Omo. Chapter four, kora!
-x-
Chelsea crossed over the newly made bridge. It was late, the stars were out and you could clearly hear howls of the wild dogs. She couldn't really see much since there was no lights, but for all she knew, it was a big open space before her. Looking around to make sure no one was looking, she began to run around wildly, happy for her accomplishment of building a new bridge.
Suddenly, a familiar tinkling noise was heard. "What are you doing?"
She immediately stopped in her tracts, loosing her footing and falling forward. In front of her face appeared two small feet and she looked up to see another Harvest Sprite that was instead dressed in blue.
"My name is Ben." It said . " I've been watching you afar so good job! And keep it up!"
She blinked as it suddenly twinkled away.
-x-
Chelsea quickly grabbed her towel (given by Felicia of course) and some extra clothes quite franticly. She knew she was running out of time to bathe in the water and was absolutely freaking out. She flew out her door and dashed across the south side of her field. Looking around as she stood at the side of the water, she dipped her foot in to see how cold the water was, but soon her whole body was in the water.
She finally found a good routine and new her timing well. She knew when everyone woke up. She knew when people would start moving around town, well except for Vaughn since he just comes on Wednesday and Thursdays. So she didn't really need to worry about going in naked and not being seen. But she would bathe her whole body in the morning, then wash her hair during the night which means her hair was already up in its special tie.
But today, she just happened to be late and woke up later than she would, which means she had to rush today.
She quickly scrubbed her face but immediately lost the soap. She didn't dare open her eyes to allow the soap to get in. "Where's the soap? …Soap…." She waded around in the deep water, making sure it was above her chest area.
"Oh, you need the soap?"
"Yeah…I can't find it.."
"Well… hold on."
She heard some splashing in the water and realized that someone was there.
'Omigosh, I thought that was my conscience speaking! AAAAAAAAAHHHH!' She dunked her face in the water and rubbed her eyes. Peeking out above the calm flowing water, she found a tan man with a purple bandana , taller than herself obviously swimming toward her. She screamed in her thoughts.
"Hey, I found the soap." He took her hand that was in front of her and placed the soap in her hands.
"W-Who are you?" She managed to say.
"Oh, me?" He smiled. "My name is Denny."
"Braden." She shoved him away with her feet. "NOW GET OUT OF HERE!"
"What?"
She lost all control of her roaring emotions at this point as well as security of privacy.
"Okay, Okay! I'm out." He stood on the edge of the water, his clothes drenched.
'A pirate… First a cowboy… now a pirate..' Chelsea grimaced.
"What's wrong? Both of us are guys you know. Is there a problem?" Denny asked, squatting down.
"NO! Uh.. It's just… uh.." She blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "Rash! Oh.. Yeah.. You see I have this terrible rash and don't want you to get it…"
"Contagious?"
"Contagious."
"…Oh, I'm sorry then." Denny slowly stood up and said, "Well…. I better go. You know, to let you- "
"Yeah.. You should.. Go. Shoo.." She insisted, hand gestures to go along with it, but suddenly she felt bad and said, "Um.. Before you go.."
He turned around, looking at the rancher. "Yes?"
"I'm sorry about how rude I am being…"
But he shouldn't even have barged in here in the first place!
"No worries. All is good." He assured.
"I'll probably come by later... To you know, make up for being rude…" She finished.
"Really?" He crashed in the water again. "Awesome! My place is in the beach!"
"AAAHH, GET OUT OR YOU'LL CATCH MY RASH!" She wailed.
He jumped backwards. "Gah.. Sorry." He brimmed. "Alright! I'll see ya later!" He began to jog out of the ranch.
Chelsea sunk in the water wondering why all her risk-ful moments happens while she's bathing…
"Well… there goes ten years of my life.."
-x-
Denny trotted down happily down the trail toward the beach. He had already met with everyone in town, but the most interesting one to him was the last visit, to the ranch. As he passed by the house closest to the ranch he found Natalie looking at him.
"Is there something ya need?" He stopped next to her.
