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apachefirecatTitle: Wings
Fandom: Sleeping Beauty
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Aurora, Samson, Maleficent, Fairy Godmothers
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: Death has a way of changing even the fairest of them all.
Word Count: 3,346
Written For: FandomGiftBasket
Warnings: There are some graphic scenes, and Phillip/Aurora is definitely NOT mentioned in a good light. The graphic scenes are not with them, however, and hopefully aren't too much for the requester.
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She held the horse's long, handsome face gently in her hands. Her forehead pressed against his. He was the only one who she felt any pang of guilt over putting to sleep, but she could not put the rest of the land to slumber without it affecting him as well. Perhaps she could have ridden out of him here, but then how far would she have to ride to escape the curse she herself had settled over this wretched place?
She had been such a fool! she thought, anger flushing her cheeks, to ever think she could have a happily ever after ending. These people did not love her. The animals did. Perhaps she should have sought a way to only affect the humans, but the animals wouldn't mind sleeping. They were innocent, childlike souls. Actually, she'd encountered a few children who were far more wicked than any animal she'd ever known. She'd missing dancing with the owl, the rabbits, and the squirrels. Oh, she should have just let them continue pretending to be her Prince rather than ever agreeing to marry that beast!
Samson, she would miss most of all. He had always been so faithful, at first to Phillip but then, as they had gotten to know each other better and Phillip had changed before their very startled eyes, to her. He had become her best friend, her most loyal confidante when she was no longer allowed to go into the forest. She didn't know what Phillip had been thinking. She was a woman of her word. She would never have abandoned him or her royal duties, just as she could not know reverse the curse. It was not too late, she knew, but she had given her word, and besides, she owed her godmothers this much.
Those three Fairies were the only beings in this land, besides the animals, who had ever been genuinely kind to her. Her father had been disappointed at first by the curse Maleficent had cast upon her not because he would not see her raised but rather because she would never produce the union he had always wanted; he had chosen Prince Phillip as her husband, or rather whoever the first son born to King Hurbert would be, no matter his looks, name, personality, or anything else. Nothing else had mattered to her father where she was concerned other than being able to wed her to his best friend's son and uniting their kingdoms once and for all. Phillip had loved the idea, which was the true reason why he had never hesitated in setting out to rescue her when he had learned of her plight. He'd been willing to fight dragons, Fairies, evil Sorceresses, and anything else not to win her hand or save her but rather to earn the fame and fortune that had all become his when both their fathers had retired.
Was that why he had been so worried that she would flee from him? Aurora wondered. She knew their courtship had never been about love. She had realized that very shortly after returning to her home castle, but she had been willing to accept it. She had been freed. She had been able, for the first time in her life, to walk freely among the humans and around the village where she had been born. At that time, she had still been naïve. She never could have guessed at what horrors humans could do, at how they would stop at nothing to make fortunes for themselves.
Copper really was their god, but she never could have guessed at how wretched the humans would become when war struck out and it became hard to get those little pieces of copper on which so many thrived. She had, at one time, considered writing to Snow White and asking if perhaps her Dwarven friends knew of any Dwarves who mined copper as they did gold. Perhaps they could arrange some kind of settlement, but that had also been about the time that her husband had really began to watch her movements. She had been slipping back into the forest routinely only to visit her friends, who had reached the point of refusing to come near the village, but she hadn't understood why.
Over time, she had learned the horrors of what the humans were doing to her animal friends. They had always been known to eat them, but now the hunters had began to kill anything that even remotely, to them, resembled meat. They were even shooting arrows to kill when they did not have need of the meat. There was some kind of trophy contests being established, where just the fancy pelt of an animal or a nice rack of antlers from a deer could earn a hunter bravado, fame, and even that precious copper they loved so much.
It had only gotten worse from there. Hunters had began to follow her into the forest, knowing she would lead them to the animals who hid so well the rest of the time. That had been when she had began to truly hide the fact that she was slipping away to make her visits, and even that, in the end, had done no good. Phillip had been convinced that was fleeing from him instead of simply trying to shake the hunters. He had reminded her that she owed him, and she had stood before him with her chin set straight but high and her eyes fiery with indignation. She might not know much about the way of man, but she knew when she owed a debt.
"Little Aurora."
The voice caught her off guard. It was smooth and cold and slid along her skin with the same touch as a serpent, not that even serpents were the beasts mankind tried so hard to make them. She knew who it was instantaneously without moving. Samson's eyes shot wide, and he whinnied despairingly.
