The following morning was the long awaited moment Chelsea and I had been working so hard towards. After disabling the alarm clock for another twenty-four hours and donning our respective headgear the two of us with the watering can in hand made way to the field, only to find that watering our crops would be unnecessary. Our first harvest was upon us.

"Mark, look! I think the crops are ready to be harvested!" Exclaimed Chelsea as she set down the watering can before crouching down to get a better look at the plump, ripe strawberries that dangled from the fully grown sprouts.

I crouched beside her and delicately grabbed one of them to examine it myself, being just careful enough to not rip it from the stem yet. "Well that do you know." My slight lack of self-esteem, even after seeing how well our crops had come along just yesterday, had me thinking we'd never see this day and yet here we were.

With a smile on her face Chelsea turned her attention to the strawberries in front of her and reached out for it. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's get harvesting." She suddenly paused. "Actually, now that I think about it, where are we supposed to keep all of these?"

"Well, aren't we supposed to be shipping our crop out so we can finally start making some money?" I asked.

"Well, yeah, but I mean how are we going to get them all over there." She replied as she motioned with her shoulder to the shipping crate all the way besides the house. "I mean we can't just take everything there one at a time."

Taking a moment to pretty much count the amount of crops we actually had for once it was easy to see there was no really argument there. We had about twelve sprouts of strawberries and six potatoes ready to be collected and with the amount of berries per plant and the size of those potatoes even with the two of us I was positive it'd be an unnecessary hassle to make constant trips.

I removed my hat and scratched my head as I attempted to come up with a solution. "Well, I don't remember seeing anything that'd work in the house… and I don't trust these things to not burst if we put them in our backpacks…"

Chelsea continued to kneel in the dirt and watched me for a moment before looking back at the strawberries. In an instant her face lit up as she let out a gasp and looked back up at me.

"I think I got an idea!" She chirped, quickly snatching my hat from my grasp. Her tongue stuck upwards out of her mouth as she began to carefully pluck one of the berries from its stem and gently place it in my upside-down hat. "There we go." She laughed as she held it up to me by the visor.

"That's one way of doing it I guess..." I remarked.

"Well I doubt my bandana would do any better." She giggled before resuming her strange method of harvesting.

I glanced over at the potatoes nearby and made my way towards them. "I guess if the berries are taken care of I can just put these in my bag."

Chelsea gave no sort of disagreement so I set my bag down beside the plants and got to work. The only time I can recall ever seeing untouched potatoes that weren't mashed or fries was during the occasional trip to the supermarket and given that ours seemed to match up with them as much as I could remember I was pretty impressed. For being grown with just water and sunlight without any sort of pesticides or special fertilizer it felt like almost a miracle that we were able to have every seed we planted grow. As I placed the last potato in my bag I returned to Chelsea who seemed to be struggling to fit the last few berries in my hat.

"How's my hat working out for you?" I grinned.

Appearing to give up on the idea of carrying them all in one trip she looked up at me and smiled. "It's working about as well as a hat can I guess." She laughed.

I laughed back at her and headed off towards the shipping box with her following slowly behind, taking her steps extra carefully to ensure that none of the berries fell out. Arriving there first of course I opened the lid up and allowed her to place her load in first to make it easier for her. Hovering the hat over the opening, she removed her hand that was cusped over the standard hole in the back and slightly titled it so that berries could simply slide out one to two at a time. Quite honestly I would have probably just dumped them all in at once but her way seems to work just as well, plus points for creativity.

"I'll go and fetch the rest while you get those potatoes in." She said.

Before I could even open my mouth she bolted back out to the field, leaving me to only shrug at myself. I took a moment to delicately rearrange the box's contents so that the potatoes I placed in were off on their own side and unlikely to crush any of the strawberries already inside. Once finished I stepped aside as Chelsea returned and dumped the last of the harvest inside.

"Welp, that's a job well done don't you think?" She cockily asked as she placed my hat on her head and smirked.

I laughed. "No, not yet." Grabbing the visor of the hat I turned it around. "Now it's a job well done."

She covered her mouth to laugh and possibly hide the slight blush that formed on her cheeks. "We should probably go and let the others know that we've managed to actually grow something huh?"

"Yeah, I better Taro's gonna be delighted at us for once." I replied.

Side by side the two of us began to make the trek towards the town area. Just before the turn up at the hills Chelsea looked up at the blistering sun.

"It looks like it'll be pretty hot out today." She noted while removing my hat. "You're probably gonna want this back."

