Azure and Ruby Eyes
Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu or any of the characters that lie within.
The whirlwind slowly dissipated, Rue's clothing and dark hair settling back in place again as the chill from the darkness she had just appeared from left a ripple of goose bumps on her skin. Though the hurricane winds around her had ceased, the girl's mind was still in a tumultuous uproar of troubles. Rue had returned to the clearing where a single tree stood majestically, a sacred place she had shared with Myuto only a few sparse weeks ago for a picnic under the warm sun. The birds had sung softly in the branches for them, but now the clearing was silent, as though every creature had taken shelter from her presence. A great evil had come among them in the form of a human raven.
Rue slumped against the tree, her golden afternoons with Myuto felt like a distant memory.
Her confusion and frustration at the injustice fate had served her made the raven blood in her, Princess Kraehe, writhe with delight and plot courses of revenge, but Rue suppressed the prima donna with a sharp exhale of breath. No! She was human…
You cannot deny my existence.
Leave me alone.
Embrace your power, to refuse them is refuse Father.
Be quiet.
You are a raven. Take pleasure in knowing this.
Shut up!
You cannot deny who you are. You are a raven!
SHUT UP!
Kraehe laughingly receded to the depths of Rue's mind, she would not be ignored.
Who was she? She had been raised a raven, though born in a wretched human body, and she had forgotten her place in life for many years. She was not loved, no, could not be loved by another, and her dear love for Myuto made her heart burn in sorrow. She had changed him. She had ruined him.
All of this was Princess Tutu's fault. That pushy ballerina had set a dangerous story in motion that Rue had never wanted to have realized; but she had no choice now. She was as helpless as a driftwood doll cast into a merciless sea that ebbed and flowed beyond her control. The prince had been better off not knowing any better—not feeling anything. He may not have truly loved Rue, but she had been comfortable with that. Now Rue was a pawn of fate, just like Myuto and Fakir, they were all ensnared animals waiting helplessly for the hunter to make trophies of their deaths.
How she wanted to hate Princess Tutu for all she had done…but, that same ballerina in the white tutu and pink toe shoes was the clumsy ballet student Ahiru. The same Ahiru who wanted to become friends, the same Ahiru who had wanted to know Rue for Rue and not the idol student of the ballet school. They had danced together without animosity once, before they danced in challenge as Kraehe and Tutu over the love of the prince.
She loved Myuto, but she was terrified of what he had become, and that had been all her fault. Was she to be eternally punished for the raven's blood that flowed through her veins? Was she not to have a happy ending? Was she to face the same fate as the antagonist of the old story?
Rue shut her eyes tightly and sank along the tree trunk until she was sitting. This was all too much. She didn't know what to feel anymore.
A consistent sound of crunched grass met her ears and raised her awareness. Footsteps. Someone was coming.
Rue looked up.
Before her stood a little girl with light green hair and blue eyes, a little drum was slung over her shoulder on a yellow strap. Her clothing was very colorful if not jarringly so, her stripped pants and solid white shirt with a single red tulip printed on it screamed the garments of a three-year-old. The little girl marched straight up to Rue, headless of common courtesy to be welcomed before approaching and apparently unaware of the unfriendly look Rue shot at the child for intruding on her privacy.
Surprised at the girl's fearless advance, Rue's hostility melted into surprise. The surprise jumped to startled shock as the child addressed her by name.
"Are you the Rue we're worrying about-zura?"
Astounded, Rue could only stare for a moment. How did this toddler know her and who was this "we" that worried about her?
"What?"
"That's what Ahiru said-zura." The child rephrased helpfully and continued to watch Rue unblinkingly.
"Ahiru said?" Rue echoed softly. Ahiru was worried about her? Rue glanced down at the grass beneath the child's feet and thought back to the frigid treatment she had given the orange-haired girl since it became evident they were to be enemies. But Ahiru had always met Rue's enmity with warmth and patience.
She remembered them standing opposite each other, when Rue had accepted Kraehe and known Ahiru for the gangly form that hid Princess Tutu; the day that strange new student had come along…
-"I told you, there is no Rue!"
-"I just can't believe that."
Even now, Rue felt the sharp jolt of disbelief at the hope in Ahiru's voice and the friendliness in her eyes.
-"Because I feel that Rue is Rue."
Rue's mind flashed ahead to their brief talk on the dormitory roof, Ahiru's determined eyes gazing at her from the open window at a girl sitting alone and lost in confusion.
-"Rue!"
The heralding cry seemed to echo all around Rue, from the roof top moments ago through time to the clearing beneath the tree now, and Rue started from the memory. Ahiru seemed to have been calling to the girl that had been lost to Kraehe's influence, and the call had gotten through.
