Had an idea and wrote it- [anything like this means it's been crossed out]Enjoy!

Once upon a time there was a knight who could never be defeated, one day-

...

"...No, that doesn't sound right..."

[Once upon a time there was a knight who could never be defeated, one day]

Once there was a boy who was destined to be a great knight and save a great kingdom-

"Too obvious"

[Once upon a time there was a knight who could never be defeated, one day..].

Once there was a boy who was destined to be a great knight [and save a great kingdom] and defeat an evil [witch] sorcerer that plagued the land. Although young he was loyal and [brave] true, he protected his family with everything he had and worked hard at the [farm] shop he lived in to help keep everyone happy, but somewhere in his heart he felt that something dark was lurking around the corner. One dark, stormy night there was a loud knock at the door of the family shop, the boy's father urged him and his mother to hide as he walked carefully towards the door ...

"Hmm...better but a bit too predictable" the small boy muttered as he rolled the duck feather quill between his fingers, a slight pout forming as his eyebrows drew together in thought. Fakir glared down at the scruffy writing on the page in annoyance, his sower look contrasting with the sparkling water of the pond he sat next to, he often came here to spend some time with his stories whether printed on the pages of great novels or scribbled over old wrinkled paper by his own hand, it was a nice spot to relax too- sometimes he'd feed a couple of ducks that took an interest in him- but mostly he just wanted somewhere that he didn't have to worry about people bothering him.

Sighing, Fakir flicked a stray lock of hair away from his eyes and lay back on the grass with his arms tucked behind his shoulders, deciding to try again after he'd rested for a bit. Soon he found his mind wandering into half-dreams of great adventures and amazing heroes, barely noticing the sound of soft, tiny footsteps before-

"A story!?"

Green eyes flying open in surprise, the boy sat up abruptly to catch a glimpse of shocked blue eyes and ginger hair before the girl stumbled back and landed on her butt.

"Ow...that was scary- don't pretend to be asleep just so you can scare people Meany!" The girl groaned, wrinkling her freckled nose in pain and irritation as she brushed off some grass from her already grass-stained baby blue dress.

Fakir glared at the newcomer and huffed loudly "I wasn't pretending to be asleep, idiot, I was resting. You were the one sneaking up on me, not the other way around!"

A small blush appeared on the red-heads face as she stumbled over her words, "I-I-I WAS NOT! I j-j-just thought tha-that y-you could be hurt or something a-and then I saw your story and I-um-kinda wanted to r-read it but um..."

The dark-haired boy blinked at her nervousness, slight colour dusting his cheeks at the mention of his writing, having never shown his stories to anyone other than his mother and father. But she wanted to read it? No one had ever been that interested in what he was writing other than his parents and uncle Charon before now, it felt kind of nice to know that someone was interested...even if it was a stupid girl.

Looking back down at the paper he hesitantly picked up the page he'd been working on and held it towards the strange girl, only glancing at her once before turning his head away completely to hide his blush. "I-If you want to read it then fine- but I've only just started so- yeah..."

Startled by the sudden offer the girl blinked owlishly at the other before quickly moving to grab the sheet of paper between her small hands, eyes sparkling at she took in every word before her.

A weird knot developed in Fakirs stomach as the girl with strange hair read the beginning of his story, slowly turning his head to watch her face as she read. Seeing the sparkling of her eyes and excited smile on her lips Fakir felt his heart quicken, both anxious and happy at having someone different reading his words so attentively, he took a moment to study her closer; she had pale skin and freckles that were dusted across her cheeks and nose, her eyes were an amazing shade of blue that could rival the water of the pond and her eyelashes were long and thick, her roughly platted ginger hair was long and what was left loose stuck-up at odd angles- one small lock standing straight on the top of her head- with the help of a few stray leaves and flowers that seemed to have gotten caught at some point.

She was undoubtedly the strangest person he had ever seen. Suddenly noticing her eyes moving from the page to meet his, the boys cheeks burned up in embarrassment, the girl didn't seem to notice this as she leaned in closer to him with a bright expectant smile.

The red-head hugged the piece of paper as she looked to the older boy with hope written across her face "Wow! This is amazing- are you going to do more? What's going to happen? C-can I read it when you're done?"

Fakir's blush calmed down as he absorbed her words, "Y-you liked it?"

"Yes!" The girl grinned, paying no attention to the daisy that dropped out of her hair.

At her reply the little boy smiled shyly before bursting into a full grin, "Idiot, that's only the start, you should wait until it's finished before you say stuff like that…"

"I can still like it, even if it's not finished! You-…you're a really good writer…" he girl pouted naïve to how her small comment made the other boy squirm slightly. She tilted her head back down to the ink-stained paper, "Hey, what's your name?"

