Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a King and a queen who celebrated the birth of their new baby daughter, Aurora. The King and the queen invited the entire kingdom and also the king of the nearby country and his young son, Philip, to share their moment of joy.

The two Kings made plans for Philip and Aurora to marry on the princess’s 16th birthday. Also at the celebrations was the witch who was very kind to the royal family. She was born as a witch, but she had a heart of a fairy. As she can’t do magic on herself, she cannot change her appearance. She has helped King and the queen in every walk of their life and she was very fond of Aurora. She visited them every time they needed her. The kind witch brought a very special gift for the little princess, and her gift was a crystal for Aurora, which she can rub when she needs the witch or if she ever gets in trouble and needs help.

The King intentionally didn’t invite the three fairy godmothers which turned evil after the birth of Aurora because King and the queen always asked the witch to help them and not the fairy godmothers, so they were jealous of the kind witch. They wanted to take revenge from her and also from the King. While the King and queen were busy in the celebrations, there suddenly was a crack of thunder and the three evil fairy godmothers emerged from the mist. They looked enviously at the celebration and how everyone was enjoying it. Then they went up to the King and said in a sweet tone, “We know you haven’t invited us, but for the love of the little princess we came here”. They also gave some gifts to the little princess. Then they left saying to the little princess “Don’t worry darling, we will give you a special gift on your sixteenth birthday”. But they had an evil plan for her sixteenth birthday.

The King was now worried about his daughter’s safety. He knew that these evil fairy godmothers will do something terrible to her daughter on her sixteenth birthday. So he called upon the kind witch and told her about his worries. Then the kind witch told them her plan to protect the princess Aurora until her sixteenth birthday had passed…

The kind witch renamed the princess, Briar Rose so the three evil fairies could not trace her. She took her away to a little cottage in the woods. There the witch put away her magic wand and disguised as peasant woman so that the fairy godmothers wouldn’t be able to find them.

As the years passed, the fairy godmothers kept searching for the princess, but never found her. As Aurora’s sixteenth birthday came closer, the fairy godmothers sent their trusted pet raven to try and find her. It was their last chance…

The morning of Briar Rose’s 16th birthday came. The witch sent her to pick some berries from the forest so she could prepare some birthday surprises for her. After gathering the berries, Briar Rose rested in the woodland glade. She started singing in her beautiful voice. Her friends, the animals and birds, joined her and started dancing with her. Prince Philip, who after a long ride, was resting in the woods with his horse. Philip was enchanted by the voice coming through t he trees and went to find the singer. As soon as they met, Briar Rose and the handsome stranger fell in love. They felt sure that they had met before—once upon a dream.

Then Briar Rose hesitantly asked him, “Who are you, handsome stranger?” “I am Prince Philip”, said the prince. I am on my way to meet Princess Aurora. We are supposed to be getting married. Then Briar Rose felt so sad that he is going to marry a princess not her. But she was not aware that she herself is Princess Aurora. She told the prince that her name is Briar Rose and lives nearby and also asked him to promise that he will not forget to invite her on his wedding.

Meanwhile, the kind witch was in a terrible muddle! She had baked a scrumptious birthday cake but the mixture was too runny, so the cake wouldn’t stand up! Then she had made a special sparkly gown for Briar Rose to wear in the evening. But it was a very odd shape! And then she started to wrap Briar Rose’s birthday present. But then the wrapper started to rip! “It’s no use,” she said to herself. “I need to use my magic to sort everything out, so I’ll just go and fetch my magic wand. I don’t have much time now as Briar Rose is about to return any minute now!”

The kind witch had never used her magic wand before from the time she started living with Briar Rose. She didn’t want to use her magic wand even this time but she had no other choice left. Before she used her magic wand, she had to stop any magic dust escaping and alerting the fairies to their hideaway. So she blocked up every single gap in the cottage. But alas - she forgot to block the chimney!

The kind witch felt so wonderful to be able to use her magic again! She waved her wand and a beautiful sparkly pink gown appeared in front of her. Then she thought pink was too girly and waved her wand to change the color to blue. Then she changed her mind again and changed it back to pink. Then she changed it back again to blue. All this time, the magic dust was escaping from the chimney!

The evil fairies’ raven was searching nearby. He saw the magic dust escaping through the chimney and decided to investigate about it.

By the time evil fairies’ raven reached the cottage, Briar Rose had already returned. She was admiring her beautiful gown and tasting the delicious cake and looking at her present from the kind witch. She thanked the witch for everything. “This is probably the happiest day of my life,” Briar Rose said.