I turned towards her as we made the corner and continued to walk backwards as I peeked up at the sky momentarily. "Looks like you might be right." I reached out and grabbed my hat from her and while I noticed as she stopped dead in her tracks as I did I paid no mind to it immediately as I was my focused on placing my hat back atop my head. "There we go."

She remained frozen in place. "Uh… Mark?" She uttered as she pointed her finger in my direction a few times.

"What is it?" I asked, still walking with my back towards our destination. "Something wrong with it?"

She took a step towards me. It started out slow but seemed to go full blown panic mode when she saw I wasn't stopping. "Mark watch out!"

Her cry encouraged me to finally turn around, landing my face straight into what seemed like someone's back as I did so. At least I thought it was someone's back, one that felt like a brick wall left in the middle of the trail, and just like one would when hitting the wall of a building I easily stumbled backwards and onto the ground. Chelsea rushed to me side.

"Mark, are you okay?" She asked as she helped me sit up.

A low grumble came from whoever I had run into and they turned around to face me. I looked up at shadow of whoever was looming over me and Chelsea as they stood tall enough to block out the sun, even as they appeared to be hunched over. They were a massive being whose bulky arms stood outwards at their side like they were some kind of hulking beast. I feared for the worst.

"O-Oh my, terribly sorry about that!" They exclaimed to my surprise.

Without warning they grabbed me at the sides with their massive hands and lifted me off the ground with ease.

"That was my bad entirely, heh heh. I should've known better than to block the road like that." They apologized as they dusted me off, though with the strength behind their hands they might as well have been beating the crap out of me.

"Oh… no problem…" I stammered out in a bit of a daze as Chelsea came to my side.

"You okay?" She asked as she placed her hand on my shoulder.

I shook my head to recompose myself and faced her. "Yeah, I'm fine."

The colossal man before us smiled and gave a slight bow to Chelsea. "Sorry for hurting you're friend their miss."

"Mark? Chelsea?" Taro's voice called out before revealing himself from behind the man. "So that's what's causing this interruption."

I made a grimace as it seemed that we were on the receiving end of more hate from Taro.

"Heh, sorry about that. Mark wasn't exactly looking where he was going." Chelsea laughed.

Sheesh, her too?

"Well whatever the case is it seems you've met our visitor for today." Taro said as he motioned towards the man with his cane. "I'd like you two to meet Gannon. He's the carpenter Mirabelle called out here."

Gannon let out a hearty laugh and extended his giant hand out to us. "Mark and Chelsea was it? Nice to meet you two."

I decided to be the brave of us and returned his gesture. Comparison wise I felt like a newborn child shaking hands with their parent only Gannon didn't seem to be restricting his strength in anyway.

"Yeah… nice to meet you two…" I grunted in pain as he removed his grip. Chelsea seemed to giggle as I held my throbbing hand in pain.

"Seems like you're quite strong." She laughed.

Once more to my surprise Gannon seemed utterly flustered by Chelsea's comment and began to blush.

"Heh, I'm not that strong… am I?" He asked amusingly.

Taro on the other hand might as well have ignored that introduction. "Gannon's here today to examine the conditions of some of the homes here and see what can be improved around here."

Gannon turned his attention back to him. "Oh, right! Yeah, Mirabelle's been such a dear to me as of late that I just couldn't say no to her."

"Well given the conditions some of these houses were in when we found them I'm sure you'll have your work cut out for you." Chelsea told him.

"I'm beginning to notice that too." He remarked as he seemed to start eyeing the unclaimed building across from Chen's. "I'm beginning to notice that too…"

"So what brought you two out this way so early?" Taro finally asked.

"Oh, right! The crops finally came in!" I answered. "We harvested them all up and got them in the box to ship."

"I assume you sampled them first to make sure they were good, right?" He asked back.

My face went blank. "Oh, yeah, sure, we totally did that…"

"I felt like we were forgetting something…" Chelsea admitted.

Taro shook his head and grumbled to himself. "Right," He turned to Gannon. "Why don't you go and meet Mirabelle over at her house, it's that one over in the corner with the red roof. I'll have to finish up with these two over here and then we'll join you."

"Sounds good to me." Gannon nodded before turning his attention back to the two of us. "It was a pleasure."

Taro stomped his cane against the ground a few times as Gannon left to bring our focus to him. "Well, let's get to it then."

Like a parade leader Taro lead the short march back to the shipping grate just a short distance away. There, I opened the lid for him and allowed him to peer inside.

He whistled as he gazed at our yield. "I'd be lying if I said that these weren't some of the finest crops I've seen before."