The boy darted his eyes to hers and away before answering, "…Fakir"

Grinning brighter than before the girl handed back the page as she spoke;

"Nice to meet you Fakir! I'm Ahiru!"

It had been a month since then and over that time Ahiru had started visiting Fakir at the lake every day to read the next part of the story and talk about fairy tales, animals and local gossip- not that he contributed much to the conversation, he didn't quite understand why she stuck around him so much. After a while she started following him around on his explorations of the town like some kind of puppy…it was kind of annoying but fun too, Fakir never knew how much more interesting things could be with someone else.

There was also Ahiru's clumsiness, he had soon realised after the first few days of their meetings that she had not two but three left feet, most of his 'adventures' were spent either trying to keep Ahiru out of trouble or getting her out of it, it added a safe kind of danger to his day that he found oddly endearing after a while. Unfortunately it made it hard for her not to be noticed by his family, he was starting to get tired of Raechel teasing him about his 'girlfriend'- really? Ahiru his Girlfriend?! Ew!

So over the few weeks Fakir had got used to the new routine of his life with Ahiru- until today.

The young boy glared slightly at the blade of grass in his hand before selecting another and plucking it out of the ground, convincing himself that he wasn't waiting for the stupid girl, just… taking a break. Looking over his shoulder he huffed silently when he didn't see any sign of red hair anywhere nearby, finally giving up of mowing the grass one strand at a time.

"Even she's never this late- what's taking the idiot so long?"

In truth he was a little worried; he knew she was accident prone enough to get into trouble and she was usually ok, but… was there a chance that something had happened? Fakir shook his head irritably, she'd be fine, and it was more likely that she was just bored of him now he'd finished writing that story….

A sinking feeling settled in his stomach, he wasn't sure why but the thought that she might not come was both worryingly possible and, well, worrying! Sure she was annoying, loud, childish, stupid, girly, clumsy and utterly confusing but…she was funny and appreciated his stories and was probably the closest thing Fakir had to a real friend.

He glanced over at the blank pages beside him along with the scruffy book that he and his father had made with his finished manuscript, wondering if he should try to write another story, maybe this time he could try to write something Ahiru would like… better stop that thought there before Raechel senses it [she always seemed to know when he was thinking about Ahiru…].

With a resigned sigh Fakir stood up and brushed himself off before picking up his belongings and turning to leave, he'd barely taken his first step when he saw movement from the corner of his eye. His eyes widened in recognition as fiery hair came into sight along with an old baby blue dress, but quickly narrowed in confusion; Ahiru had her head ducked down instead of looking straight ahead like she usually did, rather than skipping along like usual she was scraping her feet on the ground while favouring her left side with her arms wrapped around herself, her hair that was usually tied back in an untidy plat now flowed freely over her shoulders in a dishevelled waterfall of copper.

Without realising what he was doing Fakir had dropped everything and started running towards the girl, only just making it to her when her foot caught a stone and she fell forward into his arms. The worry he'd felt before came back with full force.

"Ahiru! Hey, what happened? Are you all right?" the boy quickly sat her down, trying to get a good look at her to identify any possible serious injuries.

Ahiru perked up and slowly lifted her head to meet his gaze, revealing the purpling bruise on her cheek and small cut at the corner of her lip as she smiled happily at him. "Fakir? You're here! I'm glad I made it in time…"

Her smile and small giggle sent an unexpected rush of anger through Fakirs body and he grasped hold of her shoulders firmly whilst glaring straight into her eyes, "Idiot! Don't just laugh like that when you're obviously hurt! What happened?". He was tempted to ask 'who?' but didn't want to jump to any conclusions before he knew what happened- besides who would want to hurt Ahiru?

The red-heads shock was evident even as she tried to hold back the tears forming in her eyes and keep the smile, opening and closing her mouth a few times before answering in a hesitant voice.

"W-What do you mean? I…I'm…fine" she chocked, looking down at her hands to avoid his gaze as a single tear managed to escape.

The boys grip on her shoulders tightened "No you're not! Don't be stupid!"

"I'm fine! And I-I'm n-not stupid…" she mumbled, flinching away from him.

Fakirs eyes softened, feeling slightly guilty for letting his anger get to him, and he slouched down to try and regain eye contact. "Hey, look at me, idiot. We're friends aren't we? I need to know what happened so I can help…"

Sniffing Ahiru peaked from under her fringe, Fakirs expression was serious but there was no denying he looked worried too.