"You will not be harmed," she vowed to him, once more kissing his beautiful, white nose. "I promise you. You will only sleep for a thousand years like they intended to make me."
Perhaps a thousand years of slumbering peacefully would do some good. Perhaps, in that time, she could find a way to restore the copper currency to the kingdom. Perhaps then they would not be so horrendously blood-thirsty. But right now, she had another, more pressing concern. She laid her best friend's head gently down onto the grass and turned to face the one who had spoken, the one whose voice she had not heard in a long time but who she would never be able to forget. If that wretched Fairy had not first cursed her, perhaps none of this would have happened. But then, she could hardly blame the Fairy for what humans had chosen to do.
With her head held high and her back straight, Aurora, Queen of the land, as dismal and horrible as it was, surrounding her, turned to face the towering Fairy who had spoken. She still surmised that at least one of Maleficent's forbearers had had to be Demon. After all, from whence else would her horns have come? She certainly looked nothing like her beloved Fairy godmothers!
She felt the familiar twinge of pain in her heart as she thought of those kindly, old ladies, and they had been ladies, no matter what else the villagers have thought of or called them. Other than the animals, they had been the kindest, gentlest souls she had ever known. They had been the only kind and gentle souls she had known except for the animals. They had tried so hard to keep her away from this evil Fairy; yet, now, here the two of them stood, the only conscious beings in the land. She knew Samson was fast asleep for she had seen his eyes slide closed despite his struggle against surrendering his consciousness before she had turned. "Maleficent."
She should not be surprised that the Fairy was still fully awake, even though the raven on her shoulder clearly dozed, his head tucked beneath his black wing. She wondered if she should ask her how she had survived her spell. There was no one else awake in the whole land other than the two of them. There was no one left to judge her for surely Maleficent's judgement meant absolutely nothing. "How are you -- ?"
"Still awake?" The Fairy, the tallest being Aurora had ever seen, threw her horned head back and laughed. Her cackle carried out over the land, echoing back to them, a sure sign the curse was in full effect. "My dear child, do you honestly think a spell I created could stop me?"
"I have often wanted to ask you something," Aurora countered, refusing to be intimidated by the being she had once feared the most.
"Ask," the Fairy responded coolly. She waved her long, sharp fingernails over the glistening orb that topped her wand. "I might answer."
Aurora lifted her chin even higher, determined to meet her enemy's eyes. "Why?" she questioned. "Why would you curse a baby because you were not invited to a party?"
"Because," Maleficent answered without hesitation, "it was far more than that. That was simply the final wing that broke the raven's back, you might say." She glanced at Diablo, who somehow managed to keep his perch on her shoulder even in his slumber. "You might ask your do-gooder godmothers about that. How are you Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather these days?"
"You know how they are." Her voice sounded suddenly cold and hollow even as she announced the words. "Dead." She would never forget the sight, and even now, facing down her deadliest enemy, tears threatened to overtake Aurora. Phillip had been so angered when he had caught her still sneaking into the forest that he had sent his guards to her Fairy Godmothers' cottage. He had intended by bring her back to force, she was quite certain, but she had not been there. She had been out frolicking with the animals.
The guards had left her beloved godmothers untouched, but the villagers who had followed them did not. They had waited and watched, and when they had known the Fairies had put up their wands, as they had so often done when venturing into the village to visit her, they had struck. They had not intended to kill them, of that Aurora was certain for when she had attacked them with Phillip's sword, they had cried, stammered, whimpered, and begged for their lives, and every one of them had confessed that they had not meant to kill her godmothers. They had only wanted their wings so that they could sell them to the highest bidders. They had not, they had vowed, trying to earn her forgiveness, even touched their wands. But by that time, not touching their wands had been meaningless for a Fairy without her wings could not survive.
Aurora had gone back to check on her godmothers' wands after dispatching of their killers and requesting her animal friends hide their bodies. The wands had been gone, and so, too, had her godmothers' bodies. But she had known they had all been cold and stiff, their poor backs bloody and mutilated from the damage done in ripping off their wings, when she had found them and had her squirrel friends follow the scents of their killers. Perhaps the hunters had truly not intended to kill her godmothers, but they had done so, all in the name of trophy hunting and more copper pieces. Fairies could not survive without their wings. Yet the one before her had. "How did you survive," she asked softly, finding her voice again, "without your wings?"