He carefully reached his hand into the box and withdrew one of the strawberries, holding it up to the sunlight for a better look as he did so. I could almost feel myself start to sweat as the suspense in the air started to get to me. Chelsea, on the other hand, of course seemed unbothered by everything. Finally the moment of truth came as Taro momentarily lifted the berry up into the air before eating it. A look of utter delight spread across his face while he chewed it.

"I must say, I'm impressed." He said once he swallowed it down. "I couldn't imagine a berry of such quality could come from soil such as this."

"What do you mean?" Chelsea asked.

"Well just look at it." He began as he motioned towards the field. "No fertilizer of any sort, this place was unmaintained for Goddess knows how long, not to mention the mess we found it in. I'd say this place must have a guardian angel or something."

My thoughts went to that harvest sprite Chelsea and I had encountered a few days back. Could he or possibly even the Harvest Goddess be behind this?

"Plus you two are just beginners. I guess we'll have to chalk this one up to my guidance this past week." Taro said. His slight chuckle seemed to indicate he didn't fully mean that last bit in earnest.

"What about the potatoes?" Chelsea asked.

Taro made a quick peak in the box again. "You don't have many to send out and since those won't continue to grow for the rest of the season like the strawberries I'm just going to say we assume they're just as good. I'd hate to cut our first shot and earning some cash here short."

"Sounds good to me." I shrugged.

"Chen and Felicia managed to get some traders to stop by just about eve-"

Taro was unable to finish his explanation as suddenly a loud crashing sound boomed across the island from the direction of the town. The birds perched out in the forest began to chirp like made as they erupted from the trees and flew wildly across the sky. Their reaction made me worried about how whoever lived out there would possibly respond.

"What in tarnation was that?" Taro exclaimed as he quickly turned and scurried back towards town. "Come on!"

Chelsea and I followed closely behind and reentered the town area, spotting that everyone seemed to have gathered near the trails end just past Mirabelle and Julia's house. At the scene everyone seemed to be surrounding Gannon and Charlie. Gannon stood leaned up against a massive sledgehammer while Charlie bounced around with excitement.

"WOW!" Exclaimed Charlie with glee. "THAT WAS SO COOL!"

Gannon gave another one of those unfitting cutesy laughs of his. "I'm telling ye, it was nothin' kid."

The rest all smiled and gave a light round of applause for him as we finally joined the circle. Even Natalie participated in the praise, though she seemed to roll her eyes and gave a weaker clap than the rest.

"What's going on?" Taro asked with concern.

"Oh man, you guys missed it!" Charlie answered, showing no sign of his excitement dying down.

"Charlie here wanted to see just how strong Gannon was and he demonstrated by demolishing that nasty boulder that was blocking the path here." Felicia said with a more clear answer.

Gannon moved aside to reveal a collection of debris scattered across the now open pathway.

"It was amazing! And with just a normal hammer!" Charlie shouted.

Chen simply laughed at his son's amusement.

"I gotta say, I'm impressed." Julia remarked.

Mirabelle walked up to Gannon and smiled. "That's Gannon for you, never one to let you down."

"Aw, stop it you all, you're making me blush." He said as he actually began to.

Mirabelle laughed and patted him on the back. "Come on now, we've got some houses for you to look at."

Gannon swung the hammer at his side up and over his shoulder, signaling for her to lead as he did so. "Show me the way."

Mirabelle began to lead Gannon back to towards her home while Julia turned to us all and gave a quick smile before hurrying off after them. Charlie, who finally stopped bouncing around, faced his father.

"That guy's so cool!" He cheered.

Chen laughed once more and placed his hand on his head and brushed around his hair. "Such a man of strength. Why don't we follow after them and see if there's anything he can do for our home as well."

Charlie nodded and the pair departed leaving Chelsea and I with Taro and his family.

"I suppose we should follow as well." Taro said to them. "Mark, Chelsea, would you two mind taking a peek at this new area we've uncovered?"

"Sure, I don't see why not." Chelsea answered. "Mark?"

I gave her a nod. "Yeah, why not."

Taro nodded back before him and his family left us as well.

Without a word Chelsea and I turned to the newly opened path and followed it through the small valley in-between the hills. The trail soon opened up to an area that somewhat resembled the layout of the main portion of town we'd just arrived from.

"More houses." Chelsea noted as she surveyed the area. "It looks just like town when we first found it."

I took a few steps towards some of the abandoned homes. "Yeah… it's… weird…"

I came up to the house closest to the area entrance and placed my hand on it when suddenly a voice spoke to me.

"Is… is it safe…?" It asked quietly.

Chelsea and I both looked at each other as if to ask if we both heard it.

"Who's there?" She asked soothingly.

