A blue sky hung overhead as a small golden duck paddled her way across the lonesome, reed-encircled pond. The beauty of the water's cerulean hue was matched only by the color of Duck's eyes and her feathers shined in the light of the afternoon sun. She bobbed her head under the water and her tail feathers poked above the water, now ringed with ripples. Duck brought her head up with a "quack!" and gazed across the horizon. On the south-east side of the pond she gazed at fakir walking over to his small cabin with a ravishing young lady in tow. Duck watched as they disappeared into the house and breathed a sigh. "Love…" she thought to herself, "I wish I could be with him and say I love him." She turned her head towards the sky and sighed again. "If only I could become human again."
A faint ticking sound interrupted Duck's thoughts and blackness spread across the sky. "Quack!" Duck paddled towards the shore as the water grew dark with the sky. As she arrived on the shore a pair of merciless eyes met her scared gaze. "D-d-d-Drosselmeyer! What are you doing here? I though you went to go find other stories with Uzura!"
"My dear, I heard your prayer and returned." Drosselmeyer's body appeared in the darkness and Uzura dropped down by his side. She banged her drum in a slow heart-beat like rhythm. "A duck that has fallen in love with a human? Oh how tragic! How I wish I could still use my machine! But even if I could, what good would it do? The prince's heart shard that you transformed is back inside the prince… And the prince went back to the story with his princess. Ah what a conundrum!" A disappointed look spread across Drosselmeyer's face.
"You're right…" Duck hung her head in sorrow. "I'm just a duck, and a duck can't be with a human… I can't be human without the shard and I won't hurt the prince…"
"Uzura knows someone who can write!-zura Maybe he can come up with a lovey-dovey way to help-zura" Uzura looked up at Drosselmeyer as an evil grin spread across his face. Duck was confused. They couldn't possibly mean Fakir... could they?
"Wonderful idea my puppet! Let us go!" Drosselmeyer and Uzura disappeared and the darkness faded back to a sunny day, leaving no trace of the visitation, and once more duck was alone. With a quiet "Quack…" She paddled out once again.
"Oh mister Fakir!" A voluptuous blonde-haired woman called from the bathroom in Fakir's small one-bedroom cabin. Small it may have been, but it suited his taste and was located near a certain pond. "I'm going to the bathroom real quick, please keep writing!" Since graduating at the academy, Fakir had been spending his time writing stories for the townspeople of Goldenrod City. His talents had grown after the final battle with the Raven and in the time since he had been able to write stories for anyone who would ask. They'd often approach him while he was relaxing a pub enjoying an ice-cold beer and a basket of french fries with way to much salt on them. This fine afternoon a younger women clad in a ruby cocktail dress had come up to him and asked for a love story between her and the older man behind the counter. Charmed and unable to refuse her simple request, Fakir brought the lovely woman back to his house for details.
Fakir pulled out a few pages of crisp white paper and his favorite quill, a swan's feather. He sat down at his old oak desk and pulled the cork out of the half-empty ink container. Usually words flowed onto the page for him with little effort but today, something was missing… He needed a start, a setting and too many details to just make up. He let his mind wander as his eyes danced around the cabin, looking for inspiration that might be hiding in any crevice. The woman returned to the living area and sat on the worn down couch, eyes fixed on Fakir. His eyes traced up and down her curvy figure and words suddenly appeared in his head. He wrote quickly as though the words were spewing from his hand. The woman looked on in amazement as Fakir spun a tale of hidden passion becoming open and free, shy at first but later becoming deep and finally true love appears, pulling the love-struck couple together in un-imaginable ways. He finished his tale with a happy ending of love that would live on with marriage and a pitter-patter of little feet in the future.
By the time he finished his story, the sun was setting in the distance and he was sweating and breathing heavily as though he had just finished a marathon. The woman had fallen asleep on the couch and was snoring softly as he put the finishing touches on her love story. He nudged her softly on the shoulder, waking her up. "Is it finished?" She looked at Fakir through sleepy eyes as he handed her the story of love she so desperately wanted and escorted her to the front door.
"Will you be fine walking back alone?" Fakir tucked a stray piece of blonde hair behind her ear.
"Yes, and thank Mr. Fakir!" She hugged him, and he could feel the giddiness and excitement beginning to flow through her body. It made him feel truly happy when people were excited to read his stories. The woman kissed him on the cheek and raced out the door into the sunset, and after he was sure the woman was gone, he let out a sigh and walked over to his couch and sat down. "Haha, the most popular request. The love story… I can write them so well and yet, I couldn't tell her how I felt about her before she became a duck again. Maybe we could have been together, but now… a duck and a human can't be together…" He sighed heavily. "… I wish it wasn't to late to-"
"It's not, dear descendant!" A chuckle followed the resonating words as darkness spread through the room.
"Fakir-zura!" Uzura appeared in the darkness, beating her drum fast, and behind her came Drosselmeyer. "We have an idea for a story for you-zura!"
"Drosselmeyer? I thought we were rid of you for good!" Fakir Jumped up from the couch and backed away from the two figures emerging from the darkness and tripped back onto the couch. "Why are you here? And what do you mean a story idea for me?"
"I've been ever so bored lately... I miss making stories for my characters. So I've come back to interfere with your lives again."
"Tsk, like I'll let that happen!" Fakir snarled.
