Complete Private Quest Pormont [Reaping Season I] Golden Fields

[Luthien]

"Sending you to Vikform today, seems the village's having some staffing issues and need all the spare hands they can get for the autumn harvest."

She had stood in the office with an impassive look on her face, only betrayed as the elf eventually raised a questioning eyebrow. For a moment it seemed that was all the information her elven mentor had for Lúthien, but when the blonde had begun to turn around his voice piped up once more.

"Oh, don't forget the package by the front desk on the way out, Jareth's waiting for it by the outpost—"
"Uuughhh, I knew it!"
"—yes, thank you for interrupting me Lúthien. You'll also be meeting up with another player, a Moonsong fellow sent by the Guild, since this will be a joint mission."

The elf rolled her crimson eyes dramatically, her hand reaching over to swipe the parchment Beleg currently held out for her, before she turned on her heels and exited the office of her elven mentor.

~ ~​

She was thankful that a wagon had been prepared for the travel, for it seemed like Lúthien and this Moonsong fellow weren't the only ones heading towards Vikform. The elf was willing to put up with an uncomfortable ride if it meant their overall travel time was greatly reduced as a result, and as such she kept her grumbling to a bare minimum. As they neared the outpost on their way Lúthien took a moment to sift through her UI inventory, a small parcel materializing into her hands before the blonde held onto the wagon as she leaned out the back.

"Heeey, Jaaareeeth...!!!" She called out loudly, crimson eyes looking upwards to the watchtower as they passed it, before a redheaded man popped his head out in response. "You have a package from grumpy ass Beleg! Caaatch!"

With the warning given Lúthien quickly flung the small parcel upwards, the blonde's aim true as it hovered high enough for the man to grasp out of the air before a thumbs up was given in her direction. "Thanks Lúth! Tell him I said he's an insufferable ass later!"

A final wave was given before the blonde sat back down, an apologetic smile given to those riding inside the wagon including her new mission partner for the day.

"Sorry 'bout that~"

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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---

Autumn harvest was coming, and with that, a ton of farmhand requests were quickly piling up on the Guild's counters. Sorting them a little bit revealed that most of them came from Vikform, Pormont. "No one takes these? Really? It's piling up, guys." The platinum-ranker addressed the contracts to her junior adventurers hanging around the headquarters, most averting her eyes while others quickly exited the building as 'they have chickens to kill'.

"I'm gonna make their promotion test a hell." She sighed, vowing revenge.

---

And here she was, a senior adventurer, on her way to play VRMMO Harvest Moon. Due to the urgency of the harvest and the lack of interest, the Guild set up a joint mission with their partner, the Explorers League. A wagon was prepared for them as a means of transportation. As they departed, Moonsong tried to ignore the bumpy ride and creaking wheels as she cross-examined the bounty papers from the Guild.

Shit, Turns out Vikform's a lot bigger than she expected. And it looked like they don't have magitech tractors or things like that anyway.

Suddenly, the girl in front of her leaned out from the wagon and flung a package up the watchtower with such accuracy, before apologizing for the loud intrusion. Impressive. "No worries," Moonsong put the papers aside, "It's not like I can concentrate while being thrown around in this wagon already. Moonsong. Luthien, I presume?" The brunette sternly introduced herself, offering a professional handshake to the blonde girl, before leaning back.

"So, why did you decide to help with the Vikform problem today? The League didn't seem like the type to concern harvest seasons." She opened with a small talk, figured it would help kill the time during the uncomfortable ride.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Yup, that's me~" The elf offered a friendly smile to the woman as she introduced herself, the username matching the one Beleg had provided earlier in the day while in his office. "And ugh tell me about it, I keep telling them to at least add some padding to the seating... but at least this wagon ride was short."

She never wanted to do a long trip like the time her mentor had sent her off to Camp Nisus of all fucking places, that ride had been utter hell on The World. "Me? Because Beleg thought it a good excuse... but all he really wanted me to do was run another errand of his, as usual." She huffed slightly upon remembering the conversation once more, before Lúthien allowed herself to take a deep exhale.

