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Mineral Moon: Season II

Harvest 11: Sharing

When she started to regain consciousness she realized that she was not alone. Luna woke to find herself sharing a bed with Cliff. It was a dream; no doubt it was one of her more mischievous dreams. She decided to enjoy it and cuddled closer.

"Luna?" Cliff had woken up as well but he had not yet recovered enough to get up. They had both fainted on the same day and the clinic only had one bed.

"Shh... don't say anything, I always wake up when you're about to ask me if I'll marry you, there's always a nice sunset and a blue feather. Let this dream last, the harvest sprites will cover for me if I oversleep."

Cliff blushed, "sleep well Luna," one day her dreams would come true...

Harvest 12: She's a Goddess

When my cousin told me that his bride to be was a goddess, I thought he was just very much in love. When he led me to a little lake with a pretty waterfall to meet her and there was no one there, I thought she was just late. Then he picked some flowers and threw them in the lake, and there was a flash of light that made me close my eyes.

When I looked there was a woman there, apparently floating above the water. She said something about liking the offering and my cousin introduced me but somehow she already knew my name and then after she faded away he sighted happily. "I told you she was a goddess..."

"Well she was certainly pretty and a great actress, she's really got those special effects working. It's no wonder she won that goddess pageant, congratulations!"

But he thought I was joking, then he shook his head when he realized I wasn't. "No, no, those are not special effects she's a real goddess, the Harvest Goddess!"

I laughed, "right!" Then I grabbed some random flowers and threw them in the pond. She appeared again, looking a little nervous. "While we're blinded by the flash of light, she comes out of the waterfall and jumps on a small platform in the middle of the little pond so it only looks like she's floating. The rest of the time she keeps the platform hidden, there's a mechanism under the pond. Her headquarters is behind the waterfall, but no one dares go in fearing some divine punishment."

He twitches and so does she. "No, no, she's a goddess; I'm telling you she's real."

"My dear, why don't you let me speak to your cousin alone, just us girls, alright?" The so called goddess smiles nervously.

"Okay, if you say so," my cousin replies unsure and finally leaves.

"Listen girl, I don't know who you are but don't mess up my goddess thing here." She disappears behind the waterfall and returns with a big bag of money. "For your silence."

Well sure, why not? I can't expect people who lack an internet connection to be very smart, let her take advantage of the idiots who know nothing of exploiting this ridiculously rich land. I'll have mercy on my cousin, he'll be happy thinking a goddess has married him. "Hey goddess, what happens when you get too old to play the part years into the future?"

"Technically by getting married I'm giving up goddesshood to live among the mortals, but they'll still worship me anyway."

"Oh... nice... I heard there are diamonds around here..."

"Fine, fine..."

And so I saw the wedding and went home with a big bag of cash and diamonds far bigger than any that could be bought in the city, all thanks to my new sister in law who only pretended she liked flowers best.

Harvest 13: Cute Prequel

The child was spoiled, she was told, and as the Harvest Goddess it would eventually fall upon her shoulders to find a way to make sure the girl worked. But that would not happen until later, and when one had all the time in the world, it was only natural to procrastinate. Thus the Harvest Goddess left the task for later, without thinking of the possible consequences, and for now she resolved to entertain the child left in her care with a story to help her fall sleep.

"Once upon a time, there were three little," the Harvest Goddess paused, not many farms near her ponds kept pigs, and thus she found it inappropriate to include such animals in her story. Cows had been there from the start, and so had chickens, but sheep were so cute and fluffy and counting them was known to send humans to sleep, so maybe a story about sheep would work just as well.

Taking a deep breath, the Harvest Goddess prepared to start again, while the little girl looked at her green haired babysitter curiously. "Story!"

