Ch 10. Red Roof
Aurora was far too excited to sleep. She had been itching to find the goat farm. All night she had tossed and turned trying to sleep, and eventually, in the wee hours of the night, she had finally fallen asleep only to wake up a few hours later.
"Come on let's go!" She said peering into the stables as Philip came out chuckling while leading two strong mares by the bit. They were all tacked up and anxious to go, pawing at the ground, snuffling their noses, and nickering.
"We will be there soon enough!" He laughed, helping her onto her excited horse's saddle before mounting his own. On the roof Maleficent watched with a sort of subtle amusement, while scanning the skies.
"It will rain today." She said, seeing gray clouds in the distance, just above the Moor.
"A little rain could never stop us!" Aurora said, urging her mare into a quick canter. Philip shook his handsome head and followed after her slowly in a springy trot as Maleficent took flight. Finding a red roofed well would be much easier from the skies.
Once outside of the city walls, they passed through the small village that was only a mile out. Aurora had stopped to ask villagers about a woman named Calista and a red roofed well but came up with nothing.
The slow pace of the horses was rather irritating for Maleficent who could cover ten times their distance in half the time.
"I will fly ahead." She said before swiftly launching herself into the sky as the horses bucked slightly in surprise. Aurora looked to Philip with a mischievous smile.
"First one to that tree wins?" She suggested, increasing pressure on her horses reins. Philip smirked at her.
"What will the winner get?" He asked tightening his own reins. The mares were rearing, sensing a race.
"I would want… a kiss!" She said, suddenly urging her horse into a flat out gallop, leaving a laughing Philip in her dust.
"Well, either way I win." He chuckled, following after her in a slow canter.
Maleficent circled the farms one after another another. None of them yielded a red roofed well. She was about to turn back and find Aurora when a small abandoned house caught her eye.
In the overgrown lawn an old well sat leaning to one side and from this height she couldn't see its color well. She flew down till she landed softly next to it. The grass and weeds were ankle deep, the gate to the lawn was old and in disrepair and the windows of the house were cracked and broken in some places. It was a sad scene. She walked to the well and touched the chipping wooden shingles of its roof. The faded paint on her fingers was a dull pink color that had once been red. A smirk lit up her sharp features as she once again took flight, this time, to find a queen.
Aurora had obviously won, and received her kiss. Philip had graciously lost, not too sore about it. They had traveled a few more miles before Maleficent landed in front of them.
"Take the next left in the road. I've found your red roof." She said pointing towards what seemed to be only an empty field.
"Have I ever told you how brilliant you are?" Aurora asked before sending her a million watt smile.
"Not nearly enough." Her god-mother said, following after her.
It only took another fifteen minutes to reach the old house, and upon seeing it the queen frowned.
"I don't suspect we'll find much here." Philip said, dismounting and moving to help Aurora. She pursed her lips as she hopped off and made her way to the house glancing through a broken window.
"Maybe there will be a clue inside." She said walking to the door. Philip looked in the window before following her inside. The house was musty and a thick film of dust covered everything.
"It's as if someone just suddenly left one day." Philip said motioning to all the furniture and nick nacks still lingering inside. The kitchen still had bowls out, ancient looking herbs still drying above the stove. A table sat in the middle of the room with plates and cups set out as if for dinner. Maleficent ducked her horned head inside and took one look around.
"Maybe they have something that could help us." Aurora murmured, more to herself than to the other two. She began to look through the books on the shelves and through the belongings of whoever had lived there. Philip dug through drawers finding nothing unusual.
Maleficent went back into the one large bedroom. It had one large bed jammed up against the far left wall a quilt messily strewn across it. Next to it was a small wooden night stand with a small book opened. On the other side of the room was a mess of blankets and a sad looking pillow, with a small rag doll laying across it.
Hanging from a nail was a rather nice wooden frame. Its glass was cracked beyond repair and obscured the yellowing drawing behind it.
Gingerly taking the picture from the wall Maleficent opened the back and pulled out the piece of parchment and turned it over.
Whoever had drawn the portrait had a very light touch and a realistic style. It was only of a woman's face and neck with dark hair framing it. Her slender neck supported an oval shaped face with a small straight nose, high cheek bone, full lips, and big doe like eyes that held no color.
The woman was conventionally beautiful and had a small playful smile on her lips. In the right hand corner at the bottom of the page was the name of the artist.
"Johan Gregain." Maleficent let the name roll off her tongue before turning the paper over again to read the picture's title. She made a sort of 'hmpf' noise and went back to the main room where Aurora and Philip were still searching the place. Aurora looked up as she entered and looked to the picture.
"Oh, what did you find?" She asked excitedly, hurrying over to her. Maleficent handed her the picture and Aurora let out a triumphant laugh.
"Calista!" She said turning the picture over to see the portrait. She and Philip examined it with glee while Maleficent let herself out of the stuffy house. As Aurora and Philip followed they both looked to her.
"One clue after the next, how will we find this Johan Gregain?" Philip asked rolling the portrait up and putting it in a saddle bag.
"Maybe the archives will have something on him? He was obviously very good." Aurora said as she mounted her horse again. Philip did the same as Maleficent nodded and looked up at the gray clouds.
