Chapter 27: The Sword of Truth
When Rose woke up, she found herself in a bed with white sheets. Above her, Philip was sleeping in a nearby chair while Flora Fauna and Mary were milling about.
"What…happened?" Rose muttered, trying to get up.
This got the Fairies' attention and they crowded around Rose.
While Mary checked Rose's pulse, Fauna started crying. "Thank goodness. We thought we lost you forever."
"How are you feeling?" Flora asked.
"Mostly tired," Rose answered groggily. "But…where are we?"
"In the hospital," Mary said. "You've been asleep for six months."
"How did that happen?" Rose rubbed her eyes, and she could see a curtain separating her bed from another.
"You were tricked into fulfilling the curse we mentioned," Flora explained, looking downward. "But it was mostly due to our carelessness."
"Do you know who did it?"
"Yes," Fauna nodded. "It was Maleficent."
"The green-skinned girl from school?" When Fauna nodded a second time, Rose looked puzzled. "Was she the evil Fairy you were talking about?"
"Indeed, and we think she posed as a student to get close to you," Mary claimed. "Unfortunately, we couldn't do anything in case she decided to fulfill the curse sooner."
"But then after I accidentally used my magic to see her out the door in Choir, we feared for your safety," Fauna added.
"So we took you away from the cottage and brought you to your father's house, thinking Maleficent wouldn't follow us," Flora concluded bitterly. "But we were wrong."
"I remember sitting in the office, like you told me to, and then I saw a bright green light," Rose recalled. "Then after that…I touched something and passed out."
"We think Maleficent lured you up a secret passage that led into your former nursery," Flora noted. "It was there that she placed a spinning wheel for you to prick your finger on, and that's what caused you to fall asleep."
"Why? I've pricked myself before and never fallen asleep," Rose claimed.
"That was because of Maleficent's curse," Flora replied. "She stated that before the sun would set on your sixteenth birthday, you would prick your finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. But of course, Mary changed that last part to have you fall asleep instead and be awakened by the Kiss of True Love."
Looking at Philip, who was still asleep, Rose came to a realization. "Was Philip the one who—
"Gave you the Kiss of True Love? Indeed," Fauna smiled.
"Where was he?"
Flora looked downward. "He had gone to the cottage because of your invitation, where Maleficent captured him and took him to the Forbidden Mountain. She placed him in a dungeon there along with several others who went missing on a bus that went out of town and never came back. We managed to rescue them with our magic, though Maleficent managed to reach Stephen's house before we could and covered the entire place in thorns."
Concerned, Rose asked, "Was anyone hurt?"
In response, Flora shook her head. "We put everyone in the house to sleep until you would awaken, so no one was harmed. But because we had given Philip an enchanted sword, he was able to cut the thorns with it which angered Maleficent enough to make her turn into a dragon. With our help, Philip was able to destroy Maleficent for good so she was dead by the time the authorities showed up led by Merlin."
Gasping, Rose realized, "He was the one who defeated Madam Mim, right?"
Nodding, Flora continued. "While he commended Philip for his bravery, he scolded us for recklessly using magic to cover up our own mistakes. So he offered us the deal of helping him break another similar curse or be sent to Morva, the ultimate prison for magic-using criminals."
"But you're not criminals," Rose insisted. "You were just trying to set things right. What happened to the other prisoners?"
"We…lost track of them in trying to get to Stephen's home before Maleficent could," Fauna answered. "But the police found one. Maurice, I think his name was."
"That's Belle's last name," Rose remembered. Looking back at the bed that was parallel to hers, which was partially visible through the sheet between them, she wondered. "Who's next to me?"
"Snow White," Mary said. "She was poisoned by her stepmother, who was an amateur Witch, by an apple laced with a sleeping potion that puts one into a death-like sleep."
"That sounds awful," Rose commented, and didn't see the outline of a person in the bed. "Is she still here?"
"She was discharged from the hospital yesterday, according to Miss Fairy who's been helping us in getting you and Snow out of your respective comas," Fauna claimed. "She's a Fairy Godmother, you see."
"To who?" asked Rose.
"Cindy Tremaine, whom you know from Choir," Fauna replied.
"Did you tell her what happened to me?"
"We never found the time to tell her, and she seemed preoccupied by something else so we let things be. Though I suppose we should have told her, since she is your friend."
"I'll talk to her later," Rose offered.
Just then, Philip woke up from a heavy sleep and so the Fairies politely left the room. Though he seemed surprised to see her awake, Rose knew he was glad and so she got up and hugged him.
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After Rose was allowed to leave the hospital, she was brought to her true father's house for a second attempt at celebrating her sixteenth birthday properly. Though she had no expectations for what her father would look like, Rose didn't expect him to be a tall slender man with dark hair and a full beard while her mother had long light-brown hair and a plain-looking face. While they called her Aurora, she insisted on being called Rose which suited them just fine. As for Philip, he talked to his portly father about postponing the engagement until they asked for it. Though Philip's father seemed initially hesitant, he and Stephen conceded once they saw Philip and Rose dancing across the ballroom floor with Rose's dress strangely alternating between pink and blue color-wise.
End of Chapter 27
