Chapter 3

Later that night, after the battle between the voice that proclaimed that he was the Prince of the story in the figure that tried to protect Tutu. Ahiru sat in her room her mind filled with questions from the recent events.

"My, my, what seems to be the matter little duck?" the voice of the dead author Drosselmeyer chuckled as the world turns into a the sight gray

"Drosselmeyer?" Ahiru said sheepishly turning around to see the figure of the red caped Drosselmeyer

"Yes it is I" the dead author replied

"So you're the one writing the story" she said

"Of course I am. Who else would be writing it, Fakir?" the old man said, giving a short laugh

"Fakir" Ahiru whispered to herself sadly

"Cheer up, now little duck because I have come of great news!" the dead author proclaimed "I have seen your troubles you are confused and wondering what is going on and what role does Princess Tutu plays in the story. But now I'm here to help, If you wish it, all your questions will be answered You'll be able to tell the difference from friend or foe, the voice that haunts your dreams and shadows will have a body to go with it, the cloaked figure who protected you from dangers unknown will be revealed for who he really is and so much more"

"You think that stupid. I've falling for your little tricks more than once before!" Ahiru shouted, trying to not to show fear to the dead man

"You would get to find out why Fakir changed classes" the red caped Drosselmeyer said trying to be persuasive

"You can do that?!" she asked

"Yes, I can little duck so what do you say do you accept my offer?" the dead author replied

Ahiru thought to herself for a short while to decide if the old man deal was completely worth it "fine I accept Drosselmeyer" she said "but first, it will happen to the story when I get these answers?"

"Well, not much a little duck" the dead man answered "you will go through the story, like you did before. Except now you be able to their answers you seek right out of the mouth of the character you wish to hear from the most."

"Hey!" Ahiru snapped "that's cool and interesting at all, but you didn't answer my question. What will happen to this story when I get the answers?"

"Oh, you'll see a little duck, you'll see" the red caped Drosselmeyer replied And just like that he had disappeared and the world had returned back to its natural color. Later, the next morning in class

"Attention students attention" Mr. Cat Said to the class that was sitting down paying attention "you are all very aware that this school has a sister school in the big city of Silver Staff"

"Wow, I never knew" Pike said in aw

"Well Silver Staff is a lot bigger than Gold Crown" Lilie whispered to her cheerfully

"And by reopening communications with our sister school" Mr. Cat said walking one of them ending the conversation "we have been invited to join the Silver Staff arts festival the Festival used to be celebration slash competition between the two schools" Mr. Cat's face turned sour for a moment and looked off in the distance twitching his tail as of remembering a bad memory "anyways, each of the this school's art division will be required to compete! I mean, attend in the festivities"

"Well, the creative writing division be going to?" Ahiru asked, quickly standing up

"Sorry, but no, the creative writing division have been behind on their schedule and will not be attending the trip" Mr. Cat replied "But we will doing two ballets adapted by some of the students"

"Oh, I guess that means I will not be seeing Fakir at all" she thought to herself sitting down slowly

" what ballets will we be doing for the arts Festival?" Pike asked

"Now, I cannot give away what we'll be doing the arts festival, but I will give the whole class of a hint" Mr. Cat replied "let's just say one of the ballets will be similar to Swan Lake and the other one will be similar to the Nutcracker"

"I declare that I should be the male lead in both of them" James boasted standing up in front of the class

"James, it's not your choice on who get to be in the lead and who doesn't after all, it's Mr. Cat's" Corvin politely said to him, still sitting down

"Oh yeah!" James shouted turning around to face him "why one thing is certain that Mr. Cat will always pick you, Mr. late to class, never practices prissy boy!"

"James no! this is not time for fighting!" Yara voice rang out from the crowd of students which surprised the class more than James outburst of anger

"Yes, Mss. Yara is correct we have gotten way off topic" Mr. Cat said "the school will be leaving for Silver Staff on Friday on the bus ride there you have the right to wear whatever close you see fit, but once we get to the Silver Staff school grounds, You must wear your school uniform" he said, pausing a moment to clean his ears "as to tell the difference between the students, so, to give you time to prepare for the trip. You are dismissed from class for tomorrow and the rest of the day"

"Thank goodness I found you never stop talking" Pike something sighed with relief but even though many students were leaving their classrooms for the day Fakir refused to go to his instead, set in his room staring out the window. Waiting for the return of Uzura who had recently left to deliver the part of the story that, he had been working on.

