Aurora followed her Godmother through the trees and towards the wall of thorns.
Diaval had walked beside her the whole way, but Maleficent was out in front, ever the protector.
"What do you suppose he wants?" Aurora whispered to her companion.
Diaval shrugged his shoulders. "He didn't say."
Eventually, Maleficent stopped in front of the thick thorny branches, peering through to the meadow on the opposite side.
"Godmother, maybe I should go," Aurora said carefully.
Arching a brow, Maleficent turned to look at her.
"Maybe you shouldn't."
Going to stand beside her, Aurora looked through a gap in the branches, watching the man standing in the distance.
"He's alone, Godmother. Really, what harm can it do?" she pointed out, looking her dead in the eye. "I can handle this."
Maleficent glanced back at Diaval, as if for validation.
"I don't think he poses a threat, Mistress," he told her.
"Alright," the fairy hummed, sounding less than convinced as she opened a pathway for Aurora to the other side and turned the man back into a raven. "Go with her."
Aurora crossed over to the other side of the wall then, still feeling a little surprised that Maleficent had allowed it. Yet fully aware that her Godmother was never too far away, the girl didn't feel much concern.
With Diaval hovering somewhere overhead, she approached the man.
From a distance, she could see that he was dressed in the kind of brown tunic she had often seen sported by peasants from the neighbouring villages.
As she drew nearer, Aurora could see that he had a thick mop of dark hair and a beard not dissimilar to her father's – or any of the other men in the kingdom, for that matter.
"Hello," she said, finally coming to a stop several feet away from him.
The man startled, as if he had only just noticed her standing there, and immediately dropped to one knee.
"Princess Aurora. I am Darius, from the village of Wolfslock, just east of the castle."
She shook her head. "Please stand up. I'm not a Princess. Not anymore."
The man glanced up at her, but for a moment, he didn't move.
"So it's true then?" he asked, in a soft Scottish lilt.
Aurora nodded silently, and finally, the man stood up.
"Is it also true that you are his brother?" she asked.
"Aye. Although it's been… a long time since I saw him last," Darius told her. "I suppose I'll never see him again, now."
"I didn't know he had a brother," Aurora said, because she wasn't sure what else to say.
Darius laughed softly. "Once he had that crown in his sights, I daresay he didnae give me a second thought."
An awkward silence followed, before Darius finally spoke again.
"You know what they're saying back there?" he asked, gesturing in the direction of the castle and the villages beyond it. "That you chose that fairy creature over your responsibilities to your people."
"I chose to remain here with the only mother I have ever known, rather than to rule a kingdom I know nothing of at the age of 16," Aurora told him, softly. "Those people do not need me. They need a real Queen. Or King."
"Where is she, then? This so-called mother?" Darius asked.
"She is close by," she told him. "Might I ask why you came here? Not that I'm not pleased to meet you…. It's just, we don't get many visitors to the moors, these days."
"Can't imagine why," Darius muttered, his eyes wandering over the wall of thorns behind her. "I simply wished to make acquaintance with my last living blood relative on the planet."
"Well, yes, I suppose I am," she agreed, thoughtfully.
"There is… one other thing…" he began.
Aurora watched him, listening.
"I am a poor man. After losing our parents, my brother and I had very little, but we survived. Of course, Stefan's position changed almost 17 years ago. But I… was left with nothing," Darius told her.
"Is there something I can do to help?" Aurora asked – simply because she was Aurora.
"Perhaps. If… you have truly abdicated the throne, then it will surely fall upon the King's council to appoint a new monarch. That is, unless there is another living blood relative," the man told her.
"You want to be king?" she realised.
"It is less about 'want' Aurora, and more what is right," he said.
"Please don't take this the wrong way, but what makes you think that they'll simply take your word for it when you tell them who you are?" she asked.
"Chances are they won't," Darius agreed. "Unless it were somebody else who made the announcement. Somebody like you."
Aurora watched him for a moment, her mouth opening but nothing coming out.
"If you were to go to the castle, and explain-" he began.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry. But I can't."
"Can't? Or won't?" Darius asked.
"Both," Aurora told him, stepping back slightly, sensing their conversation was rapidly coming to a close. "I don't wish to return to the castle again, at any cost."
Darius reached out his hand to catch hold of her arm.
"I don't ask much of you," he said, pulling her closer to him.
Before Aurora could react, a wave of green energy burst forward from the wall behind her, sending the man flying backwards quite some distance.
Aurora turned to watch as Maleficent rose up into the air, her eyes ablaze with fury as Darius scrambled back to his feet.
"Stand down, peasant!" the fairy ordered, coming to land several feet in front of the girl and fanning her wings out behind her in such a way that the man surely felt intimidated.
"I have no business with you!" Darius called, his voice cracking slightly. "Only with my niece!"
"You have no business here at all," Maleficent told him. "If you value your life, stay away from the moors and this child!"
MY child.
Darius was retreating now, but as he did, he cast another glance behind the fairy.
"I implore you to reconsider and to do what is right by your people!" he called, before setting off a run across the meadow behind him.
Maleficent raised a hand to send another blast his way, but Aurora came up behind her, taking hold of her arm.
"Let him go," she said, softly.
Refocusing somewhat, Maleficent turned to look at her.
"Are you hurt?" she asked.
Aurora shook her head. "I am fine. I truly don't think he meant me any harm."
"What is meant and what is borne out of greed aren't always the same thing, Beastie. Especially not where human men are concerned," her Godmother told her. "Come."
Turning to follow the fairy, Aurora cast once last glance back at the man – now a speck in the distance – before Maleficent's wing folded around her, bringing them closer together as they headed back toward the moors.
Ω Ω Ω Ω