Last time in "Save That Tree!"…

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~*~
Milo and Lina looked at one another, staring. It felt like hours have gone by with just staring at another before the grabbed each other's hands and shook. Gill and Hamilton looked at another, confused.

~*~
"This is horrible! Without the divine tree, who knows what will happen!"

"…Something bad?"

Lina reached over and smacked Milo in the back of her head.

Now…

The girls looked at the young, but tall, looking woman. She was pretty, gorgeous even. She had long aqua blue hair and blue eyes. She introduced herself as the Harvest Goddess.

"The Divine Tree is what keeps this island alive and running smoothly. Without it, disasters will fall upon this land, slowly killing this place and everyone on it. Please, you two are the only ones who can see me. You must help!"

"Woh...woh woh...woh...woh. How come we are the only ones who can see you?" Milo questioned, Lina staring at Milo with a look at why she bothered with so many "wohs". This was obviously no time to play around.

"Only special hearts can see me. The chosen ones I guess. They are also the only ones who can see the harvest sprites."

"Harvest sprites?"

"Yes, they are the keepers of the bells on the island. Each sprite is located at each bell, helping a certain part of this island. Either the crops growth, the islands surrounding waters, the winds…They are also the helpers to keep the divine tree alive. I can feel that they are all in pain, just as I feel it too," The goddess explained, panting as she leaned against Lina and Milo for support. The tree was gone now, and she felt so…weak.

"How can we help?"

"You must find the Harvest Sprites. I can feel that they are not where they should be located. The bells…have been moved. Bring the Harvest Sprites here. With them all together, they can help summon the Harvest King and create a new seedling."

"Well, where are the Harvest Sprites? You said they got moved."

"I cannot say exactly where each of them are. There are five of them. But because I cannot tell you, take these rings. They are connected with the sprites and will help you find them."

The girls looked at the rings that the Harvest Goddess was now showing them. Each of them grabbed one and looked closer. Both rings were exactly the same; a silver band with leaf shaped etchings around it. In the middle, melded into it, was a clear gem. Both Milo and Lina put the ring on, surprised that they fit so well.

"Please hurry…I don't know how much longer before the disasters will start and destroy this place."

Lina and Milo stood up, helping the Goddess to a spot for her to feel a little sturdy and safe, which happened to be near the water as she wished. They quickly raced off, intending to go to sleep before they started their journey. It was late enough, and everyone had already ventured off to bed after they had rid of the fire near their own homes.

Day Four (Thursday)

The next morning, the girls had woken up and dressed in their work clothes. Lina had spent time watering the seedlings in the garden and ridding the weeds that threatened the pot of land. Milo had gone into the barn and cleaned Doodoo Bug with the brush and giving her fresh food before spoiling her with attention. Buggy could get used to the name if she was treated like a princess as she was now. Spoiled cow.

After their morning chores, the girls had agreed to go separate ways in hopes to get some sort of use out of the rings the Harvest Goddess had given them in order to help find the sprites. Milo went towards the mines while Lina went to flute fields. They agreed to check the town tomorrow, since looking around the areas they split off to were large enough to deal with.

Milo was walking to the mines. She was picking up herbs and mushrooms on the way, knowing that if she had stored them in the shipping boxes that where found all over the place, they would get money for it. They needed to get some sort of money while they waited for crops to grow. Upon reaching the bridge, she waved to Toby who was spending the morning fishing around that area.

Entering the mines, she looked around. Everyone was acting like normal, nothing was said about the fires of last night. Did they happen so much that it was a natural occurrence? Why did they make no scene about it if it was a big deal? Shaking her head, she spent the time looking around, going around from shop to shop asking about the bells of the island. No one seemed to have much information, just old stories and rumors about the bells.

'Screw this I'm going into the mine.'

Our hero, at least that's how she views herself, quickly made her way through the mine until she came across a strange red tinted bell frame right in the middle of it, and she wasn't the only one looking at it. The man standing to the side of her tipped his hat and smiled.

"Hello, I'm Calvin; I see you're interested in the history of this island as well."

