Once upon a time, there was a puppet which developed human feelings. It could feel love, hate, joy and sadness. But a puppet is not supposed to think for itself. Only the puppeteer decides about the emotions of the puppet.
Akt 7
Petruschka
" Oh there are some guest?", a voice said. Only the creaking of the rocking chair could be heard. Then a giggle of an old woman.
Ella and Tutu turned into their alter egos, as they entered the place. Tutu took a look around. How strange, it looked a lot like Drosselmeyer's realm. But it still felt different. Some gear wheels turned, but only the smaller ones. The ballerina fixed her eyes on a big gear wheel above them.
Autor was also very interested in the surroundings. It wasn't quite how he imagined it to be, but it was still worth it.
" Fascinating...", he mumbled under his breath.
Princess Aria felt clearly uncomfortable as she clenched her wrist with the memento.
Fakir didn't care about anything. Only for one thing.
" Come on out! We need to talk!", he screamed into the air.
Again, a sweet laugh.
A figure jumped down from the upper gears, gliding slowly down, thanks to her umbrella. She landed in perfect position on the ground, finally showing her face. The rings in her eyes were visible, a wide grin on her face. A spinner.
She bowed quite nicely before her guests.
"Welcome! It's been a while since somebody visited me! And even one of my kind! How nice! You can call me Miss Sand."
Autor grunted annoyed.
" You should know why we're here.", said Fakir in a dangerous tone.
Miss Sand giggled and turned around playfully, turning the umbrella in a anti-clock wise direction.
" Well I do know who you are but you should know that I'm different from Drosselmeyer. I have many stories to look at, all the time. But your story turned out to be quite boring lately so I haven't been following." She yawned. Fakir clenched his fists and was about to snap.
The spinner turned around again, acting like a little girl.
"So what is it? "
Fakir pointed at Tutu making a grimace.
"Turn her back! Right now!"
Sand gave Tutu a curious look. Then she opened her mouth in surprise. She stepped closer to her.
" Oh you two changed places? How interesting! I've never thought about that". She nodded, as if she agreed with herself. She turned to the others. " How do you intend to turn her back?"
Is she serious?
Fakir yelled as Tutu blinked in confusion: " You! You're the first one who changed her anyway and Jäger is your character! Shouldn't you be able to do something? "
Sand looked at the boy. " What makes you think that I could do anything? You need to go to Drosselmeyer for that! It's concerning his characters, too."
Fakir scratched his head:" Yes but Jäger was the one who chanted the magic!"
" So I'm telling you to go to Drosselmeyer! Didn't you listen?"
Everybody looked at her in disbelief.
Autor was the one to ask:" So you're saying that Jäger is not a character you brought to life?"
" Well, that's not really correct. You see..."
Sand made a few steps before she spoke again.
" Drosselmeyer was the first to write about him. He created the boy. I just brought him to life."
Aria frowned. " So you stole the character?"
" Oh nononono. I wouldn't call it stealing. I just picked him up after he was thrown away by his creator. "
Tutu gasped. " He... Was he a character in The prince and the raven?"
Sand watched her silent surprise. " He was! Why, yes!"
Tutu looked at the floor. She was shaking.
" You..know me, right? That I'm the princess of the story..."
Jäger stopped and listened.
" Say, why were you trying to find me?..You even called me your princess..."
"But- why don't I remember him at all?", asked Tutu as she touched her head.
" Because Drosselmeyer scratched his character pretty soon in the development of his story. He didn't like him all that much."
"... do you know what his original role in the story was?" asked Aria in a calm voice.
" He was supposed to cast a spell on Princess Tutu to bind her to only him."
" My oath..."
Sand nodded. " But Drosselmeyer threw him out of the story and also shortened Tutus appearance." She turned around and tiptoed across the room. " So you see now, that I can't do anything for you here?"
She stopped walking and grinned.
" But I want to know how the story continues, this might be fun!"
" What?", Fakir spit. She was no different from Drosselmeyer.
Sand nodded to herself.
" Hmm, I might be able to help you after all!"
Everybody looked at her surprised. They watched as she got a little bell out of her pocket and rang it.
A lomg case clock appeared after a while, out of nowhere, an owl made of wood on top. Fakirs and Tutus eyes grew big as they recognized the item.
