Hi guys! Sorry for not publishing as often as I used to. Furthermore, I just noticed chapters 3 and 4 somehow ended up being the same, so I edited it, you should go check if you read the real fourth chapter as it is the most fluffy of all I think xDD
Anyway, this one is kind of a bridge chapter, I introduced numerous elements that I'll use later in the following chapters. It may take me a while to write the following ones, but please be patient.
A week or so after what was supposed to be Diaval's day off, his mistress' nest was almost finished. As planned, an ivy plant was running against the trunk of the rowan tree, and its leafy climbers were forming a cocoon around the nest. It was large enough so they could both fit into it either standing up or laying down. A sheet cleverly snatched by the raven was covering the fluffy floor of wool, and a big flower's bud was hanging at the top of the cocoon.
The night was already at its darkest when they came back from their little stroll. Every evening, Maleficent dedicated one hour of her time to show him the wonders of her realm. She never failed to explain to him everything about every creatures and every plants, only to watch the marvelled look on his face. She had feared his reaction at first, but he happened to have become pretty fond of her world, especially the glowing things. However, sometimes it was to her doom, really…
"No, Diaval. We will not bring back magical moss," she pointed out sternly at the dark haired man following her.
"But Mistress, it glows when one walks on it! It's amazing!" he exclaimed with a gleeful expression.
She did her best not to laugh. He was being awfully demonstrative sometimes. It was amusing how something she found so casual was such a wonder for him.
"I'm glad you liked it, but I thought we agreed on this. No more glowing things in the nest."
Ever since they started building the nest, Diaval had this crazy idea of using glowing plants all over. In the end, she agreed to put a glowing flower inside of the cocoon in order to give them some light when it was too dark, if only he could stop asking to bring back every single glowing plant they encountered. It worked for a while, until today.
"I never mentioned putting it into the nest, you know. Merely here, at the base of the tree. I'm sure it could be useful to see your way if you would ever need to get up in the middle of the night."
What he was saying made sense. That could be useful. After all, he's always had very good ideas to improve her home. She was just a little bit concerned he would spend his time playing with the magical moss if she was to allow it here. Especially considering the time it took her to drag him away from it the first time.
"I guess I'll have to think about it," she mused, stopping in front of their tree.
Diaval halted a few feet behind, and she turned to face him with raised eyebrows.
"Don't you want to do your thing?" she asked with an enigmatic glare.
His heart skipped a beat when he understood what she meant.
It all started yesterday, after his trip to the castle. He had witnessed a lesson given to Stefan about gallantry, and how to behave properly around a woman – at the demand of the queen, it appeared, as he was complaining rather loudly about it. In any case, he had learnt a thing or two, and had tried it with his mistress at the end of their daily evening stroll. After all, if he was to be in man form, the least he could do was to show his respect and dedication to his mistress the way humans would.
However, it didn't went quite as expected, and Maleficent only saw in his behaviour a way to tell her she was weak, either because she was a woman, or because she was a wingless fairy. No need to mention she quickly became violent and spoke her mind along with all kind of threats. Of course, he explained her as soon as he was given the chance, but it hadn't been enough to calm down the upset fairy, and she had sent him off to his nest right away.
"B-But M-Mistress, I thought-"
"I overreacted," she cut him off at once.
They haven't mentioned the incident since then, but Maleficent thought this over during a good part of the night. She pondered about what he told her, that his gesture wasn't meant to help her, but only to show her his infinite respect, devotion and concern, also to honour her as a lady and a queen. Time had smoothed her temper, and thinking about this eventually convinced her to change her mind.
Guessing he wouldn't get any other explanation, Diaval smiled widely and leapt into the nest, parting the curtains. He then turned around, bowed elegantly, and offered his hand for her to take.
This time, she didn't yell at him, but instead took his hand and let him guide her inside of the nest. He was quite charming, really, and she liked how he looked so humble in front of her. The truth was, the forced bows and allegiance of the fair folk never truly made her feel like a queen, but his current behaviour was almost enough to do so.