Milo shrugged. "Yeah sure, want to share anything you know about the islands bells? Mostly the red one right now please."

The archeologist laughed and nodded. "Sure, about fifty years ago there was an earthquake so powerful that the red bell fell from its frame and fell into a river of lava set free by the quake, and it hasn't been seen since."

"Are you sh-."

"No I'm not, do you want to look for it together? I wouldn't mind having a partner."

Milo nodded. "Sure, since I'm not here with Lina I'm kinda lonely."

"Lina, is that the blond you're living with? I saw the two of you when you stopped by the inn, but I was unpacking my things so I missed the chance to say hi."

Milo nodded again and linked her arm with his. "Well lead the way adventure man."

"My name is Calvin."

"I know, but we're friends now so I gave you a nickname."

"Really?"

"I was going to call you Mr. Hat."

"Adventure man is fine."

The two spent hours looking through out the entire mine and the lower they go the hotter it got. They finally got tired enough to sit down, but when Calvin sat down he jumped up in pain. Milo looked up in concern. "What's wrong?"

Calvin stood there rubbing his bum with a pained look on his face. "I think my seat is a little uncomfortable."

Milo looked over to where he was sitting and saw a piece of red showing through the rock, and then looked down at her ring to see it flashing red. "Awesome."

"What did you say?"

"I think I just found the red bell."

Calvin smiled and looked around. "Where did you see it?"

"Were you were trying to sit just a second ago."

He smiled and picked up a hammer. "Well let's get to work!"

Sometime earlier as Milo was walking to the mines, Lina was walking to Flute Fields. She stopped on the bridge and looked over at the water, hoping for maybe a clue of what bell she might find if she did find one. Seeing nothing, she made her way first towards Marimba Farm. She got close enough to see the familiar orange haired male standing outside again, eyes closed and ignoring the empty fields around him. Seeing him brought an idea to her. Why look alone if she could borrow someone else's time?

Lina skipped over to Chase, tapping him on his shoulder. He seemed to jump, barely unnoticeable to eyes if she wasn't touching him. He opened his eyes, looking at her with a questioning glance.

"May I help you…?" He asked his voice quiet as if he was speaking for the first time in months.

"Do you know anything about the island bells?"

Chase looked at her, brow raised. He knew a little bit about the bells, but not much for her to think he was worth asking. He was someone who kept to himself most the time and didn't take much notice outside his cooking. "I only know that each bell is assigned to a certain element and order to keep the balance running smoothly. Without them, it's said to cause trouble for the land they are assigned to. And assuming you are talking about the bells that are assigned to our island, you must know something about them as well?"

"Not a clue! But I was interested in learning a bit and finding the bells. I heard they were missing from their post frames." Lina said, ignoring the sweat drop that had adorned Chase's head at finding out she had known nothing but still questioned about the unknown bells.

"I know that the fields here are home to two of the bell frames. The yellow frame and the green frame. The yellow is in the fields next to the farm here, while the green frame is in lighthouse. That's as much as I know. But the bells are missing? How do you know that if you don't know much about the bells in the first place?"

Lina looked at Chase, smiling as innocently as she possibly can. "Like I said, I heard that they were moved or lost."

He nodded, accepting her answer. He was talkative towards her, and he wasn't really aware as to why. Sure, he was used to being bothered by his coworkers and Maya, who just wouldn't shut up. But Chase was unsure as to why he talked to this new girl so openly. He was so used to being quiet. Shrugging to himself, he looked at the girl standing next to him with a serious spaced-out look upon her face. "Was there anything else you needed?"

Lina snapped out of her thoughts, blinking and looking at Chase. Catching his purple eyes gazing at her, she blushed and looked around the open fields he lived in. It was truly pretty here and she was sorta jealous at all the open space and pretty scenery. "Well…if you aren't doing anything for awhile, would you maybe help me look around for a bell? I want to see if I could find them for someone and learn more about this island if I'm going to be living on it."