Rue's eyes focused again only to realize that the space the toddler had occupied was empty; the only evidence of her presence was the bent grass blades where her little feet had been. A lightning moment passed when Rue thought she had been left alone, only for a patch of familiar light green to move in the corner of her eye. Rue looked sharply to her right with a gasp to see that the toddler had moved and was staring at the older girl with a fathomless intensity, punctuated by the fact that she was less than a hands breadth from Rue's face. Did this little girl have no concept of personal space?
"Have I met you before-zura?" the toddler asked.
Rue met the innocent inquiry with annoyance. This child was becoming more of a pest than Tutu.
"What are you talking about? You're just a…"
Rue stopped abruptly. She had wanted to say "toddler," but the word caught in her throat. Breath eluded her for a moment as she gazed into azure blue eyes; something was so…familiar about them. Rue felt her stomach lurch, as though she had missed a step on the stairs; she had seen her ruby coloured eyes for an instant before they were swept into the sapphire depths. She was falling into those blue eyes. Rue was feeling light-headed from that intense stare, so innocent and childlike, but as deep and penetrating as the ocean. So pure. The briefest image of a woman with light green hair and azure eyes turning a familiar tune on an organ grinder flashed through Rue's mind.
Edel?
Yes. Those were hers. Rue had no doubt that these were Edel's eyes. There were no other eyes in the world that could see into your soul like Edel's could. But how—how could this child have them? Her naïve gaze was almost more shatteringly powerful in this childlike form, breaking away at the darkness that encompassed Rue, watering seeds of, dare she think it? Hope.
"You…Who are you?"
She was beginning to feel that same presence Edel had about this child. The little girl certainly looked a great deal like the organ grinder (this little girl carried a drum), but there was something different about her, something just a little uneven, but Rue could not put her finger on it. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen Edel in awhile, and oh how Rue could have used her guidance right now.
The little girl finally blinked once, perhaps the first time since they had informally met, and tilted her head slightly to one side. All the anger in Rue seemed to have washed away in the ocean of blue, exposing the weathered remnants of her true self, erasing Kraehe from existence, and all Rue could see were those azure eyes in that pale, juvenile face.
"Uzura…is Uzura-zura."
The name may not have matched, but Rue was dead certain whose eyes those belonged to.
How simple an answer. If only Rue could be so certain of her own identity…but maybe, just maybe…
"Do you know about me?" She asked tentatively, uncertain of her thoughts even then. She was unsure of her sense of self, and maybe the slightest bit frightened to speak of it out loud, but Edel would not judge her. Edel would know the answer to her burning questions. Perhaps Edel was somewhere in this child. Rue leaned forward in her haste to know the truth and the child, Uzura, moved back to restore some distance between them. "Am I really a raven's…" But she suddenly stopped. In the azure was a wave of confusion. Her small eyebrows dimpled downward as she heard but did not understand. The toddler had no idea what Rue was talking about. She had Edel's eyes, but she did not share Edel's mind. Darkness crashed back into where Rue had felt a small ray of hope, only to have that hope dashed on the shore of that blue sea. Edel would have known what to say…this was not the soft spoken organ grinder. This was utter foolishness. Rue felt the coldness that preceded darkness engulf her once more and she stood with a heavy heart and even heavier mind. This was all too much.
"What nonsense. I don't have time to be doing this."
The ballet student walked away slowly, her mind whirling with thoughts again of Kraehe, Myuto, Princess Tutu, and now Edel as well. Her sense of self seemed to diminish with every step. She could feel the toddler watch her as she left, the penetrating gaze of Edel on her back as she wandered away, but even this fell numb to her. All she felt now was cold inside.
Kraehe returned in a flutter of raven's wings and gleefully whispered dark cruelties to a lost girl.
Maybe it would have been better if you had drowned in the blue.
Author's Note: I thought that this was such a cute scene between Uzura and Rue, and I just wallowed in the profound depth of it all. Rue unsure of her identity while Uzura has lived a life she does not remember, but is most certainly a part of. Rue is human. No way around it. She's just confused and made more so with Uzura popping up as a mini-semi-recognizable-Edel. They can each see something the other does not, while conversely, they can determine nothing about or of themselves. There was a lot to contemplate in that scene.
I loved both of these characters. Rue was a very tragic character that eventually comes full circle for her miracle happy ending, while Edel is called back into service by the master of stories; but Uzura is much cuter in her misinterpretations and misunderstandings of the world around her. And I adore the stories I can pull from one minute of screen time. If any want to review the scene because they have no idea where I yoiked this story from: It's Akt 30 and starts at time 7:47. (Try to view it on Veoh.)
Anyway, I hope all who read enjoyed and will please leave a review!
Blackfire 18