Once upon a time there were two warring kingdoms. They had been enemies for years and sent every warrior they could to fight against the other's warriors. All that left to fight died without advancing the war to any sort of end. Most tragic of all, because the two kingdoms were so busy fighting each other, they never noticed the advance of a more threatening enemy: a flock of heart-eating ravens.
Act 39: Vulture's Target
(((Divertissement)))
"What?"
Drosslemeyer watched his gear image of Ahiru, his large eyes quite wide and his mouth open as he set down his cup of tea.
"My word…after all this, Ahiru-chan is the lost princess Odette? My, The Princess and the Vulture ended long ago…I suppose since I couldn't finish its sequel, The Prince and the Raven, before I died, The Princess and the Vulture somehow continued without me! No wonder Ahiru-chan became Tutu so easily."
The old storyteller then chuckled. "Well, I see the story can create the framework for a beautiful tragedy even when I'm not paying attention! What shall you do, Ahiru-chan, now that you remember who you are? Which life will you lead: the one you started with or the one you made for yourself? For that matter…how will you escape Vulture so that you can live a life at all? Ha, ha…"
Uzura peered at Drosslemeyer and the gear image of Ahiru in curiosity, before she ran off toward the portal to the real world, beating her drum in an enthusiastic rhythm.
'I remember now…I'm Odette, Princess of Cygnus.'
Ahiru's mind was moving slowly, but her memories were all rushing back to her.The blackness of her mind began to fill with colorful images as single scenes in her past played rapidly in succession, including one of the misty lake that Prometheus had brought her to when he was an eagle.
'Vulture brought us to his castle at Musouka Lake after destroying Cygnus…and placed the Curse of Wings on us to stop our escape.'
A rising sun appeared on her right, being followed by Krishna transforming into a blackbird, Prometheus turning into an eagle, Li turning into a hawk, Carmen changing into a Blue Jay and finally herself changing into a duck. The sky darkened as hours passed at the speed of seconds, until a moon rose and changed a circle of birds on Musouka Lake into the children they'd first been. That image was then replaced by one of Baltazar and Vulture fighting with different-colored magic.
'Jii-chan used his magic to follow us here, and tried to rescue us…but…'
Both Baltazar and Vulture were blasted away from each other in a blast of light.
'…Vulture's and his power were equal. Jii-chan couldn't kill Vulture, but Vulture couldn't kill jii-chan either…'
Baltazar cried out in pain, hunching over as he began to shrink, his body grew feathers and his voice began a pain-filled hoot until he became a snowy owl.
'So Vulture cursed jii-chan too, knowing he could stop him from using magic when he was a bird, so Vulture would have more time to improve his magic and kill jii-chan later.'
Ahiru saw a younger image of herself running determinedly through the trees around Musouka Lake, ignoring protests from Baltazar and her male friends.
'I became so desperate to break the curse and find ni-chan that I ran off into the forest around Musouka Lake…even though jii-chan kept yelling at me to come back…'
Abruptly little Odette turned into a duck mid-run. The duck searched frantically for some sign of the lake, but there was no trace of it through the endless mist.
'And before I knew it…I was a duck again…and I was so lost I couldn't find the lake so I could turn back into a human…'
Lohengrin, Baltazar, Carmen, Krishna, Prometheus, Li and Siegfried each surfaced above the darkness, before they slowly faded out into nothingness.
'And the longer I wandered…the more I forgot…until…'From the dark appeared a scene of a white-haired boy with lonely amber eyes sitting on the rail of a bridge overlooking a lake, whereupon a little yellow duck was swimming and looking up at the boy with a desire to help him.
'Ni-chan…'
"Are you sure she'll be all right, Baltazar-san?" Krishna inquired worriedly.
"Don't worry," Baltazar assured the Arabian as he lay the sleeping Ahiru down on the grass. "She just needs to rest…recounting one's past and having to connect it with where one is now is very trying on the mind."
Prometheus nodded, placing a hand on Krishna's shoulder. "Odette-chan will be fine, Krishna…you'll see."
Krishna looked at Prometheus, surprised by the comforting gesture, before giving him a grateful smile, his cheeks darkening with a slight blush.
"Wait," Baltazar said suddenly. "Where have young Carmen and Li gone off to?"
The other two looked around, to see Carmen and Li were nowhere to be found.
"Carmen?" Krishna called sharply. "Li-san!"
Prometheus's brown eyes narrowed. "Perhaps we should go look for them…Baltazar-san, stay with Odette-chan. We shouldn't be long."
