Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters. Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii.

~Author's Note… Again. :D~

Re: like red on a rose Like I said any mistakes were kind of planned for… (which is me playing off anything I do wrong.) I did however know that Roomi was older, though I wasn't sure how old exactly. It was at least to be assumed being that she IS a marriage candidate. She had to at least be sixteen for that to be possible. Arika just assumes that Roomi is a junior to her because of how she presents herself and the fact that Arika looks down on the girl she wants to make her seem as inferior as possible so she thinks of her as a young adolescent to make Roomi lower than herself. I didn't know about Taylor, but I just kind of thought he would be older since he ran his own seed shop. In all of the games that I've played the people that run shops are adults and I just didn't want to think of Anise as being in her late twenties… it kind of spoils my ideal of her. But thanks for the review!! I appreciate the critique!

Arika's scream rang out so clearly I heard it easily from where I sat at the Souffle Farm dining table making conversation with Taylor. I never knew myself to move so quickly. Arika had been the athletic one after all, me I wasn't bad, but I wasn't an athlete like she was. Regardless I shot from the table and out the back door much faster than Taylor who followed me. Her scream had been far too far away for her to be in the bath house but I checked there anyway. Her wet footprints still stained the polished wood floor and her clean set of clothes were untouched.

Fearing the worst I looked toward the woods. The sun no longer visible behind all of the trees and only a faint pink strip that faded to deep blue. I cursed and looked to Taylor conveying my thoughts. "The woods," I muttered. Taylor nodded no sign of a smile so I knew this wasn't a joke he and my sister were trying to pull. Oh how I wish it were.

Both of us took off toward the forest at full speed being as aware of our surroundings as we possibly could. Any noise could be Arika. Any movement could be her. I wanted my sister back in my arms or safe in bed. I didn't want her being eaten or ripped to shreds within our first week of moving out of dad's house and with the luck I'd had with her disappearing since we had moved… I didn't even want to imagine what could happen. The very inkling that she could be hurt made me tear through the brush faster searching feverishly for any sign of my twin.

This whole island was strange, it was like it tested us. Arika hadn't acted like herself for a while now, and neither had I. My innocent sister was acting very, very unlike herself. It was rather hard to ignore her eyes settling on something that wasn't there at all, and how she spoke to whatever she thought she saw when she thought I wasn't looking. I wasn't blind. We had been together since birth, things like that didn't go unnoticed. Also the Arika I knew was brave. She didn't run away from problems she solved them. She was motherly, kind, and gentle. Now she was acting childish, and stubborn. Did she not like this place that much? It had grown on me. I hadn't preferred work, but for some reason I felt happier once I was doing something productive. Arika had been a wonderful baker, and artist. I knew farm work wasn't her thing but it isn't like her to be like this. What was going on? And why did trying to figure that out bother her? What was she scared of?

"Have you found her?!" I heard someone yell from a distance off. It sounded like Chihaya. I guess Rucola had noticed us leave and called in for reinforcements. Sure enough his strawberry blonde head popped out from behind a thicket as he caught up to me. Apparently his sense of seeking was better than mine since it was pitch black by this point and he'd found me. His face worried he was carrying a flashlight. I shook my head at him. "There's a search party out looking for her," he stated shining the beam of light around. "Tao, his uncle, the mayor and his son, Oso, the carpenters…"

"Thank you," I muttered my eyes lingering only for a moment of grateful solace on his face before wandering around in search again. This was too much like a fairy tale gone wrong. The frail girl who gets lost in the woods, eaten by a monster. 'Takeru you idiot, stop it!' I scolded myself.

"A-R-I-K-A!" Chihaya called cupping his mouth. "IF YOU CAN HEAR ME CALL BACK!"

My mouth twitched and I forced myself to hold off crying in despair. I couldn't give up yet. I had to find her. No. I would find her. I would have my sister back.

I lay cradling the tiny bundle of a sprite to my chest on the ground completely breathless. Whatever that had been it had knocked me down and knocked me out. I tightened my grip slightly as I came further into consciousness just to make sure he was still there. The reason I was here, Jiji, he was. He was still in my arms. I tried my hardest to regain control of my lungs, though it burned. Slowly I was able to breathe evenly. That's when the sounds started to come back, and the sight… well what little I could get being how dark it was.

"ARIKA!"

"MISS YUMEI!"

"ARIKA!! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

They were looking for me? Who was looking for me? Why were there so many voices? What was going on? I shook my head as I sat up shakily. I had more important things to worry about. I checked Jiji over with my eyes. His shallow breathing made my heart skip and he was paler. I was off again searching for the enormous tree. Why had it been so easy to find before?

