12 Akt. ~ Scheherazade ~

Fakir woke up suddenly. 'What happened, where's Mytho?' shot through his head, but then he remembered. He was in his room in the boy's dormitory and he still wore his black clothes and they were torn. He recalled himself falling and the crows disappearing. Fakir had tried to walk home on his own, but had collapsed just outside the gate.

"That's right, Princess Tutu helped me and then…" he lifted his right arm from under the blankets. Her remembered it being severely bruised, but now it didn't hurt so much. Now he saw why. It was bandaged. It gave his heart a jump when he saw it. She had tended to his wounds. Only Charon or Retsel had ever done something like that for him. Fakir however, recovered from his pathetic sentiment, he scowled and sat up.
"Binding my wounds," he said, "what kind of a useless ju.." he stopped right there. He looked over to Mytho's bed and saw Princess Tutu, lying over Mytho's bed. Apparently she had been watching over him throughout the night and had hoped that Mytho would return, but he had not.

"Hey." Fakir said. He tried not to sound irritated for she had saved him and he didn't mean to scare her off, but he couldn't help it. Princess tutu's appearance made his skin crawl.

Princess Tutu woke up from her sleep and looked at him. "Oh Fakir, how are you?" she asked him.

"Don't give me that," Fakir sighed, "why are you still Tutu?" he asked, because that really bothered him. They both knew who she really was, Fakir had accepted Duck's presence for a while now and he knew that he would like much better to look at her face instead of Princess Tutu's. It was not that he liked having Duck around, but at least she was not a phony.

"What?" Princess Tutu reacted surprised and looked down at her dress, as if she had forgotten that she had changed. "Oh, I thought it might be bad if I went into the boy's dorm, looking like normal."

Fakir looked at her. He had not thought about that and he had to admit that it was a good thing to consider. It seemed however, that the look he gave her was a bit strange, because Princess Tutu asked:

"Eh, was that weird?"

Now Fakir felt himself being weird, it was all strange. He was thankful that she helped him and, to admit to the truth, overwhelmed by her kindness towards him, but he had always associated Princess Tutu with misfortune and his fate and that feeling had not completely faded away.

"Eh no," he replied quickly to her question and he looked away. "Sorry to have troubled you with his."

"It was no trouble." Princess Tutu said in her soft graceful voice. Fakir tried to ignore her and set his feet down on one side of the bed, ready to stand up and leave. He had to look for Mytho.

"Oh you're able to get up then!" Said Tutu happily.

"Hey listen, this doesn't mean I plan on cooperating with you."

"But you're going out to look for Mytho, aren't you?" Princess Tutu asked and she sounded more like Duck, when she had asked him to work together. It froze Fakir in his way to stand up. "We can at least cooperate on that, right? Let's look for Mytho together." She said.

Fakir threw her a look. He agreed, but he wasn't happy about it. He still didn't trust her fully. Once they were well away from the dorms, Duck changed back into herself with a bright red flesh. Fakir then noticed how small and fragile she in truth was. It was kind of impressive to think that she would chose to fight for someone's happiness. Of course, Fakir didn't tell her that, but he felt better now that Princess Tutu was gone. It was still dark outside when they began their search. Duck knew of many places to look and Fakir had to admit that she was a great help. Together they visited every possible place where Mytho might be. Fakir even let Duck into the mill where he and Mytho had taken refuge a while back. They concluded their search with a look in a high tower in the school campus. If he was somewhere on the grounds, maybe they could see him from up there.

"He's not around." Duck said sadly, as she looked out of the window.

"Of course he is," Fakir said thoughtfully, "it's just that we haven't been able to find him." It was undoubtedly that Kreahe was playing with them, like the times before, when she had Fakir go around town, only to find Mytho back in the most obvious places. It seemed that Duck had been thinking the same thing, basically.

"The lesson room!" she exclaimed brightly.

"Huh?" Fakir looked at her surprised.

"He might be dancing there right now, huh?"

"And why is that?" Fakir thought this an odd notion.

