An: Diaval and Maleficent friendship times ftw. Aurora and Phillip friendship times ftw. Friendship abounds. Angst abounds.
Disney still owns all.
Chapter Twelve: Beauty, Power and Snow Grow
Aurora crept through the door of the shieling as the evening light faded from the Moors. She had no desire to return to the Oak and the Fair Folk had built it for her. It felt large and airy and bare; a single room with a made up bed in it and small hooks hanging from the ceiling near the walls for clothes and a small trunk.
So she was Queen now and this was her abode. She opened the small trunk, in small hope that Maleficent might have left some parting gift, something more than just a goodbye. There were several gowns there but she knew those to be from the Lady and she slammed it shut again. Her coronation dress was beginning to itch at her and she pulled it off and shoved it under the bed, never wanting to wear it again, kicking the golden slippers that pinched her toes after it. In her trous and support she led down on the bed that did not feel right. It was a Fair Folk made bed, no heavy human linens but it was not a hammock that would swing slightly in high winds that never seemed to be able to penetrate it. It would never feel right because there were no rustling wings or warm arms and light breathing, not even the thrashings of a nightmare. It was cold and lonely. But she knew what she had to do, as she lay staring fiercely at the opposite wall.
And thusly she did it. Every day, she did her duty as Queen even though her heart felt as if it walked with her feet and was jerked at every footstep. She kept peace with the humans, she dealt with infractions and solved the squabbles that she could and eased the problems that she couldn't. She walked different routes around the Moors every day, even defying Maleficent and daring to visit the Giant at their pool where they bowed to her and she nodded back and continued walking. She visited the Dughviel and rode on the backs of the winged beasts and behind the Border Guards on their Boars when she needed to get somewhere quickly.
Her robes she wore over rough trousers bartered from a farmer and Robin made her soft boots, light enough to run in but heavy enough to withstand the travelling. In fact, Robin became her aid and advisor and became highly valuable to her, although he would have consternations about her insisting on dealing with even the Dark creatures and they came to love her almost as much as they loved the Lady.
But not all the sprites and faeries together with their tricks and jokes could cheer her beyond a brief smile. Wallerbogs let mud slide, thistle faeries no longer playfully pricked at her legs as she walked by. She was a gracious Queen, full of quiet strength and reserve but the Fair Folk who had played with her a year ago barely recognised her. Still, she became respected and trusted. News of Maleficent's flight was all over the Moors and there was much speculation as to why. Whispers came from the dark places, a power was at work and Maleficent had gone to fight it, leaving Aurora to rule the Moors. The Fair Folk bowed their heads sadly for they loved their Queen and no longer feared their Protector and the happiness the two had had together and brought to the Moors was lost now in their separation.
It was a rare day when Aurora felt drained of all strength and could not summon the will to get out of bed. Robin had come to her door to enquire why she wasn't there at their meeting place, although the day was not exactly filled with urgency. As the old faerie came round the door he was greeted with
"She didn't tell me Robin. All those months and all that closeness and she didn't tell me. Did she think I wasn't capable? Of course she's right. There's nothing I can do against some snow faerie anyways. I can't even heal the trees that get damaged in the wind."
"Well, ye was busy with the Queening. Mayhap she didn't want you worryin' about something ye couldn't do anything about." Robin closed the door behind him and looked at the lump that presumably was the Queen.
"So why not tell me after the coronation? Why not tell me before she left?" Aurora emerged from beneath the covers to look at him.
"Things were worsenin'. She needed to leave quick sharp aye?"
"Except she didn't. She didn't just leave, she brought me here."
"Final step to make ye Queen? Look ye Majesty, Maleficent is as like to me as my own kin but if'n you be asking me to interpret her actions or why she does something, I'm afraid I can't tell ye. Her reasons have always been her own. Now stop feeling sorry for yerself. She left you in charge of her Moors and she gave you promise she'd return to 'em. Why not trust her to know her own business?"
"She's still in the Moors. I can feel her you know. I'm not sure I ever told her that. But I can sense her presence. I've been able to since before I can remember. So I know she's there. Up in the mountains. It's very cold there. And I see Diaval every day flying overhead, probably checking up on me."
"Well then." Robin shrugged.
Aurora simply shook her head. "It's nothing to do with that. It's not even the fact she's left. And will leave even the Moors in the future. If one Fairyland's in trouble, they all are right? And as she's bragged in the past, she's the strongest of the Fair Folk here. But it's not that. It's the fact she didn't tell me."
Robin narrowed his eyes. "What would ye have done if she had told ye? Cajoled her not to leave? And succeeded most likely." Aurora was silent. "Can ye say ye'd not have done exactly that?"