As the door opened, Aria and Autor also looked amazed.
A grumpy spinner stepped out of the door.
" What are you calling me for?"
It was Drosselmeyer. His frown disappeared as he looked at the surrounding people and a wide grin appeared on his lips.
" So we see each other again? Oh and there is one unknown face...". Now he frowned again.
" What's that supposed to mean?", he pointed at Aria, looking at the spinner woman. " Was that you, Sand?"
Aria was confused. What was wrong?
" Yes, do you like design?", she said dreamy.
" Like it? You stole the idea from me!"
Tutu and Aria blinked in confusion and looked at each other.
" I did not!", protested Sand. " She's different from Tutu!"
" Say what? Just look at them! They could be twins or at least sisters!"
" Oh hogwash! They do not!"
" You were always jealous of my stories weren't you?"
" Oh is that why you stole one of my characters?"
" I did not!"
" The Duck was mine!"
" Oh really? I didn't know!"
" So! We're even!"
" Nononono. I didn't know the Duck was yours but you clearly stole the idea of Princess Tutu from me!"
The others looked at the fighting elders in disbelief.
" This is nonsense..." mumbled Aria.
Fakir watched the two as something pulled on his leg. He looked down. To his surprise he saw another familiar face.
" Uzura!"
The little puppet smiled.
" It's Fakir-zura! How are you zura? And Ahiru is here too zura! And the strange person, too zura!"
He kneel down to the puppet girl, the voices of the spinners still ringing in his ears. He pet Uzura's head.
" So you were with Drosselmeyer huh? We're... okay, but that's not Ahiru."
Uzura looked at Tutu.
" Not Ahiru zura?"
Tutu shook her head." I'm sorry it's only Tutu right now."
" Ooooooh. So no tail zura?". Uzura came closer to the princess. Aria looked at the girl curiously.
Uzura frowned.
" So where's Ahiru zura?"
" She's asleep. She switched places with me. She's in the pendant. We're trying to wake her up." Tutu touched the pendant as she spoke.
Uzura grumbled. She took out her Drumsticks and started to hit on her drum, as loud as she could.
"WAKE UP AHIRU-ZURA!"
Everybody jumped a little at the sudden drumming except for the spinners. Autor frowned and swore under his breath while Ella showed surprise at the little puppet.
" Uzura stop that, it won't help!"
" WAKE UP ZURA!"
Tutu looked at the puppet girl, at first surprised and irritated, but then sadly. As she touched Uzuruas little hands, the drums stopped.
" I'm sorry. We're here because we think that one of spinners could help us. She was put to sleep by some kind of magic and it awakened me."
" You're awoke zura? Why were you sleeping zura?"
Tutu gave her a weary smile.
" Enough of this!"
Everbody turned around to Drosselmeyer who had spoken. Miss Sand was pouting with crossed arms.
" Just tell me what's going on! I'm in a bad mood. Everything is just boring!"
Fakir was the first to speak.
" Ahiru and Tutu. They kind of switched places. Turn them back!"
Drosselmeyer eyed Tutu. A grin appeared on his face.
" Oh really? Interesting, Interesting..."
" Just turn her back the way she was! It was one of your characters who did this after all!"
" Huh? Who?"
" Jäger!"
Drosselmeyer blinked, frowned and then turned to Sand again.
" Did you have something to do with this?", he said in a dangerous voice.
" Oh come on, you practically threw him away and I found him! Finders keepers!"
" You have no shame, Sand!"
But he does?, thought Fakir to himself.
" Just tell us what we're supposed to do now!", spit Fakir.
Drosselmeyer turned back to the young spinner.
"I'm not going to do anything. It would be no fun at all."
Autor had watched the scene before him without a word. He was too amazed to meet real spinners in person. Two at the same time! Only now he tried to calm himself down, but he still couldn't hide his excitement. He moved his glasses and cleared his throat before he spoke.
" But you should be able to do it, right? I don't see how this makes any difference than before."
Drosselmeyer looked at the youngster. Autor held his breath as he met his eyes.
" There must be a reason why he actually did it right? What did I write about him anyway? Hmmm... ", he mumbled staring into the air.
Then, he seemed to remember something and he smiled. A vicious smile.