"Where is she should have been back by now?" Fakir thought to himself as he continue to wait for the little girls return he heard two knocks at the door "who's there?" He said turning around, facing the door

"It's me Allard!" the young man said cheerfully

"You, what you doing here?" Fakir said to him

"Come on don't be so rude Fakir we're friends, After all" Allard said keeping his cheerful attitude

"When did we ever become friends?" Fakir asked out of confusion

"Yesterday" the young man answered

"Really the only thing I remember from yesterday is trying to get some work done and you coming into my room with some depressing rant about your past." Fakir said a motionless

"Then we became friends!" Allard shouted cheerfully

"Oh God" Fakir mumbled to himself, looking way, for brief moment "this guy is almost as annoying as Uzura to think that his related to Edel."

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot" Allard said pulling a medium rectangle box out of the hollow of his guitar "here you go buddy a gift of my friendship" Fakir quickly looked back about him and except the gift inside the box was a golden writing quill with a bright red feather attached

"wow, this, this looks really amazing" Fakir said, looking carefully at the quill then suddenly like a quick jab from a knife the memory of what Ahiru's new pendant looked like; in shock he stand there, motionless opening and closing his mouth, but afraid to speak

"I'm glad you like your present buddy. I hope it helps you with your writing problem" Allard said, still smiling, but his voice down, sounding strangely serious "now Fakir tell me a story" a few hours later Ahiru was taken a leisurely walk around the school Intel she saw holding a very large list in acting very worried

"Ms. Ahiru!" he shouted

"Yes, " she replied

"I've been terribly swamped with the preparations for trip so, could you do this quick favor for me?" he asked

"sure, I guess" Ahiru answer

"Oh, thank you, thank you very much Mss. Ahiru" he said cheerfully handing her a long piece of paper " this is a list of supplies that the painting and drawing division needed for their trip; so if you could be so kindly asked to go to the art building and find my wife and give this list to her." Ahiru responded by nodding her head in turning towards the art building. When she arrived at the building the inside of it was very dark

"Wow, the art building is a lot spookier than the last time I was here" as she walked through the dark hallway Ahiru heard a loud noise than something that sounded like someone was moaning in pain, out of worry and curiosity Ahiru rush towards the source of the sound to find herself in a seemingly pitch black painting studio "H-hel-lo?"She asked then all of a sudden the light switch switched on Ahiru gave a short squeak and spun around

"Yes" a cat like woman replied with snow white fir in bright pink eyes

"Are you Mrs. Cat?" said Ahiru

"Yes, I am, but please call me Katie" she said

"Well Katie, Mr. Cat, umm you're husband. Wanted me to give you this" Ahiru said handing her the list of supplies

"Well thank you Mss. umm, I'm terribly sorry I do not I didn't catch your name?" Mrs. Cat asked

"My name is Ahiru" she replied

"Well, thank you Ahiru" Mrs. Cat said her eyes still fixed on the list "I know this sounds very silly, but you think you return this list back to my husband and make up some excuse like I wasn't here?"

"Why?" Ahirus asked her mind buzzing with the details of that request

"Oh my, I was just kidding" Mrs. Cat answered with a sadden face turning around "I just wonder what the man I married really thinks of me" propping up a painting of Mr. Cat that had seemed to have fallen over "ever since he reopened communication will that other school, He has been talking to me less and less attention to me to the point now that he has to send a student to give me a list of basic supplies" her eyes flowing with tears tightly clenching the list

"I'm sure he wanted to give you the list himself" Ahiru said trying to comfort her

"I guess you're right" Mrs. Cat cleaning the tears from her face "but you are still very much in your youth and don't have, to worry about the silly problems that love brings, so I go enjoy the rest of your day."

