Chapter 7: Where Did Braden Go?

-x-

"It's finally built!" Chelsea screamed, after she proudly crossed over the bridge and walked well into the forest. Looking around with a big smile gracing across her face, she quickly came to frown.

.

" NO.. I'M LOST!" She wailed. "And I just got here!" She began to walk around to see if she can find her way back, but after several attempts, she always ended up in the same area.

"You're lost? Mehihi!" A small voice giggled quietly. Chelsea turned to find a small light orange colored harvest sprite that stood upon a huge leaf. The little guy looked younger than the ones she had met earlier.

She dropped her arms to her sides defeated. "Yes…"

"My name is Neil! I'll help you!" He began to lead the way and Chelsea followed with a bit of hope.

-x-

Vaughn stepped off the boat, quite upset. Of course, he always felt this way whenever it came to the ocean and as usual, he would scratch the back of his neck and say dully, "How annoying." Looking around, he found a long blonde headed girl and the purple bandana fisherman. They looked to be quarreling.

"What is this?" Denny yelled, forcefully poking at a newspaper and glaring at Lanna.

"I don't know!" She shifted weight to one leg and smiled, happily. "It must've been when Braden and I went to the city a few days ago…"

Denny growled. "Then why does this say that He's your boyfriend?" He began to read the paper to learn of Braden's heroism of saving Lanna, the obviously known popstar, and her bag from some perpetrator, whom was beaten up by Braden's mad kickboxing skills. The fisherman wondered how this was found out.

"Well, wouldn't this be a good thing anyway, Denny? That means more people could come here and acknowledge Braden."

"Omygoodness, woman! They'd only be coming here because YOU have a "BOYFRIEND"." Denny made air quotes to emphasize his meaning. "And he's not even your boyfriend!"

"Let me see that." Vaughn snatched the newspaper from Denny's arm and read it himself, a deep frown coming along his face. The two were silenced about his presence and a strong invisible aura began to radiate off of him.

"See.. Even Vaughn doesn't like this." Denny proudly said, patting the animal dealer on his shoulder.

"Who?" Lanna looked at Vaughn, but immediately backed away when the dealer shot darts at her. Then again, he didn't know about this popstar either.

Chucking away the paper, he walked in between them, muttering, "Whatever."

Both watched him walk off, then Denny grinned at Lanna, making her cross her arms.

As Vaughn continued walking off, he found the little tyrant he was hoping not to bump into and that quickly followed his name being yelled out.

"BIG BROTHER VAUGHN!" Charlie yelled, running and pouncing toward him with incredible speed. But before he could even touch the elder brother, Vaughn had already caught him by his shirt and began to carry him over his shoulder.

"Hey Big Brother! Hey, hey Big Brother! HEY!" Charlie kept babbling on his name until the man stopped in his tracks and acknowledged him with an angry, "What?"

"I haven't seen you in a long time, Big Bro!" The boy beamed, but it didn't reflect to Vaughn's expression. "Ooohh, there's something I wanna show you so put me down!"

The animal dealer quickly implied before letting go of his shirt when his feet touched the ground, "You won't pounce on me?"

"No, no, I won't!" The boy flung his arms around not knowing why he couldn't move. His shirt was let go and Charlie immediately whirled around. "Okay, Big Brother Braden taught me something a few days ago."

Vaughn had no interest, but he nodded anyway.

"He taught me how to look like you!" The boy continued, quite determined as if he wanted to get it right.

Vaughn still nodded with slight interest, wondering why they wanted to look like him. He still watched the boy as he turned around for a moment, but when he turned around again, the boy's face caught Vaughn off guard, making a small laugh creep up his mouth, but he quickly covered it up by making his throat rumble.

"That doesn't look anything like me." He curtly said. It was truth, but he did find it humorous.

"What? But Big Brother said it looked exactly like you!" He pouted, kicking a nearby pebble. Suddenly, Chen's voice called out for him and he sighed. "Well, I gotta go. And I'll still be working on it too!" He dashed off, disappearing into his father's shop.