"Huh? Because Mytho loves to dance and that's where…" Duck tried to explain herself, but became unsure and drew a weird face.

"I don't think he will be there." Fakir sighed, but Duck tried to safe herself and began to play with her fingers while she muttered on.

"But, but the last time he was taken, he was back before we knew it right?" she said. " I thought it may be the same this time, besides I can't think of anywhere else."

Fakir gave up, this girl had been with him the whole time and all the while she had been completely herself, without any concern about his opinion. Now that Fakir knew a little more of her character, he began to think her funny and he smiled. "We can check it out," he said while he went down the stairs through the trap door, " we have nothing to lose."

"Oh wait for me!" Duck said startled by his sudden agreement and she hurried after him.

It was sunny when they entered the empty school grounds. "The school sure is quiet on Sundays." Duck said, just to have something to say.

"I guess." Fakir wasn't really paying any attention to her, he was listening for crows. He heard no birds, but instead they both could hear a muffed sound of music nearby.

"Is that Mytho?" Duck asked excited, she and Fakir had been thinking the same thing again. They hurried towards the large window on the left of the main entrance. In the lesson room behind the window was indeed someone dancing to the tunes of The Sugar Plum Fairy, but it wasn't Mytho, it was Mr Cat. With his sharp cat senses he detected their presence quickly. Fakir hid himself behind the nearest wall and Duck ducked under the window frame. But Mr Cat wasn't fooled and kept watching the window. It was because of Duck's hair, she had one lock that stood on top of her head and it stuck out above the window frame.

"Hey," Fakir whispered, "he can see you!"

"What, where, what?" Duck reacted and she began to look franticly from side to side. Her lock of hair moved along with her head and it drew Mr Cat's attention even more.
Bang! A loud hit against the window glass told them that Mr Cat had charged like a real cat and had hit the windowpane.

"Who dare to disturb my Sunday practice?" Mr Cat gasped when he recovered himself. His hit had caused Duck to stand up and she was too late to duck again.

"Oh Miss Duck," said Mr Cat, "this time I will punish you for ruining my privet time afford. "He said angrily. "I will have you marry my right now!"

"I'm so sorry!" Duck cried out and she ran away. Fakir followed and soon he walked in front of her again.

"What were you doing?" he asked her. In truth the whole incident with Mr Cat had been kind of amusing, but they had no time for side matters.

"But, but!" Duck said, but she didn't have an argument and kept quiet afterwards. They reached the arbour in the school garden.

"Hello there." Said a familiar voice and Mytho emerged from inside the arbour. Fakir and Duck stopped in their tracks, some distend from the arbour. Duck gasped in delight, but Fakir noticed that something was off. Mytho's eyes were narrowed and sharp with a cold reddish glow, his lips curled into a sneer.

"So Mytho is ok, thank goodness, he.." Duck said and she wanted to go to him, but Fakir stopped her with his left hand.

"Wait!" he said urgently. 'something is not right here.' He thought and he kept his eyes fixed on Mytho. Duck didn't understand and looked at him with a worried gaze.

"You know the tale of The Prince and the Raven?" Mytho asked in a sneering voice. He stood in the middle of the arbour and began to dance very slowly and dramatically. "It is a story about a brave prince who battles a monster raven. There was a knight the prince trusted, but the same knight was torn in two by the claws of the raven. Without the knight even landing a single blow with his sword. A useless wretch, who could only talk about protection."

Fakir gritted his teeth. This was directed to him. Kreahe had done something to Mytho. Duck kept looking at Fakir with a worried gaze and Mytho went on.

"That's why the prince suffered such hardship." He said while he kneeled down and demonstratively laid his hands on his incomplete heart. "The raven had slipped out of the story, alone he pursued and alone he sealed it away." Mytho kneeled down again, it was clear that he was dancing the tale as well as telling it. "Of his own will, he used a forbidden power. That's right, the prince drew his sword and took his very own heart out of his body."

"What?" Duck whispered. This was a part of the story that she had never known. "How? He took it, he took it out himself?"

