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itsmadeofwaffles · 1 month

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One night I had a weird dream about HM FoMT, at first I just wanted to illustrate my vision with some made up screenshots and gifs. But as I kept working on them I felt the need to also tell a story so, I ended up writing a one shot fanfic:

(Or if you prefer the text only version on AO3)

Until Dawn

Summary:

A sudden hurricane alert causes more than heavy rains and some falling trees. "Be careful when climbing the mountain. There are no wolves or bears, but you can't be too cautious. Know what I mean?." Once warned Gotz, but what did his words meant well, Claire will soon find out...

"Welcome home! You arrived just in time, I have finished making dinner." Said Karen enthusiastically standing next to a served table.

Lately her cooking had gotten slightly less disastrous with the help of Claire's guidance at the kitchen and, combined with the fact that the Farmer's stomach was now even more resilient to the strange meals, since that one winter when she spend a whole week eating questionable "foods" at the mines after getting lost while searching for the mythical Kappa Jewels. Somehow eating random herbs, mushrooms and other "looks edible enough" items had prepared her for her future married life.

"Sorry I couldn't help you with the dinner. I found some leaks in the roof of the chicken coop and it took me some time to fix it." Said Claire while washing her hands before taking a seat at the table. "The hurricane alert came out of nowhere."

"Don't worry, the safety of the farm is also important and I wanted to surprise you with a new recipe." Replied Karen while taking her seat across the table. "Remember next monday is the Harvest Festival, so I have to keep practicing if I want to impress everyone this year."

The dish in front of Claire was curry, one of the many recipes from the cook book she had written over the last few years since starting a life at the farm and the book her wife now used as a reference.

Realizing that Karen was waiting for her to taste the meal, the farmer thanked for the food and took a spoonful of rice and curry and proceeded to savor all the textures and flavors. -Hmm… The carrot is still under cooked... The burnt taste of the onion actually brings out it's sweetness and is a good contrast to the spiciness.- were some of her toughs as she eat and even if the rice was still on the watery side the meal was surprisingly tasty.

"Sasha is going to be so proud in the next Harvest Festival!" Claire said once she was able to speak again. "This is so good! Is sweet and spicy, the bamboo shoots gave it a distinctive crunch and the sauce is well seasoned. Just be sure to cut the carrots and potatoes more evenly to ensure they cook together and let the rice water to evaporate a bit longer to avoid the mushiness."

"You really think so?" Asked the one who for the longest time held the title of being 'unable to cook to save her life' not believing the farmer's words.

"Yes! I'm sure this curry will leave everyone in town speechless."

And after that exchange the two continued their dinner talking about how their day went and anything else that crossed their minds.

~~•~~•~~

Around midnight, just like the weather forecast had predicted, the storm started as a light rain that in a few hours turned into a hurricane, regardless, Claire went to sleep knowing the farm would be fine or so, she thought.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

At some point past 4am, the sound of the wind and raindrops falling onto the roof were violently replaced by a knocking door and the sound of yelling coming from the entrance of the house:

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"WAKE UP!! They are free again!"

Not waiting for an answer from the homeowners, the front door was abruptly opened and two men covered in raincoats made their way into the house. "Hurry! If we don't stop them the town will be doomed!" A second voice yelled.

At the sound of the intruders Claire opened her eyes and ran towards the entrance of the house, standing by the door she saw Gotz the Woodcutter and Thomas the Mayor of the town, before she could even start to question why they had irrupted into her house at this hour Gotz started to talk:

"The hurricane destroyed one of the mountain seals, Harris and Carter are already looking for it." Explained in a hurried voice. Somehow while explaining this his voice sounded as if he was doing everything in his power to remain calm, which to Claire it was disconcerting. "Here... Use this to defend yourself and don't let them get you. If they get a hold of you... You'll..."

Gotz didn't finish what he was saying, instead he shoved a long box into the farmer's arms and left for the mountains leaving Thomas behind.

Still standing in his spot, the color of his face was nowhere to be seen and the horror was clear in his eyes yet he tried to sound calm as he spoke "Listen, there's not much time before it starts." Quickly glancing at his pocket watch it read 4:36am. "Use what Gotz gave you to fight back and do your best to survive until morning. Last time… a tragedy occurred." He added with a somber look.

"It's almost time, I have to go and check on Saibara back in town. Be careful and fight as many as you can, just... resist until dawn."

Thomas left the farm heading to the town leaving a very confused Claire behind, once she had barely processed what had occurred she went back to the dorm were she found both occupants still sleeping, Karen and Pachu, the dog somehow continued to sleep as if nothing had happened at all.

Realizing that she kept holding the long box Gotz had shoved into her arms, she opened it to discover a simple hand crafted wooden bat with some odd markings engraved and a "Good luck" note inside. The strange "gift" confused her even more if it was possible.

