**DISCLAIMER** I do not own, nor have I ever owned, any of the characters, places, items, etc. etc. relating to the Harvest Moon or Rune Factory series.

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Chapter 3: A New Rival

Emerging from the tree-laden path and into the Beach Road district, Raguna began to feel a cool wind as it whipped up against his exposed skin. The breeze blew in from the sandy coast just ahead and carried with it the distinctly foreign and salty scent of the ocean. On any other day, he might have enjoyed the gentle chill of the wind as a welcome contrast to the unusually balmy spring weather. Now though, he worried that the briny air might begin to wilt the delicate flowers within his rucksack, particularly the blue roses.

In his nervousness, Raguna was just about to reach for the bouquet so he could know for certain if they were alright, when he was interrupted by Mist's unexpected greeting. "Hello, Raguna," she said, unlatching the wooden gate of her fence and walking over to him.

"Hi Mist," Raguna called back. He decided that checking on the flowers would have to wait. "I was just on my way over to visit, actually."

"Sure," she said, directly in front of him now, "let's both go back in then." Instead of turning and walking back towards her house though, she paused and looked upwards at the sky. Smiling, she said, "The air feels so warm. I certainly feel like taking a nap outside on spring days like this."

"Hey, Mist," Raguna prodded, "weren't we going to head inside?"

"Oh right," she replied in a casual tone without even a trace of embarrassment at her sudden reverie. She then proceeded to spin on her heel and saunter back through the gate and to her front door as if nothing unusual had happened. Then again, where Mist was concerned, a brief moment of absentmindedness really wasn't anything unusual. Even so, Raguna, following some distance behind her, found himself dumbfounded that she had decided to suddenly voice such an arbitrary thought.

Raguna's friendship with Mist went back almost as far as he could remember. After he had collapsed at her doorstep back in the town of Alvarna a few years ago, with no memory at all of his past, she had been the first to find and revive him. She had even given him a house, complete with adjoining field, where he was able to stay and farm for a living. She was his earliest and closest friend, and he owed a lot to her. So naturally, when Mist one day vanished from Alvarna without so much as a word to anyone, he had set off to look for her, ultimately stumbling upon the village of Trampoli, his new home.

But for all the time Raguna had known Mist, he had never quite been able to get over her inherent…strangeness. Her seemingly random bouts of peculiar behavior and bizarre statements never ceased to take him aback. It was just one personality quirk of hers that he figured he would simply never get used to.

This visit wasn't about Mist though, he knew. His real reason for coming here was Anette. Right around this moment, the implications of what exactly he was about to do hit him…hard…like The Hammer to the skull hard. His thoughts became panicked. Did his hair look okay? What if the wind had messed it up, and he walked in looking like a fool? (Hurriedly, he ran a trembling hand through his hair which, of course, was still perfectly straight.) Was he dressed appropriately? Wait, what was he saying? He always wore the same clothes anyway. What about the bouquet? Oh, the bouquet! He had almost forgotten. Would it still be alright?

Walking distractedly through the open doorway and into Mist's house, Raguna was greeted by the distinct and pervasive scent of turnips. On the stovetop in the far corner of the room, a turnip sat cooking (or more appropriately, burning) in a frying pan. A pot of water was beginning to boil next to the pan, though he wasn't quite sure what Mist was planning on cooking in it…or if she was planning on cooking anything in it. In the room's center, a turnip lamp was placed decoratively next to a vase of turnip-pink flowers, both of which rested on a wooden table covered with an indigo cloth. Mist had already snatched up her feather duster and stood over on the right side of the room, thoroughly dusting a large, wood bureau.

When he finally looked up from his thoughts to take in the room, Raguna froze. It wasn't what he saw in the room that shocked him. He had been inside Mist's house often enough before (although not quite as often as Mist would let herself into his, something which she was known to do any time it rained), and it wasn't as if anything looked at all different than he remembered.

Rather, it was what he didn't see that made Raguna's heart skip a beat.

Anette… Anette wasn't there.

"Anette! Morning!" Turner's warm voice boomed, "Great to see you! But," he said, suddenly puzzled, "you never stop by this early. D'you have some mail you forgot about?"

"Morning, Turner." Anette replied, placing the used paper bag hastily into the trash. "But no, sorry, I don't have any more mail for you."

"Hey, no problem! Since you're here anyway though, why not make yourself at home?"

Anette's eyes searched anxiously around the room, from the cozy-looking stone fireplace across the room to the flight of wooden steps, leading up to the guest rooms on the inn's second floor. But she saw no one except for the innkeeper, standing in his usual spot behind the front desk. Disappointed, she turned her full attention to Turner and smiled apologetically. "Thanks. I mean, I'd really love to stay for a while, but I'm kind of looking for someone, a boy, actually."

Anette could still clearly see the stranger in her mind, and her face flushed at the mental image of him, a fact which did not go unnoticed by Turner. "Oh? Well I haven't seen Raguna yet today. Maybe you should see if he's—"

"No, no, it's not Raguna."

"Really?" Turner was genuinely surprised. Then he remembered something. "Hmm, come to think of it a young man was just in here. If I recall, he had dark hair…and a jacket that was, well, about the same color as yours."

"And orange eyes!" she exclaimed.

"Come to think of it, yeah, he did. He seemed like a nice enough kid to me. Said he just needed a room for the night, and he'd even pay in advance. I told him that we had one all ready so he thanked me, paid—left a generous tip, too—and headed upstairs with the key. I guess he's the one you're looking for, then?"