No need to dampen the mood of who was meant to be her companion while in Vikform, especially not one who had a veteran air about them like the woman did.

"What about you, Moonsong? What brought you over here?"

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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"Hm." She responded, before continuing, "Looks like we both got fucked over, then. It'll be a long day." The brunette looked outside for a little while, before replying.

"Me? I'm just your usual guildmember, doing things for money. But these requests," The woman pointed to the stack of paper, "They have been piling up for some while, and the brats at HQ don't want to take it, as it's not `real adventuring` to them, somehow." She complained, with the effect of her appearance making her look even angrier.

"Ah, sorry for cursing. Force of habit." Moonsong immediately apologized to the blonde in front of her while looking into her eyes. Seems like nobody told ever told the songstress that the pair of dark eyes looked very haunting, as she kept uncomfortable eye contact for a few seconds.

As the wagon continued on its path, the sight of golden fields slowly came into the view. The landscape quickly reminded Moonsong of every girl's dream; to fall in love, marry, have children, then retire to the outskirts and have a farm. Or maybe she read too many novels.

"Looks like we're almost there." She motioned to the field of wheat on the horizon. "Let's find the village elder once we get off."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Nah, don't worry about the curse, you good. It's just another word in the dictionary anyways~ "

A hand was waved softly to show she wasn't bothered at all by the colorful language Moonsong had employed, Lúthien wasn't about to judge the woman over it—especially when she herself erred on that in two languages. If anything it made the slightly older woman feel more approachable for the blonde, especially given how she'd been seriously pouring over that stack of papers most of the trip.

"So... I'm guessing you're high on the Guild ranks huh?" Had to be, or at least Lúthien thought so considering the serious look on the woman's face. Her own hand pulled at the leather cord that held her orange whistle close to her neck. "I ranked up not too long ago~"

Fields of gold soon entered their vision as the wagon got closer to their goal, wheat as far as the eye could see... wheat that would go to waste unless it was all harvested. "... that's gonna take a while." A nod was given when Moonsong suggested going to the village elder first, their ride coming to a stop not too long after as the elf climbed out.

"Have you met them before...? First time i've ever been to this place."

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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Glad to hear that the blonde was not put off by the excessive swearing, some people might've turned off by now. Even though she'd met many people in the past months, somehow she had never seen the blonde explorer. She's orange-whistled though, maybe a rough indication of how long she has been playing. A question regarding rank then came from Luthien.

"Guess it's pretty high. Platinum." Moonsong showed the tag on her chest. "Probably gonna stay that way for some time unless another world-ending threat is coming again." She chuckled softly at her own joke, before shooting the younger girl a question about her playtime anyway. "I had never actually seen you before, quite new to the game?"

The wagon started to slow down as they approached the village. The fields of wheat do not stop, as if it was a sea of gold. "Uh," Moonsong checked the papers once again, not one saying anything about the amount of harvest, "Yeah, we'll probably have to stay here longer than expected. Two or three days, tops."

"I've actually been in Vikform, back in April. But there weren't tall wheat around across the whole horizon before." That explains why she was surprised by the vast plantation area. "The view is much better than the last time I came, though." The wagon then comes to a stop, the driver signaling them to get off.

"Thank you." She bowed to the wagon driver before gesturing Luthien to follow her to the house of the presumed village elder, knocking on the wooden door a few times.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Oh wow, that's pretty cool. That means you were on that whole Red Fever expedition then, right?" She couldn't help the look of surprise that crossed Lúthien's face as she set her eyes on the shiny platinum tags, a whistle of appreciation given. "I actually started playing shortly after all that shit went down, got to see Camp Nisus though when they needed help with stuff."

The sight of gold as far as the eye could see was certainly impressive... but also worrisome. "That's a lot of food though, right?" She had never milled her own flour from hand before, but even her inexperienced self could tell that the spreading fields before them certainly contained a lot of ingredients for food... that would be absolutely wasted if they weren't harvested and prepared before the winter.

Suddenly she didn't felt as bad that Beleg had sent her all the way out here... though by the look of things the elf was sure they'd have quite a few busy days ahead of them.

