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18 Years Prior
For about 2 days, it almost seemed as if his life had gone back to being more normal, as he wasn't turned back into a man and instead simply sat as a bird next to Mistress on her throne. Then, Maleficent decided it was time that he begin regularly looking in on castle life. In order for him to tell her what he saw, she had to turn him into a man, and from there, she decided that it was time he learn more about how to be a man so that, if he was ever to go into the world as a man, he wouldn't still be acting like a bird.
It was a sunny day, after he landed next to her on the stone near her feet, that she made the decision. She transformed him, and he told her of the castle life, and then she decided it was time he learn some simple things about being human.
He spoke quickly about the king's new laws, and then waited patiently for her to turn him back into his preferred raven self. When she didn't, he cocked his head to the side, confused.
He watched as she examined her nails, until finally he cleared his throat loudly, wondering if somehow she'd forgotten that was still a man.
Maleficent glanced at Diaval, her expression bored. After a moment she asked, "Yes? Something you need?"
"Well, mistress, I was just waiting to become myself again."
"You are yourself, you are not?"
"I mean my raven self, mistress."
"It's a warm, sunny day. Enjoy it as a man, for once. Go explore on foot."
Diaval nodded once, slightly confused, and then he made to walk toward the stream. He stumbled, however, and she raised an eyebrow.
He tried once again, and she wondered at how his movements were strangely raven-like. He almost hopped instead of striding like a man. After a moment, she cleared her own throat.
"A problem?" She asked smoothly.
"I'm just not used to these long legs, mistress," Diaval blushed.
"You'll get used to them," Maleficent shrugged, and then she pretended to turn her attention away from her servant. It surprised him when it didn't take very long at all to get used to them, and he wandered over to the stream's edge. He sat beside it, allowing his hands to touch the water and trace patterns across it's unbroken surface, smiling as a water fairy flew by. The water fairy returned the gesture, before spotting Maleficent and quickly moving along.
Maleficent watched him silently, following him with her eyes as he stood and went over to a tree, sitting beneath its shade. He closed his eyes running his fingers through the grass as if in wonder of what new sensations of touch fingers brought.
That night, Diaval curled up underneath the tree, as he was sure he was to big to sleep in it as a man, and in the morning he waited for mistress to turn him into a bird so he could check on the castle. When she didn't, he continued to explore the valley, attempting to interact with the pixies and creatures who seemed a bit uneasy of him, perhaps because he was Maleficent's right hand man.
By the third day, he grew frustrated with his appearance.
Maleficent never saw him return to the tree that third night, and so she causally went looking for him. She found him crouched next to the stream, staring at his reflection.
Growing closer, she worried that he was growing sad because he missed his wings, and she decided to turn him back into a bird as long as he came back to her throne with her. He'd learned to walk about more normally, and one of the pixies had showed him about using his hands to pick berries to eat; he'd become at least slightly more used to being a man.
Sensing her behind him, Diaval turned with a sigh. Then, he surprised her with his next words.
"Mistress," he asked, "As a bird, I preened myself. What am I supposed to do now?"
Her readied hand dropped to her side, and Maleficent's magic words died on her tongue.
"Are you alright?" Diaval asked, and she nodded quickly.
"Of course," she snapped, "And you bathe yourself, have you never thought of that?"
"In the water?" He sounded shocked by the very idea, and Maleficent refrained from rolling her eyes. Instead, she simply gave a single nod.
"Birds don't go into water! At least not deep water! At least not my type of bird!"
"Right now, you are not a bird, you are a man."
He looked at the water uneasily before sighing.
"Yes mistress," he obediently breathed, though she could sense his nerves steadily building.
Slowly, he turned his back and began to trudge toward the water, jumpy, but with a calm facade.
"I liked preening," he mumbled, when suddenly he glanced at himself to see not a man, but the feathers of a bird. His face lit up, and he flew into the air, cawing happily at Maleficent. She watched his joyous celebration with little to no emotion, but after he started happily preening, she allowed herself a tiny smile.
"Bird brain," she found herself smirking, before she turned and made her way back to her throne.
Diaval's love of the moors grew with each flight he took in the air, and each walk he took around the lake. He found himself joking and having a good time with the little creatures who tossed mud about as they were the only creatures that would interact with him, and he was amazed to find himself making a strange barking noise when he was happy. He learned from mistress that this was called laughter, and that humans did it when they were having a good time. He was still cautious around mistress, however. He didn't laugh in front of her.
More than once he'd seen her anger explode due to an action performed by a moor creature on a bad day, and occasionally she took her anger out after he told her things about castle life.
He sometimes watched her sit on her throne, still as stone, from a nearby tree where the remains of an almost human sized nest still sat, tucked amongst the branches.
He'd watched as three little pixies flew up and begged Mistress to admit about 'what had happened'. They also begged her to lose her tittle as queen. He watched as they asked her to revoke the darkness in the moors and one day, he watched they said something that fairly made his heart stop.