"Yes, I think searching there first would be a good idea." She said, taking flight as Philip and Aurora urged their horses back to the castle. They had almost made it back before the rain began to fall in soft fat drops. They ate lunch before throwing themselves back into research. Maleficent was nearly bored to tears before Philip let out a gasp.
"AH HA!" He said standing from his chair and nearly skipping over to her and Aurora. He was holding a scroll and smiling ear to ear.
"I found him! Your father commissioned him not three years ago for a fresco in the main hall." He said while pointing to the very sentence. Aurora grinned gleefully at him while Maleficent nodded to him in acknowledgement.
"It says he lives in the abbey, do you think he might still be there?" Aurora asked her god-mother.
"Only one way to find out, but after the rain I think." She said, looking out the window, wondering how Diaval was fairing.
As soon as the rain stopped Aurora wasted no time dragging Philip and Maleficent to the abbey, which was only a few minutes away. Once there the head priest made a mighty fuss about their arrival and sent disciples skittering about.
"Oh, don't mind us we're here looking for Johan Gregain." She said looking around at the faces of the small crowd that had gathered in the abbey.
"Oh, Johan? Of course, he's in the back. He tends the bees for us." The priest said good-naturedly. He led them through the abbey and out a back door into a very well kept garden. Near the back of the garden near a large apple tree sat an elderly man bent over an easel with his back to them. Aurora eagerly made her way over to him with Philip close behind and Maleficent choosing to stay back a ways.
"Johan Gregain?" Aurora asked politely as Johan turned. His hair was beginning to thin, his long face peppered with stubble, and he wore the robes of a priest.
"Yes, that's me." He said looking between the odd three. Aurora looked to Philip who pulled the portrait out of his bag and handed it to Johan. The man who looked to be in his early fifties opened it and surprise washed over his face before a very sad look overtook it.
"Where did you find this?" He asked quietly looking to Aurora. She smiled at him and moved a mite closer.
"In the house that she used to live in." She said while he rolled the parchment up again.
"If you could call that living." He said, a bitter note to his voice. Philip and Aurora looked between each other.
"What do you mean?" Philip asked curiously. Johan sighed and looked up from the ground.
"Calista was a lovely woman, in spirit and face. I met her when I was very young at a festival. She was a singer by trade." He ran his paint stained hand through his short curly hair.
"I loved her from my first glance, but she had already been married to another man." He took a deep breath and stood up. "Her husband was not so kind, and treated her terribly. When I drew that she and I had become good friends." He looked up at the apple tree and a wistful look passed over his face.
"She had a child, didn't she?" Aurora prompted hopefully. Johan's wistful look became one of discomfort.
"Yes, she did, but she had told me that the baby had been stillborn." For the third time he sighed.
"Had I known that the child was alive I would never have helped her escape him alone." He said his voice cracking a bit.
"What do you mean?" Philip asked leaning in closer. Johan closed his eyes and a shudder run down his spine.
"That man used to beat Calista and tell her terrible things about herself. I expect that her child only reminded her that she was bound to him forever and that's why she told me what she did, and of course I loved her, so when she begged me for help I did all I could to get her away from him." He said opening his eyes again, startling Aurora with the pain in them.
"What happened to her?" She asked hesitantly, while Philip bit his lip nervously.
"I don't know. One day she simply disappeared. Gone, just like that. Her husband came looking for her, angry as a bull. He was the one who told me about the child. After that, I knew that Calista had fled far, far away." He sat back down on his bench and hunched over yet again.
"I heard that he cursed that child, and he too disappeared after that." He said as an afterthought.
Maleficent moved forwards then.
"How? How did a human curse her?" She nearly demanded an answer. Johan gaped up at her like a fish out of water.
"I… I don't know. I only know that he said no man would love her, and that that meant the curse was impossible to lift." Maleficent rolled that over in her mind.
"So…in other words…it has to be a man who breaks the curse?" Aurora asked looking between Johan and Maleficent.
"I believe that is what he was inferring to yes." Johan said clearly becoming confused.
Johan excused himself back into the abbey while Aurora sat in his place and Philip paced back and forth.
"So her father cursed her with a hideous appearance, and made it so no man could bear to look at her." Philip said thinking out loud.
"Then he made it so only a man could break the curse." Aurora said deep in thought.
"That could be a tad bit encumbering." Maleficent said crossing her arms and looking back at the painting Johan had been working on, a nature scene.
"Wouldn't he need some sort of help to curse someone? I mean, he was just a man right? Who would help such a man curse an innocent little girl?" Philip asked causing both Aurora's and Maleficent's eye to meet.
"A fairy." They said in unison while Philip looked between them. Aurora stood up and paced before stopping to look at Maleficent again.
"Do you know a fairy that wicked?" She asked her with a worried expression. Certainly Maleficent knew many fairies, but who would be as cruel as that? No one in particular popped into her mind.
"No one really sticks out as more wicked then me." She said before grinning at Aurora.
"Maybe the aunts will know?" She asked hopefully, and the mention of the three fairies made Maleficent roll her eyes.
"Well we could at least try." Philip added as he and the other two looked between one another.
"Yes, and hope that Diaval is getting a lot further than we are." Maleficent said.