And with that, the Arabian and the blond spread their wings and took flight.
Fakir led the way as he, Mytho, Rue, Demi and Helios walked through the portal from Kinkan Town into the mysterious scenery Fakir's story had taken them.
They found themselves in front of a lake, and when their eyes peered around, they met an endless forest of trees surrounding it. Hovering over the landscape was a dreamy mist that only further emphasized the place's secretive aura.
'So this is the setting the story has decided for us,' Fakir thought, his grip tightening on the shoulder strap of his bag. 'Ahiru…hold on just a little longer…I'll find you.'
"This is it, Fakir-san?" Helios inquired quietly, and Fakir nodded in response.
"This mist…" Mytho whispered, his amber eyes narrowing slightly. "It's just like the mist in Kinkan Town when the Ghost Knight appeared…"
At Mytho's statement, Fakir realized the mist did indeed have such an eerie appearance. 'Is there some sort of wandering soul here that's unable to rest in peace?'
Demi suddenly turned abruptly beside Helios to look at the trees.
"What is it, Demi?" Helios inquired.
Demi's violet eyes were focused on something above them in worried suspicion. "There's something up there."
The group looked up as well, to see Demi had spoken the truth. A figure was receding into the shadows of the tree branches, and in a single instant, the figure leapt from his spot on a branch to land on the ground with a spirited jeté that made the five take a step back.
It was a curly-blue-haired, sky-eyed Spaniard with two blue wings like a Blue Jay's branching out from his back.
At first he merely peered at Fakir, Mytho, Rue, Helios and Demi in interest. Then, stepping back in ballet steps that made the metal bottoms of his tap shoes make spicy rhythms on the hard ground, the strange young man circled his two hands above his head before holding out a hand in a gesture to them.
"He wants us to dance…?" Helios murmured in confusion and wonder.
The Spaniard danced steps only natural to a talented danseur, yet the attitude and aura of his movements was that of a flamenco dancer. His twirls and jumps held a kind of playful slyness that could almost invite one to try and learn his intentions…but they also seemed inquisitive and curious.
At last accepting that the form of communication between them and the stranger was ballet, Demi arched her arms above her head and stepped forward to meet the Spaniard in his dance. She held her hands out to him questioningly as she arched her leg back in a classic, ballerina ronde du jambe that almost clashed with the Spaniard's vivacious, flamenco-styled ballet. Helios looked visibly worried at letting his princess so close to a stranger that might be an enemy, but seemed to trust that Demi knew what she was doing.
"Who are you?" Demi's movements asked the stranger.
"Who are you?" the Spaniard returned the question with his dance. "Why are you here? How did you get here?"
"We're looking for someone," Demi gestured back, a hand to her heart.
"Who would that be?" the Spaniard's movements inquired lightly.
It seemed the blue-haired man was only in the mood for asking questions; Demi couldn't seem to get a straight answer from him…and that alone gave her enough reason to withhold a full explanation.
Finally the end of their dance came with their questions slowing down to a standstill. The Blue-Jay-winged Spaniard and the puppet-turned-human still had their arms held out to each other in a questioning manner, the stranger's feet resting in fifth position and Demi en pointe with her leg arched in back of her.
Li's eyes narrowed at the intruder beside Carmen. 'What the hell does he think he's doing? Running off to investigate the noise, and instead flirting with a pretty girl!'
Hatred toward the brown-haired girl flashed through the knight-in-training's heart, before it became enough to make him step in.
He leapt from the branch he'd been resting on so that he landed between Carmen and the violet-eyed girl. He held his arms out as if to shield Carmen, glaring at the female stranger and pirouetting with his leg kicking toward her in an almost threatening way.
Carmen took flight and returned to the shadows, obviously wanting to get out of his friend's way. The chocolate-haired girl moved back in slight fear, and a young man with light brown hair and hazel eyes that looked like a prince immediately stepped in front of her, raising one of his arms above his head and the other toward Li in an attempt of assurance.
"We are not your enemy," the prince's movements assured him.
Li, however, would have none of it, and gestured back, "I don't believe you!"
The two males danced with conflicting messages toward each other. While the hazel-eyed prince tried being reassuring and civil, Li could only see him and his girl companion as being harmful to Carmen and the others.
Their dance ended with the prince bending on one knee in a respectful bow; Li, however, had his arm outstretched in the prince's direction so that his left hand was positioned next to the prince's neck like an axe aimed at the neck of one condemned to death.
