Diaval watched over the girl as she slept – if that was really what one could call it.
They'd brought Aurora back to the nest and that was where she now lay – perfectly still, except for her face, her brow twitching and furrowing as she journeyed her way through wherever Maleficent had put her.
Eventually, he glanced over at his mistress, concern etched upon his face.
"How long are you going to leave her?" he asked
Maleficent was sitting further away from the two, with her back to them.
"Until she is ready."
"How will we know when she's ready?" Diaval probed.
"I will know."
For a moment, neither of them said anything further. But as the minutes passed by, Diaval finally spoke again.
"Do you really think this was the best time, Mistress? I don't know what went on back there, nor what happened between you and Aurora yesterday. But-"
"This is the only time, Diaval. Aurora must understand the true nature of these humans before it is too late," Maleficent told him. "There are a great many things that she does not understand, because she is young and naïve. She has not… fully experienced the damage human greed and ambition can do."
"So, you're…. what? Showing her?" he asked, unconvinced.
"Everything I do for that child is to protect her," she replied, curtly. "She will come to no harm within a memory."
Diaval opened his mouth to speak again, but found himself interrupted.
"Stop it! Please, stop it!" Aurora cried out suddenly, choking back a sob.
For the first time, Maleficent turned to look at her, and Diaval could have sworn the fairy's cheeks were glistening with the tracks of her own tears.
Maleficent raised a hand and pulled the silver light from Aurora, bringing it back towards her until the girl was silent again, peaceful now.
Diaval glanced at her questioningly as she stood.
"She will awaken shortly," she told him.
And then she dropped from the tree, disappearing somewhere to the ground below.
Things were still for the longest time then, as Aurora slept on, and the raven-man felt his own eyelids drooping.
For a moment, sleep seemed imminent. That was, until Aurora threw herself out of her sleep with a gasp. The girl sat bolt upright.
And began to scream.
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"Aurora! Aurora! It's okay, you're safe. It's me!" Diaval cried, moving across to comfort the girl as she flailed and fought against him, disorientated. "Aurora! Aurora, it's alright…"
The young girl continued to squirm, uttering something that was entirely inaudible against the strength of her sobs.
"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, feeling a little out of his depth.
"Where is my Godmother?" Aurora asked through sobs, finally able to catch her breath enough to do so. "I want my mother."
Diaval tried to scan the ground below, wondering where Maleficent had gone.
But right on cue, the fairy reappeared, landing silently behind him.
Diaval moved aside to let his mistress in beside her, and Aurora sobbed harder, reaching out her in a desperate plea to be held.
Maleficent obliged - wrapping the girl in her arms and wings - and Aurora continued to sob into the fairy's robes, holding on for dear life.
Maleficent pressed a lingering kiss against the girl's head.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
And she was. For although she hoped her actions had helped the girl to understand, she took no delight in the distress and trauma it had evidently caused Aurora.
For the longest time then, the girl didn't speak, though her sobs died down and turned to sniffles as she allowed Maleficent to stroke her hair and rub small circles on her back.
Diaval had long since slipped away to give them privacy, and despite her usual unease when it came to the physical side of relationships, Maleficent found it came more naturally to her in such circumstances. There was something instinctual about her need to comfort this child – her child – as Aurora struggled through the emotions of everything that had happened to her over the last twenty-four hours.
Eventually, Maleficent shifted to lean against the tree's trunk, and Aurora burrowed further into her.
"Don't leave me," she pleaded.
"I have no plans to," Maleficent told her evenly.
The girl settled with her head against her Godmother's chest then, tears still fresh on her cheeks as she stared beyond into the distance, looking a little dazed.
"What happened?" the fairy asked eventually.
Aurora shrugged her shoulders lightly. "I overheard his plans when I wasn't supposed to."
"Did he hurt you?"
"He chased me into the forest," the young girl told her.
"And this?" Maleficent asked, taking a closer look at the gash on her forehead.
"I got away, didn't I? I'll survive," Aurora told her.
"He, on the other hand, will not," she muttered, more to herself than anybody else. "What is it, Diaval?"
There was an air of irritation to her voice as she noticed the man had returned, and was loitering just beyond the nest.
"Forgive me, mistress. I just thought you might want some of these berries. They're from the Echinacea plants near the springs. I've crushed them into a balm, for her wounds," he told her.
Oops.