"Okay, well thank you Katie" Ahiru said leaving the room. Halfway down the hall. The red egg shaped pendant began to glow "wha- a heart shard but where?" she thought to herself then out of nowhere she heard a loud crash and the sound of Mrs. Cat in terrible pain running back to the art room Ahiru open the door a slight crack to see what was going on when she saw was Mrs. Cat holding a letter opener standing over the painting of her husband with its face viciously ripped out. Ahiru clasped hand around her mouth preventing her from making quacking sound "why would she do that to her own painting?" she thought to herself "unless Katie has the heart shard! And by the looks of it, it's really violent!" from the feelings of worry She had for Mrs. Cat. She had turned into Princess Tutu

"Ah, who are you?!" Mrs. Cat asked in shock, dropping the letter opener

"I am Princess Tutu; will you please dance with me?" Tutu answered

"My husband is more of the dancer in our relationship, but you are very beautiful. May I please paint a portrait of you?" She asked Tutu, answered by a Nodding her head in delicately tiptoeing over to a blank canvas Mrs. Cat then sat down and began to paint her

"Katie, why are you so sad?" Tutu asked

"I'm sad" Mrs. Cat paused for a moment with tears welling up in her eyes "I'm sad because I destroy A painting of my own husband"

"But why destroy a painting of the man you love?" Tutu said

"That's it, All of a sudden I'm beginning to question if I really love him even after so long been happily married to him and giving birth to five healthy sons and one daughter I wonder if it was all truly a waste of time" Mrs. Cat explained

"But why, why, now if you finally question your love for him after you have married him for so long without a single conflict and even after you had children will love you and your husband completely and unconditionally? Do you really feel like love is a waste of time?" Tutu asked her

"No, I do not believe, love is wasted time, but" she said finishing her painting "by talking to you. I realize it is a waste of time to question the quality of love that's always been there for you; if you focus on one detail forever, you will forever miss out on the importance of the whole picture and I think I'm ready to let this detail in the portrait of my life, go." standing up Mrs. Cat Turned towards the door "excuse me, Princess Tutu, but I have to go find my husband there is some shopping that he needs some help with." And as she left the room, a tiny red speck of light and by the moment it touched the ground. A red specter like image of the cloaked figure you had tried to protect Tutu from an unknown danger and the night before appeared

"I am the heart shard of regret locked in a cycle of pain and suffering. What do you want from me?" the ghostly figure asked

"All wish for you is that you will return." The graceful ballerina answered

"So be it as if I have anywhere else to go now." After saying that the figure turned into glittering red, light, and began to drift away. Only to be snatched up by the hands of Lady Butterfly had been hiding in the darkness, in the corner of the room

"Butterfly!" Princess Tutu said in shock "I'm even hiding there the whole time?"

"Yes, I've been waiting here this whole time I was going to retrieve the heart shard myself, but" she said, emotionless walking out of the corner holding a piece of the heart up towards the light "but I had an inkling that you would show up. So I waited here until you did. I have to say you're making my job a lot easier "

"Job you mean, collecting the heart shards!" Tutu exclaimed

"Yes, Princess you are a lot smarter than I first intended"

"Well, you're a lot ruder than I first imagine" Tutu thought to her "but why? Why would you steal, precious, emotion from somebody who needs them more?" she said upon hearing that, Butterflies, eyes flashed with a red tint in them

"Why! Well you tell me why you are so inclined to help somebody you don't even know?! Well, at least I know whose feeling I'm supposedly stealing!" Butterfly declared grasping the heart shard so tightly in her hand that its own red light could not escape her Fingertips then a blinding gust of wind surrounded her and disappeared into nothing. Ahiru turned back into a girl and left the art building very frustrated

"Wow that Lady Butterfly really got me peeved she may look like some long-lost sister of Tutu's, but with that attitude she might as well be a minion of the Raven." Ahiru said to herself looking around season may have heard her she saw James on a bench nearby coughing harshly pulling at her shirt with his hand "James are you all right?" She asked James responded I'm making a barely audible mumbling sound "James are you hurt? I can't hear you." She asked once again taking the step closer

"I said I'm fine moron girl!" James shouted as he quickly stood up

"I was just trying to help!" she shouted back angrily

"Well, you can help me by staying away from that snake with blue eyes Corvin!" then he walks away

"Well, hello Ahiru did James upset you again?" Corvin after walking up next you her

"Yeah, he is such a meanie!" Ahiru sighed "hey, why aren't you mad at him he called, you a snake?"

