Chapter 4: Unclear Intentions
Midday struck and word of Phillip's leaving had already spread throughout the Moors. Maleficent, many other faeries, Aurora, and her woodland friends came to see him off. Diaval, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight, and it worried Aurora immensely. She thought about what may have driven him away from the occasion, but nothing came to mind.
She stepped up to the prince and accepted his embrace. "You promise me you will stay safe?" he asked. "Do nothing dangerous, for me?"
"Of course, if it means the same for you."
"If the lady wishes it, I will provide." It was then that a streak of black claimed the attention of many. The prince, anticipating the event, picked his voice up for his audience to hear. "And, before I go, I request a chat with the bird man." The respectful, courtly manner he spoke with was lost in the volume he used to speak it.
The 'bird man,' having just flown in, looked up with half-lidded eyes, gritting teeth, and a bitten tongue as to not accidentally insult the boy in return. Aurora placed herself next to her godmother and observed their interaction with open ears, despite them being too far to hear. They would have to shout, like Phillip's previous example.
Maleficent fully believed that it would come to that at some point.
"How may I be of service, prince?" Diaval put on a strained smile.
Phillip dropped his tone once more, low enough that not even the winged creatures around their queen dared to fly close and eavesdrop. "Listen well, Diaval, servant of Maleficent. I will be gone for a few days, perhaps four. Aurora told me what happened at the rivers and I would like to apologize for the actions taken afterward on my account. She sees you as a close friend, I know it, and it was unruly of me to assume that you were out to harm her.
"But this does not mean that I trust you, crow, especially with my Aurora. If I hear word uttered of harm on her, another 'playful gesture' gone wrong, or you stepping over any boundaries that you know a decent person would align to, I will have your feathered head on the tip of my sword before you had the chance to flee – on foot or wings, whichever you are cursed with at the moment. If I can have your word that you completely understand what I have told you, then I will forget about you spying on Aurora and I this morning."
Diaval winced. His morning flight to alleviate some stress had taken him to the grasslands, but he had not anticipated running across the couple in the middle of whatever it was they were doing. The prince obviously spotted him and mistook it for spying.
"What do you –"
"She will trust my word over yours," he interrupted, "whether fabricated or not. I will exaggerate any details that I have to if it ensures that she is safe while I am gone."
Diaval frowned. He was about to argue, excuses burning on the tip of his tongue, but Phillip glared him down.
"Your word, crow?"
He bowed his head out of submission, not respect. "I promise to abide by your rules. Her safety won't be compromised."
"I mean not to make an enemy out of you, Diaval. Aurora is the greatest thing to have come into my life since I was crowned a prince and I will do whatever means necessary to keep her alive and well." Phillip visibly shook, whether in anger or slight fatigue from his long speech, Diaval did not know, and did not care. He swiveled on his heel and avoided eye contact with those who aimed to identify the emotions in them.
Phillip mounted his horse and offered one more wave goodbye, a curt and small gesture. His horse, pure white contrasting with the shadows cast under the thick canopy of forest, kicked dust toward Diaval's retreating figure.
Maleficent twirled her finger with black smoke, covering her servant in the same and gradually, slowly changing him back into a crow. He landed on her shoulder, scowling as much as a bird could. It was aimed at the trotting horse, trampling all in its path, and Diaval solely thought of it as childish and reckless.
The prince rode as if the Moors were his, as if Aurora were his, and as if the people of the lands were his to command. He wished to see what it was like for the little rodent to be pushed off of his pedestal by his father.
"The faeries are all wondering what you and Phillip were talking about, Diaval," Maleficent said, stroking his feathers lackadaisically.
Aurora agreed with a nod of her head. "You both were speaking so quietly, we were frightened by the sound of our own breathing!" Her subjects dispersed out of the grasslands and to their various damp abodes. She beamed at each of them if they looked her way, gleaming with a toothy grin at the mud-throwing lake critters. "I was initially uneasy that you were not present to see Phillip before his leaving, if I had done something to anger you or make you uneasy about him."
His scowl wore off at her words and he jumped from Maleficent's shoulder to Aurora's, nuzzling his head into her neck. "Alright, alright pretty bird, that tickles!"
"Come, dear, I still have a lot to teach you. Now is an excellent time to review the names of the creatures that live here."
Aurora dropped her jaw. "They all have surnames?"