Then she started to tell the kind witch about the handsome stranger she had met in the woods. She told her how she felt about him. She told the kind witch that she is really sad that Prince Philip is going to marry the Princess Aurora. “I wish if he could marry me, as I have fallen in love with him.” Then the kind witch thought this is the right time to tell Briar Rose about the truth. “It’s time you should know the truth Briar Rose,” said the kind witch. Then she had told Briar Rose that she is actually a princess and her real name is Aurora and that she has to be kept safe from the three evil fairies. Briar Rose felt so happy that she started singing and dancing. She was so glad that she would soon marry her true love Prince Philip now. Meanwhile, up on the chimney, the evil fairies’ raven smiled.

“Today you must return to the palace and start your new life,” said the kind witch. “You can start packing as we will leave when it is dark”. Briar Rose, a.k.a. Aurora started packing excitedly. She was looking forward to meeting her real parents.

By now, the raven had heard enough. He flapped his wings and flew away to tell his mistresses about what he had found out and letting them know that the search for Princess Aurora was finally over.

As soon as the darkness fell, the kind witch led Briar Rose through the forest, where wood nymphs were whispering to each other and giggling, to the palace. They had absolutely no idea that the three evil fairies were already there, lying in wait for them to come…

At the palace, the kind witch left Aurora in a quiet room to rest and she went to fetch the King, queen and Prince Philip. Suddenly, in the room where Aurora was resting, a strange glowing light appeared. Aurora followed it in a trance-like state. It led her up a winding staircase to an attic room. Inside the room were the three evil fairies waiting for her…

The three evil fairies urged the Princess to leave the kind witch and asked her to be with them. They told her that if she goes with them then they will not harm her in anyway. But, Aurora bluntly told them “NO”. The three evil fairies got so angry that they all combined their magic powers and cast a sleeping spell on Aurora.

As soon as the kind witch returned to Aurora with the King, queen and Philip, Aurora was already lying on the floor. She just had a glimpse of three ladies disappearing. She knew it straight away that those were the three evil fairies. The King, queen started to cry for their daughter as they thought she was dead. Price Philip was sad too. They asked the kind witch to do something. Then the kind witch told them that Aurora is under the sleeping spell. She told them that because the evil fairies combined their powers, it is not easy for her to break the spell. She needs three magical things in four days to awaken the Princess from the deep sleep. She asked them to keep the Princess in a safe place until she returns from her journey with these magical things. Saying that she left in a hurry in search of those things…

The kind witch was thinking that she could go just as she was, but then thought it was too risky and she got out her disguise kit. She didn’t want the evil fairies to follow her and create more trouble for her. So she decided to disguise herself as a fairy godmother and put on her clothes and make up. Then she put on her wings and sprinkled some fairy dust on her to make it look like she was a real fairy. Just as she was about to leave, she nearly forgot about the sleeping spell she needed to cast on the entire kingdom, so they won’t spread the word about Aurora. She quickly murmured a spell and set off on her journey.

It was a cloudy day outside, and very windy. The kind witch was wondering how she could get three magical items from the other side of the world back here in just four days. “It’ll be alright,” she said to herself. “I can do it, just concentrate.” Just then a gust of wind blew her. She squealed and landed on the grass. Then she took off her backpack, which she disguised as a ring and examined closely where she would have to go first. She was amazed - where she was going first was the Enchantria rainforest!

So she quickly got up, but back on her ring, and went to the nearest stallion-stop. She looked at the timetable to see when the next stallion-sleigh would arrive. Then she let out a sigh of relief as she hadn’t missed the previous stallion-sleigh.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, a beautiful looking herd of white stallions arrived with a flourish, carrying a posh looking sleigh along with them. The kind witch held her breath, amazed. The kind witch hadn’t seen stallion-sleighs this beautiful in a very long time!

She excitedly hopped on the carriage and sat down on the comfy seats. Then she told the stallion driver to go to the stallion-stop by the rainbow-port where she would slide down a rainbow to the desired place, which in her case, was the Enchantria rainforest.

When she finally arrived, she hopped off the stallion-sleigh, thanked the stallion driver and gave five golden coins to him. Then she quickly flew off into the entrance to the rainbow-port.

The rainbow-port was crowded with lots of people, witches, elves and other kinds of things the kind witch didn’t know the names of. The kind witch kindly asked an elf, only just up to her knees, where the entrance to the forest rainbow was. The miniature elf told her that it was somewhere north-east from where they were standing and said ‘good luck on your journey’. Then she thanked the elf and went to look for the right rainbow.

When she finally found the right rainbow, the kind witch hopped on to it, checked that it was safe to go, and hoped for the best. The countdown suddenly started and she held her breath. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and… BLAST OFF!!!” She was going down from a rainbow to the Enchantria rainforest!

It seemed like hours before she got off the rainbow and into the Enchantria rainbow-port! There were lots of people, especially wood nymphs, in there, all welcoming and greeting others. The kind witch left the rainbow-port and got into another stallion-sleigh, but this time it wasn’t as nice as the one she rode earlier. She hopped on, not caring a bit about how the stallions looked, for she was on a very important quest to save the King’s daughter.

