A Birthday Story
For Ruby
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The wise grandmother stood beneath the ancient tree at the heart of the community, her diminutive frame somehow filling the entire clearing. As she raised her arms, fingers extended like branches, she seemed to channel the very energy of the tree behind her. The people gathered round—radiant beings all, stout of heart with souls that glowed from within.
"The crisis we've long foreseen approaches," she spoke, her voice carrying the weight of ages. "But we are prepared. We have hidden our wisdom in magnificent gemstones of every colour, shape, and size—hidden in plain sight. They've taken the form of flowers and fruits, trees and rocks, even dwelling within the animals themselves."
She gazed at each face in turn. "Rest now, my people. When you wake, the first devastation will have passed, and your time to rebuild will begin. You'll know intuitively where to find the treasures—these energetic stones that appear as nature itself. Walk with open hearts, open minds, open eyes. Explore, share, and care."
Time passed like a dream. The community stirred—children, elders, parents, teens—all waking to realise a new dawn had arrived.
Among them, one particularly radiant young woman, known to all as the Princess, fairly burst with determination. She wasn't merely alive—she lived every moment, experiencing what true love and true life meant. Hers was an energy you couldn't take from, only share with. To be near her was to participate in an endless circulation of giving and receiving that left everyone richer.
As the tribe prepared for their journey, the Princess caught the eye of the Healer, an older man who had walked alongside her path for nearly three years now. He saw her differently than others did—saw into her potential, into her soul. What she didn't know was the profound effect she had on him.
When he witnessed her radiance, he felt the earth fill him from its very core with healing energy. Her light didn't drain her; instead, it sparked something in him that opened channels to the wisdom of earth and sea, trees and sand. She was the catalyst that enabled him to offer others the gift of healing themselves.
They walked side by side through days of gold and shadow, accompanied by the most unlikely of guardians—a massive scarred hound whose fearsome appearance belied the gentlest soul. Others would step back when they saw his powerful frame and battle-worn hide, but the Princess saw through to his true nature. In her presence, the beast transformed from warrior to playful pup, carrying in his collar a stone of clearest aquamarine that sparkled like ocean spray in sunlight.
"He just needed someone to see who he really is," the Princess would say, feeding him honeyed treats from her pouch. The Healer watched in wonder as she turned what others feared into what all could love—this was her ruby essence at work.
Three moons into their journey, they discovered an enchanted chariot in a clearing, sleek and silver like moonlight made solid. It had no horses but moved by the driver's own spirit and joy. The Princess laughed with pure delight as she took the reins, her hair streaming behind her like copper flames. The Healer rode beside her as they soared through forest paths impossible to navigate on foot, the great hound running alongside with his tongue lolling in happiness.
"Feel the wind!" she called out, and in that moment, the Healer understood that freedom itself was a form of magic—her magic—that turned any journey into celebration.
One morning, the Princess spoke excitedly of an adventure she'd shared with her brother—a soul she loved with the fierce loyalty of shared blood and shared dreams. "You should see him ride the wild steeds," she told the Healer, her eyes bright with pride. "He taught me to dance with danger, to find freedom in the wild places."
She spoke of her brother without explaining, without defending, without context—just pure love for who he was, whatever his path had been. The Healer recognised this as perhaps her greatest gift: the ability to see past the armour people wore, past their circumstances and struggles, straight through to the light within.
"My sister Ivy has that same wild heart," she added, "just waiting to bloom." And in her voice was the sound of unconditional love, the kind that sees a soul's potential regardless of its present form.
During their travels, they encountered a Wisdom Keeper—a woman who helped others navigate the labyrinth of rules and laws that governed the land. The Princess's eyes lit with recognition and warmth.
"She reminds me of someone," the Princess said softly, watching the woman work her magic with words, helping two quarrelling merchants see the truth of their situation from both sides. The Wisdom Keeper moved like a dancer between rigid laws and human hearts, making the unbending bend, helping the stuck become unstuck.
The Healer saw how the Princess watched—with deep appreciation for this dance of words and wisdom, this ability to play within boundaries while somehow transcending them. Later, the Princess would demonstrate her own gift with words, not learned from scrolls or formal teaching, but arising from her ability to speak directly to hearts, to translate what souls were trying to say when their mouths couldn't find the words.
