She had no idea how to raise a child so in the week that followed the girl's confession, Maleficent turned to parenting books in the hopes of finding a way to not end up landing the girl in therapy later in life.
Though those seemed somewhat pointless since most seemed to preach one thing or another or had so many undertones and suggestions it made her head hurt and one, in particular, made her blood boil.
I'm raising a child, not a dog...Though I wouldn't treat a dog like that either. She thought, dropping that particular book into the trash bin by her desk.
"That bad?" Diaval asked from where he had draped himself on her bed, earning a look from Maleficent.
"Did you read what the lunatic who wrote it has to say about...Anything?" Maleficent retorted before adding "that a guide to raising a psychopath."
"Well, you seem to know that much about being a godmother."
She ignored him, though she was really tempted to throw one of the discarded paperbacks at his head.
"I'm serious, I'm the third of six in my family! There is nothing these books can teach you outside of what you've already learned from Balthazar."
He continued when it became obvious that she was not going to respond.
"Remind me to call him later." She mumbled instead of responding to everything else he had said.
Balthazar wouldn't have said what I did while in Aurora's hearing range. She berated herself mentally, the previous week far too fresh in her mind. She had quite nearly made her goddaughter cry and perhaps even had in the past couple of weeks and the child obviously had been through so much before.
What in heavens name did Leila think she was doing appointing me as her next of kin? I'm as bad as Stefan.
She thought, just as the slamming of a door caused both of them to jolt.
"Godmother!"
"In here!"
Maleficent retorted, shaking her head when the girl rushed into the room, nearly slipping on a rug.
"Slow down before you get hurt." She chided, though that didn't seem to phase the teen.
"Sorry, but I found something and it's a bit of a walk but…"
Aurora began, earning a chuckle.
"And you ran the whole way here and seemingly through every muddy thing you could find." She guessed, arching a brow before standing.
That did manage to get a sheepish glance from Aurora, though the retort had not been any sort of real lecture.
"Well, come on. Let's see what got you so excited."
The place in question was quite the distance away but it was rather pretty, half-hidden from the sun by the thick trees and a wide but shallow stream.
"I was thinking...Maybe we could camp out here? I mean you two used to do that sort of thing all the time and we have been trying to figure out how to pass the summer and get to know each other better."
Maleficent regretted telling Aurora about that in an instant but just sighed and looked down at the girl.
"I don't know. The weather is unpredictable in the summer and it's a long way from home." She said though she knew she would never have it in her to straight out tell the girl no, not to something like this.
"I actually still have some gear from that trip I took with my dad a few years back. The tent was big enough to house my two older sisters, our dad, myself, and my brother. I'll have to dig it out of storage but I think it would be more than enough."
Diaval said, either not seeming to catch onto the fact that Maleficent was trying to persuade the girl this was a bad idea or not caring.
"Come on Godmother, please?"
Maleficent mentally cursed the fact that—like Leila—Aurora probably could convince a pig to sprout wings and fly.
"Alright, Alright, just stop with that pathetic look."