It was very quiet in the Enchantria rainforest, just the occasional chirp of a bird or two. She looked again at her paper. What she needed to find was a magical pink and green flower called the Trixie flower in the middle of the rainforest. Then she stuffed the piece of paper back into her “backpack” and flew off into the rainforest.

It was nearly getting dark, and the kind witch still hadn’t found the Trixie flower yet. She was worried she wouldn’t find it in time, but she would not give up. She had two more magical items that she needed to collect and only three more days left. Then suddenly she could smell something sweet in the air. She followed the sweet aroma until she had reached the middle of the forest.

There, she found the Trixie flower! She was really happy that she had found the first magical item on the list. So then she quietly picked up the flower, put it in her ‘backpack’ and found her way to a warm and safe spot in the middle of the Enchantria rainforest. She stayed there for the night. Just before she was about to go to sleep, she said, “One down, two to go”.

The bright light of the sun shone on the kind witch’s eyes and she woke up, yawning softly. She remembered that she had already found the first magical item on the list, so she quickly took out the list and examined closely where she had to go next. The next magical item was a silver necklace that she had to find in Goldwyvern, not far away from the Enchantria rainforest. So the kind witch hurriedly packed everything up, and set off towards the populous town of Goldwyvern.

When she finally arrived at Goldwyvern, she asked a girl called Jessella where the Goldwyvern museum of art and craft was, for that was where the necklace was. She told the kind witch that it was down the road, but if she was going to go and see it, that it would not be there. The kind witch asked why. Then Jessella told her that it was being auctioned. The kind witch was really worried now. She thanked the little girl and flew off like a jet to the Goldwyvern museum of art and craft.

There were lots of people at the auction wanting to buy the precious necklace. The kind witch flew around the crowd and to the front. Then the auctioneer asked people to start bidding. One elf said that he would buy it for 50 coins. Then another satyr said that he would buy it for 100 coins. The kind witch only had 600 coins, and she didn’t want to lose them all on an auction to buy a necklace. So when the bidding price got higher, nearly at 400 coins, she put her hand up and said that she would buy it for 450 coins. Then the auctioneer went “One!”, and no one said anything. “Two!” he said, then people were sweating, trying to think of a higher bid that they could make. The kind witch prayed that she would get the necklace. “THREE!” The crowd went wild and the kind witch cried out “YES!!!” in laughter. “Final bid, 450 COINS!” Then the kind witch went up to the auctioneer, payed him 450 coins and flew off.

Just as she was about to open the door to go outside, a person asked her how she had gotten the necklace. She laughed and said “Maybe it was just coincidence!” and flew off into the fresh night air.

She stayed at the same place, in the warm cave in the middle of the Enchantria rainforest. Before going to sleep, she took out her light and shone it over the piece of paper that told her where to go next. “That’ll be easy”, she said to herself. “I found two things in two days and I still have two days left to find one thing!” She was very excited, because the place where she was going to next was Fairwyn Island!

The kind witch had a good night sleep and woke up in the morning feeling better than ever. She excitedly flew off to the harbor and waited for the next dolphin ride to come.

But then she remembered that the island was quite far away from here and that she would have to spend the night on the island. She was getting worried now. What if she couldn’t make it in two days? What if something bad happened? What if there were wild creatures that roam at night on Fairwyn Island? “Don’t worry, everything will be fine, there’s nothing to worry about, just stay calm”, she said to herself. But she wouldn’t stay calm, even when she was on the dolphin ride. She kept worrying all the way to Fairwyn Island.

When she got to the island, she immediately found the last magical item she needed to find – THE RAINBOW COLOURED SHINING STAR!!

She picked it up gently. It felt so smooth and soft! Then she looked up at the sky. It was getting dark. She found a spot to sleep in and stayed there for the rest of the night.

In the morning, she immediately woke up and flew to the harbor at the edge of Fairwyn Island. She was worried that she would be late to awaken Princess Aurora. She was running out of time!

Finally, after an hour or so of waiting for the dolphins to arrive, the kind witch hopped on to one dolphin and rode all the way back to Goldwyvern.

After riding the stallion-sleigh back to the Enchantria rainport, the kind witch bought one ticket for 20 coins to go back to the Princess before it was too late. After what seemed like hours, the witch got off the rainbow and flew off to the castle where the Princess lay. She put the flower in her hand, the necklace around her neck and the shining star on her tiara. Then after a second, which seems like ages to King and queen, Princess Aurora opened her eyes. Everybody was happy that she woke up from her sleep and they gave all the credit to the kind witch with whose help this became possible.

That evening, a magnificent ball was held to celebrate the wedding of Philip and Aurora. The Princess, dressed in her beautiful blue gown, danced happily in the arms of her prince. As the kind witch watched over them, she couldn’t resist turning the blue gown back to pink and then turned it back to blue again. And so it went on….pink….blue…..pink…..blue….

And they all lived happily ever after!!!