.Mistress of Evil.

Diaval hardly cared about the human given the fact that he’d been about to kill him. The man’s screams were disconcerting, but the raven didn’t mind for once. Where he was usually Maleficent’s conscience, this time he kept his beak closed.

The sound of her voice, the sight of her horns and giant wings, they instantly calmed him. He was safe. It didn’t matter what else happened. He was safe.

“Too much,” he uttered. “Tryin’ not to think about it.”

He fell forward as his bonds were released, not even bothering to try and pull himself up. Everything hurt, and thanks to the now dead guard, his ears were once again ringing.

“I didn’t… tell ‘em anythin’,” he murmured, relieved for the release of his arms. His wrists were bruised and bloody from the pressure of the manacles, and he couldn’t help wincing. Every breath made his broken ribs twinge.

Maleficent caught Diaval in her arms, and he felt small. She had always been an imposing creature, so beings seeming smaller than her had never been something new. But with Diaval so weak and frail that he couldn’t even hold himself upright felt too unnatural to be real. The coldness of her heart cracked and she swore that every man, woman, and child of this wretched kingdom would know never to cross her or her own again. 

“I know you wouldn’t, Diaval. Not a day has that ever crossed my mind that you would betray my trust.” 

Carefully, Maleficent’s arms wrapped around Diaval and she cradled him as she took to her feet. Carrying him wouldn’t have been difficult on a normal day, but his brittle bones and open wounds made caution necessary. She thought about changing him back into a raven for the transportation back to their home land, but decided against it. It would have been too big a risk. Not even magic could mend some of these wounds. 

Diaval had fallen asleep with his head lolled, letting his arms bear the brunt of his dead weight. A noise startled him awake, and for a horrible moment he thought the men might be back for another round. To his relief, it was only the other raven. He relaxed as she relayed her message. His heart swelled and he dared to hope. Diaval wasn’t entirely useless in human form, though given the current situation, he might need to consider teaching himself the art of the sword. If he was going to be immortal, he’d rather be useful. 

A great explosion sounded outside the walls, followed by screams and shouts. “Guard the prisoner,” someone yelled, and Diaval grinned. She was here. “If I were you, I’d run,” Diaval said as a guard entered, sword in hand. But the guard didn’t run. He backhanded the man - bird, damaging the raven’s already bruised cheek. Diaval’s newfound adrenaline was starting to waver. People all over the castle and the city dashed about to fight the flames, but to no avail. Diaval’s gentle heart would feel sorely for it later, but given the soreness of his body at the moment, he almost didn’t care what Maleficent did so long as she got him out. The guard in front of him looked as though he’d love nothing more than to run Diaval through and be done with it.

With the cursed blaze engulfing the kingdom, Maleficent’s dragon eyes scoped her surroundings. Vaguely, her eyes caught sight of the fluttering wings of a raven in the darkness, hovering about the window to the highest room in the highest point of the castle. Of course, they would place him there. Even mortal men feared their own dungeons, and to be trapped underground with the great and powerful Maleficent must have been a nightmare to many a man. 

Spreading her strong wings, Maleficent once again took flight to the tower. She hovered by the window for a moment, sharing a smile with the carrier raven. “Go now. You have done well. You are forever welcomed in the Moors, if you should need them.” It was the last kindness Maleficent would spare until she had Diaval in her arms once again. 

Maleficent spared no expense in entering the tower window. She saw the guard, and in her war with King Stefan, the faerie had been merciful, allowing her enemy to live another day with little more than a couple of permanent injuries as an ever lasting lesson not to cross her again, but with this man, Maleficent would not be gentle. This time, Maleficent was not going allow herself such human foolishness. 

The guard raised his blame in an attempt to dissuade her with threat against Diaval’s life, but with a wave of her long hand, she set him ablaze like she did his home. From the inside out, the man burned with a contained flame. The sounds of his agonizing screams didn’t even seem to resonate with her as focused eyes found sight of her raven. 

“Diaval...” Maleficent’s voice soften. Like she hadn’t just caused a human to suffer a most painful death without so much as a blink of her eye, Maleficent’s voice became tender. 

Diaval was being held in the dungeons of a castle one kingdom over–a kingdom hoping to invade Aurora ’ s and be rid of maleficent. They didn’t like magic being so close to their borders. Their hope was that Diaval would squak like the bird he was, but his lips were tightly sealed apart from the odd sarcastic remark.

