A/N: Hey! I FINALLY actually posted the story I started tossing ideas around for 5 months ago! And changed like 50 things along the way. XP
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Once upon a time, there was a little girl who went into the woods. She brought with her a basket of goods, and was sniffed out by a wolf. What would the girl do, defenseless against a wolf? Was there anything she could do…?
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In the dark, a few gears begin spinning. Then Miss Edel's music box plays for a little bit, stops, and she speaks. "And so, the events of one story close, and another begins." A gear depicting white light appears next to her. "And that story is from a history. However we must first know what is occurring now."
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The light in the gear is sunlight, pouring in through a window into a ballroom. There, a prince and his princess are dancing ballet.
"Prince," says the princess, "I love you."
"As do I, Rue," the prince responds.
Time passes as they continue dancing, then suddenly, Rue turns her attention to the window
"Prince, something isn't right," says Rue. "The grass isn't swaying."
The prince turns to the window, too. The grass indeed is still as stone. "Why…?" questions the prince, trailing off.
"Good day, prince and princess," says a voice.
"Who is it?" asks Rue fiercely.
"Who am I? I am Drosselmeyer!" cackles the man, appearing out of nothingness before the prince and Rue.
"What do you want, spinner of stories?" harshly inquires the prince, standing defensively in front of Rue.
"Nothing of the princess', you have what I want, prince," says Drosselmeyer.
"What would that be?" snaps Rue, coming to her prince's side.
"A fragment of his pure, hopeful heart," he evilly smiles.
With a mere motion of his hand, Drosselmeyer takes just that.
In the following moment, Drosselmeyer vanishes with the piece of heart and the prince falls to the ground, his eyes closed.
"Prince?" asks Rue, trying to shake him awake. "Prince?" she asks louder.
However, he doesn't awaken.
"MYTHO!" she cries.
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On a pond, a small yellow duck has its wings spread, and beak open, seemingly yawning. After a moment, it puts its wings down, begins quacking to the Miniature Overture, and paddles through the pond to the dock.
Upon its arrival, it stops its song, and looks up. "Quack!" it exclaims in a distinctly feminine tone. She proceeds to invite herself onto the dock in a short flight. There, she again quacks, "Quack, quack! (Hi, Fakia!)"
Fakia, who had been writing until this point, looks over and says, "Good morning, Duck."
Duck tilts her head inquiringly.
"My story?" he asks.
Duck desperately nods yes.
"It's about Uzura," he answers.
She smiles and waves her wings.
"You want to see, I suppose," Fakia says.
Again, Duck nods yes.
Fakia smirks for a moment, and pats Duck on the head. "I'm almost done, so if you wait a moment, I can read it to you."
Duck gives an understanding nod, and in a short while, Fakia begins to read to her.
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THE PUPPET GIRL IN THE WOODS
-oOo-
Once upon a time, a girl named Uzura, who wore colorful clothing and carried a drum and a basket left to take a journey through the woods. This girl, being a puppet, and couldn't be sniffed out by bears, foxes, or wolves. However, what her basket contained, an apple pie, could be.
Thus, it wasn't long before a wolf sniffed her pie out and confronted her. Uzura, having never met a wolf before, wasn't aware that wolves usually dangerous, much less that what stood before her was a wolf.
So, she began pounding on her drum and chipperly greeted, "Hi, puppy-puppy, ~zura!"
The wolf widened its eyes in shock as Uzura set her basket down and gave it a pat on the head. Then, the wolf began to sniff Uzura's basket, and stick its mouth in it.
"You want that, ~zura?" she asked, pulling the pie out, and setting it in front of the wolf.
It continued to curiously sniff the pie as Uzura left, with several crumbs in the bottom of her basket being the only evidence that there had been a pie there.
Much later, Uzura found herself wandering in a dark part of the forest.
"Where's the way out, ~zura?" she asked.
She wandered around for a while more before stopping and beating her drum in frustration.
"Where's the exit, ~zura!" she complained.
Hearing the drum beat and smelling the crumbs told the wolf the girl it had met earlier was nearby. It ran over to Uzura.
Seeing it again, she cheered up and asked with wide eyes, "Do you know the way out, ~zura?"
It nodded yes, and ran off with Uzura close behind.
As they ran, it got brighter, and Uzura saw a large clock tower in the distance.