After a while, Vaughn turned and chuckled with a small smile on his lips. That farmer girl who dresses herself as a boy truly made him wonder. He then wondered how her face would look like when she impersonated him since she taught Charlie…

After a Few Hours…

Natalie and Elliot walked up to Mirabelle's door and opened it slowly. Julia looked up toward them with surprise on her face since it wasn't everyday that the two would come by.

"What brings you here?" Julia smiled, putting away the book she was reading. Both Natalie and Julia began talking with one another.

Elliot looked at Julia and blinked, not noticing how pretty she was, but averted his glances elsewhere to find Vaughn sitting near the table reading a book.

Vaughn immediately felt eyes on him and looked up to find Elliot, glaring at him subconsciously. Elliot flinched on the spot and shuffled his feet with fear.

"What? Braden's Missing?" Julia gasped, raising a hand to her face with a worried expression upon her face.

Vaughn and Elliot's eyes quickly went to the girls' way.

"Yeah, but the work on his farm has already been done. That would mean he was still around during morning, but my mom said there was no possible way that he could have gone back on the boat since the boat doesn't come today."

"And what reason would he have to go back to the city anyway…" Julia called for her mother and explained the situation. Mirabelle nodded with a serious face.

"Okay, Mom said I could go look for Braden with you." Julia shifted her eyes to Vaughn and said, "You should help us too!"

Vaughn raised a brow and looked down at his book. "Nah, go ahead without me." He watched the three shrug it off and lead out the door, also noticing that Elliot had no idea what was going on until now.

"Where could our little farmer be?" He quietly mumbled, continuing to read.

-x-

Chelsea's POV

"Neil! I thought you knew where we are going…? Don't you live here too?" I pleaded with frustration. I looked around, having no idea where we stood now.

"But… But.. I never go out this far…" He looked as if he was about to cry and I felt sorry for the little guy. I picked him up and gently patted his head.

"Ah.. never mind." I looked around again, still not very hopeful. "Um… I'm sure we can find our way back." Or not…

I placed Neil on my shoulder and continued walking down the trails marked out by pebbles and darker stones. The trees all looked the same and after five minutes or what seemed longer, I felt as if I've been going around in circles. I felt like going crazy and running wherever, but I was smart enough to know that my unlucky charm would make that a huge predicament.

So.. I was officially lost… and here with Neil, who happens to be the youngest of all the harvest sprites, however many there were of them. Hopefully no one would notice my disappearance and I am sooo happy I finished my work before I came here. Too bad this looks like I may never see it again.

Ahead I heard mumbling from a woman's voice. "No… that wouldn't… probably.." I never heard that voice before. Peering from behind a tree, I found that a woman with long wavy dirty blonde hair wearing a black cloak had her back facing us. Neil suddenly gasped and was about to say something, but I immediately covered his mouth with two of my fingers.

She began walking away and I decided it was best to follow her since.. It was basically the best chance for me to find my way home. Then again, I had no idea who she was… Nor have I ever saw her in town.

I continued to cover Neil's small mouth as he we tracked after the woman. Suddenly I slipped behind a tree as she turned to look behind her. She had a pretty face with .. Red eyes? … Oh well, it looked good on her anyway. Once she turned around and began walking, I began to follow again.

Neil kept squealing and I finally let him go, whispering, "Shhh.. Don't be loud."

"But.. Braden. That woman -"

I cut him off, "No matter who that woman is.. She's the best chance for us to return home. Now, lower your voice or else she'll hear us."

The orange Harvest Sprite looked at me worried, but nodded, and leapt on to my head, lightly grasping on to my hat.

I looked at where she was to see she had disappeared, but suddenly this blast of yellow sparkles flew before me and I "eep"-ed a little before covering my mouth.

"GAH! Why won't it work?" I heard the woman's voice again and had second thoughts about following her.

"…No, we won't know until we try." I encourages myself. Swallowing a hard lump in my throat, I slowly stepped forward, knowing that what to expect will not be expected now.

-x-

No POV

Soon, the news of Braden's disappearance spread around town, one person to the next. It was like the nervous system in out bodies, telling us if something was wrong with our bodies and whether or not we were burning or freezing our buns off.

