Harvest Moon - A New Beginning : Phase One

Phase one of my book Harvest Moon - A New Beginning.

Phase One

Ryan hadn't completely woken up before he heard a knock at his apartment door. The room was small in size and not very decorative, but to be fair, he was just starting out. There was a single-bed pressed up against the wall next to the window, which was exposing the sun’s first radiant light of the day and the faint view of a crescent moon. The walls were almost dirt-colored, but not quite. They still had fragments of elegant white paint-streaks hidden within the brown ones.

The floor was covered with carpet, which was the color of lake water. Placed on the wall next to Ryan’s bed was a mammoth picture frame, and inside was a collection of pictures that were taken from all across his memories. In one of the photos, a tall, handsome man stood beside a younger one, holding up a large sea bass that he had caught earlier that morning. In another photo was a family; a beautiful woman with a kind face, who held hands with a small child and her husband. There were many more pictures in this rather large frame that all had the same thing in common - a son and a father.

Another set of knocks was forced onto the wooden door that separated Ryan from his visitor, and this time, they were a little louder. “Ryan! I’ve got to show you something. Hurry up and get out here.” He looked up at the door groggily.

“Just a minute,” he mumbled. Ryan pulled himself out of his bed and grabbed a bath robe from the floor. After working extra hours at the diner last night, he took a quick shower and collapsed onto the mattress. He still had the lingering smell of grease on his hands. Honestly, he wasn’t used to waking up at six thirty in the morning.

Ryan placed his hand onto the doorknob and turned it to the left until it clicked. He pulled it open, a little shocked to find his late father’s old friend, Kira, in front of him. “K-Kira?” He asked, astonished. “What are you doing here?”

Kira grinned slightly. “Just follow me, alright?” Before Ryan could protest, Kira started down the building’s stairs, leaving his friend behind at his door. Ryan blinked and hurried after him, still wondering what could possibly be important enough to wake a city-person up at six in the morning. The man was slow, so it didn’t take too long for Ryan to catch up to him.

They stopped at the lobby doors, where Kira turned around and suddenly broke out into laughter. Ryan turned his head to the side, perplexed. Is this guy drunk or something? he thought, watching him lift his head to the ceiling and continue his old raspy laugh. “You really want to walk out into public with nothing but a robe on, boy?” Kira teased.

Noticing that he was still in his bathrobes, Ryan rushed back upstairs to change, his face as red as an overripe tomato. When he returned with dark jeans and a checkered hoodie, Kira nodded in approval. “Very good. Actually, quite catchy-looking. I may have to get that in my size.”

Ryan laughed sheepishly at his sad attempt at a joke. Proceeding on, the two walked side-by-side down the concrete sidewalks of the big city, wishing on cars as they passed by. Ryan had seen Kira like a second father ever since his own passed away fifteen years ago. He was seven back then. Even as they were both growing old now, they had amazing times together, and all of their worries and doubts drifted away at times like this.

“So, where are we going, exactly?” Ryan asked, after sharing his latest tale from work. Kira sighed through his nose and lifted his head to the sky, as he did back in the lobby. “Someplace I promised your father I’d take you.” Well, it didn’t explain much, but at least Ryan knew there was a good reason for him to stumble around early in the morning.

His father had wanted to show him something, and left it up to Kira. Though... why would he wait until now to show him? It’s been fifteen years, now; fifteen! Ryan kept his low-cast eyes on the sidewalk beneath him as they walked farther and farther away from the large buildings. As time passed, the city faded away into the morning’s fog, and all that was visible was the now pale-blue sky and a small herd of cirrus clouds stirring above the two men.

For the next ten minutes or so, they fell silent, enjoying the fresh air and listening to the nature around them. Well, whatever nature that was awake. Ryan tried to read Kira to see if he could shake anymore answers out of him, but his face stayed stoic, and his eyes were glued on the path ahead of them. Every now and then, a tall pine tree would appear as they passed by, going deeper into the mist. They could’ve easily mistaken their lives for a Slender Man tale.

As the silence that settled in between the two became unbearably uncomfortable, Ryan tried his best to focus on his surroundings. Despite all of the fog, it was a pretty good day. The sun was shining, the clouds were churning, and although the air was a little moist, it felt relaxing to have tiny droplets of water on your skin. It was still dawn, and it was obviously a little chilly, but still. Water droplets are like nature’s baby lotion.

Sometimes the fog would part up and reveal the wheat fields behind it, which were golden with the sun’s warmth. They waved around in the wind like tethered fairies. Suddenly, as Ryan lifted his head up to glance at the moon that was still slightly visible, he beamed. The moon. It was the one thing that connected him with his soul-mate.

She was a gloomy little red-headed girl from a world that she never wanted to call her own. She claimed that, on the day they met, Ryan had saved her from herself. They'd seen each other once. In their dreams, they'd seen each other's faces - they'd seen how much they meant to one another. They saw what they meant to each other. 

When they were together, they saw everything, and everything was beautiful. In the past year, she was kicked out of her own home and was sent to a town without any internet access. There was no way to contact her anymore. So, every night, they'd climb out of their beds and walk outside to watch the moon for an hour or two, no matter what the weather was. It was the only way they could feel like they were together again.

"Our relationship isn't broken," Ryan had once told her. "Just bent." Interrupting Ryan's thinking, Kira came to a stop on the top of a large hill that overlooked a village. "Here we are. Forget-Me-Not Valley."

It was a rather small place, but really old-looking and homey. It seemed really peaceful, too, considering that it was a country town used for farming. Ryan stared at it in disbelief. It felt like... home. A real home.

"It's beautiful," he breathed. Kira grinned. "I'm glad you think so." They walked down the hill, and to Ryan's surprise, the place was somehow even more amazing up close. "No time for sight-seeing," Kira said, pulling on his sleeve.

"Come." The boy did as he was told and followed him up another hill - this one much smaller and not as steep as the one before. Besides the tiny hill, the land before it was somewhat flat and covered lightly with pale dirt. There was a compact pasture that had a wooden fence built around it, with a middle-aged oak tree in the top left corner of the field. Blades of grass weaved themselves around in the wind freely.

The two men walked up to the fence to peek inside at the pasture. "What is the point of showing me this?" Ryan asked. He didn't mean to sound harsh about it, but he wanted to know what connected this place with his father. Kira didn't seem to notice it. 

"Your father and I used to farm here, back in the olden days." He sighed. "He had wanted to show you this place, but passed before he got the chance to. He left the job to me, but I waited until today. You wouldn't understand the meaning of this place if you were younger than you are right now."

That explained why it took him so long, and why his father wanted to show him this place. Kira turned his head to glance at Ryan. "So, what do you think, boy?" Ryan shrugged. "I don't know what to think... it's-" "No, not about the town," Kira said with a smile.

"Would you like to try farming?"

Author's Note

If you see a mistake (misspelled words, incorrect grammar, etc), then please tell me. However, I am only a beginner, so please don't ask too much of me if there is something you don't particularly like. ^^"