Chase was shocked at her question. No one really asked to hang out with him, even if it was to search for something. Even Maya knew to back off cause he wasn't a people person, which made him glad since she got on his nerves sometimes and trying to feed him her F Grade food. He looked at the time at the sun, guessing it was only noon and he still had several hours of nothing time before he had to get to work. Helping wouldn't kill him, so he nodded, causing the girl to applaud and hug him, before jumping off and coughing to herself and muttering a sorry.

The two had spent the next hours searching near the lighthouse and ranch first. Nothing was found but they did get more information about the bell history from Hannah and Cain. Going back towards the fields he lived in, they entered the back of them, trapping themselves in a sea of sunflowers.

"Jeez…how do all these stay alive? There's so many!" Lina exclaimed, shocked at the amount that was truly back here. Chase merely shrugged. He didn't come around here but he knew that the old man Craig came around this area a lot. He would see him come and go before he went off to work. The two agreed to split the sunflower field in half to speed up searching these parts. Chase went towards the right past the yellow bell frame while Lina went left.

Lina was happy to have company since Milo was at the mines. The two girls did agree to split to help the search move faster but she enjoyed the crazy girls company. It was very fulfilling. But she also enjoyed Chase's company just as much. It was expected. She had a pull towards him with that fluttering feeling in her stomach. Something she was really not used to. Shaking her head, she focused on the task at hand, going through each isle of sunflowers; until she fell.

She fell with a loud thump, followed closely by a yelp. Chase rushed over, seeing Lina slowly sitting up and rubbing her stomach and head. They both looked behind Lina, seeing a dark green blob rooted to the ground. Lina glared at the offending object, wanting to kick it if it hadn't already hurt her and didn't even move. She and Chase peeked closer to it as she poked it as if it would become alive and eat them. Chase moved to grab a piece of the object, tugging at it. To him, it looked like roots, so he pulled and fell back as a piece of it snapped off.

"Hey you broke a bit off!"

"I can tell…" Chase muttered, rubbing his butt. Lina and he once again looked at the object, seeing flecks of blue now poking out of it.

"Hey Chase…do you think this could be what we might be looking for?" She questioned, already having forgotten her rings powers.

"It might be. We'd have to cut away at what is covering it though," he replied, dropping the piece he still had in his own hand.

Lina had made a move to grab at the roots too when she noticed the glow on her ring. Her gem was now glowing blue, and that caused her to smile. She had found one of the bells. She hoped that Milo was having some luck finding a bell as well. The two slowly pulled at the roots, uncovering the bell more and more each time. Slowly but surely, they saw the true object emerge from the cocoon it was covered in. Lina picked up the bell, smiling at it. It was pretty despite being covered in moss and dirt.

The sun was setting as the two walked back towards Chase's house. He was going to change for that nights work and clean himself off a bit from all the dirt from digging out the bell. He offered to walk with her afterwards since her home was on the way. The two walked quietly and before she knew it, she was home. Waving good-bye, she walked into her tattered home, seeing Milo already there sitting on her bed. She could tell that her friend had just showered.

"Hey! You found a bell?"

Lina smiled and nodded, setting it on their kitchen table. Milo got up and walked over, taking a closer look at the large bell.

"Looks kinda messy, where did you find it?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "We found it in the flower fields next to Marimba Farm, it was covered in sunflower roots and some seaweed, it was really hard to get out, but we managed."

Milo raised and eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "We? Who was part of this 'we'?"

Lina blushed and looked away

"I ran into Chase and he helped me look ok. It's not that big of a deal."

But by the look on Milo's face she knew she was going to be teased all night.

Day Five (Friday)

The girls woke up and got to work straight away, not bothering to look or talk to each other, only focusing on their work. Lina went to go take care of Buggy, while Milo ran through the fields like a made woman, spraying water everywhere but getting the job done none the less. After they finished with their farm work they headed back to the house and when right back to sleep.

Six hours later…

The next time the girls woke up it was much happier in the shack I mean house they shared. Milo stood up and stretched, waving to her friend. "Good morning Lina!" Lina followed the other girls lead and started stretching. While they sat down and had some breakfast/lunch, Milo smirked when she recalled the reason they were so tired.

"So…maybe we should save Chase watching for weekends or during festivals, hum?"

