Lily of the Valley

I

LILIAN SAT AT THE FOOT OF THE WILLOW TREE at the far back of her family's farm. It was a large farm, quite difficult to navigate for others but she had grown up in this land. She and her siblings had changed alongside the crops with each season. She had grown up with the animals. She had played with the village folks. She had gone down the mines at the age of five and watched her father dig up for treasures. This farm and this village was full of memories. It was her home.

And oh, how she felt constricted.

She knew that she couldn't be like her cousin Oliver who left the island life to study how to be a doctor in the city or like her cousin Phillip whom, if she recalls correctly, was studying how to be a proper landowner. She knew that as the eldest, she would be bequeathed the farm but, for some reason, she felt that she could do better elsewhere.

And that, that was a thought she couldn't afford.

Her cousin Anita was truly enviable. Iselia farm was beautiful and bountiful, and yet she'd risked everything to start from scratch. And her farm had grown into a beauty. Her stall at the bazaar boasts fresh produce from her farm and animals. She doesn't have the same guts as she.

It would seem I am destined to remain here, she thought as she stood. And, oh, how I longed to be someone of my own merit.

Deep in her thoughts, she bumped over a farmhand.

"Ah, where are ye going, miss?" Holland said. "Ye should be careful not ta haff your head in the clouds too much."

"I'm sorry," she lowered her head. She made a move to leave but Holland reached an arm.

"Now, missie, what's der matter?" His brows were knitted together and she knew that the fault was hers. The man was like a brother to her, having worked as a farmhand for her father during her toddler years.

"Nothing is." She said quietly. "I just feel under the weather."

"Now, come on, missie." He said. "I've known ye since yer babe years. Yer quiet but not this sort. Yer acting quiet like the missus when she and yer pa had a fight. Did ye and yer pa squared?"

"No." She shook her head. "It is nothing, really."

The man did not say anything for a second's time before he sighed and let her go. "Well, I'll take yer word for it." He said. "But if there's any problem, ye know that your ma and pa will be there to listen to you, aye?"

She smiled. "I know." But this is something that I doubt they'd approve of.

—-—

Lillian locked herself in her bedroom that night. She stared at the pamphlet she'd secure when she'd last visited her dear Aunt Claire and her family in Mineral Town. It was one advertising a farm in a small town far beyond the valley. There was a vague description of the terrain of the two.

'Welcome to a mountain of lush green forests and abundant wildlife.' The pamphlet read. 'Nestled at the foot of the mountain are two distinct villages. Land for sale. Contact XXX-XXXX-XXX'

She couldn't help but remember stories from her aunt, about how the Zillia farm was a mess when it first started but she managed to save the farm and expand it to what it was now. And then her mind wandered to two years ago when she visited her cousin's farm in Zephyr. Anita's farm had also started as an empty lot but now boasts fresh plantations, mills, and animals. It was a beautiful farm, far cry from the small one she had described long back in her letters.

"I want that." She whispered to herself. "I want to make something of myself by myself. I don't want to be a legacy."

Her father was a legacy, she recalled. He had earned his farm from her grandfather. Her mother, however, built everything by her own merits. From the library in Mineral town that is now manned by someone else, to the library she built down the village in Forget-Me-Not Valley. Her aunt Claire and aunt Chelsea started with nothing and built themselves great farms through their own hardwork.

She wondered if she would be able to be like them. And then she snorted, stuffing the pamphlet back at its place inside her bed table's drawer. She was no risk taker. She couldn't. She was not as strong minded as the other females of her father's family.

But, she dearly wished she could actually be.

Family Tree:
The Adkins Siblings
Jack (Harvest Moon DS), Claire (Harvest Moon MFoMT), Chelsea (Harvest Moon IoH)
Jack married Mary the Librarian of Mineral Town and they moved to Forget-Me-Not Valley where they had four children. Lillian (Harvest Moon ToTT), Daisy, Petunia, Laurel.
Claire married Gray the Blacksmith of Mineral Town and they live there with their son Phillip (Harvest Moon ToTT) and daughter Rio.
Chelsea married Mark and had her twins Anita and Oliver (Harvest Moon GB). Chelsea died years later. Mark remarried Natalie. Anita left and started her own farm in Zephyr town.