Chapter 2: A Warning

Claire awoke to the strange sensation of a large, wet tongue lapping against her face.

"Ugh… Bailey!" She gently shoved the puppy away, wiping slobber off her cheek with a paisley pajama sleeve, and then slipped out of bed, stretching her arms as she stood upright.

"Hey boy… you hungry?"

Bailey barked once in reply, and Claire giggled. "Alrighty then!"

Motioning for the dog to follow her, and quickly slipping on her favorite pair of fuzzy bunny slippers, Claire walked toward the kitchen cupboard for two bowls and filled them, one with pet food and the other with water. Bailey eagerly waited for her to finish, and dived in as soon as she set the bowls down on the floor. As the puppy ate, Claire dressed in a clean plaid button down shirt and jeans, and then opened the fridge to grab her own breakfast.

Within the fridge, there were only a few bottles of water, some apples, and a bunch of grapes, the meager remains of the food that Claire had brought with her from the city.

"Hmm…" she pondered aloud, "looks like I'll need to go grocery shopping as soon as possible!"

She lifted the grapes from the shelf and closed the fridge door, then strolled across the room to step outside as she popped a particularly juicy grape into her mouth. Glancing around, Claire spotted a mailbox to her left, and, filled with sudden curiosity, she gingerly stepped over to lift the lid.

To her surprise, there was a letter inside, and it was addressed to her! She carefully snatched up the sheet of paper and read it quickly, realizing that it was actually an invitation.

'Dear Claire,

Welcome to Mineral Town! My name is Carter, and I am the town's resident pastor. I received your name from Mayor Thomas, in case you were wondering. Since you are new to this town, I thought it would be a good idea to invite you to a little get-together at the Mineral Town church at two this afternoon. Think of it as a welcoming party! I figured it would be a perfect chance for you to get to know some of your new neighbors. I do hope that you have received this letter in time- my sincerest apologies if you have not! We will all be expecting you, so please be sure to come if at all possible!

Sincerely, Pastor Carter'

Claire folded the invitation neatly and placed it in her back pocket. A party? For her? Of course she would come! It wasn't like she had any other real plans for the day. And it would definitely be nice to meet some neighbors that weren't quite as weird as the mayor or Barley and his imaginative granddaughter.

Hopefully, she would be able to make some friends her own age, and put the strange events of yesterday out of her mind.

At a quarter to two that afternoon, after making sure that Bailey and Thunder were both well fed and safely locked in the house and stable, respectively, Claire set off for the Mineral Town church. She remembered that the church was located in the far corner of town, near the entrance to the beach, thanks to the tour from Mayor Thomas that she had just received the day before.

The church was a relatively small but attractive building, painted a clean white color, with large stained glass windows ling each wall that let in plenty of sunlight during the day. Walking up the short stone path to the church, Claire paused for a moment to admire a window depicting the Harvest Goddess rising from a spring of bubbling azure water before stepping inside.

"Surprise!"

Claire was pleasantly surprised to find the church pews full of people who were all looking at her happily. Brightly colored balloons bobbed around the ceiling in clusters, and a long table at the front of the room was lined with various foods- fish, salads, stews, pies, cookies, you name it. The whole room had a cheerful atmosphere, and was filled with the hum of many voices speaking at once as the townspeople returned to their conversations.

A smiling, clean-cut young man walked up to Claire, holding out his hand in a friendly manner. He didn't look too much older than herself- though looks could be deceiving, she figured.

"Hello there, my name is Carter, the pastor at this church! And I'm assuming that you're Claire? I've never seen you around here before!"

"Yes… I'm the new farmer in town..." Claire responded as she shook his hand shyly, glancing around the room again at her surroundings.

"Well then, I'm glad you could make it, Claire, and welcome to Mineral Town! I must say, we haven't had anyone new join our community in quite some time. It's great to see that old farm being put to use!" Carter then went on to quickly introduce Claire to everyone in the room without a second pause.

"This is Anna and Basil, and their daughter Mary. Mary runs the local library down at the other end of the road."

Mary fit the description of librarian perfectly, with her dark hair, glasses, bookish clothing style, and quiet demeanor. Timidly, she greeted Claire and gave the new farmer a shy smile.