"Fa…kir?...I..I-I" Ahiru felt more tears well-up and flung herself at the other boy- her friend- burying her face into his shoulder as she cried whole heartedly. "I-I'm so-rry~"

A little uncomfortable with the sudden closeness, Fakir was still for a moment before awkwardly patting her back, not really knowing what to do in the presence of a crying girl, especially when said girl was Ahiru and never usually acted like this. He allowed the younger girl to carry on crying as he tried to work out what might have happened or how to go about finding out what happened, unconsciously relaxing and letting his chin rest on her head. He wasn't sure how long they sat there like that before Ahiru was calm enough to speak, after a bit of coaxing and an argument or two he finally managed to get the truth out of her.

Ahiru lived at the orphanage on the outskirts of town, she had lived there for as long as she could remember but had never been able to make friends with anyone. She had got used to how the other kids picked on her and blamed her for everything but today was the first time it had gone too far; she had been on her way to meet Fakir when she noticed some of the boys from her orphanage throwing stones a small grey kitten as it tried to keep its balance on the branch of the tree it had climbed to escape. Of course, being the kind hearted fool he knew she was, she had ran in front of them instead of getting an adult, unintentionally setting herself up as a target. The kitten was saved but now the girl was covered in dark bruises and scrapes from stones, and her head was filled with the boys' jeers and taunts.

After hearing the whole story Fakir stood up, ready to show those bullies a thing or two until Ahiru begged him to leave them alone, saying that she didn't mind as long as Fakir was her friend. Of course saying that made Fakir go bright red and start another lengthy argument…

…

"What do you want more than anything?"

Ahiru blinked up at Fakirs sudden question, leaning back against a tree as she thought, "I don't know… I've wanted things before but I don't have enough money to-"

Fakir snorted in annoyance, trying to ignore the slight blush on his cheeks "Not like that- I mean if you could do absolutely anything or be anything you wanted or see and have anything, what would you choose?"

The small girl looked surprised by the question but lifted her eyes in thought as Fakir waited for her answer.

"Well…" Her eyes wondered to a small bird perched in the tree above, before watching it flutter away into the sky as it sang, "…if I could have anything…I'd want to wings"

The young writer blinked in surprise at his friends request, he'd been expecting something like 'I wanna be a princess!' or 'I want to be friends with everyone!', since that was the kind of thing he'd been told that girls wanted, but it made him sort of happy- now he could enjoy what he was planning to do. He casually leaned back and crossed his arms as if to think before glancing over to her.

"…I could write a story about you being able to fly if you want?"

Her reaction was instantaneous; Ahiru whipped her head round to look at him and opened her mouth in surprise before smiling in nervous excitement. "R-Really? You'll write a story for me?"

"S-sure, but don't get the wrong idea, I just- y-you know- felt like writing but wasn't sure what to write…." he stuttered

Grinning widely the girl once again hugged him but this time the tears had been replaced with a smile. "Thanks Fakir! I can't wait to read it!"

Fakir shifted uncomfortably, blushing as she squeezed his ribs, "What are you doing! Let go!"

Giggling Ahiru shook her head and held tighter, once she was comfortable she quietly murmured, "What about you Fakir?"

"Huh?"

"What would you want if you could have anything?"

Pausing in his attempts to dislodge Ahiru from his side he contemplated the question, he'd never really thought about it before, but…He looked down at his young friend; the small purple bruises on her legs and arms along with the untidy plat that she had tied her hair into after he'd been informed of what happened.

He felt a strange feeling, something that he felt he should remember from another time but couldn't place, something that made him want to be strong and protective- duty- that was it…whatever that meant. With a resolve he never knew he had he answered, "A knight"

Ahiru looked up at him but he was concentrating straight ahead.

"I want to be a knight"

Ahiru's story was developing quickly, which was odd; usually Fakir spent days on the first few paragraphs but this time it felt almost like the story was writing itself, like it was alive! He smiled thinking of how irritated the annoying girl had been at his secrecy, but had relented when he said she could read the whole thing once it was finished- her pout and 'evil' glare was just too funny to take seriously- luckily she didn't have long to wait.

Writing the last few lines of the story, Fakir grinned smugly as he thought of how Ahiru would react, but it would be worth it and then he'd write a more serious story. Chuckling Fakir returned to bed, leaving the untidy words to dry on the last page not realising how alive his humorous tale was…

….and so she lived happily by the pond as a duck by both name and appearance. No one quite worked out what happened to the red-head girl and soon they all forgot about it completely, but from then on the entire town would smile as they talked about the strange little duck with blue eyes by the pond….

Yep- Fakir wrote a story about Ahiru when they were little...accidentally turning her into a duck AND making everyone forget...he should have been a bit more careful about the words he used T^T Sorry he seems a bit OOC but this is set before his parents are killed and he starts closing up. May or maynot do a follow-up where Fakir finds the story and suddenly remembers what happened, feeling seriously guilty goes about fixing the story so she turns back into a human.

Tell me what you think please- hopefully I'll get around to my others stories once my exams are over!