Tales Untold: Aaron and Talia (Chapter 4)

Padua, Italy - 1326
   As the days until Aaron and Talia's sixteenth birthday dwindled down to nothing, the intensity of Aurora's nightmares grew.  It got to the point where she did not even sleep the night before their birthday.
   The morning of the twins' birthday dawned just as clear and beautiful as the one sixteen years ago had.  The sky showed no signs of the clouds gathering inside the castle, over the heads of the royal family.
   They spent the day locked in a bunker in an effort to protect Talia from her curse.  Aurora tried to make it as festive as possible, ordering enough food to feed an army and all of the twins' favorites.  She had their instruments brought in and begged them to play.
   "What good is this?" Talia said, throwing down her flute.  Aaron stopped strumming the chords to the festive drinking song they had been playing. "You're fighting the inevitable, Mother.  There is no way to escape this curse.  Why are you so afraid?"
   "I don't want you to go through what I did - a hundred years of nightmares?" Aurora pleaded, tears in her voice.  Phillip hugged his wife to comfort her.
   "It won't even be that bad.  We'll be sleeping," Talia said.  "You won't even realize it happened.  You'll just open your eyes and it will be over - the threat will be gone,  I'll have a husband, and we'll all live happily ever after without this curse hanging over our heads."
   Aaron bit his lip but didn't say anything.  The curse would not be so kind to him.  He would be doomed to wander across time and space, searching for his sister's husband for 100 years. He'd thought about the logistics of his curse.  He wouldn't be able to stay in one place long.   He'd have to keep moving or people would get suspicious.  At least at 16, he'd already finished the awkward puberty stage.  He'd rather be 16 for 100 years than be stuck as a 13-year-old with a cracking voice.  But it was his duty.  Even though he was the younger twin, he always felt like the big brother, destined to protect his little sister from all the evils in the world.  The fact that he could do nothing to protect her from this curse made his blood boil.  At least he would not be rendered completely helpless by the curse they shared.  If the price of protecting his sister meant that he had to be the only soul awake in a kingdom of sleeping beauties, then so be it.  At least he would be awake and could do something.  That was the small comfort he took.
   Talia noticed the hard and determined look on her brother's face.  "Oh, Aaron!" she cried, realizing the thoughts that had been running through his head.  "I'm sorry!" She sobbed into his arms and he held her there.  He would never let her go.  He needed to keep her safe.
   As the time of sunset drew near, something strange began to happen down in the bunker.  Aaron, Talia, Phillip, and Aurora were bathed in an eerie green light.  A wall opened up to reveal a door.  Talia sat up, her eyes locked on the door as if she were in some sort of trance.  Aurora sobbed and rocked in Phillip's arms.  Talia stood, reaching out for the door.  Aaron scrambled to his feet and grabbed her around the waist, trying to hold her back. But though he was very strong, he could not hold her from the spell's pull.
   The spinning wheel came into sight, looming over brother and sister.  Aaron grabbed Talia's outstretched arm and tried to hold it away from the tip of the spindle, but she was too strong.  Her fingertip grazed the sharp spindle and she collapsed into Aaron's arms.  Maleficent's cackle filled the air as Aaron found himself back in the bunker with his parents, who were beginning to succumb to the fairies' sleep spell.  As Aurora closed her eyes and fell into an enchanted sleep for the second time in her life, she caught a glimpse of the sleeping body of her daughter in her son's arms.  A single tear trickled down her face as she drifted to sleep and off to the dreamland she so feared.