Greatness is Never Promised

Ruby is talking about how she made this spell and how hard she worked and all the different nuances that went into it. She's describing all the different ways that she failed and how each failure taught her a valuable lesson that once combined with each subsequent attempt, perfectly led her down the road of her eventual sucess.

It's all great stuff, very interesting. But damn, I can hardly listen, I'm biting my bottom lip just being serenaded by the sound of her voice. It's so sweet and uneven, I love the hitches in the words and how a rasp will trickle in when she's trying to explain something tricky.

I can't believe we've only known each for a few weeks. We spent every night lying on the hill, staring up the stars, talking until we had nothing to say. Then just enjoying each other's presence.

I've never met someone like Ruby, never had a connection with someone like her. Since we spent that week apart, since I finally reunited with her—it all just comes rushing to the forefront of my mind. I never want to leave her again, I want her to be mine. I want to be selfish with her. It's driving me crazy.

"Jessica?"

"Huh? Oh sorry I..."

"You kind of zoned out there for a bit, Jess. Was I boring you?" She looks a little hurt by it. I don't blame her at all, look at me not paying attention to the love of my life right after being apart for a fucking week. I'm such a tool.

Well, I'm not gonna let something like this get in the way of us.

"No, no. Ruby, I want-I need to tell you something."

I take her by the hands and lead her over to the dining table. It's not very wide and gives the perfect length for us to continue to gaze into each other's eyes, I can even still hold her hands comfortably.

They're so warm and honestly a little bit clammy. Which I love. It makes me feel so cared for, like she was just so excited to see me it made her sweat.

We're sitting at the table separated only by a few feet, our elbows both placed inward, leaning towards each other. I'm gazing into her beautiful sparkling eyes and can't help but feel a flush creep up my neck and spatter across my face. I feel like she can read me like a book, like she knows exactly what I'm thinking; what I'm worried about.

But I know that's just an excuse. My brain wanting to give me some type of out so I can force the responsibility onto her. I'm not that type of woman. But that I was that type of man- er no, I was that type of person before I came out.

I'm just... I'm worried that she won't like me back. That I might ruin what we have. I don't want that. I want to hold onto the moment forever, cherishing it like a fossil, never letting the wind or the rain hit it ever again. Can't we just keep it? But I don't want that either, hells, I just want everything. No. I just want her.

I look at her deeply and I can see in her eyes every fiber of her being is waiting on my words. Her breath is quick and unevenly paced, there's a slight perspiration spreading across her skin and the hairs on her arms are standing up. My poor nervous girly.

I would be a criminal to keep her waiting a single moment longer.

"Ruby, I like you. Not just as a best friend but as someone special and dear to me, someone I want to keep close. I want to take you out on a date and I want to pursue a romantic relationship with you."

My eyes struggle to maintain contact with her's even after seeing the easy smile spread wider and wider across her face as I continue to speak.

A toothy grin and a heart blush engulf her face, "I'm so happy, Jess. Of course I would love to go on a date with you! I've felt something special, something I've never had with another person ever since the first night we stayed up talking on our hill. I wish we could be there right... now." Her words trail off and a look of wonder blazed in her eyes. "You know, I think there might be a way we could do that now. Come here."

I slide out from my seat and waddle over to her, my mind completely empty from the shocking joy, my body full of a flowering elation that spreads with each passing moment. She sits me down beside her and interlocks our adjacent hands, intertwining our fingers.

"I'm going to show you exactly how I casted the spell that created", she gestures around vaguely, "this entire space. I think if someone like you can recreate a spell like this we could go anywhere we wanted to for our first date. Your creativity is the limit baby." She kicks her legs out flexing them excitedly.

I squeeze her hand, "A magic lesson as our first activity? You know me so damn well."

She chuckles, "Oh such a romantic. Me as your partner comes with plenty of perks huh?" A wave of seriousness passes over her face and she closes her eyes, breathing deeply outward.

I close my eyes with her, feeling the flow of her magic, letting it flow over me and take me away to exactly what she's trying to show me. I find us standing in front of a massive waterfall. As the water plummets into the shallow river we stand in, massive sparkled and twinkles of water spray into the air. The sunlight makes them sparkle and twinkle sending small vibrant rainbows dancing all across our vision.

I gasp, "How beautiful."

She nods slowly, "Not as beautiful as youuuu."

"You absolute flirt!"

"This is how I made the fake world. The spray... it allows you to create an illusionary magic. So powerful it can even trick every sense that you have, even magic. But if you dig deep enough, if you find travel upward from the fake river we wade in currently, you come here. The root, the source of where we are."

I twist my head to the side, "So if I were to create one of my own, downstream... I could wrap a purely fictional, illusory world around just us. We could go wherever we wanted, see anything we desired."

She just smiles in response, whisking us back to the table we were sitting at. "Where do you want to go first Jess?"

"I mean, do you really think I can just get the spell just like that? You barely even showed me how it works, let alone any implementation."

"I really do Jess. You're the best spell caster I've ever seen."

"I-I...", my face flushes and my heart surges with determination. If I had any doubts in my skills and abilities, Ruby disintegrated them immediately with her belief. Closing my eyes I wade into the depths of my river, imagining a waterfall as beautiful as Ruby's. Within the sparkles and the shimmers I begin to manifest the chosen reality before us.

The table is pulled away into the void, the floor beneath us vanishing. A low beautifully ornate ball gown extends to the polished pristine floor. My hands and arms are covered in long velvet gloves and my hair is done up in an intricate fashion, weaving and wrapping around itself creating a perfect style. I've extended my hand delicately, bent at the wrist and it's been grasped lightly by Ruby.