The Goddess wondered how and why she ended up promising the girl's mother to take care of her child, but she shrugged it off. She was the Harvest Goddess, there was no such thing as getting in over her head. Right, she would continue thinking that way until proven otherwise. "Once upon a time, there were three, no, four, there were four little sheep, one, two, three, four. The first little sheep was new at building things, a rookie sheep who built a house made of straw. The second little sheep was a lazy sheep who wanted to play all day so the sheep hurried to build a house made of wood. The third little sheep was the leader, a very smart sheep that built a house out of stone. Then there was a storm and-"

"What about the forth sheep?" The little girl asked.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The forth sheep was really quiet and built a house made of..." The Harvest Goddess tried to think of a forth building material that humans used but couldn't come up with anything except "gold."

"The forth sheep was rich! The house must be shiny!" The little girl wasn't any sleepier than she was when the story started.

But the Goddess didn't give up; she still had the ending of the story to tell. "Anyway, a storm came and tore down all the houses except for the golden one, so the first three sheep went to stay at the forth sheep's house and the four little sheep, one, two, three, four, lived happily every after!"

"Does that mean that storms can break houses made of straw?" The child asked.

"Yes," the Harvest Goddess replied.

"And houses made of wood?"

"Yes."

"And even houses made of stone?"

"Yes."

"But I thought stone couldn't be broken and this house is made of wood, is it going to break too?"

"Yes... I mean no!" The Harvest Goddess was trying to make the little girl fall asleep, not give her nightmares. "This house won't break because it's special."

"Oh... okay!" The little girl jumped out of bed. "Let's play!"

"But you're supposed to be sleeping." The child was too energetic and the Harvest Goddess didn't know what to do. She shrugged, if you can't beat them, join them, "okay, let's stay up all night and play!" After all, this couldn't bring any consequences, it's not like anyone would, for example, get turned to stone or sent to another world just because this little girl didn't learn to work hard. "We'll call up the sprites, order some pizza and party until our faces turn blue!"

"Yay!" Ah the joy of children, it brought such happiness to the Goddess' heart.

Harvest 14: Teleportation

"Ah!" She was skilled in many things such as farming and taking care of animals, but she was no skill in properly aiming when it came to teleporting. However, she didn't give up the lovely necklace that allowed her to do so.

She didn't give up when she appeared on a treetop and consequently fell from said tree. She didn't give up when she nearly drowned under the water fall. She didn't give when she landed in the Harvest Goddess pond and the Goddess, while laughing loudly, told her that she could not accept this offering.

But after landing on Gustafa, she swore she would never teleport again. While the creepy man innocently asked the farmer if she was alright, she occupied herself in screaming at the top of her lungs, her voice traveling from the turtle pond to the beach, causing her savior to run to her rescue. "Get away from her!"

Not too far from Forget Me Not Valley, in the town square of Mineral Town, a group of women would gossip the next day. "Did you know about Kai's new sandwich? The one he gave some guy in Forget Me Not?"

"A new sandwich? I haven't heard about that."

"A knuckle sandwich!" Laughter would fill the town square and no one would really feel sorry for Gustafa, because the only one creepier than him was Murrey, but Murrey was creepier than everyone.

Harvest 15: Surprising, Unexpected and Just Plain Weird

It wasn't an unusual animal in a farm, though not one I had ever raised. What could it possibly produce? Not milk, not eggs, if anything only bacon. But as delicious as the imported meat could be, I didn't feel like producing my own. After all, a farmer doesn't spend seasons brushing and petting an animal to turn around and eat it. Hence why all the meat in my house was store bought, save for the fish.

But you know; there's always that argument about fish not being meat. It seems illogical, it is meat, but I don't pet it or brush it, I only catch it. So I eat it without guilty memories, because I have no memories with the fish beyond the victory of catching them. Yet, there he was, standing near the peach tree with a pig. "I found him at the mines."

What was most shocking about this was not the fact that my husband, Kai, had found a pig at the mines, but the fact that he was at the mines in the first place. I've heard stories of other women farmers and their husbands, some had jobs and others lazed about all day, but none actually did anything on the farm, the same went for the wives of the male farmers.