"It was not easy," Maleficent replied in the softest tone Aurora had ever heard her speak, "but I was helped. I was healed and managed to survive. That is only one of countless things these humans have done. Your godmothers were by far not the first innocent beings they harmed. They are quite annoying, you know."
"Were," Aurora murmured.
"Are."
Aurora's eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean?"
"You have done well, Aurora. I never thought you would learn. For that matter, I never thought your godmothers would learn." She struck the cold, hard ground once with her staff, then moved to the side.
"Oh, Aurora!" All three of her godmothers were shaking their heads in dismay and disapproval at her, but they were alive!
Relief flooded Aurora, then guilt and a hundred other emotions. She wanted to race to them and gather them all in her arms, but she did not yet dare. She cast accusing eyes onto Maleficent. "Is this a trap? Were you behind all of this?"
"N-No," Fauna spoke, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. Flora turned sharply on her, but Fauna, for once, stood her ground. "She deserves to know, Flora!"
"O-Our P-Princess isn't just a baby Princess anymore," Merriweather stammered. Her dark eyes were huge as she looked around them at all the sleeping humans and animals.
"I-I would've saved the animals if I had known how." She cast wary eyes back at Maleficent. "You saved them?"
"Of course I had to save the bumbling fools, you poor, childish ignoramus."
Aurora was pretty certain she was being insulted, but she could stand it no longer. She raced to her godmothers and threw her arms around them all three at once. "I don't believe you're alive!" she exclaimed, weeping whole-heartedly. "It's a miracle!"
"And this," Maleficent tisked from where she still towered over them all, "is a rather poor example of my curse."
Aurora jutted her chin out. "Hey," she exclaimed whilst still hugging her godmothers, "it worked!" She looked forlornly at Samson. "I do wish I could have found a way to exclude the animals from its casting, though."
"You poor, simple fool." Maleficent stalked toward the horse. Aurora started to spring between them, but her godmothers held her still.
"She's on our side," Flora admitted though she could not keep from scowling as she said those fateful words.
"She'll help," Merriweather added while Fauna looked on with her hands clasped together.
"She did save us, you know."
"I know," Aurora whispered breathlessly, still in awe from the fact that the three beings who meant the most to her in all the world, the three whose cold, lifeless bodies she had wept over for hours before gathering her courage and going after those who had destroyed them by stealing their wings, were indeed still alive. She wondered why she had not found any trace of a single heartbeat between the three of them and visibly jumped when Maleficent called the answer back over her regal, black-clad shoulder.
"Fairies, when they endure a certain amount of pain, go into a coma so intense that no human would ever be able to pick up our heartbeats. It is a natural defense of ours, not unlike a porcupine's quills."
It's very different, Aurora thought but dared not voice. For some reason, perhaps because she had saved her godmothers, perhaps because she no longer seemed quite as evil as she always had before, perhaps because she might be able to save Samson and the other animals from the sleep spell she herself had cast over them, or perhaps it was all of these things and more, Aurora no longer felt like arguing with the domineering, evil Fae. Could she even really call her evil any more? Aurora thought, biting her bottom lip. She herself had cast the very same curse that she had always considered Maleficent evil for threatening her with.
She jumped again when Diablo suddenly lifted his ebony head and glared at her from a single, unblinking, and golden eye. She forced herself to again find her voice. Samson had always been such a loyal friend, always fighting to protect his humans no matter the foe. Unlike Phillip, he had had no intention of marrying her for their kingdoms or of ruling her life. He had always been a dear, sweet friend and as loyal a confidante as any animal friend she had ever had. Animals never repeated anything you told them; even the ones who could speak still chose not to share their friends' secrets around other beings. "Can you help me?"
"Of course."
Maleficent twirled her wand staff in the air, muttering words Aurora could not hear. Fauna's and Merriweather's small, plump hands in hers and Flora gently patting her long, pink skirt kept her from rushing to intervene, and sure enough, moments later, Samson's eyes opened. Aurora exclaimed her delight and rushed back to her faithful steed, who had already jumped to his feet, was whinnying, and starting to rear back. She threw herself between Samson and Maleficent quickly, her hands held up into the air to guide him to pay attention to her rather than the one they had always believed to be their enemy. "It's okay, boy. It's okay. She's... actually a friend now evidently."