Chen and Gannon met outside, both feeling uneasy.

"You heard about Chelsea too?" Gannon asked quietly.

"Yes, but she isn't the type to suddenly disappear." Chen looked around the town to see a bridge that he hadn't seen before to the west. "When did you build that?"

Gannon answered, "I built it just yesterday.." He found Chen's gaze and immediately knew what he was thinking. "Yeah… she might be there…"

Chen sighed and said, "We should inform Felicia of this."

The two began to head off to Taro's house. Natalie and Julia passed by them, heading toward the beach quickly.

"It's good that Lanna teamed up with Elliot." Julia said, feeling that her heels were hurting.

"Yeah, they went to the Meadow, but I doubt that Che- .. Braden would be there.." Natalie bit her lip, afraid that Julia might have heard her mess up, but Julia took no notice to it at all.

-x-

Denny sat on the side of the dock feeling the waves splash against his feet. He felt some tugging to his fishing rod and yanked hard to find the water splash before him and a medium sized fish wriggle and struggle at the end of his line. Grinning, he took the line and brought the fish toward him and plopped it into a bucket that sat next to him.

"DENNY!" He nearly jumped when his name was called out with a shrilly voice. Turning around, he found Natalie and Julia scampering over the mounds of sand toward him.

Once they were nearby, he waved to them and greeted, "Yo, what's up?"

"No time to have greetings and chatting, Denny." Natalie took a breather allowing Julia to finish up for her. "Braden's gone missing."

"What?" Denny's face dropped and he looked out to sea. "There's no way he could've gone out to sea since I woke up early today to go fishing out there."

"Yeah, we already figured out that much." Natalie sighed. "Where could that guy gone off to?"

-x-

"Vaughn, don't you think you should join them in their search for Braden?" Mirabelle asked, sitting down across from him. "I'm sure you're worried at least a little bit."

Vaughn flipped to the next page of his book, ignoring the woman's urging.

The door bells rang and entered in Chen, Gannon, and Felicia.

Mirabelle stood with a worried face. "What brings you all here? Did something bad happen?"

"Well," Felicia started off, "We still haven't received any news about Braden, but we do have an idea to where he might be."

Chen nodded. "There is a possibility that he may have crossed over the bridge leading to the forest. He may have gotten lost in there."

Vaughn snorted under his breath, slowly closing his book to listen to their conversation.

"That's why we were wondering if you have any good ideas on who to send into that forest. It may be dangerous though since it's unknown land that hasn't been explored yet." Gannon informed quite sulkily.

Mirabelle's eyes trailed toward Vaughn who slightly flinched on the spot. "Vaughn?"

The animal dealer sighed and stood from his seat. "Fine. There's nothing else better to do anyway."

Felicia and Mirabelle seemed quite content and Chen and Gannon seemed to approve.

Gannon advised, "Be careful out there. There will be tons of wild animals roaming around. Also, when you find Braden.."

"Yes.. I know." The young man tilted his hat to show his leaving and exited out of the shop.

(Vaughn's POV)

Well, I guess I was bound to go off and find that girl anyway. She is too troublesome to watch over and now everyone in town is freaking over her disappearance. If she were to die out there, would that cause so much trouble for me as well. Goodness..

"Vaughn!" That voice was … from that fisherman. I turned my head to see that I was right.

Denny seemed breathless. "I bet.. You heard too…"

"Yeah. That stupid farmer disappeared." I looked at him for a while and thought that it wouldn't be that bad to bring him along. "I heard from some of the adults that it's possible that Braden may have gone there." I flicked my eyes to the newly built bridge.

Denny looked over there and nodded. "Braden can get adventurous like that. I'll go along with you."

"Who said I was going in there?"

"And who said you weren't?" He began to jog away toward the bridge, clearly not even caring whether or not I would go look for that girl.

I sighed and followed after him, letting him lead the way.

"Heh. I knew you would tag along." Denny chuckled.

"Whatever." I remarked. Anyway, it didn't really matter to me. She was bound to be found anyway.

