Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu.
Note: My dear readers...bla bla bla...I'm SO SORRY!! I noticed that in the past few chapters, I totally screwed up Neko - I mean Nero-sensei's name. SEE? Since his name is almost the same as the old one, it's so hard to keep track of which is the right one. Please excuse my stupidness, and try to think of him as named Nero-sensei instead of Neko-sensei, who is probably running around Kinkan Town's with thousands of kittens trailing behind him right now.
Also, I have been really busy lately. I'm hoping to become a mangaka...it has become one of my dreams, aside from writing and playing my music instruments. So I've been busy drawing! Yippee...I hope to get manga editing software for my fifteenth birthday. By the way - if my story seems to have become a little off tone, it would probably be because I've got a different anime on my mind lately. Sorry to those of you who are total Princess Tutu fans, but I've become addicted to the anime called Air. AND! - I don't have a proofreader or anything. Everything I do here is on my own, so if I try to proofread with a distracted mind, everything comes out wrong too. Anyway, now for the story. I will try to get these up faster. (Sorry for taking up so much space with my notes)
Princess Lucille stepped aside as the other princesses ran forwards onto the planks. It was harder than Ahiru thought. It was hard to keep her balance, and in certain places there were large gaps that she had to jump across. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Princess Lucille dancing across her platforms with ease.
Fine! Ahiru closed her eyes and felt herself turning into Princess Tutu. She too began twirling across thin planks. Then came several traps and a tightrope. Ahiru managed to avoid the first three traps, but the fourth one caught her by surprise, and she lost her balance. She regained it quickly, but the others were way ahead of her.
"Please stop this!" she cried to the girls ahead. "You're my friends Pique and Lillie!"
"That may be so," laughed Princess Esmeralda, "but I won't allow you to have Fakir-sama!"
The course that Princess Lucille built was very tough. In some places the path twisted in such a way that it was easier for her to twirl along it rather than look down at the ground. Suddenly Ahiru felt herself being lowered. The other two princesses were experiencing it too. Princess Lucille had avoided it easily, since she had known that the trap would be there.
"What is this?!" Ahiru looked down at the trap. It was a gear from a clock, and was rotating downwards from her weight. She tried to climb up its huge teeth, but it was hard work. Looking down below made her dizzy. Instead of the streets of Kinkan Town, she saw a pitch black bottomless pit. Ahiru felt herself slipping with fear.
"Princess Tutu!" whispered someone next to her. "It's me Paulamoni."
Ahiru screamed and turned, nearly falling off the gear. It was getting harder to hold on to. "Paulamoni?!" she exclaimed.
Paulamoni smiled. She looked transparent, as if she wasn't really there. "I can't help you much," she whispered. "But since you healed my feeling of fear, I will help you with this," said Paulamoni.
Ahiru gave her a strange look. "Feeling of fear…" Then suddenly her face lit with recognition. "You're from the dancing troupe!"
Paulamoni offered Ahiru her hand. Ahiru placed hers in it, and the gear began to rotate upwards. "Thank you!" whispered Ahiru as Paulamoni faded away. Then Ahiru got back on her course and began to catch up.
"Too late!" said a sickeningly pleased voice.
Ahiru strained her eyes and saw that Princess Lucille had already reached the end of her path. "This isn't right!" said Ahiru. "You're the one who made this course! You knew where the traps were! You can't say you won this!"
Princess Lucille's face contorted into a wicked smile. "I said the first person to reach Fakir-sama. And it happens to be me." All of a sudden the crows holding up the planks for the course disappeared in a shower of purple sparks. Everything began to fall.
Ahiru's face became stern. "No!" she shouted and raised her hand in the stop gesture. "I won't allow this." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Princess Esmeralda and Carlotta falling and screaming. A stream of flowers appeared beneath her feet and began to carry her towards Princess Lucille. Princess Lucille gave a surprised gasp, but she recovered quickly and summoned her ravens to her side.
"Lillie! Pique!" Ahiru shouted, and concentrated her power so that the stream of flowers began to carry her friends up too. "You said we would only turn into ducks," said Ahiru to Princess Lucille. "Yet you made a deep pit for us all to fall in."
Princess Lucille snorted. "I don't have the power to turn you into ducks. It would have been easier to be rid of you instead."
"Stop this immediately." Ahiru waved her hand towards the caged men. "Take the cages off."
"I don't listen to anyone, much less you," scoffed Princess Lucille. "Why don't you make me? Your power is useless." Her ravens cawed viciously.
"Alright." Determined, Ahiru strained her mind and body together and thought of what she wanted to do. Slowly, thick vines began to flow from her hands towards Princess Lucille. Lucille stiffened, thinking the vines were meant for her, but they reached past her and curled themselves around Fakir's and Femio's cages' iron bars. The vines bent them apart like they were made of tin.
"Hmmph!" Princess Lucille snapped her fingers, and a pair of crows grabbed Femio's shirt. "You may have the ability to do that," she said, "but you don't have the guts to hurt me!" Just as the first rays of the sun were coming up, she and Femio were whisked away by magic, leaving two black feathers on the ground.
"Fakir!" Ahiru ran towards him and hugged him.
Fakir hugged her back and smiled. "Like I said," he said, "you didn't steal me," and leaned down and kissed her.
(Kyaaaaa!! -floats up in a heavenly bliss-)