Author's Note: This was inspired by a dream - no, seriously - so anything that might seem off is probably the dream's fault. XD ... okay no it's really mine, but eh. I couldn't resist!

Random Encounters

It didn't happen to anyone else as far as Fakir knew, and it didn't happen when he left town on his own, but Fakir had found that if he tried to leave Gold Crown with Ahiru, they could end up anywhere at all.

In practice, about eighty percent of the time "anywhere at all" was a city called Oxford, which wasn't so bad. Fakir would browse the bookstores and do a bit of sight-seeing while Ahiru explored the rivers and made friends, there were occasional adventures involving careless rowers or heated debates on literary criticism with highly invested academics, and when they got tired, there was a narrow alley near New College that would take an unexpected twist and drop them back at the main gate of Gold Crown.

As for the other twenty percent... Well, that was why Fakir was sitting on a park bench and staring at a giant skyscraper shaped like Michelangelo's David. Tackiest thing he'd ever seen.

He wasn't quite sure where he was - the city looked like Tokyo, where he and Ahiru had ended up a few times before, but he didn't remember a skyscraper like that one, and it wasn't the kind of sight you could forget in a hurry. Ahiru had bolted off as soon as they had found the park; instead of looking around the city, Fakir had found a bench and sat down to do some writing. He couldn't put his finger on a specific reason, but the city gave him an uneasy, slightly grating feeling, as if someone was scratching their fingernails on a blackboard somewhere just out of hearing range, and he hadn't wanted to wander too far from Ahiru.

That had been in mid-afternoon, when the sun had been bright and warm; it had set an hour ago, Fakir had finished off the chapter he was working on and started the next, and Ahiru still hadn't come back to him. She had better not be lost, he thought darkly. Whatever magic kept dumping them in unusual places and then bringing them back didn't work if they were split up, and who knew what alley would take them home in this city...

Fakir looked away from the tacky skyscraper before his eyes started bleeding and saw a little girl watching him. Curling blonde hair, big purple eyes, school uniform, a bandaged arm in a sling and more bandages on her leg - hm. He felt the itch of an incomplete story in his fingers and squashed it down; this wasn't the time. "Hey," he said. "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

The girl stuck her nose up in the air - oh great, a little princess - and said, "I wanted to take a walk."

"All by yourself at night?"

"I don't feel like going home just now," she said, every word precise and frosted with haughtiness, but she tugged at the end of the bandage on her arm, twisting it around her fingers. "I was going to sit down, but you're on my bench."

"You can sit down anyway," said Fakir. "Plenty of room."

"No, thank you. I'm not supposed to sit next to strangers." Twist twist twist, her eyes lowered to the ground. "I should go home soon so my papa can work on me, anyway."

Something icy crept up Fakir's spine, and it wasn't from the cold bench. "So your papa can what?"

The little girl straightened up and lifted her head. "He's making me beautiful," she informed Fakir. "I'm ugly, but Papa is a great artist, so he's going to make me beautiful, and then he'll love me."

Fakir looked at her carefully, but nothing apart from his initial observations stood out. "You already look fine to me. Probably be cuter without the bandages, though."

"No, I'm ugly," she said decisively. "You're just lying to be nice."

"I'm a writer. I only lie to editors, and never to be nice." Too bad Ahiru wasn't around to vouch for that.

The kid hesitated, then said, "Well, you aren't an artist, so you probably can't see it. But Papa is the best artist in the world, and I want him to make me beautiful. You have to suffer to be beautiful, but I don't mind, because it's for Papa."

"And that's why you're walking around by yourself in a park at night," Fakir said. "They write horror stories about that kind of thing, you know."

"I -" Her eyes flickered down to the ground, and she twisted the end of the bandage again. "I do want to be beautiful, and Papa is eager to finish, I just - I don't want to be worked on any more today."

Fakir cursed his stupid knight's heart and briefly wished for Rue; she'd know what to say better than he did. He slid over to one side of the bench to make a little more room and said, "Sit down, I'll tell you a story."

"I'm not supposed to -"

"Yeah, you told me before. Do you want to hear a story, or do you want to walk around in the dark some more?"

After a moment, the little girl sat down at the opposite side of the bench, as far away from Fakir as possible. "Only if it's not a stupid story," she said.

"I'll do my best," Fakir said; he leaned back to look at the few stars bright enough to shine through the city's lights and began to talk.

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful baby girl, with hair as dark and shining as polished ebony and bright eyes as red as a ruby, whose parents loved her very much. But one day they left her alone - just for a minute - and a terrible, monstrous raven saw her as he flew by..."

Ahiru had been having lots of fun in the park's quiet river, and had met lots of kind ducks and gotten chased by a swan, but of course the other ducks all wanted to roost once it got dark, and she was used to staying up late helping Fakir write. She had said her good-byes and paddled around a bit on her own, but it was lonely, even more so than the pond at home which was usually empty except for her; everything here felt lonely, somehow.

She had just decided it was time to find Fakir and waddled up onto the bank when she heard someone sniffling.

Well - Fakir could wait a little longer. Ahiru listened hard until she heard another sniffle, found the clump of bushes where the sound was coming from, and slipped through the branches to the other side. "Gwah?"

The short-haired girl crouching behind the bushes looked up, rubbing at her eyes, but when she saw Ahiru she smiled with a startling brightness. "Oh, you're pretty - hi, little duck," she said.

