The Wish Rewrite with the Cat

Chapter 7

Asha

We hurried back to the house.

Darkening gray clouds cloaked the evening sky and the fresh smell of petrichor filled the air.

"Thank God we're at your hovel," Charo exhaled. "I know that smell, and I don't like it," he shuddered.

"What is that smell?" Arden sniffed. "It's delicious."

Valentino wagged his tail and licked his lips. "Is someone cooking? What are they cooking?"

"That smell is petrichor," Charo's snout wrinkled. "Also known as rain."

Valentino's smile dropped. "Oh."

"Asha! Valentino! Arden!"

"Charo? Why are you still here?"

"Do you dislike my company?"

"No, no, it's just—Dahlia told us Asha was bringing you to Queen Amaya."

"Magnifico complicated things."

"And that's not the only thing we went off to do," I reached into my pouch and drew out Saba's wish. "Saba, we got your wish."

Papa: You stole from the king!

Mama: That must have been terrifying.

"I was not afraid, Sakina," Valentino puffed out his chest. "Because, like all goats, I believe the greater the challenge we are willing to face, the greater the life we live."

"Saba, I know you said you didn't want to know a wish that could never be," I knelt before his chair. "But now you can make it be." I held out his wish.

He took it with shaking hands. "It's so simple, so pure."

Mama reached out her hand. "Asha, I know you think you're doing a good thing, but..."

Saba held the orb above his heart. "I should never have given Magnifico my wish."

It floated into his chest with a burst of gold light.

"This...this belongs to me." His eyes lit up. "Where's my lute?"

Arden floated it over to him.

"Thank you, my sweet star," he took it and began to play. "Take it from this antique when your hopes are in despair. If your desires have strings, free them, give them some air. Because any wish that's got your heart on the edge of breaking is a wish worth making."

Mama leaned against Papa, who wrapped his arm around her.

"Yes, everybody dreams of being something someday somewhere.
Even kings and queens dream they were free from their royal chairs. But any dream that's got your heart even when you're not sleeping is a dream worth dreaming."

My hand brushed against Arden's warm one. "Oops," I pulled it back. That was weird.

Arden chuckled.

"Um..." my hand crept back to theirs. "Is that okay?" It felt different.

"Yes."

I wrapped my hand around theirs.

Mama gave me a knowing smile.

What? I shook my head and mouthed, "No!"

But her smile just deepened.
"We all start as wildlings playing in the sun, and we grow up with wild dreams just waiting for our day to come."

Saba watched Charo slink up behind Valentino. "So if hope schemes against time, tell them—Be nice, play fair!" He laughed as Charo pounced on Valentino.