"Ugh, what?" Aurora mumbled as she opened her eyes, vision blurry. She blinked a few times to try and adjust again, looking around. She was in her bed. "Mother?" she looked over at the side of her bed where, indeed, her mother was.
"Oh, my Aurora!" she immediately flung herself to bring the little girl into a deep hug, "Oh, thank the Lord, you're alive!" she whispered.
"Mother, what happened?" she asked, hugging back awkwardly.
"Aurora," she heard her father's voice from the other side of the bed, "What do you remember?"
"Remember? I, I remember I, was talking to Phillip, we, went to see the horses and, the pony got scared and, it nearly hurt Mister Edgar, and, it hit something, green, that wasn't there before. I, think, I made it." she said slowly, groggy mind slowly speeding up once again.
The King and Queen exchanged worried look.
Aurora gasped "Phillip! And Mister Edgar! Are they safe?"
"Yes, darling. But, we need to talk. About what you did." Leah said seriously, sitting on Aurora's bed.
"Am I in trouble?" Aurora shrank into herself.
"No, no." Stefan shook his head. "What happened isn't a bad thing."
"Then, what was that?"
Leah took a deep breath, "When you were a baby, your father and I invited all the kingdom to your christening. Including a woman named Maleficent. She's very dangerous. I was afraid of what she'd do if she was invited, but I was more afraid of what she would do if she wasn't. So, she gave you what she called a gift, Aurora. The gift of magic."
"Magic..." the Princess looked at her hands, flexing her little fingers. So that was what she'd done.
"That's, not the whole story." Stefan continued. "The gift came with a condition. If you don't learn to use magic by the time you're 16," he hesitated, "very bad things will happen."
"Oh." Aurora said quietly. "So, what now?"
"Well, we've been trying to prepare for this day. You're going to start to learn magic in addition to the rest of your lessons. From the Three Good Fairies." Leah told her.
"Three Good Fairies…" Aurora mumbled. She vaguely recognized the title but not enough to put faces or names to it.
"Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are their names." Stefan said.
Aurora muttered the names under her breath, "Are they nice?" she looked up at her parents.
"Very." Leah smiled warmly.
"So, when do I begin?" she tilted her head to the side.
"Today." Stefan then brought her into a hug. "Oh, my Aurora. Promise me something."
"Anything." Aurora nodded, hugging back.
"Promise me that you'll be the same wonderful little girl with them as you are with us."
"Of course." Why wouldn't she be?
"Then let us introduce you to them and you can begin." Stefan asserted.
…
Aurora had taken time to brush her hair back to its usual smoothness and put on a nicer dress since she was meeting the Fairies her parents mentioned. Not to mention, these were apparently the same ones who would be teaching her magic and she didn't want to appear rude. Her maid had helped her decide on a nice light blue dress that matched her eyes with some golden highlights that matched her hair.
She smiled at her reflection and walked into the main hall where she would apparently begin learning magic from the trio her parents had told her of.
Her smile widened into an exciting grin. Magic! She was going to learn real magic!
And lo and behold, the thee fairies were there. Garbed in red, green, and blue, their polite smiles became far more genuine when they locked eyes with Aurora.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Graces." Aurora curtsied politely.
"Oh please, you can drop the formalities, dearie." Merryweather flew over, "Please, you can just call us by name."
"My, how you've grown!" Flora chimed in.
"And so polite as well, oh, your parents must be so proud!" Fauna beamed.
Aurora's face lit up, polite smile breaking into a grin, "They are!" she confirmed.
"Such a radiant smile! Oh, I'm going to enjoy these sessions!" Merryweather's eyes twinkled with excitement.
"Well now, let's begin with the basics, shall we?" the red clad woman smiled. She reached into the air and pulled downwards, producing a simple branch of wood, polished and clean, perfectly straight. "This is your wand, you'll be using it to channel your magic." she gave it to Aurora, hilt first.
Aurora wrapped her hand around the wand, examining it. "Can it break?"
"Well, yes, but I would try not to break it, dear. Using magic without a wand is a bad idea, you use the wand to focus your magic, make it easier to get the precise effect you want." Flora explained.
Aurora nodded. "I see."
"Then let's begin." said the three Faires as one.