"Daddy?" little Trucy said quietly as she stared up at her father. "I can't sleep." Phoenix gave a heavy sigh.
"Again, Trucy?" he asked incredulously.
"Can you tell me a bedtime story again?" she asked. "Last night's was really good." Phoenix chuckled and ruffled her hair.
"But you fell asleep half way through," he reminded her.
"I know," Trucy said, pouting. "Please?" Phoenix sighed.
"All right," he answered before bringing her back to her bed and tucking her in. "Now what story did you want to hear today?"
"Sleeping Beauty," Trucy answered promptly. Phoenix grinned, already coming up with good ideas for this one.
"All right," he agreed. "Let's see…"
Once upon a time, a lovely little princess was born. Her name was Mia, and her parents, the king and queen hosted this big party to celebrate her arrival into the world. They invited fairies from all across the land. Now little Mia was a charming little princess, and all the fairies were stricken with her. Three fairies in particular took a special liking to her. The first fairy, Marvin Grossberg, gifted her with beauty and youth. "Ah…" he sighed as he cast this spell on her. "The days of my youth… like the scent of fresh lemon, you see."
The next fairy was a brilliant fairy named Lana Skye. Seeing the young Princess Mia's eagerness towards the fairies, Lana gifted her with intelligence; little Mia would grow to be so intelligent that she would best anyone in any debate she ever had. "She is strong," Lana observed. "She will do anything to become a strong, righteous ruler."
The last fairy was the youngest of all the fairies. Her name was Pearl Fey, and just as she came to Mia to deliver her gift, something happened.
There was one fairy the king and queen did not invite to the celebration: Dahlia Hawthorne, a beautiful, yet evil, evil fairy.
"HOLD IT!" Trucy yelled. Phoenix sighed heavily.
"What is it, Trucy?" he asked.
"Wasn't Dahlia the evil stepsister in Cinderella?" she asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.
"Well she's the evil fairy here too," Phoenix said hastily.
"Daddy, is Dahlia a real person?" Trucy asked.
"Yes she is, Trucy," Phoenix answered, smirking a little.
"You must not like her very much if you keep making her evil in all these stories…" Trucy observed.
So as I was saying, Dahlia Hawthorne was the only fairy not invited to Princess Mia's celebration. Dahlia was furious, but she didn't show it. "Your Majesty," she said politely to the king. "I'm so sorry, but I wasn't aware there was a celebration today." She smiled in that angelic way, and little butterflies came to her side.
"Um…" the king stuttered. "I… uh… the invitation… must have gotten lost in the mail… or something…" But Dahlia didn't buy it. She turned her head, and her innocent eyes turned soulless and demonic, and the butterflies around her spontaneously combusted.
"No," she growled at him. "You didn't invite me, did you, you old fool?" She tilted her head to the side and smiled, and butterflies flew to her side once again. She flew over to baby Mia and smiled down at her. "Now, what shall I give the baby?" Everyone was terrified; everyone knew Dahlia had anger management issues, and that she would never show when she was truly angry. "Oh," she said finally. "I know what I'll give you." Her eyes turned soulless and demonic again, the butterflies once again spontaneously combusted. "Mia Fey… on your sixteenth birthday, you will prick your finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die." And then Dahlia gave everyone that same angelic smile from before. "Thank you so much for having me here, Your Majesty," she said.
"Um…" the king stuttered. "I… you… you're…"
"I will take my leave for now," Dahlia said. "Farewell." And then she disappeared… in a whirl of white butterflies. The king and queen were devastated. Little Princess Mia stared up confusedly at Marvin, Lana and Pearl. Now it was little Pearl's turn to give a gift to Princess Mia.
"Ok," Pearl said. "I'm going to fix the gift that mean fairy gave you. On your sixteenth birthday, you will prick your finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, but you won't die. You'll just fall asleep until one day, your special someone kisses you and wakes you up."
"Wait, I thought it was true love's kiss that woke up Sleeping Beauty," Trucy mused, rubbing her chin contemplatively.
"True love, special someone," Phoenix said dismissively. "Same thing."
The king and queen took special precautions to make sure Dahlia's gift to Mia would never happen. The king ordered that all spinning wheels be burned, and Marvin, Lana and Pearl took little baby Mia away and raised her as their own. Sure enough, Mia grew up to be a strong, beautiful, intelligent woman, just as Marvin and Lana had hoped. Mia's sixteenth birthday was approaching, and Marvin, Lana and Pearl were planning a big surprise for her: they would tell her to go pick berries in the forest while they prepared a cake and a dress for her. Then they would take her over to the castle to meet her parents for the first time in sixteen years.
While she was out picking berries, Mia ran into someone. It was the prince from a neighboring country, Diego Armando. Mia and Diego were absolutely smitten with each other. "Kitten," Diego said when they first locked eyes. "What's your name?"
"Mia," Mia answered confidently. "Mia Fey."
"Mia Fey, is it?" Diego asked. "Well why don't we take a little stroll through the woods?" So they walked together and talked with each other. At the end of it all, when Mia went back to her little cottage to meet Marvin, Lana and Pearl… let's just say that she and Prince Diego had become each other's special someones.
When Mia arrived, Marvin, Lana and Pearl surprised her with a cake and a beautiful dress which she would wear when she went to meet her parents. They traveled to the castle, but by then, Dahlia had taken her own precautions to ensure that Mia would die. She put everyone in the castle in a deep sleep so that only Mia was awake. Then, she lured Mia over to the tallest tower in the castle, where a single spinning wheel lay. "Mia Fey…" she whispered in her ear. "Touch it… You know you want to… Touch the spinning wheel, Mia Fey…" Against her better judgment, Mia touched the spinning wheel and pricked her finger. Then she collapsed, and Dahlia appeared before her, cackling madly.
