Once upon a time, a king and queen had a baby daughter. They were so happy that they decided to hold a great feast to celebrate the christening. They invited all the important people in the kingdom, and most importantly, they invited the fairies.

There were thirteen fairies in the land. The king invited twelve of them. Each fairy was given a golden plate, a golden cup, and a golden knife and fork. But the king did not invite the thirteenth fairy. He had only twelve golden place settings, and besides, the thirteenth fairy was old and grumpy and had not been seen in fifty years. Everyone assumed she was dead.

She was not dead.

The twelve fairies came to the feast and gave the baby princess magical gifts. The first fairy gave her beauty. The second gave her grace. The third gave her a kind heart. The fourth gave her intelligence. And so on — each fairy gave the princess a wonderful quality.

Eleven fairies had given their gifts when the doors of the great hall suddenly burst open. In walked the thirteenth fairy. She was old, stooped, and furious. Her eyes burned with anger.

"You did not invite me!" she snarled, pointing a bony finger at the king and queen. "Everyone else was invited, but not me! Well, I have a gift for the princess too."

The room went silent. The thirteenth fairy walked to the cradle and looked down at the sleeping baby. Then she spoke her curse:

"When the princess is fifteen years old, she will prick her finger on a spindle — and she will die."

The queen screamed. The king went pale. The courtiers gasped.

But the twelfth fairy — the last fairy who had not yet given her gift — stepped forward. She could not remove the curse completely, but she could soften it.

"The princess will not die," she said. "Instead, she will fall into a deep sleep that will last one hundred years. And after one hundred years, she will be awakened by a prince."

The king tried everything to prevent the curse. He ordered every spinning wheel in the kingdom to be burned. He banned spindles, spinning, and even the word 'spindle.' Guards searched every house. Not a single spindle remained in the entire land.

But curses are not so easily defeated.