The princess grew up, and just as the fairies had promised, she was beautiful, graceful, kind, and intelligent. Everyone who met her loved her. She was the light of the palace.

On the morning of her fifteenth birthday, the princess was exploring the castle while the servants prepared her birthday feast. She had been in every room of the castle many times, but today she discovered a door she had never noticed before — a small door at the top of a narrow staircase in a forgotten tower.

She pushed the door open. Inside was a tiny room, and in the room sat an old woman at a spinning wheel, spinning thread. The old woman had been living in this tower room for years, completely unaware of the king's order to destroy all spindles. Nobody had thought to check this forgotten tower.

"Good morning!" said the princess cheerfully. "What are you doing? I have never seen one of those before."

"I am spinning thread, my dear," said the old woman.

"How fascinating! May I try?"

The princess reached out and touched the spindle. The sharp point pricked her finger. A single drop of blood appeared.

The princess felt dizzy. Her eyes grew heavy. She swayed on her feet. And then — just as the fairy's curse had predicted — she fell into a deep, deep sleep.

The king and queen found her lying on the floor of the tower room, breathing softly, but impossible to wake. They carried her to the most beautiful room in the castle and laid her on a bed covered with gold and silver embroidery.

The twelfth fairy heard what had happened and came to the castle. She knew that the princess would sleep for one hundred years, and she did not want her to wake up alone in a strange, empty world with everyone she knew long dead. So the fairy cast a second spell — a spell that put the entire castle to sleep.

The king fell asleep on his throne. The queen fell asleep beside the princess. The servants fell asleep in the kitchen — the cook with his hand raised to slap the kitchen boy, the maid with a half-plucked chicken in her lap. The horses fell asleep in the stables. The dogs fell asleep in the courtyard. Even the flies on the wall stopped buzzing and fell asleep.

Then a thick hedge of thorns grew around the castle, higher and thicker every year, until the entire castle was hidden from the outside world.