In the times of old, there lived a King and Queen who want nothing more in the whole wide world than to have a child of their own. They have tried every trick in the book, but to no avail.
One day, as the Queen was bathing at a nearby lake with her servants and escorts, she saw a beautiful fish of all colours trapped in a mass of lake weeds, unable to move. Taking pity on it, the Queen went to free the fish, and the fish was so happy that it somehow gave the Queen a smile and swam around her in circles for a while before mysteriously disappearing out of sight.
A month later, the Queen miraculously conceived and soon gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The kingdom rejoiced and the King and Queen threw a huge party to celebrate. Everyone from far and wide were invited, including the forest folks. The 12 fairies of the fairy realm were the guests of honor as the Queen believed it was their magic that gave them their child. Each and every one of the fairies came forth to give their blessings to the baby princess, including wealth, prosperity, wisdom, beauty and the like.
When the 12th fairy was about to give her blessing, a strong gust of wind blew into the throne room and a huge greenish-black smoke tumbled in before the crowd. Within that smoke emerged the 13th fairy, who was also known as the Queen of Darkness from the shadow realm, the only part of the kingdom that the Royal Couple did not invite. Angrily, the evil fairy stormed up to them and bellowed, "How dare you exclude me from your joyous occasion? Am I not one of your subjects? Do I not deserve your celebration?"
"You are of the shadow realm, which is beyond our borders," the King replied. "Your dark and devious ways are no strangers to us. You are not welcomed here."
"Then you will pay for your insolence," the evil fairy growled as she loomed over the cradle of the baby princess and waved her scepter around her. "My gift to you, child, will be swift and brief. You may have all the gifts bestowed upon you by my sisters, but on the eve of your 16th birthday, you will prick your finger on a spindle and die, forever more!"
Before the King could order the guards to seize her, the evil fairy disappeared the same way she came, laughing maniacally. The Royal Couple was beside themselves with grief, terrified for their baby princess's life. The 12th fairy, who has yet given her blessing, came forth to them.
"Do not fear," she assured. "I may not be able to break the curse, but I may be able to soften it. Your daughter will not die from the spindle prick, but merely fall into a deep sleep, and the curse shall be broken by a true love's kiss."
Despite that reassurance, the Royal Couple were not taking any chances. The King ordered every spindle in the kingdom to be destroyed, and all the kingdom's tailors had to make do without spindles, buying great amounts of yarn and thread from other kingdoms just to make clothes. It was a little inconvenient, but it was for the sake of the princess.
Years went by in a flash. Before they knew it, the princess grew to be a lovely, beautiful and sweet young lady, bestowed with all the virtues she was blessed by the fairies when she was a baby. As her 16th birthday drew near, the castle was hustling and bustling with life, getting ready to prepare for the celebration. The days passed without incident, and the Royal Couple were more or less convinced that they have beaten the odds and avoided the curse from the evil fairy.
Unfortunately the evil fairy was not to be outsmarted. When the King ordered for the mass burning of spindles, they did not count on the fact that the evil fairy herself had one hidden away in her chambers, waiting for her chance to exact her revenge on the Royal Couple upon the princess.
On the eve of the princess's birthday, the evil fairy disguised herself as one of the chambermaids and brought the spindle to the tower of the castle. Spinning away, she sweetened her voice with magic and sang out loud for the princess to hear, and sure enough, the princess's curiosity led her to the tower and to the room where the evil fairy and the spindle were.
"What is that, my good lady?" the princess asked, having never seen a spindle before in her life.
"This old thing?" the evil fairy, disguising her voice, replied. "This is a spindle on a spinning wheel. Have you not seen it before?"
"I don't believe I have. What does it do?"
"It spins flax into yarn and thread, of course. Would you like to give it a try?"
The princess nodded eagerly, very interested in trying this new contraption before her. In her haste, however, she did not see the evil fairy shoving the spindle in such way that she would inevitably prick herself, and lo and behold, she immediately fell to the floor and went into deep sleep. The evil fairy put the princess on a bed within the tower before she disappeared mysteriously as she came, laughing with malice.
