"Are we going back to the Moors now?"

"If that is what you wish."

Creeping through the dark corridors of King Stefan's castle like a thief in the night, the walls seeming to close around her at every turn, Aurora was unable to think of a time she had wished more vehemently for anything. She could take comfort, at least, in the powerful fairy's presence at her side (Maleficent, she reminded herself, the name still a fresh revelation in her mind), and Diaval too, the raven uncharacteristically quiet for once as the trio made their escape.

She experienced some lingering effects of the Sleeping Curse yet, truth be told; her head felt alternately stuffed with cotton and full of water that sloshed in a most disorienting manner with every step, and her finger still ached where she had pricked it on the spindle. Not that she would mention any of this. She might even have denied feeling any ill effects at all if asked, so grief-stricken had Maleficent looked when Aurora first awakened. Aurora had decided then and there that she would do anything to see Maleficent smile again (or that half-smirking upturn of her mouth that passed for a smile on the best of days, at any rate).

The first step to making that happen was to get far, far away from this horrid place she once thought, for a few misguided hours, could be her new home.

The passageway opened into a cavernous hall, though the air she breathed was no less oppressive, thick as it was with smoke from an unseen source as though a great fire burned someplace nearby. Pale moonlight shining through a wide, arched window cast slanted shadows across a floor coated in dust and grime from years of neglect. Aurora fought the urge to reach out and clutch at Maleficent's cloak, and instead concentrated on not making even the smallest sound as she followed after her.

Aurora felt it before she heard it - a frightful prickling at the back of her neck preceding the sound of a latch being released, an echoing click of metal on metal - and reacted on pure instinct in the split second it took to glance up.

"Look out!" she screamed, leaping forward with arms outstretched.

She managed to knock Maleficent out of the way just as a giant net of cast-iron rings plummeted from the ceiling. It struck Aurora right on the head and made her collapse instantly beneath its weight.

The trap meant for a dark fairy had instead ensnared a princess.

Aurora lay stunned and winded for several moments, too shocked to register the painful bruises on her body or the awful ruckus happening all around her. As her senses returned, she became dimly aware of anguished cries of her name, frantic caws and circling wingbeats.

"Aurora!" Maleficent's face appeared before her, contorted in fear. She bent over Aurora's prone form and tried to pull away the netting, only to jerk back with a sharp hiss when the iron chain-links burned a furious red at her touch.

Though Aurora did not feel any heat, her heart clenched and pounded with panic as the room filled with a clamor of heavy footsteps, the rattle of plate armor and shields and weapons heralding the arrival of soldiers by the dozens. "Go!" she begged Maleficent. The King would not harm his own daughter, but certain death awaited evil fairies who dared defy the throne. "You can't stay here! Please!"

But Maleficent would not go. She spun around, raising both arms, calling forth magic that crackled like green fire. It burst forth from her fingertips and knocked a volley of crossbow bolts from the air. Aurora struggled to rise.

"Into a dragon!" snapped Maleficent's voice. Somewhere in the rafters, the cawing noises transformed into earth-shaking roars.

Diaval landed next to Aurora with a mighty thud, lowered his dragon's snout and snatched up the iron net that pinned her to the floor. He flung it aside before unleashing a torrent of flames at the nearest group of armed men with an enraged bellow. Maleficent fought like a wild creature, eyes glinting in the fiery light as she cast spell after spell from her staff at the soldiers that encircled them, but for each one she knocked down, two more sprung forward to fill the gap.

Protected on both sides by dragon and fairy, Aurora scrambled to her feet at last. "Climb on his back," Maleficent ordered. "Now!" This Aurora did without hesitation, pulling herself hand over foot and settling in the crook of Diaval's neck between great leathery wings.

"Stop, you fiends! You'll not get away with her!" came a deep, angry shout.

The wall of shields parted for one man, heavily armored from head to toe, wielding an iron flail in one hand and a sword in the other. With a fearsome battlecry, he dropped a plated shoulder and charged at Maleficent.

In response, Maleficent slammed the end of her staff into the stone floor. A blinding flash of green light erupted from its crystal at the same time as an enormous shockwave that rocked the hall. Glass shattered, soldiers flew through the air, and King Stefan was thrown against a wall with such force that his weapons clattered from his grip. Aurora buried her face into Diaval's scaly neck, clinging on for dear life as he took flight, lifting higher with each flap of his massive wings.

Maleficent jumped onto a clawed forefoot and turned to face the incapacitated crowd.

"Hear me well, all of you!" she declared, her voice magically projected to the farthest reaches of the castle. "You are outmatched by powers you cannot begin to comprehend. If you value your pathetic lives, you will not pursue your precious princess - not now, not ever!"

Diaval swept the room with a final plume of fire as if to punctuate his mistress' point, then turned and shot out the broken window into the night sky.

They were going home.