I turned to my left and found the same clearing from another angle. The gigantic tree stretching it's dead branches high above in such thick clusters it looked like a cave. I made my way in and approached the foot of the relic expecting to see the other two sprites on the ground as though they had dropped like flies, but they were nowhere to be seen. The air around me was so still it was making me feel deprived of oxygen. I knelt down in front of the tree not knowing what else to do and held Jiji in my hands carefully. His head bobbed limply back against my fingertips and the feeling of his rabbit-like green hair only made my dread double. "Please be okay." I whispered to him. "Please, please, please, please…"

"What do I do?" I asked no one in particular in hopes for some form of miraculous guidance.

"You can see them too?"

My eyes shot open wider than they had in a while and I flung my head around so quickly I could have easily gotten whiplash. The mayor's arrogant son stood not five feet away watching me—well not me, but what I held. "What do I do?!" I asked him hysterically tears threatening to burst through.

"Well, I can't still see them. Not now, though I used to see them when I was little." He spoke as if he hadn't heard me at all and a distant look was etched on his face his eyes blank. Now those same eyes moved to my face. "You can't do anything. He's going to die."

I couldn't bring myself to yell at him though I wanted to. It wasn't his fault Jiji was sick. I didn't know whose fault it was, but I couldn't bring myself to even scream out of my inner torment. Only could I sit silently and let the tears fall freely. I hugged the tiny creature to my chest only now realizing how much he'd actually grown on me. As many times as I had wanted to smack him around for multiple reasons, I didn't realize I actually cared this much. The boy had turned his back on me now, though he hadn't left his spot. I doubted he was enjoying the scene. I wondered why he didn't just leave. I wished he would.

"Arika," I heard a small voice say. "You're hurting me."

Quickly I pulled back my arms and examined the bundle. Jiji's eyes were open looking up at me bleakly, but they were there. "Jiji?" I dared to breathe.

"Why are you crying?" he asked. Oh, it was so precious I couldn't help it when my smile erupted like some untamed force and I hugged him again though as gently as I could. He was okay. He was okay!

"What happened to you?" I asked holding him out in front of me again as he pried his arms free from the towel around him. "Why did you faint like that? You scared me." I could see out of the corner of my eye the platinum blonde-haired boy, Gil, staring at us in disbelief, his mouth gaping like a fish.

"I fainted?" he cocked his little head to the side before seeming to remember something. "Oh! I saw the Harvest Goddess and she told me to relay a message to you. She said that you need to find yourself or something like that and that—" Then as though it struck him in the face his color came back into his face and he turned a deep shade of pink. "Wh-what are you doing?" He stared at my hands that surrounded his waist only his little sprite shorts covering him.

"I was trying to take a bath and you collapsed. Don't look at me like that," I scolded as he squirmed out of my grip and floated a little above my hands.

"What is his problem?" Jiji asked taking notice of Gil for the first time.

I looked over at him and he had composed himself and now stood with his arms crossed over his chest and shot me a good sizing up glance when I gave him my attention. "Well, he did say you were going to die, but you didn't." I answered before standing up from my crouch. "How do you know about the Harvest Sprites?" I asked.

"I told you already. I could see them when I was a kid." His tone once again put him in air of "it's none of your business, but if you must know…"which perturbed me to no end along with his choice of dress.

I rolled my eyes and leaned down to pick up the towel that I had carried Jiji out in. "You are really full of it aren't you?" Gil's expression went from arrogant to angry in record time. I shook my head in disbelief and sighed.

"ARIKA PLEASE ANSWER ME!!" This time I recognized the voice and it was closer. Takeru was calling me.

"TAKERU!" I yelled back in the direction I thought it had come from.

Faster than I had expected I was tackled from the side in a bone crushing embrace. My feet didn't even touch the ground as Takeru held me to him. "Oh thank Kami-sama…" I heard him whisper holding me tighter so that I could feel my ribs threatening to bruise under the strain.

"Takeru," I wheezed. "Too tight."

"Oh you should be happy right now, because when we get back to the house I won't feel like hugging you anymore," my twin mumbled in reply. I knew exactly what he meant too. He was going to put me under house arrest and chain me in a cage so I couldn't run off again. That was exactly what he would do.

"Sorry, I was just being stupid," I muttered giving in because I knew the truth would make my dearest brother more angry with me than just admitting I had done something wrong regardless of whether it was entirely true or not.

"You were," he agreed. Then he inhaled a large breath and turned his mouth away from my ear. "I FOUND HER!" he yelled out to whoever else was searching for me. "What were you doing watching her here without saying a word?" he growled looking over at Gil who stood near the edge of the clearing along the tree line still staring at me as though trying to figure something out.

He snapped out of this trance though when Takeru's voice got his attention. "Excuse me," he muttered walking back into the dark and leaving us alone in the clearing, though we weren't alone for long.

"Arika! You're coming with me!" a certain curly haired man said sternly as he waltzed into the clearing waving a flashlight in his hand. "You don't mind if I borrow her for a moment do you Takeru?"

I cursed under my breath. Just great. I didn't want to deal with the town jerk right now. But to my displeasure Takeru turned me over into his custody. Why did my own twin betray me?