-x-

Chelsea's POV

So… Turns out that following the woman didn't help at all…

"Oh no…" Neil pulled at my shirt and tried to hide. "This is her house."

I stared at the house with wonder. Somehow.. It reminded me of that story of Hanzel and Gretel.. When they found that ginger bread house with candy decorations all over it. Yeah… but this time was reality. I had to wonder what taste this woman had.

I touched the knob of the door and gulped, unsure of what to expect. Turning it slowly, I stepped in closing the door, bet when I turned, I flinched… to immediately see sparkles of beaded eyes look at me… lots of eyes..

"Eep!" Neil hid behind my head in fear and I blinked.

"Teddy Bears?" I whispered.

With the sound of snapping fingers, the lights turned on, showing unending rows of teddy bears, of all sizes, colors, and shapes. And following immediately after that…

"Who's there?" The woman's voice rang throughout the house, startling me. Her steps echoed against the hard wood floor and she appeared beside the largest of the teddy bears.

"Uh… Hi." I feebly greeted.

Her appearance looked … well, it still reminded me of that Hanzel and Gretel story. She surely looked like a witch. Black cloak, narrowed piercing red eyes, and a costume none other than I have seen around here, but either way, she was a pretty woman.

"Who are you?" She asked with slight amusement.

"Umm.. My name is .. Braden." I answered, looking behind her to find shelves of bottles and potions and on the other side, a desk covered with books and papers. The decorations surely were a sight as well.

Her facial expression rose and it filled with entertainment. "Hmm.. How strange. Normal people wouldn't be able to find my house. And that Harvest Sprite on your shoulder… You must be different from other humans."

"Huh?" I blinked.

"You must contain some type of power within you. And I see you haven't been stained by that rival of mine."

"Who?" Okay.. I really had no idea where she was getting off to. "You're mistaken…I'm just a normal human. I don't have powers and if I did, I doubt I'd even know how to use them. All I am is the rancher of this place."

Her eyes widened and she yelled, "You're the new farmer?"

I stiffened as she stomped toward me and I felt some sort of aura radiating off of her.. Not a nice one either.

"So that's the reason why you can see those little munchkins and me." She stopped once she was only a few feet away from me. "That power that is bestowed upon you, I must take it… then I will surely be stronger than that Harvest Goddess… I'll bite you to death."

Her hand rose and began glowing to my surprise. And at that instant I knew it was no joke. I heard Neil yelping behind my ear, "Master, you must run!"

The glowing light sparkled and I knew it was that same blast she had used earlier. The light flickered and I immediately raised my arms to protect myself, expecting the blast to hit me straight on, but even when I saw the light shine brightly, I felt nothing. A familiar sparkling sound was heard before me.

Lowering my arms I found another light, the color of red and blue deflecting the sparkling blast. Looking down to see where it was coming from, I found Noe and Ben standing before me, beaming lights from their hands.

Once the light dispersed, the witch was on the ground. I was about to run and see if she was alright, but Noe's voice stopped me.

"Chelsea, let's get out of here."

I looked back at the woman to see she had regained consciousness. I decided it would be best to make it up to her later.

"I'm sorry!" I yelled as I and the three harvest sprites, who hitched a ride on my shoulders, ran out of the house. Noe began giving directions as we walked around the forest, telling me which trail I should follow.

While we were walking, I decided it would be best to get some answers.

"Noe, Ben, who was that back there? That woman?" I asked seeing that the both were sitting on my head.

Noe answered, "That was the Witch Princess. It's good that both of us came in time before she could take your powers."

Ben continued. "But rest assured, we didn't hurt her. Anyway, we don't have enough power to do that."

"Well that's good… But what power?" There's was no way I was going to be apart of some fantasy filled story. I ain't havin' powers either. Being a girl dressed up as a boy and hiding it from everybody is enough already!

The red harvest sprite answered again. "It's not like you can fly or something. It's not a very big thing at all, but even we don't know what it is. Only the Witch Princess and Harvest Goddess seem to have a good idea of it."

Ben nodded, fixing his hat. "But it's a wonder… since the former rancher also had the ability of seeing us."