Natalie stared at his drenched clothes and horror filled up her face as she knew of Chelsea's routine. "What did you do?"
"What?" He blinked. "I didn't do anything…"
She moved her head up and down and raised two fingers to his eyes. "I'm watching you.." She kept pointing at him until she retreated within her house.
He blinked again and chuckled. As he walked, he knew that water dripped from his clothes and he shook them off, squeezing away extra water. He continued walking down until his sandals sunk down in the earth, sand.. He trotted up to the door and looked back to find his footsteps surrounded with water marks. He chuckled again and entered the house, stripping off his shirt and jacket.
"That rancher is funny. More like he acts funny. Heh." The fisherman sighed. "Actually, he looked cute. A pretty boy really. Hard to believe it's a guy." He turned around to find a black bird lying on a bundle of clothes, its body rising and falling.
"Hey, Kuu. Wake up, bud." He poked at the bird, but found it to be cooing asleep. "Mmm… It musta been a tough ride for ya, huh?" He leaned back on his arms and sighed. "I dunno if you can hear me, Kuu, but I met the strange rancher we've been hearing about. It seems to be the only other thing that's interesting.. Well, other than the fish that are still undiscovered…"
"Kuuu~"
He gently patted the bird's back and said, "Keep sleepin. I'll go check our stuff until then."
-x-
Chelsea's POV
I slipped on the short sleeve button up that I was planning to wear yesterday. Buttoning it up, I sighed for the fifteenth time. I couldn't believe that he was sooo close… He couldn't have seen anything. Probably my skin… but nothing else.. Hopefully.
I banged my head on the wall while I grabbed my watering can and trudged out my door. Suddenly I heard my name being yelled by two strong voices.
"Braden!" Chen called out again. Gannon followed closely behind and passed the tradesman, studying my figure.
"Did that fisherman do anything?" Gannon looked worried and stern at the same time.
"Huh? … Oh, that? …" I blinked. "How'd you figure out?" I knew that the four people, which included these two, knew about my normal routine.
"Well, we saw the boy pass by out places and up to your farm early this morning. And since we knew your routine, we got worried…"
"Really worried…" Gannon inputted.
"When we saw the boy walk out with his closed drenched and dripping…" Chen sighed. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine! Really.. He didn't do anything.. Like that. And plus, I don't think he would do something like that.. Right?"
I watched both men look at each other and shake their head slowly. They simultaneously said, "We'll have our eyes on him." They looked at each other again with surprise. It made me laugh.
"Well, thanks for worrying about me again, but really, I could handle something like that, and if he were to see, I would just knock him out cold and make sure he doesn't remember." I laughed some more, but both looked at me seriously which made my laughing seem feeble and numb.
"O-Okay.. I'll be more careful next time…" I nodded pitifully.
"Good." Both said at the same time again, and as they turned to leave, I heard Gannon say, "We gotta stop doin that…"
I turned for my crops and readied my watering can. The turnips I grew earlier with Natalie and Elliot ripened a few days earlier which gave me big bucks that I would've sent for my family, but Felicia told me to hold on to it until the time is right. So as of now, I have new turnips that are almost ripe and another row of potatoes.. Then there's the cucumbers, which are coming along slowly. Ah, I am so very content.
I grinned as I took out my small handy bag that I kept all my profit within. Unzipping the top, I grinned as I eyed at it. I found myself laughing and immediately stopped noticing that I would look stupid if someone was watching me laughing at myself and money… gah… I had to focus watering my crops..
I heard the water pour out of the watering and felt somewhat relaxed to hear that it was the only thing that was making sounds. It was quiet in my farm which I found to be satisfied with. It wasn't as loud and bustling as the city, no women to throw cans at you when they think you're a boy going in a public women's bath to deliver some sushi. Yes, I was good with this.
Oh, yeah… then there's that guy, Denny, was it? He looks familiar, but I couldn't exactly name where it seems to remind me from. But I would have to meet with him like I said. Then say sorry.. A lot. And he thinks I have a contagious rash too. The image of him have disinfectant sprays and standing like five yards away from me came up which made me laugh.
