Brat: The Story of Sleeping Beauty

No one ever listens to me. I used to say that all the time. Still do occasionally.
When the princess Aurellia was born I knew from the start that she would be a brat. Oh, certainly it wasn't her fault. Her parents, and everyone else given a chance, would have spoiled her absolutely rotten. Never mind the fact that my name wasn't even on the guest list to the celebration of her Christening. I probably wouldn't have gone anyway. Solitary faeries are generally solitary by choice, meaning that we are antisocial.
I never cared much for the lavish court affairs that my sisters and aunts and cousins regularly flock to. I mean what royal function is complete without a large accompaniment of faeries?
It had been years since the last big family get together, not that I really minded, I preferred to stay in my own little corner of the woods tending to my gardens.
Of course Fate had other plans for me.
The vision I saw was rather clear, clearer than most visions of the future have any right to be. The Princess would be beloved, she would be spoiled and indulged and given her own way in everything. As she grew older she would expect her will to be carried out without question by all, every whim fulfilled at a moments notice. She would grow up and marry some flattering court flunky and rule without love for her people. The people would suffer under the rule of a selfish Queen.
That is, if I didn't do something about it.
Of course I had to make a dramatic entrance at her Christening, thunder and lightening and glitter. The usual nonsense. When one shuts oneself away from the world, one must uphold a certain reputation you see.
It was especially important in my case. I wanted to be taken seriously after all, and it is a bit difficult to look solemn and knowledgeable at five feet nothing with shiny brown curls and green eyes. You see, I proposed a rather unorthodox solution to the problem, of course I should have explained the problem first I suppose. Either the King and Queen allowed me to raise the child, or Aurellia would never grow up to be Queen. For some reason they were appalled. After all, if I let my sisters raise her she would grow up to be a ninny!
I suppose I didn't word it right though. It seems as though they took my warnings as a threat to the babe's life. The next thing I know, my sisters get it in their silly heads to hide the Princess from me.
It took me nearly two years to find her living with a baroness with no children of her own. She had raised the girl to the age of three by treating her to be dressed and handled like a china doll. I came upon Aurellia, who after that day became known as Brat, in a large sitting room throwing a royal tantrum. Her face was red from screaming, and hot angry tears rolled down her cheeks. I handed her a handkerchief and ordered her to blow her nose. I figured out much later that she had been squalling because she didn't want to have her hair brushed.
I gave her a piece of candy and I soon whisked us home. I'm afraid I had let the gardens go for a while; the hedges are still up above the rafters to this day. I gave up trying to tame them after the first prince got lost and had to yell for help.
Fourteen years later and I still call her Brat, even though she isn▓t very bratty anymore. She has grown up to be a beautiful young woman, and believe me you can▓t keep a beautiful girl hidden away for long without a gaggle of silly princes charging to the rescue. The first prince was a handsome thing, he came when Brat was only thirteen, he was blond and blue eyed of course. His armor was practically new, a little dirty from trekking through the woods, but that was to be expected. He wasn▓t very brave though, one look at the thorny hedges and he gave up. I suppose all those thorns are quite forbidding, I quite like the looks of them myself but then again I am a wicked faerie.
The next prince came only a few weeks later. He brought reinforcements. A whole troupe of knights in shiny armor followed behind him and tried to cut down my hedges, I admit they needed a little trimming so I can▓t blame them for trying. Naturally they spent all day trying to get through them, they almost succeeded really, and they could see a bit of the garden through the gaps. Luckily they had to stop for the night, slept right outside under the stars. Brat talked me into having our own little campout in the backyard and we toasted bread and cheese over the campfire. Brat and I had the last laugh in the morning; we could only imagine the looks on the knights▓ faces when they saw that the hedges had all grown back. Magic hedges have a tendency to do that, as I am sure you know. I had to wash Brat▓s mouth out with soap the next day when she used one of the words she overheard the prince yelling.
We had a lot of fun, Brat and I. She learned how to cook and clean, read and write, garden, and so many other things that most princesses never learn. I suppose she would have learned to read and write, but I doubt that she would have been taught to love it as much as she does now. I have to pry her fingers from the spine of her latest novel just to get her to eat lunch.
Brat was nearly sixteen when the prince came. There hadn▓t been a prince in a few months, and she climbed a tree to watch him fumble around outside the hedge. He was younger than most of the other princes, maybe not much older than Brat herself. He wasn▓t truly handsome, but he was nice to look at in his hand me down armor that didn▓t quite fit right at the shoulders and knees. He had no helmet, and his mud-brown hair had a tendency to fall in his eyes. After he had walked around the hedge twice, I realized he didn▓t have a sword and I quite felt sorry for him. Brat and I invited him inside for tea. Luc was the fifth son of a very large royal family in a very small kingdom. All of his older brothers were respectably married to respectable princesses, but he had been content to stay at home and read about valiant knights and adventurous peasant boys. His father had decided that it was high time for his youngest son to get his head out of the clouds and start a family. Luc, however, had ideas of adventure and excitement in mind. So, he had borrowed some of his brother▓s armor and gone off in search of a quest. Eventually he had heard of the beautiful princess Aurellia and decided to come to her rescue.
I daresay that Brat was smitten with him, and I suppose she could have done worse. I took quite a liking to him as well. With a heavy heart I knew that I would have to let her go if she wished to. Brat knew who she was by now; I had told her after that first silly prince had tried to ▒rescue▓ her. She had every right to want to return to her real family. We talked about it for hours until both Brat and Luc were nodding their heads against one another to keep from falling asleep. In the morning I sent them both on their way, I knew I would see them again, after I all I was supposed to be the maid of honor in their wedding. I couldn▓t wait to see the faces of my sisters. A few weeks after the wedding, a grand outdoor affair under a canopy of white flowers and blue skies, I was halfheartedly weeding the garden when I heard a shout at the gate. I had finally gotten around to trimming the hedges and they were abloom with red and pink roses everywhere. Brushing off my hands I went to see who it was. A man stood, leaning against the gate. He had longish black hair and a simple tan tunic and breeches. Quite handsome in his own way, even though I never much cared for beards it looked quite good on him. ⌠If you are here to rescue the princess, you are too late I▓m afraid. She▓s already been married.■ I grinned, knowing I didn▓t much look like a wicked faerie in my simple skirt and blouse with my bare feet and ankles covered with dirt.
⌠Oh no,■ he said, with a grin of his own. ⌠I▓ve come to rescue the wicked sorceress who has been trapped behind a wall of rose bushes for fourteen years.■ My grin widened, ⌠Oh really? And who might you be? Prince, Knight, or Duke?■ ⌠Will a Royal Huntsman do?■ He asked, with a clumsy imitation of a courtly bow. I knew right away that Brat and Luc were playing matchmaker. I made a note to thank them┘ ⌠It will have to do I suppose,■ I answered with a long suffering sigh, ⌠Why don▓t you come in for tea?■ ⌠Naturally.■ I opened the gate and let him in.

╘Rachel Anne Newman 1998/2002