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The princess startled in her sleep.
Where am I?
Aurora woke up feeling like she slept for ages.
It was dark in her room, the only light coming from the small window.
The princess got off her bed and walked towards the window, her legs trembling with the effort. Aurora peeked outside and saw stars twinkling in the night sky. She smelled jasmine in the soft breeze and heard the peaceful chirping of crickets.
Just another beautiful night.
There was a sprawling village outside, the lantern lights flickering from the houses like fireflies. The village was an image of serenity, but her heart stopped at the sight.
How long has it been?
Because the last time she looked outside the castle, there was nothing there but an open field.
It must have been years. It could even have been decades.
The princess sunk back in her bed as she realized the truth.
She was alone.
They forgot her here.
Her prince never came.
Aurora had no one left.
———-
Aurora noticed the surrounding room. Her movements were slow, like she was walking in a dream. She lit the candle with the matches next to her bed.
The candle light flickered in the room, creating menacing shadows that weren’t there before; her only companions in the vast emptiness.
The room was the same as she remembered. Her canopied bed is made of mahogany with curtains of gossamer. She was wearing the same dress she wore on her sixteenth birthday.
Aurora walked to the only door that opened outside; the door that connected the tower she was in to a stairwell which led to the rest of the castle.
She reached for the handle, but the door was fast shut. She tried to open it again, but it wouldn’t budge. Aurora pushed it with all her strength, and it finally gave way. The door slowly creaked open.
Aurora couldn’t even see past the door, as blocking the path ahead were huge black thorns and brambles. One dark branch snaked inside and twined around her arm like a serpent. The sharp thorns dug deep in her wrist, and Aurora winced in pain, twisting her arm to get it free.
Her wrist was bleeding badly.
There were more cursed branches creeping into her room, so she quickly shut the door.
Aurora sighed as she sat on the floor, her back leaning on the closed door.
What will I do now? she thought, hopelessly.
She couldn’t get out of her room. She had no way out of the castle.
With nowhere else to go, Aurora went through her room. The clothes in her closet were moth eaten and ridden with holes. Some, the heirloom dresses belonging to her grandmother, crumbled to dust as soon as she touched them.
Has she changed too? Will she crumble to dust at any moment?
There was a small bath chamber in her room with a mirror above the basin. She could check herself there.
Aurora still looked as fresh as a rose. Her large blue eyes wide open, her cheeks flushed, and her full lips were quivering slightly.
She turned on the tap with a shaky hand. After a few minutes, a steady stream of water started pouring. She cleaned her bleeding wrist as best she could, even if the water was ice cold.
Aurora slowly took out the thorns, one by one, that had dug deep inside in her wrist. With nothing to bandage her wound, she tore into one corner of her dress.
Her birthday dress. The dress her fairy godmothers tried to make without magic, but failed to do so. They used magic for the first time in sixteen years, and that was when the witch discovered her. Her parents spread false rumors about Aurora’s death from an accident, and the witch finally found out it was all a lie.
Aurora sighed. Perhaps it was better when the witch thought she was dead?
They tried. Her godmothers tried so hard... trying to repress magic as innate to them as breathing.
In the end, it wasn’t enough.
She looked at the room again. This was her parents’ castle. Her childhood home in Rivendale, a kingdom known for its lush greenery and pristine rivers and glens. She hadn’t been there long enough to learn all of its secrets... to find hidden paths and secret corners as a child, or discover uncharted places to claim as her own.
Aurora had only been in her room once before she found the cursed spindle. She gravitated towards it, like a moth to a flame, until she couldn’t resist anymore and she touched it. Aurora knew about the curse... perhaps she didn’t want to fight her fate anymore? The spindle pricked her fingers, and she fell under the witch’s spell. Just like the witch wanted.
She shouldn’t have been there that day at all.
On the last day of the curse, her parents pleaded with her fairy godmothers to bring Aurora back to the castle. They couldn’t wait a minute longer without their only child. They really should have waited until after midnight.
Now, I will never see them again, Aurora thought with despair.
Aurora thoughts drifted to the enchanted forest. She lived in her fairy godmothers’ cottage for many years and was to stay until she turned sixteen.
