Once upon a time, a beautiful baby was born in a faraway land, filled with magical creatures. The King and Queen named her Aurora. They were delighted, and decided to celebrate. They invited all the fairies of the kingdom, and of course, family and friends. For several days the castle was busy with preparations.
Finally the day of the celebration took place. When the fairies arrived, they presented Aurora with a magical, red, silk, cape. And as the lead fairy placed it on her, it shimmered and sparkled in the sunlight, awing the other guests. Its magic lay in its ability to grow with its owner and always fit perfectly. But suddenly the sunlight turned dark, with swirling, black smoke. The quests whispered anxiously and backed away from the smoke; Ms Which had arrived. “How dare you not invite me to the party? No one invited me to anything, and this is going to be payback time. On Aurora’s sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on a needle and die, and I hope you learned your lesson!” Green flame burst out of Ms Which’s wand, puffing out Aurora face for several seconds, before dissipating- with Ms Which.
Aurora’s parents were horrified! They sobbed uncontrollably, until the lead fairy walked towards them and said, “I will do my best to help Aurora, but the most I can do is this; on her 16th birthday, Aurora and the kingdom will fall asleep, until someone or something wakes her up.” After she cast her spell, and Aurora’s parents thanked her, the guests left, and the party ended.
Aurora grew into a gorgeous young lady, known throughout the town of her kindness, intelligence, and beauty. Aurora lived happily with her parents, until one day, Aurora’s mother died. Aurora and her father were heartbroken, but Aurora’s father tried to make the best of it, and remarried. Unfortunately, he married an evil stepmother, with evenly evil daughters. Of course they only showed their true personality to Aurora, and masked their feelings with fake kindness when Aurora’s father was around. They knew that Aurora was the prettiest girl among them, and they were always jealous of her dazzling looks. They made fun of her, and treated her as a servant.
That marriage was the start of a sad life for Aurora; her father died soon after his the second marriage, and Aurora and her new family moved out of the castle to the outskirts of town.
As Aurora went about her work, she noticed several of the mice and birds living about the house. These humble creatures took pity on her, and befriended her. They helped her do her chores, and helped keep her mind off of her evil stepmother and sisters.
One day a letter arrived from the castle inviting all the ladies of the household to a ball, where the prince would search for a bride! The ball took place the day after Aurora’s sixteenth birthday. But when she told her stepmother about the ball, she assigned Aurora even more housework than Aurora normally did, hoping it would keep her busy the whole day, so she couldn’t go to the ball. The stepsisters were very selfish children, and wanted the prince to themselves, and not distracted by some beautiful girl.
Aurora was fed up with her stepmother and stepsisters! She brainstormed some way to get to the ball, and away from her stepmother and stepsisters. Suddenly, and idea struck her; she could to go to her Grandmother’s cottage the day before the ball, to sew a ball gown for the party! She was very excited, especially because her grandmother was a retired seamstress, and Aurora hadn’t seen her in a long time. Aurora started preparations immediately.
Before she knew it, it was the day before the ball, and while Aurora’s vain stepsisters were trying on different dresses and gazing at each other in the mirror, Aurora slipped out the door with all of her animal friends, and her beautiful, red, cape. When she had reached the woods, she remembered what her mother had told her when she visited her Grandmother when she was little; “Don’t talk to anyone other than Grandmother.” She thought about that as she walked into the woods.
As she walked along, she saw some beautiful flowers along the path, and she stopped to pick them thinking her grandmother would like them. As she was picking the flowers, she heard a voice behind her and spun around, surprised. “Hello, my dearie,” said a hungry looking wolf. She backed away, trying to ignore the wolf, and hurried on at a faster pace. Soon she heard it again, “Where are you going dearie?” he said. She was really frightened, and wanted to get away from the wolf, so maybe if she told him where she was going, he would leave her alone. “I’m going to my grandmother’s cottage, okay? So leave me alone!” The wolf disappeared, and Aurora resumed her walk to her grandmother’s cottage, hoping that that was the last she would see of that wolf. When she reached her Grandmother’s house, she closed the door and looked around. Her Grandmother was sleeping in bed.