I remember hearing Kai remark about how he never thought he would be doing farm work, speaking as if he were doing it now. But honestly, he wasn't, he just hung out at home and took care of his shop at the beach in the summer. It shocked me to see him come home one fall evening covered in dirt from the mines, with a rucksack full of ores and a pig following him.

"What should we do with him?" Kai continued to smile at me. I didn't know; I simply didn't know what to do with the pig. If I took care of it for a while I would get attached. Sure I eat hamburgers and friend chicken, but never one of my own, the eggs and milk yeah, but not the animals I raised. So whatever choice was going to be made, it had to be made right away. But Kai already seemed to be attached to the pig.

"I guess we could keep it as a pet." Sure why not? I had a cat and a dog as pets and my farm animals included sheep, cows, chickens and ducks. I might as well fence a small section of my farm and make a petting zoo or something. I'll put the baby animals there and children will come to pet and brush them. The parents will pay me to have their kids do my job.

"I think it's a great idea. I'll put him in the pen with the cows and sheep for now, is that okay?"

"Sure..." The idea of a petting zoo is good, so something beneficial has come out of all this weirdness. But still, I'm so surprised I’m in shock, not by the fact that there was a pig in the mines because there’s all kinds of weird stuff in there, but by the fact that Kai worked in said mines. Maybe I should have him help me water the plants tomorrow.

Harvest 16: Box Farm

My name is Claire and I work at a farm, a box farm. Don't get me wrong, it's not that we grow boxes out of the ground, nor do we actually make boxes, we throw them out. Yes, I work at a box farm where we throw away boxes, after removing the office supplies from inside them I mean. It's that kind of box farm, a dreadful maze of cubicles.

Speaking of mazes I got lost. I usually took the first exit I saw out of Building A, the main entrance, to head towards the depths of cubicle hell in Building D. However, the path outside was closed by a chain and when I was prepared to jump over it or slip under it, as either would have worked, I felt a random supervisor looking at me and decided against it.

It's not like I couldn't be there at the time, but I don't think they like it when people don't take the 'proper' route to go to places even if I do have authorized access to the entire area thanks to the dog tag, I mean ID card, around my neck.

While I searched for the proper exit designated to avoid congestion in the halls, even if they were not congested in the first place, I got lost. How could I not? The vast sea of cubicles is a twisted maze full of dead ends and false turns; it reminds me of that mythological maze with some horrible monster in it.

Finally after getting out of Building A and entering Building D, I head over to my cubicle, my pathetic little space in this pathetic little world. Did I mention I hate cubicles? Yes well, I hate cubicles. My cubicle or box is very plain since I dread this place too much to try to uselessly decorate it. There's a computer, tape, a stapler, a clipboard, a bunch of sticky notes, a paper holder, and obviously the desk that holds all those items and the chair that holds my sad existence. I really do hate cubicles.

My drawers contain the usual office supplies such was folders, papers, documents, pens, paperclips, etcetera, etcetera... except liquid paper, because they forgot to give me one of those. Also scissors are unheard of here. I have never been given an explanation for the lack of scissors since I feel it is a normal office tool. This leaves me to contemplate my own wild theories about why there are no scissors. Maybe they're afraid of scissors becoming the murder weapon in our game of Clue: Life Sucks Edition. It was Claire, in cubicle ten, with the scissors!

I turn on the computer and snort. When they hired me they kept ranting about security and now here I am using a cheap computer with the grand browser Infiltrated Explorer! But of course you don't need to be an infiltrator to see all the security holes in this thing. Everyone knows Icefox is better.

I don't know if it was the cheap hardware, the cheap software, or my burning glare, but the computer locked me out. After battling with it for a while and attracting the unwanted attention of my nosy neighbors, I finally got the machine the let me into the internal email. To think I'm usually good with tools and machines, I have a computer at home and I've never had trouble with it. Maybe this one just sensed how much I hate it, because I have to perform my dreaded working routine on it, and decided to hate me back.