" Alright, I will help you. But first you have to do something for me..." He reached out a hand to the group.
Fakir didn't say anything. No matter what Drosselmeyer wanted could be any good.
" Oh come on", said Drosselmeyer after seeing Fakirs face," I can bring Jäger to you and I will, I swear. But I want something in return..."
" We'll do it.", Tutu stepped up. Everybody turned to her with big eyes.
" Ahiru! What are you-" Fakir started before he realized his mistake. Tutu interrupted him, with a weary smile on her lips.
" I'm not Ahiru. That's why. This is not my place. It's going to be okay. You really want her to come back, don't you?"
Fakir couldn't say anything. She was right. At this moment, the most important thing was to bring back Ahiru. But what would be the price?
Drosselmeyer chuckled.
" Good, then it's decided!"
"What are we going to play zura?", Uzura asked while running back to the old man.
" An old story Uzura. But newly spun."
Fakir understood that this was no good. Ella blinked innocently.
" What do you mean?"
Drosselmeyer sighed loudly.
" You see, after the prince and the raven was finished I left the city to look for other stories. But everything's been boring."
"So what do you actually intend to do?", asked Autor less excited and a little more nervous about the situation he got in.
Drosselmeyer grinned and snipped with his fingers.
Out of nowhere, a gearwheel appeared, turning slowly in the air.
Aria gasped. "What the-?"
A moment later Jäger appeared before them, out of the gear. He seemed to be just as surprised as the group. He looked around disorientated. Sand giggled.
" How nice of you to visit us!", the spinner woman said and bowed before the boy. Jäger looked at her.
"You again?", he grunted. He raised himself from the floor and patted some dust off his shirt. Uzura gave a short "Oh!" and watched the newly arrived person with big eyes.
Fakir didn't want to lose anymore time and stepped up to Jäger.
" Turn her back right now!"
Jäger turned to him with a grin.
" Make me do it."
Fakir grunt his teeth.
" Yeah, yeah, whatever... let's forget about that for a moment will ya?", interrupted Drosselmeyer.
Tutu blinked and asked:" So what do you want us to do?"
"Let's just say, I'm planning a little reunion here", he said with a grin. Two new gears appeared, and this time people of royalty appeared, from a far away kingdom. Fakir, Autor and Tutu were mildly surprised. Aria was just confused.
"Prince...", Tutu whispered.
Mytho helped Rue to stand up and tried to figure out the situation.
" Are you alright? What is going on here?"
As all eyes were glued on Drosselmeyer he started to explain.
" I just want to hear one nice story. The prince and the raven was a masterpiece (except for the ending)! Just let me enjoy it again!"
Jäger grunted and looked at the prince with a meaningful look.
" It's not like anyone here can remember me anyway. And also, aren't we missing a Raven? And you can't tell me that guy is still supposed to be the knight", Jäger mused, pointing at Fakir.
Drosselmeyer thought for a moment. " Right, right...the raven..."
" Well, what are you going to do?", Sand giggled behind Drosselmeyer.
" I'll try the same thing Jäger did. Let's see what happens!", and with that he snapped his fingers once again pointing at Rue.
Rue was struck by pain and fell to the floor clenching her chest. Mytho knelt down to her.
" Rue, what's wrong? Rue!"
The supposed princess pushed him away. Black feathers appeared around her and her Tutu tainted black. Her frown turned into a vicious smile under her hand.
" Rue...", the prince said in shock. She was turned to the Ravens daughter once again. Tutu was just as shocked as Mytho and yelled.
" Why? Rue is not a raven! She's human! Why did you do that?"
" Because somebody has to play the role sweetie.", Sand answered blunt.
Fakir frowned and was ready to throw something against the two spinners, but Drosselmeyer also pointed his finger in his direction.
" Don't worry I'm not going to leave you out of this story, knight!"
Fakir fell on his knee, holding his head, screaming in pain. Tutu ran over to him.
" Fakir!"
Fakir breathed heavily, turning to Tutu. He looked at her confused.
" Who?"
Tutu blinked. Fakir straightened his back.
" You're... Princess Tutu?", he said in a gallant voice. Tutu felt unsure.
" What's wrong Fakir? Don't you recognize me?", she said heartbroken.
He raised himself.
