Emira did her best to perfect the spell had been practicing it all week. She used it to enhance different types of illusion magic, making sure that it would work in different scenarios. Getting it to work correctly had required many consultations with the texts and even more tweaks, but it was finally ready.
She was going to show it to Viney.
Before school, Emira looked for Viney in the hallways. She tracked her down near her locker and asked her to meet her at the grudgby court after school. When Viney asked why, Emira just winked and told her it was a surprise. The other girl had flushed at that, though Emira wasn't sure why, and agreed to meet her there. With that set, Emira went to class.
Emira tried to keep her mind off of the upcoming meeting for the rest of school. It was tough; there were so many uncertainties. The spell could fail, or Viney might not appreciate Emira interfering in her work. Maybe she should've done it in the morning, but she wanted to make sure she had enough time with Puddles to tweak the spell if it didn't work the first time.
She almost cut class to make the day go by faster and ease her nerves, since her classes were dreadfully boring and she felt like she died a little more each time she checked the clock and only a few minutes had passed, but remembered that she promised Mittens to stop skipping class unless she had a very good reason. Emira was pretty sure that Mittens would not approve, and thus she stayed.
So Emira suffered through her classes, taking low quality notes and waiting impatiently for the end of the day.
When the final bell rang, Emira quickly went to her locker to put her school books away and to get her notes and the illusion magic theory books that she had borrowed from the library. She then walked towards the back exit of the school, not bothering to find Ed first. She already told him that morning that she had plans in the afternoon. He had shrugged and said okay.
When Emira reached the grudgby field, she saw that she was the first one there. She sat down and took out her notes for the spell, going over the theory one last time. The weather was mild, with a few clouds in the sky.
A few minutes later, Viney arrived. "Hey." She said as she approached, in a softer tone than she usually used. She was holding the strap of her school bag with both hands, tugging on it slightly. She seemed nervous, though Emira wasn't sure why.
"Hi, thanks for coming." Emira said as she closed her notes, stood up, and brushed the dirt off her pants.
Viney nodded once. "No problem." She was still standing strangely, averting her gaze like she wasn't fully comfortable. "What did you want to talk about?"
Emira couldn't help but grin. She opened her notes back up to the spell and showed it to Viney. "I've been trying to find a way to enhance your healing spell, and I think I've done it." She passed the paper to Viney, so she could read it over.
"Oh." Viney sounded surprised as she let go of her bag and took the notes, eyes moving to take in each word. Her eyebrows were scrunched together in thought. "That's…" She paused for a moment to ponder her words, and Emira's heart froze. "That's incredible." She finally said with a growing smile, and Emira felt like she could breathe again.
"It'll enhance the strength of the magic. I've been testing it on illusion spells, but it should work with healing." Emira was confident that it would.
Viney's green eyes popped up from the paper, glimmering with excitement. "Let's test it." She handed back the notes and then spun one finger in the air, casting the spell to call for Puddles. Any nerves Viney had brought with her seemed to have dissipated, replaced with eagerness.
While she waited for the griffin to arrive, Emira pulled a fresh leaf out of her bag she brought for the test. She planned to rip it almost completely in half and have Puddles heal it. They would be able to tell the strength of the heal by how well the leaf was repaired. It wasn't a perfect indicator, but it would be good enough for the initial tests.
Less than a minute later, Puddles flew overhead. She landed next to Viney and chirped what seemed to be a hello. After a moment of petting her, Viney was ready to begin.
Emira put the ripped leaf on the ground and explained how she wanted to use it. Viney agreed that would work and suggested they do the first run without Emira's added spell. That way they would set a benchmark to compare the later results to.
With that decided, Viney started the control run. She cast the two spells and told Puddles to heal the leaf. The griffin obeyed, placing one talon against the target. It glowed with white light for a moment, and when the light faded it had clearly been healed. Instead of being ripped most of the way through, it was now only ripped about half way.
"So that's the benchmark." Viney said, picking up the leaf to measure the amount healed and to re-rip it. "Are you ready to try it?" She turned to Emira to ask.
Emira nodded, "Yeah." She hoped this would work. Emira looked at her notes one last time, going over the spell in her mind.
Viney smiled, then started to cast the two spells. Once they were both in place, it was Emira's turn. She made the spell circle slowly, focusing on casting the spell exactly right. Puddles' claw gained a purple glow with the additional spell, meaning it reached the right target. She held the spell once it was cast.
Viney gave the command and Puddles moved to touch the leaf. The new version of the spell emitted a light purple glow instead of white and lasted about the same amount of time.
After the light faded, they could see the results.
The leaf was completely repaired with not a trace of the rip remaining. For a moment, the two girls stood in stunned silence.
"It works." Was all Emira could say, staring at the leaf in shock.
"It works!" Viney beamed, practically leaping forward to tackle Emira with a hug. She was warm, too warm and too close; Emira's heart was suddenly racing. She didn't have a chance to return the hug, or even form a coherent thought, before Viney pulled away, laughing in pure happiness. Emira hadn't heard that from her before, a genuine laugh. The sound lifted her spirits, Viney's joy infectious.
Woah there, Emira reeled her mind in, these thoughts were getting out of hand. What was happening? That was something to ponder later.
"How'd you figure it out?" Viney asked, having moved to hug Puddles as well.
Even though she had come this far, it was embarrassing for Emira to admit. She didn't usually study after all. "Some books from the library. I combined a few theories."
"How does it work?" Viney sounded eager, the smile still on her face.
It was quite complicated, Emira wasn't sure she could do it now with the way her heart was still pounding in her chest, mind out of control. "It would take too long to explain right now." Emira responded, continuing with a quickly thought up plan when Viney's expression fell. "How about next week, are you free after school on Wednesday?"
Viney thought about it for a moment. "I should be yes." She said with a nod.
Emira couldn't help but smile. "I'll meet you at the healing classroom."
"Alright." A gust of wind passed through, rustling Viney's hair. She reached up to tuck a loose strand behind her ear. "I'll expect answers then." She was stunning, Emira already knew but was starting to understand.
"I'll bring them." Emira promised.
The conversation soon moved to small talk, discussion of a history project, and the best way to clean griffin claws. They chatted for about five more minutes before parting, reaffirming when they would next meet.
Emira left the school with thoughts racing through her mind. She should organize her notes so that she could explain the spell to Viney in a way that made sense. She also needed to figure out what exactly she was feeling for the other girl.
If anybody else reported these symptoms to her, racing heart, flushed cheeks, hanging onto their every word, unable to look away, Emira would've easily diagnosed them. For herself, it wasn't so simple.
Could she really be feeling this way? She wasn't sure.
All Emira could do was get ready to meet with Viney next week and hope she could face both explaining the spell and handling her own feelings.
Unfortunately for Emira, there was no way for her to prepare for what would happen on that fateful day.