"No, beastie. Don't be silly. Most have no ability to speak, so they are referred to as one being." The blonde queen breathed a sigh of immense relief. "What would you like to learn about first?"
"How about…"
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"So, the glowing blue plants are the early stages of the glowing green plants, but not the glowing purple plants?"
"Correct," Diaval said, giving her a fully bloomed chrysanthemum as a reward. "Anything else you learned?"
She stepped over a fallen, hollowed log, barely seen in the rising white fog. "I told you most of it in the past ten minutes, my hair is full of flowers you picked, and my head hurts from retaining all of this knowledge. Can't we sit for a while? We have been walking for a long time."
"You've told me everything you know?"
She almost lost her balance on the root of an oak tree but Diaval held her forearm to keep her steady. "She did tell me about your first turning. Somehow, I did not have it figured out that you were a bird for a long time and then she gave you a human form. What was it like?"
"Oh, you know. I definitely was fully clothed and not dirty. There weren't dogs about to eat me, it was a great life."
"Sarcastic thing you are, Diaval. I meant, what did it feel like? Did it hurt?" Grabbing his face, she pulled his forehead down to hers, and for a second his whole world slowed to the touch. "Like bumping your head?"
Her eyes were thinned with a genuine smile and, at the sight of it, he abruptly ended the contact. "Y-yeah. Except, sort of stretchier and especially unusual. I had to walk on human legs for at least five days to get used to them, I don't know how you people do it every day even now." Aurora tilted her head, frowning.
"You do not like being human?"
"It is an experience. I really did not appreciate how I came to be one, forcibly changed and wings stripped from me unless mistress said help me, I'm in need of a slave. I wished for the longest time to fly far away and never return. This morning, I had the same urge, mostly spontaneous," he muttered.
"I certainly hope not!" Her unexpected shriek elicited a squawk out of Diaval and he stumbled.
"You really like making me trip, Aurora." She ignored his comment and pulled him deeper into the foggy grounds, her milky dress blending into the atmosphere almost perfectly. He, on the other hand with his stark black – and newly repaired – jacket, stuck out like an ashen star in a white sky.
"Never in a thousand years do I want to see you gone. I will trip you the entire way if it means you stay."
He smirked. "Is that what you wish? For me to stay with you forever?"
Aurora squeezed his hand, peered back with glimmering whimsical eyes, and said nothing. It was answer enough.
Diaval squinted as the mist got heavier. He barely saw the golden wisps of her hair bouncing in each step; it was odd, unnatural for the Moors to produce a natural blindfold that was so burdensome. He brought himself closer to Aurora and prayed they were not lost.
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Maleficent straightened her fingers, erasing the little traces of sparkling conjuration from them. Her seat in a taller, dense tree provided perfect cover to monitor her work. The vapor below wholly hid Aurora and Diaval from their surroundings, in addition to stray gazes of the gossipy faeries. Her scarlet lips curved upward as Aurora's bubbly laugh broke through the foliage of her hideout. Behind her, the tinkling of wings informed her that she had guests.
"Maleficent, what is the meaning of this? She might run into a tree, break her arm," Flittle scolded in a whisper.
Knotgrass rolled her eyes. "Maybe she'll break her arm by running into a tree."
"I will not allow that to happen," said Maleficent. "I am merely giving them time to bond."
"Bond?" The greenest of the four faeries tugged on one of the large feathers blocking her view. "Is this to 'elp the birdy man with my gift?" Thistletwit was lifted up by her tiny hand and placed in Maleficent's massive one.
"Correct."
"Preposterous! They will bond right after starving to death, trust me." Flittle earned many glares with that comment.
"That is not going to happen either. It was more an endowment, Phillip's leaving, in that Diaval can cease sulking and actually get on with the task I proposed to him. I trust that he will take this opportunity and become more acquainted with her." The four of them searched the fog, but to no avail – Diaval and Aurora were on their own.
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A/N: They're all aloooonnneee…. I can't wait for you guys to find out all of this stuff that I have planned and uhghghghh. Just so you know, I do have my college orientation coming up in a couple of days, so I will be prepping for that and it might set me back a little, but I'll try my best to get these written (and written well, that's kind of important too), so don't fret if I am a little late. (I have a life! With friends. And people. Sometimes.)
Don't forget, I'm always looking for criticism or tips for my writing. I'm always trying to improve so your comments will be amazingly helpful. Thanks again and until next time, my friends.