"Maleficent," he'd learned that was Mistress's other name, though he'd never mentioned to her that he knew that, "Please at least tell us one thing!"
"Yes yes! What happened to your wings!"
Her wings?
"That is not your concern!" Mistress suddenly bellowed, and the three little pixies rushed to get in back of each other.
Diaval didn't wait to hear the rest of the conversation, he took to the sky, his mind doing flips.
Wings? She'd had wings?
I need you to be my wings, she'd said. Had she once had wings? What had happened? How could someone lose their wings? He shivered.
How could someone stand to lose their wings? How could someone lose their wings?
The questions made him feel sick, and he landed beside a bed of flowers. How could someone lose their wings?
That night, Maleficent turned him back into a man. He must have spent a moment too long staring at her, for she raised an eye brow and asked, "What is it, Diaval?"
"How could someone lose their wings?"
His question was no more loud than a whisper, not even directed at her but to the night air, yet her face hardened and he took a quick step backward.
"Have I ever asked you how you got your scars?" She demanded, and his face paled.
"No mistress," he shook his head.
"Then why would you ask me how I lost my wings?" Her voice was so full of rage that Diaval raised his hands in front of his face, just as he had that first time he'd met her.
After a moment of silence, Diaval peeked out from behind one arm. Mistress's face was now full of anguish.
"Mistress?" he croaked.
She looked up, her face losing it's emotion, and he barely heard her clear her throat.
"Perhaps someday I will tell you; leave me now."
"Mistress?" He asked again, his face torn.
"Leave me!" She demanded, and in a moment he was again a raven. Sadly, he took to the skies, and he promised that he would not ask her again. Perhaps one day she would tell him on her own.
Diaval flew to the castle that night, and he watched the goings on for a quite a while. There was not much happening, except the occasional changing of the guards.
Once, 'Stefan' took a walk around, surveying the castle, and Diaval wondered why Mistress had been so distraught when he was crowned king. He wondered why Mistress had muttered quietly on that day he'd told her of the king's coronation.
Then, something struck him.
"He did this to me, so he would be king." That's what she'd said. She couldn't have meant...
He shivered, could she have been referring to her wings?
He didn't get home until late that night, but Maleficent was sitting upon her throne and she again turned him human. Diaval spent a long time wandering the moors, not yet tired and with thoughts swirling in his head.
Eventually he returned to his favorite tree to find Maleficent still awake and watching the stars in the sky.
"You know," he said after standing in the shadows for several moments, "I'm here if you need me for anything; anything at all! That isn't limited to being your wings, you know."
Maleficent didn't look at him, but her posture changed in the slightest, and he was sure she'd heard him. With a sigh, he turned to go sit under the tree and try to sleep, but her voice stopped him.
"Diaval, how old are you?" she asked abruptly, and he turned back to face her.
"Old?"
"Yes, what is your age?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know how old you are, how many years you've lived?"
"Well, I've seen two winters now."
"You're two years old?"
"I suppose so."
"You're not two years old."
"Oh, well then I don't know how old I am. How many times does winter happen?"
"Once a year."
"Then I'm two years old."
Maleficent sighed, tapping her finger's on her throne before speaking again.
"In human years, you are not two years old."
"Maybe not, but that's my age, apparently."
Maleficent sighed again, "Obviously, you're two raven years old."
Diaval shrugged.
"I'll not require you right now, go to sleep."
"Yes mistress."
She followed him with her eyes, watching as, eventually, he settled beside the stream, leaning against a tree and peacefully closing his eyes.
Then, greenish brown magic swirled about her fingers before she sent it dancing toward the man-bird. It encircled his head, but disappeared before he had a chance to react or notice.
Nodding to herself, Maleficent gave the smallest of smiles.
"Now you shall age as a man, or perhaps even as a fairy."
Present Time
I hadn't realized at the time about not aging as I had before. In fact had been for several years before I started finding it odd that I wasn't a very old raven. Even then, Maleficent hadn't told me exactly what had happened, but I'd been able to infer an approximation of why I wasn't aging normally. I distantly wondered how long dragons lived and wondered if I'd still age as I had before.
There was a sound out in the hall, and my eyes shot over to the door. My stomach was now growling loudly; perhaps the guards had noticed?
Indeed, one of the guards did peek into the room. I growled, trying to convey my need for food, and I heard the guard ask his friend if they should do something about my condition.
"I don't know," the other guard shrugged. "I'd assume he needs meat."
"Yeah, and we're meat," the first guard shivered, and I sighed. What ignorance; I wasn't really a dragon-monster. I just needed food, real food, not guard food or some such thing.
"He's chained up, what can he do," the second guard said quite causally, "Come on back. We have orders to guard the room, not feed the beast."
I frowned deeply as the door closed and I was again left alone in the room.
AU: Hello again! What do you think? Feedback really helps me know what is good and what I should change. Review please :)