From around the corner of the house emerged what appeared to be another harvest sprite only this one was clad in a dark blue outfit.

"I… I heard a loud crash and got scared…" He spoke. "What's going on…?"

Chelsea crouched down and smiled at him. "Oh, we're sorry. A friend of ours destroyed the boulder that was blocking the path to here. I guess he got a little carried away."

The sprite seemed to loosen up. "So… the world isn't ending?"

I crouched beside Chelsea and laughed. "Not at all."

He gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, thank Goddess. I thought we were going to be in trouble for a second there." His face suddenly lit up. "Wait, you mean the path's open again?"

We nodded.

"Finally!" He exclaimed with joy. "I can finally go back to the house!"

Chelsea and I exchanged glances and looked back at him.

"Oh, heh, sorry about that, I'm getting a bit carried away." He said nervously. "My name's Ben. I 'm tasked with watching over this area of the island."

"Ben. Huh, do you know Noe?" Chelsea asked.

"You've met Noe? How's he doing? Is he still watching over the farm land?" Ben asked.

Chelsea nodded. "Uh huh, we met him a while back, he said that he had friends around here."

"Well you're looking at one of them." Ben said as he pointed to himself. "I haven't seen him in a while since an earthquake knocked that boulder in the way."

"Well I'm sure he'll be happy to see you again." Chelsea told him with a smile. "He made it sound like no one's been here for years."

Ben shrugged. "I guess you could say that. That is if you don't count us magical beings or that… witch…"

Chelsea and I both seemed to flinch at the mention of a witch living amongst us.

"A… A witch…?" I asked.

"Yeah, the witch." Ben nodded. "She lives out in the forest, plotting mischief and ways to prank us kinder beings."

"There's… there's a witch here…?" Chelsea asked.

As Ben began to give a slightly more in-depth response I thought back to that figure from the forest. So it was this witch the whole time? But, she's seen us since we've just about first arrived here and nothings seemed to go wrong. Plus, it seems that she delivered our pail to us, completely filled and all, and given that our crops seem to be in good condition just doesn't seem much like a witch…

"I mean, we haven't noticed anything strange around here, well, other than all these abandoned house and stuff, right Mark?" Chelsea said.

"Yeah… I, erm, don't even think she's tried to interact with us in any way." I replied.

"Well, keep an eye out for anything suspicious will you." Ben asked. "The Goddess would surely like to know if she plans on…"

"Mark! Chelsea!" Taro's voice suddenly called out to us. While we turned back towards the trail Ben pulled his hat down over his face and scurried off.

"Apologies!" He shouted as he scurried backwards a bit. "I get terribly shy sometimes!"

Chelsea looked at him and smiled. "It's alright."

He peeked an eye from under the bottom of his cap. "You guys go on ahead… I'm gonna try to make it to the sprite house later… maybe I'll see you around?"

"Sure thing." Chelsea responded with yet another smile.

Ben smiled uneasily and quickly pulled his hat back down and ran off when Taro called out for us again.

I slouched over with exhaustion. "Let's go see what he wants now…"

Back in the town everyone was gathered around the well near Chen's as Gannon seemed to be going over a list of sorts.

"Alright… we got all your houses, the barn… that bridge back there…" He noted as he went over the lists contents.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Gannon's going over everything we'd like to have fixed up." Mirabelle answered. "It seems like quite a lot actually."

Ge flipped through the notebook in his hand a few times. "Looks like I got my work cut out for me here, much more than I expected."

"Oh, we're sorry. It's just that it's so nice here. I'd love it if we could stay here much longer." Felicia apologized.

"Can't say I blame you, this is a lovely island." Gannon replied before pausing. "You guys said that house across from here was unclaimed?"

Taro nodded. "Unclaimed and ripe for the picking."

Gannon let out a hearty laugh. "Well, given the amount of work and empty space you folks got out here I don't see why it wouldn't be beneficial for me to just claim a spot out here and manage a store."

"You'd do that?" Felicia asked with surprise.

"Why not?" He asked rhetorically. "Business back in the city has died down a bit and it looks like there should be a steady work stream out here. No competition out here either." He finished with a laugh.

"Why that's just wonderful Gannon. We'd love to have you here." Mirabelle replied.

"Course I'll need to return for my things but that shouldn't be more than a day's work." He said.

"Then it's decided. We have our new resident." Taro declared.

"Yeah! More boulder crushing!" Charlie cheered as everyone laughed.

"And hey, with a skilled carpenter such as yourself we can finally repair that bridge over there." Taro said as he motioned to the river behind him. "Who knows what lies beyond there?"

If only he knew.