Author's Note: Not gonna lie. Kinda proud of this one. That's probably just because it's four in the morning right now, though, and I'm a little loopy. Still, hope you all enjoy it as well. I love to hear your feedback, so if you have some, lay it on me.

I step closer and closer to her where she lay napping in the grass meadow dotted with wildflowers and I smile. Her hair glints like the most precious gold in the sunlight. It frames her face like the halos of saints I see in the windows of the church in town. However, her visage puts those blessed images to shame. I can see there is almost a faint smile playing around the corners of her soft, rose lips and I wonder what she is dreaming. Does she see the many different creatures that roam the Moors? Is it day or night in her dreams? Is she laughing and smiling in her fantasy land as much as she does in the waking world? More so? Am I there?

I finally reach her and sit down next to where her head rests and watch her face some more. Her lashes flick and twitch ever so slightly like the wings of a small faery telling me she may be close to waking. Her brows furrow in… distress? No. Concentration. Her lips then begin to move just as her lashes had a moment ago. They were waking as well, not only waking but working. Trying to convey some unconscious message that needed to be said before her conscious mind could fully take over once more and stop her. I lean in close trying to hear something or look harder at those lips, attempting hazily to reveal their secret. The softest of mumbles are escaping, but I can't make them out as hard as I try. Her lips are starting form words more fully, but the sound still isn't coming out as well. But, as her lips move more and I think I might be able to read them, a stray lock of her golden hair falls on them and prevents me from interpreting everything fully. I swear, though, that I see my name fall off her lips.

"Diaval…"

The word is softer than a sigh, but it is unmistakeable. My eyes widen in shock and excitement and my heart pounds as it does every time I hear her say my name. What does this mean? Am I in her dreams with her? Does she dream of me often? Can she simply sense my presence here now and that is what caused her to utter my name, not that she was dreaming of me? Can she see me? Is she waking?

Her closed eyes are not fluttering or showing any movement anymore, but I can see her mouth is still moving and she is still mumbling unintelligible words. The lock of hair is still over her mouth, though! I can't read her lips! I carefully and slowly move my hand to the strands above her face and sweep them away with my fingertips so gently and even that small contact sends energy surging up my hand and into my heart… and then I see her eyes open wide out of the corner of my own eye.

I realize in that moment how incredibly close my face is to hers. Perhaps a mere two inches separate the tips of our noses, but I can't pull away. I should, but I can't. Some indescribable force holds me exactly where I am. Suddenly, I have a moment of clarity that overtakes me and washes me in understanding. It's her eyes. Her eyes on mine have glued me to my place in mid air above her. Under their power, I cannot move, nor do I want to.

My heart soars when she blesses me with the most radiant smile I've ever seen on her face. Had I ever known that viewing her smile from a closer distance would enhance its beauty to such a degree, I never would have stirred a foot from her side. Is it the combination of the power of her eyes and that special smile on her face that have this effect upon me? I don't think I care.

"Diaval…" The same word that had come from her lips in her sleep still has the same power over me the second time it is spoken. I feel my pulse rush with the intensity of a beating drum through my veins. I feel alive and I feel love like no other feeing in the world exists. It doesn't matter how much better than me she deserves. It doesn't matter that I am so unworthy of her. It doesn't matter that she could never possibly love me back. I have enough love for both of us. It takes so much restraint not to take her in my arms and tell her all of this, but the freezing power of her doe eyes helps a bit.

She raises her hand and moves a bit of hair away from my face that had fallen over my brow just as I had swept away a lock of her hair a moment ago. She moves it behind my ear and I am completely still. This time, I can't really tell if that's because my sheer happiness has rendered me immobile or if it's because I'm scared that if I move, she will move away from me.

Suddenly, she grabs hold of my hand and stands up, pulling me with her. I stand and look at our now interlocking fingers and feel the energy surging to my heart ten times as strong as before and I cannot stop the grin that spreads over my face.

"Follow me, Diaval!" she exclaims joyfully and starts off in a jog, towing me behind.

"To the ends of the earth…" I respond.

What?! Did I just say that? Out loud?! Goddammit, you bird brain! Contain yourself! You're going to scare her off! Just don't say anything! Stupid, stupid human body! Stupid human mouth! Why can't I have a filter between my brain and mouth around her just once?

I worry she will let go of my hand and run away by herself and I prepare my fast legs to run after her, but the moment doesn't come. Instead, she just looks behind at me and smiles her breath-taking smile while keeping a firm grasp on my hand and a steady, hurried pace across the field towards the tree line. She must have heard me… right?

We closed in on the trees just as the clouds overtook the sun and coated the atmosphere with a bright indirect lighting. However, as we entered the forest, the cover of trees made it dark. I tightened my grip on Aurora's hand, but it somehow slipped out of mine. I looked at my empty hand just as I heard her familiar giggle as she ran off into a thick patch of foliage and bark. I caught a glimpse of a wisp of blonde, then nothing. I follow after, smirking at her hide-and-seek antics, but when I reach the place I was sure she had gone, I see nothing but more trees and bushes.

