AN: IMPORTANT: read the bolded section of the FIRST chapter. I edited that because it's important to know where Ella got Aurora from, to answer stubble96's question. I also edited it all over the place, but nothing that changes the story. To miss paratess, they don't both play the violin, I'm sorry if I made it sound that way : ( and you're right, it was hard to figure out whose name is who because 1) once I added a random name by accident, and 2) because Ella's mother and Ella's real baby have the same name: Aleida. Thanks a bunch for reviewing to everyone, it made me feel good : ) Eh, I feel that something's missing from this chapter, but please enjoy.
Ella felt as though she had grown little compared to her two daughters. Once in a while she pondered where she would be if she had not loved the prince, now king. Behind those thoughts, although she didn't acknowledge them, she thought it might be better if she had not married him at all. Then someone else could be happy, and no one would be cursed.
Life slowed down once in a while, but then it flickered away so fast Ella barely had time to ponder anymore. She had a child, Aurora, to nourish into a queen, and a secret daughter whom she also loved. Aleida, a daughter she was still responsible for, a burden which she both liked and was dragged down by. Ella accepted everything given to her like a queen should - the crown, the stressed but loving king, the mothering of two, the secrets tucked away. What wore her away the most, although she would never admit it, was the fact that she did not know when Selene would strike Aleida. She smiled away her secrets with her husband and merely handled everything on her own.
Eight years had passed, and the excitement of two daughters who knew not of the other, was always felt. Now, after they had met, Ella thought of their future together. How they would affect each other and intertwine. How they might have never each other if it weren't for Selene. Ella took some time to try to see anything could come out of their friendship, but instead she saw possibilities, wonderful ones. She felt they were connected. Ella didn't want to work with fate, if it was so.
At times Ella ached for Aleida. Although Ella came often as she could to the cottage her mother and Aleida lived in, she felt that she could not reach into Aleida's childhood quite enough. She always dreamt of the days she spent with Aleida, but she told herself this was only because she saw her less often than Aurora. It would not be just to love Aleida more! The few hours Ella spent outside or inside with Aleida felt natural and made her feel free. Days would come when Ella could hardly stay with Aurora. When Aurora first waddled around the royal carpet, Ella wondered if possibly, Aleida was doing the exact same. When Aurora uttered her first word, Ella almost forgot that Aleida could not speak. That time, she wondered when Aleida would realize that her voice was gone. At times like these, Ella hated Selene. How incomplete Aleida was - without a real family, without a voice, without solid words, never knowing her past, never quite safe.
During the Aurora's little concert, Ella stared at Aleida as Aurora sang. In her youth, Ella had been just like Aurora, gifted in singing. Ella could not go more than a few hours without singing, and it helped that her voice was envied and filled with unmistakable beauty. Before Aleida was born, Ella imagined singing with her daughter, who could grow up to love singing, too. Ella's wish had come true, yet it wasn't the way she wanted it to be. Was it just a coincident that Aleida lacked the superb voice Aurora had? Ella flared up when she thought that. Although she was immensely delighted with Aurora, she felt guilty.
Ella was indeed prideful, among her better traits of gentleness and optimism. She was caring, and loved life, but she waned when life took her to face what she despised. What she despised was what she could not control, and Ella wished for just a little more control.
During the concert, Ella had began crying without realizing it. Some thought it was because Aurora's singing was so perfectly enchanting - a mother full of joy and wonder for Aurora, her "daughter" - but of course! But Ella's mother saw her brush away her tears in the crowd. Ella's mother felt herself tense, wishing she could reach out and steady her. Ella didn't know it, but she was rarely completely steady or comforted anymore.
Some days Ella couldn't stop thinking, thinking, thinking, away into space. Thinking of what Aleida was doing, how she was like compared to Aurora, how and how much she loved them. She would chide herself then, but she still felt pride for her daughters at different times. Ella loved watching as Aurora ran into life's awaiting hands, discovering the bright world set before her. She embraced Aurora as she learned more about this little soul.
But Aleida! How different yet alike the two daughters were. One was royal, the other a peasant in the forest with Ella's mother. Aleida, so full of life, so full of enjoyment in everything she touched. Aurora, who had picky tastes and liked the world how she saw fit, but still full of life. Sometimes Ella briefly mixed them up while talking to the king, who sometimes wondered who in the world Ella was talking so delightfully about.
How would the two children collide? Ella's eyes would widen and her curiosity would burn a hole in her chest. Yes, she wanted to see them grow and love each other as she loved them both. She painted pictures in her mind of them playing and arguing and weeping. Aleida's gentleness would make up for Aurora's boldness. Aurora's insistent words would help Aleida when she realized how frighteningly unsure the world was.
I wish to see her now, I want to hear her voice now...beautiful Aleida, do you love me as much as I do you? But Aurora, she is just as wonderful, she is bold and brave....Why cannot I be satisfied with one child? Aurora, you are not everything in my world without Aleida.
Ella detested herself when she realized she could not love one without the other. That without the one child, she could not properly love the other. Aleida, you must not go away, not now, not ever. Selene, did you know this would happen?
The days after the concert, Ella spent ferocious energy into teaching as many words in the hand language to Aurora. A few times the king would watch them together, vaguely, nervously suspicious of Ella's sudden quest. Ella looked as though she could not wait for something, looked as though she was struck by inspiration and determination. And she was - Ella was rejuvenated, feeling as though a card in the future had been flipped over. She marched on with the hope she saw in the dawn of Aleida's birth, full of tender, sweeping love for everything she knew. She knew not why the sudden, slight change, but surely it could stay.
"Her name is Aleida, and she has never spoken her own name before. You are a blessed princess, Aurora." Ella wrapped her arms around Aurora, never wanting to let go. Aurora frowned and cried out, "Someday I shall make her sing an' talk like me. That's so strange, I don't understand...." She breathed in her "mother's" vanilla, flowery scent. Only Mother smelled like that, and Mother always would. Aurora felt gleeful again and told her mother to teach another word.
"She will not live long under my curse...Pretty child, perhaps it is time." Selene erased the visions from her eyes and settled down into the ground after looking into the present with her head. Another fairy had helped her form that gift, and Selene found that after time, she could do it more easily. She rarely looked back into the past, and never once into the future. But she was driven to look into the present. She did it almost whenever she felt the urge to, as if the hobby were as ordinary as whistling or reading. It helped her throughout her days in the almost isolated little forest. Someone then knocked on her door. She straightened herself as she decided that it might indeed be time to fulfill the curse she had prepared perfectly eight years ago.