All was perfect.
Apparently.
The kingdom had its rightful queen, the most beautiful girl who had a heart of gold and nothing but kindness and love in her, who was counselled by the guardian of the moors, a once-evil/once good faery.
After so many years, sixteen of them in fact, the world was at peace. The moors stayed in their peaceful and easy ways, while humans rightfully avoided it. The place was calm, and everyone was happy.
Well, almost everyone.
One particular raven was restless in his chest.
No matter what form he took.
No matter where he was.
No matter what he was doing.
No matter what Diaval thought about, he was restless, and had an almost painful ache in his chest. Maleficent had released him from being her servant, but granted him the ability to keep his shapeshifting gift that he'd had in the years of being in her service. Loyalty kept him with her though. He wouldn't know what to do with himself. With his life. He couldn't just be a raven now, and forget to be human, now he knew what it was like to have these emotions. Even if his chest ached with the emotion he felt.
Maleficent would forever be his Mistress, almost a sister, though she'd never admit that.
But Aurora.
Diaval would fly as fast and hard as he could for hours on end without falling to the ground exhausted, to try and escape the feeling inside him. He would swerve and duck and sometimes found practically untouched land in the areas behind the moors. He would be gone for days, but he couldn't escape it. Couldn't shake the feelings for the girl he'd help watch over. She'd grown into the most gorgeous, beautiful, sophisticated, imaginative, loving, caring, kind, and helpful person, living creature, he'd ever met. He would return to the moors or the castle, and there she would be. With her huge smile and shiny-with-glee eyes. In the moors, he'd have mud fights with her, tell jokes, dance next to fires at night with her, would listen to her sing under the moon (god, he loved her singing, and being a raven, he wasn't much a singer himself) and they'd fall asleep next to the crystal ponds with the illuminated faery's and plants around them. Maleficent often just watched as they had their fun, laughing where she wished, and sometimes sneakily magic-throwing mud at Diaval. It was times like those, just the three of them in the moors, that Diaval would feel content, at peace, at home.
But when they would return to the castle for maybe a week, things changed.
Prince Phillip had stayed in the kingdom to help council Aurora side-by-side with Maleficent.
When Diaval had first seen Phillip, he'd thought he'd be the one to break to curse and be Aurora's true love, you know, romantically.
And when he hadn't succeeded in waking the princess, Diaval had been slightly disappointed, but realized later that he'd been just as, if not more so, extremely relieved.
Now he got on Diaval's nerves so much that Diaval did nothing to try and communicate with the boy. And apparently, he was all but invisible to the prince. Phillip would take Aurora by the hand, leading her around, talking lightly and making crap-ass jokes and being all mister smiles. Maleficent would walk on Aurora's other side, and talk of issues and boring stuff to do with the kingdom.
But Diaval would walk right behind Aurora, barely a step. Or more than that, was often a raven on her shoulder, nestled in her neck and sometimes falling asleep against the warmth. He knew it made Prince Phillip uncomfortable, knowing that Diaval was right there. The boy was probably jealous. However much Diaval had once been the wings of Maleficent, he'd devoted his life to Aurora, had kept her alive, had played with her as a crow, led her to small pockets of the woods where there was so much green and wonderful nature that she'd sit and look around her for hours. He'd snuggled her as a crow when she was crying, had made her laugh when she was angry. Then as she's known he was human, he'd done the same, but as a human. The magic in him had prevented him from aging, so he still was the young adult with young feelings. He still felt jealousy when Aurora would give Phillip a kiss on the cheek, even though Diaval got ten to every one Phillip got. It still made him want to peck the boy's eyes out.
It was another day in the castle. Average as always. No mud fights. No faery's (apart from Maleficent). No singing under the moon. They were in a council meeting, with five grumpy old people, excluding Maleficent and Phillip. They were preparing for the up-coming festival which marked the day of the official founding of the kingdom, city, and castle, and also, the first king. The councilors and Aurora sat at the huge table, but Diaval stood right behind her chair, leaning his arm on top the back of the chair. Phillip kept glancing at him nervously, but Diaval ignored him as usual. He couldn't be bothered giving the boy threatening stares today. The council room was a small chamber in the council, with a lot of tapestries and banners of the kingdom's sigil, two wings with a crown hovering above them. Diaval's back was facing one of the tapestries, which he knew held a secret door behind it. Many times in his pure boredom, he'd wandered the castle and found many secret tunnels and doors. It made him smile that his back was right in front of one.
