Sapphic Fairy Tales 03: Briar Rose 02

As Nadya sneaked through the corridors of the familiar but strange castle looking for Rose, she saw more and more things that were out of place. There were statues which lined the outer courtyard of the castle back home, they were of knights and saints, usually serene and noble looking. Here though the forms of the statues were those of beautiful women, all in various states of undress. Many were clearly in the throes of some kind of beautiful pleasure as their mouths opened wide in silent stony moans, their carved hands caressing their smooth round forms. Nadya almost imagined that she could hear their cries on the wind and see the figures moving slightly, their bodies held to the rhythm of some unseen pleasure.

Inside the festival of erotic images continued. The walls were covered in tapestries depicting epic scenes of love making between hordes of human women and lithe slender sprite-like beings, horned with wide dark eyes and long hair which flowed like fire or water. The details on the tapestries were almost enough to make Nadya stop and examine them closer as she glimpsed the intricately woven lines of the amorously engaged female forms. Some of the figures even started to look like what she had imagined Rose would look like without her clothes on and she even thought that she saw a woven figure or two reaching out to her with a look of needy passion on their face, begging her to take them now.

She shook her head and pressed on through the castle, ignoring the imagined cries of the women in the tapestries as they threw their heads back in ecstasy. She headed for the stairs and the upward climb had yet more strange visions for her. As she passed one room she thought that she saw a reflection of herself in a mirror inside. She doubled back for just a moment as saw that it was indeed a mirror, but the reflection was not of her. At least not of her as she was. Her torn simple clothes had been replaced by a long flowing noble gown of silvery satin, her waist was cinched perfectly into a narrow bodice and her low neckline was dotted with precious pearls and diamonds. Her usually wavy untamed short hair was long and silky, flowing down her back like a waterfall of dark water. She looked regal and full of life, rather than the usual overly tired kitchen-girl that she was.

As she watched the vision in the mirror was joined by a vision of Rose, returned to wakefulness, equally dressed out in fine clothes and jewels. The two women in the mirror smiled at each-other and embraced before their faces leaned in hard together for a full-mouthed passionate kiss. Nadya turned away from the illusion, if Maleficent thought that she could deter or tempt her with visions of what she wanted, then she had to do a better job than that. She knew that Rose usually rejected the finery of courtly clothes and jewellery in preference for simple clothes. Her own hair had never been that long in her life, and her hands were not the soft delicate hands of a princess, but the hard rough hands of a woman who had worked all her life from childhood. And, if she were to kiss Rose, it would not be in the full-mouthed invasive snog of wild passion, but a soft and tender kiss of love... at least at first. Maleficent, as clever as she was, did not know her or Rose, and she would have to do much better than that.

The stairs continued upwards and upwards, far longer and steeper than any Nadya had climbed before. They seemed to climb far higher than the tower seen from the outside could possibly contain, clearly this castle was little more than just a stage setting for an elaborate trap from Maleficent.

As the stairs continued up and Nadya passed by another open door and inside this room she saw a figure she recognised, Rose's Mother, Queen Leah lay spread eagled on a bed of red satin sheets. Her arms and legs were spread wide and restrained to the bedposts as a mysterious shadowy figure in a long dark cloak lay with their face buried in the Queen's exposed cunt. Queen Leah was moaning and crying out in clear pleasure as wet feasting noises emanated from between her wide spread legs. Her eyelids fluttered and her cheeks were flushed with blood as she strained helplessly against her leather restraints.

Unable to tear her gaze away from the scene, Nadya watched on, desperately curious about the identity of the cloaked person who was feasting on the royal slit. As she gazed upon the scene, the Queen's cries began to reach a crescendo, her breaths coming in short sharp gasps as her back arched and her muscles when taught in their bonds and she cried out in one long guttural howl. As Queen Leah howled out her pleasure, the figure in the cloak looked back at the doorway and Nadya gasped to see the vision of Rose hidden beneath the cloak. Her lower face was covered in her mother's juices and she smiled a knowing and taunting smile at Nadya as her fingers continued to rub back and forth across her mother's folds.

Nadya slammed the door behind her as she ploughed on up the stairs, her forehead now beading with sweat but her heart full of anger. She had let Maleficent bait her into showing her that scene and although she knew it was all a lie, it hurt her to see her friend so debased, even in a vision.

She stormed past the next two open doors without looking inside, despite the desperate moans and passionate pleading which echoed from inside them.

'Nadya please! Please come inside, I need you so badly right now, please fuck me!'

'Nadya my sweet love, I want you in my arms, hold me tightly. I'm all yours darling!'

Finally, after an unknowable amount of time spent climbing the endless stairs, Nadya reached a door. It was beautifully carved out a deep dark wood and depicted a full-size image of Princess Rose, fully naked with her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open as if for a kiss. Her legs and arms however were deeply ensnared by twisting depictions of the rose-covered vines which seemed to infest this strange land, and the carving showed welts of blood coming from where the sharp thorns pierced her skin.