Helios eyed the Chinese-dressed stranger's hand placed at the side of his neck, almost unintentionally looking nervous. Both Demi and Fakir looked about to intervene, but before they could, Rue uttered a troubled whisper of
"Up there!"
Another figure was hiding in the shadows of the trees, and although he hadn't moved to prevent the conflict between Helios and the Chinese dancer, it still seemed as though the figure was reproaching the exchange with his silence.
Upon the realization the figure was there, the steel-haired Asian spread his hawk-like wings and quite abruptly retreated back into the trees.
The hiding figure spread his own set of wings and descended to the ground but remained careful to stay in the shadows so it was hard to make out who he was.
Fighting down her fear and ignoring Mytho reaching out a hand as if to pull her back, Rue stepped forward to meet the secretive stranger. The once-raven princess moved gracefully en pointe over him, one of her arms arched above her head and the other held up at her side, as she hesitantly tried to probe the dark stranger's character.
"Who are you?" her black-swan-like dance asked. "Who are those friends of yours? We won't hurt you if we don't have to."
The stranger in the dark lifted his leg up en dehors, bringing his feet into third position, before flourishing his hand toward Rue in an almost warning manner and pirouetting so that he was even further away from her.
"You don't belong here," the mysterious man's gestures answered her. "Leave at once…this place is dangerous for people like you."
Ahiru slowly opened her eyes, and blinked once…twice…three times, to find she was on the ground, with a blur by her side that, as her vision cleared, slowly began to solidify into Baltazar.
At first Ahiru just stared at him. Then, after a moment, she cried out in relieved excitement, jumped up and gave her grandfather a hug. "Jii-chan!"
The old king Baltazar returned Ahiru's embrace, smiling fondly.
"Little granddaughter," he murmured reassuringly, "I'm very relieved that you responded to our memories. You really worried me."
Ahiru pulled away. "But…how did you find me?"
"By a fluke of Vulture's," Baltazar answered with a wry smile. "Of all the birds he could have transformed Prometheus into, it had to be an eagle…and eagles have power over the bridging of worlds."
"Prometheus-san can bridge worlds?" Ahiru recurred in surprise. "Then why haven't you all escaped and gotten help?"
"It seems Prometheus can only do it when he's an eagle," Baltazar explicated, "and even then it's hard for him to control where the portals go. Musouka Lake is the easiest for him, I'd guess; since the magic around it is the same as the magic on us, it probably attracts him. It was a stroke of luck he found you…but I suppose it had to be you; after all, no regular duck cries when it is unhappy."
At the mention of her crying, Ahiru unintentionally remembered another time where she had cried as a duck.
"You again," Fakir murmured with a miserable smile, his face wet with tears as he looked down at Ahiru. "You're seeing me in a pretty disgraceful state here."
Ahiru's eyes were also filled with tears, her heart aching sympathetically for the young man she had seen as heartless and cruel. "Quack…"
"Are you…crying for me?" Fakir whispered.
Without another word, the green-haired knight got down on his knees, picked the little duck up and held her close in a gentle embrace.
The movement surprised Ahiru, but the warmth of Fakir's arms soothed her in a way she couldn't quite explain, and she leaned her head on his chest. Fakir's free hand stroked the little duck's head, grateful for her sympathy.
'Fakir…'
Abruptly Ahiru's head shot around at the sound of a pounding on a drum and a familiar voice chanting a repetitive, singsong phrase.
"Love-love-love-love-"
"Uzura-chan!" Ahiru cried.
The little girl known as Uzura appeared almost from nowhere, and when she saw Ahiru, she gave an innocent "ohhh" and skipped over to her. "Ahiru-zura!"
"What on earth…how did she-?" Baltazar whispered, obviously wondering how a little girl like Uzura could've found Musouka Lake.
"What are you doing here, Uzura-chan?" Ahiru asked her, before her mind prompted another question, "Where have you been all this time?"
"Ahiru, are you really a princess-zura?" Uzura chirped curiously.
"You know about that?" said Ahiru, before deciding to disregard it and answer the little girl's question. "Yes, I am."
"Then who's your prince-zura?" Uzura inquired. "Rue is a princess, and she has a lovey-dovey-zura…where's your lovey-dovey-zura?"
"Um…" Ahiru wasn't sure how to answer that. "I don't have one yet, Uzura-chan…but don't worry about it! I have Helios-kun, Demi-chan, Fa-"
At the mention of Fakir, she again remembered what she had recalled when she'd thought of Fakir hugging her as a duck, and she jumped to her feet.