"No. I even did exactly that." she breathed out in pained realisation. "And if she'd told me before I would've had time to convince her."
"Exactly. Not telling ye saved her and you both the pain of that. A lesser pain it was for her to leave in a moment after months of closeness, then to leave after months of bitter struggle."
"But I also would've had time to say goodbye, to come to terms with…everything. Not just have a 'You'll do fine Beastie, goodbye now'. I had to learn from you what was even going on."
Robin looked at his feet in return realisation. "Well possibly that wasn't the best way either, no." he admitted, scratching his nose and sniffing. "She's not always good with the explanations."
"They're not her greatest ability, no." Aurora snorted, thinking back to the revelation that she had been cursed and Maleficent's planning her coronation and the way the Faerie had dealt with making Aurora queen in the first place.
Robin raised an eyebrow at the cynical snort. "Lookee, do you not think maybe she is in pain too? She…" he hesitated. Aurora deserved to hear that from Maleficent herself. He changed tack. "She's a strong Beastie. She can fight aye, if you're worried that that was the entire goodbye you'll e'er get." Aurora turned to him angrily, tears welling up in her eyes. He scoffed. "Oh will you have some faith, child? You complain she does nae trust you and yet you will not believe in her either."
Aurora's temper snapped and she leapt out of bed howling at him. "YOU DIDN'T SEE HER! YOU DIDN'T SEE HER SURROUNDED BY IRON! UNDER A NET! THEY BEAT HER, ROBIN! THEY WHIPPED HER AND BEAT HER AND SHE NEARLY DIED!" Aurora flew at the old faerie, casting bedding left right and centre. "DON'T THINK I DON'T KNOW! DON'T THINK I HAVE NOT SEEN! I SOOTHED HER NIGHTMARES! I KNOW HOW WEAK SHE IS! I HAVE SEEN HER WHEN SHE CANNOT FIGHT AND YOU THINK I WILL BE COMFORTED LIKE A…LIKE A CHILD?!" She stalked across the floor and kicked at the door frame in disgust, grimacing as kicking a door frame barefooted hurt.
Robin quailed under the Queen's fury. "I…" he swallowed. "I'm sorry, ye majesty. I forgot you have had…but listen I knew her as a child and ye think I'm not worried either? What I've been through these past years?"
"Were you trying to comfort me or yourself then?" Aurora sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes.
"…both." Robin confessed, fiddling with his floppy ears.
Aurora sighed. "She'd better keep her promise. Otherwise I'm going after her, sending this…this…
"Snow Queen." Robin supplied helpfully.
"Snow Queen back to whatever pit she crawled out of and bringing Maleficent home." She stalked out the door, slamming it behind her.
Robin stared after her for a while. "Aye and I believe you." Despite his self, he was a little impressed at the determination and resilience Aurora was showing. "Only sixteen and already a fair Queen." He grinned, proud despite himself, of both Aurora and Maleficent. He gathered himself, huffed worriedly and went after the young Queen, realising she'd left into the cold in only her undergarments and barefooted to boot. "Aye and you'd think I'd be tiring of running around after ill-tempered youths at my time o' life." He muttered as he closed the door behind him.
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In a tiny, rude shieling in the lee of a mountain outcrop, a man with more than hint of Raven around the nose shivered alongside a human sized winged Faerie, curled into her wings. They had been fighting the snow sprites day in, day out for over a month now but the sprites had thought up new tricks. Else it was the one who had riled them into a fury had made them bind together into a massive whirling ball of turning snow. Maleficent had had to use all her cunning to undo the magic and they'd been half frozen whilst she did so.
"Remind me exactly why I'm here." Diaval clenched his jaw to stop his teeth from chattering as he flexed his newly healed fingers. Maleficent had done some kind of magic and the snow kept the wind out but the temperature was still too low for comfort.
"Because I need you to be my wings. I said and I repeat 'I need you Diaval. I can't do this without you Diaval.' And you agreed. And here you are." Maleficent was attempting to get some sleep in between the seemingly never ending battle with the snow sprites. They had not yet attacked at night for some reason but she knew if today's fight was anything to go by that it was only a matter of time before the attacks intensified.
"You mean you need me to keep yourself from getting killed on your lonesome and go check up on Aurora for you. Some things never change." Diaval muttered as he curled into a corner in an attempt to keep warm.
"What?" Maleficent snapped.
"Nothing! Nothing." He looked over at the Faerie. "D'you think I would be warmer as a bird?" he hinted.
"I don't know." Maleficent muttered. "You might be quieter as a bird at least."
