Harvest! (Moonlight Mix)

Dedicated to Shyion of ASDFers as my first reviewer.

I was playing Step-mania when I found this particular song. I was attracted to it at once, and I actually mastered the storm of arrows.

It's not a very 'story-like' song, but it made writing about it much more entertaining.

And, I just heard that there's a new Vocaloid named Utatane Piko, and that Rin and Len got an append version- well, it's Rin x Piko, just for celebration's sake.

It's set in a tribal area, where Christianity, teachings of Buddha, and other major religious teachings aren't influential. Try imagining Maya or Aztec.

-+-+-+-+(Tales of Tunes)+-+-+-+-

The song of a flute caressed Rin's ears gently. The soft, autumn air flowed through her lungs, in and gradually out. The blonde girl hummed the melody akin to the flute's melody, while sitting nicely on a stool, waiting. Her mother was putting her in a dress, a kind of clothing unique to her tribe. After all, it was a festival. It was a final festival before winter would come to their land, where then people would have to struggle to live.

Festivals are simply festivals- people spend whatever they can't keep for winter, make a bonfire and dance around in glee. They would also pray to their God, to thank for the year's harvest, and to wish for their survival in winter.

Rin waited for her mother to put her earrings on, her feet were tingling to get out of her house and to feel the fresh air. She was sweating, probably because of her grogginess. She would be the dancer for the festival. She had to look good in front of everyone, especially in front of her God. She had to be respectful to the harvest the village has received.

It was the common belief in Rin's village. The God controls the nature, so would the harvest be bad or good depends on the God. If the God is happy the crops will grow and fruit, but if the God is mad then it would just wither away and return to the land it once was.

Rin's twin brother, Len, had preferred to stay at home. He refused to get out of the house that day, even though he was so active and quite outgoing. But today, suddenly he just sat on the floor and peeled onions for the family's lunch. Rin was worried about this, about the fact he might be catching a cold or some other sickness. True, his eyes seemed to be red. But whether it came from sickness or from crying was pretty unclear. Especially he was peeling onions.

"You really don't plan of going out?" Rin asked carefully.

"No, I'll be okay by myself."

"Then I'm going to go to the temple, they're going to need me soon," Rin started skipping towards her front door.

"Wait a minute" with that Rin stopped, partly thankful that Len had care about her.

Rin turned back to her brother, and he hugged her tight, his slightly watery eyes against her shoulder. "Good Bye,"

The girl nodded in response, "Good Bye." She reached for the door and waved at her brother,

Len also gave her a wave, and watched as she left the house, through the curtain and then the door. Then everything returned to silence, Len sat back on the floor and started fumbling with the knife. But he knew- when he stared at the hallway Rin used to leave the area- that he won't hear the "See you again" part he had always longed to hear.

-+-+-+-+ (Tales of Tunes) +-+-+-+-

When Rin had closed the door behind her, she immediately searched for the source of the flute's melody. She knew what it was, who was playing it, and she had wanted to meet him. The soothing breeze and woodwind being blown were all Rin would care to hear, despite the bustling crowd that was the villagers celebrating the festival of harvest. And her search wasn't fruitless, as she spotted the flute player atop a tree right beside a house. It was a young boy, with white hair and green eyes.

"Hi, Rin!" the boy greeted her, looking down from a maple tree.

Quite coincidentally, he was born in winter. Nobody in the village had the same hair and eye color as him, not even his parents, so they had called him the spirit of winter. Practically nobody had dared to go near him, because nobody likes the winter.

"Get down here, Piko!" Rin called from below. "Or I'll climb up there!"

White was the color of snow, and green the color of Aurora. Meanwhile Rin had also been nicknamed the spirit of summer, for her golden hair and blue eyes- the color of sun and sea. Len also had blonde hair, but of a dirtier color than his twin.

"Fine, fine," Piko sighed, and then he jumped down from the branch he had been sitting on. When he had landed, he added, "I wouldn't want to make your dress dirty, now would I?"

"You're just being sweet to me," she chuckled in response, sitting on the roots of the maple tree. "Aren't you cold as the winter to the people here?"

"If you stay in a house made from ice blocks, it's actually pretty warm, you know" Piko sat closely beside Rin, their hands clasped together as if to keep each other warm. Then Rin realized that he was trying to prove his theories.

"Again with the facts about ice..." she leaned closer, this time seeking comfort. "You seem to be proud of what people call you,"

"Yes, you can actually say that I am," the white-haired boy laughed. Then, he noticed that tears were rolling down her cheek. Was she crying? When Piko raised his hand to wipe her tears off, he noticed something awkward. Rin was not the type to dress, but what she was wearing could be considered excessive. "Rin... are you...?"