"Fakir! I've got to get back to Kinkan Town and tell him the truth!"
"Odette, you can't go back to the outside world!" reproached Baltazar. "You almost forgot everything going through the forest before. Resisting fate is futile."
Ahiru looked at her grandfather, her glance full of conflict. "But I have to get back! Fakir probably thinks Prometheus-san ate me or something!"
Her water-like eyes widened in realization. "Of course…Prometheus-san! He can make portals…he can get me back!"
Without another thought, the princess ran off to search the lake for Prometheus, completely disregarding Baltazar's cries at her to come back.
Uzura watched Ahiru leave in confusion, before she took off after Ahiru, still beating her drum to its fervent beat.
Rue held out a hand in the stranger's direction in a demanding sort of manner, trying to force all fear from her face. "Show yourself!"
The stranger took a step forward so that Rue could just barely make out his face: his tanned skin told her he was an Arab, his black hair was long and flecked with dark brown and his eyes shone just as black as the dark night sky above them.
Rue almost unintentionally took a step back, but then stepped back to where she'd first been as if to erase her flicker of apprehension.
"You've seen me," the Arabian's movements said. "Now let me see you better."
Rue's eyes narrowed slightly, but nonetheless stepped delicately over to him in a slightly reproachful way. Her friends behind her, Mytho especially, looked like they were holding their breath, anxious for her safety.
The Arabian's dance was quite cold toward Rue, and his ebony eyes flickered with distrust. "Intruders shouldn't be so demanding. Whether you are here to harm us or not, you and your friends should leave."
"We won't leave until we find who we're looking for," Rue gestured back firmly.
"Then you are a fool," the Arabian's movements answered, before he stopped for a moment, his feet moving into third position. "If you don't leave now, you will regret it. This place brings nothing but misfortune."
And with that, the Arabian finally stepped fully out of the shadows and spread his own wings: an elegant set of pitch-black.
Rue and Mytho's eyes widened in horrified unison. 'Black wings…a raven!'
Krishna looked at the black-haired young woman dully…and did a horrified double take when he made eye contact with her.
'Red eyes,' he thought in alarm, 'like a raven's!'
In the single instant that he'd seen the woman's eyes and he'd spread his wings, a white-haired, amber-eyed, royal-garbed man that had been in the background had jumped in front of the young woman, his swan-icon sword unsheathed.
"Get away from her!" he cried, his amber eyes flashing as he raised his sword…
CLANG!
In another lightning-fast movement, a brown blur moved in front of Krishna and blocked the white-haired prince's sword with one of his own.
'Prometheus!' Krishna realized in both shock and relief.
Prometheus pushed the white-haired prince back, his eyes filled with equal fury.
"Get away from him!"
He swung his sword at the prince, who pirouetted backward to avoid the blow.
"Mytho!"
Fakir rushed forward to help Mytho, but the hawk-winged man jumped in front of him, pointing his own sword's blade at his throat.
"Any of you try to interfere, you face me!" he barked, as Carmen flew back down from the trees to stand beside him.
The writer was forced to stand on the sidelines irately, but still helplessly, as the eagle-winged man and Mytho fought each other, both trying to protect their respective black-haired companions.
'Mytho…'
Ahiru ran along the edge of the lake, searching desperately for some trace of Prometheus or her other friends.
'Oh…where are you guys? Prometheus-san…I have to get back and find Fakir!'
She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, and when she did, a cheerful beating on a drum again became evident as Uzura trotted up beside her.
"Ahiru, are you all right-zura?"
Ahiru panted lightly. "Yeah…it's just…I really need to get back to Kinkan Town and find Fakir…I need to tell him…"
"You need to tell Fakir something-zura?" Uzura recurred, before catching sight of movement through the trees a little way away. "Oh…are they dancing-zura?"
"Dancing?" Ahiru repeated, turning her head to look as well.
Her eyes widened as she saw Prometheus jumping gracefully around as he swung his sword in the direction of a white-haired young man…a white-haired man who Ahiru had met twice: once as Mytho, and once as…
"Ni-chan," she breathed, before reacting in horror and running over.
CLANG!
Mytho blocked the eagle-winged man's attack, his amber eyes narrowed to slits. The Russian-dressed danseur quite obviously had taken classes in battle judging by his excellent form.
'Even so,' the white-haired prince thought determinedly, 'I'll die a hundred times over before I let a raven or anyone else hurt Rue!'
Crying out in righteous fury, Mytho raised his sword, pouring energy into the blade so it shone with gold magic, and thrust it at Prometheus.