There was no keyhole or handle to open the door and when Nadya pressed on it with her foot, it did not budge. She considered simply trying to ram it with her shoulder but the sturdy construction of the door didn't look like it would budge under her weight, and besides, there was probably little of this door that had anything to do with mundane carpentry. Nadya looked at the sleeping form of Rose that had been carved into the wood and her eyes drifted down her neckline to where her naked breasts and then her navel and lower were depicted. She snapped her eyes back to her face, almost ashamed of looking upon even this false projected image of the woman she loved in such a way.

Finally after a few moments' consideration, Nadya simply leaned in and planted a small kiss on the wooden lips of the carved figure that seemed to be so ready to receive one. The moment that she did, there was a high cruel laugh which echoed through the stairwell and the form before her warped and twisted until it showed a sharp-faced skinny woman with long horns on her head and sharp claws for hands and feet. The image was grinning in a look of malevolent cunning and Nadya recoiled from the image as the door swung open in front of her.

The room beyond was lit by the light of a single burning candle in a sconce on the wall by the door. It was large and circular, with no decoration or drapery anywhere. The shadows were deep and dark in the recesses, and on the far side of the room Nadya just made out a pair of deep dark green eyes reflecting the candlelight in the darkness. As Nadya's eyes adjusted to the gloom, she began to make out the seated form of a woman with her legs crossed as she reclined back in a large carved wooden throne. Her limbs were long and thin, and her head was adorned with two curled horns which rose above her like a crown. She wore an expression of cruel displeasure to see her, as if she was looking at something low and disgusting like a maggot.

'Kneel before the Queen of Thorns and Roses you whelp!'

Maleficent hissed through pointed teeth. Nadya almost felt her back bend and her knees buckle to kneel on the floor at the command but she caught herself just in time and merely stumbled forwards slightly. A look of cold annoyance massed across the shadowy queen's face at her resistance and she commanded again,

'You will kneel in the presence of royalty you uncouth peasant!'

This time Nadya was not given a choice as a swarm of fast moving tendrils of thorny vines snaked out from the shadows, grasped her arms and legs and pulled her down into a kneeling position. Nadya struggled against them as they restrained her but she felt their sharp thorns digging into her skin as one vine crawled up and snaked around her throat.

'Where's Rose?' She managed to croak out.

'Ahhh, of course you came for her, I've been watching the two of you for some time,' Maleficent replied, her voice gloating with silky satisfaction.

'You and her have been the best of friends all your life, isn't that right? But I've seen the way you look at her, the yearning, the desire, the want for more than she has ever returned. You want her don't you? Want to hold her and kiss her, to feel her hands on your body and hear her call your name?'

'It's not like that!' Nadya called out as she tried to force herself to stand, but her muscles were not responding.

'Ohhh, my mistake, then it's love is it? Ha! How rich, a poor worthless peasant girl, in love with a princess? You were never anything more to her than a convenient friend, someone to ease her lonely existence. She'll never see you the way you see her, and why would she? Look at you, an uncouth low lout with dirt beneath your fingernails and straw in your hair, you'll never be good enough for her!'

'That doesn't matter, that's not why I'm here!'

Nadya's eyes were beginning to fill with tears as Maleficent picked at her deepest insecurities. But she meant it, it didn't matter, what mattered was saving Rose whether she loved her back or not.

'Of course it matters. If there is one thing my insipid sister had taught me it's that the only thing that matters is how people feel about each other. Everything else is just window dressing. But why are you here? Have you come to free the beautiful Princess Rose from my taloned grasp? Like some questing knight looking to slay the dragon? Ha! I think not. She is MINE! And I will not relinquish her to you.'

'That's not up to you,' Nadya managed to reply, she strained against the vines ensnaring her and she felt them creak under the pressure she exerted on them.

'I heard what your 'contract' entails, I can bring her spirit back to her body and wake her, if I just... if I give her...'

And at that, Nadya's voice faltered, unable to admit what she desperately wanted to give to Rose, what she had imagined planting on her lips for years and years.

'Ohhh!' Maleficent crooned mockingly, 'You mean my sister's addendum to my contract, True Love's Kiss? Hahahaha! How adorably naive. You truly believe that such a thing even exists, and that someone like you, is worthy to bestow it on my property! In your dreams!'

At this moment Maleficent seemed to pause in her mocking, as if a thought had just occurred to her, and she launched back again on her carved wooden throne and idly conjured a rose petal that she began plucking the petals from.

'But you know, if that is truly what you dream, then I can make it a reality. This is my kingdom, I rule here, everything from the land to the sky and the leaves and the flowers are mine to command. And I could make everything that you've ever wanted come true. I could make your sweet Rose want you, lust after you, fulfil all your sensuous desires.'

At this the fairy queen clicked her long sharp fingers and out from her palm a long twisted length of leather unfurled. It snaked down to the ground before the throne to where it coiled its length around the semi-translucent neck of Rose. The Princess's spiritual form was completely naked and kneeled in a sad defeated position on the floor, her long blond hair hanging loose and limp behind her and her arms held up shyly around her torso. Her eyes were downcast and did not look up to where Nadya kneeled before her, even when she called out her name, and even the spiritual form gasped slightly as Maleficent tugged lightly on the leash around her throat.