Anna, whose hair color matched her daughter's exactly, gave Claire a warm welcome, and her husband Basil shook Claire's hand cordially. Basil was a botanist, Claire learned, which would explain the faint scent of herbs emanating from him, a scent that would normally be considered quite odd but not necessarily bad. She giggled inwardly at his fitting name as Carter turned her toward the next set of people.

"And this is Sasha and Jeff, who own the supermarket, with their daughter Karen."

Karen was a pretty girl about the same age as Claire, her golden brown hair streaked with blond highlights in the front that framed her face nicely. Her mother Sasha was just as pretty, with her chestnut brown hair tied up in an elegant bun.

Jeff, on the other hand, was quite average in comparison. It wasn't hard to figure out where Karen got her good looks from. All three of them greeted Claire with kindness, and Claire remembered that she would have to buy groceries from them today, since they owned the only supermarket in town.

Carter continued on. "This is Rick, who lives at the Poultry Farm just a little ways down the road from your own farm, and his younger sister Popuri." The pair of siblings nodded to Claire, and Carter turned to address Rick specifically. "Why, where is Lillia? Why didn't she come to the party?"

Popuri grinned and shook Claire's hand a little too enthusiastically, her fluffy pink hair bouncing in a way that reminded Claire strongly of cotton candy, while the awkward brunette Rick shuffled his feet and fiddled with his glasses nervously. "Mom's not feeling well at all today. Her headaches came back again, so she decided it would be best to stay home and take a nap instead."

"Ah… well, be sure to send her our love. We're so sorry she couldn't make it today."

Carter turned back to Claire and began to lead her to the other end of the room. His friendly expression changed to one of regret.

"You see Claire…" he began, "Rick and Popuri's mother, Lillia, has been diagnosed with a very rare disease… so rare, in fact, we do not even know what it is called. It all began many years back, when Lillia was a young lady. About your age. She began developing severe headaches that weakened her entire body… she would stay in bed for days at a time… even Dr. Trent, our local medical practitioner, couldn't figure out what caused it. Then her husband Rod left town to find a rare plant he believed had the power to cure her… he hasn't been seen since. Yes, she's had a tough life, that one. We all pray to the Harvest Goddess that she'll pull through."

"Oh…" Claire said, at a loss for words. The pastor shook his head and put a hand to Claire's shoulder, the smile reforming on his face.

"Well, don't let it put a damper on your day! There are still a lot of townsfolk you have to meet!"

He led her over to a large group of villagers huddled nearby. "This is Doug, the local innkeeper, and his daughter Ann… one of their guests, Cliff… Duke and his wife Manna, who own Aja Winery, right next door to the Inn… Zack, who takes care of the shipping business in and out of town… Gotz the carpenter… and Gray the blacksmith's apprentice. Where's Saibara, Gray?"

Gray sighed, and just for a second, his eyes caught Claire's. He hurriedly adjusted his cap to cover his face. "Gramps didn't come," the young man stated gruffly. "Really busy, lots of orders to fill. In fact, I should probably be heading back before he gets angry."

And with that, he shoved his way out the door.

"Wow," Claire muttered under her breath, "Real friendly guy."

Ann, the innkeeper's daughter with a long, reddish brown braid down her back, glanced over at her. "You know, Gray's not always that way. He's just shy. In fact, he can be nice when you get to know him… kind of."

Claire blushed. She hadn't expected anyone to overhear her.

"Oh, I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it," said a voice to their left. A girl with a round, kind face and short chestnut hair walked up, followed closely by a man with black hair and dark, serious eyes.

"Hello, Claire! My name is Elli, and this is Trent, the resident doctor. We work at the clinic here in Mineral Town. I live just down the street, next door to Mayor Thomas and Officer Harris, with my little brother Stu and my grandmother Ellen. I'm afraid that they couldn't come today, though. Grandma Ellen's getting older, and has a medical condition in her legs that makes it difficult for her to walk. She stayed at home with Stu."

"Oh…that's too bad." At least she now knew who Stu was, the mystery person May had mentioned the day before.

The short-haired girl, Elli, grinned. "Yes, but you can still come see them anytime you like! Grandma Ellen loves to have visitors. She says it's good for her."

"Oh, all right. So…" Claire struggled to make decent conversation, "Er, how is life here in Mineral Town?"

For a fraction of a second, Claire thought she saw a glimmer of fear in Elli's brown eyes, but it was gone so quickly that she felt she must have imagined it.

