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A puff of pink smoke filled the air of the small wooden caravan that had once belonged to Amaya’s father, a sickly sweet scent accompanying it. Magnifico let out a cough, opening the small window to allow the smoke to disperse and rid the caravan of the overwhelming scent before groaning.
Since her father’s death, Amaya and Magnifico had taken his caravan and horse, travelling across the continent to continue Magnifico’s search for magic knowledge. Thanks to his wife’s surprisingly persuasive way with words when it came to bookshop owners, or perhaps because the old men running the shops seemed to find her attractive, Magnifico had managed to double the number of magic books he had in his possession and now spent his days trying out various potions in his newly acquired books.
“Well that was unsuccessful..” he muttered to himself, pulling back the little makeshift curtain Amaya had sewn to hide them from the outside world. Outside the window was another warm, sunny day. There seemed to have been a lot of those since he’d married his Amaya, or perhaps it was just that the rainy days no longer bothered him at all as they simply spent them in one another’s arms.
Rapid barking and his wife’s laughter brought a smile to Magnifico’s face as he peered out of the window, watching as Amaya played tug-of-war with a large, shaggy mound of soft, black fur using an old towel. Without Amaya’s father’s oppressive energy in their lives, Amaya and the dog seemed to blossom. Magnifico marvelled at the way Amaya had come out of her shell in the last few weeks, she had never been more beautiful to him.
“Perrito! Perrito, calm down, you’re getting too excited!” Amaya giggled, receiving a few loud barks from the large dog in return. Even now, months after first being introduced to Amaya’s dog, Magnifico still chuckled at her sense of humour when naming the huge canine. It had certainly thrown him at first, he had been expecting to meet a tiny thing and found himself facing the oversized protective hound that was now tugging his wife around the grass.
The dog, for his part, seemed to share Amaya’s feelings towards Magnifico. He’d been told to expect an antisocial, hostile beast, but instead, Perrito warmed to him immediately. Now, the three of them were a little family, and Magnifico had never felt more settled.
His ice-blue gaze drank in the sight of his wife, the way the sun danced in the strands of her hair, the way her blue dress hugged her figure perfectly, the sway of her hips as she shifted to try and pull the towel from the dog. He was certain that he couldn’t be more in love with her.
Magnifico watched as Amaya slept soundly beside him, curled into the side of his body, breathing softly. He’d woken from a nightmare, the horrors of his childhood once again haunting his dreams, keeping him from sleep. He had suffered such loss in his life, his entire family wiped out before his eyes, his pleas ignored by the stars as he begged for help. He’d been on his own since, travelling from village to village, depending on the generosity of strangers to get by. And even though many had helped him, taken him in for a few days, and fed him, he was still ultimately alone.
Even after he had learned the magic of the world, after he had grown in confidence. Even when the young women of the village hung on his every word, and attempted to hang from his thick arms or steal his attention for a night or two, he still felt completely alone.
Until he met her.
Amaya had brought a light to his life that he had not felt since before the fateful day he lost everything. She had healed a lot of the pain and sorrow he had carried with him throughout his life, let him break down the walls he had put up to protect himself. Amaya had seen through his charisma, right into his soul, and she had loved him anyway, despite his trauma.
Magnifico had loved her, despite himself. Despite telling himself for years that he didn’t need love, that he didn’t want it, that it would just give him someone else to lose, he had fallen for Amaya almost the minute she had locked eyes with him in the middle of a bookshop.
He’d sensed the same kind of brokenness in her almost instantly. The sadness held in her beautiful eyes had made him want to wrap her in his arms and never let the world look at her again. She too had suffered loss, he could tell, and he wanted to heal her pain.
She had been shy at first, so shy that she had almost refused to join him for a drink, and so utterly convinced that she was unworthy to be seen with a ‘man like him’ that he had made it his sole purpose to show her that she was the only one who was worthy to be at his side. She had never asked him for a single thing, never been impressed by his magic. She wanted to know the man, not the magician, and that made her stand out to him more than the moon stood out in the night sky.
While every other woman, no - while every other person he met wanted to talk about their wishes, Amaya refused to tell him hers for months and, in fact, they had been married a few weeks before he’d been able to crack open that vault.
“Tell me your wish..” he’d pleaded as they sat under the stars beside a dying fire. His arms were wrapped around her because his wife was always sensitive to the cold.
”You are my wish, mi amor..” Amaya smiled. He rolled his eyes.
“Mi Estrellita, you had a wish before I was in your life. What was it?” he asked, resting his chin on her shoulder as he tightened his hold around her.
”It’s stupid but... I spent my life travelling from place to place. I.. always just wished that.. one day, I’d have a place to call home. Somewhere fixed, you know?”
”That’s not stupid” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.
“I’m going to find a way to grant your wish..” Magnifico said softly to his sleeping wife, brushing his fingers through her hair. Magnifico had his own wish, of course. He had always wanted to build a place where he could protect people, where he could keep their wishes safe and protected, where he could make sure that he would never lose anything important to him ever again. It had been his dream since he was a small boy running from fire and destruction.
Until now, he’d had nothing to lose, no family, nothing to care about. He’d had no real reason to make his dream a reality. But now he had Amaya, and there was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep his wife safe and protected.
As he pulled Amaya closer to him, pressing his lips to her forehead, Magnifico decided that it was finally time to create the sanctuary he had always dreamed of.