A/N:

Thank you everyone for the wonderful reviews and for reading last chapter! Here is the next chapter! Enjoy!

Last Chapter:

Then Taro walked up, and I followed him to where I would be hopefully living from now on.

As Told By Chelsea

Chapter three: Lonely Ranch

I followed old mad Taro as he walked into this area. When I gazed ahead, I saw that it had a giant field with sticks and stones and weeds littering the ground. Farther up, I saw a giant rock wall, and to the left of it, a giant rock. I looked toward my left and saw two small buildings; when I looked toward my right, I saw one lone shack standing near the edge of the field.

I immediately knew where I was: I was at a farm.

"…It looks like this place used to be a ranch," commented old man Taro.

"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" I mused, still taking in the scenery. Was this the place that Taro had found me a home? A ranch?

The only thing I have ever grown were Toy Flowers and Moondrop flowers back at my old home. I didn't think I could manage a ranch, especially one this size.

"Why don't you be the new rancher, Chelsea? How about it, eh?" Taro asked me.

"Uh, well…"

"You grow crops here, and my family will figure out a way to sell and ship them out," Taro brainstormed.

"That sounds like a good idea, but…"

"If we work together, I think this island will really prosper!" announced Taro excitedly.

"But Taro," I started.

He, of course, ignored me. "If we can make this island more prosperous, maybe more people will come live here!"

"That would be nice," I agreed. But the problem was, I didn't know anything about farming, and I don't think I could manage a whole ranch. I tried telling Taro that. "Taro, I can't—"

"We can build this deserted island into a wonderful place to live!" he continued.

"Taro—"

"Now," he said, turning around to look at the shack I saw a few minutes ago to my right. "You can live in that house over there." He motioned to the house with a shake of his head.

I stayed silent. There was no use to try to talk to him now. I could just wait for Taro to finish…however long that might take.

"See?" he said, turning back to me. "First day on the island and you already have a home!" He seemed really excited. I, for one, was not feeling his enthusiasm.

"That's great, Taro. It's really great, but I don't think I'll be able to—"

"Right. If you're going to be a rancher, then you have to give your ranch a name."

I decided to follow him, rather than try to say what was on my mind.

I looked around the barren field, looking at the shack that was to be my home.

It looked so…

"Lonely," I said. "Lonely Ranch."

Taro paused for a second, thinking it over, probably saying the name over and over again in his head. "Lonely Ranch," he said, testing the name out. "Yes. That's a great name!"

I had the name, I had the ranch…the only thing I didn't have was the ability. And it's not like anyone else on this abandoned island could teach me to farm. This was going to suck. Help me, Goddess.

"You know," spoke up Taro. "I was quite the rancher back in my days."

What? Did Taro just say he was a rancher?

"I'll give you some pointers later."

"Seriously?" I asked, astounded.

He looked at me. "Yes, Chelsea. Seriously."

"Oh, good," I breathed a sigh of relief. "Because I don't know a thing about farming. I'm so glad that you'll be around to help."

Taro blinked. "Oh, well, why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"Well, I di—never mind." It wasn't worth it. I wasn't going to waste extra energy telling Taro that I tried to tell him for the past five minutes.

"Well, then," he sighed. "It's been a long day. You must be exhausted. Why don't you go inside and rest a little? Take a break today. I could come over tomorrow and teach you everything you need to know."

"Oh, that'll be great. Thanks, Taro."

"No problem, Chelsea." He started walking toward the exit of my ranch. My ranch.

"Wait," I called to him. "What about you? Do you need any help?" Even though my own house was a shack, their soon-to-be house seemed in worse condition than my own.

Taro gave me a sly smile. "Ah, don't worry about that, Chelsea. I have it all under control. You can try stopping by later."

Then, with a wave, Taro walked out of my ranch.

I waited until he completely disappeared until I walked to my house. It had a red roof, and looked slightly better up close. The walls didn't look too stable, but it was better than nothing. I opened the door, letting loose a creaking noise, and walked in and shut the door behind me.

The house was small. In the middle of the room stood an old wood table. In the top left hand corner, there was a bed, made only to hold one person.

Near the left wall, there was only one wastebasket and one telephone. For all I knew, the telephone wouldn't even work.

I walked up to the table, and put my finger in the middle of the table. Then I moved my finger downward until it came to the edge of the table. When I looked at my finger, it was covered in a lot of dust.

I came to the conclusion that this house was really old.

I then strolled over to my bed. It still had a pillow, bedspread, and a blanket. They, too, however, were also covered in a thick layer of dust.

Near the wall of my bed, I suddenly noticed, was a calendar. I looked at the date. It was about ten years ago. But then, I noticed, that there were plenty of sheets under them, and I ripped off about twenty or forty until I reached the date. And the calendar still had a lot of pages left.

Well, at least I would know the date.

I sighed and looked back at my bed. Was it possible to wash them? I knew better than to just beat the dust out. It would just gather in this small house of mine and end up suffocating me.

I could at least try to find a body of water around here somewhere.

I exited my house, and went about trying to find a body of water on my ranch. After all, if it had belonged to a farmer previously, then there had to some water nearby, right? They needed that water to water their crops.

I looked around my ranch, trying to figure out where to start? I decided that I would start to my right, and then continue around.

There was nothing at the right edge of my ranch. There were just trees and stonewalls that acted as a border. I continued up until I reached the other rock wall. I walked to my left, and soon came to the big boulder I saw earlier. It was so big, I realized, that I couldn't even get to the other side.