Lina blushed and looked down at her plate.

*Flashback*

"Hey, we should go to the Brass Bar! We haven't really had any real fun since we got here, and I have a date with Calvin anyway so you should come and pester Chase!"

Lina sat there and stared at the girl in front of her. After coming home with the bell she listened to Milo tell her about how she found the red bell with the help of some archeologist guy named Calvin, and that they had spent the whole time trying to dig it out of the wall, but had only made some progress, and that she was going to go back tomorrow and dig some more. Milo also had said that he had asked her to met him at the bar later that night as well.

Lina sat there and thought about it, but Milo didn't give her much choice, and next thing she knew she was sitting at the bar watching Chase try (and fail) to teach Maya how to cook, he had looked back and gave her a half smile, but gave most of his attention to the other girl. She looked back to watch Milo and Mr. Adventure as she liked to call him, talk about their discovery in the mines.

Milo had said she could sit with them but she had declined, she really wanted to be near the orange haired boy for some reason. Things had been going a little slow but the next thing she knew Milo had jumped up on stage with her cousin and the two where dancing while everyone watched, Hayden had handed her a drink and after that things got fuzzy…

*End Flashback*

Long story short Lina had gotten drunk, and didn't know how she got home.

"Um…what happened last night?"

Milo snorted and started laughing. "You got drunk and tried to talk to Chase about something but couldn't, then you tried to dance with me and Selena but fell and passed out, I carried you home."

"Ugh!"

Milo shrugged. "Well I got to head out to the mines and get that bell out of the wall, see ya later!"

With that said she was out the door and down the walkway, headed for the mines, she wished there was another way to get there because she never really liked bridges and this one doesn't look very safe to her. She reached the mine entrance and saw Calvin waiting for her; they hugged and made their way down. When they reached the room, Luke was already there working away at the wall, but stopped for a moment to hug Milo, getting dirt and sweat all over her. Eye twitch and all, she began to pick away at the wall, it was a lot of work, but with their combined effort, they got it out and….it fell on Luke's foot.

"OW! The pain! Is strong! It hurts!"

Calvin and Milo couldn't help but laugh and watch as he hopped around on one foot while holding the other.

When Milo came back, Lina was still sitting at the table with a dead look on her face; it was evident that she was still hung over. "Hey! We got two bells now, we are on a roll right here!" She placed the bell on the table next to Lina's head, then went and crashed on her bed.

"I'm out for the rest of the day, night!"

"Hey wait a minute!" Lina turned to look at Milo, but it was too late. The girl was lost to the world in the depths of sleep. She sighed, before looking at the red bell covered in dirt. Poking at it, she wondered why it was so easy for them to find these two bells. They only found out their mission a couple days ago. It seemed to…easy that they were able to find two and get them already. Deep in the back of her mind, she felt something wrong. Something's seriously wrong. Shrugging it off, she went to her own bed and fell asleep.

Day Six (Saturday)

Another day came, and Lina was first to awaken this time. Today was her day to take care of the crops, so she did just that. They didn't have to much to water, thankfully, so she finished quickly enough. Standing up, she wiped the dirt off her knees before looking at Milo who was just now coming out of the house.

"Good morning," Milo mumbled, tired as all can be. She slumped to the barn to feed their cow after Lina said her good mornings back. Lina followed Milo into the barn, intending to talk to her since she couldn't do so last night.

"Milo. There is something I wanted to ask you."

"What's up?"

"Don't you think this whole thing is to easy? Two bells within a couple days after we got our 'mission'. It seems far too easy if this was a request from a Goddess don't you think?" Lina questioned, sitting on the ground petting Buggy who was laying there while being brushed by Milo.

Milo stopped brushing for a second, but continued after Buggy huffed at her, obviously not ready for the brushing to stop. She glared at the spoiled cow before looking back at Lina. "Now that you mention it…it has been an easy couple days for us to already have two bells. She made it seem like it was going to be hard. But maybe its better we don't think about it? The easier the better!"