-x-
I strolled down toward the beach, doing my best to avoid Natalie's house as I knew that she might be suspicious herself and drown me with questions, but I would have to meet with her anyway. As I passed through the two large boulders that marked the entrance to the beach, I saw not far off in the distance a purple bandana moving above the sand on it own. As I walked over to the mound of sand, I found that a working body was making a hole on the shoreline.
"What are you doing?" I asked bluntly, jumping behind him.
He stood up and knocked over some sand behind him as he whirled around. "Oh, it's you! I was wondering when you would come."
"I have to work on my ranch, y'know." I chuckled and extended my hand. "Let's do this again. My name is Braden." He clasped on to my hand and gave it a short shake.
"Mine's Denny! It's good to meet ya." He smiled, fixing his bandana.
We both let go and I studied his attire. Oh, yeah. I was right. A pirate. Purple bandana (that seems oddly familiar), black sleeveless undershirt, a white.. Sorta tan-ish sort of thing around his neck, a purple plaid shirt tied around his waist and blue pants with darker blue boots. It was a sort of amusing style of choice for a pirate.
"Here to look for treasure?" I guessed chuckling.
"Nah, the other thing that could be found in the sea. Fish." He nodded with a big grin
I knocked my head, remembering that Gannon said earlier he was a fisherman. "Is fishing your hobby?"
"Yeah.." He looked at me. "More like my life in some way."
I nodded my head. "I see…well, not really, but you know…"
He patted my hatless head. "Yeah, but I must say, you were acting weird earlier.."
"Oh," I flustered. "Well, once again -"
He cut me off. "I know. You're rash… " He raised his hands as if he was pleading himself innocent. "Keep my hands to myself or else you'll freak."
I pushed him. "Well, you don't have to treat me like I'm some freak."
He laughed and looked around. "It's quiet here…"
"It's still a growing island, Denny. But I hope it gets bigger for some reason. Ever since I built that new bridge to the west, I've been quite bent on building another bridge to the Meadow for over there." I smiled.
"Why is that?"
"Once I pay Gannon to build that bridge.. Which I might soon, we can celebrate festivals and stuff. It's sure to bring more people, no?"
He nodded. "Then it won't seem as quiet. I wouldn't have to make jumps to the other side like I thought I would have to. And you'll probably get more income too."
More income? … I never thought of that…
"Aw! Now, I'm totally gonna build that bridge!" I balled my fist in front of my face, feeling the determination spark up again. "Thank you, Denny for the inspiration."
"Huh? What did I do?"
"Nevermind…" I shook my head, knowing he probably wasn't listening anyway. I suddenly felt something hit my head and felt it cling on there. Whatever was on my head was oddly warm and when I touched it with my hand, I surprisingly felt this biting pain. "AH! OW! What is this?"
"Kuu!" Denny screeched and grabbed for whatever that was on my head which turned out to be a black looking bird with an incredible biting beak. I looked at it with big eyes, then at my poor fingers that had fresh biting marks on it with bruises and scratches in the background.
"Kuu, I can't believe you just bit him!"
"Kuu! Kuu kuu!" Translation: "That's not a boy!" It flapped its wings repeatedly and jumped up and down on his hands.
I blinked. "It looks angry…But It's so cute!"
Denny frowned. "I'm sorry that Kuu.." He looked at my hands.
"Oh, don't worry about it. My hands are messed up anyway. They'll heal!" I smiled.
I saw Kuu look at its owner then sighed.. If an animal can sigh, then that's what it just looked like. It then looked at me and jumped on my head.
"Awesome! Kuu seems to like you, too. But that's weird."
I took the ball of black into my hands and cuddled it. "What's weird?"
"Kuu only likes me and girls."
I instantly felt that a huge pot fell on top of my head, figuratively speaking. "G-Girls?"
"Well, you must be an exception, huh?" He laughed. "You surely are something, Braden!"
"Ahh… I guess…"
We both then heard the water splash louder than usual and saw that the boat was coming up to the dock. As it stopped and the door of the boat lowered and fell on the dock, we both saw Felicia step off with some older looking people follow after. Senior Citizens upon our island are taking over…
"Who're they?" I heard Denny say behind me.