I wondered what on the other side, anyway.

Then I saw it: Water. There was a small river, probably flowing into the ocean, which marked the whole left border of my ranch. I quickly explored the rest of my ranch before going back to my house.

I found one small storage shed, probably for storing some lumber and stone, as I saw one or two pieces of it in the shed. Then, the shed next to the storage shed was some kind of animal shed. It had two places where I could place the food into, and a food storage place, too.

Then, when I went back to my house, I began stripping everything off of my bed—even the mattress itself—and lugged it to the stream. The mattress, I knew, I couldn't wash. But everything else I could.

So I put my mattress on the ground, and took my bedspread—luckily it wasn't windy—and dumped it in the stream for about ten minutes. After that, I was lost. Where could I put my bedspread so it will dry?

I was about to stand up to find a place I could put it when suddenly a voice startled me.

"Chelsea?"

I nearly fell into the stream if the person had not grabbed my shoulder.

I looked behind me to see Elliot. His glasses shone from the sun.

"Yeah, Elliot? It is Elliot, right?"

"Yes, it is."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, not unkindly. "I thought you would be with your family, you know, helping out."

"Oh, they'll manage better without me," he muttered sadly. He looked at the ground, making his left foot go around in a circle.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I just kept screwing up," he said, still sad.

"Well, why don't you stay here for a while?"

"Can I?" he asked, his head jerking up. "I mean, this is your ranch, now."

I laughed. "Anyone can come to my ranch anytime."

"You mean it?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, is there anything you'd like me to do? You know, to help out?" he asked quietly.

"Um, well…do you know where I can hang my bedspread? To have it dry, I mean."

Elliot looked around at the ranch. Smack dab in the middle was this giant rock.

"How 'bout there?" he suggested.

"I don't know how I missed that," I mused, feeling stupid. It really was giant—not as giant as the one blocking my way to the north of my ranch—so it was noticeable. "Yeah, that'll be great. Good job, Elliot."

"Uh…uh…sure thing, Chelsea."

"Why don't you wait here for a while and then we can just carry all my blankets and stuff to there to dry?"

"Sure thing."

I continued to dunk my blankets and sheets into the stream, and after I wrung out the water, handed them over to Elliot. When I finished all my sheets, I took half the pile, gave Elliot half the pile, and we walked over to the middle of my ranch.

I was in front of him, and I stopped when I heard Elliot let out a little grunt.

I turned around and his face was on the ground.

"Oh!" I cried, afraid that Elliot was hurt. "Elliot! Are you okay?" I rushed to him, but he stood up before I could flip him over.

Elliot laughed shyly. "Yeah, just a little clumsy. That's me. Sorry about that."

He started dusting off the sheets to get off the dust he managed to get on there.

I laughed quietly. "It's okay, Elliot. You probably tripped on a stray weed or rock. I have one heck of a cleaning job here."

"Well, if you need any help, you can always ask," he offered.

"Really? Thanks! But I wouldn't want to burden you. It's hard starting completely over."

"In case, though."

"Yeah." I smiled. "I know where to find you; you're my next door neighbor now."

Elliot and I then draped all the sheets on the rock, and the proceeded to beat my mattress to get some dust out of it. We almost died from lack of oxygen.

Then Elliot helped me pull up some weeds, and we got about a forth done before the sun started to go down.

Elliot then helped me drag the mattress down to my house, and helped me with all the sheets and stuff.

When we were all done, there was only a sliver of sun left in the sky.

"Oh, Goddess, Elliot," I said, leaning on the side of my house to catch my breath. "I've kept you for so long. You were supposed to be helping your family. I'm sorry."

"N-no, it's fine," he replied.

"Well, thank you so much for all your hard work today." I gave him a big smile, and he flushed a bit.

"Ah, w-well, it was m-my pleasure."

We exchanged a few more words, and then I saw him off. I was about to go back to my house when something caught my eye.

It was near the back of the house, and when I approached, I saw that it had five tools, lined up against the wall of the back of the house: A watering can, a sickle, an axe, a hammer, and a hoe.

Wow, I thought. I was really lucky to be able to find these.

I picked them up, and found them to be in almost perfect condition. I carried them inside with me, and set them near the door.

Luckily, my house still had electricity, but not a lot of it. I went to the table in the middle where it was under the only light. Sometimes the light flashed, but it always came back on.

My stomach growled; I hadn't eaten since I boarded the ship, and I only had an apple. There was no food on this island. I prayed to the Harvest Goddess that tomorrow would be just a little bit better.

Spring 1, Year 1

9:46 pm

Well, I was looking for a fresh start, and I got what I wished for.

The boat I was on sank, but everyone survived. I got stranded on this island. I met four other people who were stranded with me: Taro, Felicia, Elliot, and Natalie. They seem really nice.

But I'm worried about how we are all going to survive. There's no food on this island, at least, none that we know of. I have a house, and a ranch.

But what about Natalie and Elliot and Felicia and Taro? I should have walked with Elliot back to his house to see how they were doing. I hope they're all right.

Goddess, please make tomorrow better. I have a house, a bed, and I'm with good people. Things should get better.

Well, this was by far the longest chapter ever! Seven pages on Word right now.

I'll try to update soon!

Thanks for reading! Please review!

*Shadowed-Wolfe*