"Oh, it's true." Said Rue, who emerged from the same way Mytho had done.

"What Rue?" Asked Duck surprised, but Fakir was not surprised at all. Now he understood. Rue had some hand in this after all, he had been right!

Rue smiled and took Mytho's hand, which he had reached out to her. "You don't know anything, do you Duck?" She asked. "What do you know about Princess Tutu?"

"Princess Tutu?" Replied Duck taken aback by the sudden mention of her secret alter ego. "Nothing, I mean, I don't know!" She said unconvincingly.

"You see in the Prince and the Raven Princess Tutu is only presented in a few sentences. "Rue told her while she and Mytho began to dance together. "A miserable existence which no one in the story wanted to take on. An insignificant existence which even the story left by the wayside. Someone who could never hope to catch the prince's eye. A little added flourish, poor thing."

"But Rue, why are you telling me this story now?" Duck asked and her voice shook. She was clearly hurt by Rue's words.

Rue smiled sneeringly and she and Mytho stopped dancing. Mytho stood behind Rue and held her right hand, which she held at an arm length from her body.
"So you still haven't figured it out?" she asked and she added darkly: "Rue doesn't even really exist." At that moment, Mytho transformed into a crow that sat in Rue's hand, which she closed and the bird burst into red sparks.

"What?" Duck was shocked, as was Fakir. He kept his eyes fixed on Rue.

'So it was Rue all along?' he thought. 'she had never been Princess Tutu or worked with her. No, she was something far more worse.

"Now then, you have finally figured it out, Princess Tutu." Rue said to Duck.

"Princess Kreahe?" Duck said upset. "No way, you can't be, 'cause you're my friend!" she yelled. "We used to chat together and dance together, and.." Duck's voice shook with emotion. It was really hurtful to hear. It was because of this that Fakir stopped her from speaking any more. He laid a soft hand on her back. "Come on, knock it off!" he said softly, but firmly.

"True, but it is time to put an end to all that foolishness." Rue said and a powerful wind began to blow around her and towards Duck and Fakir. It was so strong that they both had to bent over to stand it.

"Rue please!" Duck tried above the roar of the blind, but Kreahe ignored her.

"I only came to retrieve something the prince left behind, so I'll take my leave now." She said.

"Left behind?" Fakir repeated curious and he tried to look at her, while the wind kept becoming stronger.

"It is not something for a failure of a knight to have in his custody." Kreahe said. She now showed them her true form, that of a grim dancer, dressed in black feathers. Her upper lip became crimson so that it looked like a red beak and her hair was bound together in a large feather-like plum on top of her head. Her eyes were filled with malice. A crow appeared for a short moment in front of her, it carried with him a sword with a white winged handle.

"The prince's sword, but when did she get..?" Fakir thought aloud.

"Rue no!" Duck called after her former friend, but Kreahe was gone and so was the sword.

"Hurry up and come rescue the prince!" Kreahe laughed. The wind settled down and the air felt misty, but the sun broke through and they heard the music of an organ.

"Miss Edel!" Duck said gladly and she immediately ran towards the sound. Fakir followed her silently.

'So Duck knows this strange woman as well.' Fakir thought. 'Interesting, I wonder how much she knows.'

"Miss Edel!" Duck called again when they met up with her.

"Water is drawn to fire, fire to darkness, darkness to silence." Miss Edel said in her misty voice. It was a very strange thing to say and Duck and Fakir looked puzzled, but Miss Edel did not explain herself and walked away. "Come let us go." She only said.

"Go where?" Duck asked doubtingly.

"To where you must go." Miss Edel replied simply. She kept on walking without even looking back to see if Duck and Fakir were following her. She led them through town, past many streets and houses until they reached a large yellow-white building. It had a few wooden doors and two little towers, but for what it was built they did not know. Miss Edel walked around to an extension of the building. It was made from different stone and at its head it had a carved jester. Fakir first walked too far and tried the door he saw on the side of the main building. It was rather small and he had too bent down to try the lock.