My smirk disappears and I look around in earnest, trying to locate her.

"Aurora?" I call lightly. All I hear in response is a faint giggle. I hurry in the direction the light, musical sound came from and try to call louder. Each time, though, the answering sound is coming from a different direction. I begin to genuinely worry now. The forest is getting darker with every passing second. What if she gets lost?

"Aurora!" I yell once more. This time, the answering laughter comes from a few yards in front of me behind a cover of more trees and mangled roots protruding from the ground. However, the laughter changes and becomes darker, deeper. Just like the changing forest around me. I start to recognize the laughter just as I make out a pair of glowing, green eyes and the shape of twisted horns.

"Mistress…" I mumble, confused. She sees my inquisitive look and seems amused by it. As my eyes adjust, I can make out the grin that is stretching her lips into a devious expression. That is the same look she had on the day of Aurora's christening.

As if I'm being spun around, or the world is spinning around me, my mistress is taken out of my view and so is the forest. I am now facing the wall around the Moors. The impressive fortress somehow seems miles higher than it had before. It had been a considerable in height before, but now, it seems to tower unfathomably toward the sky for ages.

I look down and see its twisting, intimidating roots at the base, daring anyone to cross. However, just a few feet in front of where the wall's expansive perimeter begins, its roots jut out of the ground and make an odd shape. Some branches swirl and some stick out stock straight and there in front of the largest swirl of branch is a frighteningly large thorn. It's such an out of place arrangement. It looks almost organized. Man-made. It escapes me what exactly it reminds me of until I see a very familiar form standing in front of it.

Now, it is all extremely clear. There Aurora stands with a dazed look and her hand outstretched toward a mass of briar roots in the shape of a spinning wheel.

"NO!" I scream and surge a foot forward to start running to stop her, but several things happen all at once. The ground underneath my foot collapses like it were a mere layer of dirt with nothing supporting it, Aurora's entranced eyes meet my own frenzied ones as I begin to fall, and the tip of her finger spears itself on the thorny spindle of the spinning wheel.

Then, I am falling. I am tumbling through nothing but utter blackness that is only compounded by my own horror and anger at what I had just witnessed and at myself. I don't know when I reached the end of my fall, but just as a suddenly as it began, I was no longer falling.

The blackness retreated when I opened my eyes that I had not realized I closed, but the fear and anger and desperation were still very much there. I sit up quickly and see only stone walls and heavy double doors at first, but my panicky state has me better assessing my surroundings in a hurry. There is an expensive-looking tapestry on a wall, a folding screen used for changing behind close to another wall, and a large bed near a window in the center point of the room. It is the person resting in the bed that catches my attention, though.

The gold locks and blushing cheeks are an instant giveaway.

"Aurora!" I cry out and rush to her side. She doesn't move, doesn't make a sound. She barely breathes. It is so different from when she was sleeping what seemed like an hour ago. She had so much expression and life in her face then. I couldn't stop this… Why couldn't I stop this?!

"Why did you have to go?" I feel something run down my cheek and touch my face. The water sticks to my fingers again and to my eyes down to my chin. Let it run. It doesn't matter.

Reluctantly, I reach a hand toward hers once more, but as soon as my hand grabs hers, her skin becomes wrinkled and withered. The veins protrude from her papery skin and her frail bones are nearly visible and seem so incredibly fragile. I gasp with shock and horror as the life, youth, and vitality is drained from her body. I look at her face to see that it, too, is rapidly aged and wrinkled and devoid of color. Her luscious gold hair is now incredibly thin and grey and stringy. Her eyes are sunken into her skull and her lips and cheeks have thinned and paled tremendously. She has aged a hundred years.

Diaval's eyes snapped open and he jerked upwards, gasping in a cold sweat despite the pleasantly warm summer air.

"Hey! Hey!" Aurora instinctively reached out and grabbed his shoulder to comfort him. Her daisy chain lie forgotten in the grass, sitting beside her. "Diaval! It's alright! You're alright. Did you have a bad dream?"

He looked at the princess with a frantic glance and stared at her for a moment, just taking in her reassurance that it was only a horrific dream. Without thinking, he embraced her tightly in his relief and allowed himself to take comfort in her stroking his hair and shushing him. But, on the inside, his determination grew steely.

He would not see the curse through. He would never allow Aurora to spend her life in a death sleep. He couldn't bear it. Now that he knew what even a poor vision of that vial, eternal torture looked like, he was far more determined than ever to break her curse. For her curse was his curse. He knew that for a fact now, and if he couldn't find a way to break it, then he deserved to endure that hell with her.