Her friend stilled and let her guide him back to the earth, his rein in her hands. She cupped his face her hands once he was again standing on all fours and pressed another kiss to his forehead. She couldn't -- or perhaps, wouldn't -- tell him in front of Maleficent, but she felt like their lives were actually only just beginning. Oh, how she had hated being human when she had learned what the human hunters were doing to the animals and Fae kind!
"And the others?" she asked, turning around. Samson rested his head on his Queen's shoulder and gazed from a long face at the (formerly?) evil Fairy.
"The animals are already waking. The humans -- "
"Can stay asleep," Aurora snapped.
Maleficent smiled, and for the first time, Aurora did not feel that wide, sly smile. "Agreed. You have finally learned, Princess."
"I have. I only wish -- "
"What? Honestly, child, we have danced around each other for years. There's nothing you cannot tell me. Nothing," she added with a quirked, jet black eyebrow, "that I highly doubt I do not already know."
"I only wish I was not human," Aurora spat in disgust.
Behind Maleficent, she saw her three fairy godmothers look at one another. They had often wished the same thing but had never dared voice it. Aurora could not help belonging to the species to which she had been born. "Done as well," Maleficent said, laying a hand on the Queen's shoulder. Her long, black fingernails grazed the satin over Aurora's left scapula.
The Fairy godmothers looked at each other again. Merriweather's mouth was still hanging wide open when Flora and Fauna stared to charge the Fairy who was now touching their goddaughter's right scapula with her wand. "Rise," she ordered.
Aurora's eyes shot wide. She tilted her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead a scream ripped from her as wings began to rip out of her shoulder blades. Samson whinnied sharply and darted away. He was too concerned with what was happening to his mistress to consider charging the Fairy who was doing whatever was happening. He whickered, shocked, as he saw pink wings beginning to protrude from Aurora's shoulder blades.
Maleficent smiled. She would never tell a soul how pleased she was her new spell was working, how long she had labored over it, or how cruel and disastrous the consequences of her spell not succeeding would have been if it had failed. Of course that did not matter for it had not failed. Aurora's wings were growing swiftly, spreading large and powerful and lifting her from the ground.
She turned, as the transformation continued, and faced the Princess' godmothers who had been beginning to a stage rebellion, they had thought, behind her back. "You're next," she said with a smile before turning back to survey the work being done on the Princess who was finally, after all these many years, ready to be a true Queen.
The End
Fandom: Sleeping Beauty
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Aurora, Samson, Maleficent, Fairy Godmothers
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: Death has a way of changing even the fairest of them all.
Word Count: 3,346
Written For: FandomGiftBasket
Warnings: There are some graphic scenes, and Phillip/Aurora is definitely NOT mentioned in a good light. The graphic scenes are not with them, however, and hopefully aren't too much for the requester.
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She held the horse's long, handsome face gently in her hands. Her forehead pressed against his. He was the only one who she felt any pang of guilt over putting to sleep, but she could not put the rest of the land to slumber without it affecting him as well. Perhaps she could have ridden out of him here, but then how far would she have to ride to escape the curse she herself had settled over this wretched place?
She had been such a fool! she thought, anger flushing her cheeks, to ever think she could have a happily ever after ending. These people did not love her. The animals did. Perhaps she should have sought a way to only affect the humans, but the animals wouldn't mind sleeping. They were innocent, childlike souls. Actually, she'd encountered a few children who were far more wicked than any animal she'd ever known. She'd missing dancing with the owl, the rabbits, and the squirrels. Oh, she should have just let them continue pretending to be her Prince rather than ever agreeing to marry that beast!
Samson, she would miss most of all. He had always been so faithful, at first to Phillip but then, as they had gotten to know each other better and Phillip had changed before their very startled eyes, to her. He had become her best friend, her most loyal confidante when she was no longer allowed to go into the forest. She didn't know what Phillip had been thinking. She was a woman of her word. She would never have abandoned him or her royal duties, just as she could not know reverse the curse. It was not too late, she knew, but she had given her word, and besides, she owed her godmothers this much.
Those three Fairies were the only beings in this land, besides the animals, who had ever been genuinely kind to her. Her father had been disappointed at first by the curse Maleficent had cast upon her not because he would not see her raised but rather because she would never produce the union he had always wanted; he had chosen Prince Phillip as her husband, or rather whoever the first son born to King Hurbert would be, no matter his looks, name, personality, or anything else. Nothing else had mattered to her father where she was concerned other than being able to wed her to his best friend's son and uniting their kingdoms once and for all. Phillip had loved the idea, which was the true reason why he had never hesitated in setting out to rescue her when he had learned of her plight. He'd been willing to fight dragons, Fairies, evil Sorceresses, and anything else not to win her hand or save her but rather to earn the fame and fortune that had all become his when both their fathers had retired.
