Sleeping Roses

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, there lived a King and Queen and their four children.

Now, time had been cruel to the family and only the second and third child eventually remained. The young princess was called Briar and she was beautiful of face, though perhaps not always so beautiful of heart.

But then, when one is cursed from such a young age, it tends to lead to trouble.

With the eldest prince gone, duty fell to the second - and the young princess spent her days in the company of two people.

One was her personal maid, who had been with her since infancy.

The other was her secret.

A friend she had met in the forests that surrounded her castle.

Her secret friend was a woman, who always pampered Briar the way her brother never had time to. Her mother had once done the same, but both she and the king had vanished into the woods long before.

So Briar's secret friend pampered her, giving her gifts which could not be bought with any money possessed by a royal family.

But then came the day when Briar's heart was broken.

She was no longer a child after all and grew tired of waiting for her dreams to become reality.

The palace could not entertain her any longer and her reality could not please her.

She did not wish to see her reality fail her expectations again.

So one day, when she ventured into the deepest corridors of her castle... she discovered a woman.

A servant no doubt, but she had never met with the woman before.

Nor had she come close to such a contraption before.

A spinning wheel.

The old woman took pity on the young princess and let her make one wish... and by the time her secret friend found the princess, it was too late.

"If my reality can not live up to my dreams, I should only ever dream again!"

~~~~~~

Kilan stayed exactly where he was, careful not to move an inch.

He had a very good reason for not moving an inch.

Two reasons actually.

The first was he was being hunted. And his hunters were very close.

Very, very close.

Right below him in fact.

The second reason was he was hanging to a branch which was in the process of cracking under his weight and he was staring at the break, willing the branch not to be evil and snap off at that exact moment.

It would be most unhelpful.

He would almost certainly die if he fell on his hunters and the leader of the party was right below him and probably wouldn't take kindly to being used as a landing cushion.

He certainly hadn't last time.

A flutter nearby made Kilan's eyes flick up and he met the eyes of a robin that flitted above the branch, looking at it, then him, then the branch, then him again.