The morning passed and I'm off to some lunch gathering because if some random occasion that makes no difference in my life. It's not a holiday; I wouldn't be here if it was. The point is, the food that day wasn't very good and I spilled my drink. Beloved Pixel, do you betray me? It's not my fault this miserable box farm is located so close by to a Coal-Cola factory; I swear I would never be disloyal.

Then the afternoon comes and I hate my life even more than in the morning. Every last minutes drags on for an eternity and I wish so badly that the world would just explode. If that silver haired guy in the black leather from that video game doesn't destroy it soon, then I'll do it myself, because I don't want this sad excuse for a world to continue existing.

Then finally, I can go back to my apartment. But alas it is the winter season, and though it doesn't become cold enough to snow in this city, it does get dark unusually early. It's five and I already need the lights to drive back to where I live, which I will not refer to as home under any circumstances. I have a long drive ahead of me, full of city traffic and danger. I'm sure it will be past six when I arrive at my destination, and by then it will be pitch-black.

The trip was far from uneventful and even further from peaceful. I'm burning with negative emotions so strongly I feel that I'm about to rip the steering wheel right off. I speed away like a maniac, zigzagging around a truck to pass it; then come to an emergency stop at a red light so suddenly that the tires cry in pain and raise their smoke in protest.

I growl and pay my carelessness no mind; I'm too angry and know nothing of life and death. Right now to me life isn't as precious as it should be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking about suicide, I'm just displeased.

The bright lights against my tired eyes, and most of all against the cheap windshield of my car, look like lines of light instead of a point of light. It's like looking at the world behind laser bars, and I can't deny that I have joined the dark side and I'll probably never be released, at least not while it still counts. Then I drive down the middle of two lanes after turning left and don't realize until another car honks its horn.

When I arrive at that place I live at, if you can even call this living, I'm ready to make anyone who even looks at me combust with the intensity of my glare. I moved out of my parents' house so there's no one to set on fire, but I still hate my life. In frustration, I kick my shoes off and start reading the newspaper, searching darkly for a sign that someone has a worse life than mine. Then I see it, the ad that could change my life forever, and maybe even save it. It's time to trade the box farm for a real farm.

Harvest 17: Light Speed in Slow Motion

Sometimes when disaster is about to strike you just know it. This fiasco has been bad from the start, good thing I don't believe in jinxes.

When I first got interviewed for this job, just a regular city desk job, there was friction in my immediate family. Dad wasn't feeling well and thus undergoing medical examinations, mother was being difficult as always, maybe even more, and my parasite of an aunt, mother's sister was being well... a parasite.

The point is the three of us, dad, mother and me, shared two cars. Dad needed to use a car for a doctor's appointment, I needed the other one for a job interview, and my idiot mother wanted to drive her useless sister around. In the end, dad moved his appointment, even if I didn't want him to and certainly didn't ask. He did it so I wouldn't have to depend on mother to take me to the interview then go off with her sister and possibly pick me up later than necessary.

Do you see the picture? Great father, useless mother, get it? That's how it’s been for as long as I remember, and lately, it's been chaotic. My life was filled with the frustration of a young adult lacking the finances to move away from family idiocy and just when I thought I could save enough to achieve that goal, tragedy occurs.

Today I went to work. Let's recap shall we? I planned to tell my parents about Monday's business trip tomorrow, which is Friday, so I wouldn't have to listen to too much crap because mother's an idiot and they don't get I'm not a baby. I'll be going clear across the country into a climate different from the one I grew up with but I can handle it.

Today my dad had an operation, they finished, he went back to the house with mother and then at a time I have not been informed about the wound opened. It was supposed to be simple, in and out in a day. Sure he would be tired and half asleep, but he should recover just fine in his house. I came to find chaos.

When I left work I called the house, notice my lack of the word home, so say I'm coming so someone, mother in this case since dad usually does it but he came out of an operation today, would open the gate to the garage for me. She would protest, but it's not like she was doing anything anyway because dad always insists on taking care of himself. There was no answer from the house phone.