"You don't have a choice... and beside that, I have a good story I think you'll enjoy." Drosselmeyer pulled a piece of paper out of Fakir's desk, grabbed his ink and quill, and placed them on the table in front of him. "Now write… Fulfill your purpose..." As if he had lost control of his own body, Fakir's hand reached and grabbed the quill and dipped in in the ink. "Good boy, don't resist."
"No! I don't want to write what you tell me! I control my own stories now! Ugh!" Fakir grabbed his arm with his free hand and attempted to stop it but like a steel girder, it wouldn't falter from its path. He unwillingly brought the quill down on the paper, prepared to make words come to life. "No…"
"Once upon a time there was a sad and lonely duck." Drosselmeyer began, "The duck, who was no longer Princess Tutu, spent her time at the pond closest the cabin of a young man named Fakir. Often duck would become sad and lonely, but sometimes she would see Fakir about his business and happiness would fill her once more. However, that happiness would fade each night as the lamplight from Fakir's window went out and the flickering reflection ceased to play off her pond." Fakir watched in horror as his hand wrote the words that Drosselmeyer spoke. Uzura banged her drum in the tempo of his words. "One day, the duck got an idea. 'What if I become a human girl again? Then maybe I can be with the one I love too just like Prince Mytho and Princess Rue!' The duck spoke to herself in the darkness of the night. Fiery passion restored in her tiny heart, only to be put out in a instant. 'But how can I? I could only become human thanks to the prince's heart shard.' She drooped her head in disappointment. 'How can I become human again?'" Drosselmeyer was quiet as Fakir finished writing the words he spoke and then waited, staring blankly at him.
"Well go on…" Fakir muttered, glaring at Drosselmeyer. Part of him was eager to see where this story would lead.
"My boy, the rest is yours to write, I was just giving you a beginning… A beginning which may be more real that you know. Hahahah…" As Drosselmeyer began laughing, he and Uzura stepped into the darkness and disappeared.
Fakir remained sitting and gazed at the paragraph he had written, he read the words several times threw, each time expecting the story to go further that what he had written. "Like hell I'll finish this!" Fakir pushed himself off on the couch and walked over to his book shelf. He selected one of his favorites and returned to the spot where he was sitting before. As he tried to read, one thing kept interrupting his concentration. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and slammed the volume shut. He leaned back and let out a frustrated moan, "Why did he say this may be 'more real than I think?' I don't get it… Wait! The story was about Duck, right? Could it be these are Duck's true thoughts? Does she feel the same as me?" Fakir read through the story one last time. "Maybe it's not to late to tell her! But knowing Drosselmeyer there has to be some trickery involved. Still though… it could be my only chance!." Fakir picked up his quill in attempt to write more of the story he had been forced into at the beginning, words spun in his head, but none were clear enough to write down. He couldn't make the sentences assemble themselves, and angrily he dabbed his forehead and realized he had been sweating again. "How will I make Duck a human again? I need to get my thoughts in order." With that, Fakir went to take a shower.
In the bathroom he shed his clothes, revealing his chiseled body and the scar-shaped birthmark that arced across his shoulder and chest. He climbed into the shower and turned on the water, jumping as the ice cold water hit his sensitive skin and cranked up the heat. "How could Duck become human again without the pendant? Hmmm… A magic rock? No… A magic fish? Even worse…" Fakir poured some shampoo in his hair and lathered it. "What if… the power of true love was enough? Ah… but would that be enough?" He rinsed his hair and soaped up his body. "I've got it!" Fakir quickly rinsed off, turned of the water, grabbed his towel and dried himself off. He raced for his writing desk, not stopping to dress himself. He grabbed his writing implements and the loose stack of papers and perched himself at his desk. The cold oak of the chair on his naked skin made him jump up. He wrapped the towel around his lower half and sat down again, cold but not enough to bother getting dressed. He dipped his quill in the ink quickly and then began to write:
The duck was longing for her life as a human girl again. She would do anything to have a chance at the happiness she could share with the one she loved. The duck looked up at the dark sky overhead; the twinkling of stars filled the empty blackness, pinpoints of light illuminated the night. A falling star whooshed across the sky and Duck closed her eyes. "Star light, star bright, falling star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might have this wish I wish tonight… I wish I could become a human girl and be with him!" A bright starlight danced around the duck as she began to glow. She spread out her glowing wings as they became her arm, wrist, hand, fingers and nails. Her duck feet became human feet and the rest of her shed feathers and became her snow white skin, dotted here and there with freckles. The stars became a glorious white flowing gown that covered her naked body. The water of the pond splashed at the gown making it cling to her small frame. Her curly red locks trickled down her back and the ends swirled in the waist-deep water, a picture of perfection. "I'm a human again! Oh thank you stars! Now I can tell my knight how I feel." Duck danced around in the water as she slowly rose to dance on it.
Stars circled around Fakir and he stood up from his desk. The stars tickled his skin as they became a purple and gold satin leotard with white point shoes. Fakir gazed down at his attire, heart over flowing with emotion ready to be released. "I'll tell her!" Fakir gathered his courage and raced to the pond where his princess would be waiting.
"Ah! How will this story turn out? Tragic I hope." Drosselmeyer appeared on the couch in Fakir's cabin sipping tea.
"Will they be lovey-dovey-zura?"