Marvin, Lana and Pearl arrived shortly after Dahlia disappeared. "My hemorrhoids!" Marvin cried.
"This can't be…" Lana gasped.
"PRINCESS MIA!" Pearl wailed.
"Wait," Lana, the voice of reason protested. "Pearl, do you remember the gift you gave her upon her birth?" Pearl sniffled.
"Yeah," she said. "I said—"
"That when she pricked her finger, she wouldn't die, but simply fall asleep," Lana reminded her. Pearl gasped.
"You mean…" she whispered.
"Mia is still alive," Lana asserted. "I'm sure of it. All we have to do is find the person that can wake her up."
"But who?" Pearl asked.
"My hemorrhoids!" Marvin yelled.
"I think I know who," Lana said. "I remember seeing her with this young man from the woods. I think she called him… Diego?"
"You don't mean Prince Diego Armando, do you?" Marvin asked. Pearl gasped and put her hands on her cheeks in an angelic sort of way.
"So this Diego is Mia's… special someone?" she asked.
"I'm sure of it," Lana asserted. "All we have to do is find him."
"But he could be anywhere!" Pearl protested. "It'll take forever!"
"MY HEMORRHOIDS!" Marvin yelled again.
"Marvin, talking about your hemorrhoids will not solve anything," Lana reminded him. Marvin gave a heavy sigh.
"So where will we find Prince Diego?" he asked.
"We'll start as his castle," Lana said. "We'll figure out where to go when and if we don't find him there." So they flew to Diego's castle, and, on the way, they found him there. They quite literally flew into him. "You're Prince Diego Armando."
"Yes," Diego agreed. "And you are?"
"Ah-HHHEM!" Marvin cleared his throat loudly. "I am Marvin, and these are Lana and Pearl. We are the guardians of Princess Mia Fey."
"Princess Mia…" Diego mused. "So I was right then… about her identity."
"You have to come with us immediately," Lana told him. "Something's happened to Princess Mia."
"You're her special someone!" Pearl yelled. "You have to help her!"
"What happened to her?" Diego asked.
"Sixteen years ago, the wicked fairy Dahlia Hawthorne cursed her so that she would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel on her sixteenth birthday and die," Lana told him.
"But little Pearl here changed it so that Princess Mia would simply fall asleep when she pricked her finger," Marvin added.
"Until one day, when her special someone would kiss her, and then she'd wake up," Pearl concluded. "You're Princess Mia's special someone! You have to help her!" So Prince Diego Armando downed two mugs of coffee and rode on his horse to Mia's castle. Just outside the castle, he was stopped by a beautiful girl with red hair, a white parasol, and butterflies constantly flitting to her side: Dahlia Hawthorne.
"Hello," she greeted pleasantly. "My apologies, Your Highness, but the residents of this castle are quite… sleepy at the moment."
"That's her!" Pearl yelled, pointing her finger wildly at Dahlia. "That's Dahlia Hawthorne! That's the one that cursed Princess Mia!" Dahlia turned away, and her eyes turned soulless and demonic. The butterflies around her spontaneously combusted. Diego drew his sword just as she transformed into this white ghost-apparition thing with long flowing red… snakes… for hair! Yeah that's it, she had snakes for hair! So Diego beheaded all of the snakes and finally beheaded Dahlia herself. And then he ran up to the top of the tallest tower in the castle, where he found Mia asleep. Then he leaned in and kissed her. She woke up almost immediately.
"Kitten, just what will you do without me?" he asked as she sat up. Mia rested her head on his shoulder and squeezed his hand.
"I was handling it quite well, on the contrary," she refuted.
"Just keep telling yourself that, kitten," Diego replied. It turns out that when Diego kissed Mia, he not only woke her up, but everyone else in the castle. The king and queen were thrilled to find their daughter safe and alive, and Princess Mia Fey married Prince Diego Armando soon afterwards.
"The end," Phoenix concluded. This time, Trucy didn't fall asleep during the story.
"Daddy, are all these people real?" Trucy asked.
"What do you mean, Trucy?" Phoenix replied.
"You know," Trucy mumbled. "Princess Mia, Prince Diego, the fairies Marvin, Lana and Pearl, the evil fairy Dahlia." Phoenix chuckled and ruffled her hair.
"Yes, these are all real people," he told her, "but Mia's not a princess, Diego's not a prince, and Marvin, Lana, Pearl and Dahlia are definitely not fairies."
"Can I meet them someday?" Trucy asked.
"You can definitely meet Pearl," Phoenix assured her. "Marvin and Lana will be a bit more difficult, but I'm sure you'll be able to meet them soon enough. As for Mia… well when you meet Pearl, you can meet Mia too, and as for Dahlia, there's no way in hell you're meeting her."
"Why?" Trucy asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.
"You know how she's always the villain in these bedtime stories?" Phoenix asked. "That's why. She's… well let's just say she's not a very nice person." Trucy shut her eyes.
"Ok," she said. "Good night, Daddy." Phoenix leaned down to kiss Trucy gently on the forehead.
"Good night, Trucy."
XX
MY HEMORRHOIDS! … I'm sorry. I had to. Don't you just love Marvin Grossberg? And I'm pretty sure Mia and Lana had a thing going on in college. Intellectual attraction, my ass… Next up: Hansel and Gretel. PLEASE REVIEW!