"I will see you in a few weeks, Godmother. I promise."
Maleficent sighed audibly, and the feathers of her wings ruffled. Whether they ruffled from displeasure or as protection against the chill, Aurora was not quite certain.
"You know I absolutely detest that name," Maleficent grumbled, and Aurora knew then that it was indeed from irritation that her wings twitched.
Normally the faery was not so easily provoked, but there had been something distinctly different about her as of late.
Diaval noticed it the morning he returned back with the reports she had requested in the way Maleficent so readily raised a hand charged with swirling green mist against him when his arrival shook loose a handful of leaves from the branch he perched on. He noticed it again moments later in the airy way she tried to dismiss it and told him to "keep down your obnoxious screeching, Aurora is still sleeping!"
He noticed it in the way she hardly left Aurora's side for more than a few minutes for the remainder of her stay, in the way she watched the young girl as though she might suddenly disappear into thin air, and in the way her wings twitched and adjusted themselves at every noise around them.
And he especially noticed it in the way she very nearly plucked him when he tried asking her what it was she was so fearful of that she had become an anxious and jittery wreck overnight.
He only made that mistake once. Aurora had fallen asleep and the two standing at the base of the oak's trunk, "to keep watch," as Maleficent had phrased it.
"What is it exactly we are "watching out" for?" Diaval asked casually, fixing his gaze on something in the distance but daring to steal a glance or two at the faery out of the corner of his eye.
"Nothing," Maleficent stated a bit too sharply, cutting short his question. "At least, nothing in particular."
There was a moment of tense silence before Diaval spoke again. "Is it what you've been afraid of for these past few days? If that's it then you could at least tell me what it is we're looking-"
Once again, his thought was cut short as Maleficent rounded on him, a toxic green flashing in her eyes and the harsh features of her face set in hard defiance, "Foolish bird!" she hissed. "There is nothing that I fear. You mean to tell me that you really believe I am afraid?"
She spat the last word like it was poison in her mouth, but her voice cracked as she spoke it out loud, as though just speaking it gave it the power to harm her. Diaval couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was herself she was scolding rather than the raven-turned-man who had been unfortunate enough to speak her thoughts aloud for her.
"You were afraid that night you thought the curse would never be broken and that you had lost Aurora forever." He knew that maybe he had gone too far, but there was no taking back the words once they were spoken.
The faery stood rigid, unable to argue. Diaval saw her falter and recoil, saw it in her eyes and the way her wings curled slightly forward around her like a shield.
"Is…is that what you're afraid of? Losing Aurora?" He urged further, speaking the words as though he were approaching a frightened animal, low and gentle.
Maleficent's mouth opened and closed like a fish trying and failing to breathe the air on land and her proud gaze fell to the ground.
Yes I am afraid of losing her. But I am afraid of more than just that. I am afraid that perhaps the curse is not yet done with her, and afraid that I will have only myself to blame if anything happens to her. I am afraid of not being able to keep my promise to her to protect her from anything. I am afraid of what I may become if I lose her for good, but I am even more afraid of what I may turn her into if she stays.
She tried to form an apology, wanted to give him a proper explanation; as her most trusted companion he deserved at least that much. But when she heard the rustles of leaves and shifting weight above in the branches of her tree the walls around her heart rose up once more, as impenetrable as the wall of thorns she had erected to keep the moors safe from threats that were her fault to begin with.
"Maleficent…?" Aurora peered down through the branches at her. The girl was clearly only half awake, most likely roused by the unusual cold of the night without Maleficent there to keep her warm. "Are you not coming to bed?"
Maleficent prayed she had heard none of their conversation and waved her hand in Diaval's direction, silencing him with a transformation from man to bird.
"Right here, Beastie. I'll join you in a moment."
Aurora's only reply was a lazy hum and the sound of her settling back into the nest-like hammock.
With a heavy sigh of relief, she turned back to her feathered companion and granted him human form once more, if only to dismiss him for the night.
Diaval accepted defeat and agreed to head back to his own nest, but before Maleficent could alter his form again he said what Maleficent understood was meant to be an apology.
"You won't, you know. Lose her, that is," he told her. "She loves you too."
Maleficent tried to remember those words, spoken with such confidence that she had settled down beside Aurora that night feeling slightly less frenzied than she had been earlier, as she said farewell to the girl for the weeks she had to be away.
Sitting atop her massive black horse with a thick emerald riding cloak drawn over her shoulders, Aurora somehow seemed older to the Maleficent, more sure of herself as she took the reins and directed her horse towards the towering castle in the distance.
Diaval, designated to be her travelling companion long ago by Maleficent, swooped low over the two, impatient to begin the journey. Usually Maleficent agreed to allow him to travel as a human; he claimed it allowed him to be of more assistance to the queen.
This time, though, she had refused with the explanation that, as a raven, he could more easily travel back and forth between kingdoms should the need arise.
He only stopped protesting when Maleficent gripped him firmly by the shoulders, both tone and body language betraying just how serious she was as she told him what he had joked about the day she got her wings back. "I need you, Diaval. I need you to do this for me."
Maleficent could only hope that her request was unnecessary as they said their final goodbyes
But when Aurora turned once more to steal a last lingering moment with Maleficent, the faery could not easily suppress the worry churning in her stomach as she saw the girl's eyes ripple with a warm honey golden color before being darkened by a deep sapphire blue.
"Be safe, Beastie…" Maleficent whispered, but only the wind was there to hear it.