"Well," I began my answer. "I know that the younger looking woman that stepped off first was Felicia, but the others.. I don't know who they are.."
We both looked at each other and shrugged.
For the rest of the day, I hung out with Denny. He seems to be a pretty cool guy, easy going and always seeming to be in a good mood. He also showed me his fishing rig, with lots of poles and other fishing needs. I was amazed at how much he knew. He also seemed to be quite the joker. It was a pretty fun time hanging out with him.
-x-
It was a few days later that all sorts other places just popped out of nowhere on the island because of the denomination of old people, well old people basically. It kinda caught me by surprise as a Café and Diner appeared out of nowhere, but it finally gave me a different place to eat.. Better than herbs and grass.
And when I built the bridge to the Meadow, Taro came storming in my house saying that we could start celebrating festivals and celebrations and that we were to have a celebration with everyone in town soon. It was sort of funny in a way since he was spazzing… in a way. Soon an Inn called Original Inn (which made me laugh) and all sorta of other people popped out too after building that bridge, but no festivals were celebrated yet.
As those days came by, I found knocking on my door again later and opened the door to find a girl with blonde hair and a green hat sort of thing outside. She looked busy with her dress.
"Ah, come in. It's getting cold." I lead and watched her come in, staring and fixing at her cute green dress, it was really cute.
"My name is.. Lanna and," She finally looked up at me with her mouth open, but she paused and stared at me.
I blinked wondering if something was wrong.
"Whoa, this is different." She giggled. "I was expecting you to be less.. Good looking since you are a rancher, but I guess I was wrong huh?" I saw her cheeks brighten up with a shade of scarlet and sighed mentally.
Great. I did nothing and I've already made a good impression.
I smiled anyway, deciding to be nice. "Would you like to continue?"
"Oh, yes! My name is Lanna and I was known to be a pop star in the city."
I raised a brow. "Came here for some relaxation?" It was a guess, but I could understand.
"Haha. Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Just a guess." I extended out my hand. "You can just call me Braden. It's nice to meet you and it's more than an honor as well."
She accepted my hand. "My, and also a gentleman too. But you're oddly as short as I am. How convenient."
Oh, well, if only you knew, Lanna, then you wouldn't have to wonder why a boy is so short for this age.
"Well, of course." I looked outside to see that it was dark out. "How about I take you home? I'm also guessing the house in East Town built near the Meadow is yours right?" We both walked up to my door and I slowly opened it, letting her through first.
"Good guess." She smiled. "But I think I would be okay -" A howl of a wild dog was heard and she instantly froze at the spot. "Um.. Maybe it is a good idea…"
I chuckled. "Well, then. Let's go."
We silently walked down the path and passed by Taro's house. Lanna told me as we were passing by that Taro freaked her out at first with his sudden outbursts. It made me laugh as I told her that he does it a lot.
She also seemed to babble about how this island seemed to be growing to and explained about her pop star life and how hard it was to get new hits and … other things… which she babbled to fast for me to catch. We soon found ourselves at her door, but she was still talking.
"Then I don't think anyone would want to watch a pop star who's favorite hobby is fishi-" She abruptly stopped and covered her mouth with a flushed face. Her eyes trailed up to mine as if she were hoping that I didn't hear anything.
"What? You're hobby is fishing?" I asked, hinting it with a sort of surprise.
She slammed a hand on my mouth. "Shhh, Braden. You mustn't tell anybody I like fishing." She said with a hushed tone.
I took her hand and lowered it, whispering, "Alright. I promise I won't, but actually, I find that quite interesting."
"What?" She seemed to start getting angry. "What do you mean by that?"
I smiled at her. "I didn't mean that in a bad way, Lanna. We should go fishing sometime. You could give me a few tips too."
She slapped me on my shoulder. "Braden! That wouldn't do any good to my reputation!"
"But .. It would be good to be yourself, right?"