“Hello Grandmother! It’s Aurora,” she said. Aurora examined her Grandmother.
“Hello my dearie,” said a strangely familiar voice. “How are you, Grandmother?” Aurora asked.
“Hungry. Ha, ha, ha. I’m going to eat you up!” Aurora suddenly remembered the wolf from the woods; he had eaten her grandmother and now was lunging towards her, mouth open, teeth gleaming. “AHHHHH!”An ear piercing scream erupted from Aurora’s mouth, echoing through the dense woods. Suddenly the door burst open, and a woodcutter with his ax ran toward Aurora and the wolf. “Stop right there,” he said, and in one swift movement, rushed forward and cut open the wolf’s stomach. Out tumbled Grandmother! After the woodcutter dragged the wolf’s dead body out the door, he came in and told his story. “I heard you scream, and came to see what the matter was.” “Well we both owe you; you’ve saved both me and my grandmother’s lives.” Aurora said. Aurora’s grandmother was so grateful that they had a picnic with the woodcutter.

After the woodcutter had left, Aurora explained why she came. “I was wondering if you could help me make a dress for the ball.” Aurora said. “Certainly, I have a spinning wheel right over there in that corner,” Grandmother said. And they set to work making a beautiful scarlet gown.
Once they were finished, Aurora was taking the thread off of the spinning wheel when she… pricked her finger. Suddenly she slumped in her chair, and her Grandmother fell asleep again on her bed, and everything was quiet in the kingdom, except for the twittering of birds, and the squeaking of mice…
Aurora’s friends the birds and the mice were quite puzzled, and so they started to cry, for they did not understand why their friend had suddenly fallen asleep. So they cried, and cried, until, “Poof!” Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother arrived… You see, Fairy Godmothers grant wishes, so since Aurora was asleep, and the mice and the birds were Aurora’s friends, Fairy Godmother agreed to help them. The mice and the birds told the Fairy Godmother about their terrible predicament, and Fairy Godmother listened very closely.
When they were finished telling their story, “Abracadabra, BANG!” and the Fairy Godmother woke everyone on the kingdom up. “Hooray!” squealed the mice. “Hooray!” twittered the birds. After Aurora thanked her Fairy Godmother, “Poof!” the Fairy Godmother was gone. Aurora was very grateful to her animal friends. She stayed at her Grandmother’s cottage for the rest of the day, and they ate cookies and drank tea, until it was time for the ball. Aurora was getting dressed in her gown, when remembered that she needed some shoes! She asked her grandmother about some, and luckily Grandmother had the perfect pair of red slippers. Aurora put on her red shoes and cape, bid her Grandmother farewell, and set off for the castle.
At the ball, the Prince was still waiting for the perfect girl to come walking down the stairs, when, guess who… yes! Aurora walks down the stairs, and it was love at first sight. The Prince and Aurora were the stars of the ball, and everyone was amazed by the beauty of Aurora. The Prince and her danced all night, until Aurora glanced at the clock, “Oh my, it’s been great, but I have to go, I’m so sorry,” Aurora hurried out of the castle, with the love-struck Prince trailing after her. “Come back, I don’t even know your name!” he called after her. Aurora rushed down the front stairs of the palace… dropping behind her red cape. She had no time to pick it up, and she hurried home to her Grandmother’s cottage.

When she arrived, she was out of breath. “How was it?” Grandmother asked.
“Oh, it was amazing…” Aurora was very tired, and she fell fast asleep.

The next morning, Aurora was awakened by a bugle outside the cottage. Aurora opened the door, and was surprised to see the Prince outside, holding Aurora’s red cape. “Is this your cape?” he asked.
“Yes! Yes it is!”
“Will you marry me, then?” the Prince asked.
“Of course!” replied Aurora. She embraced the Prince, happy to be the new Queen, happy to be placed back in her original home, happy to be forever away from her evil step family.

Soon after the reuniting of Aurora and the Prince (now the King and Queen), they had a beautiful marriage. They ruled as the best King and Queen for several years, and had a son named Aubrey. And when Aurora and her husband stepped down, Aubrey took their place with his wife, and so on. And it was happily ever after, especially for Aurora.

The End