"STOP!" a familiar, innocent voice yelled.
A pale yellow blur moved between Mytho and Prometheus. Mytho froze in his movement, the magic fading from his sword, and Prometheus also stopped abruptly in shock. Fakir, however, was the most shocked of all.The voice had belonged to a girl who had jumped between the two warriors: a girl with long red hair tied up in a bun, innocent blue eyes and two yellow wings sprouting from her back and dressed in a pale yellow gown only fit of royalty.
"Ahiru!" Fakir shouted.
Ahiru whirled around, and her eyes widened. "Fakir!"
Without another thought or word, the writer had run past Carmen and Li up to the girl who had been the duck who had been the girl he had fallen in love with, and he grabbed her into a tight embrace.
"Ahiru…" he murmured, his eyes closing in relief.
"Fakir!" Ahiru was crying, her grip tight on Fakir's shirt. "Fakir…you're here!"
"Baka," Fakir whispered with a wry smile, stroking her hair soothingly. "Of course I'm here…I wouldn't leave you…"
"Ahiru-san?" Helios recurred in surprise, for he'd never seen her as a human.
Ahiru pulled away from Fakir. "Helios-kun! Demi-chan, Rue-chan! You're all here!"
Demi also gave Ahiru a hug. "Ahiru-chan, we were so worried! Are you okay?"
Prometheus and the other bird-winged men looked very confused from the side.
"Hime, who are these people?" Li inquired, dumbfounded.
Ahiru turned to her childhood comrades. "It's all right, you guys…they're friends of mine. This is Fakir, Demi-chan, Helios-kun, Rue-chan and…"
She paused, as her eyes lay on Mytho, almost unsure of what to call him now that her memory had returned. Fortunately Prometheus's eyes had widened and he spoke before she looked too awkward.
"Siegfried-kun…?" the eagle-winged man breathed in disbelief.
Mytho froze. He stared at the Russian, before whispering in shock, "Prometheus?"
The two friends stared at each other for a long moment, before they moved in unison to wrap their arms around each other in a friendly hug.
"Siegfried-kun, I can't believe it," Prometheus babbled, "you're alive!"
"What do you mean, 'I'm alive?'" Mytho said, equally shocked. "You're alive! And if you're alive, then…"
He looked at the others, his eyes growing even wider. "Carmen? Krishna? Li?"
The three nodded, smiling in a kind of stunned relief.
Mytho's thoughts were moving so fast, he looked as though he couldn't speak. Finally he turned very, very slowly around to stare at Ahiru.
Ahiru smiled sadly. "Hello, ni-chan."
Mytho's sword clattered to the ground as his grip on it slacked, and the next thing Ahiru knew, Mytho was holding her close and sobbing into her shoulder.
"Odette…little sister…I…I can't believe it! I thought…but I never thought…why didn't I recognize…?"
Ahiru hugged him back reassuringly. "It's all right, ni-chan…when you got all your heart back and remembered who you were, all you saw of me was a duck…you couldn't have recognized me. I didn't remember anything either."
Rue stared. "So…so Ahiru is…?"
"The lost princess of Cygnus and Mytho's sister, Odette," Fakir finished for her. "Vulture captured her and these others after destroying Mytho's kingdom because the raven pecking away at Vulture's heart realized it would need new hearts to feed on after Vulture's died…kind, yet weak hearts."
Ahiru stared at Fakir. "Fakir…how do you know that?"
Fakir looked down, his eyes going into shadow, wondering what to say; then he swallowed and answered,
"Ahiru…I know because…I started your story again."
Ahiru gasped. "Fakir, how…how could you? Madame Ruza said writing with just your own power was dangerous…why would you…?"
"Because…" Fakir muttered without looking up, "because you gave us everything, Ahiru. You gave Mytho his heart…you gave Rue her prince…you gave Helios and Demi their humanity…you gave Nezumi comfort…"
"Fakir-" Ahiru started, but she stopped when the writer grabbed her shoulders.
"You gave me my life, Ahiru!" he yelled, his eyes flashing both in anger and sadness as he tried to make her understand. "And you got nothing! You gave up your human form…your school friends…your dancing…everything!"
Ahiru quaked slightly at the intensity in Fakir's eyes, before the writer bowed his head once more, not releasing her shoulders.