"Could you not change me so I could find out?"
"I could make it permanent, you know." She raised her horned head above the line of her wings.
"WHAT?!" Diaval scrambled up. "Look I didn't mean it that way." He held out his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Make me human permanently and I'll…"
"I meant I could turn you into a changeling permanently." Maleficent interrupted. "You could change shape without needing my power to do it. Or I could leave you a Raven for the rest of your days but I have a feeling you'd miss being able to talk." She finished snidely.
"Oh haha. Very funny. Yes, actually. I would miss being able to talk. The occasions are rare when it happens but I do sometimes enjoy talking with you. And I always like talking to…" Diaval hesitated as he saw Maleficent's wings tense around her. "…the um…other faeries."
"You can say her name you know." He was impressed. Barely a tremor. It'd only take a month and a half. When he'd first said her name in passing, she'd thrown him out the shieling. Well, he might have run out in terror at the look in her eyes, but it was the same thing!
"Well…it would be nice to be a Changeling. It's a big decision, I mean but…I think it's probably the only way I'm going to be truly happy." He gabbled slightly. "How would you do it? Would the Lady help? Is there a ritual?"
"There is a ritual." Maleficent sat up straight, yawning wide enough to show the Raven all her fangs, resigning herself to no sleep that night.
"Would you…"
"Be willing and able to perform it on your mate also? Yes. I'm amazed she hasn't complained with you being out here all winter."
"Brynna? I fly back and visit her when I see…um the others." She might've given permission but that didn't mean Diaval was going to risk mentioning that name again, not with the snow sprites banding together to make giant concentrated snow storms. "It's not like we have a chick yet. Although I'm hoping maybe in spring...I mean d'you think this will be done by then?"
Maleficent considered him. "Whether it is or not, I shall send you back down the mountain. Where I am going in spring, you cannot follow."
"Why not?"
Maleficent's shoulders slumped at his words. "Your bravery commends you but this is no castle of iron. This is a fortress of winter. You would die Diaval. Changeling or no, the magic, if not the cold, would end you. I would not be able to shield you from it."
"Oh and I suppose you're immune to it then are you?" he tilted his head to one side and Maleficent half expected him to hop as he would hop on a branch.
"I can fight back." She retreated back inside her wings and Diaval knew that conversation had been terminated.
They had been up in the mountains a month and a half, fighting the snow sprites at every turn, Maleficent guarding the barriers she'd put in place to stop them spilling down into the Moors. She attempted to soothe them, heal the mess their rampages caused and save whomsoever they could that they found beneath the snow. He sometimes wondered who would save them, but Maleficent used magic to protect them in the shieling. She claimed it was easier to interweave a protection spell into a solid unmoving object than a flighty little hopping Raven. And it probably was, he conceded. Whenever he complained of getting too cold which was at least once a day, she sent him to fly over the Moors or to the castle and return with food and reports as to the goings on.
Sometimes the battles were intense. There had been many injuries to both of them, some that only the best of Maleficent's healing magic could make right. Frost bite was the worst. The worst battle came in the New Year, the storms gathering about the mountain, angry that the two figures still living there had managed to keep them back for so long from tearing down into the Moors. The power that was manipulating them squashed the snow sprites together to make a towering figure of hard snow and sharp ice. Maleficent was the one who had felt the burst of magic as she slept and had woken Diaval and together they faced the new threat in the dark.
"Don't harm them!" Maleficent shouted over the gale as she sought to undo the magic binding the figure together, the glow from her magic lighting the entire plateau.
"Couldn't if I wanted to!" Diaval answered back as he danced around, attempting to distract it whilst she worked. The huge snow monster loomed towards him and he stumbled backwards, nearly falling off the edge of the cliff.
"DIAVAL!" Maleficent flew at the snow monster, barrelling through it to physically disperse the snow sprites back to their separate forms. She cried out as ice splinters ripped into her wings and she collapsed out of the air next to Diaval.
"Maleficent!" he scrambled to her over the snow.
"It's okay." She ground out as the snow flurried around them fiercely.
"Come on! Let's get you back to the shieling." He tried to haul her upright but she was a dead weight. "Maleficent!"
Blood was staining the snow and a shadow fell over them as the snow sprites reformed. Diaval was brave, throwing himself over Maleficent and rolling them both to the side as a fist as hard as ice came crashing down. He cried out as he felt his leg break.
"Maleficent! You have to get up!" he shook her desperately by the shoulder. She surged up right, throwing him backward off her wings and for the first time cast an attack spell and the snow sprites dissolved into slush. She stood horrified for a minute before Diaval grabbed at her hand and she hauled him upright. Supporting each other, they limped back to the warmth of the shieling.