But as soon as the farmer was starting to think of everything as some sort of joke the clock rang, the sudden sound caused her to look at it, 4:44am. -Why would announce this hour?- Claire wondered then she felt a strange pressure around her.

A strange dark haze covered the room and suddenly it dissipated in seconds, the wooden floors were replaced by hard, cold stone, the walls were covered in a thick layer of rotten grime, somehow the TV in the room turned itself on but only static could be seen.

Claire rushed to Karen's side, the woman was still sleeping but something on her was off, like if her body belonged to a different reality, frozen in place. Not wanting to disturb it and cause a tragedy the Farmer decided to walk away.

Clank! Clank! CRASH!

The sounds came from the kitchen.

"What's that!?" She exclaimed at the same time as Pachu ran barking towards the source of the sound. "He… He wasn't affected by any of this?" Not sure if that was a good or a bad thing she just felt relief for not being alone in this.

Before leaving for the kitchen, Claire gave one final look to the room and noticed that the friendly looking portrait of the Lake Deity that adorned the wall got replaced by the portrait of a being that clearly didn't belonged to this world. "I hope this is just a nightmare."

~~•~~•~~

Crawling through the stone floor an oozing dark sludge was moving. Claire couldn't help but stare at it unable to move, simply witnessing the bizarre event before her eyes and firmly clutching her hands to the bat she was holding.

Standing next to her Pachu kept growling at the sludge, the fur of his back up, ready to attack and defend his territory.

"This… Can't be… Happening!" The farmer whispered not fully understanding what she saw. The sound of her voice seemed to alert the amorphous sludge of her presence and started to head her way.

"Iii'm... HooOmEee!" An eerie voice suddenly emanated from the sludge as it approached both the farmer and the dog. "WeeLcoOmEee hOoMeEe!"

Claire felt a shiver going through her body at the sound of the creepy unearthly voice. "It's... talking… Why is talking!?" She cried trying to make sense of it.

As the creature crawled closer to her, it started to shapeshift, the sludge grew in size and morphed to resemble what seemed to be an humanoid form, it was as tall as an adult person, no hair, no skin, just the slime. When it was close enough to the farmer it's head twisted itself in a terrifying way to meet directly with her and when their yellowed eyes devoid of life made contact with Claire's, for a brief moment, she could feel how it saw through her soul as an incessant echoing of voices invaded every corner of her mind.

The creature's body oozed with the black sludge. "WeelCoomEee... DiinEeer iiS... rEeaAdy!" Screeched as it lunged itself towards Claire.

The screech broke her trance and without thinking twice she gripped the wooden bat in her hands and swung it at full force towards the monster, closing her eyes briefly she felt the impact and then saw how the monster's head splattered across the room, the body collapsed in front of her, returning to be an immobile pile of rotten goo.

"It… Worked…" She said trembling and struggling to catch her breath, more sure than ever that those creatures didn't belonged to this dimension nor reality and not wanting to make eye contact with them ever again.

Looking around the kitchen, Claire saw the monster's leftovers on the cabinets of the kitchen and thought it would be impossible to remove monster innards stains. -Why I'm worrying about something like that now?- She laughed at herself.

Bark! Bark! Grrr! Bark!

Her thoughts were interrupted by the barking and growling coming from the other room that reminded her that this wasn't over yet.

Rushing to the next room she found two piles of sludge approaching the barking dog, one by the table and another one by the bookshelf.

Using all the strength she could muster she hit the one closer to the table, in that moment a shriek was heard and the creature collapsed into a puddle of dark slime meanwhile, across the room the remaining monster readied itself to attack Pachu, the dog growled menacingly, Claire not taking a chance pushed the table between the two to create a barrier causing the monster to refocus it's target.

The humanoid sludge released a war cry, the sound was so unnatural and so nauseating that for a moment the farmer flinched, barely avoiding the incoming attack, she dodged it, quickly turning to her right to reposition her stance and then...

PLAF!

From the corner of her eye she spotted another one appearing by the window and with the adrenaline still rushing through her body she launched herself to it, getting rid of the monster before it could even take it's humanoid shape.

"How many more there are!? Where these are coming from!?" she said exasperated. "Sigh… Thomas said I need to keep doing this until dawn but…" The clock on the wall read 4:44am. "Time hasn't moved at all!"

The growling and shrieking sounds coming from different areas of the farm interrupted her complaints, and deciding that she would leave that for a moment when those who she cares about, and herself, won't be in an imminent danger to get answers. She gripped her weapon and braced herself for what seemed to be the longest night in her life.

~~•~~•~~

Two… five… nine… twelve… Losing track of how many she had dispatched so far and not sure of how much time had passed, if at all, since the last time she checked the clock the tiredness was already taking a tool on her, her arms ached and now under the rain, keeping herself up was an even more complicated task.

