*Do not read if you have not seen the movie Maleficent!*

This does contain spoilers and if you haven't seen the movie, the plot some of the characters may be ruined for you. You really should watch the movie first as it is amazing and this story is simply a shadow of the characters' consciousness reflected by the light of my own imagination. My version also contains a romantic relationship that does not exist in the actual story. So, once again, please go watch the movie for yourself and form your own opinions and draw your own conclusions. Then, if you decide you would still like to hear my version, come back and read here.

"Curious little beastie…"

Diaval looked at the cloaked form of the fair girl he had practically raised while his sovereign mistress, Maleficent, toyed with the utterly incompetent hags charged with caring for the princess.

Alright, perhaps that wasn't completely fair. Maleficent had taken care of the girl as much as he. Okay, maybe even more than he had since she was the one telling him what the little one needed when she was a child. How was he to know what was needed by a human child? He had hardly seen one before Aurora.

Through Maleficent, though, he learned. She told him everything the girl needed not only to survive, but to be happy. The woman would provide the world for that child if she thought that that was what the child was lacking, all the while pretending to harbor ill will towards her. That was how Diaval knew how much his mighty mistress secretly cared for "the little beastie." He smirked as he remembered how some of her first words to the girl had been "I hate you" and he wondered if Maleficent could see the extent of his feelings for the princess just as much as he could see hers.

At this thought, he chanced a sidelong glance at the wing-deprived faery and saw that her glowing, enchanted eyes were still focused on Aurora. Those eyes never seemed to miss a thing. Not the way he would play with the bored, growing girl outside of her cottage home without being ordered to. Not the way he would check in at her window every night or two even though she was long past being rocked to sleep in her crib by his clawed foot. Not the way he would watch her explore the forest and allow a small smile to curve his beaked mouth every time he saw a grin light up her beautiful face.

Often had Diaval feared that Maleficent missed none of those things. Of course, he knew that part of Maleficent's curse was that the princess would be loved by all, but he could not fathom that all loved Aurora in the same way that he had come to love her in his heart. She had captured his heart when she was but a child and he had adored her and, quite honestly, become her best friend in the world. But, over time his feelings of friendship changed and blossomed into something more as the child became a young woman. She was still his best friend. It was just that she had become something else to him now as well. Something that meant the world to him. Something that he had never had before.

The king's guards could be heard poking around Maleficent's briar fortress from miles away. The most incapable, bungling little excuses for soldiers, really. Why did the king even bother with them? Diaval supposed that his mistress would have him take care of them. He assumed correctly as Maleficent soon froze and levitated Aurora and turned to him to give her orders.

He knew he would have to be turned into something quite fearsome to ward off these idiots, and awaited the transformation. He could feel the magic twisting his bones and limbs and arching his back. He prepared to pounce as his mind was altered as well to fit his new form. He felt his paws hit the ground. NO!

I'm a grimy, overgrown mutt!

Maleficent had really brought her here... to the Moors. Diaval knew that she cared for Aurora, but when she had seen the girl poking around the walls, he didn't think that the witch would actually let her in. After all, she was a human. Maleficent created the walls to keep the humans out. After Stefan, Diaval imagined the this land had seen the very last of humans. Apparently he was very wrong.

It was well worth bringing her here, Diaval thought as he saw the wonder on the face of the girl at the new world around her and the look on Maleficent's face as she called the witch her "faery godmother." Truly, there never was a more inaccurate yet entirely too accurate term for what Maleficent was to her. He had to keep himself from chuckling as he saw that Maleficent held with the fact that that was an inaccurate description of herself.

Diaval picked out a nice branch to perch on in front of Aurora since Maleficent had decided they were no longer hiding. He looked at the girl's radiant face as her piercing gaze turned onto him. It was easier to look at her this way, in his bird form. This way, his heart and his head were not so tangled like they were in his human body so that he could still function while being in her presence.