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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"Yeah, the expedition was quite a mess. Good thing we pulled through." Moonsong recalled. They waited for a while as no one opened the door, awkwardly waiting in front of the door while looking at the vast field. "... Yeah, probably a winter's worth of meal for a whole city." She replied with a concerned face. According to the papers, most of the youngsters left to adventure in the big city. Will only two girls be enough for the work?

Impatient, once again she knocked at the wooden door, this time significantly harder than the last, causing the door to rattle a bit with every booming knock. Finally, it opened. An old man is standing behind the door, eyes squinting at the ladies. "Ah. Monsoon, isn't it?" The girl quickly corrected the elder. "Moonsong, and this is Luthien. Luthien, this is the head of the village." At first, the man looked confused, probably because there were only two of them, before letting them inside. "Come, let's talk inside."

He gestured for both of them to sit on the living room chair. "Tea? Coffee?" He offered to the two. Moonsong politely declined. "Just water is enough for me." While he was preparing the drinks, Moonsong looked at Luthien before commenting on his earlier behavior. "Looks like he was also expecting more people."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"I’m glad y’all did fine… ugh I can't imagine having to fight a bunch of creepy crawlies and their demonic bug momma too." The thought alone caused a shiver to run up her spine, before the blonde was quick to push the mental imagery out of her head in favor of current pressing matters. "... they’ll be able to harvest it all, right?"

The question hung in the air, unanswered as Moonsong knocked against the door once more—although this time with a little bit more force. Finally an elder man on the other side opened it, entirely mispronouncing the human’s name before the older woman quickly corrected the mistake and also introduced the elf.

"Hey, we came to help with the wheat field situation going on."

A soft wave was given by the blonde before they were both ushered into the elder’s home, Lúthien following Moonsong’s lead as she too only asked water of the man. With a nod he’d stepped towards the kitchen, before the words of the brunette had Lúthien assenting with her head softly.

"Yeah… I don’t get why more people won’t sign up for the quest, though? It’s not like it’d be a hard thing to accomplish, especially with enough hands."

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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"Hopefully." She did not give a confident answer, as Moonsong is still thinking about the most optimal method to harvest all of those ears of wheat in the shortest time possible. Should've brought a magitech tractor after all. "Same reason as why the youngsters in the village went to do something else, probably; not exciting enough." That's a fact. Some people play the game for the action RPG aspect, and that's not frowned upon in any way, but still...

"Here's the water." The head of the village came back with two cups of water to refresh the ladies from the tiresome wagon ride. He sat down in his wooden chair before talking. "So you've probably heard what happened. We don't have enough manpower to harvest all these crops, while the food stockpile of the cities depended on us." The old man looked out the window with sad eyes, the golden fields glimmering in the sunlight. "The time has changed. Most young people have gone to pursue better interests, and this is the only thing we could do."

Finishing her drink, Moonsong slammed the cup into the table, startling the old man. "Do not wallow in self-pity. We're here to help. Right, Luthien?" She reassured the elder sternly, before looking at Luthien. "We might need a place to stay though if we were to help for a few days." The village head pondered for a while, before gesturing for them to follow him outside. "Of course, follow me. We have a guest house out here. My daughter used to live there."

As they walked, Moonsong whispered to the younger girl, mainly to confirm if she was comfortable with the decision. "You okay with staying here for a few days? The wagon is still here if you don't want to."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

She frowned slightly as the elf mulled over the words Moonsong had spoken, a part of her could understand the players ditching these types of quests… but what about the Landers that actually lived in the region? Surely they understood that they’d be placing the lives of their elderly loved ones in danger if all their hard work growing the crops turned out to be for nothing… already the first month of fall had almost passed, winter would be here before any of them realized it.

"Ah, thank you." The cup of water was received happily, Lúthien taking a few sips as she listened to the old man speak. A light yelp left the blonde as she was surprised when Moonsong suddenly slammed her cup onto the table, surprised by the intensity of the brunette. "Y-Yeah, definitely!"

As the adventurer secured lodgings for them both Lúthien finished her drink, the cup carefully nestled within the one Moonsong had finished first, before she got up and followed the village elder to check out their temporary housing for the time they’d be in Vikform.