One more appeared by the carrots, feeling her head spinning and dreading the possibility of this nightmare never ending Claire took a deep breath and proceeded to encounter the monster.

PLAF!

"I... I... Did it…" That was the last of her strength. Claire felt her knees gave in and her body collapsing on the ground, at the same time the clock back in the house finally rang at 6am; The dark haze from before engulfed the farm and like before once it dissipated, the strange pressure was lifted off and everything returned to normal.

Understanding what that meant the farmer closed her eyes and passed out of tiredness and relief that the nightmare was over.

~~•~~•~~

The sound of water drops hitting the windows and the distant thunders eventually woke up a very confused Claire, as she tried to get up a sharp pain made her yelp and fall onto the bed again. "Gah…! My arms hurt! What… I'm doing here…?" She tried to make memory of when she got to bed last night but, the last thing she could remember was the chickens and the heavy rain.

"Urgk… There's no way fixing the chicken coop can tire me like this..." Making another effort she finally was able to sit on the side of the bed "Huh...?" -Gotz, Thomas and… The nasty goop monsters.- "I remember!" The farmer stood up so quickly that it got her dizzy.

"There are slimy monster remains around the house! How I'm going to explain this to Karen?" -Karen!- Her eyes scanned the room but no one besides her was here. -Did... she woke up? Is she hurt?- As she hurried towards the door a new fear was unlocked. "Pachu! What happened to him!"

Stumbling into the kitchen and almost tripping, the first thing she saw was Pachu happily chewing on some carrots. "Pachu! You're not hurt!" The dog got up and went to greet it's owner wagging it's tail, when the dog was at arms reach she picked it up to hug him. "Ouch! My arms hate me right now but I don't care, I'm so relieved that nothing happened to you!"

"Ohh… You finally woke up." The Farmer turned to the source of the voice while allowing the dog to return to his snack. "I was getting worried because you usually are the first one to wake up but since there's a hurricane… I thought it would be good to let you rest some more."

Karen now was standing right next to her, a quick flashback of her previous unresponsive state, the echoing of tortured voices invaded her mind and, ignoring all the pain in her body she couldn't help but throw her arms around her and tightly hug her in relief. "You… Were worried about, me…? I'm the one who didn't knew if you or anything would return to normal ever again!" She cried as she felt some tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Huh!? What do you mean?" A confused Karen asked trying to understand the situation, she was rubbing her hand on the back of the farmer to try and reassure her. "Did you have a nightmare last night? I'm perfectly fine." She added now fully returning the hug, together they stood like that for a few minutes as Claire calmed down.

"The dark haze, the horrendous monsters, the incessant voices of creatures forced into life… And the house is a mess, how can… ehh!?" Finally breaking the hug she threw a look around realizing that everything was in place. "But the table was… And the windows were… The cabinets didn't…" The farmer was speechless.

Unable to comprehend how the room was in perfect state. -Did last night truly was a nightmare or... some type of hallucination?- She started to question her own sanity. -Okay, let's see, my body aches and…- suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle hand in her forehead.

"Hmm… You don't seem to have a fever, maybe we should simply take a seat." Karen gently guided her to the sofa in the living room "Okay, now take a deep breath, I'm going to make some tea so you can tell me about your nightmare. You'll feel better talking about it." She was heading back to the kitchen but then stopped "Oh! I almost forgot to tell you, I found a letter addressed to you by the entrance. Here."

[Dear Claire:

We're so sorry for intruding like we did last night, I really hopped "this event" to never repeat itself again but unfortunately nature wasn't on our side, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions and probably want to personally express your frustration at us.

I want you to know how grateful I am that you could overcome this terrible task in success.

This is something that your grandfather didn't wish to inherit you and neither we did.

I assure you we'll give you the answers you seek soon, just have patience, I know this is to much to ask for but please act as if it hadn't happened, we don't want to cause a commotion.

Sincerely, Thomas.

P.S. Don't throw away the bat.]

"They really are asking me this? After all that!? The nerve." She murmured to herself as she finished reading. "What did my grandfather knew? Well, at least now I know it was real."

Now that she had calmed down, Claire decided to head back to the kitchen too, where she told a version of her nightmare to Karen who in exchange suggested that maybe the farmer has been working to much lately and that it's good that they can take the day off and relax until the storm is over, together they eat strawberry cake and had tea.

For now at least, this was over and she could return to her every day life as a farmer.

#hm fomt #harvest moon #friends of mineral town #hm fomt fanfiction #my writing #based of a dream #fanfic #took longer than I wish to admit to create the fake screenshots and gifs #also I changed the layout for the beds because I don´t like the original #I've been playing the gay hack

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