'You see, she is my creature now, even in this diminished form that my sister's meddling had offered me. I can make her do whatever I want, or whatever you want, my would-be saviour. All you have to do is pledge yourself to my service. Become my creature too and you shall live in blissful union with your beloved by my side. You will have everything you ever wanted.'

Maleficent clicked her hand again and Nadya looked down as the vines around her arms and legs melted away to be replaced by the same silvery bejewelled dress that she had seen herself wearing in the mirror earlier. Although the sharp thorned vine around her neck remained in place. At the foot of the throne, the see-through form of Princess Rose looked up at her and a light seemed to fill her eyes to behold Nadya in her beautiful dress. Rose stood, with the leather noose still around her neck and clothes seemed to form around her as well so that the two stood just a few feet apart. But Rose could approach no closer to Nadya as the leash tethered her to Maleficent's hand. She tried to speak but no words came out, but Nadya recognised, or perhaps hoped she recognised the three words that her mouth formed.

The look in Rose's eyes was one of regret and sadness, as if lamenting chances lost and loves gone un-spoken. It broke Nadya's heart to see the one she had loved for so many years tied to this monster, and she twisted her neck to try and free herself of the cruel leash which kept her restrained as well. She felt the thorns prick into her neck dangerously and pierce her skin in several places, but apart from the pain of the thorns, the vine did not appear to be that strong.

'So what do you say, peasant girl? Will you serve alongside your beloved Princess Rose? Or shall I transform you into the worm you are for daring to defy me?'

Maleficent now seemed to loom above both women now, her form almost filling the chamber as she stared down her nose at Nadya, her hand still gripped tightly on the leather leash around Rose's neck. Nadya quailed before the presence of this beautiful and terrifying creature, and for a moment her resolve faded away, perhaps she was worthless, perhaps it would be best to serve, she had been serving all her life after all, and at least this way, she and Rose could be together.

And then, with one final effort, ignoring the piercing pain and drawn blood from her neck, Nadya tore herself free of the thorny vine around her throat and dove forwards towards Rose. She reached out her hand as the glamorous dress seemed to dissolve around her, revealing her simple torn rags below and her hand met with the cool but very solid palm of Rose's spiritual apparition. Time seemed to slow as Nadya looked up into the pale blue eyes of her friend, she reached up with her free hand and brushed a strand of loose translucent hair of her face and closing her eyes leaned her head forwards to place a soft, loving kiss on the lips of the princess.

The moment their lips met, a light filled the room, banishing the shadows back. Nadya however was only vaguely aware of it as her eyes were still closed and she was lost in the kiss as Rose responded in kind. She could feel Rose's cool hand on her own and felt the light pressure of her other arm reach up to tenderly caress the side of her face. Her skin was soft and smooth, unlike Nadya's calloused fingers and she surrendered all other senses to focus on the joy of that moment.

Above the two women, the forces of light and dark battled unseen. Maleficent and her sister raged over the ownership of the princess. But the contract was clear, only by True Love's Kiss could the spirit of Princess Rose be released from Maleficent's possession and there was none truer than the love that now burned brightly in the heart of the poor kitchen girl who had fallen in love with the princess, and in the heart of the princess who now loved her in return.

- - -

Time and space work differently in the land of the fairies. It seemed to take no time or distance at all for Nadya to lead the spirit of princess Rose by the hand down the endless winding staircase, through the castle, out across the drawbridge and through the forest towards the archway. Behind them they could hear the destructive, defeated tantrum of Maleficent as she tore the castle she had conjured apart in her impotent rage. As they stood at the doorway back to the world they had come from, Nadya and the spirit of Rose looked back at the forest of briars and roses for the last time, before stopping through the archway of trees.

The cool night air that greeted them on the other side filled Nadya's lungs with fresh reality. She looked sideways to see Rose but the spirit was completely invisible in the light of the moon. But it was alright, Nadya could feel the soft reassuring presence of her hand in her own as they walked back towards the castle. Rose's unseen spirit remained silent but Nadya knew that if she could have made noise she would have been skipping and humming as they went. The thought made her smile once again to imagine it.

Once inside the castle it was a simple thirty-foot climb up the side of Princess Rose's tower, to the open window through which Nadya could see the body of the princess lying prone on her bed. She appeared to be completely alone and Nadya felt her friend's spirit glide past her ear into the room as she scrambled her more corporeal body over the windowsill. Nadya came to sit on the stool next to Rose's bed and took her warm hand in her own, feeling the pulse still beating as she slept.

Then there was a shimmer, a change in the room as all the candles fluttered and Rose took one deep breath as her eyelids fluttered and her spirit returned to her body. The hand that Nadya held twitched and returned the hold as Rose's eyes opened sleepily and a wide, happy smile split the face of the waking princess to see Nadya sitting by the bed. She leapt up and immediately planted a full-lipped joyful kiss on Nadya's lips and Nadya responded in kind, holding Rose's very real, very warm body in her arms as they both fell backwards off the bed and the stool to land in a giggling mess on the floor.

'I love you, Rose, ' Nadya murmured as she brushed her hair from her face.

'I love you, too Nadya,' Princess Rose replied and leaned back in for another kiss.