"Hmm? Oh, y-yeah! I’m fine with that… it wouldn’t feel right to leave until at least a good portion of the fields are done."

Her words were whispered back as the girl took another look at the seemingly endless sea of gold that stretched through the land, probably more valuable than gold itself once winter arrived. The elf wasn’t sure if they’d be able to harvest all of it, but at the very least she hoped that Moonsong and her could make a huge difference in favor of the elderly still living in this town.

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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"Nice." Luthien has decided to stay. Thank God the girl was kind-hearted enough, else she would have to do this all alone. "Here it is." They arrive at a small shack, very small in fact, when he opened the door, there was only a bed, a table, and a chair inside. Moonsong sighed, but at least they could share the bed as they're both girls.

"And the outhouse." He added, showing the small structure beside the `guest house`, containing a big wooden bucket of water and a squat toilet, at which the brunette clicked her tongue. "That's... adequate, thank you." She still politely thanked the old guy, though.

"No, we're the ones having to thank you both," He bowed. "I'll be leaving, then. The farmers are working on the field until nighttime." The village head informed them before taking a leave.

Moonsong walked into the guest house, sitting on the corner of the bed with a super serious face, before letting out the longest and biggest exhale anyone had ever seen. "Hhhhhhh..." She paused for a while, probably contemplating her life choices before looking sharply at Luthien. "Should we go to the field now?"

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

She picked up on the faint facial cues in Moonsong’s expression, a soft smile offered back to the woman who was probably relieved that the elf was willing to stick around and help longer than originally planned. The walk was short and soon they had reached the guest… room? Lúthien wasn’t sure if she could qualify it as a house, though the blonde had little issue with the accommodation that was provided.

Well, except for maybe the outhouse, but the elf did her best to not let her true thoughts show on the matter as Moonsong and her both thanked the elder for his generous offer. "Until nighttime huh… got it." A soft nod was given to the man before she waved as the elder returned to his home. She hadn’t bothered to directly write down the time nighttime arrived, but from a look at the clock displayed in her HUD Lúthien knew they’d have at least seven hours worth of work time left still for today.

”Hhhhhhh…”

The elf had followed Moonsong into the large room shortly after, a sympathetic smile tugging at the side of her lips when she heard the human let go of the longest and biggest exhale she had heard in a while… not that the blonde could blame her, she shared the same sentiments on the matter as the brunette.

"Yeah, that’s probably a good idea… best get a headstart now that we’re still somewhat fresh from our ride over."

~ ~​

Finding the fields and the other farmers hadn’t been challenging, and the pair had soon been provided with hats to protect their heads from the sun as well as other harvesting tools they would need while working the fields. Lúthien had done her best to pay attention to their instructions, before the pair had walked off to one of the fields currently not being attended by any of the Landers still left in the village.

"We’re players after all… how bad can this be, right?"

Famous last words…

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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With straw hats, she felt like a real farmer, if only she hadn't been wearing the imposing black armor. Luckily, it's already autumn, so it doesn't feel like hell on earth outside. They still have to work under direct sun, though.

Walking towards one piece of land with Luthien while holding a box of harvesting tools, Moonsong had an idea after hearing the other girl muttering about how they are players. "So, Luthien, do you have any abilities or masteries that might be able to help us with this?" She inquired, before showing the only useful skill she has, conjuring a few swords floating beside her.

"As with me, I should be able to harvest more optimally by creating and spinning blades with arcanamancy." It should be fine, as long as she spins the blades close to the ground.

They arrived at the part of land they need to work on, with no landers in sight. A sea of a tall, golden wheat. The girl put down the box and passed the blonde some equipment. "Let's try to keep ourselves clean. I didn't bring extra clothes in my inventory today." Probably the most fatal mistake since she didn't expect it to be a multiple-day job. Moonsong sat down, trying to wear oversized green rubber boots and gloves on top of her metallic armor before jumping into the field, a funny sight to behold.