Diaval could see Aurora fidgeting in her seat. She was usually still and patient, but today she could obviously hear and smell the magic of the preparations in the city below the tower they were in. Diaval could too. He tilted his head up and faced it towards one of the huge windows. A rise in the breeze brought the scent of bread and pastries, and other change in the wind brought scented candles, a fall in the breeze made the settling scent of roasted pig-on-a-spit. It made Diaval's mouth water, and his eyelids dropped sleepily. He turned his head slowly to look at Aurora again. She was now rubbing her hands together and her feet were shuffling. Diaval sneered at the sight.
About twenty minutes later, there was the sounds of instruments being tested or buskers in the street. The light of the day came in softly into the council room, making the golden hair of the princess shine and shimmer glamorously. Diaval came up with a plan, which would probably get him beaten to death from his mistress later, but he was bored out of his mind and so was Aurora, although she was pretending to be interested.
Diaval waited another five minutes, for the music to really get going, and looked at Aurora. Her feet were dancing to the beat of one of the fiddles, and she was fidgeting worse than before. Diaval decided it was time.
In the middle of one of the elder's sentences, Diaval suddenly pointed down the room, and yelled,
"Look a troll!"
And they all fell for it. Every single one of the buggers fell for it. In their confused distraction, Diaval grabbed Aurora's hand and went behind the tapestry, opening the door and running through in the space of two seconds. He could hear his Mistress' outraged yells behind him as the secret door shut closed, but right next to him he could hear Aurora's laughter, and that made him smile. They'd come to a small tunnel that led off into one of the castle corridors, and Diaval knew exactly which one it was. He brought up a map in his mind to find the quickest way to the city that wouldn't be an obvious one. They almost crashed into some servants carrying linen.
"Whoa, sorry!" Diaval yelled, as he went passed, not letting go of the princess' hand. At a corner, he stopped and hid behind it. Both of them were panting and laughing at the same time.
"We should go back," Aurora said lightly, in between her breaths, "We'll get in trouble."
"No we won't. Well, I will, but you're the queen. Plus, this is better than that bloody boring meeting." Diaval laughed quietly, as Aurora hit him lightly on the arm and said,
"It wasn't that bad."
Diaval gave her a raised eyebrow with a mocking smile. "Fine, ok, it was a little boring, but necessary."
"They can deal with it. We," he took her hand and spun her in a circle, and she giggled, "We, are going to celebrate." Aurora considered it for a while.
"Well, alright then. But you can't leave me alone. You are now my official knight." She said, smiling and twirling her dress with her hands behind her back.
"Done," Diaval said, and took her spun her once more, "But we'll have to get there fast. Get on." Diaval stood back and turned into his horse form with a shadowy twist. As a horse, he knelt before Aurora, who ran a hand through his feathery mane before swinging herself onto his soft back. He stood with a good-natured toss of his head, before he broke into a loping canter along the corridors. His hooves beat against the rock floor beneath him, servants, knights and guards alike had to jump out of the way of the thundering, large, pitch black horse with the queen atop its back. Aurora laughed the whole time, until they eventually reached stairs that Diaval couldn't go down in horse form without endangering them both. Diaval quickly changed back, and caught Aurora as she suddenly fell from the height she'd been. He put her down gracefully, and they raced down the stairs as fast as they could without tripping in their laughter. They reached the ground floor, where the front hall sat, but Diaval swung around to go out the side way. Maleficent would no doubt be flying above, watching for a raven-black-clothed man with the queen at his heels. Diaval took Aurora through the kitchens, and stopping before the side door.
"We shouldn't be doing this." Aurora said in breathless gasps.
"Well, technically I shouldn't be alive, so let's not think on that too long." Diaval said as he opened the door a crack and peeked out. Surprisingly, he saw no huge eagle-like shadow going across the ground, and no guards had been alerted to their foolish childlike escape. So Diaval opened it more and led Aurora out.
"Get on again. It's the fastest way to the grounds of the festival." Diaval told Aurora next to the outside of the door. She nodded in agreement, and he once again changed. He waited a few moments, with Aurora safely and securely sitting on his back. He waited for the yell to be given, and for Maleficent to come soaring down upon him and turn him into a dog for a week, but it never happened. From there, Diaval didn't hesitate. He raced from the shadows of the castle and raced along the street. He jumped wells and swerved other carts. People jumped out of his way, and children laughed and cheered as he went by. Aurora laughed and went 'wahoo!' loudly, yelling to the sky, and at one point, letting go of his mane and throwing her arms in the air as he raced on a straight. They passed the crafters area, the small market area, the housing area, until they came to the largest show-ground like place in the city.
