It was all too sudden and all too real. As haunting as it was, as death, abruptly came without any warning. The King and the Queen couldn’t care their dignity in front of the guests anymore and let down their dreadful cry.

“My King and Queen, please don’t be depressed. Merryweather still had her gift to give,” Miss Flora came up to comfort.

“You know how to erase the curse?” The Queen asked hopefully.

“Sorry, your Majesty, I can’t. But I can change it.” Miss Merryweather answered carefully, for fear that she might break the already fragile Queen with her words.

“Please,” the King addressed Miss Merryweather to start the bliss.

“My precious Princess, yes, you shall prick your finger by the spindle of a spinning wheel. But die will you not. Instead, you will just fall in a deep deep deep sleep. And a kiss, a true love kiss, shall set you free from the everlasting slumber.”

“Thank you, Merryweather,” the Queen wept quietly. Though doubts were in her mind, this was the only hope she could have.

“And your majesty, if it was found proper, I'm willing to be the nanny of her royal highness,” Miss Flora suggested, “it is better for one who knows magic to protect her from magic.”

“You know what, for that moment, when I found the rose and saw how you all were healed, I told myself perhaps he does exist. And now, I don't know.” Though the King was smiling, everyone could tell that it was bitter.

Now, nothing more could be done, but to try their best to cherish and enjoy the so short-lasting family happiness. The one they had waited for 17 years.

***

(Fourteen years later)

The sound of an angel, the voice of an enchantment, the song of an old time, swirling around my every being. It was so mysterious and so blue. As the music led me, along with the stairs I walked up and I walked to a room, standing by the wide door gap, I observed, I listened.

A man, with a charming countenance as his music, was playing the violin. The golden sunray speared through the glass windows behind him and landed at his back. Dust was given a life in the light, clearly seen as snowflakes. It was that melody again, a melody that foretold his heart. He closed his eyes and tear streamed down. It was the same music, the same melancholy......

“Princess, princess,” Miss Flora whispered a bit louder at Aurora’s ear after her not answering, “Princess, wake up, it’s not over.”

“Ummm, yes, was it not over yet?” The just-woken Princess asked in an impatient manner, “Sorry, Nanny Flora, it was so boring. I couldn’t help but….”

“You shall have plenty of time to sleep in the future….. Oh no, no, Princess, I don’t mean it in that way. I just want you to grab the time while you still can find your…..”

“Prince charming?” Aurora smiled mischievously.

“Yes, the one who can give you the true love kiss.”

The Princes, who were all older than the Princess, were trying their best to hunt in the forest. Perhaps it was due to the ill weather or that the Princes really wanted to capture her royal highness’s heart, not even one of them had returned for almost two hours. They must have determined to win the contest or not to finish it at all.

The King and the Queen, couldn’t catch a shadow of the Princes’ return, altered their attention to Aurora. “Posture,” the Queen mouthed.

The Princess took a deep breath and followed her mother’s order. The only favour she would get from these kinds of activity was the beautiful scent of nature. Sitting on the throne, in a tent, looking at the trees and grass and wild lilies, listening to the rhythm of raindrops, were all so new to her.

This kind of matchmaking party had a different form every year. A reading party, a riding party, a dinner party, a dancing party, and now, a hunting party. Of every party, the King and Queen always tried to find the best Prince through a contest. They believed the one who would give a true love kiss to their daughter must be a brilliant one.

“Nanny Flora,” the Princess whispered, “but I don’t like them, let alone to say love them.”

“But Princess, it is for your own good. Boys other than the Royal blood would give you a heartbreak.”

“Why?”

“Because who knows? Just staring at your throne instead of your heart?” Miss Flora taunted, “Princes already have a throne. So, when they say they love you. They truly mean you.”

“But my father is the only King of the Realm,” Aurora argued with a bit of pride.

“Yes, Princess, but they are also the lords of the lands their ancestors were given. So….”

“Why, I don’t care. But I’ve already met my love.” The Princess described dreamily.