"Here." Maleficent whispered once they were safe inside, healing his leg with a wave before falling to the floor.
"Maleficent?" he crouched beside her, his leg still tingling from the healing.
"I…I killed them Diaval. They were Fair Folk under my protection and I killed them." Her voice trembled with rage and grief.
"Well, they were doing a fine job of almost killing us both so I'll take my life and be grateful, all the same." He answered pragmatically. "How are ye wings? They look a mess."
Maleficent hauled herself to her knees, wincing in pain as she passed golden magic over her wings.
"They'll heal in two days." She hissed, before crawling to a corner and curling up in a ball.
"It has to end soon right? Winter is almost done. She cannot hold them in her power much longer, surely." He knelt beside her.
"I don't know." Maleficent lapsed into unconsciousness and Diaval curled up next to her to join her in sleep.
Thanks to their efforts, the winter touched the Moors and the lands beyond less deeply than in the mountains. The human kingdom was well and the plentiful harvest was seeing them through whatever hardship the weather caused.
The Moors were covered in snow but it was gentle and not the slicing knives of ice Maleficent had to contend with. Thusly she was satisfied that she was fulfilling her role as Protector.
Whenever the fighting lulled she went to see the Lady but there was not a lot to report beyond a still frozen pool and once, the conception of the child and the taking of the curse.
Aurora was well but Maleficent never asked after her and Diaval had gotten used to informing her in a roundabout way how the Queen faired in his reports on relations between faeries and of the friendship between the Moors and the human Kingdom.
Spring came to the Moors early, in dripping damp and humid air and it made Aurora's hair frizz as she waded through slush and rivers running high with melt water. The Moors flourished in the sun and new growth seemed everywhere, beauty bursting forth again and she felt she understood what Maleficent had meant, when she had said the Moors had been but a shadow under her rule. It dazzled her. She wondered whether the Lady's pool had thawed in the spring heat, but she had not travelled to see her since Maleficent had left, stung by the fact that the Lady had known and had not told her, and she wasn't about to start now. Besides, if it was magic, the chances were that it had not.
She no longer wore her boots, walking about barefoot for the most part, her soles becoming gnarly as Maleficent's had been, thorns no longer a worry for her. Her hair she brushed into a plait for convenience when it began to frizz. The crown stayed on the table in her shieling except for the weekly and monthly meetings with the humans. She did not exactly inform Phillip of Maleficent's departure but her absence was noted as was the Queen's subdued look, although she was more commanding than ever when dealing with irritating council members. Even the new ones had difficulty dealing with the sanctity the Moors required and with Aurora's refusal to broach the topic of marriage.
She found herself staying at the castle after the meetings and would walk the library, teaching herself how to read better. Life in the Moors did not call for much letter writing but sometimes there were contracts between the humans and she did not like being ignorant of what they meant. Phillip had found her there the second time and joined her, helping her with the intricacies of the human courts.
"It will help you avoid affronting people by accident. Protocol is stuffy as anything but still. Excessive politeness can work in your favour." He smiled at her, acknowledging his own behaviour.
"It will stop them thinking of me as some ignorant girl from the woods at any rate. I would loathe it if they thought the Moors were full of simpletons, much less ruled by one."
"You are clever." Phillip nodded. "And certainly a good person."
Aurora smiled a little sadly. "I'm not so sure I could claim that. So! Excessive politeness will have to do instead."
And so she devoured the new knowledge, although she was never foolish enough to attempt to enact any human style of politics in the Moors.
"Maleficent never had to learn anything like this I bet." Phillip dared to joke one time as they were debating the finer points of the uses of having a council.
Aurora glowered at him. "In fact, Maleficent taught me a vast deal about the Moors before I became Queen as you well know. But no. There is a Faerie Council in the Moors, but mostly it only convenes to discuss matters that cause consternation rather than to discuss the running of the Moors. The Fair Folk mostly trust in each other." She stopped suddenly. *they trust in each other. Did they ever trust Maleficent? Do they trust me, truly, as one who is not of their kind? Does Maleficent?* the young Queen was still plagued by doubts regarding her rule and the trust placed in her.
Phillip tilted his head as if to ask a question but pursued the subject no further.
"Well, I suppose our councils are not too dissimilar. Only in the human world, the lord or representative is put in place by the King, that's me, rather than elected or chosen at random. And of course, the main difference being is that in your council everyone has the right to a say whereas ultimately the decision comes down to the King, that's me again, as to whether to take action on something or not…" he went on and Aurora found it soothing to listen to his steady stream of information and comparisons as she took it in.