Her hair has been slicked back into a boyish groom, she's in an utterly divine black and white suit, it captures a grace yet a masculinity that I wasn't quite aware she had. She looks downward and breaks out into a big grin, pulling at the suit and inspecting herself. "Damn I look clean in this. I did not know I had it in me! I've never worn masculine clothing since... well since transitioning. It's kind of fun and freeing in a way. Especially while still being able to be so obviously a woman, it's like taking back something I hadn't even known I'd lost."

"You look really fucking good Rubes. Sorry if this was sudden or if you want to wear a gown too, it was just the first thing that came to mind."

"No baby no, you did so good. I love it!"

I'm not used to her calling me baby, it's making my heart race each time she says it. Now that I have her permission I let the new reality truly sink in.

A piano, and a floating violin appear. They suddenly burst into song magically playing themselves and Ruby and I sweep into a vibrant dance together. She takes the lead leading me around, spinning me, and dipping me deeply before grasping me with her strong arms and raising me up into a high jump. It's like we've done this all our lives it feels so natural. The song picks up intensity and we follow with the speed of our moves.

After several minutes we're sweating and breathing hard as the music shifts into a slow rhythmic tune. Ruby presses up close to me, breast to breast, as we shift and sway feeling each other's bodies intertwine. She takes my lead hand and stretched it outward guiding my body against her's, making me feel like I'm just a part of the whole that is us.

Minutes go by and the music continues to get more and more romantic as Ruby and I get closer and closer before the climactic moment as the violin sings, our lips touch pulling into a deep kiss.

I've never felt more alive. We pull apart and stare deeply into each other's eyes.

I feel a complete control over our surroundings now and I change the scene.

Suddenly we stand on the precipice of a mountain, our breathes visual and alive, blowing warm clouds that wrap around our faces. We're sitting on a glacier that is rocking over the edge, tauntingly acting as if any moment it might fall and carve a new valley and cliff face. But I know that it won't, after all within the moment it stills, hooking into the divots I placed.

Poof

A blanket appear on the ground along with a small tweed basket.

"Picnic?" I say, my mind is reminiscent from our first ever encounter. I did try to spice it up quite a bit.

There is no wind on this mountain top, very unrealistic, but it is my god damn dreamworld. The clouds have parted giving birth to a most wondrous sunrise, the light of which dances upon the snowstorm happening at the base of the mountain before it finally climbs high enough to sparkle across the icy face of the glacier we lie on.

Ruby is wiping tears from her face as a wobbly grin is plastered firmly on her lip, "I don't even know what to say Jessica." A brief moment passes before a smug smirk appears, "This is fucking awesome!!!". She jumps flying over to me with outstretched arms that she tightly wraps around my neck and I begin to swing her around in a circle.

After we are done roughhousing around on the ice we sit down panting. Large clouds of warm visible air puffing out of our mouths, our cheeks pink and flush with the cold. I fumble around for the basket before popping it open to a fucking complete emptiness.

"Huh. Well that's not the sparkling wine OR the fresh steaming steaks with mashed potato and macaroni cheese that I put in there." I look upward to Ruby with pleading eyes, worried I may have majorly bummed out the vibe I had so masterfully set down.

"Oopsie", Ruby innocently looks from side to side twirling her hair with a finger. She squints at me before placing on a blameless, helpless smile that melts me away. "I maaaay have forgotten to tell you about how food and liquids work. They are quite different from the rest of this unbelievable beauty. It's more of a [Conjuration] spell rather than a [Illusion] spell. I think when you put so much effort into them it must've cancelled out the spell? I'm honestly not entirely sure."

"I did imagine them as being extremely filling so maybe that's not something [Illusion] magic can do?"

She nods in agreement before scooting over to sit right behind me, stretching her arms out around me before wrapping her fingers in between mine. I can feel her warmth all too well and her chest is pressed tightly up against my back.

"I'm want to cast the [Conjuration] magic with you. I want us to both 'cook' this meal."

Within moments there is the sparkling wine, a finer lighter color than I've ever seen, a meaty juicy steak with a delicious looking mushroom based sauce drizzled all over the top, thick dollops of mashed potato with a heaping of macaroni cheese sit fatly in the middle. But that's where my journey ends and Ruby's begins. I'm honestly not entirely certain what any of the food is, but the insatiable smell that clogs my nostrils tells me I'm in for something delicious.

Ruby smiles weakly, "My grandmother used to make all of these before the... well you know. They were always so amazing and I know exactly how they taste but... she never was allowed to teach me. Mom and Dad, well they always said I was too busy practicing magic or training with combat. That someone like me would never be forced to do the 'base level chores' like cooking or cleaning. But to me it was valuable family time that was stripped away from me. Robber. But I know their appearance and damn do I know their taste well enough to be able to [Conjure] them for us. Thank you Jess, this will be the first time I've had any of this since leaving the village."

"Of course Ruby!" I pull her in for a long embrace. "Please tell me what all is in store! And I want to say, I know we can figure out how to make this stuff in the real world too. You and me are gonna change this world, a little food can't stop us."

"Hehehe, you're so sweet! I would love to do that." She points at a brown-tan triangle, "These are called Samosas. They are filled with a stunning creation called lamb keema." Then she points to circular flat sheets of bread, "This is called Roghni Naan. It's made of white flour, yogurt, milk, and butter but all the attempts I've made to bake it haven't turned out quite right. They're sprinkled with sesame seeds and kalonji." Finally she gestures towards pieces of skewered chicken, "These are Malai Chicken Tikka."

We absolutely fucking feast.