Soon I found a pond sitting in this clearing. The water was as clear as glass, even to where you can see the bottom of the pond. A light mist was spread over the surface of the calm water. There wasn't even a single ripple.

Noe jumped off my head and picked at a flower that was the same height of him. Ben decided to help him out and both struggled to pull it out. Once it popped out of the soil, they took it near the water's edge and threw it into the water.

The ripples reached all ends of the pond and the mist thickened immediately. Sparkling sounds that I would normally hear from the Harvest Sprites was heard over the water.

"Ooooohhh," A melodic woman's voice was heard. "Mmm… Ooh, what a wonderful gift to receive!" Out of the mist came out another woman floating over the surface of the water. She had long green braided hair and she was… very beautiful.

Great… I would've freaked out now seeing that I was tied within this story of fantasy, but I guess it didn't really matter now.

"Would you look at that? What happened? …." She looked around and her eyes landed on me. "Ah! You must be the new rancher… Chelsea, right? Nice to meet you."

"You.. You know my name?" I twitched.

"Of course! I know everyone's names. I also know why you look like that. Anyway, I am the Harvest Goddess. Well, then work hard Chelsea and revive Sunny Island!" She looked like she was already about to leave.

"Wait, Harvest Goddess." I waited until she turned around. "What is this power that everyone is talking about?"

"Oh, that? Don't worry about it." She waved her hand. "It's a power bestowed upon ranchers and farmers. It's nothing flashy but it gives you abilities that other people cannot do. One of them is to be able to see these little guys, but it's your job to take care of them. But make sure you take care of it too. If that Witch were to get it, then it would mean trouble for me. Well then, toodle-loo!"

She disappeared in green sparkles and the mist died down over the water.

Neil jumped next to Noe, who patted his head.

"Seems like you found the youngest of our group." Noe said. "He's my little brother, but he surely can cause trouble."

"I'm sorry…"

I sat down, seeing that I might as well stick around. Looking at my watch, I found that it was already four. Wow, almost time for the shipment due. Great. "Noe, can't you tell us how to get out of here?"

I looked to where they were, but I was just staring at empty space. It took me a while to register that they left me behind. I growled in frustration, but immediately stopped when something knocked me over, face meeting the ground.

"Ow!" I cried, rubbing my face. "What the -" I turned to find two big round puppy eyes looking straight at me. It was a dog with darker colored splotches on it, not to forget quite cute too.

The little guy barked at me, then jumped toward me again as if something frightened it. Holding it in my arms, I patted it, trying to calm it, but some rustling and growling before me stopped me as my eyes grew in horror.

-x-

No POV

Vaughn and Denny heard a faint yelling and screaming ahead.

"That sounded like a girl…?" Denny paused, looking at Vaughn, who shrugged (though he knew who it was anyway).

Both continued on through the forest, but soon heard the same scream again, followed by some loud barking.

Vaughn's muscles tightened. "That's not good.. It's wild dogs.."

"We better pick up the pace." Denny urged, trampling through some tall grass as if it weren't there. As soon as he passed by a barrier of trees, he found a reservoir of water ahead of him within a clearing surrounded by trees, but his eyes filled with horror as he continued walking, his eyes filling with fear as they landed upon a body on the ground surrounded by growling and bristled beasts.

"BRADEN!"

Chelsea looked behind of the growling dogs to find the familiar purple bandana. She was about to call out toward him, but one of the dogs pounced at her. Quickly placing the tamed dog behind her, she raised her arm in protection and felt the dog's teeth sink into her skin. She winced, quietly whimpering under a breath, and she slightly pushed away her arm to be able to move the dog back, but she found that she had no strength to push it back.

Denny stood frozen at his spot, not knowing what to do. He soon saw Vaughn slip something out of his belt with incredible speed, a crackling noise quickly following. The other dogs that were just watching were startled by the crackle and retreated.

The animal dealer quickly came up to the dog that had a hold of Chelsea's arm and whipped at its feet. The dog let go of her and growled, but before it could do anything, a fist came whirling at it's face, knocking it out to the ground.