" We have only met once, haven't we? I thought you have disappeared."
The ballerina's eyes grew big in surprise, as she realized what happened.
"... Lohengrin?", she said and then turned to Drosselemeyer. " You turned him into the knight of the prince? Why?"
Drosselmeyer shrugged. " Why, you ask? Because that's how the story goes." His grin grew bigger. " Princess Tutu disappears in a speck of light, the prince fights against the raven and the knight gives his live to protect his prince."
Princess Aria cut into the discussion.
" This is crazy! "
" Sweetie, this isn't your story so you better keep out of this.", said Miss Sand in a sweet voice. Just moments later, the revived knight realized the raven. He pulled out his sword ( had he even taken one with him?) and pointed it at the raven.
" Begone raven!", he screamed running towards the enemy. Alarmed, the prince put himself between his princess and his knight.
" Stop it !", he screamed, just at the same time as Tutu. But the knight didn't care. He had a duty to fulfill.
" Out of the way, prince!", he said shoving the prince to the side. Krähe jumped out of the way as he tried to strike her with his sword. She chuckled as she landed.
" Don't get full of yourself, knight."
" Ohh, how exciting!", whispered Miss Sand from aside. Jäger looked quickly at the spinners and grunted with a smile on his face.
" If you wish", he whispered and stepped forward.
" Let's have a little fun together." He pulled out his flute and played a little song on it. White wolves made of ice, appeared before him.
The knight placed himself protective before his prince. Mytho tried to convince him, trying to pull him back.
" Stop it, she's not the raven!", he cried desperately.
Krähe chuckled.
" Oh, I am a raven. You should know it better than anyone else. Isn't that right my prince?" She held her hand out towards Mytho.
Tutu jumped in between them and told them to stop.
" There's no reason for us to fight! Please, Rue! Do you really want to hurt the prince?"
The dark princess flinched a little at the sight of Princess Tutu. The knight was still dead serious.
" What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to help the prince? Are you plotting with the raven?"
" N-no Fakir you don't-"
He pointed his sword at her. She made a step back in shock, shaking lightly.
" Even when you're Princess Tutu, I won't hold back!"
And with these words he rushed towards her. Mytho couldn't stop him in time. Aria gasped in shock and Autors eyes grew big in horror. The spinners on the other side, seemed to enjoy it.
Anyway, before the knight reached the white princess, a white wolf attacked the knight. He slashed at it and cut it in half. It dissolves in a bunch of snowflakes.
"What the-", the knight, just as anyone else, looked up to Jägers direction. He held the flute in his hand, one more ice wolf behind him.
" I'm not saying that I'm not enjoying this.", he said with a meaningful look." But I won't let you attack my princess."
Mytho was still disoriented, but Lohengrin grasped the situation fast.
" I don't know who you are, but you better don't stay in my way!"
He grabbed his sword tighter and ran towards the new-found enemy. Jäger didn't move an inch, the wolf started growling and placed himself in front of his master, seconds before he attacked the knight. Lohengrin swiftly cut the being into two and went for the master. Jäger had made a sword of ice in the meantime and awaited the knight. Princess Aria rushed towards the two, almost tripping over her own feet.
" Stop! Don't do that! "
But a power made her stop. Her eyes opened wide in surprise as her violin appeared.
Sand chuckled.
" We need some fitting music, don't you think Drosselmeyer?"
"Ah yes, it makes it more exciting."
The spinners grinned viciously before the showdown. Aria started to play the violin, the pain written all over her face. She tried to fight against it, but she couldn't. How was she supposed to break the spell of a spinner? Her eyes were fixed on the two battling boys.
Princess Tutu and the prince also wanted to stop them, but were occupied otherwise.
" You should worry about yourself. Princess Tutu", said Princess Krähe with a vicious smile. A few crows flew above her head.
" Rue..", said the white Princess in a sad voice. Mytho stepped confident towards her, a little anger in his voice.
" Rue, stop it right now!"
She chuckled.
" With what? This is who I am. I told you it would come down to this but you didn't listen!"
The crows attacked Mytho in an instant. The boy pulled out his sword to destroy the ravens fast and tried to pursue his princess even further.
" This is not the real you! I also have the raven's blood inside me! You are no different from me!"
