Asleep Among the Roses
Sleeping Beauty's story told while she is still sleeping. Rated: G

~ Asleep Among the Roses ~

            Icicles hung from the eternal roses. Their rich, vibrant, crimson blossoms weighed heavily down on their boughs. Thorns poked through the pristine white snow that covered the stems, sharp as needles. Despite the cold, these flowers never died. They could not, for they bore the trace of magic.

            Beneath the canopy of forever-fragrant flowers, sheltered from the elements, a young woman lay sleeping. Her long blond hair pillowed her head and her eyelids occasionally twitched ever so slightly as she dreamed. She had slept for a hundred years.

             In a world full of cursed beauties, not to mention transfigured princes, this young woman had been prepared. For as long as she could remember, her curse had been the predominate thought in her mind. Until she was fourteen, she searched everywhere for a way to break the spell. When she hadn’t found one and two years remained until she would die of a spindle’s prick, she had enlisted the help of a powerful sorceress.

            The woman’s price was high, and it had cost the young woman nearly all she possessed. But at least, the Sorceress had manipulated, if not erased, her curse. Instead of dying at the age of sixteen, the young woman would simply sleep. She had also managed to extend the young woman’s years. It was uncertain when, exactly, so now the cursed child had the power to chose when she would fall victim to a spinning wheel.

            She had lasted another four years until she had given in. At eighteen, the deep debt she had put her family in caught up to her, and her father demanded she marry a rich man to restore their wealth. The man thought that her beauty was dowry enough, and only demanded that she marry him within the month. He was very old, and very ill. The physicians did not think that he would live long.

            She refused. Her father was outraged, decreeing that she would marry this man, or she would live to regret it. The fury in his eyes was enough. She agreed – for the moment.

            Later that day, the young woman had escaped to the garden. Amidst the lilac and rosemary, the herbs and decorative flowers, the few servants that remained true to her family sat. Some sewed, summery dresses for her younger sister or added embroidery to her mother’s fancy handkerchiefs. Others mended, the tears she herself made when riding or the buttons that never seemed to stay on her father’s overcoats. But finally, there were those that created the fabric that their elaborate clothing was made of. Which meant spindles and spinning wheels.

            The garden and it’s sewing circle were abandoned, for the time being. The servants, as well as her parents, were enjoying a calm lunch, after the storm of her father’s anger had passed. She went unnoticed as she took a single spindle.

            Cradling the cold metal object to her chest, she retreated to her favorite part of the garden. Under a arch of roses, the young woman stood staring at the sky. She took it all in, knowing that it would be that last time she saw anything of this world with her own eyes.

            She took a deep breath, acknowledging this would be her last waking moment in this time period. Adira had told her the enchantment was very potent. Her slumber would last a century, at least. Steeling herself for the pain she knew would be coming, she slowly reached for the spindle with her free hand. Her index finger, held directly over the sharp edge, flicked quickly down, the metal biting cleanly into flesh.

            A single drop of blood was all that was released before her body entered magical stasis and the young woman collapsed in the dirt.

            Over the years, the roses ran wild. They grew in on themselves, protecting the woman that slept among their roots. As the enchantment faded, it seeped into the dirt, and flowed into the roses. It was the same magic that finally reached it’s peak on a warm summer day when the roses were in full bloom. The large blossoms hid the young woman that slept beneath them until all of the waking world had forgotten about her, save one.

            Her family had fled, leaving the enchanted woman where she lay. The servants had followed, all wondering what had happened to the beautiful young woman they had once served. One saw that her spindle had gone missing, but did not know of the woman slumped over the soil further in the garden, the cool metal still grasped tightly within her fingers.

            It was the Sorceress that still kept the memory of the slumbering beauty alive. She awaited the day that was fast approaching, the day when the ice would melt and the roses would part. Their spines would move harmlessly aside, allowing the one prince worthy of her heart to pass.

~ Fin ~

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