Vaughn blinked as he withdrew his whip, staring at the breathless and tattered rancher who raised her fist to the dog. He saw she had used the same arm that was deeply wounded, blood flowing out of it like a fountain.

Denny immediately ran up to Chelsea's side and fell to his knees. "Braden.. Braden, are you -?" His eyes began to fill up.

"Denny…" She looked up at him with a blunt face. "I'm not dead so don't start crying." She looked at her arm and gave out a sigh.

"It looks bad." Vaughn stated the obvious. He gathered his whip and put it back into its holder which was connected to the side of his waist line. Sitting on the ground, he found the little puppy hiding behind the girl's back, shivering.

"It may look bad, but it doesn't feel as bad as you think." She assured both of them. "But what really matters is…" She grabbed the little puppy behind her and raised it to both of the men's faces. "THIS GUY!"

Both stared at the puppy then at the girl. They both sighed thinking, 'She/He cares more for the dog than herself..'

"This guy.. He was probably running away from those mean dogs, weren't you?" She looked at the puppy apologetically. "We need to do something about him. He may be hurt!"

"And what about you?" Both of the men answered and they looked at each other before veering away.

"It doesn't matter how I am!" She stood to her feet to fall forward, being caught by Denny and the puppy flying toward Vaughn's chest.

"Ah.. Sorry.." Chelsea said, but found Denny to be sitting down on his bottom. She looked over to Vaughn and saw that he was doing the same. Both had frustrated faces to which she realized and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah. You." Vaughn answered annoyed. "You're troublesome." He sat the puppy on his lap and glared at Chelsea who blinked in reaction.

Denny shot a glance at Vaughn and sighed, looking at Chelsea with a somewhat frustrated face. "Yeah… you got us all worried, Bray. Now the whole town is looking for you." He helped Chelsea sit up and didn't let go of her arm.

Chelsea stiffened as Denny ripped the bottom of his shirt and began wrapping it around her wound. She finally got a good look at them and found them also in tatters, grass all over them and some cuts in their clothes; even their legs and feet were scathed. Her face began to drop as she also looked at their hands and fingers that were covered in scratches and red marks.

"I was hoping that nobody would notice I disappeared." She started. "But it seems like I was wrong."

"Of course that would be wrong." Denny sighed. "You should know by now that you are the core and connect everything together here ya know. There isn't anybody in town that hasn't noticed your disappearance."

Vaughn took off his hat and ruffled his hair in frustration. "You're quite selfish you know. Making all of us worry like this." He noticed that both were staring at him. "What?"

"You said 'us'… Does that mean your worried about me too?" Chelsea gawked in disbelief. Denny looked at him the same way.

Vaughn grunted and turned his attention back at the puppy.

Chelsea pulled in her legs and sighed. "I'm sorry… I really am. I didn't want to worry anyone and I wasn't thinking that anybody would notice anyway. Then now everyone is like this, and if they see me like this…" Her eyes widened and she sighed again.

"Yeah, you look like crap." Vaughn remarked. "We should get back though. It's getting dark and you don't want to worry anyone anymore right?"

Chelsea nodded slowly and ran a hand through her short hair. "Yeah. I'll need to figure out how to apologize to everyone…"

"And about that dog?" Denny asked, flicking his eyes to the dog that was on Vaughn's lap.

"I wanna keep it. If it stays here any longer, I'm afraid of what those big dogs may do to it.." She answered, petting the dog.

"Very well." Vaughn stood up slowly, holding on to the dog.

Denny went up to his knees and turned his back toward Chelsea who seemed confused by this action. He peered at her and jerked his head saying, "Get on. I'll carry you." Chelsea hesitantly wrapped her arms around his neck and he gripped on to her legs, lifting her off from the ground and onto his back.

"Hahah. Light as expected." Denny grinned.

"Shut up. It's not my fault I'm so light." She thumped him on the back of his head.

"You know, Braden… You got me scared." The fisherman said quietly. "When I got the news that you went missing, my brain messed up and I couldn't think straight anymore, other than wondering where you could have possibly disappeared off to."

Vaughn trailed right beside them silently, holding the dog that napped in his arms.

Denny continued, "Just hearing your voice again and knowing that you're on my back… I feel so much better now."

