Anya and Gilbert were now sitting across from each other on the ground.
"So let me get this straight…" Anya began.
Gilbert nodded for her to continue.
"You are my fairy god mother"
Nod
"That wasn't a shooting star, it was you"
Nod
"And you're here to grant my wish"
Nod
"And you can make any wish come true, except for giving me wealth and bringing back that dead"
Nod
"All I have to do is sign a contract declaring I want this wish"
Nod
"And the wish ends at midnight"
Nod
Anya leant back, still trying to soak in the whole situation. After a minute of awkward silence, Gilbert was stunned when Anya suddenly began to laugh maniacally.
"I've lost it! I've officially gone crazy!" she laughed.
Gilbert raised a brow at her, "Uh, no, you're perfectly sane as far as I kno-"
Anya shook her head, "You are probably just a random passbyer who decided to play a cruel joke on me, good job! You got me!" she continued.
Gilbert's eye twitched, "Alright, it's one thing to call yourself crazy, but it's another thing to call me a liar!"
"They prove it!" she challenged, laughter dying down as she gave him an expectant stare.
Gilbert rolled his eyes, huffing. "Alright! Make a wish, a small one, I won't count this one." He said.
Anya nodded, looking around at her surroundings. "Hmm… I wish that every weed in this garden to be turned into beautiful flowers." She challenged.
Gilbert looked at the overgrown grass, weeds sticking out all about. He pursed his lips before nodding, "Done" he said.
Anya watched as Gilbert reached into his robe, feeling around until he let out a triumphant "Aha!" and pulled out a thin, slightly curled, twig. "My trusty 5 meters!" he announced, raising it to the air.
Anya furrowed his brows, about to point out how the small stick was hardly 5 meters, but went silent as Gilbert began to outline a circle in the air with the twig. She watched as a glowing orb appeared from the outline and began to expand, rising in the air with bright shimmering colors as it just continued to grow.
She was so distracted that she missed the warning Gilbert gave her to cover her ears, and nearly jumped out of her boots when the orb went to maximum size, the entirety of the cemetery in its plane, and exploded with a loud bang, hundreds upon thousands of sparks exploding from it as it began to disintegrate. The shimmering sparks floated down to the ground surrounding them, only to disappear against the ground.
When Anya finally shook herself out of her trance, she looked around at the surrounding ground.
Sunflowers. Sunflowers surrounded them; sprouting out of every direction she turned. The smaller grave stones were engulfed by the field of flowers while the larger stones and statues protruded out of the dense bed of sunflowers as a reminder that they were still in the same cemetery.
She suddenly turned back around when she heard Gilbert cackling, "Kesesese, see? I told you I was magical! Be amazed by my awesomeness!" he shouted, raising his hands up in the air as he let himself fall back into the soft flowers, but yelping when he realized he fell right onto one of the smaller headstones that was obscured by the flowers.
Anya could only stare at the albino in amazement, swallowing audibly and closing and opening her mouth like a fish before she was finally able to find her words again. "You're… you're real…" she whispered in awe.
"Yep!" Gilbert exclaimed triumphantly, "And here to grant your wish! Now chop chop, I gotta lot of people tonight" he said.
"So any wish…" she whispered to herself, nervously twiddling with her fingers.
"Yes, except for-"
"Necromancy and money, yes yes I know" she interrupted.
Gilbert rolled his eyes, "Well fine then miss know it all" he muttered. Anya frowned when she realized how rude she must have sounded, not just now, but the entire time he had been here.
"I… I just want to say I'm sorry for being so rude" she said.
Gilbert grinned, "Yeah I know, not every day you meet someone as awesome as me, can't blame you for not knowing how to react!"
She laughed softly under her breath as she was still deciding on her wish. And then she remembered. The ball!
She shot up, standing up straight again and Gilbert quickly followed suit. "You ready to wish?" he asked. Anya nodded, "Yes."
Gilbert reached into his robe again, pulling out a paper from who knows where in that robe, and unrolled it. He then handed Anya his wand and pointed to the large X at the bottom of the page. When Anya looked at him in confusion, he explained, "Just use my wand like a pen".
"Ah!" she nodded, grasping it. After a quick read through the letter basically saying "I accept my wish and understand the time limit" in a much longer and fancier way, she held the want like a pencil and signed her full name.
Gilbert took his hand back and looked at the signature before nodding to himself and storing it away again.
Gilbert held his wand up again, "Ready when you are!" he announced.
Anya smiled, clasping her hands together as she stared at Gilbert with wide excited eyes. "I wish… to go to the ball in the princesses' castle, and actually fit in. not look like an outsider, I want to look like I belong, just for tonight" she whispered, excitement evident in her semi-dazed expression.
"Roger that!" Gilbert shouted with a twirl of his wand.
Anya yelped when he current clothing seemed to disintegrate with a bright light that enveloped her body, slowly disappearing to reveal a brand new lavender gown with matching elbow length gloves left in its stead. A beautiful silver necklace with a blue gem clasped at the end adorned her neck. She squeaked when she suddenly felt her hair rise up, collecting itself into a neat bun wrapped by a ribbon.