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In the damp warmth of spring the snow sprites settled down to their natural hibernation, meaning that Maleficent could make a longer visit to the Lady and perform the ritual to change Diaval. She added her own magic and the spells she had been using to change Diaval into a mixture made from the water in the Lady's pool.
"Drink this." She commanded, using one of her own rather bent and battle weary feathers to daub the mixture onto his face in arrow like markings. He downed the contents of the cup in one go as she stood back, drew a golden circle in the air and blew at him through it. "With the magic from the Moors, with the magic from me, let you forever choose what form you wish to be." She spelled, casting a golden net around him, interwoven with sparkles of green.
The Lady shielded her eyes as with a great blast of magic, Diaval changed into a Raven. He hopped and croaked experimentally.
"Well, at least he still makes a good Raven." The Lady commented.
With another whoosh of magic he changed back into a man with a startled "AWK!"
"That's a new sensation I must say." He gasped for breath, fighting to regain his balance.
"No doubt you will get smoother at it as the magic takes." Maleficent grinned at him. "But that was not bad for a beginner's go."
"Aye, well forgive me if I don't try dragons any time soon." He grunted, collapsing onto his hands and knees.
"All in good time." She held out a hand to him and he dragged himself upright, steadying himself against her.
There was an awkward pause. "I could try a dragon. Might come in useful against yon Snow Queenie." He suggested weakly.
Maleficent shook her head. "I appreciate the offer but this is magic, not real snow bound with snow sprites and magic. Bring Brynna to me. I will perform the same rite on her."
Diaval nodded and changed back into a Raven, already smoother in the transition.
"You will be leaving then." The Lady stated, joining Maleficent at the entrance of her cave where she stood watching the Raven wing away.
"As soon as this is done." Maleficent shivered. A long winter up in the mountains and it felt like she would never be warm again.
"Even if you succeed in banishing her, the child will still be born cursed."
"I know." Maleficent waved the Lady away. "I know what I must do, believe me. I've known since you first told me."
Diaval returned then and cut the conversation short. Brynna had not been far away.
The rite was performed again and she changed into a rather handsome young woman although as the Lady remarked, "I'll make her some clothes."
Maleficent walked to the edge of the cave once more to gaze out over the Moors.
"So you'll be leaving now then." Diaval came to stand beside her, as the Lady educated his mate on what clothes were.
"Yes." Maleficent jutted her chin out.
"Will ye not even say goodbye to…"
"Take care of her." Maleficent interrupted, turning towards him. "Take care of Brynna. Have many beautiful chicks, Diaval."
He nodded. "Aye. If she does want 'em at least."
"Now you are both changelings, so they will born also, if you both so choose. You'll be starting a whole new kind." She smiled sadly.
Diaval hugged her then, suddenly. "You come back, you hear? You promised Aurora, I heard you. You've got to come back."
Maleficent swallowed hard and disentangled herself. "Goodbye Diaval."
"YOU COME BACK!" He shouted after her as she took to the skies. His mate and the Lady came to stand by him. "She'll come back." It sounded more like a question and the Lady shook her head before retiring to her cave. Diaval stared after her but Brynna took his hand and the newly made changelings transformed back into ravens and flew off to their nest.
And so it was that Aurora was walking the Borderlands and felt the sudden lack of the Faerie's presence and the shadow that she felt now across her was a much darker one.
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It was just after Aurora's seventeenth birthday, midway through the early spring that Diaval left Brynna on their nest for the evening and flew to visit her properly. He still flew to check on her every day but had put off talking to her. He had a feeling she would not be best pleased to learn of Maleficent flying off.
He found Robin first and cautiously asked him where Aurora was. Robin flew him to a hollow and pointed down where Aurora and Phillip were sat reading.
"She spends much time with the human King. He teaches her to read better and they talk a great deal on philosophies and other such human rubbish." Robin spat. "It breaks my heart. Reminds me too much of Maleficent with that one's father." He flew off in a huff and the Raven croaked a goodbye, thinking to himself that a lot of people flew off without saying goodbye properly.
Diaval watched and waited until the King left and then hopped down to the ground, shape-shifting into a human right in front of her. Aurora sprang up in a joy and alarm, looking immediately for Maleficent but Diaval shook his head.
"I'm a true changeling now. Shifting form at will rather than command." He grinned awkwardly at Aurora's expression when she realised that this meant Maleficent had not returned with him. "Still not sure it's a blessing but aye."
She embraced him gently, restraining herself but Diaval squeezed her hard and she gave in to a hug of the likes she had not had for a long time, glad to see her pretty bird after so long.
