NOTICE [July 8, 2012]: FF net rules state that non-story material may not be uploaded as a stand-alone chapter. This rule includes my 'Before You Read' information. It is still here, but now it contains a 'Prologue'. The prologue is from Chapter 1, the beginning portion. It has been removed from Chapter 1 already. The prologue may be replaced later in time and this portion may be moved back. But until then, enjoy. If you want to read the story information, please skip or read the prologue.
Prologue
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SPRING 3RD – TUESDAY
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Mark's Scene
Mark sighed to himself as he reread the typed letter in his hand for at least the fourth time,
'To Mark Mills:
The City of Flourish appreciates all of the hard work that you have accomplished on the once abandoned 'Sunny Island' for the past 2 years. However, as I have mentioned before, for the past 2 seasons, the city needs more animal products produced from your ranch. As you know, it is costing my city more than 500,000 gold a season to transport milk and other products from a neighboring city to my own to satisfy the growing population. The transportation (trucks), employees, gas, and many other things that are involved all cost gold. According to the city finances, more than half of the gold goes to the other city because of these products that are being produced and transported to my city.
According to my records, you usually produce 200 gallons of milk, 30 eggs/approximately 2.5 dozens (uncooked), 0 pounds of wool, approximately 283.7 pounds of butter, approximately 275.4 pounds of cheese, approximately 275.4 pounds of yogurt, 0 pounds of yarn, and 0 pounds of mayonnaise(1). As you can see by these numbers, this is not enough for my city that continues to grow each day. The crops that you produce on your ranch are more than enough for our city, and the city and I ask you to keep up the good work. Due to your crops alone, being in excellent condition (A to S rank), local businesses have been able to stay in the city and are not needed to move out because of competition with Wall-to-Wall Mart(2) in a nearby city. Since you produce more than enough of certain crops per season, they can be sold for inexpensive prices all year round. However, Wall-to-Wall Mart is trying to redeem themselves by selling animal products for 'cheap' prices. Since we have a shortage of animal products, local businesses in the city have no choice but to sell these products at least 5% higher than Wall-to-Wall Mart. Unfortunately for the city, most of the citizens rather go to the nearby city to get these animal products since they are 'cheaper', despite the cost of transportation and the distance differences.
This will be my final letter to you concerning this issue. If I don't receive a reply from you by Spring 15th, the city and I will no longer do any type of business with you or others on the island.
From,
Mayor Avarice(3)
PS: Please call me at 1-322-659-9984 if you want the city to do any further business with you.'
Mark closed his eyes and sighed again. He crushed the paper in his hand from frustration and looked out of his window from his bed. Of course, the weather was perfect, the complete opposite of how he felt. Not only was he in a tight spot if he didn't make a decision quick, there was almost nothing that he could do about it. He stood up from his bed and stretched, getting the knots out of his back and his neck as well.
"Well… What to do now…?" he asked himself in a low voice.
Mark, honestly, tried to comply with the city wishes, but doing his best wasn't enough for them- apparently… He knew that he couldn't do all of the farm work himself anymore, especially since he would fill his whole field with crops, his greenhouse with crops as well, fill or check his rice paddies, fill or harvest mushroom growing on the logs, and then work with the animals. And when it was time to harvest the crops, it would take him hours to do so, and then a little extra time to put them in the shipping bin. In other words, he needed help, and fast. Before he could figure out a solution to his problem, someone knocked on his door. He quickly tosses the letter onto his bed and ran to his door to answer it. Of course not to his surprise, Taro was standing there with a slight smile on his face.
"Mornin' Mark! I just wanted to stop by and to once again congratulate you on another successful year!"
Mark smiles lightly at Taro's comment.
"Thanks Taro… But, the island will not be successful if I don't fix a certain problem soon…"
"Huh?"
Mark sighed. He seemed to have been doing that a lot lately.
"Wait here for a second…" Mark said as he closed the door and ran to his bed to get the letter.
He returned to the door with the letter in his hand and opened his door again. He hands the letter to Taro without explaining. Taro looked at Mark first confused, but then he read the letter when he saw the anxious expression on Mark's face. It didn't take long for Taro to reply- or show his irritation.
"WHAT IS THIS!?" Taro exclaimed in anger.
"It is exactly as it reads Taro. If I don't figure out a solution to the problem soon, the island will once again be abandoned in no time… And, I don't know what to do…" Mark admitted.
"HMPH! I'll tell ya what you're not going to do! You're not going to just stand there and ignore this Mayor person! Even though I don't like this Mayor's words, I have an idea that can solve this problem!" Taro said with triumph.
Mark face brightened.
"What do you suggest Taro?"
"Easy! I'll ask Elliot and Natalie to help you!"
Mark chuckled nervously.
"I had a feeling he would say that," he thought as he remembered a brief memory of Elliot, his best friend, helping him before with his farm chores when he was sick.
"I am grateful for that offer Taro, but Elliot and Natalie are busy enough transporting the products from my ranch to the ship. And they are just as busy as me whenever I put a lot of things into the shipping bin. I mean, they put everything into crates and keep up with how many there are and other things. I really don't want to overwork them…" Mark said, declining Taro's offer.
"Nonsense! Elliot needs to build a little more muscle and Natalie needs to get out of the house a little more often. I think-"
"R-Really Taro, it's quite okay! I don't want to overwork them!" Mark said again and he shook his head to emphasize his point even more.
Taro sighed.