"Time to try if this buzzsaw solution works or not."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

She couldn’t help the little bit of excitement she felt after donning the straw hat, while the work that awaited them would be tiresome that didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy the little things. "Pretty stylish, huh? Really sells off the Stardew Valley immersion we’re about to undertake." A bright grin was flashed in Moonsong’s direction as they walked to their assigned patch, before she took a moment to consider the Adventurer’s question.

"Mmm, I don’t think my bow and arrows would be useful here… oh, could try to infuse the scythe with aeromancy and see if I can extend the reach of it that way?" It wasn’t something that Lúthien had tried to do before…but surely it wouldn’t be entirely impossible? Might take a bit of fine tuning at first though… "Ah, I do have Harmonics too—so once we’re feeling exhausted I could try and give us a second wind with a little performance~"

The items passed over by Moonsong were received as the girl also began donning the provided gear, a soft chuckle escaping her when the brunette mentioned her concern. "Actually I might be able to help with that if worse comes to worse, I have Hydromancy in my build." Lúthien had removed her own boots, sending them to her UI inventory, before donning the oversized green rubber boots the pair had been provided. The gloves however were skipped, the elf not feeling comfortable in wearing them on the off chance that it messed with her grip on the scythe and magic casting.

"Go for it, let’s see how many you can mow down in one pass~"

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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"Ah, cutting with the wind. Making it razor-sharp with a wide reach. Good thinking." It seems that Luthien has a better choice of mastery for this task. "Oh? Harmonics? Do you sing?" She asked with a hint of enthusiasm in her voice. "We could do something together, I have Harmonics too!"

Still can't believe that they're up for harvesting crops in a VRMMO game though. What the hell happened in the world? "Let's just say I prefer to not get wet." Moonsong objected, before summoning multiple blades at once surrounding her in a circle at ankle level. "Here goes nothing." As the blades began to spin, the surrounding wheat are cut down quickly, making a circle-shaped shave on the field. It seems like it's fairly effective.

"Wait, it means rather than walking, I can just send the blades spinning like this..." With the motion of her hand, the girl sent the spinning blades away, mowing down one line like a full speed tractor. "... Better than I imagined." She commented with bated breath. Due to how vast the field was, the energy cost was not little.

Also one other thing.

"Crap, I still need to manually pick up the wheat I cut, don't I?" This task cannot be delegated to the summoned blades, and as a result, she went to the field and gathered a stack of wheat, putting them on the side.

"Come on Luthien, let's see how you do it!"

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

Moonsong definitely had the same train of thought as Lúthien when it came to the implementation of Aeromancy for this task, the girl giving a thumbs up before the brunette’s next question caused the elf to shake her head softly. "A-Ah, no no… my singing voice isn’t that great honestly, average at best." Sure she might be willing to make a fool of herself in a karaoke with friends, but never would’ve Lúthien dreamed of channeling her Harmonics through singing in TerraSphere.

"I play the violin IRL, so figured I could bring that in-game and tie it to Harmonics for a good time." At the mention of the brunette also sharing the mastery the blonde couldn’t help but brighten up in response. "Oooh, yeah, we could actually duette!"

As Moonsong moved into the fields the elf stood back to observe, watching as the blades materialized around the brunette before they began to spin. She kept them low, around ankle level from what the blonde could tell, and from the looks of it the method was quite effective. Before long Moonsong had already managed to mow down the amount of wheat that would probably take a lander a good portion of the day to match.

"Look at you go, Moonsong, great job~!"

A whistle of appreciation left her lips as the elf clapped in support, before chuckling softly when the brunette realized another downside to their task. "Yeah… where probably gonna have to stack and bundle it up the good ol’ fashion way." She watched as the brunette began stacking up the wheat she’d mowed down, the elf turning her attention to the scythe she’d been provided as she tried to figure it out.

Her right hand held onto the grip, the left settling at the back of the snatch to keep its direction, before Lúthien did a few testing swings as she tried to get comfortable with the tool. It was certainly quite different to anything else she’d tried before, but hopefully she’d be able to make it work… ? "Alright, let’s see if this works…" The elf took a deep breath, trying to focus her magic onto the blade of the scythe. Slowly a dull green glow seemed to emanate from it, before the blonde did a sweeping motion with the tool that set off a razor-sharp arc of air into the wheat.