"I have a mate too. Brynna." Diaval told her, attempting to divert her away from questions about Maleficent. "Mal…uhm…she got made a changeling too. We're planning on having wee eggs. And they too…"
"Where is she?" Aurora asked quietly, cutting off his babble.
He scratched his nose nervously. "Gone to the East Fairyland to fight the Snow Queen. We guarded the Moors all winter long and the sprites have died down enough that she can go to the source. There's a child…a princess been cursed. Maleficent means to try and lift it."
"She does that." Aurora replied wryly.
"Ye have done well with the Queening." Diaval looked about him to fill an awkward silence. "The Moors look more beautiful than I ever have seen 'em." Aurora glared at him.
"Well, I like to think I work as hard as the Protector does defending the Moors from the forces of evil."
Diaval winced at Aurora's use of the word Protector although their similarity of avoiding actual names amused him.
"She'll come back." He reassured her.
"You say that as much to convince yourself as me. You and Robin are the same. That's not what I want to hear. And not from you." Aurora shook her head.
"Sorry." The changeling Raven apologised.
"I don't suppose she gave any hint of when she would be coming back?"
"Well no, she wasn't uh…"
"She said goodbye and flew off?"
"Well yes."
Aurora made a noise that was half sob half snort of laughter and flung herself back down on the ground.
"I suppose she'll come back when this business is finished, if it ever is." Diaval seated himself on the ground beside her; fairly certain now she wouldn't fly at him in a rage. "She's doin' it for the good of the Moors, you know that aye?"
"Yes. I heard stories from those who came down the mountain, that you two rescued." She smiled briefly. "Was it worse?"
"Aye." Diaval nodded, flexing his fingers and legs in memory of the wounds they'd received. "It half-killed her sometimes, keeping the Snow Queen out all winter." There was a stunned silence in which Diaval realised what he'd said. "I mean, it's taking a lot out of her. But she's doin' grand. Well she was when she left."
"And it will be worse against the Snow Queen herself?" Aurora found herself on the other side, in that terrible calm once more.
"…Aye. I imagine so. She sent me back because I wouldn't be able to fight. Not against magic. Not against that kind of magic. And she'd want you nowhere near it, before you think of running off to her."
"I wouldn't even know where to start running to." Aurora sighed. "Couldn't she have come back to see me?"
"I think she thinks it'll hurt less, easier to leave just once aye?"
"I wouldn't tell her not to go. Not again." Her chest was tightening unbearably.
"Aye. But she'd still have to leave you. And she'd want to stay. Tis ice she goes to fight against and she'll need ice in her heart to defeat it."
"The Snow Queen must be truly terrible." Aurora murmured and fell silent. They sat there together as night fell and luminescent fireflies and pixies flew about the Moors above them. Tears stung Aurora's eyes as she remembered the first time she'd seen them. *'Don't be afraid.' 'I am not afraid.' 'Come out then.' 'Then you would be afraid.'* "I wasn't afraid." She said out loud. "But you were, weren't you. What were you afraid of? That I would be afraid? But you came out anyway. Are you still afraid? You said…when we went to the castle, that you're afraid. I thought you meant of the humans there, of the iron. But was it really?"
Diaval looked at Aurora nonplussed. "You think Maleficent is scared?"
"I know she's scared. She didn't just go all cold and distant because she was leaving. It's because I kissed her."
"You've kissed her lots of times and she's kissed you." Diaval shrugged.
"Yes but Robin said…about the fact that faeries steal Kisses but that a kiss had a history."
"True Love's Kiss right?"
"With my father." Aurora mused. "He was sixteen…" realisation came to Aurora. "Is she scared that I love her or scared that I don't love her?"
"To be sure I'm not exactly the right person to be asking that." Diaval struggled to catch up with Aurora's thought process.
"He left her. He gave her true love's kiss when they were sixteen and then he left her. She's afraid of what, that I'll get lured by the humans like my father?" Aurora let her head fall back against the tree trunk.
"Well, have ye not been? Spending so much time with the King?" The look Aurora shot him was so disgusted that he apologised. "Sorry."
"I suppose it doesn't really matter. She would've left anyway. How is she doing anyway, apart from the fighting? Is she having nightmares? Is she eating properly?" questions poured out and Diaval answered them the best he could.
"When she left, she was fierce in the fightin'. She…" here he hesitated but Maleficent was far away. "She still has her nightmares, even more now with the battles but I made sure she ate properly."
"That's good then."
Diaval decided to move onto a safer topic. "So the talking with the King? All peace I take it?"
