Chapter 4:
There was a flash of light, but nothing seemed to happen.
"Ahiru please cut your hand; it's for your own good. A little nick will do just fine," Erika handed Ahiru the Dagger.
Ahiru took the dagger and was about to cut herself with before fakir grabbed her hand, "what will this do to her?" he asked glaring at Erika.
"if the counter runs out, it'll make it so that she'll be able to be a human for certain amounts of time, now when need to hurry, look!' she pointed at the counter which barley had any sand left and Ahiru quickly cut her hand and pressed it onto the wood. Erika mumbled a few nonsense words and grabbed a stack of paper from the corner of the room and put it over the dark stain.
"Start!" she commanded sternly and the machine sprung to life and began sucking in the papers from the bottom of the stack one at a time. It filled each of the pages with writing.
"What's it writing?" asked Ahiru approaching the machine but Erika stopped her
"Neither of you can read this," Erika said pushing them both back. "I'll explain upstairs" she pushed Ahiru and Fakir out of the room to the latter. Fakir went up, then Ahiru. Erika stayed down to grab the piece of wood she knocked loose and went up. She went over to one of the cabinets and took out some glue and put the piece of wood back in place.
"So what's it writing?" Fakir asked sitting down in a chair.
"The plot," Erika strolled over to the wardrobe and began digging through it. "Don't worry; it's not a danger to either of you."
"So why can't we read it?" asked Ahiru who was sitting in the chair across from Fakir.
"If you know what I'm writing then the plot becomes obsolete and I have to write another one before that counter runs out," she pulled out two rolls of bandages and threw them at Fakir who handed one to Ahiru.
"What does that counter do anyway?" asked Fakir wrapping his hand in the ivory bandage.
"Well…" Erika was sitting on her bed wrapping her hand, "it shows how much life the story has left to it and that depends on the strength of the plot."
"Strength of the plot?" Ahiru was sloppily tying her bandages, "what does that mean?"
"It's how good the story is," Erika was digging through the drawers of her wardrobe until she found a thick package wrapped in brown paper, "Ahiru take this," she extended her arm out to her.
"What is it?" Ahiru took the package and set it on the table.
"Uzura told me you guys would be coming here soon and told me you might need some new clothes, Ahiru."
"Thank you," she said and opened it. There was a canary yellow sundress on top, it had a feather embroidered near its hem and about five centimeter thick straps and went down to her knees. Below it was a pink trench coat with white fur on the inside. Ahiru took them both out and smiled "thank you," she repeated.
"Well we can't have you going around dressed like that every day, but wait there's more, look," she pointed to the package and sure enough there was more.
Ahiru pulled out a white leotard, a pair of orange running shoes, a pair of peach ballet shoes, and white Pointe shoes, both being the perfect fit. She smiled speechless at beauty of the shoes.
"Don't use those quite yet," Erika pointed to the Pointe shoes then at Fakir "he doesn't need ya hurting yourself."
"Thank you," Ahiru said still smiling.
"Now go get changed and get out of here" she opened the bathroom door and Ahiru went in closing the door behind her.
"Why didn't you say 'we'?" fakir asked not angry but confused.
"Fakir I'm not the one who turned her human, you are, so that makes her your responsibility. Besides you guys can't see me for a while."
"Why can't we see you for a while, there's another reason."
"Ok look I'm gonna have to devote weeks to getting this plot in order so I can't have any distractions. If that timer runs out it's bye-bye your powers and Ahiru."
"What do you mean by that?" fakir asked a concerned look on his face.
"Nobody, not even you will know she ever existed of course what she has done will stay but everything else will be erased." She picked up the gauze and got a bottle of medicine from the cabinet and handed them to Fakir. "Only get outside help if she's in critical condition."
The door to the bathroom opened and Ahiru came out, clad in her yellow dress. Fakir smiled. And Erika shot him and "I knew it!" look.
"It looks better than I thought" Erika said happily. She went over to the cabinet and pulled out a pair of scissors and trimmed Ahiru's shaggy bangs and tidied up her long hair. "Much better." She said proud with her work, "Oh! And here," she pulled out a yellow ribbon and handed it to Ahiru. "Now out you go I got business to attend to!" she said and shoved them out the door.