What struck the Healer most was how the Princess loved. She spoke of her family—scattered like seeds on different winds—with the same warm appreciation. A mother here, a father there, each walking their separate paths, yet all held in the same embracing circle of her love.
"Don't you find it difficult?" he asked once, carefully. "The distances, the differences?"
She looked at him with genuine puzzlement. "Why would I judge the paths they've had to walk? I see who they are, not where they've been or what brought them there."
This was her magic: she saw the struggling seedling in the criminal, the frightened child in the angry man, the desperate hope in the bitter woman. She saw souls as they truly were—all of them growing toward light in their own ways, at their own pace, through their own seasons.
Throughout their travels, they discovered that the hidden gemstones often appeared in the most unexpected places—inside the purple heart of a sunset fruit, beneath the crystallised honey of an ancient hive, within the tender meat of sea creatures that offered themselves as gifts.
Each meal became a treasure hunt, but also a celebration of connection. The Princess would prepare food with the same love she brought to everything—seeing not just ingredients but gifts from the earth, opportunities to nourish not just body but spirit. When she cooked for her loved ones, the Healer noticed, she wove her care into every dish, her joy into every flavour.
"The secret ingredient," she once told him with a grin, "is always love. Everything else is just seasoning."
In the quiet evenings, when the adventures paused and the world grew still, the Healer would sometimes offer his gift of touch—not to take but to give, to return some of the energy she so freely shared. His hands, trained in the ancient ways, would find the knots where the day's adventures had settled in her shoulders, the places where even her boundless energy needed tending.
"You carry so much light," he would say quietly, working warmth into tired muscles. "Sometimes even the sun needs to rest."
In these moments, something profound passed between them—not romantic love but something rarer: the recognition of souls who could give without taking, share without possessing. Through his touch, he planted seeds of awareness about her own healing gifts, how her very presence was a balm to the world's wounds.
Their greatest adventures happened in the stillness, when they would sit beneath constellation-painted skies and talk. The great hound would curl between them, his aquamarine stone glowing softly in the darkness.
The Princess would speak of her visions—how the world could be if everyone remembered how to see with heart-eyes instead of judge-eyes. She'd share stories of her family with such tender appreciation that even their struggles sounded like triumphs, their failures like necessary steps toward becoming.
"You know what I see?" she said one night, pointing at the stars. "Every one of those lights is someone's heart trying to shine despite the darkness. And look how beautiful they all are together, each one in its own place, its own brightness."
The Healer understood then that her gift wasn't just seeing—it was helping others remember how to see too. Through her eyes, the world wasn't broken; it was becoming. People weren't failing; they were finding their way. And love wasn't something you rationed or restricted—it was something that multiplied the more freely you gave it.
On one particularly radiant morning—a special day marking another revolution around the sun for the Princess—the Healer finally found words for what he'd long known but never spoken.
"Happy birthday, Princess," he said, his voice warm with three years of shared adventures. "I want you to know—not to take from you, but to offer back to you—the gift of seeing yourself as I see you. Your radiance doesn't diminish when shared; it multiplies. You are ruby in essence: clear in your joy, warm in your heart, deep in your soul, and precious beyond measure."
He paused, choosing his words like a jeweler selecting stones. "What we create together—this restoration of wonder to a weary world—it happens because you are magnificently, powerfully, naturally yourself. Nothing more is needed. Nothing less would do."
The Princess turned to him, and in that moment, her radiance seemed to deepen, taking on new facets like a gem turned to catch the light. The morning sun caught her hair, turning it to copper and gold, and the Healer saw what he'd always seen: that some beings carry their own light, create their own magic, simply by being exactly who they are.
"Twenty-one years," he said softly, almost to himself. "Twenty-one years of a soul learning to shine. And what a light it's become."
The great hound stirred beside them, his aquamarine collar catching the sun, and somewhere in the distance, the world continued its slow transformation from grey to glowing—one moment, one connection, one shared adventure at a time.
And the Princess smiled that smile that turned ordinary moments into treasures, because she understood: the real gems had never been hidden at all. They walked among us, radiant and warm, sharing their light with anyone who had eyes to see.
Ruby in essence. Ruby in truth.
A birthday story for someone who makes every day an adventure.
Happy 21st Birthday, Ruby
With deep appreciation for the light you bring to this world