"Oh don't you start." Aurora flung her arms up. "I have those dratted council members giggling like children every time we spend more than two minutes in each other's company."
"I wasn't starting anything." The Raven said indignantly.
"You were a moment ago." Aurora reminded him. "Yes. I talk with him a lot. For the whole winter I have had precisely him and Robin as friends that I can talk to. He's a good friend and…"
"And?"
"He's a good friend." Aurora scowled at him. "And I think he's lonely too. I think he misses his home as well."
"You're in your home." Diaval pointed out.
"My home was with Maleficent in the Oak. Shielings aren't the same. You can be monarch of a place and it still won't be home. Would your nest be home without…what was her name again?"
"Brynna. Fair point."
"You'd best be getting back to her." Aurora smiled sadly and got to her feet. "She'll be lonely."
Diaval followed suit and hugged the Queen. "I'll see you again soon." He promised before transforming and winging away. Aurora turned her eyes earthward and headed back to her shieling. She had long ago given up watching the skies.
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The Snow Queen was all powerful in her land of winter but Maleficent brought with her the healing powers of spring, starting low in the valleys, her wings bringing with the warm winds all the way up to the mountains. She expected a battle but the Snow Queen fled before the melt waters, as if acknowledging her lack of power, although Maleficent suspected it was merely a stay of hand. The Faerie Protector stayed in the East Fairyland all summer to heal the damaged lands there and to reawaken its Fair Folk. Her attempts to thaw the Lady were of no avail but with the snow vanishing, the rest of the citizens came to life and went about their duties as best they could. Terror still gripped them and Maleficent could not reassure them that the Snow Queen truly had left for good. Still, they trusted her, working with her daily. They helped what humans they could from afar, the Fair Folk here were mainly a legend in the human kingdom and they did not bother each other overmuch.
Maleficent felt her body recovering in the weak warmth of the East sun but she had to fight hard to stop despair claiming her heart. It wrenched at her for being apart from Aurora for so long, knowing that the Queen might well not forgive her for the abrupt leaving. Diaval and Robin would both have explained the situation by now. She was plagued by guilt at not having told Aurora herself, as she had not told her about the curse. *'Do you really trust me?'* echoed in her mind.
At first Maleficent thought that she did. She had trusted her Beastie with the Moors and had even long ago trusted her not to be afraid and had come out. But there had always been that nagging feeling. That Aurora would leave. The Faerie had taken so much from her in her life; surely the woman would wish to return to the human world, as her father had before her. And yet, she'd stayed, all those long months, had passed every test, had become Queen. And then she had kissed her. And it had brought reality to Maleficent. This was no crush to be indulged until it wore off. She had felt it in the moment their lips had touched. Her Beastie loved her, far deeper than anyone ever had. Of all the things she had taken from Aurora's life, the woman's heart was possibly the worst thing. She could protect Aurora from all the evil and snow and magic in the world, even break her own curse, but still the greatest evil she could not protect Aurora from was Maleficent herself.
"I had to leave Beastie." She whispered to herself, as she reclined in a tree in the East Fairyland, her mind whirling with her thought process, wishing that Aurora could somehow hear her. "And you could not have come with me. Not here. Not to face her. But if I had told you, you would have been afraid, afraid for me. For you know. And I could not face that fear in your eyes and still leave. Still fight."
The autumn came and the child was born and the curse took hold in full effect. The girl, for the child was indeed born such, had the power of winter and a frozen heart.
On her birthday, Maleficent flew to the castle to try and lift it from the babe as she slept, but the twines of magic were lodged deep. Maleficent felt the magic attempting to wrap itself around her too and stumbled backwards, tearing it from her.
She heard footsteps and was forced to flee through the window and as she did so she felt the cold flurries on her wings. She looked to the Fairyland in the mountains and saw the huge swirl of a storm emerging from it. The Snow Queen had returned and the winter with her, harsher than ever. Harvest had barely ended and already snow covered the land.
Maleficent tore back to the Fairyland but there was nothing she could do as it spread out and out across the world. She fought through the barrier the Snow Queen had created to keep her out and hurriedly built a small shieling as protection. Any surviving Faeries found it and they cowered there as Maleficent healed them.
In the Moors the snow sprites cackled down the mountain and across the land. Aurora visited the Lady for the first time since Maleficent had left, terrified at what such a winter meant.
"It means that Maleficent has failed and the Snow Queen has returned." The Lady shook her head.
"Is she still alive?" Aurora was heartsick at what failure meant.
