Diaval looked up as he heard his name called. He jumped out of the tree and surprised Aurora, who was in the act of calling for him again. "Yes, princess?" he asked.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked, shyly. He decided not to point out that she just had and nodded. Aurora took a deep breath. "Why does – did – Godmother hate my father so much?"

"That is a question to ask your godmother, not me," Diaval said sternly.

"Oh I know he took her wings," Aurora assured him.

"That should be your answer then," he said, looking in the general direction of the castle, not that he could see it from the Moors, "although it's not the whole story." He looked back down at Aurora and sighed.

He sat on a tree-root and gestured for her to sit next to him. She did, intent on his words.

"What you don't understand, Aurora, is just how much that theft hurt your godmother. Of course his betrayal hurt her too–"

"Betrayal?" Aurora interrupted.

"Yes, but you'll need to ask your godmother about that. I'll betray no secret of hers." He glanced at her, and she nodded thoughtfully.

"So, his betrayal hurt, but the actual loss of her wings struck Maleficent–" he stumbled over her name slightly, unused to saying it, even though it had been almost three months since she insisted that he use it, "very hard indeed. You don't have wings, Aurora, so you don't know what it is like to lose them."

"Neither did I at first. When she rescued me, she said she needed me 'to be her wings' and I knew that something must have happened to her own, but I didn't understand. The loss of her wings haunted her, Aurora. She would wake in the night, crying, because she could feel her wings still there, because they would be itching and moving, or because she could feel their weight."

"Sometimes she would dream of flying and wake, still earthbound. I think that was hardest for her to bear – the freedom that she had lost, the freedom he had taken from her." Diaval glowered.

"You hate him more than she does, don't you?" Aurora asked. Diaval's expression changed to one of confusion.

"I don't think that's possible," he said dryly. Aurora shook her head, peering at him intently.

"No, you do. You hate him because he hurt her, but she – no wait," Aurora muttered, interrupting herself. "She can't hate him. That's why she cursed me; because she loved him, and she couldn't hurt him, or hate him, even after what he did."

"Ah, you really shouldn't be asking me about this." Aurora smiled at him.

"It's okay, Diaval. I think I've worked it out now." Her expression turned sombre for a minute. "Why did he do it, Diaval?" she asked plaintively.

"I don't know," he answered. "I doubt even he knew why he did it – it haunted him for the rest of his life. The guilt of what he'd done drove him insane." And I often feared that it would do the same to Maleficent, he added to himself.

Aurora sighed. "Why do people do terrible things, Diaval?" she asked sadly.

"I don't know," he replied. "I'm just a raven – we don't think the way you do." Aurora smiled.

"You're far more than just a raven," she said.

"Indeed," another voice added. Diaval gave a startled squawk and fell off the tree-root and Aurora jumped to her feet.

"Godmother!" she exclaimed. She looked to Diaval to help her explain. "We were just..."

Diaval sat up, and watched the both of them. Maleficent was smiling slightly and looked more beautiful than ever in the light of the setting sun, but what really caught his attention were her wings, back where they belonged.