An Old Tale Made New

Rifiuto: Non Miriena

Summary: A princess, trying desperately to escape her destiny... and all it takes is one bite for all they knew to bring their worlds crashing down around them. Post-Class Confusion, AU. Written 2014. Found 2018.- Licia

She sighed; so she'd been able to grow an evil Venus flytrap for class, but this next assignment was harder, and she couldn't just switch or drop the class now; it was too late in the semester. She sat at the table in the castleteria, staring at the juicy red fruit with trepidation. It wasn't that she hated the class; she actually found it quite... interesting, to see what Raven was learning. You know, in a from-the-outside-looking-in kind of way.

"You're concentrating on that apple awfully hard." Her gaze snapped up, to find her roommate standing by the table, book bag slung over her shoulder, guitar case in her hand. Her long black hair was pulled back in a messy braid that hung down her back, and she was nibbling on her lower lip; the purple lipstick she normally wore being worn away, revealing patches of a red lip.

"Just... thinking." She gave her roommate a quick smile; Raven nodded, silent. "So, Raven, about Legacy Day-"

"I'm not signing the book, Apple. I'm sorry, but I want my destiny to be my own. And no one, especially you, is going to take it away from me or make me fall into line." And without another word, she turned and left, heading for the dorm to drop off her guitar case before heading to the library. Once she was gone, Apple turned back to the object of her earlier concentration.

Slowly, she reached out, picking up the fruit she was named after.

Your midterm assignment is to poison an apple with a simple sleeping curse.

It had seemed simple enough. Raven could easily poison an apple with a sleeping curse, but Apple found it a little harder. She had no evil in her; she was a princess, not a witch...

A sigh escaped her throat, and she slipped the fruit into her bag and got up; Baba Yaga had told her she could use the lab to work if she needed to, so she might as well take her up on the offer.


The wind gently tugged at the loose tendrils that clung to her neck and cheeks. She brushed a strand out of her eye, and turned another page in her book. Having finished her thronework, she'd decided that a little downtime would be good for her, so she'd taken a book up to the east turret balcony and curled up with a cup of tea for some alone time.

"Rae?"

She lifted her head at the voice, violet eyes shimmering as she let her gaze settle on Dexter Charming. A tiny smile tugged at her lips, and she sat silent as he joined her. "How'd you find me?"

He chuckled softly. "Best place in the whole school to watch the sunset."

She turned her gaze to the sky. "The sun hasn't set yet, Dex."

He shrugged, leaning over and kissing her sweetly. A month had passed since Raven had declared that she would write her own destiny, and in that time, the school had split down the middle- Rebels, who wanted to follow in Raven's footsteps, and Royals, who wanted to keep to tradition. When Dexter had first asked her out, she'd been stunned, but he'd ignored the protests from, well, everyone, deciding to take a page out of Raven's book, so to speak. It helped that he'd had a crush on her since they were children, and, oddly, everyone had pretty much left him alone in this respect. "What are you reading?"

She held up the book, and he nodded. "It's one of my favorites. My father sent it to me for my birthday last year."

They sat in silence for several minutes, before he finally asked,

"So... Briar's costume party is tomorrow after classes, to celebrate midterms ending, and I was wondering if you wanted to go."

She raised an eyebrow. "Would it really be a good idea if I went?"

"Believe it or not, Briar actually sees why you did what you did last month."

"Oh really?"

He nodded. "We got into a discussion during Good Kingdom Management. She's been leafing through the history of her mom's story- because for one of her classes the midterm assignment is to research the original story and do a comparison of how the tale has changed over the years- and she said when she realized exactly how... horrendible the original story was, well, she's starting to have doubts."

Raven furrowed a brow. "Horrendible? How?"

He cleared his throat. "Well, um... she discovered that in the original Sleeping Beauty, Aurora was... well... at least I think Briar said that the original Sleeping Beauty's name was Aurora, but I could be wrong... anyway, she said that in the original story, the original Sleeping Beauty was raped by her prince while she slept and bore three children."

The young witch covered her mouth in shock. "No!"

Dexter nodded. "You'd be surprised just how gruesome the original fairy tales were before the third generation of Brothers Grimm sanitized them. In the original Cinderella, the stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to fit the slipper, and then their eyes got pecked out by doves. In the real tale of the Little Mermaid, the mermaid is forced to dance on what feels like knives, is told if she kills the prince she'll become human, and then commits suicide by throwing herself into the ocean because she can't kill him. Cerise's story is actually about a child being raped by a stranger- the stranger just happens to be a wolf, in the real Rapunzel-"

She laid a finger over his lips. "I get it, Dex. But... why sanitize the fairy tales? I mean, I get why, but..." She stopped, shaking her head. It was all too much; but she couldn't help herself. "Hey Dex? What... was the original... Snow White's tale like?"


An exhausted sigh escaped her throat, and she set the book down. It had taken two hours, but she finally got it- or, she thought she had. Her back hurt, and she shook her head to clear the bleariness. She wouldn't know if she passed the midterm until the following day when they handed the assignments in. After a moment, she gathered her things and stuffed them into her bag, slipping the apple in last before leaving the lab.

On her way back to the dorm, she stopped, seeing Dexter walking Raven back to the dorm in the opposite direction. Their linked hands and bent heads meant they were deep in conversation, and after a moment, Raven shook her head as he said something she couldn't hear.


"So... I'm confused Dex. There's actually no magic involved in the original Snow White? But the poisoned apple-"

"It's only half poisoned. The queen eats the un-poisoned half, and Snow White eats the poisoned half. But it doesn't kill her. It lodges in her throat, choking her."

"So... let me get this straight. Because she doesn't eat it and therefore doesn't fully ingest the poison, all it does is knock her unconscious?" Dexter thought a moment, before nodding. Raven whistled, shaking her head. "That's... harsh. But... wait, how does she wake up. Does the prince kiss her?"

Dexter snorted. "That's something the Brothers Grimm made up when they sanitized the story. In reality, he takes her out of the coffin, puts her on the back of the horse, and the jostling of the ride causes her to cough up the apple, restoring her consciousness."

"Okay, I stand corrected, that's not harsh, that's messed up."

He laughed softly. "I'd say that I like our versions better, but the originals do have some merit to them."

"So, what? Bring the originals back?"


She watched as Dexter kissed her roommate firmly on the lips before parting with promises to see her the next afternoon. She nodded, watching him leave before pulling her key from her pocket and turning to the door, only to jump. "Oh, hi Apple. Sorry, I didn't see you there. How did your midterm go? Did you get it done?"

"I got it done. Took me two hours, but I got it done. We'll see tomorrow if it worked."

Raven nodded as they entered the dorm, and made her way to her bed. "Well, I hope it worked. So you can, you know, pass the class and then get back to... whatever princesses do." The blonde nodded, lost in her own thoughts.