia happily declared as she clasped her hands together. "And what' is this that you've brought with you?"

Chen walked over to the front of their house and set the bins down on the ground before placing the top one over to the side. "Like I told the others back at the beach I've brought us a pair of shipping bins."

"Shipping bins?" Felicia asked. Glad to see I'm not the only one confused about them.

"Yes, you see whenever you have something you'd like me to have sold out in the city you just have to come and open the bin's top." Chen explained as he opened the top of the bin like a chest to demonstrate. "You place whatever it is inside and it'll be sold to one of ships that will stop by in the evening and you'll get whatever money it makes."

"So you've got merchants to come visit the island? That's great." Felicia said happily.

"Well they'll just be stopping by to collect whatever items are in the shipment bins but yes in a way I guess you can say that." Chen clarified.

"This is just wonderful either way." Taro remarked.

"Though since I'll be busy managing the store I'll need someone to keep track of the items being shipped and how much money is coming in." Chen added.

"Oh I'm sure Natalie and Elliot can do that." Felicia said.

"What?" Natalie blurted angrily while Elliot seemed to remain neutral on the matter.

"Oh I'm sure it won't be that hard." Felicia replied. "Beside you'll have your brother to help you and we all need to work together if we want any of this to work."

Natalie went about her now practically trademark routine of rolling her eyes and crossing her arms while mumbling. If I had to guess I'd say that she probably won't be doing most of the work.

"That reminds me." Chen began as he turned to me and Chelsea. "You two will need a name for your ranch so it'll be easier to sell things from it."

"A name for the farm?" I asked as Chen nodded his head.

Chelsea placed her hand on her head and started to think. "Hm, what should we name the place?"

I shrugged.

She shut her eyes for a moment and seemed to enter a state of deep thought for a moment. "How about Harvest Ranch?"

Short, sweet, totally descriptive of what we do with no hint of subtlety… eh, better than anything I could think of.

I nodded my head. "Alright, we'll go with Harvest Ranch then."

"Great, I'll be sure to tell all the traders your choice next time I see them." Chen said.

"So what else did you bring us?" Elliot asked.

"I brought with me enough supplies to start my shop here." He answered before pausing. "Oh, right, I also brought some supplies that should be of use for all of you. I'll need some help getting it all off the ship though."


Chen, Charlie, Taro, Elliot, Chelsea, and I all returned to Chen's boat. He hopped back on board and went into the cabin of the boat. He stepped out a moment later pushing out two crates, one for Taro's family and one for me and Chelsea. He explained that they contain a few things that should serve of use to us and that he and Charlie should be able to handle the rest. Seeing as our work was done Chelsea and I picked up our crate and returned back to the house. Inside we set the crate down in the middle of the carpeted floor.

"So what's inside?" Chelsea asked.

"Well, only one way to find out." I replied as I cracked my knuckles.

I grabbed onto the lid and removed it which proved to be much easier than I had anticipated since it wasn't really sealed or anything. Chelsea and I peeked inside to find a calendar, a clock, and some light bulbs that managed to make the trip surprisingly undamaged.

"Aw, Chen is so thoughtful." Chelsea remarked in a sweet voice.

"Yeah, this is just what we needed." I added.

Chelsea removed the calendar from the crate and brought it over to the wall on her side of the bed before using the tack that came with it to hang it up.

"There we are." She said triumphantly as she made sure it was level. "So what day is it?"

I had to think for a moment. Let's see, we were on the boat on the first, found this island on the second…

"It's the seventh." I answered back.

She looked at the calendar for another moment before turning to me. "Hm, well we don't have anything to mark the calendar with so oh well."

I reached into the crate and pulled out the clock inside and headed over to the bedside table, fiddling around with the complex alarm controls on the back. "Now all we have to do is set the alarm to six in the morning and this thing can take the place of Taro."

Eventually I managed to figure it out and placed the clock on the table. Turing around I noticed Chelsea was now standing beside the crate with a light bulb in her hand. Her gazed seemed fixed at the lighting fixture placed in the middle of the ceiling. Her mouth hung wide up, seeming to be puzzled by something.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I walked towards her.

She shook her head and looked at me. "Nothing, I was just wondering how we're supposed to replace the lights up there."

It was then that it occurred to me just high up the fixture was. "That's a good question."

She continued to think for another moment. "Oh! If you give me a boost I'm sure I could reach it."

"Like lift you up?" I asked a little skeptically. Not to say she looked heavy or anything but I'm pretty scrawny and I doubt I could hold her up for long.

"Yeah," She replied with a reassuring smile. "I'm sure you can do it."

I gave her an uneasy glace but there was just something about that smile of hers. I don't know if it was it placed me under some sort of hypnotic spell or she really did make me feel confident in myself but I decide to go along with her plan.

"Alright, let's give it a shot." I said.

She smiled as she handed me two of the light bulbs from the crate before grabbing another for herself.

"Crouch down." She told me as she walked behind me.

I complied with her request and after a brief moment felt as her weight come down on my back and up to my shoulders. My legs started to shake but I was determined to get this done and waited for a moment as my body tries to adjust to her added weight.

She patted me on the back. "You can stand up whenever you're ready."