She let go of his hand as soon as she was in the nest and gracefully sat down. With a wisp of golden magic, the flower above them slowly opened, casting a soft light inside of the cocoon. She looked at her servant's amazed gaze with a wry smile. Even though she spent her evenings showing him all the shiny things of the Moors, he still stayed in awe in front of most of them, and the glowing flower inside of her nest wasn't an exception.
"You're not going to the water hole, tonight?" he asked innocently while sitting down at the opposite end of the nest.
That wasn't like he wanted her to leave or anything, but she used to grab a change of clothes and go bathing right away when they came back from their evening stroll.
"I am not. It has been a long day. Besides, I've grown quite curious about why you always wish to stay here while I'm gone."
She didn't want to be nosy, but his behaviour about this was quite suspicious, and the last thing she needed was a reason to doubt her companion, especially now that she started to trust him so much. Of course, it has never been her intention, but she had noticed that recently, her body would relax anytime he was close, even when he was in human form.
"Well, I need light... To practise my reading," he admitted, lowering his gaze.
He knew she wouldn't like it. She despised humans, and reading was something specific to men, but he couldn't lie to her. Dishonesty wasn't in birds' nature, and he was pretty sure she would know if he was to lie to her, anyway.
"I never asked you to do that," she said, raising an eyebrow.
The fairy narrowed her eyes, but didn't let show her troubled thoughts. Reading? Why in hell would he want to know how to read? Would that be his human side taking over? In either case, that wasn't good. She shouldn't let him in his human form so often, or he would start to think like one, and she figured reading was just the beginning of it.
"What if I don't want you to read?" she spat sharply.
"Believe me, I don't enjoy it. It's quite a pain to learn, really," he complained.
She gave him a puzzled look, silently asking for an explanation. His reasoning didn't make any sense. Why would he do something that annoying?
The raven turned man bit his lip and somehow got a few folded papers out of his shirt. He chose one and handed it to her.
"Look. I saw this paper posted in every village I crossed. I'm pretty sure it talks about you, and I assumed we'd better be prepared if a bunch of angry humans were to come for you," he explained with a sheepish face.
The fairy unfolded the thick sheet. Inside was a drawing that looked very much like her, along with some lines of these peculiar symbols humans were using to communicate. She wondered what Stefan would have to say about her to his new subjects. Certainly not what he did to her or the connection he once had to the Moors.
She looked away while her mind was lost in the memories of their laughs and games. They were real, weren't they? He couldn't have planned his treachery from the beginning. On the other hand, how could he do that to her after being her friend for so long? After… telling her he loved her. She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. She couldn't even recall how many times she thought about his reasons for doing something that horrendous to the person he claimed to love. What had happened to him? Didn't he have any regrets at all?
A hand on her palm startled her, chasing away the dreary thoughts. She just realised Diaval was calling her. She turned to him and her imperious gaze fell on the place his fingers were resting. Surely, he hadn't forget how she felt about touching. Of course they were touching an awful lot when they cuddled, but it wasn't the same. It shouldn't be the same, at least. She made this point very clear the first time she established the rules.
"Sorry," he said, hastily withdrawing his hand. "You seemed gloomy, all of a sudden."
The raven turned man didn't push the matter and stayed silent for a moment. It wasn't unusual of her to be a little bit gloomy, but since he saved her life, she was much more light-hearted when they were in the nest, and Diaval was determined to keep it this way.
"If you don't want me to, I won't read, Mistress," he pointed out docilely, hoping that alone would soothe her darkening mood.
She looked at him with an impassive expression. It was indeed a good idea for him to learn how to read. His ability may be a very good asset to help protect the Moors from humans. Besides, it was true this piece of paper was alarming. What if Stefan was looking for someone to finish what he had been too coward to do himself: kill her? Then a lot of dangerous humans would try to cross the border and would make a mess of her magical land with their iron weapons. Diaval was right, they have to be prepared if something like that was to happen.