How was her life there? It was a peaceful, idyllic life.
She went through the same routine almost daily. Even after doing all of her chores, the days stretched on endlessly.
Her life might have been safe, but it was mind-numbingly mundane.
So it remained until, out of nowhere, the prince came into her life.
Aurora remembered how magical he seemed. Why it was so easy to fall in love with him. He was a break from the sameness of her daily life in the enchanted forest. He felt like warm sunshine in her dreary existence.
She had been dancing that day alone in the forest. When she opened her eyes, she was dancing with him.
He is beautiful, Aurora thought, but he was looking at her like she was his dream.
The prince promised to free Aurora from her curse, to protect her from the witch. He said he would fight for her until the end of time.
Was it the end of time already? Aurora thought with bitterness.
She was still here, but where was he? All he needed to do was to find her and give her a kiss.
What happened to the promise he made to protect her? What happened to freeing her from her curse?
Aurora didn’t know when she drifted to sleep again. She startled awake when she heard scratching noises coming from the floor.
It must be mice, she thought. It was a strange relief to know there were other living creatures around.
The light from the candle was now gone. The sun will probably rise soon, Aurora thought. No point in lighting another candle. No point in bringing light into this darkness.
She could hear the birds’ singing... their lively morning chatters came from outside, but Aurora heard the scratching noises again, louder this time, and she sprang up from her bed.
Someone was standing there in her room, but she couldn’t believe her eyes. He couldn’t be a shadow, or a trick of the candlelight? She thought. I am not imagining him. He is really there.
The stranger was looking at her in awe.
How long was he standing there? Did he climb in through the window?
He was handsome, with a sun-kissed face and well-built body, towering over her with his height. Both his hair and eyes were deep brown.
The stranger was wearing plain, shabby clothes, but they looked wrong on him. He is made for the finer things in life, Aurora thought. The stranger was like a lord fitted in a poor man’s clothes.
“You are awake?” the stranger asked, breathless.
“Who are you?” Aurora asked.
“I am Devon,” he replied. “Your most humble servant,” he said with a bow.
Aurora saw Devon didn’t have a scratch on him.
“How did you get into this room?” Aurora said. “There are cursed thorns blocking the door. It is impossible to get through them.”
“I used a different way to get here.”
“How?”
His brown eyes twinkled with mischief, like she had just presented him with a challenge.
“I used my bare hands to climb the tower,” Devon said.
Aurora looked at him incredulously, not believing his words for a second.
Her surprise only seemed to encourage him. “The climb was no obstacle,” Devon said. “I had to see you again.”
“I d.. don’t believe you.”
“You think I am lying?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t think I can do such a thing for you? That I can’t scale a tower for you?” Devon asked, his eyes still twinkling. “For someone so beautiful?”
Aurora was puzzled at his response, until he slowly grinned with a lazy smile. She gasped.
“You are flirting with me!” Aurora exclaimed. “Shamelessly, too!”
“I may be shameless, but I am speaking the truth,” Devon said innocently.
“You think you are charming me... but you are mistaken,” Aurora said, her voice shaking as she tried to control her anger. “You are fooling no one.”
“Ouch,” Devon said, smiling impishly. “That hurt more than the candlestick you were going to throw at me.”
It was like he was reading her thoughts.
“Tell me how you got here, or I will throw that candlestick at you!”
Aurora never talked to anyone like that before, but something about Devon really got under her skin.
“Wow, smart, beautiful, and deadly,” Devon said. “I should have known that I was a goner from the start.”
He still had that infernally teasing smile.
Aurora had enough. He was asking for it. She threw the candlestick at him.
Devon ducked in time. But Aurora had barely missed.
Devon laughed. “You missed.”
She quickly grabbed the candlestick at the other side of the bed.
“Tell me!” Aurora said, furious. “I won’t miss this time.”
“Good to know you are full of energy after your beauty sleep,” Devon said, smiling.
“You are infuriating!”
She threw the second candlestick at him, but he caught it before it hit his face. He shook his hand at the impact.
“And you look even more stunning, angry,” Devon said.
Aurora wanted to scratch his eyes out. She never felt this mad at someone before.
“I am quite delightful once you get to know me,” Devon insisted. “But before you throw me out the window, I will tell you how I got here.”
