“Report my King, we’ve found Maleficent constantly sneaking in and out at the borderline. It happens quite a lot during these years. She uses the body of a crook to conceal herself. But as we observe through a telescope, we can see the black crook turning back to the figure of Maleficent.” The leader of the soldiers reported.

“She didn’t discover your spying over her?” The King asked suspiciously.

“No. As you have directed, be careful and don’t be spotted.” One of the soldiers replied proudly.

“Right, but why? What is she doing outside?”

The arrival of Prophet Samuel left the King’s question unanswered. Without wasting any more time till the footman announced his entrance, he rushed to the King’s throne to present his urgent request, “My King, please give me the permission to use the potion of Destiny to protect the Princess!”

“Wait, wait, Samuel, what is it that you’re talking about?” The King asked hastily.

“No, no, my lord, you don’t understand. If we put Princess Aurora asleep in the palace, there will be no guarantee for a perfect protection for the Princess. Maleficent can still break in like that day and break the bliss Miss Merryweather put on her royal highness. Then, worse of all, it might end up as Princess Aurora truly dy…..”

“Don’t use that word!” The King allergically warned, not being superstitious but being insecure, he didn’t want to face the awful possibility.

As the “destined” date finally arrived, the entire atmosphere of the Castle strained with nervousness. Every servant tried their best to hide needles or any sharp objects. Unlike prophet Samuel, they managed their lips very well that they would not on or off purposely offend the King and Queen.

“I understand, your royal highness, but it is not wise for us to wait for the trap. I have been observing the stars and they have been moving quite a lot within these years as the Princess growing up.

“What do you mean?” The King tried to suppress his temper as proper as possible. Even though his un-kingly manner was understandable for his miserable family crisis, he was still a King and a Father to his people. There should be no excuse for a King to be less a King. How tough!

“I believe The Superior has given us a direction for the Princess. The stars have been altered their routes quite much ever since her royal highness turned to sixteen. I believe…..”

“Well, allow me, Samuel,” the King gently interrupted, “ever since I turned to seventeen and was forced to be a King because of my parents’ misfortune, I stop believing in whatever the one you just said.”

Seeing the Prophet’s unsettling lips, the King continued, “No, I respect you as a royal prophet, but I won't let my Aurora rest in the one whom I don't know. The Princess will sleep and the Princess shall be woken up by the kiss from one of the Princes we have prepared for from all those contests.”

The Prophet might be faithful to the Superior and his observation but he was no stupor. He knew his words wouldn't go into the King’s heart anymore and it was better for him to hide his voice, at least for now.

***

“You want me to what!” Miss Flora couldn’t believe the words that the old prophet just said.

“Quiet down, the servants may hear you,” Samuel warned in an unpleasant manner. Clearly felt a bit lowered to speak with a fairy nanny.

“Well, prophet, you can’t blame me. You are asking me to give the entire kingdom a sleeping spell!” Forgetting the prophet’s grumpy warning, she let her voice go free again.

“Shhhhh, quiet down will you!” This time even the prophet himself had forgotten his own words. Fortunately, only birds in the garden gave them the attention they prevented from.

“My apology, Miss Flora…..”

“Apology accepted,” Miss Flora replied abruptly with an attitude quite contrary with her words.

“Anyhow, Miss Flora, I need your help. More precisely, the Princess needs your help.” When speaking of the Princess, he finally gained full attention from her. He continued, “Please don’t take it as an offence but it is clear that Maleficent is the most powerful fairy in the entire Realm and heavens know how much better would it be if she wasn’t a wicked one.”

Miss Flora, as her aunt and the one who nurtured her growing up, felt it was quite unfair for a strange old fella to judge her. Especially when he knew nothing of what she had gone through. But as she remembered what Maleficent did to the Princess, she allowed her lips to rest.

The prophet turned to another position, like giving a grand speech but in a lower voice, continued, “There is a great possibility for the bliss of Miss Merryweather be broken. What if Maleficent entered into the palace like she did last time? Nobody could stop her but inactively witnessing how the Princess was being cursed.”

This idea caught Miss Flora unguarded and she asked worriedly, “Then what should we do? I can’t agree with you more. You have a point.”

This was what made working with the fairies so easy. Once you brought them to an agreement, they would be perfectly obedient without any talking back or disbelief. In this example, the safety of Princess Aurora was the agreement that stringed Miss Flora with Samuel the prophet.

“No wicked can know destiny. Because the Superior doesn’t create them to be evil. That is not their path and their destiny is concealed as time goes by. So, no matter how powerful Maleficent can be, she will never find her destiny or anyone’s destiny as long as living in a life that is not planned for her originally.”

