Happy holidays! I know, I know, it's been MONTHS!
I just needed a slight break to rethink how I write. Then I decided I wanted to post something before the 25 so, here I am! It's shorter and also the fastest chapter I've ever done. But it reminded me of how much I love writing.
I am so thankful for all the lovely reviews and encouragements to continue this that you all left. They always remind and inspire me to work on these projects.
To also be said, I was working on another Descendants project that I have been perfected for months! But, I want it to be enjoyable. So, enjoy the chapter!
Likes, comments, problems, ideas for future chapters, by all means I'm listening. Hope you like this. (If it's not fully edited, I'll go back through later.)
As Maleficent had said, Aurora did grow in grace and beauty.
"The godmothers technically wished for the first," Aziz commented.
"Pretty bird," a preteen Aurora cooed at Diaval after playing with him around a table outside.
Far away from the lofty palace that she remembered not.
Aurora, at Diavals cawing, excitedly rolled down a hill into pink flowers, giggling the whole way down.
Aurora smiled fondly at the memories of her youth, roaming around the forest with Diaval and the other animals. It was peace.
Philip had been married to her long enough to know when she was recollecting, and what it was about. "We'll go back and visit it soon," he promised. "We can visit my brother and Snow with Audrey."
And as the seasons changed and flowers grew, so did she.
The soft pink petals changed to crisp autumn leaves that a 14 year old Aurora unburied herself from laughing heartily. Autumn turned to Winter across the landscape and still, Aurora explored alone.
"How did you not catch a cold in that outfit, Aurora?"
"You're assuming I didn't, Tiana," Aurora sing-songed. "The cape was all I had."
"Pixies can make clothes but not make winter capes and scarves?" Naveen drawled.
"Oh trust me, they've gotten better at making clothes for Audrey, but they bought all my clothes from the nearest town market."
"With what money?" Philip suddenly wondered.
"You'd think after all these years he would have asked all his questions by now," Uma muttered to Harry. After all, she couldn't count the number of times a villain had told their story and answered dozens of questions from annoying children pointing out their flaws. Or maybe delving so much into the past was just an Isle thing.
The idea that these hero's didn't actively discuss their past feats or reference it admittedly got Uma thinking.
"Hello," She eased. "That's it." She said to a young deer she fed, the scene not so unfamiliar to earlier on with Maleficent and Stefan. Maleficent seemed to think so too, as she hid amongst the twisted branches of trees. "There you go."
She wondered at the world about her, and at what lay beyond the fearsome wall of thorns.
"Heavens!" Snow cried. "How on earth did you manage from the cottage all the way to the Moors barriers?"
Ben, who had made the trek with Audrey when they were kids, was unsurprised. The trip was long, but not impossible. "The Godmothers aren't really the most attentive unless it's necessary." He remembered the franticness of their parents, his Godmothers, and the Charmings when Balthazar returned the two home that day.
"Your godmothers didn't have a choice but to keep an eye on you," Aurora pointed out. "You liked to follow your curiosity."
Evie poked the king's arm roughly. "You have Godmothers, Ben?"
"Aurora and I share the same ones, believe it or not."
"I don't believe it," Carlos decided.
Aurora stood merely a few feet from the nearest thorns, each towering tall above her, poking out sharply in various directions.
"You can do that." Mal struggled to look away from screen, but she manage to snap her attention to her father. A small coy smile slept on the corner of his lips. "You have your mother and your father's powers. Imagine what you can do."
Mal almost didn't want to imagine.
Maleficent and Diaval walked on, out of eyesight of Aurora. "Hmm," Maleficent hummed. Aurora touched the brambles. "Curious little beasty."
But she was not the only one who wished to get through.
The screen switched to a group of soldiers milling about outside the wall.
"You would have thought they learned their lesson the first time," Lonnie pointed out.
The warrior daughter was surprised when Anthony was the one to comment. "I'd dare say it was Stefan who didn't learn any lessons. They are just following orders."
"Shh," a soldier hissed to another chopping wood that not paying a bit of attention.
"Why the shooshing?"
"Look," he directed his attention to Aurora at the wall. "Is that her? Is that Maleficent?"
"Those idiot fairies allowed you to get that close to people?" Leah seethed.
"Pixies," Mal corrected unheard from above.
She continued her tirade uninterrupted. "The point was to stay hidden from everyone!"
"Did you even notice them, Queen Aurora?" Ally asked.
"...No..." Philip shook his head at his absentminded wife.
"I don't know," The other soldier moved closer, raising his axe while the first drew his sword.
Maleficent and Diaval exchanged looks. "Bring them to me," she demanded. At Diavals nod she transformed him to a beast that ran away on all fours.
A shudder went down Ruby's spine uncomfortably. "Is it just me or is "Bring them to me," very terrifying?"