"It's locked." He said, half to himself half to Duck, who looked over his shoulder.

Miss Edel paid no attention to him, she knew exactly what she was doing and that she was looking at the only right entrance. She took an emerald gem from inside her organ and placed it in the whole on the jester's chest, on its collar. With a heavy rumble the space below the jester began to move and an entrance with a set of steps leading down revealed itself.

"You can go where the prince and Kreahe are from here." Miss Edel said.

"An entrance? Here?" Asked Fakir surprised.

"Go on." Miss Edel said only.

"Thanks a lot Miss Edel for always being so kind to me." Duck said to her smilingly.

"This is not kindness." Miss Edel said and her voice sounded blank, but also sad. "Puppets follow the pull of their strings."

"Puppets?" Duck asked, but they both understood very well what she said. It was so sad. Fakir had always known that there was something abnormal about her, but he had never imagined something so sad.

"Yes, I'm a puppet." Miss Edel confirmed. "I possess neither a heart nor a heartbeat."

"But Miss Edel," Duck tried and her voice shook again. She was very fond of Miss Edel and it was clear that the loss of her friendship with Rue made this even harder for her too accept. "You taught me all sorts of things and you've been so friendly, that's why I think of you like a.."

"You think of me like that because that was the role I was appointed. My orders end here, now go on Duck." Miss Edel said, but she did not sound unfriendly, there was something warm in her voice when she said Duck's name.

"Whose orders are that?" Fakir wanted to know, but Miss Edel only laughed mysteriously.

"Miss Edel." Said Duck weakly, she was at the borders of tears.

"Now go on." Miss Edel said again, but Duck closed her arms around her in a tight warm hug. Fakir forgot the new mystery that had arisen with Miss Edel's words and looked at the small girl. It was amazing how much love and warmth she was capable of giving, even to a puppet.

"Duck?" Miss Edel whispered, she was clearly moved by Duck's behaviour, even though she had denied that possibility.

"Miss Edel, thanks a lot, we will go now." Duck said sweetly.

"Duck." Miss Edel was truly surprised and she reached out a hand and began to stroke Duck's face. "Such a warm face, such soft skin." She said.

"Miss Edel, I.." Duck tried to speak, but her emotions got in her way. Miss Edel only looked at her, her expression was caring and sad. Then she straightened up.

"Now you must hurry." She said and she no longer looked at Duck. She didn't wanted to make the situation more painful and Fakir decided to help her with that.

"Ok, let's go." He said. Duck followed him and together they descended the steps, leaving Miss Edel behind.

The staircase brought them to an underground space entirely made of stone. It was an enormous tunnel with a path on one side with a deep pit on the other. At the end of the path they could see another opening in the stone wall. The path was broad enough for them to walk side by side, but Fakir didn't take any chances. Without discussing the matter they walked in a single file. The fall would be quite deep and they had to be careful, especially Duck. She was so clumsy, it was a wonder she had survived all this time. Fakir became uncomfortably aware of the distance between the two doors. Sometimes he heard something that he thought to be Duck tripping with her frail ankles and fall. He would look behind only slightly to check on her, but he didn't want her to notice. Since when did he care anyway? He cursed his rotten luck for walking in front, if he walked behind her, he could easily see if she was indeed walking too close to the edge.

"Scary." Duck said and Fakir saw her, as he had feared, walking too close to the edge to see how deep it was. Fakir stopped walking at once and grabbed the end of the long braid in her hair. He winded it up like a rope to pull her to safety and he did not do it gently.

"Owowow!" Duck whined when she suddenly was pulled back by her hair.

"Idiot, walk towards the middle, you're already careless enough as it is!" Fakir said harshly. He let go off her and walked on, determent not to look back again. Duck followed his advice and walked in the middle of the path, but didn't mean she was careful. She kept looking up at the far ceilings of the cave with its strange wooden spikes sticking out in odd places.

"Wow, this place is kind of incredible." She said.