"It doesn't bother me" Corvin replied
"why I mean, he mostly target you?" she said, surprised

"Because I'm used to it, all the insult he call me. I have heard at least once or twice and if he wants to practice until he breaks every bone in in body he can have at it. Because he been like that ever since he first met me I honestly wish this rivalry would just end." He explained

"It's strange it feels like you going to ask me a question about the story and I'm going to have to lie to him" she thought to herself "and those eyes that seem so kind and gentle towards everyone.

"Um Ahiru?" Corvin asked

"Ahhh what?" she said very startled

"I've been reading this book called the Prince and the Raven and I was getting close to the end but I couldn't read any more quite literally the last few pages were ripped out and I was wondering if you know how it ended?" he questioned

"Oh no, what should I do. What should I tell him?" she thought as her mind frantically decided to lie or to tell him what happened that day when Mytho heart, was fully restored

"Ahiru if you know anything about how the story ends anything at all. I would like to know" Corvin briefly looking down at the ground for a moment before he continued, talking "I need to know what happened to the Prince and the story so well be able to determine the fate" he quickly turned around and put a hand on his chest and whispered "of me"

"Corvin way, I know something about how it may have ended" she said awkwardly

"Oh, so you do know something" he said turning around happily. But before Ahiru could say anything, she heard a familiar tune

"Edel! But Uzura! How!" she shouted then quickly running off towards the source of the music followed by Corvin after a while, they stumbled across a brightly colored cart

"Hello, my name is Allard. Can I help you two love birds?" a young man holding a guitar said, walking up to them

"Where not a couple" Corvin announced

"Well, you could have fooled me. So what you are looking for fabrics, toys, assorted trinkets or maybe stories from far-off lands?" Allard insisted

"Actually, do you know anything about the story of the Prince and the Raven" Corvin asked

"Oh, that old twisted tale if the ending is what you want to know the ending. It's not all that original the Prince, defeats, The Raven and rescues the woman he plans to make his princess who also just happen to be the Ravens own adopted daughter" Allard explained with no enthusiasm in his voice\

"How does he know that he wasn't there? Or was he?" Ahiru thought to herself after listening to an almost accurate summary of what happened that day

"So, the Prince survives, Thank goodness" Corvin whispered under his breath

"Because you seem so interested and love stories I'll give you this" Allard proclaimed handing him a worn down, broken heart-shaped locket with a gaping hole in the middle with a tarnished silver chain "This necklace belong to a princess who is kind and gentle to all her subjects, but her subjects were not as kind and when the time came her life ended quicker than the vanishing of a speck of light" Corvin then took it from him and held it carefully in his hands

"Excuse me Ahiru I have to go find someone find someone to see if the locket can be fixed" Corvin said with a cheery voice quickly running away
"and how may I help you, young lady" Allard said

"I'm sorry, I'm not interested in anything" Ahiru stuttered then began to slowly walk away herself "actually, you know anybody by the name of Fakir?"

"The creative writing student Yes, I know him." He added

"Well, if you see him again. Can you tell him that Ahiru misses him and would like to talk to him sometime soon?" She requested

"Okay, I'll make sure to get the message to your boyfriend" he smiled

"Oh no, no, he's not my boyfriend. He's just a good friend of mine" Ahiru blushed

"Don't worry, I'll get the message to him and come see me again. If you have any more questions" Allard said after that began to slowly walk back to her dorm. She stopped to look at up at the sky she realized something

"After a long and interesting day it being a girl, I realized I never got the answers Drosselmeyer, promised me but it's okay. I know I have to do my best in the story, even though I have no idea what I'm doing." but from the deep within the gears of the story Drosselmeyer watches over the town with a crooked smile

"Oh, but what you can't see is I have left the answers you seek right in front of your nose you might want to start using your head like a human Little duck or you might end up losing your own. Now the characters are being revealed perfectly now a heartless warrior whose only goal is to destroy the Prince, a Prince whose origin in the story is left in the dark, two enchanting maidens one who wishes to return the warrior's heart with no idea of the consequences in the other that have the deep for reason for collecting them and my favorite the wild card. Oh, poor, poor Fakir Your simple pawn will become my check, mate." then giving and over exaggerated joy filled laugh that echo throughout the gears of the story.

(A.N: thank you for reading this chapter if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the reviews all constructive criticism and praise of any type would greatly help me because this is my first fan fiction and once again, thank you for reading I will post the next chapter as soon as possible.)