I drove back and let myself in, thankful that I had my keys. In retrospect, it was dad who got me my set of keys because mother would expect me to rely on having a parent open the door for me since they're retired and always there anyway. So I let myself in and changed into something more comfortable, then mother arrives and it all blows up, but I knew, I somehow knew it in the back of my mind even if I didn't listen to that little voice, that sixth sense or whatever you call it.

When I left work there was a man on a bicycle on the road. I don't know if he was reckless or suicidal, but I managed to drive safely back, though it took an amount of skill I honestly thought I didn't have. Not a minute later some guy pops out from between two cars that were parked on the side of the road and crosses the street without looking to see if cars are coming. Again I managed to avoid an accident but honestly, people need to be more careful.

Then a dog started growling at my car and running towards it. What's up with that? I've heard about dogs chasing cars but this is ridiculous, the stupid dog almost jumped under my car. That was the closest of them and it was a miracle I managed to drive by without hitting the crazy, suicidal dog. My point is, even the animals were summoning a tragedy.

About half way from work to the house I saw the remains of a car accident that must have occurred a little earlier. Pieces were scattered on the road and damaged vehicles were parked to the side with their scratched up owners making statements to the police. I kept driving and about two thirds of the way to the house, an ambulance speed by with its siren flaring. It wasn't dad, the time frame doesn't match, I don't know when it happened but I know it was earlier than that. It was just another coincidence or sign, whichever.

Now let's go to that moment in the house when it all fell apart. I found notes and food. In retrospect I can imagine dad worrying about me arriving to an empty house and not having dinner. Though it was mother's hand writing, I'm sure it was by dad's request. That's how he is, thinking of me when he should think of himself, mother isn't like that, she thinks of society and what they would say instead of thinking of happiness, she's the worse hypocrite I know.

Then mother arrives and it's all kind of fuzzy but she ranted and sort of told me what happened and I noticed the blood I didn't see before. It was all over the floor, it was that bad. Then she left after yelling at me some more and after I yelled back.

I blurted out that I was leaving. It was all so chaotic, I was going to keep my business trip quiet until the last minute, but I just exploded. I've been frustrated with my life, I hate the working world, I hate my job, I hate mother, I hate this life, I hate the lack of realistic possibilities that it will change for the better any time soon, I just lost it.

After arguing, another aunt, my father's sister, said she would let me borrow some things, a suitcase and clothes better suited for the cold climate; it never snows were I live. I was going to buy all that but everyone assumes I'm helpless and since no one can get me to the store I won't be able to get there on my own. I can get there alright, but the fact remains I don't have money so I'll have to borrow.

I wanted to buy a handheld videogame to entertain myself on the trip since I can't very well carry my PC. They're giving us laptops, but they're not for gaming and they're not even strong enough to run my games so I couldn't break the rules if I tried.

My dad never put things off because of an emergency; he took care of the emergency then picked up where he left off. I'm like that too. First the emergency needs to be taken care of; then life goes on. The chaos would be over by Saturday, I convinced myself of that, and then I could get my game and have something to do on the plane on Monday.

It's not a choice of taking care of the emergency or being selfish, it's about taking care of the emergency, then getting on with the rest. It's different; nothing would be left without getting done. But I'm surrounded by old people who drop everything when something unexpected happens and they make me so stressed. I would have my head bitten off if I snuck off to buy a game, because even if I'm only standing around, I'm expected to be there, dad would tell me to go, I know he would. But I'm getting ahead of myself, I'm ranting too much, too fast.

I've always been strong, but the people around me try so hard to pull me into their helpless state that it makes me lose it. I did, I yelled, I even cried a little but not from worry, I am not only optimistic in this particular case, regardless of my current grim outlook on life overall, but I have had it dealing with panicking idiots. Shut up, stop, don't try to drag me to your level, just stop it!

Now I wish I wouldn't have pretended to be panicky to keep the glares away and make the "you're so heartless" speeches stop, because my act threw me over the edge and though I didn't really panic, I did have a momentary stressful breakdown and quite frankly ten minutes is a pathetically long time to compose myself. Because I'm strong and level-headed and I'm better than that, and I don't want that to be an empty claim.

