Disclaimer: Maleficent would probably be quite enraged if we just claimed her and Diaval to be ours, and since we have no desire to be turned into mealy worms, we should probably inform you that nothing but the idea for this little story belongs to us and the characters as well as the background story belong to a bunch of Disney guys. Unfortunately.
Demons and Dancing Steps
Diaval shook his head, smiling, when Aurora grabbed his hand and impatiently pulled him through the door. "Really, Diaval, you won't just be standing outside while I'm looking for that book! Now I finally managed to drag Maleficent out of the Moors for once, only to have you pouting in a corner?" She looked up at him with mock exasperation, and Diaval couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't pouting at all.
"I just don't know why you need to get that book at all," he whined dramatically. "No matter what exactly you want to show her –", he nodded to Maleficent, "I can't read it anyway, so why should I need to come in?"
Of course, even while he was saying it, he had long since entered Aurora's private chambers and closed the door behind him. Maleficent was standing a few paces away from him, in the middle of the room so she wouldn't break anything with her wings she had cautiously folded close to her back, and raised an amused eyebrow in his direction. "You know, I did suggest teaching you how to write. It's your own fault you can read neither human nor faerie scripture."
Diaval shrugged. He couldn't care less about being able to write. When he was in human form, he could talk, was that not enough? It sufficed for him.
He watched Maleficent, as she glanced around the room while Aurora was rummaging through a stack of papers to the desk sitting right next to him. The faerie still seemed cautious, but not barely as tense and uncomfortable and suspicious as she had been when they arrived. Diaval was glad that she had finally conceded to giving the human world a second chance, and he could tell from the gleam in Aurora's eyes that she was just as pleased.
His eyes wandered to the general direction of the young queen. Her desk was a mess. There were books and papers scattered all over its surface, and a few pencils and feather quills lying in between. His eyes caught at one of the notes. Well, he assumed they were notes anyway. For all he knew, a mouse could have jumped into a pot of ink and then danced on the piece of paper, with all these randomly shaped lines on it. He eyed the feather quill next to the paper and pursed his lips.
Aurora gave him an amused snort of laughter as she noticed he had stepped behind the desk.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, still grinning. Diaval looked like a child one had put in between an awful lot of toys – he had pulled his eyebrows into a questioning frown, while half smiling, half grimacing his lips. He looked like a shy teacher in his first lecture at university. Like a chaotic academic who somehow missed his point or wasn't able to find this one little sheet with relevant notes anymore.
But he just shook his head and shrugged once more, awkwardly playing with one of the feather quills – letting it glide through his fingers as if searching for the lively warmth – like a tool he didn't know how to use. Nothing. No, he wasn't looking at anything at all. He wasn't trying to read that paper. He knew he wouldn't manage anyway, so why even trying or wondering how anyone could even get the idea of writing things down? To him, it just seemed odd.
"Oh, surely you are..." Aurora sang while rushing over to him with her dress fluttering around her. And as she was finally standing next to him, she hastily reached for the feather quill he was holding like a wooden stick he had just picked up from the ground.
"Now look..." she mumbled and leaning forward, she wrote something on an empty paper. But instead of watching Aurora, Diaval's look wandered over to Maleficent lifting a confused eyebrow in her direction. But she was only smiling at him and quickly turned around as she had to suppress a chuckle.
Diaval rolled his eyes at that, a gesture Maleficent had always been using quite often so he had just copied it at some point. Yet he couldn't comment on her behaviour since a hand suddenly was playfully pinching his ribs as Aurora demanded his attention again.
"You can eye my godmother later," she scolded him, shoving something in his face. He leaned back a little and took it from her hand. It was the empty piece of parchment from before, only it wasn't empty anymore because Aurora had scribbled something on its surface. Diaval squinted at it. Dancing steps for mice, clearly. He wasn't even sure if he looked at it correctly, for all he knew he was holding the paper upside down.
He looked at Aurora. It seemed the queen was waiting for him to say something, and he questioningly raised his eyebrows. "And... now what is that?"
"That is your name!" Aurora exclaimed, beaming. Diaval looked back at the paper. His name. His name could be danced by a mouse, he hadn't known that. He hadn't known it was possible to dance a name, but here they were.
Slightly disappointed from his lack of enthusiasm, Aurora opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted as Maleficent carefully strode over to them, drawing her wings even closer to herself than before, and snatched the paper from his hands.
"Yes, that is your name," she confirmed, making Aurora giggle and Diaval roll his eyes once more, exasperated. "But the little Beastie has a way too curly handwriting. No wonder you won't recognise it. Here..." She grabbed the quill Aurora had used and started drawing lines on the parchment as well, beneath the ones Aurora had made. Diaval watched her fingers move with grace, causing the quill to trail a dark, glistening line of ink behind its tip. It looked nice actually.
When she was done, Maleficent handed him the paper back, smiling. Diaval had the feeling she was proud of her newly learned skills of human scripture as he looked down at the parchment.
"This... looks completely different from the first one," he said slowly, trying to find similarities. Neither looked like his name, and they tried to tell him that both were his name?!
The longer he looked at the paper, the more he got the feeling that they were actually trying to fool him. And they did it quite clever. They made him feel uncomfortable and chew at his lips in an insecure kind of way and they both knew well how much he hated it to feel so awkward.
