<div class="floatleft">(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42499880/Elliquiy/Briar-Rose.jpg)    </div><strong>Aurora<br/>????, Ever After Wilderness<br/>Tagging: Doctor Facilier</strong><br/><br/>For a few brief moments, everything seemed to be as it should. Briar Rose awoke on her little cot in the little cottage deep in the woods, the sound of early morning birdsong drifting through her window. She groaned as the haze of sleep slowly began to fade and, a moment later, sat bolt upright, a look of panic overtaking her lovely features. Everything came back in a rush of fear, then joy, then a blur of unfamiliar faces. In what had seemed like just a few days to her she'd been cast into an endless sleep by a spindle, rescued by a handsome stranger, informed that she was a princess rather than a peasant, introduced to her true parents and married off to her rescuer in short order to finally secure as she was introduced to her true parents, informed she was a princess and quickly married off to a stranger whose kiss had broken her curse. The ceremony had been huge and overwhelming, nobles from throughout a kingdom Rose had never even known existed paraded by, shaking her hand and wishing her and her new husband well. There had even been a few other princesses, lovely girls in exotic dresses who'd come and gone all too quickly. Periodically the procession would be interrupted as one of her fairy godmothers magically changing the color of her gown from pink to blue or back again (if they had asked her she'd have said she actually preferred green, but no one ever seemed to ask Briar Rose how she felt about anything), but otherwise the whole ordeal was a blur. Eventually, late into the night, the last of the guests had left and the prince had eagerly led her back into the castle. He'd seemed quite excited about something (exactly what, the princess was not quite sure) but then something had gone...wrong.<br/><br/>As her eyes adjusted to the dim light she realized she wasn't in her forest cottage, nor was she in the unfamiliar bedroom in the castle. The songs of the birds were different here and there was an eerie, ominous feeling in the air. A shaft of sunshine poured into the room though a small, high window, but the light didn't reach far beyond her cage.<br/><br/>Cage...?<br/><br/>Stumbling to her feet, Briar Rose - no, not Briar Rose. What had they said she was to be called now...? Oh yes, Aurora. Aurora rushed forward, dainty hands each wrapping around one of the strange iron bars that encircled the cot she'd awoken on. She shook them, but her meager strength could not cause the thick metal bars to so much as tremble.<br/><br/>"H-hello...?" she called nervously as she peered into the darkness. "Aunt Flora? Fauna? M-Merryweather...?"