warning: WAffy, OOC Ranma (though there is a severe lack of him in this part Ranma: Superkeen with me.) OOC Kodacchi, (Kodacchi falls in love with a rock though) ps: Hey do they get the stories off of the emails? disclaimer: I don't have Takakashi worried. Though Tchaichovsky did die. He would have died again had he read this fic. Who would pay for this? Prince Kuno rode to the edge of the lake after the picnic. He noticed the sorrowful and passionate colors of the sun. Now in the eventide, t'was so much more beautiful. In the decline and obliteration of the day, lay a new beauty. And yet all the sweeter to him, for night would fall with the presence of Mousse. Mousse would appear by the light of moon, pale and brilliant eyed. Kuno then looked out at the glittering water of the sunset. It was the duck. Sitting on the lake. It moved so perfect and still. He sighed. He was quieted. He didn't move only noticing it swimming in the water towards the brook.The darkness did not swallow the land that night. But it became fixed like a true star, fixed in the glittering brilliance of the duck's eye. Kuno began to speak his thoughts, again. "Why, but why do I only see this animal? And why oh why doth he remind me of Mousse? Am I bewitched by such thoughts? Am I mad?" But the duck was leaving again. "I shall find out the mystery of this Duck. I shall find wherein my obsession with it lies." He followed this duck. He spurred his horse along the edge of the lake. He lead his horse along the slim muddy banks deep into the forest until finally the horse would move no more.Already they were deep in the woods. To dark to see though the light still grasped to the sky. He walked along the murky muddy path. The only sign ahead was the flash of white feathers, like he when he was with Mousse, following the flash of white ahead. They came to the edge. To a deep grotto. The stone forms seemed as if they were on an alien world. The stones in stalagmites like grasping hands. It was like being in another world. The moon appeared from behind the clouds. All at once it seemed a song rose in the night as if the spirits of night were singing. The wispy breeze became light itself swirling in this tiny grotto. Swirling towards the center where a pool had collected. Soon it was no longer just a breezy wisp of light, but a gale, deep bright light pouring out of the forest itself collecting in the center of the pool, until it shined. A pool of light. He had not imagine a thing outside of Mousse's eyes. The duck dove beneath the waves in the grotto pool swirling and bursting with light.And in a starry swoop of darkness and star's burst from the surface of the water. His brilliant hair as black as night glittering stars everywhere it shook. There was nothing of him that there wasn't beauty. His naked porcelin white flesh. Kuno fell to his knees. Never had he seen beauty until this night. And now he was forever bound to this image of the divine taking the form of a human. Mousse crawled out of the pool on his hands and knees. "Where in the heck are my glasses? I can't see." The boy pawed around in the darkness searching for that familiar shape. The temptation proved too great even for Kuno. How could he as a gentleman not reveal himself and help him find his glasses. It would be ungentlemanly not to help. Kuno walked to the edge of the pool and scooped up Mousse's glasses He knelt next to the groping crawling figure, squinting and helpless. "Yours?" "Thank you Kuno." Mousse smiled. "Ever yours my darling." Mousse looked up. His head freezing in the grim realization."Kuno?" He placed on his glasses. Only to prove what he knew "Kuno! Baka no hentai." Kuno did feel the open and soft fist of his fair beloved against his face, over and over, such delicate fingers producing the loudest noises, louder even then his beating heart. **** Kuno grasped his boiling red cheek. Mousse was covered and hiding his form in the bushes. "Mousse." The prince approached. "Mousse What enchantment is this that so fills my heart? What wonder? What beauty?" It was amazing how fast the blush grew on his cheek. "Tell me, Mousse. What has transpired? Are you the same radiant vision of before? Or do you bewilder me with such sights? What magic is this?" "It is a curse." "Never a curse. Such nonsense. That you can change your form thus-" "I am cursed Kuno. In a way no man should know. Such unspeakable…." "Nothing you are is cursed. Every aspect of your being is none but blessed to me." "You're just saying…" Kuno clutched his hand. "Tell me how such a wonder is born. Tell me your story." "Look into my eyes. And all will be revealed." Mousse removed his glasses. Kuno was trapped noticing their deep strange green unholy color. As deep as the unseen greens of a forest glade at night. An unspeakable color of the imagination. Kuno could hear Mousse's voice still. But instead of seeing only him, he saw into his life. Kuno saw the image of a pair of twins, beautiful, one