"Thank you," Maleficent said stiffly, as her handed her the small pot. "You may retire for the night, Diaval. I shall call you if I need you."
He nodded, and she put him back into bird form before he departed.
The next few minutes were spent with Maleficent dressing Aurora's wounds, and removing the shards of shale from the girl's hands – something that not even the strongest of magic could address.
"There," she declared, when she was finally done. "You will be as good as new in a few short days."
"Thank you Godmother," Aurora mumbled, as the fairy extended a wing, allowing the child to settle back against her.
They lay in silence for a long time then, Maleficent stroking the girl's hair absent-mindedly and Aurora pressed closer to the fairy than anybody else had ever been, soothed by her rhythmic breathing.
"Godmother?" she asked, after some time. "Why did you say that, before?"
Maleficent glanced down at her, confused. "What do you mean?"
"Before, when you came back. You said you were sorry," Aurora recounted.
The fairy paused, having hoped this was a conversation that would keep until the morning.
Yet the girl watched her intently, awaiting an answer.
"Aurora, you… have grown up amongst the fair-folk, rather than your own kind," she began, carefully. "And I understand why this would make you curious about other humans. Especially those with whom you may share blood ties. It is your right to have these relationships if you so wish, and I will not stand in your way. But because-"
"I don't-" Aurora began.
"-Because you have not grown up in their world, sometimes I fear that you are naïve to the damage that their greed and folly can cause," Maleficent told her. "I, too, was once blind to this and I only wish that you will not fall foul to the same misdeeds. I am sorry that I subjected you to the things you saw and caused you such upset. But I hope that you might understand that I did this… out of love. And to protect you."
"I do," Aurora told her solemnly, sitting up to look the fairy in the eye. "I do understand. After everything that happened in Wolfslock and watching what my… what Stefan did to you…. And I also understand what happened in the cave, the other day."
Maleficent frowned. "What?"
"I understand why you always sleep after I do, and why you awaken before me. I should not have gone in search of Darius. I didn't mean to behave so badly, I was just…. hurt, Godmother. I was hurt that you could think I would ever betray your trust in the way that he did," Aurora told her honestly. "And although it still hurts, at least now I understand."
"Aurora, I did not show you those things in order to excuse the way in which I reacted the other day," Maleficent told her, somewhat surprised.
"I know. But all the same, it did help me to understand why you don't trust me fully and I-"
Maleficent reached out and took Aurora's chin gently between her thumb and index finger. "Aurora... My sleeping patterns and the way I was the other day are a direct result of what happened between myself and your father. These are instincts, engrained so deeply within me that I may never shake them off. But they are not, nor will they ever be, a reflection on how I feel towards you. I trust you explicitly."
"Do you?" Aurora asked, her voice small, as if she wasn't yet truly convinced.
Maleficent inclined her head in response.
Silently, and as if deep in thought, Aurora reached out a hand to stroke the edge of Maleficent's wing, carefully. She looked troubled, the fairy observed – no doubt the scenes she had witnessed earlier replaying over and over in her head.
"I don't ever want to return to the human kingdom again," the girl murmured eventually, more to herself than to anybody else.
"You say that now…" Maleficent began, caught unawares by the sweeping statement.
But Aurora shook her head firmly. "You were right about them all along. They only care about what they can gain from the moors, or who will be the first to… to…"
"To what?" the fairy asked, though she could already guess.
"I won't allow them to hurt you again," the girl told her vehemently.
"Aurora, that is not for you to worry about," Maleficent said, softly.
"Yes it is," she insisted, as more tears rolled down her already-blotchy cheeks. "It is, because you're my mother. I'm sorry that I went there, to Wolfslock. I won't go back there. Not ever. Do you forgive me?"
"There is nothing to forgive, Beastie. And whether you run to Wolfslock, Ulstead or any number of faraway distant lands, you will always be welcomed back to the moors," her Godmother assured her. "This is your home."
Aurora melted into her again, wrapping her arms around the fairy as if to keep her in the nest.
Maleficent arched a brow, fully aware that one of the girls' hands had found its way to the base of her wings, fingers gently stroking the tiny feathers that sat there.
Given the circumstances, Maleficent decided that she would, for now, overlook it.
Cupping a hand to the back of Aurora's head, the fairy wrapped her wings around her, encouraging the girl back towards slumber.
She would deal with Darius tomorrow.
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