So little, it seemed to him, humans could do except love. His wings could carry him to heights unknown by man and his clever brain could find him food wherever and whenever he needed. What could a human's body do? In his experience, there was only one great thing he had ever been able to do as a human being. And that was loving another human so greatly that soaring freely to the tops of clouds paled in comparison to staring into her beautiful, sparkling blue eyes.

That is not to say of course, that he wasn't in love with Aurora in his crow form. He was still the same Diaval. It was just that his love didn't feel the same sitting comfortably in heart of a crow as it did burning in his human chest. He almost couldn't put it into words. The intensity of his feelings was there, but muted. He harbored the strong emotion, but it didn't consume him. The strangest part was that he didn't know which form he preferred anymore. He would always be a crow and he had thought that he would always desire a crow's body. But, now…

When he thought about whether he would rather stay in crow form or human form forever, Aurora's face popped into his head and it just wasn't so easy to make that decision anymore.

"I remember you." The excited voice of the girl that now seemed to ceaselessly consume even his crow thoughts broke into his reverie and she instantly had his full attention. He squawked a hello that she probably wouldn't understand. "Pretty bird." The grin that used to light her cheeks and eyes when they played together outside of her cottage appeared once more on her face. It was a special smile to Diaval. One that he liked very much to pretend was only for him. He cawed again and smiled slightly in return although it was very unlikely that she could see it.

"This is Diaval," Maleficent said. Part of him hoped that she would not shift him to his human form. He wouldn't know the words to say if he had a man's mouth to say them. But now, in his crow form, he knew what to do. He extended his wings and bowed his introduction.

But, then, he felt Maleficent's magic shifting his form once more. He internally groaned at his dread of being in front of Aurora as a man, but readied himself to land on his feet as he had a hundred times before. He felt the feathers of his wings change to the fingers on his hands. Felt his twig-like legs gain weight and muscle and his knees bend the opposite direction (that definitely took some getting used to at first). Felt his hard beak change into a soft, smaller mass of flesh and bone on his scarred pale face. And he felt his heart change in size to accommodate the intensifying feelings he had for the girl now stepping away from his new form in shock. But then that special smile, Diaval's smile, returned once more to her face.

Another part of Diaval was glad that Maleficent had let Aurora see his human form. For a reason he would hardly admit to himself, he wanted Aurora to see him this way. He wanted her to see him as an equal to herself at the very least on a biological level. He wanted Aurora to think of him as a human because a disgustingly naive part of him hoped that if she thought of him this way, she might be able to love him back. He cringed internally. That could never happen. He hated himself for even thinking that way. He pushed aside those grim thoughts and focused on the radiance of the lady standing before him.

"Hello, Aurora." That was a good start, right? Saying hello was customary for meeting someone for the first time. But it wasn't their first time meeting, was it? No, Diaval thought. It certainly is not. "I've known you…" and loved you… "since you were a little one."

For a moment, he wondered if he were to reach out his hand, would she take it? Before he knew it, her hand was in his. He hadn't even consciously given his traitorous fingers permission to reach out towards her own, and now there they were, gripping her small, delicate hand gently but somewhat desperately. And if he were to bring that fair hand to his lips…

Diaval was aware this time of his hand's actions and his heart's incredibly fast pace. He watched Aurora's face all the time to ensure he wasn't frightening her. But, even as his lips finally met her skin, she still glowed with that special smile of hers. In that few seconds when he was kissing her hand, Diaval swore he saw a new light spark in her eyes and and in her grin. But, surely that was just a product of his imagination inspired by his own indescribable feelings in that magical moment. His heart flew higher than his wings had ever taken him. In fact, it felt like his heart grew to match his ever growing love for this princess. It was a near painful feeling but, for the first time, he did not want to return to his bird form to escape its intensity. As he released his love's hand and stepped back beside his mistress, the decision of whether or not he preferred his human or crow form was no longer so difficult.

He may always be a crow, but he would want to be a human now and forever for his Aurora.