Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing!!!!!!!!!!! *sniffle*

Harvest Moon and all the characters belong to Natsume. I just use them for my own amusment.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Anyways, back to chapter. . .

3rd of Spring

This morning when it was freakishly early I was woken up by four excited and slightly sleepy girls at my

door. . .

A bleary eyed me opened the door to my room to be greeted with painfully cheerful cries of 'Good Morning!'

'C'mon Nami! We can't wait forever you know! Get ready and grab a welcoming present for the new arrival!'

Muffy looked wide awake and just looking at her when she was a perked up and ready to go made me feel like closing the door on them and falling asleep again. But if it was to welcome the new guy, Jesse, I guess it wouldn't be that much trouble as long as they didn't expect much from me and didn't talk to me either.

'I'll be right down.' I mumbled to them. I winced at the responding 'Yays!'

Five minutes later I was downstairs ready to go when Lumina asked me where my gift was. I didn't have anything so I just brought some left over gratin from last night hoping it would be enough.

Muffy, Celia and Lumina led the way to his farm while I hung back with Flora, the closest thing to a best friend for me in this town. Flora had brought some of her curry, Muffy brought a drink (that was made by Griffin), Lumina brought a small box that no one was allowed to see the inside of and Celia brought some upgraded seeds from Vesta's farm.

The town was quiet as we entered his farm. There was a dog house in front of us, a house on the right that belonged to Takakura, the house on the left next to the dog house belonged to Jesse and there was a whole lot of weeds, stumps, boulders, stones and branches surrounding one peach tree in bloom.

We gazed in silent disbelief at the mess on his fields.

Lumina was the first to voice our thoughts, 'What. A. Mess.'

'Well, he did only get here yesterday.' Celia, always the peace bringer, spoke quietly.

'Come on let's go welcome him already.' Flora pushed past them and marched right up to his door and knocked three times.

1-2-3

Half a minute past before the door opened to reveal Jesse in his farming clothes ready to go work on his new farm.

'Oh, hello girls. Why are you here? Would you like to come inside?' inquired Jesse.

He ushered us inside. The inside was much better than his fields. The one roomed house was bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. It was pretty empty except for a bed, a phone, a bookcase, a wardrobe and a trash bin. There were a couple of empty boxes stacked neatly in a corner, obviously all his clothes were already put away and a few personal items were placed around the room, like the painting of a farm hanging on the wall, a bedside clock and two pictures, one of a happy smiling family and one with a little boy and a girl.

'We just came to welcome you to Forget-Me-Not Valley!' cried out Muffy.

She presented him with his welcoming gift. As did Lumina, Flora, Celia and finally me. I quietly walked up to him and gave him the gratin.

'Nami!' He exclaimed 'It's good to see you again. How's Ruby? She's come back yet?'

My head dropped to study the floor 'Um, yeah. Ruby's good and she's back. Yeah.' I mumbled. 'Hope you like gratin.'

He grinned and opened the container the gratin was sitting in and smelt it. 'It smells great! Thank you Nami.' He looked around at everyone 'Thank you, everyone. I'm happy you all came to see me.' The comment was directed at everyone but he was staring at me. My head decided to study the floor again just in case it missed any interesting specks of dirt.

The girls proceeded to interrogate him about where he was from etc.

While they were busy with that I walked over to look at the painting on the wall. There was a house that looked much like the one Jesse lived in now, a horse barn but the sandy coloured horse was outside grazing, a couple of chickens pecking at the dirt and geese swimming and drinking from the clear pond, a few cows and judging by the crops it was Summer. In front of the house: in organized rows were tomatoes ripe, red and juicy looking were hanging on their plants, bright yellow corn reflecting the sun's rays , the yellow of the corn contrasting with the green of the stalks, the tips of onions were visible, pumpkin vines were curling elegantly in their rows and the buds of pineapple were visible. Graceful green trees cast their shade onto the ground giving relief to the sheep with their thick wooly coats resting beneath them.

This is a painting of a farm in all its glory. The artistry was so realistic it was like looking through a window.

This. . . this painting. It feels so familiar. Like a half remembered dream or memory. This painting confuses me. When I look at it, it makes me feel like I lost a close friend.

