We’ll start off with a story I’m sure most of you know well. Sleeping Beauty. Let us think. How could this story turn out very differently? Time to find out.

Aurora stole out of the door. She was off ‘picking berries’ as far as her Aunties knew. What she really needed was some fresh air. Years of being cooped up in that old cottage could really get to you. She tucked her pink dress into her leggings and hauled herself up into a tree as soon as the cottage was out of sight. She flinched as a raven startled at her right while she pulled herself up onto the branch.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She said to the raven.

“Well, you should be,” He replied. “Disturbing someone's peace like that.” Aurora giggled, no one had ever spoken to her like that. The raven fluffed his feathers indignantly and flew off. 

“Hey!,” Aurora shouted, hopping down from the tree. “What’s your name?” The raven offered no response. She ran after him. 

“Wait!” She called as she stumbled into darkness. She tripped and in that split second, a hand reached out and caught her. An arm was placed beneath her head before she hit the ground. She jerked at the sudden contact with a stranger. She’d never really met anyone other than her hovering aunties. 

“Hello?” She asked cautiously.

“Hey,” Came the soft response. 

“Who are you?” Aurora asked.

“Maleficent,” The voice replied. “I’m Maleficent. I cursed you at birth.” She sighed, “It was a terrible, rash decision. I want to try to undo it.” 

***

Over the next few years, Aurora and Maleficent became fast friends. They often worked together, Maleficent teaching Aurora bits of magic here and there. Trying to undo the spell. Nothing they did worked. Over the years, Maleficent became the closest thing to a mother that Aurora had ever had. Aurora and Maleficent even made some of her other gifts at birth conditional. Grace and joy, serene temperament, etc. were saved for people who cared about you, who you cared about. Aurora hated acting perfect constantly against her will. Aurora often snuck out of the cottage to visit her ‘Godmother Maleficent’. Aurora became slightly shyer, she spent more time with the ravens than with the other forest animals. She did meet the Prince but she wasn’t sure how she felt about him. They sang together, but Aurora knew better than to fall in love with some stranger.

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When her sixteenth birthday rolled around, Aurora had accepted that she might not wake up. She decided to instead be grateful for the time spent with Maleficent and the ravens. The fairies; her aunties rushed her back to the castle on her sixteenth birthday. Her parents, strangers she’d never known embraced her. She tensed. She didn’t know them. These weren’t her family. She wished Maleficent was here. The fairies ushered her off to her room. It wasn’t her room. This was the room of a fancy princess. Aurora had never been one of those. She was a forest girl, she spoke to the ravens, and her Godmother had taught her magic. She was no perfect princess. 

Aurora found the spinning wheel, her finger pricked. Maleficent felt it and rushed over to the castle. She placed Aurora in the bed and hid in the curtains while the fairies ushered in the prince. His kiss didn’t work. Crying, the fairies left. Maleficent left the curtains, kissing her dear daughter on the forehead. 

“I am so sorry darling.” She whispered. Aurora awoke and hugged Maleficent tight.

“Oh, Godmother!” Aurora said. “You did undo the spell! Finally, we can just live like normal people!” Then she bitterly added. “I was never meant to be a princess.”

“I’d love that,” Maleficent said, a raven came, pecking gently at Aurora's hair and she laughed. They left the castle but on their way to the forest and the ravens, the prince noticed them.

“Maleficent is taking the princess!” He yelled. An arrow shaft planted itself in Maleficent. Aurora held her as she died, watching as the light faded from her eyes. 

Her last words were. “It’s okay.” It wasn’t okay. They killed her family. They would pay. The prince and the soldiers came to ‘save’ the princess. Aurora shot them one hateful look and ran into the forest sobbing. 

“They killed Mother!” She shouted to the ravens when she entered the clearing. Her voice was cold and calculating. “They’ve killed our Maleficent!” The ravens shouted and cawed in anger, despise, and fright. Aurora, with the magic taught and gifted by Maleficent, changed her dress to purple with tints of green with a flourish of her beautiful, cold, delicate hand. She would wear her mother’s favorite colors while avenging her. She grabbed a black cape and draped it over her shoulders. The decision was made. She was no princess. She was a witch. She was no longer, ever to return to the girl she once was, or the girl she might have been. That was behind her now. This was the here and now, she had been wronged and so, she set out to do something about it.

All the time spent trying to undo the spell had given Aurora good knowledge of sleeping spells, as she entered the town, the ravens swooping behind her, she sang, her voice cold, soft, and vengeful. 

“I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam. And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem. But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream.”

Walking up to the prince, she used her gifts of beauty and charm to trick him into thinking she was grateful that he killed Maleficent. Then, she cursed him to a sleep he’ll never wake up from.

“But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once. The way you did once upon a dream.”

Then she left, after cursing the entire village to a sleep from which they’ll never wake. She left with her ravens and fled into the night, the forest closing in behind her, leaving behind thorns of hurt, vengeance, and the sting of hatred. Nevermore to ponder who she once was or who she might have been.