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rayne-storm · 9 months

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The Mermaid of Melody Farm

AUgust 10 - Merfolk

Fandom: Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons: Wonderful Life

Summary: Player Character / Gustafa

Willow has inherited the family farm, but she has a problem: it's hard to be a mermaid in a nosy town!

One night she takes a dip, and gets a shock when someone spots her….

A/N: I might add onto this one later, but I do like it short and sweet!

********

It had been two seasons since Willow had come to to take over the family farm, and life was… interesting.

She hadn't expected such a warm welcome, honestly, but everyone seemed happy to meet her and offer their support. Takakura was as surly as she remembered, but he also had that warmth in his hugs she had missed.

She'd always had a knack for the natural parts of life, raising animals, gardening, things like that, and it seemed that she would be able to have a perfectly fine life here in Forget-Me-Not Valley.

Except she had a secret:

Her father, may his memory be a blessing, had been a human, 100%.

Her mother, may her soul be at peace, had not.

They met, or so they said, on a dreamy beach when he shipwrecked a little sailboat on a desert island, and she pulled him from the wreck. Willow wasn't entirely sure that was the truth, but it didn't really matter. She came into the world with gills and a tail that had, fortunately, become a pair of fine legs quickly enough.

Due to her father's genes, she could live on land for the most part. Her mother gave her a sea-longing, though, and a physical, life-or-death need to be fully submerged in water a certain portion of time, at which point her gills and tail would show up (a neat evolutionary mechanism, her father would say). With experimentation, she calculated that she could get by comfortably on about 10 minutes a day.

Luckily, there were ponds all around the valley, as well as a river that fed right into the ocean. She had no shortage of fresh water. The problems came when the villagers never quite stuck to a strict schedule. And they seemed to love being wherever she was sometimes. As nice as they all were, this wasn't good for the solitude she needed to comfortably soak. And she knew what would happen if people found out.

Her mother's death had been proof enough of that. Sailors had caught her in a net, and she'd become a freakshow attraction until her husband, Willow's father, had shown up to help her escape. They didn't make it home.

Willow wouldn't let anything like that happen to her.

In the two seasons since she'd arrived, she'd made do with the shower, but that wasn't going to last. She'd have to brave the outdoors eventually…

2 A.M. seemed like a decent time to sneak out. No one would be awake, surely, and she could use the pond near the little sprite guys' tree (she still wasn't entirely sure what they were, beyond very friendly). The coast was clear enough, and she didn't hear anyone as she sunk into the beautiful blue water.

It was blissful, letting herself sink just enough for her tail and gills to come out to play, floating serenely and letting herself just be. It had been exhausting being so dry for so long, not letting herself wade too far into the ocean or river when she'd needed to fish. She'd earned this.

She didn't know she'd fallen asleep until a loud gasp woke her up, causing her to flail around in a panic. She didn't even see who was there before she leapt out of the water (the pond simply not big enough to hide in by going down) and ran as fast as she could towards Melody Farm.

She nearly made it, too.

A loose rock sent her falling hard, knocking the precious little air she'd gulped in straight back out. She didn't know if she was more terrified of discovery, or embarrassed of the noise she'd made hitting the ground as footsteps came towards her. Maybe she'd explain it away as hallucinations. Maybe they'd just blackmail her or threaten her or something and not just kill her outright. Maybe-

"‐Okay??"

Wait, what?

Two hands came down and looped under her arms to help haul her up. She blinked blearily as she was set on the ground, and one of the hands made it's way to her cheek. It was soft, warm. She couldn't help leaning into it as she tried to clear her head.

"I said, are you okay, Willow?"

"I'm….what?"

"Okay, let's get you home and sitting down, hold tight."

She was picked up like a bride and she tried to make out features in the darkness. Failing that, she shut her eyes tight and held onto the mystery man, who seemed like he wasn't, in fact, about to make her into sushi or sell her to the carnival?

She kept her eyes closed (and tried not to get motion sick) as he managed to get her inside her cabin and set onto her bed. She opened her eyes again and was very surprised to see two beautiful blue ones staring back down at her, brows raised in concern.

"Better?"

She nodded meekly.

"Good. That was quite a fall. You really worried me."

"I… sorry?"

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have scared you so bad. I was just surprised is all. Not often you see the impossible here, you know?"

"...."

He chuckled as she tried to figure out what to say, but it was… kind. Warm, like his hands.

"I don't think I've ever seen you without your glasses," she managed to retort, "so that's two impossible things."

Gustafa laughed and shook his head.

"I dropped them chasing after you. Don't worry, they're probably fine. Really, though, are you okay?"

She nodded.

"Just embarrassed. I'm supposed to be graceful, you know."

"Sure, sure. I gave you a real fright, you weren't in top form or something, right?"

"Right… how much did you…?"

"Well, I really thought I'd gone crazy when I saw your tail. It's really something lovely, you know."

She couldn't help blushing and shrugging.

"Seems more like a curse, sometimes."

"Why?"

"Because people would… it's not safe, for my kind."

"Merfolk?"

She nodded again, pulling her knees up to her chin.

The musician smiled gently, and gently placed a warm hand on her arm.

"It's okay. I don't think anyone here is like that… but your secret's safe with me. You're not the only non-human person I've met."

"Have you met a lot of merfolk?"

"No, you're my first, I'm proud to say," he answered, beaming.

She couldn't help a soft giggle, shaking her head.

"There we are… there's that lovely smile. Would you like a song to cheer you up?" He asked, pulling his favorite guitar from his back.

She nodded again, laying back down as he started to play.

"Let's hear a tale before we part,

About an apple sweet and tart…"

She listened until she couldn't help falling back asleep, his soft voice soothing her as well as any of her mother's lullabies.

Maybe it could be a wonderful life.

#my writing #rayne writes #fanfiction #august 2023 #harvest moon #story of seasons #sos awl #gustafa #gustafa x pc

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