Chapter 16

Time passes quickly in Mineral Town, especially if you live in a farm with a deadline. Before Yuto and Jennifer realizes it, Fall arrives over the farm changing the crops from tomatoes and corn into eggplants and yams. The air is cooler, and the money pours in quickly as the crops bring a healthy bounty. The animals are healthy and happy, which supplies the farm with good quality animal byproducts. But no matter how well the farm is doing, they are still too slow to make enough money by the end of next year.

Yuto continues to ask Jennifer every week about the location of the last unknown piece of the Jewel of Truth. Jennifer tries her hardest to communicate with the goddess, but she feels that even the goddess doesn’t know where it is. Each day that passes, they become increasingly more worried that they may not find it before it’s too late. They can’t stop working to find it themselves, they just need a clue where to look.

Since they can’t find the last piece, they work hard to get the only other piece that they know of. The fall horse derby is fast approaching, and Yuto has been training Dusty every day. Each afternoon, he takes time off his busy day to ride Dusty around the perimeter of the field as fast as Dusty can. Jenifer uses Yuto’s phone as a stop watch to record their time. After Dusty crosses the shipping bin, she hits the icon to check the time.

“Two minutes and twenty-seven seconds. That’s Dusty’s best time so far!” yelled Jennifer with excitement.

Yuto jumps off Dusty’s back to pet it’s mane. “Not bad. I think he’s ready to race at the derby coming up in a couple of days.”

Jennifer thinks hard before she says, “I don’t know. I have been watching the other derby’s since I’ve arrived, and I can tell that the other jockeys can clear two hundred meters on their horse faster than Dusty can. Maybe we should wait for the spring derby.”

Yuto looks up at Dusty, then explains, “remember that the derby is a straight two hundred meter track. Dusty is trying to turn four corners here in the farm. I’m sure that if we had a straight track, he could clear it much faster. Besides, we don’t have much of a choice. We’re cutting it pretty close, and we need that Jewel of Truth. If we don’t win this derby, I don’t think we’re going to have enough time to collect the piece Thomas owns before it’s too late. We need the help of the Harvest Sprites, or we won’t make that ten million in time.”

Jennifer sighs, but she does feel that he does has a point. She wishes that there is more time to train Dusty, but she does agree that time is running out quickly. They will have to enter the derby and do their best. She only hopes that their best is good enough.

Later that week, Yuto enters Dusty in the fall derby. Jennifer continues to worry that it may be too soon to enter it. She worries that it will become stressed without Yuto or herself to comfort it overnight. Her heart breaks as she watches Thomas walk out of the farm while pulling on Dusty’s reins.

The fall derby is going to be held on the next day, and Jennifer has a hard time falling asleep. She lays in her tent wondering if Dusty will be okay. Yuto isn’t worried, since he will be riding it tomorrow. Because she is too worried to sleep, she decides to walk out of the farm to the goddess’ pond to make a wish.

At the pond, she pulls out a freshly made potpourri to offer it to the Harvest Goddess. She folds her hands to pray for a safe race for Dusty. She also prays that it could win the derby, but it’s safety is her highest priority.

The next day, Yuto and Jennifer heads over to Rose Square to participate in the derby. They enter the temporary stables to visit Dusty who slept overnight outside the farm. They examine their horse to learn that it is a little bit stressed, but relieved to see them. After comforting their horse, Yuto pats it’s side, feeling that it’s going to be good to race.

“Nice horse,” said a mysterious stranger. Yuto and Jennifer turns around to find a strange blonde jockey wearing casual clothes such as a white shirt, jeans, and a black leather jacket.

“And you are?” asked Yuto

The young confident jockey crosses his arms to answer, “my name is Michael, I race horses for a living. I’ve traveled around the country winning every horse race I’ve ever participated in. I heard that this town is getting demolished, so I figured to add this trophy to my collection before it does.”

Yuto grunts angrily before saying, “nothing is going to happen to Mineral Town as long as I can do something about it!”

Michael smirks as he answers, “I see. Sounds like you think that winning this race will somehow save the town. No idea what your plan is, but it’s none of my business. I am curious though, how many races have you won?”

Yuto grunts, then looks away. Michael sighs, “I guess you haven’t. And by the looks of it, this is your first race. Am I right?”

Yuto grunts some more, but doesn’t answer. Michael then walks away flicking is straight blonde hair saying, “I hope you can at least make this race fun for me. You’re not much of a jockey, but I can tell that your horse can at least compete with mine. I look forward to our race.”

Yuto crosses his arms looking away saying, “what a douche! I may be new to racing, but he didn’t need to rub it in like that.”

“It’s okay. We’ll figure something out,” said Jennifer trying to comfort him.