Chelsea smiled softly. "I'm glad to know you cared, but then again.."

Both quickly heard sniffling coming from the rancher and Denny began to feel his neck get wet by drops of liquid.

"GAH! Are you crying?" Denny franticly realized, not really knowing what to do. "Ahh.."

Vaughn looked at the girl and knocked her head. "You better stop crying. A guy doesn't cry."

Chelsea wiped away the next wave of tears and sniffled. "I know, but…"

"All you need to do is smile. That's all we'll ever need anyway…" Vaughn responded. "You can't be "determined" if you look like that."

Denny blinked, but agreed. "Yeah! There's no need for you to cry, bud. So cheer up and laugh!"

Chelsea looked at both of them and a smile graced her lips. "Yeah… You're right!" She laughed and moved around, making it tough of Denny to hold on to her.

"Braden, stop moving so much! We're both gonna fall!" Denny complained.

"Deal with it!" She laughed, purposely making it hard on Denny.

Vaughn looked at both of them and sighed, thoughts running in his head. He knew that Denny had a one-sided liking for that rancher, and he catches no sign of affection from her other than friendship. But either way, he couldn't help but be a little bit jealous of the relationship they had. It was nice and peaceful, but whenever he looked at that girl's smile, he always thought of how unfair it was that she can muster something like that upon her face.

'What a weird girl..' He thought bitterly, gradually getting annoyed by how loud they were yelling.

-x-

Chelsea's POV … in her own house…

Sooo in the end, everyone was frantic and NOW I found almost everyone in my house. It was completely full that I had to stay in my bed (not to mention that they forced me in the bed anyway). There was Taro, Elliot, Natalie, Julia, Mirabelle, Felicia, Chen, Charlie, Gannon, Lanna, Denny, and Vaughn. I felt that my house could fall down since there was so many people, but they seemed to find it homey.. As if it were their own home.

That's when I realized… that I truly was wrong… and that what both Denny and Vaughn said was true. I was selfish, thinking that it didn't really matter if other people cared of what happened to me, but this proves that I was completely wrong. I mean, with all these people in my house just because of me, this is convincing enough.

They were all worried about me. Lanna cried when she found wounds and scratches all over me, then she threatened me along with Natalie about running off and disappearing and if I were to do it again, then I should expect the worst. All the adults said I should be more careful and that they were going to keep more than just an eye on me. Julia and Elliot said that they would try to help me out as much as they can.

And Taro… well, he first hit me on the head harder than usual with that stick again, asking whether or not I still had a brain and threatened me with the fiery of a thousand sons. THEN he said something I couldn't I understand since I wasn't so very good with comprehending "deep expressions" and stuff.

Charlie was too busy playing with my new dog. The only other two people who didn't say a thing were.. Denny and Vaughn, but I guess they said what they wanted to say earlier and were just content on being there...

I am selfish. I only thought about what I thought, not having the slightest care in the world to wonder if they even cared. But I guess I can't think like that anymore. Maybe this was another good thing I learned while being on Sunny Island.

I learned that I wasn't alone and I couldn't think like that anymore. I have a family here too. And I want to take care of them, but boy would this make this harder on me… How am I supposed to leave the island now when I feel obligated to thinking these people are my "second family"?

With the position I'm in… I don't know what to do now. I guess my only choice now is just to continue, going with the flow. My goal was to only raise money for my family in debts, but now, that goal seems to be not the only one anymore.

How annoying… But how blessed I am too.

-x-

Gannon looked at Vaughn as the group gathered in Chelsea's home left one by one. "Animal Dealer."

Vaughn looked at the man and nodded, acknowledging him.

"Because of this incident… I hope you wouldn't mind checking out that forest. It would be best to find trails within there so something like this wouldn't happen again."

Vaughn lowered his hat. "I was thinking the same. It would be bothersome, but since there's nothing else better to do.." He nodded, taking up the job.

-x-x-x-x-

I'ma family person, so family themes and plots suit me best. I remember typing this in the middle of winter. So cold, my fingers were nearly frozen. Haha.

- Do Jo