“Oh! I see what you are getting on. You want me to put a spell to the entire Kingdom, including the King and Queen. Then feed the Potion of destiny to her royal highness, right?”

“Yes, yes, Miss Flora, my words are these and these no more. So, you don’t have to worry, just trust me. The potion will bring Princess Aurora to the place her destiny shall be fulfilled.” Samuel was well pleased with the person he chose to work with, finally threw away the pride and found pure satisfaction of working with a fairy.

“You know, Prophet, the Princess actually has dreamt many times the same dream about a man who has a weird fashion and appearance playing the same music.”

“Yes, Miss Flora, this can be an evidence for her royal highness being guided by destiny.”

“Prophet, but why don’t you inform the King for your plan? We may not need to spell the entire Kingdom to its slumber if……”

“I have informed his royal highness, but he would rather trust in those arrogant and wimpy lads to save our beloved Princess!”

“But….but, Prophet….. does it mean we have to entrust Princess Aurora to the One? Having a faith is good but putting a life to it is another whole new matter.”

Knowing this was a classic example of doubts, in the knowledge of a prophet, Samuel patiently, yet, ironically asked, “Then you believe the worlds we live in just simply pop out? That you find it easier to believe emptiness could create fullness? Or that the lifelessness could create life? That something could come out from nothing? That sitting here and waiting for the death of our beloved Princess is much easier than making ourselves to believe in the One who gave us living breath yesterdays and today?”

As a student listening to words of bullets from a teacher was Miss Flora perceiving Samuel’s words of knowledge. Though it was known that he spoke it out of concern and passion, it would suit The Superior’s heart much more if he spoke with a more loving manner.

“No, no, of course not,” Miss Flora replied immediately with the agreement of her shaking head.

“Good,” Samuel nodded with satisfaction as Miss Flora was finally on broad with the plan.

“But Prophet, you need to know that only the one who cast the spell will not fall asleep. As for others, all will rest until the spell is uncasted.”

“I am fine, as long as the Princess and the Kingdom are safe.” The old Prophet might not speak it in a cheesy manner but it delivered the same result at that moment in Miss Flora’s heart.

***

Though the curse was known ever since the Princess’s birth, the pain to the parents was still beyond their imagination at the moment when it came true. It happened more suddenly than the Queen could have ever expected.

Just going out into the garden to pick some roses for her daughter, then the very moment she returned, Aurora was sleeping on the floor and her pricked forefinger was clearly visible. Hauntingly visible.

Never owning a gift was far better than owning it once and was taken away from you. How tightly the Queen was holding Aurora when she was born, for fear that it was just a dream. Sometimes good dreams were more horrifying than nightmares. Because all the goods you dreamt about would be crumbled down by reality. You thought you had it but the brutality was its truthless emptiness, just a dream. In her arms, Aurora was a life, a hope. Very real, a very soft and vulnerable tiny creature.

A good dream that lasted for eighteen years was crushed by the curse of hatred. The Queen might once felt sorry for Maleficent but it was in yesterday. The German farmers took her wings away and now, likewise, she took her daughter away. It was a greater imitation of evil, as the Queen described, which deserved no mercy.

When the Queen was crying at Aurora’s bedside and the King informing the guards to summon the chosen Princes, Miss Flora turned herself from a human form back to a tiny fairy.

She hid in a tiny hole at the corner of a wall and started her spell, “Sleep, hereby today till the day the spell is recast, everybody in this room and the entire land of the Kingdom shall rest in their peaceful slumber. No one shall wake, not by any force or power beyond this world can display.”

When the spell was done and everyone was resting from their grieve to the Princess, Miss Flora took out the potion which the Prophet gave her earlier. She still remembered the instructions. She first fed the entire bottle of potion for Aurora, then waited for a while.

There was a reason to wait, of course. After the potion was drunk, around her neck, a necklace appeared. The necklace had a small wood crafted charm, a rose. The string was a simple string. Compared with the accessories her royal highness usually wore, the necklace happened to be quite pathetic.

Miss Flora might not know why the necklace just came out and clang around the Princess’s neck. But she recalled the instruction of Samuel, never ever altered what was done by the potion. As obedient as she was, without any alarm, she continued the ceremony, “Destiny, shall you be led by. Fear not and doubt not. The Superior is with you and may you be blessed in this journey.”

Then, her dear Princess Aurora was just disappeared right before her eyes. An empty bed in an empty space with unconscious souls. No trace of her shadow, no noise for her exit. Only the sound of silence pervaded in the air as Miss Flora being the only one who was awake.