Tutu looked around herself. Lohengrin and Fakir were still fighting, Aria couldn't stop playing the music, and Autor was too shaken to do anything in this situation. And Rue sent once again crows down on Mytho.
What was she supposed to do? Was she once again just watching?
She turned towards the spinners. Her voice sounded desperate, and she was close to tears.
" Please stop this madness! Didn't you have enough? Please!"
Drosselmeyer pouted."Nooo, it's so exciting right now!"
" Please, somebody will get hurt if this goes on!"
" Well, I hope so."
Tutu cried heavily, her whole body was shaking. Couldn't she do anything here?
"Oh come on, let's give her a chance Drosselmeyer." Sand said amused. She turned to Tutu and bowed down a little.
" Let's make a deal. You came here, because you wanted to bring back the little duckling, right? If you manage to do it, we'll release you all out of here."
" Hey, hey! Don't decide things on your own!", Drosselmeyer grunted.
Tutu sobbed a little calmer now, looking up to the spinners. " ...bring Ahiru back?"
She looked around again, her eyes fell on Jäger. He revived Princess Tutu by returning a piece of her heart. She touched her Pendant. Her heart.
She turned to the prince and his princess. He still tried to fight off all the ravens, struggling with his voice. Rue seemed to be unmoved. Until the moment he lost his sword. One of the crows had grabbed it and thrown it away. The prince was struck. They were ready to attack the prince and rushed down on him.
"Stop!". One word from their princess and they stopped. Mytho looked at her. She was trembling, eyes wide open in shock.
" Rue...", the prince made a step towards his princess. He stopped as he heard the sound of a sword taking from the floor.
On the other side of the room, the sound of ice breaking against metal could be heard. The sound of the violin was only mildly heard in the background. Jäger chuckled.
" You're a better fighter than I thought. How come you don't do this anymore?"
The knight struck his sword of ice into two.
" I don't know what you are talking about!" He stroke, just moments after Jäger made another blade appear in his hands.
"Of course not.", he chuckled. "I should have thought of this myself. This way, you're no threat to me at all."
Jägers smile fell as he looked over the knights shoulder, his eyes growing big in horror.
"No...", he whispered. He tossed the knight to the side and rushed forward. Arias eyes, her hands still playing obediently, followed him. She held her breath,not breaking the chain of music. The knight stumbled and turned around to Jäger as well.
" Are you running away?", he yelled. Before he saw what made his enemy act. Princess Tutu had knelt down, the prince's sword in her hands. The sword he once used to break his own heart into pieces.
Something moved inside of him.
"Ahiru!", he whispered under his breath.
Throwing his sword to the side, he rushed also towards her. Just like Mytho and Jäger. Begging her not to do it. But there was no point in stopping her. Her face was still wet from the tears as she struck the sword through the pendant and her heart.
A glowing was surrounding Princess Tutu. Everybody shut their eyes and turned away. As soon as the glowing came, it was gone again. The sword fell loudly to the floor and the body of a young girl fell to the floor.
Drosselmeyer pouted again." Not fair." He sighed and turned to Sand. " Oh well whatever. I guess I'm going to leave now since the fun is all over."
Sand nodded. " We should drink a cup of tea together again."
" Yeah, I guess not.". He disappeared behind a gear wheel, together with little Uzura who hit her drum one last time before departing.
The curse seemed to be lifted. Rues black feathers turned white and Fakir ran over to Ahiru and tried to wake her up. Aria stopped playing the violin and came closer to the group. She stopped close to Jägers back.
" You see", she whispered, " you can't hold her, you never will."
He grunted. " You think that would stop me?", he returned and disappeared. Princess Aria breathed in and walked over to the others, with a heavy heart.
Yes, it took me a while to upload this chapter, sorry about that. My beta-reader was ill and I was busy with other stuff. And this chapter was a really hard to write for me. I've never wrote a fighting scene before ( and I think I pretty much avoided a big fight lol) and there were WAY too many characters in this chapter! But I guess I kind of managed to do this anyway.
Petruschka (in english it's Petrushka) is a ballet by Igor Strawinsky. Petruschka is a puppet with human feelings and gets killed at the end of the ballet(too lazy to write it more detailed).
Don't know when the next chapter is going to be up.