Aurora hadn’t considered pushing him out the window, even if it was a tempting offer.
She calmed herself down enough to ask, “How?”
“I used the trap door to reach this room.”
Devon went to the side of the window and moved the small rug. There was a wooden door with a metal hatch on it.
Aurora reached for the hatch, but winced and clutched her wrist. Her wound was open again, likely because she threw the candlestick so forcefully at the annoying stranger. The makeshift bandage, the one she made from a strip of her dress, was soaked with blood.
“You are hurt,” Devon said, concerned. “Your wrist is bleeding.”
“I will live.”
“Not if you don’t treat that properly,” he said. “Let me tend to it.”
“No.”
“I will show you the way out,” Devon offered.
Aurora’s silence was her answer this time.
“It is difficult to get out of this tower, but I know the right path where there are none of those creeping cursed branches.”
Aurora contemplated rejecting his offer, but agreed reluctantly.
“Fine.”
She didn’t want to run into those cursed branches again.
“Excellent choice!” Devon said. “I am great at healing wounds, both of the body and the heart.”
He gave her a wink, but Aurora ignored him.
Devon reached for his bag, which was lying on the floor, and took out a small box. It was full of bandages and salves. He looked at Aurora expectedly. The princess sighed and gave him her wrist.
Devon gently tended to her injury; Aurora stayed silent until he was done.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “This is not the first time you came here.”
“How did you guess?”
“There is a chair by my bedside, which has your traveling cloak on it,” Aurora said. “And someone has been using the sofa across from my bed.”
There was a blanket and pillow on the sofa, both piled messily in one corner.
“Yes, I slept there, but can you blame me?” Devon said with a lazy smile. “It is the best spot to see the sleeping beauty. A heavenly vision for my sweet dreams.”
It took Aurora considerable effort not to slap him. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“I needed a place to stay and lie low for a while, when I came across this abandoned castle,” Devon said. “I found the way to the tower by a side entrance.”
“Why were you hiding?” Aurora asked.
“Because people are looking for me.”
“Why?”
“Because of who I am.”
“Which is?”
“I am a...” Devon said, but paused, reconsidering his answer. “I don’t think I can tell you. Not yet.”
Devon was annoyingly cryptic. What was he hiding?
“So, you are on the run, and people are looking for you?” Aurora asked, trying to understand. “Are you a thief?”
Devon smiled, but didn’t say if she guessed correctly or not.
“Are you going to kick me out?”
“No,” Aurora said, sighing. “Not before knowing the way out of this tower.”
It had come to this, Aurora thought. She would have to deal with him until she knew what to do. Even if he was a petty criminal, he had information about the outside world.
“I have some questions I want to ask you.”
“What a coincidence. I do, too!” Devon said. “We can make this fair... we can take turns answering one another?”
“Fine,” Aurora said with a sigh. “What do you want to know?”
“Who are you?”
“No one.”
“No one? Impossible to believe.” Devon said skeptically. “Who are you, really?”
“I am a princess, lost and forgotten.”
“What is your name?”
“Why?” Aurora asked. She didn’t trust Devon’s smile.
“My heart yearns to know. What beautiful name should I write my sonnets to?”
She was right to be suspicious. “I am not sure I want to tell you.”
“Then I will wait until you tell me, princess,” Devon said, smiling. “I believe it is your turn for questions.”
“How long since you saw me asleep?” Aurora asked.
“Maybe a month?”
A month wasn’t enough time for the town to appear outside the castle.
“What year is it?” Aurora finally asked as she held her breath.
When Devon told her the year, Aurora swore.
It had been a hundred years.
She slept the curse through its entirety.
“What’s wrong?” Devon asked, as Aurora turned pale.
“I haven’t been asleep for a month, but for a hundred years,” Aurora replied, dazed.
Devon gave a low whistle. He was looking at her closely.
“How old are you, princess?”
“I am sixteen.”
“That would explain a lot... especially the moods,” Devon said, giving a lazy smile.
“And how old are you?” Aurora asked angrily.
“Seventeen. Soon to be eighteen,” he said, proudly.
“That would explain why you are more stupid than wise!” Aurora replied.