"No... You – You two are teasing me again... I won't play that part any longer..." he eventually said and his voice had a slight complaining sound to it. Aurora couldn't help but laugh a short sunshine laugh and Diaval could clearly see that even the corners of Maleficent's mouth twitched up. Now he had no doubts anymore, they were indeed making a fool of him.
"Oh, come on!" Aurora grinned as she managed to even her breathing again. "It's not all too difficult really!"
"What?" Diaval could hardly ask as she was already pointing at him with that feather she used as a writing instrument. Why did those even have to be feathers? Even if there was a point in writing he just could not see, then why would humans be so cruel and bother birds with their writing fetish on top of all? Birds didn't care much about texts – he should know. And for him it somehow made the whole tradition of writing things down even more dislikeable.
"There!" Aurora suddenly urged, pulling his head back out of the waves of his thoughts.
"What is it?" She was still pointing the feather at him, her eyes gleaming with impatient expectation.
"Yes, I know. It's a feather. And this is a stupid concept, really. I mean, birds don't care how much you need or want to write down. You shouldn't bother them and use their feathers as a writing tool! What would you say if a bird pulled out your hair to build a nest out of it...? That would be pretty much the same..."
Aurora's expression had darkened with every sentence that all but stumbled out of his mouth. So he had muffled his voice with every word until his complaint was nothing but a barely audible mumbling anymore.
"You take that feather quill now!" And as Diaval didn't move, she just took his hand and placed the feather between his fingers. "There..."
"And now?"
"Sit!" She pushed him down at her chair. Yes, my fair Queen. Whatever you wish, whatever you desire. He looked at the feather in his hand and an unpleasant shudder ran down his spine. Oh yes. Birds were all but forced into that writing tradition and only that thought made him probably hold still as Aurora took his arm, raised it to dip the tip of the feather in a little glass of ink and then let his hand carefully dance over the paper.
It was certainly one of the weirdest things he had ever experienced. Well, if he excluded being changed into a man after he had been a bird his whole life, but that somehow didn't count in this case, no matter how weird an experience it was. After all, this here was weird enough, too.
The feather felt cold and dead between his fingers, not like a feather should feel at all. (Was it possible to make a quill from one of Maleficent's feathers she occasionally lost? He'd like to see how she would like that.) His hand was moving without him doing anything but holding the quill, and the movements themselves felt jerky and unfamiliar.
When Aurora finally let go, the first thing he did was drop the quill before he looked at the paper. There was a splotch of ink next to where the quill was lying, and it was slowly soaking through the parchment, probably staining the desk underneath. But more fascinating was the line Aurora had just made him draw.
It looked completely different from both what Aurora and Maleficent had scribbled above. It didn't look like his name. It didn't even look like tiny dancing steps. In fact, it didn't look like anything at all, but Aurora and Maleficent were both peering over his shoulder and giving approving nods, and he couldn't help but feel humiliated. They clearly were making fun of him for not knowing a useless thing like human scripture. Not that faerie scripture was any better.
Diaval was shaken from his thoughts when Aurora suddenly placed the disgusting quill back into his hands. "Now you go!"
He furrowed his brow as he took in her expectant expression which was quite similar to the one Maleficent wore. Honestly, they were starting to frighten him a bit with their creepy attitude.
When he didn't move, Maleficent sighed. "Diaval. She showed you how to move your hands, and you have now three examples of how your name is written. Try it out!"
Three examples? He had two instructions on mouse dances and one crooked line that could possibly conjure a demon, and with that he was supposed to write his name. Sure thing. No problem at all. He reluctantly took the quill and stared at the paper. He could do this. Just follow the examples. Or maybe he should just try to draw a dancing mouse.
His back did a good job of shielding the paper effectively from Aurora and Maleficent's curious glances. When he was done, he squinted his eyes. Well. It didn't look like any of the other three lines, but he supposed that didn't say much. Actually, it was a good sign. And he thought that maybe it looked even a little bit like it could be his name.
Diaval turned around, holding the parchment out in front of him, and raised his eyebrows.
The giggling fit Aurora had after seeing his attempt was a clear sign that he had messed up. Slightly offended, he decided to turn to Maleficent.
The faerie's expression was serious. A somehow disturbing kind of serious, but Diaval was used to that, and in any case it was better than if she were laughing. He looked at her with hopeful eyes. Maybe Aurora just had a random giggling fit and he had actually succeeded?
"Well, it definitely is not your name," she said, shrugging casually as she extinguished his little spark of hope. "But it does look very... pretty. Unique, at least." Diaval narrowed his eyes as he saw the corners of her mouth twitch. "So maybe it's just your own scripture? You can use it for secret messages, nobody will be able to read it..." Her full lips split into a grin, and Diaval scowled at her.
"Secret messages to myself, you mean? Since I'm the only one..." He trailed off and pressed his lips together, annoyed. They weren't listening anyway. He chose not to mention that he wasn't even able to read "his" scripture himself as Maleficent broke into laughter herself, alongside Aurora who seemed to have tears in her eyes. Diaval shook his head. And here they said queens and regal faeries always sported a dignified behaviour.