'Nami?'

Huh? I looked up to see Jesse watching me carefully. I looked past him to notice that everyone else had gone.

'Nami? Are you ok?'

Jesse's question brought my attention back to him. ' Oh, yes I'm fine. Why do you ask?'

'It's just that,' Jesse's eyes wore a guarded expression ' you've been staring at the painting for quite some time now.' He hesitated as if unsure how I would react 'You've been looking at it for a while and you starting crying right after all the girls left. You didn't even notice it. You looked like you were trying to unravel some puzzle.'

'Really?' I put my hands on my face and surprised myself when I felt tracks of wetness down my cheeks. 'Oh. Sorry. Sorry if I worried you. I should go now.'

I left without another word and before he got the chance to say goodbye.

I ended up going with the girls today to welcome Jesse.

I gave him the left over gratin form last night. I hope he likes it.

There. . .there was a painting on his walls. It was beautiful but I felt like I've seen it somewhere. Nah. I couldn't have. I mean I've always liked paintings but I haven't seen that many. Maybe I'm going crazy.

I'm going to go out now.

Jesse's POV~

I was surprised when I saw five girls greet me this morning to welcome me. I meet them all yesterday as I spent my time meeting my fellow villagers and settling down yesterday. I was lucky. I got some gratin from Nami, maybe now I can figure out the recipe. I wonder if it was from last night?

I got a variety of stuff from them. I was touched. But when Nami was looking at the painting, she worried me. She looked like she was about to be sucked into it. You know like those movies where they have a portal that sucks you in, first with your mind before pulling your whole body in.

I decided to visit the Goddess's Pond yesterday. What I saw kind of shocked me. I mean it's not everyday especially when you first move into a place that you see a witch and the Goddess of the Valley. I stumbled onto a particularly nasty argument between them. Obviously it was some sort of rivalry or something. They didn't even notice me. Well, the witch was mumbling to herself and then suddenly there was a 'Ta Da!' and the Goddess herself appeared along with some short fellows that called themselves sprites. The witch wanted to make the Goddess stop saying 'Ta Da' but she accidentally turned her to stone. When she tried to undo her spell she ended up sending the Goddess away to another world, along with the sprites! And now it's my job to rescue the Harvest Goddess and all the sprites!

Argh! I didn't ask for this! All I wanted to do was take care of the farm that Uncle Takakura (my father's friend) asked me to do.

(Starts mumbling and not making any sense. Please stand by while technical difficulties are being fixed and Jesse comes back to his senses. Thank You!)

~Back to Nami~

I packed a backpack with necessities for an afternoon break if I could find one. I want to be alone but it's almost impossible to unless you want to do it at 2 in the morning but even then there still is someone doing something.

I brought some snacks, water, a jumper (even though it's Spring it still gets chilly) and a good book that I still haven't finished yet.

I bid my goodbyes to Aunt Ruby and told her that I'd be back soon. She's so sweet but whenever I leave with a backpack or something she gets that worried frown. I know she trusts me but she still feels worried that I'll leave. She knows I'm a traveler and I won't stay here for very long. I've stayed here in Forget-Me-Not Valley for about half a year already.

My favourite place to be is Turtle Pond. Sometimes, Nina joins me. She's nice and we don't talk much but we prefer it that way and sometimes Gustafa drops by to play me music.

But today I want to be alone. There's this secret spot that no one knows about as far as I know. The Valley is surrounded by steep cliffs but every one of those cliffs are connected and there's a place where there are enough foot and hand holds to go up and down. Up there you get a good view of the Valley below. This 'secret path' is near where that tombstone for Jack the Farm King or something. Whenever I pass I always pay my respects of course.

I'm quite a climber. When I was little I would climb trees and walls and everything just to see what was on the other side or to get a better view or to see if I could discover something new. I guess that's why I'm a traveler, because I want to see everything.

I finally reached the place. The rocky wall looked the same. I looked around to check if there was anyone nearby. No one. That's good. Hurriedly I started scaling the wall and very soon my hand reached the top of the cliff and just as I was about to push myself up to the top, the rock that my left leg was on, crumbled.

Leaving me hanging.