A/N: This story has just flown by. It seems like I just started it! As you may have guessed by my weird first comments, the story is ending.
I am not personally a story writer who can go on for 30 chapters. I don't work that way (unlike some TV shows... LOST, cough!). However, I DO enjoy making multiple stories! I've planned a spin-off, which you don't have to read, but I'd love it if you did. It's going to be called Exterior, and I have no idea when it will come out. It's all about Karen and Rick, as you'll probably guess from the ending. It's more superstition!! Yay!! Okay, so I don't own Harvest Moon. I'm going to do comments here, so as not to spoil what I hope is a good end to the story.
Pause 11- Wait, the Deathly Hallows as in Harry Potter?! I loved that book! Anyhoo, thanks for your review, and your continued support. You make me happy!! I hope you like this!!
Awesome Rapidash- Well, Popuri has no idea of the huge picture. She knows that Jill is going to become the Goddess, though she doesn't know about the old Goddess, or the system. Yep, cold, moonless nights are NEVER good!! I don't know why. Thank you SOOO much for all of your compliments and all of your support!! You rock!!
Ekoaleko- I'm flattered!! Thanks a ton!! I'm so glad you like the story plot and everything!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! You make me happy!! I hope you love this chapter, too!!!
Whelp, I guess that's it... I think I'm gonna cry!! The end of Goddess!!! Well... Enjoy!
Goddess
9
Gray slowly swayed to a stop in front of the ocean, the soft breeze picking up to a gale. His hat blew off, forgotten, as his eyes closed. Water began to rise above his shoes, reaching his ankles. The stairs on the beach were slowly being covered by the ever-going water. The voice inside him cooed,
"Come now, Gray. Just a little more. Just a little more."
Jill was at a wild run. The growing dread in her heart fiercely demanded to grow into fear for everybody. Her breath did not falter, nor did her feet, as she unknowingly rose from the ground and sped, floating, towards the beach, blonde hair whipping out behind her.
Popuri looked out the window into the mist, watched as rain began to fall from the sky. Watched Jill pass by, her heart heavy with worry for her friend. Popuri knew something was going to happen. She clasped her hands together in prayer, her lips moving silently.
Jill burst into the beach, leaving the Rose Square, filled with water. Above the swirling water, she looked down with green eyes upon the horror beneath her. In the middle of the rising water, a shadow stood, unmoving. Jill could feel the power rising from him. Rising from Gray. But how in the world was Gray so powerful? Was he a God, like her?
"He's got the Talec in him," the Harvest Goddess whispered. "The Talec is going to make Gray another Talec. He's going to shatter a part of his soul." She a hand to her forehead, closing her eyes. "...How could I have been so blind as to miss this...?"
The knowledge stabbed through Jill, took her breath away. How could she ever stop that? How could she? Jill felt cold. The question she had always been asking seemed to echo. "Why me?" With a sigh of pain, she began to fall towards the raging pool, falling away from the Harvest Goddess, falling away from the town, away from everybody. She began to black out.
The Harvest Goddess strained against herself, knowing that she couldn't do anything. She was too weak, too tired. Jill would have to do this all by herself.
Jill was inches away from the water, when glorious warmth filled her, sparking and happy. Golden and perfect.
"Jill, I want you to be strong. Protect yourself! Protect us! Please, Jill!" A voice inside whispered. The words echoed, but their meaning and feeling stayed.
Jill's first prayer.
As the warmth filled her, Gray was filled with an icy cold. Pain shot through him, his heart turned to ice, as the creature inside him grew furious.
"Fool... I shall have to do it myself..."
And then Gray tumbled into a black pit inside of himself.
Jill righted herself, as the water below split open. Gray did not stand there, smiling. Gray did not stand there, eyes wide with excitement for the power coursing through him. Gray did not have the glow around him, the glow of sadness, coated easily by anger that grew and formed something worse.
Gray was gone.
And all that was left was anger and pain, and sadness. So much sadness. A Talec.
She couldn't help but feel sorry for it.
"He loved somebody... and they died."
The words echoed through her mind, and she felt emptiness. But she also felt understanding.
If he got his way, more would die. More would lose their loved ones. That couldn't happen.
Jill knew how painful it was to lose a loved one.
So Jill dove down, beneath the water, knowing that, somehow, she could breathe. If the Talec could control it, why couldn't she?
Animals stood on the hills near the ocean, just above the water, staring down with eyes that knew. Fish swam as close as they dared to the two. Waiting for it to begin.
Jill raised her head, stared him in the eye. It was eerily quiet underwater. The world seemed at peace.
And then he looked back at her.
Jill was knocked back, sheer power coursing through her like a shock wave.
She still wasn't powerful enough to do this. It was all happening too soon.
Jill watched as he raised a hand, didn't try to move. He didn't hesitate, just waved.
