The Old Fairy

by Oxnate

Disclaimer. The original story of Sleeping Beauty (La belle au bois dormant) is by Charles Perrault and was written circa 1697. The name Briar Rose (Brier-Rose) was included in the Grimm version of the tale by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Maleficent is a word that means "doing evil or harm; harmfully malicious."

Summary: Princess Briar Rose has never left the safety of the castle. The wicked fairy who cursed her is in the dungeon. The Princess wants answers, or maybe an adventure. Possibly both.

A/N: More than anything, this story started as a commentary on the different versions of the Sleeping Beauty story.

Chapter 1.

"Ah, Briar Rose. So nice to make your acquaintance. You look just as I remember you," the female creature in the cell said. She did not stand from her bench but did put her hand to her breast and gave an adequate sitting bow. "You'll forgive me for not standing up. The guards took my staff, though not before breaking it in front of me and smashing my crystal ball."

"You know me?" Briar Rose asked. She had, to her knowledge, never met the woman before. She had come down here for answers. Answers as to why the old fairy would curse a babe she had never met. Said fairy was much less impressive looking than she had expected. 'Tall and regal' was the description her mother had used. Gangly and... well, 'regal' still fit. There was a certain pride in the way she held herself even when defeated. However, without her famed horned-headdress, she didn't appear that intimidating. Spindly wisps of gray hair did little to cover her head. And Rose wasn't sure if it was the torchlight reflecting off the stone walls of the cell, but her skin had a rather greenish pallor. Or perhaps it was her robes which were such a deep violet that they were almost black that made her look different. Rose put her torch in a nearby wall sconce. There was no light in the dungeon otherwise.

"I saw you in my crystal ball before you were even born. Why else would I warn your father that you would prick your finger on that spindle and die?" the fairy said.

"You cursed me to prick my finger!" Rose accused.

"I beg your pardon! Is that what they are saying? Is that why I am chained in iron? I did no such thing. My crystal ball showed me you pricking your finger and dying and I passed on the information. That is all. I should have known better than to give royalty bad news," she huffed. "Blaming the messenger is an old trick of weak, human rulers."

Briar Rose opened her mouth to protest, but stopped herself, thinking. Too many times, those with poor tidings had been punished by her father. Even when there was naught that the messenger could have done to affect the outcome.

The old fairy quirked an eyebrow at the princess's lack of retort. "If that is why I'm here, then I would politely ask to be freed. You are still alive. I have done nothing wrong. Except perhaps I should have gazed longer into my ball while I had it. Perhaps if I had, I might have seen the outcome of all of this. Then again, perhaps this is the only thread that would have saved your life. I suppose I'll never know now." She paused for a minute. In the silence, I realization struck her. "Have you come down here alone? I'm surprised they allowed you near me without a company of soldiers if I am so dangerous."

Rose felt a bit of confidence come back as she smirked. "As if they could stop me. I knew every secret passageway and every disused hallway in this castle by the time I was five years old." It wasn't like she was ever allowed outside, after all. This castle was- had been her very existence. But now the outside world had very rudely intruded on that existence. And Princess Briar Rose wished to know more about this world outside.

The fairy returned a serene smile. "How very... adventurous of you, Princess. Now about my freedom?"

"Not so fast. There is still the issue of the dragon," Briar Rose said.

The fairy cocked her head to the side. "Dragon? What dragon?" she asked, genuinely perplexed.

"The dragon you turned into of course, to keep my prince from me while I slept," Rose answered, somewhat taken aback by the fairy's answers. She had expected evil, maniacal laughter. Perhaps even taunting. Instead there was none of that. In fact, nearly everything the fairy said and did was different than she'd been told. And all of it smacked of truthfulness.

"Let me guess, was it also a fire-breathing dragon? Were there any scorch marks anywhere? And how, pray tell, did your good prince and true defeat me as a dragon, return me to this shape, and bring me here?"

"I- I don't know," Rose admitted. "No, wait! I remember. He threw his sword into your hear...t." She trailed off at the end realizing that if that were true, then the fairy would be dead, not in a dank dungeon. She wasn't willing to think that the Prince had lied... yet. Perhaps there was another explanation? Rose felt doubt creeping into her mind. She was not stupid and didn't feel that she was naïve. She'd had the best tutors in the land, growing up. But fairly comparing the fairy's tale against the princes', wasn't helping the prince any.

"If he says so," the fairy shrugged. "I don't suppose there were any witnesses outside of soldiers loyal to this prince?"

"There were no witnesses at all. Everyone was asleep," Rose informed her, immediately understanding how weak her arguments sounded as soon as they left her mouth.

The fairy was a bit surprised by that. "There were no guards on patrol that night?"

"It was not nighttime. It was in the middle of the day. Everyone in the castle was put to sleep by the good fairies after you led me to prick my finger," Briar Rose explained.