"Well, I suppose you're right there… But, this situation can't be ignored. Something needs to be done…"
Mark leaned back on the heels of his boots to think. And then, as if a rock hit him on his head, he had a wonderful idea.
"I GOT IT!"
Mark's excitement scared the old man and nearly gave him a heart attack.
"Wh-What is it!?"
"No time to explain! I have to go to Sabrina's house real quick! Thanks for your wisdom Taro!" Mark said as he raced passed his farm tutor to head towards Sabrina's house.
Story Information (AKA Before You Read)
Welcome to my FIRST Harvest Moon story for the lovely couple Chelsea X Vaughn!
To read the FULL and more detailed summary of the story, please read below. It is NOT required of you to read the 'EBook (SAMPLE)' information.
Title: Harvest Moon: Island of Despair (ӇдⱤѵЄϛҭ ҦΦΦȠ: Iϛɭдηȡ Φʄ DЄϛϸдɨⱤ)
By: Kitty8688/kitty8688 the only
Beta-Read By: Pheonixfire (from Ushi No Tane Forums) and WolfCrystal (from FF . net)
Rating: T-T+ ; Swearing/Cursing and possibly some adult-like themes mentioned (not explicit). Rating will change if any are TOO detailed AND a 'WARNING' will be added!
Type of Story: Harvest Moon: Island Of Happiness; Chelsea X Vaughn [Vaughn is AKA Valuts], other couples are mentioned as well; Multi-Chapter Story (In Different View's); Romance, Humor, Angst/Sorrow/Horror, Mystery, and Drama.
Summary: Chelsea is finally hired to work as a part-time rancher on a ranch located on an island called 'Sunny Island'. The villagers she meets all are friendly, the air is refreshing, and the open space felt nicer then the city. Life is 'perfect' for her. But anything that is 'perfect' doesn't stay that way forever. When the Harvest Goddess statue at the Goddess Festival falls down and nearly kills her, also meaning a bad omen- terrible and weird things begin to happen on the island… Are these terrible events mere accidents or coincidence? Or is someone- or something- trying to just— kill her!?
Characters Presented (Not in Order of Appearance): Chelsea, Vaughn (AKA Valuts), Mark, Shea (AKA Shiba), Witch Princess, Denny (AKA Danny), Lanna (AKA Lily), Natalie, Pierre, Elliot (AKA Erik/Erick/Eric), Julia, Sabrina (AKA Ceffiena), Will (AKA William), Chelsea parents, the main villagers, sub-villagers (Luke and Madelynn mostly), some Mineral Town people mentioned, and others. OH! And let's not forget Kuu (Denny's/Danny's black bird).
Started On & Completed Date: September 03, 2009 (Start Date) & November 30, 2012 (Unedited & Not uploaded yet)!
Total Chapters/Pages: 1/33 Pages; 2/49; 3/45 (BONUS INCLUDED); 4/43 (BONUS INCLUDED); 5/65 (BONUS INCLUDED); 6/53 (BONUS INCLUDED); 7/38; 8/82 (BONUS INCLUDED); 9/48 (BONUS INCLUDED); 10/52 (BONUS INCLUDED); 11/55 (BONUS INCLUDED); 12/69; 13/62 (BONUS INCLUDED); 14/50; 15/71; 16/51; 17/42, 18/100 (BONUS INCLUDED), 19/51, 20/52, 21/52, 22/33, 23/45, 24/32, 25/22, 26/12, 27/17, 28/44, 29/36, 30/18, 31/20. [Referring to being 1.5 spaced, 12 font, in Times New Roman, and comments I make at the end is included. Will be updated every new chapter uploaded.]
Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of the characters. The characters belong to the original creator of the Harvest Moon series, Yasuhiro Wada, the game creators company, Marvelous Entertainment™©, and the English translation company, Natsume™©/Rising Star Games™©. All I 'own' is this story/plot and any OC's.
WARNING: Nothing too much to worry about, but, I wanted to mention that my chapters are long, not short. In other words, 10,000 words or more would be a chapter to me (it can be less sometimes). I will add a warning in the chapter itself if something is— harsh.
To Beta-Readers [May 15, 2012]: Due to email issues, I cannot 'hire' any beta-readers at this time. I apologize for the inconvenience!
BONUS(ES) [UPDATE, 2/9/2011]: BONUS material will no longer appear in this story. In the future, they will be moved and will have their own title. The last one was featured in Chapter 18.
'Fun Facts' [Endnotes]: I would like to add in that during the story- you may see things like this (example):
"What is your name?"
"Silla(1)."
See the number '1' in italic's and in bold? Anything that is in italics and in bold, I will make a note of it at the end of the chapter. This will become clearer as you read the story.
Feel free to review or not; that includes good, bad comments, and/or criticism. I, personally, don't care if you review or not. I write because I like to write stories, not because I want reviews.
Quick 'Q' From Review(s): ALL of these have been moved to my LiveJournal account. If you want to see them, you're going to have to become my 'friend' on the site, as they are set to 'Friends Only' that can view it. I will try to reply to each one through the PM/review system, unless your review is anonymous. If I think the question you ask is important, I will share those answers with everyone.
NOTICED? [June 17, 2010]: FF admins fixed the interrobang issue, which is great! Although, when I have certain words underlined, that are in bold too, the website gets rid of the underline still; which needs to be fixed.
EBook (SAMPLE) [December 8, 2012]:
The links are located on my profile. Feel free to go there to see the links.
And that is all that you need to know concerning the story. Please feel free to now move on to the story, that is, if you want to.