Was that why he had been so worried that she would flee from him? Aurora wondered. She knew their courtship had never been about love. She had realized that very shortly after returning to her home castle, but she had been willing to accept it. She had been freed. She had been able, for the first time in her life, to walk freely among the humans and around the village where she had been born. At that time, she had still been naïve. She never could have guessed at what horrors humans could do, at how they would stop at nothing to make fortunes for themselves.
Copper really was their god, but she never could have guessed at how wretched the humans would become when war struck out and it became hard to get those little pieces of copper on which so many thrived. She had, at one time, considered writing to Snow White and asking if perhaps her Dwarven friends knew of any Dwarves who mined copper as they did gold. Perhaps they could arrange some kind of settlement, but that had also been about the time that her husband had really began to watch her movements. She had been slipping back into the forest routinely only to visit her friends, who had reached the point of refusing to come near the village, but she hadn't understood why.
Over time, she had learned the horrors of what the humans were doing to her animal friends. They had always been known to eat them, but now the hunters had began to kill anything that even remotely, to them, resembled meat. They were even shooting arrows to kill when they did not have need of the meat. There was some kind of trophy contests being established, where just the fancy pelt of an animal or a nice rack of antlers from a deer could earn a hunter bravado, fame, and even that precious copper they loved so much.
It had only gotten worse from there. Hunters had began to follow her into the forest, knowing she would lead them to the animals who hid so well the rest of the time. That had been when she had began to truly hide the fact that she was slipping away to make her visits, and even that, in the end, had done no good. Phillip had been convinced that was fleeing from him instead of simply trying to shake the hunters. He had reminded her that she owed him, and she had stood before him with her chin set straight but high and her eyes fiery with indignation. She might not know much about the way of man, but she knew when she owed a debt.
"Little Aurora."
The voice caught her off guard. It was smooth and cold and slid along her skin with the same touch as a serpent, not that even serpents were the beasts mankind tried so hard to make them. She knew who it was instantaneously without moving. Samson's eyes shot wide, and he whinnied despairingly.
"You will not be harmed," she vowed to him, once more kissing his beautiful, white nose. "I promise you. You will only sleep for a thousand years like they intended to make me."
Perhaps a thousand years of slumbering peacefully would do some good. Perhaps, in that time, she could find a way to restore the copper currency to the kingdom. Perhaps then they would not be so horrendously blood-thirsty. But right now, she had another, more pressing concern. She laid her best friend's head gently down onto the grass and turned to face the one who had spoken, the one whose voice she had not heard in a long time but who she would never be able to forget. If that wretched Fairy had not first cursed her, perhaps none of this would have happened. But then, she could hardly blame the Fairy for what humans had chosen to do.
With her head held high and her back straight, Aurora, Queen of the land, as dismal and horrible as it was, surrounding her, turned to face the towering Fairy who had spoken. She still surmised that at least one of Maleficent's forbearers had had to be Demon. After all, from whence else would her horns have come? She certainly looked nothing like her beloved Fairy godmothers!
She felt the familiar twinge of pain in her heart as she thought of those kindly, old ladies, and they had been ladies, no matter what else the villagers have thought of or called them. Other than the animals, they had been the kindest, gentlest souls she had ever known. They had been the only kind and gentle souls she had known except for the animals. They had tried so hard to keep her away from this evil Fairy; yet, now, here the two of them stood, the only conscious beings in the land. She knew Samson was fast asleep for she had seen his eyes slide closed despite his struggle against surrendering his consciousness before she had turned. "Maleficent."
She should not be surprised that the Fairy was still fully awake, even though the raven on her shoulder clearly dozed, his head tucked beneath his black wing. She wondered if she should ask her how she had survived her spell. There was no one else awake in the whole land other than the two of them. There was no one left to judge her for surely Maleficent's judgement meant absolutely nothing. "How are you -- ?"
"Still awake?" The Fairy, the tallest being Aurora had ever seen, threw her horned head back and laughed. Her cackle carried out over the land, echoing back to them, a sure sign the curse was in full effect. "My dear child, do you honestly think a spell I created could stop me?"
"I have often wanted to ask you something," Aurora countered, refusing to be intimidated by the being she had once feared the most.