"What isn't terrifying about this chic?" Her brother argued while her mother draped an arm around her. "Also, what in Auradon did he turn into?"
"No, it's just a silly peasant girl," The men moved away. A monstrous howl resounded around the camp. Each soldier paused in the work cautiously.
Maleficent took advantage of their distraction to sneak up behind Aurora. With a wisp of gold, Aurora was knocked asleep and lifted in the air on her back where she floated.
"Mom, did you not hear Diaval?"
"It's less that I didn't hear it, more of I just didn't acknowledge it," The queen sheepishly admitted.
"Anyone else gonna acknowledge the fact that Maleficent put her under a sleeping spell like, a year or three before the exact date?" Milo questioned. The adults silenced at that while the children chuckled at the irony. Leah was still seething about Aurora not being protected by magic wards.
At the camp, each of the soldiers and horses were on edge. Diaval's howling seemed to almost echo from everywhere.
The men garnered their weapons and stared into the fog. At last, a large black wolf with piercing eyes and a snout like a beak emerged.
Ally and Lily gained the same idea, both slipping down in their seats to hide behind the table. Dizzy did the same, going as far as to sneak over to the Underlandian girls.
Diaval sighed, noticing their creeping. He would have to show Auradon he wasn't a danger, though if this kept going how it was he had no doubt the dragon scene would be coming up. That was worse than Adam transforming into a Beast. But at least his mistress would have her name cleared on that matter.
"That is so cool!" Herkie cheered. "Dad, can you teach me how to shapeshift?"
"No," Megara answered before her husband could.
As the soldiers jerked back in fear they noticed another ghastly shape in the fog. "It's her!" They each murmured backing up. Between Diaval's fierce growling and Maleficent's composed form, the soldiers knew they were no match.
Harry jeered anyway. "Cowards!" He called. Never mind the current fact that he wouldn't dare stand up to Maleficent, now or ever.
Green mist appeared at the lift of her hands, and so did the men. Each was lifted ten, twenty feet into the air screaming.
"Are they whimpering?" Ben asked perturbed.
Carlos leaned forward with a knowing look. "It's Maleficent, you'd whimper too."
Maleficent swirled them in the air as if they were nothing. It was similar magic to how she played with her faery dolls as a kid, just far more wicked.
Their weapons fell with a clatter onto the earth as they were jerked and knocked into one another.
With a devilish grin the fae slowed their movement, only to bring them together in the center with a bang. With a final burst she blew them into opposite directions. The soldiers slammed into trees, bushes, and straight into the dirt groaning.
Belle cringed. "Yowch."
"Tell me about it," Adam agreed.
Peter edged closer to the wind fairy at his table. "Hey Vidia, you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Peter!" Wendy scolded.
Maleficent hmmed, eyeing the soldiers discards. She knelt down and placed her hand close to a fallen helmet. As her hand neared it, the metal seared red forcing her to jerk to back with a hiss.
"Why does the metal glow red rather than her?" Freddie directed to Fairy Godmother and Jane.
Without thinking, Hades quietly answered to himself. "Because Fae and iron have a natural reaction that forces them to contrast with each other."
Fairy Godmother answered similarly.
Hades ignored Mal's pointed look. But it was the lizard staring up at him from his pocket that he couldn't.
"What are you looking at?"
Maleficent kindly turned Diaval back to a man when he approached.
"How could you do that to me?" He accused when they both raised.
"He sounds so offended," Melody giggled.
Lyric gave up keeping a stoic face to laugh with his elder sister. "He looks offended."
"I was offended!"
"You said anything I need."
"Yeah, but not a dog," He argued.
Maleficent turned away disinterested. "It was a wolf, not a dog."
"It's the same thing!"
Maleficent scoffed. Diaval took after her. "They're dirty, vicious, and they hunt birds."
"Sounds like a dog," Evie said.
Carlos hugged Dude closer casting glares at Evie. "Not true!"
"Your mutt is the reason we're here in the first place," Jordan hissed at Carlos.
Audrey rolled her eyes. "I thought that was Mal's fault."
"Audrey," Philip chided.
"Fine," she decided. "Next time I'll turn you into a mealy worm."
"Well, I'll be a mealy worm, gladly,"
"Guys got standards," Aladdin and Jordan burst out laughing at Genie.
"-Anything but a filthy, stinking..." His remark was turned into a caw by his mistress who turned him into a bird again.
He immediately flew off leaving just Maleficent, and the girl. She turned back to the floating child with eyes nowhere near vengeful or malicious. "I wonder," Maleficent opened the barrier of thorns for them to pass through. Behind her Aurora floated into the Moors for the first time ever.
Through the blackened night illuminated by floating purple orbs and precious flowers, Maleficent laid her down in a patch of grass and left her.