Ahiru murbled at the praise and gave her back a quick preen, then marched over and settled next to the girl, fluffing her feathers. "Gwah gwah," she said, by way of introduction. "Gwaah?"

"You're a friendly duck, aren't you?" the girl said, and she sat down properly beside Ahiru. "It's nice to meet you, little duck - I'm Momoka. Sorry I don't have any bread for you..."

"Gweh," Ahiru said cheerfully, fluffing her feathers again, and the two of them sat in a companionable silence until Ahiru heard another sniffle. She looked up and saw tears sliding down Momoka's face. "Gwaah! Gwahgwah gwah?"

"Oh, I didn't mean to startle you," Momoka said, and she wiped at her face with her sleeve. "I just - would you mind very much if I talked to you? I can see you're not an ordinary duck, and I don't have anyone else to talk to..."

Ahiru shook her head and nestled closer to Momoka.

"It's sort of complicated, but -" Momoka tugged at the hem of her dress. "I have a friend I really like, and I think - I know something terrible is going to happen to her if I don't do something. I - I can change her fate so she'll be safe, but there's a price, and - I want to help her, it's just -" Her voice cracked, and she had to wipe her eyes again. "I know I have to change things, but I'm s-scared of the price this time..."

Oh dear. Ahiru made comforting murmuring noises, then butted her head against Momoka's hand, and Momoka automatically began to stroke her. Ahiru felt the girl's fingers dig beneath the feathers to scratch her head; they ran across the thin, straight lines of scar tissue, and her hand paused, then moved to follow the lines down Ahiru's neck, along her back, out onto her wings. "Little duck, what happened to you?" she whispered. "You have scars all over - what happened?"

It was more difficult now than it had once been, but Ahiru stood up on the tips of her toes and raised her wings above her head, then stretched one out towards Momoka. "Gwaah gwah gwahgwah gwaaaah. Gwah gwah, gwaah."

Momoka didn't dance, but she touched the tip of Ahiru's wing and her eyes widened. "You can change fate, too," she said. "I knew you weren't an ordinary duck, but - you're really special, aren't you?"

"Gweeh," said Ahiru, and hid her head under her wing for a moment. Momoka continued to pet her, and after a little while said, "Did it hurt very much?"

Time had dulled her memories of the ravens' beaks and softened their blows, but Ahiru didn't want to be dishonest; she dipped her head. "Gwah."

"Was it worth it?"

Ahiru hopped up into Momoka's lap and looked up into her eyes. "Gwah gwah gwah," she said, and nodded again, as firmly as she could.

Momoka's smile had been lovely before, but now it shone a thousand times more brightly, as brilliant as hope. "Thank you, duck," she said. "That's all I needed to know..." And she bent down and kissed the top of Ahiru's head. "I have to go home now, but - thank you!"

She lifted Ahiru off her lap and set her down, then curtsied to her; Ahiru rose to her toes again and bowed, and when she looked up again Momoka had gone.

Ahiru gave her feathers a quick nibble, and went to find Fakir.

"... that was silly. She was already beautiful, so she didn't need to do anything to be loved."

"Well, yes, but she was ugly to the raven because she was a human, and she believed him because she thought he was her father, so -"

"He wasn't her father, though, so he doesn't count. Her real parents thought she was beautiful."

Fakir gritted his teeth. "She didn't even know they were still alive! She only cared about the raven's opinion, and he -"

"Gwaah! Gwah?"

He had never been so glad to hear Ahiru's voice in - well, in most of the recent past, anyway. "There you are," he said, and he stood and scooped her up off the path. "Idiot - don't run off like that in a strange town."

"Gweh," she said, and looked curiously at the little blonde girl, who had gradually migrated to the middle of the bench during the story. "Gwaah gwah?"

"Is she your pet duck?" the girl asked.

"Not exactly," Fakir said, and Ahiru quacked sharply at him. "Okay, okay, not a pet at all. Just a friend." He started to turn away from the bench to find the park's exit and then stopped. The girl hadn't gotten up; she was just sitting on the bench, her feet dangling above the grass. Damn it. "Hey, kid," he said, "how much longer are you going to sit out here?"

She kicked her feet, staring down at the ground. "I don't know. Maybe a little bit longer..."

If Fakir hadn't already had Ahiru in his arms, he would have picked the girl up, slung her over his shoulder, and carried her back to Gold Crown with them, consequences be damned - the town had seen weirder things than a guy and a duck raising a kid who'd come from nowhere, and who cared what her creepy father would think?

He took a deep breath instead, and said, "We have to head home now. Be careful and don't talk to any other strangers, got it?"

"Mm..." She looked up suddenly. "What's your name?"

"Oh, yeah - I'm Fakir, this is Ahiru."

"Gwah gwaah!"

"My name is Tokikago Yuri," the girl said, and she held her hand out so Fakir could shake it. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Fakir. Thank you for telling me a story, even if it was silly."

"Don't forget it, I don't tell stories to just anyone," said Fakir. He reached out and rubbed the top of Yuri's head, and she glared at him. "Take care of yourself."

"Gwah gwah gwah!" Ahiru said - don't give up! - and Yuri gave her a cautious pat before Fakir turned away; they left Yuri still sitting alone on the bench, and never turned back to see the small smile that passed across her face, as fleeting as the beat of a bird's wing