"Ask," the Fairy responded coolly. She waved her long, sharp fingernails over the glistening orb that topped her wand. "I might answer."
Aurora lifted her chin even higher, determined to meet her enemy's eyes. "Why?" she questioned. "Why would you curse a baby because you were not invited to a party?"
"Because," Maleficent answered without hesitation, "it was far more than that. That was simply the final wing that broke the raven's back, you might say." She glanced at Diablo, who somehow managed to keep his perch on her shoulder even in his slumber. "You might ask your do-gooder godmothers about that. How are you Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather these days?"
"You know how they are." Her voice sounded suddenly cold and hollow even as she announced the words. "Dead." She would never forget the sight, and even now, facing down her deadliest enemy, tears threatened to overtake Aurora. Phillip had been so angered when he had caught her still sneaking into the forest that he had sent his guards to her Fairy Godmothers' cottage. He had intended by bring her back to force, she was quite certain, but she had not been there. She had been out frolicking with the animals.
The guards had left her beloved godmothers untouched, but the villagers who had followed them did not. They had waited and watched, and when they had known the Fairies had put up their wands, as they had so often done when venturing into the village to visit her, they had struck. They had not intended to kill them, of that Aurora was certain for when she had attacked them with Phillip's sword, they had cried, stammered, whimpered, and begged for their lives, and every one of them had confessed that they had not meant to kill her godmothers. They had only wanted their wings so that they could sell them to the highest bidders. They had not, they had vowed, trying to earn her forgiveness, even touched their wands. But by that time, not touching their wands had been meaningless for a Fairy without her wings could not survive.
Aurora had gone back to check on her godmothers' wands after dispatching of their killers and requesting her animal friends hide their bodies. The wands had been gone, and so, too, had her godmothers' bodies. But she had known they had all been cold and stiff, their poor backs bloody and mutilated from the damage done in ripping off their wings, when she had found them and had her squirrel friends follow the scents of their killers. Perhaps the hunters had truly not intended to kill her godmothers, but they had done so, all in the name of trophy hunting and more copper pieces. Fairies could not survive without their wings. Yet the one before her had. "How did you survive," she asked softly, finding her voice again, "without your wings?"
"It was not easy," Maleficent replied in the softest tone Aurora had ever heard her speak, "but I was helped. I was healed and managed to survive. That is only one of countless things these humans have done. Your godmothers were by far not the first innocent beings they harmed. They are quite annoying, you know."
"Were," Aurora murmured.
"Are."
Aurora's eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean?"
"You have done well, Aurora. I never thought you would learn. For that matter, I never thought your godmothers would learn." She struck the cold, hard ground once with her staff, then moved to the side.
"Oh, Aurora!" All three of her godmothers were shaking their heads in dismay and disapproval at her, but they were alive!
Relief flooded Aurora, then guilt and a hundred other emotions. She wanted to race to them and gather them all in her arms, but she did not yet dare. She cast accusing eyes onto Maleficent. "Is this a trap? Were you behind all of this?"
"N-No," Fauna spoke, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. Flora turned sharply on her, but Fauna, for once, stood her ground. "She deserves to know, Flora!"
"O-Our P-Princess isn't just a baby Princess anymore," Merriweather stammered. Her dark eyes were huge as she looked around them at all the sleeping humans and animals.
"I-I would've saved the animals if I had known how." She cast wary eyes back at Maleficent. "You saved them?"
"Of course I had to save the bumbling fools, you poor, childish ignoramus."
Aurora was pretty certain she was being insulted, but she could stand it no longer. She raced to her godmothers and threw her arms around them all three at once. "I don't believe you're alive!" she exclaimed, weeping whole-heartedly. "It's a miracle!"
"And this," Maleficent tisked from where she still towered over them all, "is a rather poor example of my curse."
Aurora jutted her chin out. "Hey," she exclaimed whilst still hugging her godmothers, "it worked!" She looked forlornly at Samson. "I do wish I could have found a way to exclude the animals from its casting, though."
"You poor, simple fool." Maleficent stalked toward the horse. Aurora started to spring between them, but her godmothers held her still.
"She's on our side," Flora admitted though she could not keep from scowling as she said those fateful words.
"She'll help," Merriweather added while Fauna looked on with her hands clasped together.
"She did save us, you know."