"I just…" he whispered, "wanted to give you something back…"
The red-haired princess stared at him for a moment, before realizing in amazed concern, "Fakir…Fakir, you're shaking…"
Fakir looked up at her, his emerald eyes overflowing with emotion. "Ahiru…"
Ahiru couldn't help but fall into such eyes. It was so rare to see such passion from Fakir unless he was protecting Mytho; certainly had the writer never told her such things. It was the closest Ahiru had seen Fakir to crying as a girl.
'Fakir…'
Suddenly a loud shriek rang through Ahiru's ears at an earsplitting volume as Ahiru felt herself being thrust backward by a vicious force into a tree.
"Chibi hime!"
Carmen rushed to her side. Ahiru looked at him, and then toward the source of the push: a man with ragged dirty-blond hair, red eyes and vulture wings who had flown right into her and Fakir and had snatched the young writer's shirt in one of his clawed hands as he flew away.
It was the wizard Vulture.
"Fakir!" Ahiru screamed.
Fakir struggled to fight Vulture off, but he didn't have Lohengrin's sword with him, and his fists alone seemed to have no effect at all.
"Fakir, hold on!" yelled Mytho.
He pirouetted rapidly to call forth his magical pink flowers, and flew after Vulture. Shouting a battle cry, the prince raised his sword and prepared to launch it at the wizard…
But his sword hit a magical dark red barrier around Vulture and Fakir, the force of the recoil enough to thrust Mytho off of his pink flowers hard into the ground.
"Ouji!" Rue cried, rushing over to him.
"Mytho!" shouted Fakir, increasing his struggle to escape, but to no avail.
Ahiru ran after them desperately, struggling to flap her wings enough to get her airborne. Sadly, even when she was a duck, she couldn't fly very well. She fell back to the earth, her face and hands getting scratched, and was forced to watch Vulture carry her writer friend off to his castle that towered over Musouka Lake.
"Fakir…" she whispered, her blue eyes hollow.
Tears stung her eyes, before all of her feelings of terror, grief and hopelessness mounted on her at once and she cried out into the night,
"FAKIR!"
I'm afraid that is all for today. Is a fun story awaiting us? A sad story? Or maybe…?
Translation Notes:
Musouka – "dreamer" in Japanese
Jii-chan – loving Japanese form of "Grandpa"; generally translated in English as "Gramps"
Music Notes:
"Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy": starts as Fakir et al. enter Musouka Lake for the first time. Fakir starts his first chain of thoughts at 0:17, Helios speaks at 0:25, Fakir starts to wonder if there is a wandering soul on Musouka Lake at 0:33 and the music ends at 0:42.
"Spanish Dance": Carmen's entrance/dance with Demi. Music starts when Demi first notices Carmen, with Carmen jumping down at 0:14 and gesturing to the group at 0:21. Demi enters the dance at 0:38 and they dance until the music ends.
"Chinese Dance": Li's entrance/dance with Helios. Music starts as the Spanish Dance ends, with Li jumping down at 0:03. Helios steps in front of Demi at 0:11, and the two dance until they stop with Helios bowing and Li's hand pointing threateningly at Helios's neck.
"Arabian Dance": Krishna's entrance/dance with Rue. Music starts as the Chinese Dance ends, with Rue noticing Krishna at 0:08. Li notices at 0:15, retreating at 0:19. Krishna enters at 0:24, and Rue steps forward at 0:39. Music pauses at 1:00 for the scene with Ahiru, Baltazar and Uzura, and then moves to 2:09 when Krishna steps out of the darkness. At 2:38 the music moves to the music at 3:00, and the music fades out as Krishna realizes Rue's eyes are red.
"Russian Dance": The battle between Prometheus and Mytho. Music starts as the Arabian Dance ends, with Mytho jumping in front of Rue when the music starts, and Prometheus jumping in front of Krishna at 0:06. They take their swings at each other at each short blast of music, and Fakir moving to help Mytho at 0:25. Scene shifts to Ahiru and Uzura at 0:46, they hear the commotion at 0:50 and Ahiru jumps between Prometheus and Mytho at 1:05.
"Wizards in Winter": starts when Ahiru is shoved away from Fakir by Vulture at 0:18. Mytho hits the barrier at 0:25 and hits the ground at 0:26; Ahiru flies a little off the ground at 0:28, but falls at 0:29. Music ends at 0:36 with Vulture carrying Fakir off.
The piece "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy," and the pieces that make up "Divertissement," ("Spanish Dance,""Chinese Dance," "Arabian Dance," and "Russian Dance") are all by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and featured in his ballet "The Nutcracker."
The piece "Wizards in Winter" is by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.