Ann and Trent, meanwhile, exchanged a glance that flickered with obvious uneasiness. "To tell you the truth…" Ann began, but was silenced by a jab in the ribs from Elli's elbow.

"…Mineral Town is a wonderful place to live!" Elli finished. "I'm sure you'll love it here!"

"Uh… okay." Claire winced inwardly at her own inability to speak in educated sentences.

"Do you like potatoes?" Ann blurted out suddenly.

"What? Oh… yeah, sure." She sure seems eager to change the subject.

"Well, um, 'cause my father Doug makes this really great stew with potatoes, and stuff. You should really come try it sometime, it's delicious!"

Trent cleared his throat loudly, shooting Ann a warning glance, causing the girl to blush.

"…I'd, uh, better get going," Ann mumbled, and hurried off into the crowd. Elli glanced at Trent meaningfully before turning back to Claire.

"Sorry about that. She… just gets kind of strange around new people, that's all. But she's a really nice person! I'm sure you guys will warm up to each other quickly."

Claire nodded. "Um, yeah… that's okay. Yeah."

"So what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Well," Claire pondered for a moment, "I was thinking that I'd go buy a cow from Barley down at Yodel Ranch. And maybe a sheep. That way I could make some money off their milk and wool and stuff."

Elli nodded. "And you could buy some seeds, too, from the supermarket where Karen lives. We can always use fresh produce around here. Plus, it should bring a good amount of new income into the town!"

"Yeah, that's a great idea! Thanks! I need to go shopping for groceries there anyway."

The brunette grinned. "And then you can come visit me and Trent at the clinic." She turned to the young dark-haired doctor beside her. "Speaking of the clinic, we should probably be getting back over there. Goodbye, Claire. It was nice meeting you!" With a smile and wave goodbye, Elli and the doctor turned toward the door and left.

Claire looked around. The little party was nearing its end, so she hurried up the row of pews to grab a snack from the table before they cleaned up.

As she scooped the last slice of cheesecake onto her plate, Claire felt the strange sensation of a pair of eyes watching her. Turning around, she sighted a man around her own age looking at her, his bushy brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.

Upon seeing Claire staring back at him, he quickly whipped his head around to talk to the winery couple, Duke and Manna. What was his name again? Suddenly it came to her. Cliff.

"Hey, Cliff!" she shouted, swiftly grabbing a fork and darting across the room. Cliff shot her an uncomfortable glance and turned back to Duke and Manna, who were watching the blonde with interest.

"Hello, Claire, dear." Manna said as the younger woman approached them. "How are you settling in at the farm? Such a good amount of land, it's a shame it went into such disarray. But that house is just so small! Even our home at the winery, where Duke and I live, is bigger than that. I would invite Cliff here to come stay with us, in fact, he's almost like a son to us, but he prefers it at the Inn. Oh well, there's nothing we can do to change his mind, really, and I can hardly blame him. Doug's cooking is just so good, and Ann is turning out to be quite the chef herself. It would be no punishment to eat their cooking every day, that's for sure! You know, this one time, at the Cooking Festival last spring…"

After just a few seconds of this babble, Claire had blocked out the sound of Manna's voice completely, and was instead contemplating a way to shut her up. Isn't there an off switch?

Duke, sensing possible trouble, grabbed his wife's arm and pulled her away. "C'mon, Manna, we should get going. Got some business to take care of." Looking back, he winked at Claire and added, "Don't need you giving the new girl a headache."

Claire giggled and looked over at Cliff. He was smiling, but once he saw Claire watching him, he quickly turned his head.

"Oh, don't be shy. You look so… nice… when you smile like that."

Cliff turned back to her smiling face, then glanced around at the rest of the partygoers almost nervously. Most of them had dispersed by now. "I… I have to… tell you something," he suddenly stammered, looking unnervingly troubled.

"Oh… okay," Claire said, confused, and sat down at one of the pews. She gestured for Cliff to take a seat beside her. "What is it?"

"You… I-I mean… I believe you've made a mistake in moving here."

"Huh? …Why?"

Cliff glanced around another time, then leaned in closer. "Claire… you're in grave danger."

A/N: Cliffhanger. Get it? Cliff… hanger. Sorry.

Also, I've been debating on whether or not to include any romance in this fic involving Claire. If I do decide to add in a bit of romance, I have some ideas, but your opinions and suggestions are always welcome!

-CCM