Before Fakir knew it he heard another slam against stone, which meant that Duck had missed a sudden change of rock formation again. "Ok, ok, eyes forward! She said to herself, but it didn't matter, she kept falling for one trap after another. In the end Fakir gave up and halted to look how she was doing.

"Um, you really are Princess Tutu, aren't you?" he asked her hesitatingly.

"Wah, yeah what of it?" Duck replied, panting, while she swayed to her feet after another fall.

"I thought Princess Tutu was more, eh, you know…" Fakir stopped himself, in truth, he was going to say 'graceful', but he was not ready yet to give Princess Tutu a complement, let alone let her know that.

"Huh?" Duck clearly couldn't follow him and looked confused.

"Never mind." Fakir said quickly and they walked on in silence for a while. Then Duck began talking, well sort of talking, she began but then stopped in the middle of her sentences.

"Say Fakir.." she said, but when Fakir let her know that he was listening she denied that she wanted to say anything.

It was not that Fakir suddenly enjoyed her company and so it annoyed him that she wasted his time by not speaking straight up.

"What the heck? If you didn't want to say it then keep your mouth shut." He said to her.

"No, it's not like that, but so that you know, I don't think your no good as an knight or anything."

This was strange, why would she think that bothered him? "What are you getting at?" he asked her with a sigh. It was not like he expected anything wise from her.

"Not trying to get at anything. It's just, I didn't think you were very nice when we first met, but now I think I know you a little better." Duck said.

"I say this right now." Said Fakir and he spoke loud to clear out his point. "I have no intention of cooperating with you. I help Mytho in my own way, end of story." All those incidents with those traps had made it clear that this girl was not always thinking straight, but he was, and he wouldn't be distracted by her.

"I know that." Duck said softly and Fakir felt her eyes moving towards him and he looked away.

"Wow, you know.." she said like she suddenly realised something. They had reached the end of a high path and Fakir jumped down and looked up at her, waiting for her to say what she had to say. But Duck shook her head.

"Never mind, it's nothing." she said

"What's your problem? Quit stopping in the middle of your sentences!" Fakir snapped at her irritated.

This startled her and she appeared to be frightened by him, but then she looked thoughtful. "Well the truth is that I never thought about things like what I like about Mytho."

Fakir meaningfully reached out a hand to help her jump off the higher ground. She was surprised, but took his hand and he helped her down. "The first time I saw Mytho it was mostly just me thinking he was handsome, but when I looked closer his eyes looked so lonely and I thought if I became Princess Tutu then maybe I could do something about it." She said. Fakir listened, this was more than he had ever imagined to be Princess Tutu's reason for being who she was. She had really thought about his happiness, his desires. Fakir would only decide for Mytho, thinking that he would only know what was best for him and casting his wishes aside. The only caring desire he ever had for him, was to prevent that he would suffer, but to achieve that he had made him suffer.

"At the start, that was all there was to it," Duck went on, deep in thought, "but now I…" But what Duck wanted to say remained unsaid. Fakir had heard the sound of flapping wings. He looked up and saw crows swooping down on them. He pushed Duck out of harm's way and drew his sword

"Damn it." He scowled.

"Fakir!" Duck cried concerned and she stopped to see if he was ok.

"Run!" Fakir called and she did, but the crows were everywhere and they came from the other side as well. They drove her back where there was a big yawning whole in the ground. Fakir just looked behind when he heard her cry out and saw her losing her balance on the edge of the pit.

"Idiot!" he yelled and he immediately left the crows for what they were and tried to catch her before she could tumble into the darkness. He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him, but he ran too fast and before he knew it he fell too. They fell a long way and it was impossible to predict when the ground would hit them. Fakir tried to keep Duck in front of him so that he would hit the ground first. In the end they both splashed simultaneously in a large puddle, in the middle of a round stone pit.

"S-sorry." Duck panted when they both had recovered from the shock of the landing. "Are you hurt at all?"