She stood still for a moment, too afraid to move in fear of another magical explosion happening on her body, but after a few moments of complete silence decided she was safe relaxed.
"Alright! We got your appearance down, now we need…" Gilbert looked around before kneeling down and feeling around on the ground he couldn't see because of the sunflowers. "Ahah!" he exclaimed, getting back up to reveal a pebble on his palm.
Anya opened her mouth to question him, but was cut off when Gilbert threw the pebble into the air and flicked his wand again, another shimmering explosion appearing, a puff of smoke forming in front of them.
When the smoke cleared out, Anya would have sworn she had been dreaming had it not been for the large nail dents forming on her wrist from the amount of times she had been pinching herself to make sure.
"For…. For me?" she gasped in awe.
Gilbert nodded eagerly; this was the favorite part of his job! To see how happy his magic got people.
"But wait, there's more~" he held up a finger motioning Anya to wait as he dashed into the forest.
Anya was beginning to get worried when she heard multiple curses and yelps coming from the forest, but decided to allow Gilbert to do… whatever he was doing. He was supposed to be a professional, right?
A few minutes later Gilbert came out with a triumphant grin on his face, and a fox grasped on each arm. "Your royal steeds!" he announced, running up to her and setting them down in front of the carriage, a small rope tied to each of them like leashes.
"How… how are they going to carry the carriage!? They are so tiny and, and, and-"
She was silenced by Gilbert's loud and distinct cackle, "You forget!" he said, waving around his wand, "I have thi-AHH!" a flare shot out of the end of the want, zapping a nearby firefly with the magic.
"Oh no"
The firefly was engulfed by the light, and suddenly began to grow. And grow. And grow some more.
It continued to until the light surrounding it finally dissipated and what was left was a firefly the size of a basketball.
"Oh dear, that's not good" Gilbert murmured, the oversized firefly flying away before Gilbert had a chance to stop it.
"Why not? Doesn't the magic wear away at midnight?" Anya asked.
Gilbert bit his thumb, "Not… not quite." He admitted. "You see, that rule only works if the person who signs the contract wishes it. Like…" he motioned to the area around them, "these sunflowers are going to stay for longer than you're going to be alive. And that firefly is going to scare the crap out of a lot of people for years to come…" Gilbert looked after the direction it left, sighing to himself. "Bah, whatever, we'll see what sort of monster legends the villagers come up with to explain it."
He shook his head before turning back to the foxes. "Alright, as I was saying…" he carefully pointed his wand at the foxes, "We're going to turn them into horses!" he exclaimed with a quick flick of his wand before the explosion Anya had now been getting used to appeared again, and covered them with smoke that dissipated to reveal 2 snow white horses already tied to the carriage.
Gilbert ran to the carriage's door, opening it open with a small bow, "Your ride" he announced with a mock overly pompous accent.
With a gleeful cheer, Anya got ready to mount the carriage when she was shocked to find that her feet didn't seem to feel normal causing her to almost fall over. She looked up bewildered, what had happened to her feet!? Had Gilbert deformed them as some kind of hidden cost of the wish!?
Gilbert laughed beside her, "I forgot, you have probably never worn heels in your life, have you!?" Anya furrowed her brows, reaching down to grasp her gown and pulled it up slightly to reveal crystal clear heels instead of her worn boots holding her feet.
She frowned slightly, "What are their point?" she asked, clearly confused to the appeal of heels.
"Women love to wear them to look taller" Gilbert explained.
"But I'm already tall, and why would anyone want to appear taller for the cost of their balance?" she continued to prod, testing out her steps slowly as she began getting the hang of it.
Gilbert face palmed, "Look, I don't know why alright? I just know that's what a lot of girls seem to like, and you're going to have to suck it up because I'm running out of time and magic to create another pair of shoes."
Anya nodded, deciding she had already asked so much of him. With the grace of a newborn baby giraffe, she slowly wobbled her way to the carriage. When she finally made it, she couldn't help but punch the air with a joyful cheer.
Now to get ON the carriage.
Gilbert rolled his eyes while he watched her studying the tiny stairs with extreme caution and decided he would hurry it up. With a flick of his wand, he lifted Anya up into the air, completely ignoring her terrified shrieking, and delicately led her inside the carriage and onto the seat.
He pushed the carriage door closed and Anya immediately shot her head out of the window, "You're not coming!?"
Gilbert raised a brow, "why? The horses will know where to go! And besides, I have an Italian boy to get to next who seems to live outside since every time I pass by his area, without a fail, he makes a wish for unlimited pasta plates that last till midnight!" he said, Anya not failing to notice the small blush on his cheeks.
Anya laughed, nodding as she waved him off, "Alright, I have a ball to go to anyways" she said dreamily.
"Just remember, your wish ends at midnight!" he reminded before swatting the behind of one of the horses, sending the carriage off with a very happy Anya.
Note: yeh yeh my babies finally interact in the next chapter.