I hate relying on people and I only accept a select few relying on me, they have to earn it and there are not many people like that here in the city. I wonder if a nice little town, secluded from the world exists somewhere. A place that's quiet and uneventful and utterly predictable, yet strangely fun. Is there such a place somewhere? I want to find it.

I don't know how dad is. I was left behind in the rush, left to take care of the house, since they think a building needs a babysitter or something. Not that I'll go where I would just get in the way anyway, I'm not a doctor. I'll be there when he's out of the emergency room and... I'm getting ahead of myself again.

Life may be fast and chaotic here in the city, and it's all confusing, contradictive and sometimes nonsensical. It takes a while for everything to sink in, because there's always something going on, so it all blurs together into a cluttered nothingness of deliberately forgotten memories.

Life may be fast in the city, but it feels immensely slow. It's full of unpleasant events one after another and I'm tired of waiting for the good times. It's not the city's fault, nor is the city life to blame, it is the people who are at fault, the people who forgot how to take a deep breath and relax before reacting to something. I dread this life.

I'll trust dad is fine, I'll go on my trip, life will continue in a fast paced slow motion; it's torture. I wish for freedom, I wish to leave this life behind, I wish for something better. I wish for dad to recover, for mother to be the one in the hospital in his place, for mother's sister to go away and fend for herself, for father's sister to not be troubled. I wish for all this chaos to end, but that's impossible, so instead I'll wish that I gain the ability to leave it all behind one day.

Harvest 18: Mischief Gone Wrong

Luna leaned over Cliff's sleeping form closer and closer each time until the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her made her jump back. "What were you going to do?" The doctor asked with a hint of jealousy.

Luna had only given him those herbs to help out; being kind was as much a second nature to her as stalking Cliff was. She didn't mean to give him false hopes or make an enemy out of Elli. "Just keeping an eye on him..."

"I better do an eye exam if you need to get that close only to keep an eye on Cliff," the doctor didn't buy it, maybe because it was a lie.

But Luna maintained a neutral face, "I was about to check for a fever..."

"If you want to check for a fever you need to put the thermometer on his mouth, not your lips," the doctor was fuming and Elli more so. "The patient needs to rest, you should go home," and thus in a fit of jealousy, Luna was kicked out of the hospital.

The farmer banged on the door and screamed about her right to see Cliff, but nothing worked. She got her axe ready and insanely chopped the door off. She saw the vengeful look in Elli's eyes and would not let her lay a finger on her Cliff. But when Luna finally got in, her face was blue in exhaustion.

"Oh no!" The doctor blamed himself and without a second thought he pushed Cliff out of the only bed in the clinic and to the waiting area, then dragged Luna over and insisting that she rested.

Cliff had not yet recovered and fell over face first on the floor. Luna watched from the corner of her yes as Elli started to drag the unconscious Cliff away. "Mine!" Wielding her hammer, Luna attacked the doctor and knocked him out in one hit. She then tackled the unconscious Cliff and clung to him.

Elli huffed, she had enough. "Fine!" She stomped out abandoning the unconscious doctor at the mercy of the aggressive farm girl who was currently blue in the face, but still awake and suffocating Cliff in a hug.

Luna was too tired to drag Cliff, and herself to a bed, so they just laid there on the floor of the clinic. "Idiot doctor," if there was only one bed, he was supposed to put her on the same bed as Cliff not throw him on the floor. Such was mischief gone wrong.

End of Season II

Disclaimer, I don't own Harvest Moon, Clue or Final Fantasy VII Harvest Moon DS Cute is kind of a crossover between Mineral Town and Forget Me Not Valley, it has some Mineral Town characters so I included it in this collection. Harvest 15 is based on a dream. In Harvest 16 the reference about the silver haired guy in black leather was Sephiroth. Special thanks to Skaia for beta reading Harvests 11 to 18.