Chapter 4

Yuto wakes up as soon as the alarm on his cell phone goes off at 6:00 am. The spring air is cool, the sun is shining, and the birds are chirping happily. He stretches his arms just before silencing his alarm and gets out of bed to get started. He showers, brushes his teeth, and eats some rice balls for breakfast. He then dresses in his gray hoodie, white t-shirt, and blue jeans to start working on his farm.

He opens his front door to be greeted with the cool spring breeze. The dew from the night before shimmers in the grass and weeds in the empty field. He takes a deep breath feeling that it’s going to be a great day to start farming.

He suddenly takes a whiff at the air, and notices something odd. He smells firewood burning somewhere nearby with a slight aroma of food being cooked. He turns to his right and finds Jennifer roasting some spring carp over a campfire. She had set up another tent near his house overnight. She had made herself comfortable, which confuses Yuto since he never invited her to do so.

Jennifer looks up and finds Yuto watching her. She smiles as she says, “Yuto, you’re awake. Good morning! Please sit with me, we have so much to talk about.”

Yuto hesitates, but he nods and walks over to her and takes a seat on the other side of the campfire. She hands him a roasted carp, then proceeds to eat. Yuto stares at his carp, and finds it cooked and seasoned well. He takes a bite and finds the taste of fish and ground herbs to be quite refreshing. This gives him the idea that Jennifer must be experienced at living outdoors.

He takes a quick look at her tent. He knows that this tent is not the same as the tent she set up at Mother’s Lake considering how much smaller it is. He also believes that Jennifer plans to stay in his farm, but he has no idea why. So he looks straight at her and asks, “um, Jennifer? Please don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you here?”

Jennifer looks back at Yuto and smiles for him. This causes Yuto to blush as he is reminded how pretty she is. “You see, the Harvest Goddess has sent me here to assist you.”

Yuto lets out a stressful sigh and replies, “I get it. Sorry about what I said yesterday. But even if I do believe this whole business with the Harvest Goddess and stuff, I can’t seem to wrap my head around it just yet.”

“I understand. People has been disconnected from nature for the past few hundred years, so this is new for most people. Have faith, you have been chosen as nature’s champion after all.”

Yuto and Jennifer continue to eat silently. Time after time, Yuto looks up at Jennifer and continues to blush seeing how attractive she is. She isn’t paying too much attention to him, but he still hides his face from her. If she notices how flustered Yuto is, he’ll be quite embarrassed.”

After they finish eating, Jennifer asks, “so did you learn about the fate of Mineral Town?”

“Well, here’s the story. . .” Yuto explains everything that happened at the mayor’s house the day before. He starts with the fact that Joja Corp is buying Mineral Town to build a factory, and ending with his plan to buy the contract out from them himself.

“I see, so you have only three years to come up with the money?” asked Jennifer.

“Ten million, those are super rich numbers. My family hasn’t even seen a million, let alone ten. I’ll have to work myself to the bone to even dream of getting that much by then,” answered Yuto.

Jennifer claps her hands together and announces, “I can help you with some of the farm work! I may not be skilled in this craft, but I can help water some crops and other minor tasks.”

Yuto smiles and asks, “is that why you’re here? To ask me for a job?”

“I do not wish to be seen as an employee. I do not have any need for money. You can instead see me as a partner,” answered Jennifer.

“Even if that’s the case, it won’t be enough. We are going to need a whole team of people working around the clock. But hiring that many people will drain a lot of cash, so it defeats the purpose.”

Jennifer stands up and announces, “we can ask the Harvest Sprites for help!”

“The Harvest Sprites?” asked Yuto.

Jennifer opens her bag and pulls a small old book titled “The Legend of the Harvest Goddess”. She flips through some pages, then hands him the open book. Yuto takes the old book and sees a hand drawn picture of the Harvest Goddess who looks very similar to the vision he had. By her feet are seven tiny elf-like creatures wearing sprite clothing.