"I apologize, Princess."

Ah-ha! I have her now! The princess thought.

"You seem to have been misinformed about what fairy magic can and cannot do. We have no power over free will. How ever you found that spindle, my magic had nothing to do with it."

"So you do have magic then. Why do you not free yourself?" Rose wondered aloud.

The fairy woman raised her robes to show her legs bound together by chains and thence to the wall. The legs themselves looked rather knobby and thin, like she hadn't eaten well as of late. Between her shackles and the skin of her legs, many rags had been stuffed. "Another weakness of fairy magic." She touched the metal with a single finger. Immediately, it started to smoke. She pulled it away and blew on it a bit until the smell of scorched flesh reached Rose where she stood at the door to the cell. "Fairies are vulnerable to iron. Our magic has no effect on it. I am powerless to open these chains or the lock on that door." She paused. "Do you wish to know how your charming prince truly captured me? It is, unfortunately, a far less heroic tale than the one you were certainly told. He lay in wait outside the door to my home and threw a net of iron chains over me. It caused me such great pain that I passed out and woke up here. My feet were already chained and the manacles stuffed with rags. They must have figured out that my feet would have fallen off had they left them on my bare skin."

"Oh, how horrible!" Rose exclaimed.

The fairy woman shrugged. "Let us talk of other things then. Like fairies that put everyone to sleep instead of admitting that they failed to protect you."

"That's- that's not what-"

"Isn't it?" the fairy interrupted. "You fell into a deep sleep. A sleep that looked very much like the death I had predicted. Your fairies had sworn to protect you from that fate. And when they failed, did they go before your parents and inform them of their failure? No?" she put a finger to the corner of her mouth and tapped a couple of times. "No. But then they knew how the king rewards bad news, didn't they?" she waved to her chains. "So they covered it up."

"That's not-"

"They covered it up. I know not what those three may be after, but if they are willing to sacrifice a fellow fairy to get it, I doubt the humans of this kingdom will be pleased for them to get it, either."

There was silence in the dungeon.

The fairy was the first to speak. "And everyone lived happily ever after."

Rose swallowed around the lump in her throat, "Not everyone." She turned away but didn't take a step. "I'll be back."

"I'll be waiting."

The princess took three steps before turning back, she put her face to the bars of the cell.

"That was quick." the fairy woman smiled.

"What's your name?" Rose asked.

"What are they calling me?"

"Maleficent."

The one called Maleficent chuckled. "Hmm. 'That which causes evil.' Luckily, I've always been a fan of irony. Go now child, before you are missed."

"I asked my father about the day I was cursed," Briar Rose began when she returned the next night.

"Did you now? And what did the King say?"

"Nothing. He would not speak of it to me. But my mother told me. She said my father had invited the fairies to bless me at my christening and in return he commissioned seven sets of golden plates and utensils for the fairies to use at the feast and to take with them as gifts once the christening was done. And then an eighth fairy showed up. You. And you were so insulted not to get a set of golden flatware that you refused to eat and cursed me," Rose said.

"That is not how I remember it," the fairy said.

In two rows of four, the fairies arrived for the feast. The king must have misunderstood the invitation he'd sent. For humans, seven may be a lucky number, but not so for fairies. Eight was a much better number to bless a birth. Though there were only seven places set for the fairies, a human was moved and an eighth place easily created. The problem was the metal. The plate they served the eighth fairy's meal on was wooden, like the plates of all the humans but the king and queen. But they also gave her metal utensils. Iron utensils. The fairies had done their research. The humans considered themselves civilized because they ate with tools instead of their hands. Their research didn't tell them how they would take not eating, but between the choices of admitting their weakness to iron, possibly insulting them by not eating, or surely insulting them by eating with her hands; the choice was easy.

It wasn't as though the rest of the fairies were enjoying their food. They received their nourishment from the earth, the rain, and the sun. They mostly picked at their food and made it magically disappear little by little as no one was looking.

Then came the giving of gifts. Beauty and grace were given, as those were much desired by humans. But the last gift... The last gift was to be the most precious. The gift of foresight. The fairy took out her crystal ball upon its staff and gazed into it as the others gave the next gifts.

"Stop!" she cried. And not a moment too soon. There was yet one other fairy yet to bestow a gift. Not the brightest or the strongest. But something at least.

"I too shall bestow a gift on the child. Listen well, all of you. The Princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who know her. But..." she gazed into the crystal ball on the end of her staff, trying to see the future more clearly. "before the sun sets on her 16th birthday, she shall prick her finger, on the spindle of a spinning wheel – and die."

The furor that those word ignited was immense.

"What? How dare you!" the king cried.

The last fairy stepped forward. "Now, now. I have yet to bestow-"

"Arrest her!" the king shouted over the other fairy.

Guards jumped into action at the king's words. As soon as the guards approached, all the fairies stood together in a group and disappeared in a flash of fire and light.