A new set of cuts adorned his chest, not deep enough to make him bleed out, but enough to hurt. After another half hour of fruitless torturing, Dante was left once again, head hanging and in more pain that before. He truly was too old for this, by a raven’s standards, and if his mouth were working properly, he’d probably complain about it. Instead, he hoped his message got to his mistress in enough time, because he feared one more beating might just do him in.

Maleficent was all too ready to strike war upon the kingdom as soon as her eyes fixated upon it. She wanted to roar with fury and announce her present; call out to the worm who dared touch what belonged to her. She wanted to look upon his face and make him understand what true fear meant before popping the eyes from his skull with the heel of her boot. Make an example out of him for this baron kingdom to see. It was only justice.  But she didn’t. 

Instead, Maleficent kept to the shadows. The stranger raven told her which tower she could find her own beloved raven, and she commanded him to go back to Diaval. “Tell him I have come for him. I will be there, but first I must create a distraction. Go. Now.” 

Waving off the winged creature, Maleficent took from tree to tree around the border of the kingdom, somehow keeping her large form masked within the woods. She fought internally with herself on the best course of action, and knew that if it were up to Aurora or even Diaval himself, no action would be taken. But she had played by their rules for a while now, and what good had come of it? War was bloodshed, and it was time the humans understood that she was not to be trifled with. 

It was sometime later when, upon squinting awake, Diaval noticed another raven perched on the sill of the cell window. It was an ordinary bird, nothing special, but it was still a kinsman. The bird cawed at Diaval, and Diaval smiled, hope alighting in his black eyes. 

“Find Maleficent,” he told the bird. “Tell ‘er where I am. Hurry. She’ll be in the Moors.”

The bird cawed again and took off to deliver the message. No sooner had it left then Diaval’s persecutors returned, the larger brute in the front waggling a knife tauntingly at the man-bird. 

If there was a creature with wings within the Moors, it was out searching for her prized bird. She commanded them to travel as far as their wings could take them, and when they were tired, to keep going. Maleficent did not, and would not, let any beast rest until Diaval was back within the Forbidden Mountains where he belonged and his capture paying for the injustice done upon her property. It was one thing to slight her, but it was another to do harm against Diaval. 

Maleficent was sitting upon her great throne in deep contemplation when the unfamiliar raven perched upon a branch not far from her and cawed. Her eyes looked upon the bird and was moments away from dismissing it from her sight when she noticed the intensity of its cry. 

“Into a man.” She said and weaved magic through her fingers like she’d done for Diaval. The bird’s bones twisted, broke, and grew upon it stood the naked form of a young boy. “Speak.” She demanded and the boy began to ramble with his new found tongue. It was only until he skipped over his own voice a few times when he finally gave Maleficent something she could use: Diaval’s location. 

Pain. Torn feathers. No. Torn flesh. He couldn’t remember anymore if he was man or bird. His black eyes fluttered open, hands chained above his head. They wanted him to talk about her, but he wouldn’t do it. Not his mistress. His stubbornness and, at times, his sarcasm, had earned him quite a few injuries. His lip was split and bleeding, he had a bruise on his cheek, and he was certain he had a cracked rib, every breath pain him so.

He didn’t like cages, and being chained up in one now was horrifying. It didn’t matter that it was a cage for people. Bars were bars. Cages meant no freedom, and for his kind, usually death.

The bird was far to to tired to cry out anymore. He could barely keep his eyes open. Soon, his head lolled again, long black hair, dirty and matted falling over his face.

@x-maleficentia

“I warned you, Aurora!” Maleficent roared as she paced the cobblestone floor of her adopted daughter’s bedroom. The clicks of her heels were harsh upon the ground, feathers ruffled in her great wings, and staff burning with neon green magic. 

“I told you your humans would start a war that you could not finish, and you let it happen!” Her words were like acid from her ruby red lips. She never once let her guard down amongst the Moors, but ever since she allowed Aurora to rule as Queen of her dead father’s kingdom, she just knew that her daughter’s kindness would bring war amongst the Faefolk. 

A small whimper escaped from Aurora and Maleficent caught sight to the sparkles of tears. In an instant, she felt regret for her anger towards the young girl and closed the distance between them. She set down her staff upon the ground and knelt down before the inexperienced Queen and cupped soft hands in her own clawed ones. Dragon eyes softened with her voice. 

“I’m sorry, Beastie. I shouldn’t have said that. But I am frightened for Diaval. He has never been out of my sight -- never captured like this. Humans are cruel, and I am truly afraid of what they had done with him.”

Maleficent consoled her daughter enough for them to think of a plan of how they would find their lost bird. 

I’m Awake now…

Genderbent Aurora from the Grimm’s faerie tales, Disney’s Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty