Once upon a time, there were a king and queen who wanted a child very much, but did not have even one. Finally, after a great many years, when they were both in their forties, the queen conceived and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. They were so happy they named her Aurora, after the dawn, because she filled them with sunshine.
The king and queen, being good Christians, scheduled Aurora's christening and sent out invitations to all their friends and the officials of the court (making sure not to offend anybody.) They also invited the three good fairies who had also attended her majesty's baptism and the couple's wedding. They were very kindly souls, and always fun at a party. However, they decided against inviting Maleficent, the nasty fairy. They figured that she might not find out about it anyway. Besides, she'd probably still pull some nasty trick if they did invite her, so they might as well take the chance and not invite her.
The christening day arrived, and everything was ready. The princess herself was a little fussy, but most babies will be when a few hundred people are clattering about. The baptism went well. Aurora was baptized Aurora Rose, even though both parents hoped she would not take after her patron saint in all respects. At the reception, the guests came up one by one to present the little baby with a gift or two. Her grandmas cooed over her for a half hour before finally presenting to her a whole cart full of expensive baby clothes, and a crystal pacifier. Her grandpas each brought her a pony which she wouldn't possibly be able to ride for another four years or so. Their neighbor actually decided to take the opportunity to ask if Aurora might be betrothed to his son, Prince Philip. The fathers both agreed that this was a splendid idea. Philip didn't really know what he was getting into, but instead watched the palace cat with some apprehension.
The best presents were saved for last. The fairies came forth to pay their respects to the king and queen, but then ignored them while they admired Aurora. After a few minutes of fussing, Flora decided to bestow her gift.
"My gift shall be the gift of beauty!" she pronounced. "She will have hair of gold, and lips the color
of the red rose. She will be graceful and pleasant all her
days." And to help everyone visualize the gift better, she
put on a little fireworks show.
Then it was Fauna's turn, and not to be outdone by Flora, she
magicked up a chorus of nightingales to accompany her gift.
"My gift shall be the gift of song," she trilled. "She will sing sweetly, so that all who hear her will be in awe."
As Merriweather stepped up to give her gift, the hall went dark, with a tinge of yellow-green light. Maleficent thought the color made her look more pale, which was considered very attractive in her school days. The evil woman stepped up to the royal couple.
"Why wasn't I invited?" she screeched. "Such gratitude! I've generally left you alone for most of your reign, King Stephen! And you, woman, should be glad I have not turned you into a toad for all the times you've had my most hideous weeds pulled up! And then you dare to leave me off your guest list! Your daughter shall pay for your stupidity!"
With that, the wicked fairy said in a voice she applified to
sound absolutly overpowering, "The princess will indeed be
wonderfully beautiful, and a pleasure to listen to. But on her
sixteenth birthday, her beauty and her voice will die, never to
be seen or heard again, when she pricks her finger on the spindle
of a spinning wheel. Yes, the Princess Aurora will die!" And
with a blaze of fire, she disappeared. Quick departures always
left people at the height of their fear, and prevented them from
grovelling, which always disgusted her.
All the courtiers were very upset about what the fairy had said. When Merriweather cleared her throught to bless the baby, many of them thought her very rude to be so undesturbed by the curse. However, Merriweather was a very wise fairy. She knew that there were ways around any curse or blessing, so she didn't get emotional like everyone else. She was also a fairy of action, and got right down to work.
"My gift for you, dear princess, is a sharp mind. You will have more than your fair share of what is called common sense. Not only that, but you will always think things through, so you will seldom do something without thinking of the consequences. This is how you will manage to evade this ugly curse."
Everyone was shocked. They expected something romantic, like the classic true love's kiss, or the hidden identity, or some other such bunk. But instead, she had given something they thought very useless to a baby, and certainly useless to a teenager. It wasn't long before the guests began trickling away, giving phoney excuses to their hosts. More cows needed to be milked that day than had ever been milked in a year!
The King was furious. His first idea was to burn all the spinning wheels in the country, but the Court Economist convinced him that it would lead to a severe depression. Then the King thought that maybe the princess should be locked up somewhere until she was twenty-five, just to make sure the fairy wouldn't get to her. The Court Magician pointed out that even he could easily conjure up a spindle in her room, and that it would be a piece of cake for a fairy as powerful as Malificent. Then Flora (fairies tend to think everything is their business, so they were still around) suggested that the baby be taken away to a secluded place where Maleficent couldn't find her. Merriweather was by now very indignant, and took Flora's suggestion personally.
"Now, didn't I tell you all that I had already taken care of it? Honestly, Flora! Do you really think my gift was so worthless? It will work, you just need to trust me! There is only one condition, and that is that the princess be told all about the curse as soon as she is old enough to understand."
"My dear Merriweather, it's not that I think your gift is worthless. It's just that I don't want to risk Maleficent finding a way around it. As far as telling the poor child about the curse, I don't think we should. Children have a hard enough time growing up without having a curse on their mind all the time."
They all went back and forth over the matter until late that night. Merriweather stubbornly insisted that her gift would take care of everything, but no one shared her confidence. In the end, Flora won, and the King and Queen arranged for Aurora's immediate departure. To put Merriweather at ease, and to allow that she might be right, Flora and Fauna did promise not to withhold any information regarding the curse or her parenthood from Aurora.
That night, the fairies took the princess from the castle to an abandoned cottage in a nearby forest. Merriweather planned to eventually convince the other fairies that an occasional visit with her parents would not pose a risk to Aurora Rose, and being relatively close would help her case. The fairies resolved to restrict their use of magic as long as Rose, as Aurora would be called, was in their care. To stop using it completely would cast suspicion on them, but to use it too freely would make important skills, like washing dishes, cooking, and sewing, seem unneccessary to Rose.