A few hours later, it is almost time for Yuto to head to the track. Since Jennifer can’t race with him, she’ll have to cheer for them from the sidelines. Before she heads over there, she decides to go back to the display case where the prizes for the horse races are held. She takes a deep breath of relief as she notices that nobody has claimed the piece of the Jewel of Truth yet.

As she stares at the shiny stone, Michael walks by noticing her. He wonders why she is so fascinated by that stone he felt is worthless. He then remembers Yuto’s words about how he plans to save Mineral Town. After thinking for a few seconds longer, he rushes to the stables to prepare his own horse.

Soon, Yuto walks his horse towards the track. His heart beats hard and quickly as he becomes nervous about all the visitors who came to watch him race. All the residents of Mineral Town are watching him, he can’t let them down. As he mounts his horse, Michael brings his horse next to Yuto. Yuto looks at him as Michael mounts his horse. Yuto is nervous, but he is determined to win.

Michael looks back at Yuto to say, “I hope you’ll challenge us. This race would get too boring otherwise.”

“You’re on!” challenged Yuto.

The other jockeys take their places and gets ready to race. Mayor Thomas comes out to the track to make a speech about playing fair and may the best racer win. He then moves to the side to pull out his starter gun. “Get ready! Set!” He then pulls the trigger to signal the start of the race.

Yuto’s heart rushes as the feeling of the horse hooves pound on the dirt beneath them. He is terrified, but he also knows he has a race to win. He pulls on Dusty’s reins at a steady pace to get it to move faster while conserving it’s stamina. One by one, each of the other jockeys fall behind as their horses lose energy to keep up. Each time Yuto passes another jockey, the crowd screams wildly. He is doing very well on his first race, but his focus is on beating Michael.

Soon enough, the race is between Yuto and Michael. Jennifer prays from the crowd hoping that Yuto can pull a hail Mary and win in the last second. Michael looks at Yuto who is keeping up with him. He smiles as he sees that that Yuto is a lot better than he thought. They pull on their reins to speed up their horses. The finish line is approaching, and it will be too close to call. Both horses are exhausted, but neither of them are willing to give in.

As they pass the finish line, a cameraman takes the photo finish. It takes a few minutes for the photo to show Thomas who the winner is. Everyone waits in anticipation betting each other who will be declared the winner of the horse derby. It was very close, but Michael was declared the winner since his horse passed the finish line just an inch sooner than Yuto’s.

Yuto dismounts his horse, disappointed by his loss. He walks away defeated as Michael is awarded his trophy. Back at the stables, he sits by the pen annoyed at himself. He worked so hard that he assumed that he would win. Not only did he let himself and Dusty down, but all of Mineral Town as well. Without the piece of the Jewel of Truth, he will now have to figure out another way to save Mineral Town.

Jennifer approaches Yuto slowly. As soon as she gets close enough, she says, “cheer up, there’s always the spring derby. We can train hard and win next time.”

Yuto sighs while looking away. “The race wasn’t that important. We need that jewel if we have any hope to save Mineral Town. If we wait for spring to get it, we won’t have enough time to earn all the money we need. Face it, I’ve failed.”

Michael suddenly walks up to them carrying the trophy. “I must admit, you’re pretty good for a newbie. Keep practicing, and you could someday be as good as I am.”

Yuto looks at Michael for a moment before looking away again. “Just leave us alone. I get it that you’re better, but you don’t need to brag!”

“Not much for losing eh? Can’t say that I blame you, I was that way once too,” said Michael.

He then flicks something at Yuto. After he catches the item, Yuto and Jennifer gasps as they see the piece of the Jewel of Truth that was resting in Mayor Thomas’ display case. They look back at Michael as he says, “I noticed your little girlfriend staring at it earlier. I don’t know why that piece of junk is so important, but I overheard that you need it. I’m keeping the trophy, but you can keep the rock to remember me by. I hope that we can race again in the future.”

He then flicks his blonde hair once more before grabbing the reins of his horse leaving Mineral Town. Yuto and Jennifer looks at one another, having a hard time believing what just happened. Yuto lost the race, but still ended up getting the eighth piece of the Jewel of Truth.

“You did it Yuto!” cheered Jennifer.

“What do you mean? I still lost the race,” he answered.

“Don’t you get it! Even though you didn’t win the race, you did your best! Because of that, we still were able to earn this piece. Because you didn’t give up, didn’t stand down to impossible odds, didn’t lose hope.”

Yuto blushes as Jennifer showers him with endless praise. “I guess I did,” he said while rubbing the back of his head. And so, they left the derby feeling like winners. The only problem remains is the location of the last piece of the Jewel of Truth. They can only imagine where it can be. Even though they are almost there, time is running out.