"It is a miracle I'm not." Fakir replied, he let go off her and looked up. "What is this place?" he looked around, but there was no exit. "I guess we have to climb back up." He came to his feet and walked to the wall where he tested his footing on the stone. "It's covered with moss, I doubt we can climb it. Damn!"

"Fakir!" Duck called. She was standing on the other side of the pit.

"What is it?" Fakir asked. He sounded grumpy, right now he had no time for her trying to be nice.

"One time when I had lost this necklace, you held on to it, remember Fakir?" she said kindly and she smiled at him.

"Huh? What about it?" he asked confused.

Duck walked towards him and made to unlock her necklace. : Will you hold on to it again?" she asked.

"What the heck is this all about?" Fakir had no clue what she was planning, but nevertheless reached out his hand to take the pendant.

"Here!" Duck said happily and she laid the necklace in his hand. Then something unexpected happened. The moment her fingers left the pendant, she began to glow with a reddish light. First it became brighter, then it dimmed down and when it had vanished all together, Duck was gone.

"What the.. where did she go?" Fakir asked out loud and he looked surprised to the place where Duck had disappeared. Only her clothes had remained. Suddenly something under the clothes began to move and a little yellow duck with a large disoriented feather on top of its head appeared.

"Quack!" it said to him.

"A duck?" Fakir reacted surprised as it waddled way and jumped into the water. Slowly Fakir looked at the piece of jewellery in his hand.

"She just.." Fakir whispered. 'so then, this wasn't a pendant for her to became Tutu?' he remembered the duck that had tried to take the pendant from him once, he had given de pendant to that duck and Tutu somehow had it again. 'It can't be that duck!' the same duck that he had given his lunch food to and the same duck that had been crying in Charon's backyard. Fakir remembered how happy he had been to see that duck then. 'Sorry you caught me in a bad moment' he had said to it and he had taken it into his arms and hugged 'her'?
Fakir felt his whole face burn with sudden embarrassment and he slid down the wall into a sitting position with his burning face in his hands, his eyes wide open.

'I don't think you're no god as a knight or anything,' she had said to him and now he knew why, she had been there. "She saw.. me crying!" Fakir stammered, but of course that was not the real issue. He had considered her a friend all along, without knowing that she was the same person he tried to shut out. When he had calmed down a bit he looked at the water again. Duck hadn't come out of the it yet. Suddenly worried, Fakir stood up. "No way. She isn't drowning now is she? Can ducks even drown though? Knowing her, she might." He waited and listened, but he didn't hear any sound of movement in the water.

"Idiot!" Fakir cried out and he ran forward, ready to jump into the water to see if he could find her, but he didn't have to. Just then the little duck popped out of the water and began to quack and flapped with her wings. But Fakir was not happy to see her, his face felt red again.

"Why did you?" he said slowly and he tried to keep himself in check but it wasn't easy, just seeing her made him want to yell at her. "Why did you not tell me? You shouldn't hide things like that!" he yelled at her and he heard his voice crack with hysteria.

"Quack?" Duck didn't understand and held her head to one side in confusion. This made Fakir even more mad.

"Quit playing dirty, you…!"

This Duck understood and she angrily flew out of the water while she quacked loudly. Fakir backed away when she came closer and thought that she wanted to attack him, but instead she flew with her head through the loop of the necklace and once she had the pendant around her neck again she began to glow once more. At once Fakir let go of the necklace and watched what happened. In front of his stunned eyes the duck transformed into Duck again, but her clothes lay on the floor. Fakir realised this and stooped down to pick the them up and to keep himself occupied.

Once Duck had her human form, she immediately began to yell at him. "You say that, but it's not that I revealed it to you because I wanted to. It's just easier when I'm a bird to check small…" she stopped yelling and her anger got replaced by confusion, because she had noticed Fakir holding out a neat pile of clothes to her, while he stubbornly looked the other way. His ears and cheeks were deep red. She finally realised that she was naked and dived back into the water were she sat on the bottom with her knees drawn up to her chin.

"You saw?" she asked him rudely.