Recognizing it as Goldkrone town, she turned to the wolf, and hugging it, exclaimed, "Thanks, puppy-puppy, ~zura!" The wolf licked her in response.
Thanks to her new friend, Uzura had made it home safely.
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Duck claps her wings.
"I'm glad you like it, I wrote it for you," says Fakia.
Duck smiles, and lightly blushes, only to stop when she hears a drum beat coming closer.
"Quack-quack? (Uzura?)" Asks Duck, looking in the direction the sound comes from.
Uzura comes, singing a song. "Lovey-dovey puppy-puppy, lovey-dovey puppy-puppy!"
She stops when she notices Fakia and Duck. The puppet girl smiles and shouts, "Fakia, ~zura! Duck, ~zura! Let's make Duck a girl so she can be lovey-dovey, ~zura!"
Uzura takes out a red pendant and puts it on Duck, who instantly transforms into a red-headed girl in her school uniform.
She doesn't say a word, hoping that if it's a dream it will last forever.
"What the… Uzura, where did you get that?" Demands Fakia.
"The old man in the gears, ~zura!" answers Uzura.
Suddenly, it doesn't feel like a dream to Duck any more, so she asks, "Drosselmeyer?"
"Yeah, ~zura!" confirms Uzura.
"Oh. But he can't write anymore. He isn't supposed to be able to. Right Fakia?" says Duck, worried.
"…Yeah… he's not supposed to," he responds.
"He uses puppets on strings, ~zura," adds in Uzura.
"But that means he could be starting to write something awful!" cries Duck, "he's using Uzura to bring me the pendant, and he's likely to show up at any second!"
Completely scared and confused, Duck begins to run circles.
"Stop," says Fakia, grabbing her by the braid.
"QUA-!" she exclaims, shoving her hands over her mouth.
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From his rocking chair in the cogs, Drosselmeyer laughs, "Come, Duck! Now is no time to be running around like a lost bird, even if that's what you are!"
He continues, "Let's send you on a quest. How about you find just who Tutu is?"
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"Um…" says Duck, lifting her hands to look at them.
"What is it, ~zura?" inquires Uzura.
"Duck?" Fakia asks slowly.
"It feels like… Feels like… GEARS!" Just as she says "GEARS", one appears around her.
Duck pounds on the invisible wall that contains her. "No! Not again!" she cries.
"Blast, Drosselmeyer!" exclaims Fakia.
Uzura tries to hop in, but something stops her. "It's closed, ~zura!" she marvels, pounding on the invisible wall.
"What?" hisses Fakia, pushing on it.
"I don't want to leave!" agonizes Duck, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly her pendant shimmers, transforming her into Princess Tutu.
"I want to stay!" demands Tutu, pushing on the wall.
"I can't let you do that, Princess Tutu," sneers Drosselmeyer.
"Come out you sadistic fossil!" snaps Fakia.
"I'm sorry, but I need to return Tutu to her story," evilly smiles Drosselmeyer, appearing next to Tutu in the gear.
"What story? She doesn't belong in The Prince and the Raven," says Fakia, glaring daggers at Drosselmeyer.
"Wouldn't you like to know," teases Drosselmeyer, as the gear begins to fade.
"FAKIA!" shouts Tutu pressing her hands harder against the invisible wall.
"DUCK!" he exclaims in return, pressing his right hand against hers.
The gear fades with Drosselmeyer's laughter.
Fakia's arm slowly falls to his side, and he sinks down to sit on the ground.
"Where is she, ~zura?" whispers Uzura.
After a moment, Fakia responds, "I don't know…"
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Tutu's hands, now pressed against darkness, are moved to clear the tears from her face. But more tears come pouring out, and she falls to her knees.
"Herr Drosselmeyer?" she asks through sobs, and then she looks over her shoulder, only to see more darkness. Tutu asks her question to him anyway.
"Why?"
She slowly closes her eyes, and falls asleep, waiting for the answer that wouldn't come.
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"Well, well, well, I suppose everything's going as well as I planned," says Drosselmeyer, looking back and forth between a gear depicting Tutu asleep, and another depicting Fakia and Uzura sitting on a dock.
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A/N: Um… that's where it ends. For now. I'm going to update this more after I finish Chapter of the Wish. But if this gets more reviews, I may come update it sooner. Please, let me know what you think in a review. :D