"I know," Aurora whispered breathlessly, still in awe from the fact that the three beings who meant the most to her in all the world, the three whose cold, lifeless bodies she had wept over for hours before gathering her courage and going after those who had destroyed them by stealing their wings, were indeed still alive. She wondered why she had not found any trace of a single heartbeat between the three of them and visibly jumped when Maleficent called the answer back over her regal, black-clad shoulder.
"Fairies, when they endure a certain amount of pain, go into a coma so intense that no human would ever be able to pick up our heartbeats. It is a natural defense of ours, not unlike a porcupine's quills."
It's very different, Aurora thought but dared not voice. For some reason, perhaps because she had saved her godmothers, perhaps because she no longer seemed quite as evil as she always had before, perhaps because she might be able to save Samson and the other animals from the sleep spell she herself had cast over them, or perhaps it was all of these things and more, Aurora no longer felt like arguing with the domineering, evil Fae. Could she even really call her evil any more? Aurora thought, biting her bottom lip. She herself had cast the very same curse that she had always considered Maleficent evil for threatening her with.
She jumped again when Diablo suddenly lifted his ebony head and glared at her from a single, unblinking, and golden eye. She forced herself to again find her voice. Samson had always been such a loyal friend, always fighting to protect his humans no matter the foe. Unlike Phillip, he had had no intention of marrying her for their kingdoms or of ruling her life. He had always been a dear, sweet friend and as loyal a confidante as any animal friend she had ever had. Animals never repeated anything you told them; even the ones who could speak still chose not to share their friends' secrets around other beings. "Can you help me?"
"Of course."
Maleficent twirled her wand staff in the air, muttering words Aurora could not hear. Fauna's and Merriweather's small, plump hands in hers and Flora gently patting her long, pink skirt kept her from rushing to intervene, and sure enough, moments later, Samson's eyes opened. Aurora exclaimed her delight and rushed back to her faithful steed, who had already jumped to his feet, was whinnying, and starting to rear back. She threw herself between Samson and Maleficent quickly, her hands held up into the air to guide him to pay attention to her rather than the one they had always believed to be their enemy. "It's okay, boy. It's okay. She's... actually a friend now evidently."
Her friend stilled and let her guide him back to the earth, his rein in her hands. She cupped his face her hands once he was again standing on all fours and pressed another kiss to his forehead. She couldn't -- or perhaps, wouldn't -- tell him in front of Maleficent, but she felt like their lives were actually only just beginning. Oh, how she had hated being human when she had learned what the human hunters were doing to the animals and Fae kind!
"And the others?" she asked, turning around. Samson rested his head on his Queen's shoulder and gazed from a long face at the (formerly?) evil Fairy.
"The animals are already waking. The humans -- "
"Can stay asleep," Aurora snapped.
Maleficent smiled, and for the first time, Aurora did not feel that wide, sly smile. "Agreed. You have finally learned, Princess."
"I have. I only wish -- "
"What? Honestly, child, we have danced around each other for years. There's nothing you cannot tell me. Nothing," she added with a quirked, jet black eyebrow, "that I highly doubt I do not already know."
"I only wish I was not human," Aurora spat in disgust.
Behind Maleficent, she saw her three fairy godmothers look at one another. They had often wished the same thing but had never dared voice it. Aurora could not help belonging to the species to which she had been born. "Done as well," Maleficent said, laying a hand on the Queen's shoulder. Her long, black fingernails grazed the satin over Aurora's left scapula.
The Fairy godmothers looked at each other again. Merriweather's mouth was still hanging wide open when Flora and Fauna stared to charge the Fairy who was now touching their goddaughter's right scapula with her wand. "Rise," she ordered.
Aurora's eyes shot wide. She tilted her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead a scream ripped from her as wings began to rip out of her shoulder blades. Samson whinnied sharply and darted away. He was too concerned with what was happening to his mistress to consider charging the Fairy who was doing whatever was happening. He whickered, shocked, as he saw pink wings beginning to protrude from Aurora's shoulder blades.
Maleficent smiled. She would never tell a soul how pleased she was her new spell was working, how long she had labored over it, or how cruel and disastrous the consequences of her spell not succeeding would have been if it had failed. Of course that did not matter for it had not failed. Aurora's wings were growing swiftly, spreading large and powerful and lifting her from the ground.
She turned, as the transformation continued, and faced the Princess' godmothers who had been beginning to a stage rebellion, they had thought, behind her back. "You're next," she said with a smile before turning back to survey the work being done on the Princess who was finally, after all these many years, ready to be a true Queen.
The End