"No." Fakir replied just as blunt and he turned to face her. "More importantly, what did you see? Shouldn't you bring that up first?!" he yelled. To his great shock, Duck suddenly stood up to confront him.

"How can I when you…?" but Fakir cut her off by blindly throwing her clothes in her face.

"Don't stand!" he cried out.

It took Duck not long to get dressed and Fakir had time to pull himself together. She had completely thrown him off his stand with her 'stunt'.

"Ok, I'm ready." He heard her say and he turned around to see her fully dressed again. "We can make it to the other side through the water," she told him, "the water down there smells different so there is probably a lake up ahead." She looked at him as if she wanted to see if she could read his mood from his face. "Um, I think it's best if you hold my hand while I guide you through the water." She said.

First Fakir gave her a stubborn look, he didn't feel like holding her hand after all this, but Duck gave him a sweet smile.

"Trust me." She said and though he would not tell her yet he did trust her now, so he agreed. Slowly he walked to her and took her hand. Together they walked into the puddle till they could no longer stand and dived in. The water was cold, but not chilling cold. It was a long swim and Fakir had quite some time to think things out. He thought about what she had said about Mytho. He knew now that she had known what she was doing, even though she did not know Mytho's past like he did. She just wanted to protect him, just like him, only she did it with a kind heart and although his hand was gloved and did not feel her touch directly, her hand felt familiar and comforting.

They emerged to the surface not long after Fakir had concluded that it was time he told her what he had always known, but denied. They found themselves in a dark tunnel with an uneven ground and a few ruined steps.

"See?" Duck said when she sat beside the little opening through which they had come. "It looks like it goes deeper, that is probably where Mytho is. Were you ok back there Fakir?" she asked him.

Fakir didn't answer, but gave her a smile. This surprised her.

"What is it?"

"A duck is Princess Tutu, huh?" he said and he too climbed out of the water while Duck watched him with a surprised gaze. "I have something you want to hear." He said. "Back when I was still a brat, when I was reading the Prince and the Raven to Mytho, the thing that he showed the biggest interest in was neither what happened to him nor the Raven, but what happened to Tutu, about whom only a little was actually written. He wanted to hear over and over again the part in which Princess Tutu turns into a speck of light and then vanishes. His solely desire to regain his heart most likely stands from Tutu's role in returning it."

"But they were saying, Mytho took his heart out himself." Duck said sadly.

"That is the kind of guy he is. Will you see, protecting the small and the weak, that is Mytho's single desire and to fulfil that he cast off any regard for himself. Even the loss of his heart couldn't tear that out of him. That's Mytho." Fakir said and he looked up to the ceiling with a smile. He felt as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders. He knew that he finally understood his friend. "Let's go." He added kindly to Duck and together they walked the last bit, side by side. At last they reached a large crack in the rocky wall of the tunnel and from it shown a bright light. They walked right into it and for a moment both of them couldn't see anything, but when their eyes got used to the light they could see a giant nest in the middle of a gigantic lake and in that nest lay Mytho on a bed of flower peddles.

"Mytho!" Duck called and she and Fakir wanted to go towards him, but a strong familiar wind stopped them. It was Kreahe and she looked very satisfied. Duck changed into Princess Tutu and for the first time Fakir didn't feel any resentment towards her sight. "Please, stop this malevolence now!" she cried.

"Agreed, let us put an end to it." Kreahe said in her usual deceivingly calm voice. "The prince's feeling of love is right here. The heart that loves people, that loves all the world yet belongs to no one and I wonder, you or me. Which one of us will it chose?" Kreahe, who had held the heart shard close to her cheek, now held it at arm length. "Whose words will be drawn to it once we both lay our hearts bare? If the shard choses you I'll return it and the prince, so then, why don't you speak of what burns in your heart? Well, Princess Tutu?"

AN: Congratulations to everyone who managed to read this loooooooooong chapter in one go :P I think chapter 13 won't be this long since Fakir will be unconscious throughout most of the episode, but you can count on me to think of something to extent it all a little.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I did my best to exceed all expectations. :) Please review!