As Yuto reads, Jennifer says, “The Harvest Sprites are creatures that serve the goddess. They have helped farmers from the older days with farm work to nurture human kind. If we find them and tell them that the Harvest Goddess has sent us, they will surely help us.”

“So, where can we find these sprites?” asked Yuto.

Jennifer takes the book back and flips through a few more pages. After reading the page, she answers, “the Harvest Sprites cannot be seen by mortal eyes. We will need a magical gem known as the Jewel of Truth to be able to see and communicate with them.”

Yuto nods and asks, “and how do we get this jewel?”

Jennifer reads some more before answering, “according to legends, each village has one. But the one here in Mineral Town has been destroyed a long time ago. The jewel has been broken into nine pieces and was scattered throughout Mineral Town.”

Yuto sighs once again and says, “that’s no good to us. How are we going to be able to find these pieces, they can be anywhere! We can’t afford to look high and low for these things when we should be working on the farm.”

Jennifer closes the book and answers, “the Jewel of Truth was created by the Harvest Goddess as a gift to mankind. The pieces radiates her mystical energy and she can sense them. She is looking for them as we speak!”

“Did she find any yet?” Yuto continues to ask.

Jennifer nods, then walks away. Yuto curiously stands up and follows her across the field. As he follows her towards the stable, she explains, “last night I received a vision from the Harvest Goddess. In that vision, I’ve seen your friend Tony working on the field and dug one of the pieces out of the dirt. He didn’t know what it was, but he kept it. But later that day, he dropped it somewhere inside the stable.”

Yuto is amazed. He doesn’t remember talking about Tony, but she claims to have seen him in a vision. He wants to ask more questions about Tony, the Harvest Goddess, and the Harvest Sprites, but he decides to wait for another day. Jennifer has already explained so much, and his mind is so confused.

They both walk into the old stable. Yuto covers his nose as the stench of mold and dust surrounds him. The stable is in decent condition, but it has not been cleaned in years. Old and rusting tools are hanging on the walls, the same ones that Tony used to care for his horse when Yuto was a kid. He wonders if he’ll get a horse of his own and use this stable eventually.

Jennifer takes a look around and imagines a time when the stable was in use. He places her hand on a sewn log that makes up the stable walls to absorb the energy behind it. She closes her eyes and feels the love and trust from Tony’s horse. This energy gives her a warm and comforting feeling.

As they continue to look around, they don’t see any pieces of the Jewel of Truth. Yuto looks at Jennifer and asks, “I don’t see anything. Do you have any other clues?”

Jennifer pinches her chin and asks, “I believe I remember something about the feeding trough. Maybe it fell in there somehow?”

Yuto nods and walks to the feeding trough. He looks inside and finds nothing, bone dry. He reaches inside in case there’s some sort of gap that the piece could be hiding in, but he isn’t even sure what he’s even looking for or how big it is. Jennifer takes another look around in case she missed something. She notices a pile of old dried up droppings in the corner of the stable. She assumes that Tony must have been saving it to make some natural fertilizer for the field. She thinks about her vision once again, and decides to check it out.

Yuto gives up on the feeding trough and stands up, “I can’t find anything. What does these things look like anyway?” He turns around to find Jennifer elbow deep in old dried up horse manure. He cringes as he watches her dig through feces that must have been sitting around for years like it was no big deal.

She then pulls out a small pebble sized white gem and yells, “look, I found it!”

Yuto stands back and yells, “for crying out loud, wash your hands!”

They quickly leave the stable. Yuto then goes home to examine the gem while Jenner washes up. He polishes and sanitizes the small gem to stare at it’s pure white luster. He can feel some mysterious energy pulsate in his hands. The energy feels almost like a faint heartbeat.

“So this is one of the nine pieces of the Jewel of Truth. I almost didn't believe this thing could exist, but here it is.” He then thinks about Jennifer and continues, “This is so weird, but everything she has said has been true so far. I guess I’ll have to trust her from now on. I hope we can find the other pieces sooner than later. “