"Yes- I am, Piko. You're not seeing things." Rin wiped the rest of her tears off, thence she stood up again, Piko following her. She held his hand tightly as if she was going to lose the touch forever. "I'm dancing for the festival this year. That's why I've been looking for you."

Each year, the village would choose a dancer from the girls in the village to dance for the festival. But there was more meaning to the dance than just mere entertainment for the villagers, dancing was more to a religious matter. The dancer would dance for their God, to please the God by any means necessary. In other words, it also means...

"Rin..." The boy answered gravely. "I...", and a second later he pulled her into a hug tighter than even Len would do, then their lips pressed against each other. They stayed in that position for several seconds long before they parted their physical contact. Rin was flaring visibly, a small smile sneaking to the edges of her lips, and a tinge of red had also crept to Piko's pale cheek. "Other than that, I can only wish you luck,"

...sacrificing the dancer's soul for the God.

Rin sobbed again, and then broke into cries as she leaned on Piko's lap. "I'm afraid, Piko. I don't want to lose mom and dad. I don't want to lose Len, and I also don't want to lose you"

"It's all right, Rin..." he tried to comfort her, but he was also ripping apart his feelings inside. That kiss was the first, and that would also be the last kiss he would get from Rin. "It's all right..."

-+-+-+-+(Tales of Tunes)+-+-+-+-

Rin stood in front of the temple's altar. Her time was coming. By the time the sun had sunken down it would be all over. It would be like nothing had happened at all. The happy times, the painful times, the kiss she shared with Piko...

She tried to forget their contact and rather focus. The priest was preaching- when it ends it would be time to start dancing. No music, no smiles, just the moves and the knife to stab herself with.

The bell was struck once. Rin shivered. By the third bell she would have to start.

Twice; Rin heard the sound of two boys, both voices familiar to her ears. One was protesting and the other one was forcing. They sound similar so Rin couldn't figure who's who, especially when her back was turned against the crowd.

Thrice; before Rin started dancing she heard the sound of a flute, accompanied with a banjo.

"If you can hear the sound of the wind then dance whilst singing," a voice sang, breaking the silence of the ceremony. Rin couldn't help herself, so she turned around and saw Len and Piko, perched atop a cedar tree. Piko was blowing at the flute when Len was singing as he strummed at the banjo.

"Soon the dry land leaves seeds as it waits for winter to arrive," Rin continued the lyrics of the song she and Len used to sing as little children during the festival of harvest. She danced to the rhythm, tapping her bare feet on the temple's stone floor. All the worries she felt inside her stomach flew away, all that remain were tears; tears of happiness and a renewed motivation. She had prepared herself for this, for the day that she would eventually have to dance for the God, but this had exceeded her expectations. There was music. There were smiles. There was the love she had wished for from her family- and from someone she had liked for a long time. The knife still existed, but she was satisfied.

Soon the sun began to drown into the horizon and the sky turned visibly darker than the usual afternoon sky. Rin drew the blade from her dress, and she gave a final glance to the boys above her. Both were in the verge of crying, but kept their temper and continued playing the music. The last and final music they would be able to give her- as a sibling, as a friend, as a lover...

Rin raised the knife high, and with a push let it pierce her left lung and her heart as a whole. A pause a silence, the music was the only thing ringing on Rin's ear as her consciousness faded away and her knees gave in. Her body collapsed right on the stone altar with only her sincere smile decorating her figure, with the dress coated in blood.

"The flowers, without any words, now collapse and go back to the ground

And this harvest is dedicated to the flowers that leave together with the wind"

"Forgive me, Piko." Len strummed the final note on his banjo and put it down, leaning on the tree trunk as he watched both her gone sister and the leaves floating in the wind. "I just realized that I would have regretted it more had I stayed a coward and remained at my house,"

Piko gave a silent nod to the blond-haired boy, and spotted petals of a sunflower flying along to the sky. Len noticed it too; sunflowers were Rin's favorite flower. He felt the urge to cry, but he kept his tears for himself.

"Farewell, spirit of the summer..." Piko murmured as he gazed at the petals as it blended with the color of the sky. "May you find your rest with the wind and the sinking sun..."

-+-+-+-+(Tales of Tunes- End of Story)+-+-+-+-

So, that was it. Actually it was a first-timer on romance, the very genre I suck at. But I need the education, and I absolutely love the drama included inside it. I hope this one's ending doesn't seem to be forced, as well.

Please review, and if you are going to request something, as long as it is possible I will try.

This seemed a little too sweet for a moonlight mix, no? But the melody of 'Harvest' was so cheerful, so I consider this a darker mix.

In queue: Story of Evil (It might take several chapters more before this, considering Story of Evil is very long and it's pretty hard to do a mix of.)