It certainly cut through the stalks with ease, though Lúthien’s aim had been a bit too low and halfway through the path the razor winds impacted the soil instead. It caused a scattering of dirt and what to fly out, though thankfully the mess was directed away from either player.

"... fuck."

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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"Violin?" Her head went back in time to the Summerfest with the two Lindsey Stirling fangirls, Naomi and Valeria. "That's cool. You listen to Lindsey Stirling?" She too, had been listening to some of her music after the Summerfest, even giving her the idea to insert a few violin strings in her own next work. "Sounds good, but now, time to get to work."

There's now a row of cut wheat in front of her, a work that'll probably take a normal person a few hours. And judging on how easily they mowed through the crops, maybe two of them was indeed enough? "Whoa." She jumped the moment Luthien's wind impacted, sending a mini blast of soil that's fortunately a distance away from them.

"See, we're good at this." The girl commented positively, while collecting the wheat on the ground.

Moments later, Moonsong was sitting on the side, quietly tying up bundles of wheat. It might take them like a second to cut through a whole row, but bundling them up might be the real work. "It's... more of a boring work than a tiring work, isn't it?" She muttered to the blonde, wiping off sweats on her forehead.

After thirty minutes of non-stop bundling, they then continue to `harvest` the wheat, with greater efficiency than before now they know how to adjust the control for it.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Mhmm, I sure do! She’s actually the reason I fell in love with the violin as a kid~"

At the mention of probably Lúthien’s favorite artist out there the elf had immediately perked up, a bright and wide grin pulling at her lips as she spoke. However before the elf could sneak in a question of her own the brunette had begun to move towards the field, after all they were probably hard pressed on time and all this wheat wasn’t going to just harvest itself.

She was thankful that her little blunder hadn’t irritated her slightly older harvesting partner, though it had definitely meant extra work for Lúthien as she had to gather all the wheat stalks that had been flung everywhere from the impacted area. "Y-Yeah I guess we are… who knows, maybe I’ll buy a farm and just grow wheat myself for a living." The thought was amusing at best, though the blonde was pretty sure she wouldn’t go through with such a thing. Sure, home gardening was something that captivated her attention—the only obstacle being the insanely cold temperatures in Michigan—but there was a big difference between growing your own personal produce and maybe raising some chickens to actually caring and maintaining a real farm.

Eventually they had boh refined their approach towards harvesting the wheat, success after success boosting their confidence as their movements became more natural and intune with their work. Lúthien had just finished securely tying another bundle of wheat when she turned to look at Moonsong, a hand flicking through the air before two waterskins materialized from nowhere.

"Here, gotta stay hydrated through this," She’d walked over, one of the skins held for Moonsong to take, before the girl wipes some of the sweat off her own brow. Her waterskin was uncapped then, taking a few long gulps of the crisp water within, before exhaling happily. "So, what got you into music then? Or did you pick up Harmonics on a whim?"

Surely a little bit of idle chit chat as they hydrate would be alright… right?

@Moonsong

 

[Lune]

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Finishing tying up on the god knows how many bundles of wheat there are, Moonsong sighed before fanning herself with the straw hat to cool down. Luthien walked to her to offer one skin of water, which he happily accepted. "Thank you." She quickly opened the cap and poured the contents into her mouth to quench her thirst.

While resting for a while, the blonde suddenly asked Moonsong about her Harmonics. "I like singing." She simply replied before downing another gulp of water, exhaling, and then elaborating further. "I'm not good at it, and hated it at some point," It was true, but back then when she was still in her group, her lack of singing prowess was covered by her sheer visual, presence, and dancing skills. "But I came to realize that it was the best way to express myself; to convey my message, hoping one day it will reach someone."

The brunette quickly stopped herself from drifting into melancholy any further. "Okay, that sounded so sentimental for a farming break talk," She chuckled before suggesting, "Why don't we pick ourselves up with some Harmonic magic? Now that my throat isn't dry anymore. What song can you play?"

Let's hope it isn't Despacito.

@Luthien