Healing the Heart [Disney Maleficent]

Chapter 4

King Stefan ordered his men to seize every spinning wheel in the kingdom. The wheels were broken and burned, that they might never be used, and thrown into the deepest dungeon in the castle. 

After entrusting the safety of his child to the magic of the pixies, who would take her to a remote hideaway for sixteen years and a day, Stefan shut himself behind the walls of his castle, while his soldiers rode far and wide to hunt Maleficent down. But she made walls of her own, that the Moors might never gain suffered the touch of any human. And she revelled in the sorrow that her curse had brought.

The fairies began their charge to raise Aurora in a snug little cottage in the woods.

The cottage in question that the fairies had been given was a simple thing. Walls of ivory colour, lined with beams the colour of the earth, and a large sloping roof that looked as though it was going to cave in at any moment. The land in front of the cottage was full of empty flora, the latter ready to be plucked and turned into beautiful bouquets. 

"No! Is this is," Thistlewit exclaimed. She turned to the enchantress who had walked by them all the way from the palace to their new home, far from the edge of the Moors. 

"Looks dreadful," Flittle said, gaping at the sloping structure.

Y/N sighed and waved her hand, summoning the bassinette that the king had sent along with his daughter. Though she would be raised in a simple life, unaware that she was the heir to the throne of the kingdom, he hadn't wanted her to live without comfort. At least, not while he was able to provide the fairies with the means of simple elegance for his daughter. She was a princess after all.

"Come on," Knotgrass hissed, throwing down the reins to the two horses that had been pulling their carriage. She and the other two fairies fluttered over to a small table, and Y/N gently set the cradle down atop the wooden planks.

Y/N turned to the three as they admired the baby, cooing at her and gently stroking her rosy cheeks. "You might need to change your size," Y/N said, taking a seat on a small stump. She waved her hand and a backrest of flowers blossomed from the ground, allowing her to lean back on it.

"What do you mean?"

Y/N gestured to the baby. "You have to be big enough to look after the baby don't you?" She smiled softly and turned to the side, staring up at the mountain in the distance where her castle lay.

"Oh, Y/N is right," Knotgrass muttered. "Gather around, ladies." The fairies all flew closer to the one dressed in pink, and on the count of three, they turned into humans, their wings and magic hidden from the world, save for the butterflies that still fluttered about Flittle's face. 

"That's worked quite well," Knotgrass said, adjusting the rosy cap that had blossomed on her auburn curls. "That's very nice."

Y/N smiled and rose to her feet, the flowers sinking back into the ground. "Well, I'm afraid that it is time for me to go."

"Already," Thistlewit asked. 

"I was not the one entrusted with the safety of the child," Y/N said simply, staring to walk away from the clearing. "That task was entrusted to you. And there are other matters that I must attend to." As she reached the border of the forest, she turned back to the fairies. "I will see you soon." And with that, she disappeared into the shadows.

As soon as the fairies had settled in, leaving the baby princess by an open window as they went to explore the cottage, they were ignorant of the fairy approaching the window. His raven companion swooped up to the highest window and cawed, alerting his master that the fairies were currently fiddling about in the attic, unconcerned with the baby below.