Anette's heart deflated. "…Y-yes. Yes he is. Thank you, Turner." So he is only staying in Trampoli for one day, she thought, I was right. In this case though, she really wished she could have been wrong. Well, she resolved, all the more reason to see him while I still can. Giving Turner as pleasant a goodbye as she could manage, she turned and raced up the stairs.

"That girl," Turner thought aloud after she had gone, in one of his rare moments of wisdom, "she's always rushing around somewhere. It's great that she's so energetic, but sometimes I think it might do her some good to slow down once in a while."

But… Wh-why…? What? Where is she? It's almost noon! It's a Monday! …Isn't it? He shot a look at the turnip-themed calendar hanging on the wall. Yes, it was definitely Monday. And he was definitely here in Mist's house, in spring, at 11:30, on a Monday…but she, Anette, wasn't.

If it had been panicked before, Raguna's mind now went into frantic overdrive. Maybe he had just made her late by delaying her this morning? But that had only been for a few minutes, not hours! Was it possible that she was still eating over at Erik's, or visiting Melody at the bath house? No, she had said she would be at Mist's, and she was always back here by this time! So why wasn't she now? She did get chased by monsters a lot; what if one had… No, no! He simply refused to even consider that as a possibility. Could she be avoiding him, then? But why? Had he done something to upset her? Why hadn't Mist noticed that she wasn't back yet? Wow, that was a dumb question. The only thing that could get Mist worried would be a turnip shortage…

"You know…"

Mist's interjection interrupted Raguna's now-racing thoughts, bringing them to a jarring halt. He looked over to see her pouting in his direction, hands on her hips, one of which was still clutching a blue feather duster. "Wh-what?" he stammered.

"You ought to give me some warning before you just decide to surprise me at my own home like this."

She's not really one to talk about not showing up to someone's house unannounced, he thought somewhat bitterly. His agitated confusion about Anette's absence was not exactly helping his current mood.

Mist simply cocked her head slightly and smiled. "Oh well, I'm still glad you came."

But Raguna was beyond listening at this point. "Mist," he asked, "do you know where Anette is? Did she tell you she was going to be somewhere today?"

"Nope," she answered simply, having turned back to her dusting.

"Has she come back yet today, at least?" Raguna practically pleaded.

"Uh-uh."

Raguna's voice was desperate now. "Aren't you worried about her at all?"

"Oh, I'm sure she's fine. Anette never gets into any trouble…well, except for that time she passed out in front of your house. Besides, she can run super fast. She could just outrun any—"

Raguna had heard enough. Distressed and fed up with Mist's lack of concern, Raguna turned on the spot and dashed out the door.

Mist, meanwhile, was left standing alone in the house baffled and upset at his sudden departure. "He…," she said meekly to herself, "he didn't even offer me a turnip."

"Owww!" Selphy winced painfully as sunlight streamed in through the cracked door, piercing her eyes. She had been indoors reading for days, and her poor, darkness-adjusted eyes were now paying the price for her passion. Not to mention that she couldn't even recall the last time she'd slept…or eaten. Regardless, shielding her face from the inevitable brightness, she pushed the door of the Rune Archives open the rest of the way and stepped out into the midmorning sun.

Almost immediately, Selphy realized why she had been hesitant to leave the library for the past few days. The incessant chirping of springtime birds was torture to her ears, nothing like the comforting FWIP of a page being turned. The explosion of colors from dozens of flowering trees was overwhelming to eyes used to seeing in black and white, with the occasional dull brown, red, or green of a book's cover.

"It's okay, Selphy," she said, psyching herself up. "All you need to do is make it over to the mailbox. Just think of how great it's going to be to start reading those new and exciting books. Oh, I can't wait! " With renewed enthusiasm, she began to take those grueling five steps between the door and the mailbox.

Right around Step Four, Selphy felt her foot bump up against something that shouldn't have been there

. Alarmed, lest it be a poor abandoned book left to fade in the harsh sun, she bent over to pick it up. But it wasn't a book, or a scroll, or even a hastily scribbled note.

"Huh?" Selphy said as she realized what it was, "A…strawberry?"

AN: Heeeere's SELPHY! =D I just couldn't not work her into the story; she's way too awesome to be left out. Anyway, Chapter 3 was a blast to write, simply because of all of the different scenes and characters I was able to more fully introduce to the story. But would you look at that? Another whole chapter in and you still haven't found out the stranger's name. Aren't I just mean? n_n Don't worry, I'll be telling you all about him in the next chapter...probably...maybe...sort of. =P Anywhoo, Raguna frustrated and worried? Mist abandoned and distraught? Anette infatuated with a boy other than Raguna? I sense some problems on the horizon... But what do I know? I'm only writing the thing, after all. XD (You'll come to find my author's notes are generally MUCH more peppy than my stories themselves. Especially considering where this thing's headed. I haven't forgotten the "drama" part of this Drama/Romance, you know...)

Thanks for sticking with me this far, readers! I luvs ya all! =D ...Just make sure you keep on reading. I don't want to lose you now. ;-)

And how could I forget my good buddy betas? LovelyxxMelody & Shadows-of-Realm, thanks bunches! ^_^

COMING SOON: Chapter 4, in which the reader is sure to experience multiple cases of deja vu... ;-)