"Find them!" the king ordered. "Search the kingdom! And... burn every spinning wheel you find!"

From a window high on the wall, the fairies watched the excitement. Guards rushed about the castle and hastily put together search parties as the guests were all 'invited' to take their leave early. The fairies waited until the young princess had been put to bed, then put her nurse to sleep as she rocked in front of the fire. The group approached.

The small fairy stepped forward and began her incantation. "Tiny Briar Rose, the future is a tricky thing, like a raven on the wing. Though the king may burn ev'ry spinning wheel, a spindle's prick you still must feel. But you shall not die, so don't you weep; you will instead, perchance to sleep. A handsome prince will find you thus, and rouse you thence with a kiss. Then you'll know, once you wake; there is no fate but what we make."

"No fate but what we make..." Briar Rose repeated the last line of the blessing that had saved her life. Her entire life had been planned for her up until that point. From what time she would wake each day to what time she would sleep and everything in between. And now beyond. Her marriage had been arranged for her and the rest of her life was set before her. All she had to do was not object. To go along like the good little princess she'd been raised as. Except that she'd learned that the story behind her life was a lie. She hadn't been kept from the outside world by a curse, but by a prophesy. The Wicked Fairy she'd been warned about her entire life wasn't so wicked after all. The only question that remained was, 'what was Briar Rose going to do about it?'

"That is what really happened. Where your father found three fairies willing to try to oppose fate like that, I'll never know. Or perhaps the plan all along was to put everyone to sleep, bring in a prince to wake you, then wake everyone else up again and take credit for avoiding that 'curse'," the fairy wondered. She waved her hand dismissively. "No matter, I suppose. Though I do wonder who came up with the idea of the dragon. I don't suppose you found any evidence of that beast? Footprints? Scorch marks? Anything?"

Briar Rose shook her head 'no'. The fairies had said they had cleaned everything up with magic before anyone had woken up. Convenient that, she realized.

"Oh well. Would it shock you to know that none of the fairies cared for the gold as anything other than utensils that didn't burn us?" the fairy chuckled softly. "I know now how much value you humans place on that metal. And all those plates and everything the king gave us are sitting in a pile under a tree. I'm sure your father would be outraged."

Briar Rose herself was slightly shocked herself. Exquisite and princely gifts meant nothing to fairies. What then did they value?

"Would that be a price you would accept?" the fairy asked.

"What?"

"If we made a deal, my freedom in exchange for the gifts the fairies were given at your christening?"

"So, you tell me where to find them, and then I free you?" Rose asked.

"Other way around, Princess. If you free me, I give you my word to lead you to where the golden flatware is hidden."

Rose's breath caught in her throat. It was the opportunity she'd been looking for. "And you will not harm me?"

"I have never sought to harm you, Princess."

Those of you who know what a Mon Calamarian is, are probably already shouting, 'It's a trap!'. Princess Briar Rose, however, had never met a fishy, space-general and was in dire need of a little adventure. Her parents, due to the prophesy/curse had never let her out of the castle in her life. And now she was due to marry a Prince whom she had hardly even met, much less knew. And marrying the Prince was always where the story ended in those fairy tales of old. And so she took from her sleeve, the key she had already come prepared with, and opened the door of the fairy's cell. She then unlocked the chains around her ankles.

"Help me to stand, please." The fairy held out her hand.

Rose helped her to her feet and was surprised at just how tall the old fairy was. Taller than either the king or the prince. She was further surprised when she ended up supporting a good amount of the fairy's weight.

"Forgive me princess. But I fear I will have trouble walking without my staff. Might I use you as my staff and lean on you a bit?"

Briar Rose did not know how far she could go supporting this much weight. She was a princess and not accustomed to carrying heavy loads. But she was determined now to go through with this and get those plates. "Yes, lean on me if you wish."

"So be it."

Briar Rose found herself unable to move. She could see. But she was unable to move her body, to talk, or even breathe. Luckily, it seemed she didn't need to breathe, at least for now. She looked around. It was very strange to do so without moving her head. It was more like her eyes turned around and around in a glass ball. She looked up to see the face of the fairy she had just freed.

"Why thank you, Princess. I think you will make an excellent staff."

Rose found her feet flying forward as the fairy used her as a walking staff. As her feet hit the stone, she wondered at the ease with which she'd been tricked. She vowed it would not happen again. She would never again trust this... Maleficent.

A/N: Note that Maleficent's prophesy in this chapter is word-for-word identical to her 'curse' in the 1959 Sleeping Beauty. ("I too shall bestow a gift...)

(Mini rant) Why would anyone accept a peasant girl as a princess? (which was how she was raised in the Disney movies) She hasn't been taught to how rule, how to deal with nobles, diplomacy, or even the basics of statecraft. Pretty silly, if you ask me.

No Fate but what we make. ;-)