"No, Diaval. As a matter of fact, I think it could be useful. Just tell me when you understand what it says," she commanded as she gave him the mysterious parchment back.
"Sure, Mistress."
He went back to his work, unfolding the other papers he had. From the corner of his eye, he saw his Mistress' arm diving into the hole of the trunk behind her, to get out her hairbrush. He wished she would be kind enough to let him preen her hair sometimes, but that was something she appeared to be doing while bathing, as she always came back with cleaned and preened hair.
The raven turned man shook off those thoughts, realising it was pointless to have such high hopes, and lay his eyes on the parchment he was holding.
From the other side of the nest, Maleficent was combing her hair meticulously. It was far easier to comb it while they were wet, but she was too tired to go to the water hole, tonight. Not to mention the water was becoming awfully cold when the sun was down, these days. The reign of autumn was coming to an end, and the frosty season would be there soon enough, with all the extra work that meant for her. She may have to ask Diaval to help her out with the patrols from time to time, as she wasn't sure she could walk properly with snow and ice all over the Moors.
With a yawn, she put her hairbrush back in the hole of the tree and sat down against the trunk, her eyes fixed back on her servant. He seemed to be concentrating hard on whatever he was doing. Boredom made her think about possible ways to annoy him, but it wouldn't be fair to him. From what she heard, learning human's reading was difficult enough as it was. Besides, the only reason he was going through it was to keep her safe. Her face cracked into a tender smile and she kept observing him silently, wondering how on earth the evil fairy she had become could deserve all the attention and sweetness her servant was giving her.
She raised an eyebrow when she noticed he was struggling to find a plane surface to write on one of the parchments. With a sigh, she torn off a tiny piece of bark from the tree and enlarged it until it would look like a little board. She then took his papers, put them on it and handed him the whole thing.
"Thank you, Mistress," he mumbled with a shameful smile.
The fairy nodded at him evenly, her emerald eyes glowing warmly in the dim light. However, something was bugging her about the whole thing. She felt like he was hiding something from her.
"How are you learning how to read?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow.
"Stefan can't read either, so I'm attending his lessons, and I borrowed these to practise," the raven-man answered, gesturing to the parchments.
So that was how he got the idea. He was spending an awful lot of time attending Stefan's lessons, she realised. The amusing fact was that her raven seemed to be complaining less and learning faster than the wannabe king, at least from what she heard. That wasn't surprising. Ravens were highly intelligent beings, and hers wasn't an exception, quite the contrary, really.
"Little thief," she teased.
Her featured relaxed into a smirk when he gave her a mischievous grin. Maybe, just maybe, one day, she would get bold enough to ask him to teach her. This ability of reading had always intrigued her, and it would be a very good way to remember things, like spells or recipes.
A few minutes later, Diaval yawned and promptly covered his mouth as his mistress' eyes narrowed at him fiercely. He always forgot to do it, no matter how many times she reminded him to do so. Birds didn't yawned, and his human body was yawning on his own, so why would he care?
"Are you done for tonight?" she asked, interrupting his thoughts.
Usually, he would just wait for her return to stop what he was doing, but he had to admit, he was pretty tired. Running across the magical moss to make it glow was exhausting, he mused. But it had been quite the experience.
"I think I am."
She nodded and got her back away from the trunk in order to take her servant's board and parchments. He looked at her in awe as she was putting it into the hole of the tree, where she kept her own things. Surely she didn't want to mix his things with hers?
"We will keep your things along with mine. Just ask me if you want them. Understood?"
He nodded obediently and thanked her. A second later, he was a bird again. He hopped to her shoulder and crooned at her softly.
"Is that a 'good night'?" she asked on a light tone.
He nodded this time with his feathery head and cawed at her excitedly when she smiled at him.
"Good night then, Diaval," she murmured.
Many thanks to DancingKitKat for beta-reading me!