She felt like she was being sapped. He was taking her power. Taking it away.
A while ago, she would have cheered, would have been happy without her powers to stop her from marrying him.
But now she knew it was wrong.
Popuri watched as her brother leaped downstairs, heading for the door with his raincoat.
"Rick!"
He whirled around. "I'm going to Karen's," he said. His voice was... Deep? Rick's voice had never been like this. ...Rick was growing up. Popuri stood, racing over, and hugged him.
"Rick, we need to pray."
"To pray?" He looked at her in confusion.
"Yes." She paused, searching for what to say. "To pray for the storm to cease."
He frowned. "Popuri, I want to make sure that Karen is-"
"DO IT!!" She shrilled.
Never, ever, had she given him a command like that before. Shocked, Rick bowed his head, clasped his hands together.
"Er... Harvest Goddess, make us strong. Keep us safe from this storm..." He paused. "Is that all right, Popuri?"
She nodded icily. "Go. Make Karen pray too."
Wordlessly, he walked out the door. Popuri threw on a coat, and raced to Barley and May's house, praying all the way.
Popuri felt, inside, a small part of her fill up.
She was helping Jill.
Jill watched, almost in a dream, as her powers were spun out of her. She couldn't move. She needed to move, to save everybody!
She wanted to!
Perhaps.
Or maybe not.
And Jill stood there without trying.
Her mind began to shut down, everything she had known flying from her grasp.
But the golden feeling returned, as a prayer flowed through to her. As it was soon joined by another. Then another.
Jill began to be herself again, tried to wrench her powers back. In surprise, the Talec let them go. Another prayer.
Words whispered in her mind, filling her with joy. Filling her with knowledge, and hope. Words swirling, feelings coming to climax.
The water began to lower.
Jill turned to look the Talec in the eye again.
This time, he was the one blown back. And Jill began to reverse it, to spin the powers out of him.
But she didn't want everything in him, like he had tried to take from her.
He had tried to take her feelings, her very being.
But Gray was under there, somewhere. She couldn't do that. Every person in the town was her responsibility.
She took that in fully for the first time. Then Jill was struck by an idea. Instead of pulling away his powers, she took the Talec's anger, layer by layer. Pulling them away, discarding them deep in the ocean, deep inside herself. And when she reached the core of him, the core... His sadness... She just took it. And then there was nothing left.
Nothing left.
Far away, a young man, working in a field, with a frown on his face, stopped. His brown hair and eyes matched perfectly with that of the ground he fell onto.
And then, he disappeared.
Nappy raced outside. The Goddess Pond began to swirl.
Nappy's eyes grew wide as he raced towards it, and then he bowed.
"You've come back to us!"
Jill sat, watching the round moon slowly rise above the cliff. The Harvest Sprites seemed to dance in, carrying many things.
Holly. Holy water. Flowers of every kind. She watched, almost with fear, as they began.
The date was Fall 13, the Full Moon Festival.
Jill was lead to the tallest spot of the mountain. She felt like she could stretch out, and touch it. The Harvest Sprites began the ritual.
The pale white light cloaked her, making her feel as if she were floating. Her blonde hair began to stream out, softly, the moonlight, now almost blue, turning her hair a light green, the color of fresh grass, or new leaves. Her blue eyes opened, and the effect was the same.
As she felt everything begin to grow, begin to build up inside her... She felt like she wanted to burst.
And she did.
She was born anew.
She thought she had felt, she had known, she had been, before. Now, it was... It was undescribable. She could feel everything, she knew everything, she...
She whirled around, her eyes coming to rest on the parade of people filling in, their clothing made of sunlight, they made of moonlight.
Others such as herself... But even more than that.
One stepped foward, her wispy cloud hair making unreadable patterns in the sky.
"My name is Morany," she said, softly, her eyes blue. "You are only lower than me. And two others." She smiled. "Everything else, here, is yours. All yours."
Jill smiled back. No... Jill wasn't her anymore.
The Goddess smiled back.
"This is my sister, Anila. She, too, is above you."
A woman with flowing red hair stepped foward.
She gasped, remembering. "You comforted me when I was on my way to the hospital..."
Anila nodded. "I've been watching over you," she said, her voice that of the crickets, her smile that of the sun.
"...And last of all is my brother."
There was no one. Anila let out a sigh that sounded like the end of a rainstorm.
"He is quite shy, at times... You'll eventually meet him..."
"I'm here." The voice was so different...
But so familiar.
Between the others, stepped a man. His hair was the black of night, his eyes the gray of mist at dawn. He smiled at her, that smile that she had seen so many times. The smile she had fallen in love with.
It was him.
Karen knelt before the Goddess Pond, and then broke down, her normally no-nonsense manner floating away on the wind.
"Forgive me, for I have sinned," she sobbed. "Please, please... Help Rick!"