Devon looked at her blankly and then laughed.
She wished he hadn’t.
It was a rich, melodious laughter which made Aurora’s heart beat faster.
“Touche!” Devon said, giving a mock bow. “I know when I have been bested.”
Aurora gave a grim smile.
“What curse were you under, princess?”
“I would sleep for a hundred years unless my true love kissed me.”
“Did you have someone like that?” Devon asked, not unkindly. “Someone to break the curse?”
“Yes.”
“And he never came for you?”
“That I would have to find out,” Aurora said.
She just realized something and had to ask the stranger.
“Have you.. have you ever kissed me?” Aurora asked, trying to find the right words to say.
Devon was horrified.
“I would never.. not when someone who is... I never touched you,” he said, blustering with his words. “... I just talked, that’s all.”
“You talked to me while I was sleeping?”
“I was lonely. I had no one to talk to. You were the only one I could talk to without getting in trouble or being found out.”
“I didn’t know thieves could be lonely.”
“I haven’t had many heart-to-heart conversations with anyone.”
He is devilishly charming, Aurora thought, looking at Devon’s handsome face. That usually meant trouble. He was trouble... but she still couldn’t resist asking him, “What did you talk to me about?”
“Anything,” Devon said. Then added, “Everything.”
“You told me everything?”
“I told you things I never spoke to anyone before. Not even myself.”
Aurora was stunned. Was this the reason Devon spoke to her like... he had known her for a long time?
She had been his confidante... unconscious as she may have been.
He told her about himself and his life. He had shared with her his secrets.
“Do you remember anything I told you?” Devon asked in a low voice.
Did he look worried?
“No... not until recently,” Aurora admitted.
“How did the curse feel for you, princess?”
“I felt suspended in water, with no one, and nothing around me,” Aurora said. “Everything was quiet. Then things started changing.”
“What changed?”
“I remember dreaming,” Aurora said. “I remember hearing a voice.”
“That was probably me. You stirred in your sleep, so I kept talking to you,” Devon said. “What did you dream about?”
“I remember just the one,” Aurora said. “I was in a field where there were two children. A small boy was trying to impress a girl. He gave her a flower, but she pushed him in the mud and laughed at him.”
The dream had been so vivid. The small girl with her hair braided like a crown on top of her head. She remembered the flower the boy gave her was a daisy.
Devon looked mortified.
“Was that boy you?”
Devon ruffled his hair nervously. “Do you remember anything else?”
“No, but it might come to me. Where are you going?” Aurora asked, surprised, as Devon walked to the window.
“To throw myself out the window before you remember anything else I told you!”
“You don’t have to be so dramatic,” Aurora said, slightly amused. “I might not remember anything else.”
“What if you do?”
“Then you will have to decide if ending your life is better than the humiliation.”
Devon was still considering jumping out the window.
Morning finally arrived. The sun was shining brightly outside the window. There was not a cloud in sight.
“Seems too fine a morning to jump out the window, no?” Aurora said.
“Are you asking me to stay?” Devon asked. “Will you care what happens to me?”
“Yes,” Aurora sighed. “I need you to stay alive a little longer because I need your help.”
“You need my help?” Devon asked, surprised. “What do you need my help with?”
“I need to find out what happened in the past,” Aurora said. “What happened to my kingdom while I was under the curse?”
Devon was listening carefully, his expression serious for once, making him even more handsome. Aurora seriously reconsidered asking for his help. He was already proving too much of a distraction.
“How will you find out about what happened back then?”
“I have a way... I just need some things first,” Aurora said.
“Tell me what you need,” Devon said. “And I will come with you wherever you need to go.”
“No. I am going to do this alone.”
“It wasn’t a request,” Devon said. “I am coming with you.”
Aurora glared at Devon, but he didn’t back down. He towered over her. His poorly fitting clothes couldn’t hide the powerful muscles underneath. The weapons he carried looked threatening, even if Devon didn’t.
Aurora relented. She will lose this battle to win the war.
“Fine, but we will go our separate ways as soon as I get the information I need,” she said.
“I will stay with you as long as you need me, princess.”
He gave another lazy smile and said to himself. “I will stay closer when you say you don’t.”