She seemed affected by my counter. "…Your right… Thanks, Braden. I'm glad I got time to speak with you. Good night!" She unlocked her door and waved good-bye at me before closing for the night.
So much for giving such information about being yourself and yet look at me.. I'm the one who needs to be herself and yet I'm a total lie walking around and responsible for this island. Now, I'm the lonely girl going against the scary wild dogs. I laughed as I moved along, heading back for the ranch.
As I walked leisurely along the path in West Town, the night seemed to be quite still. The stars were clearly seen and there wasn't much movement made at all.
"Chelsea, what are you doing out so late?" I heard Chen's voice. I was shocked to hear my name called out for quite a while now. "You should be home. It's late and wild animals are out."
"Mmm.. Yeah, but I can't sleep. And I just walked a new islander home."
He chuckled. "You're doing well aren't you? Well, then. If you're not busy with anything right now, would you like to join Gannon and I? We're planning to have dinner."
"I would like that." I followed him into his house and saw the big carpenter sitting within. I was quite surprised since he's such a big fellow and he fitted in a small space.. No, I found it quite amazing.
I sat next to him and saw that Charlie was fast asleep on his bed on the other end of the room. I took off my hat and pulled down my hair which made my head feel so much better.
"How's the farm work going?" Gannon gruffly asked me.
"It's been going well. I think I'll be ready for the upcoming festival. The Crop Festival… It's turnips this year and my turnips are growing great." I smiled, feeling quite accomplished.
"You've been doing well providing me with the lumber and money to build."
"Yeah, that too. I'm planning to provide you with the things for the bridge to the forest as well." I shifted my weight to my side and felt my stomach rumble as the scent of food welled up in my senses.
Chen came in with a large pot filled with.. What I guessed correctly.. Stew. My luck must be good today since my guessing is.. Pretty correct. The stew looked absolutely delicious and I didn't notice that when we started eating, I stuffed my food down my throat.
"My, Chelsea. I didn't know you had such an appetite…" Chen chuckled.
"Well, a hard worker deserves to eat her fill right?" Gannon took another serving after I did.
"It's sooo good, Chen. Your stew is wonderful!" I drank the soup of my third helping. I mean really, it was GOOD.
"You should probably slow down, Chelsea. You could get sick from eating so much."
"Bah humbug! Let the girl eat her appetite til she's eaten her fill, Chen."
Chen seemed to have taken this into affect and set down his bowl. "But I'm worried that if she eats too much that she could get a terrible stomach ache tonight. We have to watch out for her health."
"Yeah, that and she's probably extra hungry tonight. She'll know when her tummy has gotten filled to the top."
"But eating this fast could also cause her stomach to revolt as well."
I saw Gannon put down his bowl too and thus began their quarrel on whether or not I should eat more… or less. It was funny listening to their excuses and backfires and counterattacks. Some even made me laugh silently.
"She could probably end up being anorexic if she watches her food like that, Chen! If she's gonna work her farm then she'll have to keep from hunger."
"Yes, but if she overeats she could knocked out for the whole day."
I stood up and patted my belly, letting some air escape from my mouth. "Boy, that was good!"
Both looked at me and I knew that it interrupted their quarrel.
I continued. "I would have eaten more, but… I would've finished the stew. Thank- you for the dinner! It was great! " I quickly left, hoping that their fuss would end soon.
Gannon looked down at the bowls which were stacked up next to where Chelsea had sat. "Wow… that girl can eat more helping that I can… That's unhealthy…"
Chen sweat dropped. "Aren't you just contradicting what you just said?"
-x-
Spring was ending soon, but there was still the Crop Festival to look forward too. I was absolutely excited since Felicia said that I will be representing the island. Too bad that at the last moments the butterflies came and so now I'm sorta apprehensive. What would I do if I lost?
What impact would it do to the island? Everyone .. Now that I notice… seem to think it's a big thing for the island. And if I lost, wouldn't they compare me to that legendary farmer then that EVERYONE seem to know about?
… but I couldn't let that bring me down, right? …
-x-
Avoiding Homework. :D Thank you, thank you.