"Hmm… I guess so." Lina still wasn't nerved down, questions still running through her mind. She got up and left the barn, heading to the church in town. Upon arrival, she was met with Perry, the priest of the church.

"I had a feeling you would be coming Lina."

"Hello again Perry. What feeling?"

Perry just smiled and went back to doing his priestly duties, "Oh and the books you seek are on the bench there."

She blinked a couple times, turning her head to glance at the two books sitting neatly on the bench beside her. She glanced back to Perry, only to find him gone. Shrugging her shoulders, she sat on the seat and picked up one of the books, The History of Castanet, and started to read.

Meanwhile…

"You should do it! I know she'll say yes, she stares at you all the time when you go to the bar with Owen and every time we hang out she talks about you."

"Mmm..."

Milo and Luke were sitting at the beach talking about her cousin Selena. He spoke about how much he liked her but didn't know how to come out with it, and had come to Milo for help. So the city girl took it upon herself to play match maker, and basically spilled all of her cousin's secrets. But Luke didn't know how to ask her out, and that is what they are talking about right now.

"If you just walk up to her and tell her that you want her to be your girl, she'll say yes, and if she says no I'll talk to her about it, though I really don't see that happening."

Milo placed a comforting hand on his head, pulled off his bandana and ruffled his hair. Luke blushed and pushed her hand away, pushing her into the sand and running away. Milo jumped up and yelled after him. "You jerk! I'm going to tell her all your embarrassing stories so she cant do anything but laugh at you!"

The friends played around in the sand not knowing that a certain island girl was watching them with suspicions eyes. When Milo tripped and Luke helped her up and pulled her into a bear hug, lifting her into the air and spinning her around, the purple eyes turned hard and cold. With a roll of her eyes and a flip of her hair Selena walked back into the Brass Bar.

Back with the idiots in the sand, when Milo was put down she pointed at the bar and said. "Now go forth and win the heart of you true love! And don't come back until you do!"

Luke pumped a fist into the air and ran off with fire and determination in his eyes, heading straight into the bar. Milo walked after him to be there to say it was all her idea and that she was awesome and they should worship her genius. But before she could do that Luke came sulking out of the bar with coconut cocktail spilt all over his head and shirt. Milo ran up to him and asked what had happened, and what he said made her eye twitch.

"She told me that I was a no good loser and that I was a coward coming up and asking her out, then she threw her drink at me and said 'why don't you go be with her!' I don't even know who 'her' is!"

Milo sat him on the stairs that lead up to the inn. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it, and then she'll come running to your arms ok?"

"Ok…"

With that said Milo put her game face on and walked into the bar. Selena was at one of the tables with a new drink talking to Kathy, and she looked pretty pissed about something, not the Milo cared at the moment.

"Why did you say no and then throw your drink at him? He loves you and you told me you wanted to be with him too! What the fu-"

Selena coughed, interrupting her.

"Sorry. But what are you doing?"

Selena slammed her drink down and stood up, "You got a lot of nerve coming in here telling me what I did wrong! You're the one hanging all over him when you knew I liked him! I saw you two out there at the beach running around and hugging each other! You two looked so happy I didn't want to get in the way!"

Milo flinched at the screaming but held her ground. "One, we were playing tag! Is that a crime now? Two! He picked me up and hugged me because I gave him the confidence to come in here and ask you out! He was so happy and care free and now he is sitting out there not knowing what he did wrong! We are just friends, and you need to go fix your mess."

Selena blushed in embarrassment and looked away in shame.

"I didn't know…I'm so sorry I jumped to conclusions on my own without asking. I'll go talk to him."

Milo took a seat across from Kathy while she watched her cousin walk out the door. Kathy picked up her drink and took a quick gulp. "Well that was different. There has never been any fights at the bar before."

"And hopefully that will be the last one. Everyone gets along pretty well from what I've seen."

"Yep."

TBC

Reality: And thus, the second chapter is finished. Sorry it took so long. Finals and end of college semesters are quiet cruel.

Dreams: We do not own Harvest Moon and its characters. This game is officially based off of Animal Parade (in our own style). We do, however, own the characters Milo and Lina.

Reality: Please review!