as dark as the moon, one violet and soft like the dawn "I once was human like you, but my parents were not. We were born as twins as a curse. One should live forever as queen and guardian of the wood and one as a mortal prince." Kuno saw a young huntsman of an ancient time with blue eyes and a long pigtail., searching the trees for something. Prince Kuno could not recognize him. "In those days there was a mortal, whose name I won't speak but you know. He wanted to marry the spirit of the Woods my sister, Shampoo. He loved her or so he thought. She spurned him." Kuno gasped "Ranmabart." Kuno saw Ranmabart as he appeared now. A black sorceror raining fire on the wood. "He grew to be a very powerful magician. His resentment and arrogance grew. He convinced all his minions to destroy my sister's home, to cut down her forest, to lay waste until she relented." Mousse sighed. "So I tried to fight Ranmabart. I challenged him to a gentleman's duel. I was destined to die. I might as well save my honor. He invited me to his castle. So he could not drug me, I ate nothing, did not sleep. I drank some water. Which was my mistake." "Ranmabart is a cunning foe. He deadened my magic and I lost. I prayed for a swift death." "But Ranmabart is not an honorable man. He took me as his captive as his hostage to win my sister's heart. But she has no heart. She only knows how to protect her home. Even I held no soft spot for her. When he said I was his hostage she only laughed." Kuno could see the Spirit. `Silly Man. Mousse is only mans. Mans die. Shampoo no die. Shampoo is happy.' In his rage. He turned me into a white duck, to turn my sister's mind. Mousse turned away. His eyes finished his tale. His mouth moved as a tear streamed from his eye "I must spend my days as a white duck. My nights are spent in this form, you see here. As long as he lives and she denies him, he has sworn I shall suffer this. There is no way I can think of in magic. I have studied for 200 years. Unless… You will find this silly." Kuno looked intently at Mousse waiting to hear something. Mousse as usual shook his head and turned away. "I don't know how it will help telling you. You can't do anything about it." "There is always hope Mousse." "But it's silly. No woman would brave the trials to fetch me. No one would. Not when Ranma's form is so beautiful. The women who come here fall into his spell. Some of the boys too. He is beautiful to all." "You need someone to rescue you?" Kuno said hand upon his pommel without a second thought. "I would kill Ranmabart for this. I would fight the world to rescue you." But instead Mousse almost smiled at this declaration "That would be easy. Locks and chains may be broken, but not such spells. If I would only need to escape I would have been free a thousand generations ago. No it is far more silly." Kuno looked at him "Name it and I shall do it Mousse." "Never say such things." "What will free you?" "Someone must love me." There was no silence, only a thundering thick heart beat: A thousand heartbeats at once, in the space between them, like a new universe. "Oh Mousse." Mousse recoiled shocked to here such a thing spoken and such a loud heartbeat. What could this strange boy fear so much? Kuno grasped his offered hand. "That is never a silly trifle. Love does move the very Earth, love will defeat any force upon this earth." "Even his evil?" Mousse lowered his head in such a soft and mournful gesture. "How can I believe this? I had hoped so many times… but no woman would want me." "Then how about a prince?" Kuno embraced him. "What?" Mousse felt the prince with his arms about him. He looked deep into Love's eyes. And he spoke the universe, his everything, his life. "Mousse." Mousse looked into him and responded with the only thing he could say. His salvation, his hope, his life "Kuno." "I can set you free." "But Ranmabart will kill you." "You can't be in here. My heart would crack. You must be free Mousse." The silence in their hearts was forever gone. They had each other. All at once the forest quaked, but the embrace was stronger than the strongest Earthquake "Mousse. I will set you free because I-" The trees bowed at the approaching fury. A black owl descended upon them. "No." Mousse cried out. The owl opened his mouth. "So my Mousse. You betray me with this mortal prince. Oh you are a bad little duck." Mousse fell to his knees with his forehead to the ground. "Please Master. Don't hurt him." "Hmmm. Well. The alarms I placed on you work well." Ranmabart flapped his lazy wings in circles. The owl swelled to the size of a man and swept his cape around Mousse. "Away we will fly. No mortal shall deprive me of my fair hostage. Away to my fortress." Mousse didn't struggle. He was swept up into his cape. "Kuno, Goodbye. I love you." Kuno's eyes flashed."Mousse?" Ranmabart's laugh filled the air with a sound of dread and evil. But the only sound Kuno could here was the faint whisper of the Duck Prince.