“What! When?” Miss Flora was shocked, astoundingly, shocked.

“Shhhh, you will cause mama and papa’s attention!” Aurora quietly informed.

“Where?”

“In once upon a dream,” she replied sweetly.

“Dear, do you have that dream again?” Miss Flora asked worriedly, yet, pretending to be as fine as ever, for fear the Queen might catch her notice.

“Yes, but this time I saw his face!” The Princess excitedly announced and continued, “he has well combed brownish blonde hair, a style that was quite rare, I have never seen it before. It was short and neat with a side parting line. And, and his eyes are just like mine! Blue and deep, as if secrets are hidden behind them.”

“How poetic,” taunted Miss Flora.

The arrival of the Princes put a stop to their boredom. As predicted, they got nothing. A two-hour ride for six emptied handed Princes. Honestly, the atmosphere was quite awkward but it would be better still. Since no one could hunt even one beast and it would be quite unacceptable for the contest be ended with such emptiness, the King ordered a royal deer be released to see who could be the first to slaughter it.

The Princess would never have expected it and that was the first time she learnt what the word “hunt” meant. As she conveyed the event, it was too late, the deer had been speared through by the Prince from the Land of Crystal. It was dreadful, at her sight, as she saw how heartless the event was. That blade went straight into its neck and that sneer on his face as if the life in front of him meant no more than dust.

“Stop! What have you done!” Aurora immediately rushed to the centre of the field where the deer lay. The Queen’s discipline, compared to the cruelty before her, would not hold her back to do what she believed was right.

She knelt next to the deer and looked at the poor creature, couldn’t believe the deed. She mildly stroke its forehead, lightly, like it was still living and could sense her touch.

Growing up, the Princess had always been so sensitive to lives and righteousness. She grew up with a pure heart, as others would comment, the reincarnation of the Saint with His heart. But this was exactly what feared the King and Queen so much. It went perfectly the same according to Maleficent’s prediction, “With that heart of the Saint, she shall be pure forever.”

“What do you mean, Princess? Please don’t inform me that you eat no meat.” The Prince who slaughtered the deer scoffed, by which, not a gentleman at all.

“Prince Edward, mind your word to the Princess please,” the Queen warned politely. Though she didn’t approve of her daughter’s abrupt and unladylike gesture, she understood her daughter more than anyone else in the world that it was a matter against her heart, not merely a line of morality.

“Yes, Prince Edward, I do eat meat and I won’t lie for it. But please don’t mock animals like this. If their lives are sacrificed for our satisfaction and strength, don’t we have to respect them? At least don’t kill them in a ridiculing manner. A spear through the neck, how painful that should be. And your grin over this poor creature….”

The Princess stopped suddenly as tears rolled down her cheeks. This was something that nobody at the scene could understand. They didn’t know why a Princess would feel sorry for a dead animal. They couldn’t feel the pain of her heart whenever she witnessed something that was evil, wicked or simply unrighteous.

Stillness penetrated in the air, suddenly, the sound of the wind and the rustles of the leaves and the chirping of birds became so clear and loud. Every focus was turned to the Princess. Seeing the tears of her royal highness, Prince Edward felt a bit guilty. And as he wanted to apologise, something extraordinary had happened. The hands of Aurora were glowing with bright light, light as the sun, starting from her hands to her arms and to her entire being. It was exactly a recurrence of the state on the day she was born, right after drinking the mixture of the rose.

However, this time, something more had happened. Everyone’s focus turned to the deer from the Princess as the light transferred to the dead creature. Nobody would prepare for the next moment, first the perfectly recovered skin, then a blink of its eyes. It came alive!

All people stood in awe as they saw the deer kissed Aurora and went its way back to the forest. Although confusion bubbled up in all their mind, there was one thing they were sure of, the deer was dead but it came alive! That was the first time the Princess and everyone else discovered her very unique gift.

This day forward, except the King’s forbiddance of holding any hunting party anymore, a new law was also established for the entire Realm - free pain slaughtering of animals, in respect of the Princess’s pure of heart.