"Yeah… I'll get right on that…" I groaned.

Wrapping my arms around her legs I began to struggle as I started to lift up off the ground. I took a deep breath and shut my eyes as I lifted up for the moment of truth and much to my surprise I didn't seem to be back down on the floor when I opened my eyes again. I tilted my head up a bit and watched as Chelsea placed the first light into its place before dropping her hand down in front of my face, motioning for something.

"Hand me another light." She finally said.

"Oh, sorry." I apologized as I lift my hand up slightly to place the bulb in her hands.

She again placed the new light into its spot before motioning for the third, securing it in its spot after receiving it.

"Come on Mark, I need one more." She said.

I looked at my empty hands before spotting the final lightbulb back in the crate.

Slowly, I tried to inch my way towards the crate attracting Chelsea's attention.

"What are you doing down there Mark?" She asked.

"Just… getting the… light…" I answered as her weight on my shoulders began to grow more and more apparent.

I could practically feel the light with my fingertips when my legs finally decided to give out, plummeting me down to the ground with Chelsea landing on my back.

"Hm, your body makes a nice cushion." She noted as she patted my back as if I was a pillow.

"Good… to… know…" I groaned painfully as I laid face down on the floor.

"Heh, I should probably get off now huh?" She asked playfully.

"That would be a start…" I replied.

She hopped off of me and helped get me back up to my feet. My head continued to spin as she dusted me off.

"Sorry about that." She said as she adjusted my bandana. "Aha, there you go. Feel better?"

I tried my hardest to focus my vision on her but my balance was still a bit out of whack. "Yeah…"

"That's great." She said with a smile.

I glanced up at the unlit lights above it once the room spinning. "So you think it'll work now?"

"I don't know, let's find out." She answered as she walked over to the switch by the door.

She flipped it on and the room and to my surprise the lights went up except for one empty socket, leaving the corner of the room by the cabinet dark.

"Well at least it works." She remarked.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Taro what a pleasant surprise." Chelsea greeted as she went to open it and found him on the other end.

"I came over to let you two know we've got your shipping bin set up." He told her.

"Our shipping bin?" I asked.

He nodded his head and directed our view over to the area near the entrance of our farm. "We decided it would be best to have one for the town in front of our house and one just for you two."

"That's so nice of you all, thanks." Chelsea said.

"If you two ever need anything just stop by and I'll be more than happy to help." He finished before taking his leave.

That's it? No yelling? No elderly advice? I could get used to this.

I walked over to Chelsea as she headed over to the bin.

"Well that was nice huh Mark?" She asked as she opened the lid and peaked into it out of curiosity.

"Yeah, things are really starting to look up since Chen managed to find us here." I replied.

"Yeah, we're going to have to work really hard now if we want to make this island a success." She said.

Suddenly these little sparkles appeared beside our feet and all of the sudden this little pointed eared guy wearing red clothes and a matching hat with a yellow puff at the end poofed into existence right before us.

"Hi there!" He greeted nonchalantly.

I silently stared at him, feeling a mixture of surprise and fear as I did. I mean come on, he just came out of nowhere, who knows what else he could possibly do.

Chelsea on the other handed decided to crouch down and smile at him. "Hello there." She greeted back with a quick wave.

"Sorry for the intrusion," He began. "I just couldn't help but overhear… are you two this islands new residents?"

"Yeah I guess you can say that." Chelsea laughed.

"That's great." He cheered happily. "We've been waiting for some new people to show up here for quite some time now."

"We?" Chelsea asks curiously.

"Yeah, me and all the other harvest sprites here. I'm sure they'll be happy to meet you." He answered

"So there's other… er, little guys like you?" I asked as I slowly crouched down.

"Yeah, we harvest sprites all live on different parts of this island." He replied. "My name's Noe by the way."

Chelsea smiled. "It's nice to meet you Noe, my name's Chelsea."

"Yeah, and I'm Mark." I told him.

"It's nice to meet you two." He said. "Do you two have a name for this place? The island I mean."

I sighed. More naming?

"No, no, I don't think this place has a name." Chelsea replied.

"Aw come on, all places need a name." Noe complained. "The last people who lived here never came up with a name for it either."

"Hm, how about Sunny Island." Chelsea suggested. "Since it always seems to be pretty sunny here. Right Mark?"

"Sure that's fine." I replied. I honestly didn't really care though.

"Sunny Island." Noe repeated before thinking for a moment. "That's great, I'll have to tell everyone right way. I'm sure the Harvest Goddess will love it."

I could feel as Chelsea briefly shook with shock, much like I did.

"H-H-Harvest Goddess?" We both stuttered.

Without as much as a goodbye Noe quickly disappeared in the same sparkles he appeared from.

"The… the Harvest Goddess is here?" I asked. "I-I thought she was just a fairytale or something."

Chelsea still appeared to be shocked at the revelation. "I guess not..."

We stood up and looked at each other for a moment. "Heh, we should probably tell Taro and them that we've named the island huh?" I asked.

"Yeah… Sunny Island, I'm sure they'll love it." Chelsea replied.

Sunny Island, something tells me this place isn't going to be so bad.