"That I cannot tell." A tear fell from the Lady's eyes onto her still iced pool but it made no mark on the surface. Aurora steeled herself and strode out even more determined to help the Fair Folk of the Moors in any way she could for if Maleficent was not returning, then they would need their Queen. As much as the Moors were also in trouble, as a sign of their peace she requested that some of the Fair Folk make rounds of the isolated human dwellings, to help in what they could. Indeed she spent half her time doing so herself, the other half asking of the Faerie Council what more she could do to help, as a human without wings or magic.
When the last of the Eastern Fair Folk had made its way to the now rather enlarged shieling, Maleficent left once more, flying through the snow storms back to the castle. She could not defeat the Snow Queen in her winter by her own powers lone and she would at least save the child from the curse, if she could do little else. She had a plan besides, a terrible plan. If she could lift the curse from the child, and by now it appeared that to do so meant taking it upon herself, then she would have the power of winter and ice against ice, only then might she have the means to defeat the Snow Queen.
Maleficent flew through the snow storms to the castle. The winter storm was gathering and it would not be long before it set in eternally and all the Lands, both human and Fairy were lost. She opened the window onto the child's room, hissing at the chilly blast that came in with her as she struggled to close it behind her but the child did not seem bothered by the cold as the wind played with her already silvery blonde hair.
Maleficent stood over the child's cradle, flashbacks of standing over Aurora's, to curse her, to mock her, barraging her mind. And with her mind filled with Aurora, she delved deep into the child's heart to grasp firmly at the strands of magic there. The magic cut her hands as a snare would as she withdrew it and shards of ice formed and seeped into her veins through the open wounds. She felt them work their way up her arm, causing ice crystals to form on her skin.
"Your heart will freeze and from this will come your power, the power of Winter." The curse echoed softly around the room. Maleficent felt the curse take upon her heart and she cried out in shock, breaking the connection before she could fully remove the curse. The child stared silently at the winged Faerie with eyes that were now at least a warmer tone of blue, if rather puzzled.
"I can do no more." She whispered at the girl, passing a hand over her to feel for what remained of the curse. She felt the chilly touch of winter in the child's extremities, where the last of the curse had flown but the heart was warm and the head was too and with that Maleficent would have to be satisfied.
There was not time to try again as the ice worked across and under her skin and she returned to the Moors in haste. If there was a time to defeat the Snow Queen it was now, before the curse destroyed her completely. She landed before the still frozen bower, where the Snow Queen was sat, staring at the figure of the Lady through her ice. Maleficent held her staff in a battle stance, wings spread wide.
"You see how easily I take them Maleficent?" she gestured. "This Fairyland, its Lady still frozen, could you not even thaw her out even in the heat of summer?" she took a moment to point out this failure and laugh. "This Fairyland, that Fairyland, your precious Moors. It's queen." The Snow Queen grinned maliciously at Maleficent's expression. "Oh yes, my dear, I found out about your little human pet. It was quaint; I'll grant you, to think that humans and Fae can live peaceably in harmony. As if they did not always try to destroy us, jealous of our magic. As she will destroy you. Your precious…beastie."
Dread was overcome by rage and Maleficent took to the air and barrelled towards the Snow Queen. "YOU WILL NOT TAKE THE MOORS! YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER! NOT NOW! NOT EVER!" she yelled as she struck the Queen down and sent her flying from the bower, like a bull tossing a rag away with its horns.
The Snow Queen laughed breathlessly as she struggled upright. "Oh you are fierce aren't you? Were you hoping to protect her from me? As long as I didn't know? That she would not pay for your insolence? Once I am done with you here, she will be next. And believe me, dear, now that you've foolishly taken on my curse, I will be done with you. Did your own experiences teach you nothing? Your heart will freeze forever now. You're mine!" She raised her hand and clenched it into a fist. Maleficent felt the cold ice cut through her heart, replacing munificence with chilly brutality. And the brutality of the winter, in all its beauty, focussed around only one thing, what Maleficent had clung to since she had first taken the curse upon her. The overwhelming desire to protect, if it took destruction to do so. It released all of Maleficent's power and combined it with the power of winter and Maleficent took it all and directed it straight at the Snow Queen.
The Snow Queen was blasted backwards, impaled by her own ice and Maleficent guided her half frozen form through the portal, sealing it swiftly behind her, even as she felt the ice crackle over her body and wings.
The Snow Queen was defeated and returned to her land. The cursed girl would still have the power of winter but with a normal human heart, there was at least hope of a thaw. This Fairyland had been protected. The Moors had been protected. And all Maleficent wanted to do now was to return to them.
She struggled back to the Moors, not even stopping to recuperate, a bird frozen by the winter.
An: Silly Mally don't you know that love thaws?
