"She's so pretty..." I think while watching my wife sleeping peacefully lying on the grass under the apple tree in the garden, enjoying one of the last days with nice weather before autumn arrives and trees start to lose their leaves. Ruby has been working hard harvesting the last fruits and preparing the soil to plant lettuce, carrots beet and onions. We had lunch with Luna and they both decided to take a nap, I wasn't tired but lied next to the witch anyway to be able to hug her and stare at her beautiful face entranced.
Our first anniversary is in a few weeks and I wonder if she remembers it and has planned some kind of celebration, these months I've been living with Ruby Rose have been the most special of my life and I'd love to give her something gorgeous and original as a present but, what could I give to a powerful witch that can have whatever she wants thanks to magic? My wife turns and sighs, putting her arm around my waist while I fix my eyes on her plump lips and the flawless jawline. Maybe it's better if we don't celebrate it after all because we've been living under a lot of pressure lately and Ruby has told me she wants to have a quiet winter. This past summer has been weird, to be honest.
The witch has fixed things with her father... till a certain point. They talk to each other and are cordial when they're together but their interactions aren't natural yet, I guess this situation will improve as time goes by when Ruby accepts that the plan their parents came up with was the best option and keeping her in the dark was their way to protect her. Even if that was the cause of her mother's death. We were able to visit the house where she spent childhood, very close to a picturesque and quiet little village, although we caused a commotion when we arrived, above all when Daria bumped into her parents in the middle of the square. There were tears, laughs and lots of explanations till everything was clear finally and the neighbours started to treat the witch with kindness. The house looked great and the garden was full of flowers when we left one week later thanks to magical spells. In addition to that, Eric insisted on giving me some things that belonged to his late wife: some jewels and a silk shawl and Ruby got some books of magic her mother forgot in a trunk.
My father in law went back to Silvertown to help the neighbours with the reconstructions of the village but he promised to visit our forest next spring. Besides, we left the horrible painting where Malizia lives now in the house attic, protected by my wife's spells, no one will be able to get close to it and the evil witch enjoys a fantastic view of the wooden beams of the ceiling and an area of green fields through a small window... which is better than looking at a boring stone wall. She didn't look happy when she woke up inside the painting but there's nothing she can do to escape, my wife is way more powerful and, even if she could find out what spells she's casted to lock the sorceress up in the canvas, it would take centuries for her to break them one by one.
I think Ruby felt generous and at peace after spending a week patching things up with her father and remembering her childhood adventures with Daria and she decided that we must visit my father too in order to thank him for the letter that allowed us to defeat the evil witch. The week we spent in the castle was a little more tensed than the vacation in her village, the king made an effort to be kind and courtiers behaved well, but they weren't the ones upsetting my wife. She prefers simple things: the cave, the forest, blue berries jam and simmering stews in her cauldron, her garden... The castle is too big, cold, grandiose and fancy for her taste, nobles are too arrogant, food too delicate and the gold cutlery too flashy... Poor Luna meowed surprised every time her claws got stuck in silk carpets and I think we all felt relieved when we said goodbye finally.
My dad insisted on sending my old nanny and some maids to pack my stuff and I agreed because didn't want to argue with him although Ruby was chuckling discreetly behind me because she knew that puffy pink court dresses would be useless in her fairy tale forest. But I was happy to carry with me my old sewing basket, some of my mom's prized possessions and the ivory chessboard.