Weeks passed. Months passed. Years passed. The kingdom and its people had abandoned the land after noticing the deathly silence that permeated the castle grounds. Thorn bushes began to grow and surround the castle walls due to neglect, and cobwebs, dust and debris littered everywhere. Scavenging beasts started to infest the castle grounds and take residence behind the walls as the thorn bushes grew thicker, barricading them in even further.
Rumors started to spread about the princess--dubbed The Sleeping Beauty--who was cursed with the sleep of death and was resting up in the tower, waiting for the right man to come and claim her lips with a true love's kiss to break the curse. Many a young men have tried their luck in pursuing this rumor, but neither one of them was able to conquer the thorn bushes or the beasts within, and the rumor slowly grew into legend as the years went by.
Before they knew it, 100 years have passed.
One fateful day, a young prince on a pilgrimage to manhood stumbled upon the legend of The Sleeping Beauty and decided to try his luck. Despite discouragement from the locals, he made his way to the abandoned kingdom and found himself before the legendary thorn bush.
Armed with his bright and shiny sword, he trudged on, chopping and cutting away at the thorn bushes as he made a path for himself towards the castle. With his great stamina and long years of sword-training when he was a boy, he slew the beasts that came his way and continued to cut through the thorn bushes relentlessly.
Finally, after almost 3 days, he finally managed to cut his way through and found himself within the castle grounds. An odd sight lay before him as he saw every single resident of the castle grounds were fast asleep. Guards hung their heads snoring while standing in attention. Gardeners leaned against the flower bushes and flower beds with tools in their hands as they slumbered. Chambermaids lay against the wall and slumped onto the floor with whatever they had in their hands as they slept. Cooks and kitchen boys and girls stood or sat over whatever they doing and snoozed away. Even the livestock were asleep wherever they last set foot in. It was as if time stood still within the castle grounds of the legendary Sleeping Beauty.
The prince quickly made his way towards the tower where the Sleeping Beauty lay, battling scavenging beasts at his wake. He soon found her there next to the window, her bed frame covered with the vines of roses and littered the sheets with its petals. Her hair spread decoratively on the pillow, she was a sight to behold as all the virtues bestowed upon her by the 12 fairies were illuminated on her sleeping form. The prince couldn't help but fall in love with her as he leaned in to give her the kiss.
No sooner the prince laid his lips on the Sleeping Beauty, than her beautiful jeweled eyes fluttered open. She was even more beautiful awake than asleep as the prince helped her to sit up from her long slumber. The prince could tell that she had a lot of questions on her mind, and he was willing to answer them all, in addition to asking her for her hand in marriage, but something frightful began to take place before his eyes.
As Sleeping Beauty slowly got to her feet, her skin started to shrivel and dry up. With every step she took, her skin shriveled up more and started to peel and crack, revealing the dried up flesh within, as if she was a piece of rotten fruit. Flakes of her skin and flesh started to fall off to the floor, as did her hair until she was like a walking corpse. Her beauty disintegrated quickly as she rotted more and more before the prince, her clothes shredding and tearing along with her. Before he knew it, Sleeping Beauty was no longer the legendary beautiful princess, but a pile of bones and dust before his feet.
The prince looked out of the window, trying to make sense of it all. Outside, everything was as what happened to Sleeping Beauty. One by one, the residents of the castle became the walking dead, slowly rotting and crumbling into dust, long moans and groans echoing throughout the whole place. Neither one of them had the chance to make sense of their situation before they found themselves melting away into nothingness.
After what seemed like forever, the castle fell into a deathly silence again. The prince left the tower in horrified panic and saw that the whole place had turned into a ghost town, scores upon scores of skeletons littered the area. Even at the throne room where the Royal Couple sat, there lay their bones in their tattered clothes, spelling 100 years worth of decay. The prince felt almost at a loss; all his efforts to be met with such a gruesome sight and nothing to show for.
Suddenly all that excitement seemed to have worn the prince out. He felt the sudden urge to rest and take a nap. He didn't care where or what, he just needed something to rest on until he was refreshed enough to continue his pilgrimage.
He slowly walked up to the King's throne, gently removed the skeleton of the once King, dusted the throne a little before slowly resting on it. Just a couple of hours, he thought as he closed his eyes. Just a couple of hours before I go on my way...
Outside the castle grounds, the thorn bushes started to grow again...
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