Disclaimer: Don't own Tutu, Princess. Not mine.
Vignette Fifteen:
Fakir placed the page from 'The Prince and the Raven' along with the Lohengrin Sword and the knight's mask in the same stone coffin from which he'd taken the Prince's sword in the previous epic.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Asked Ahiru as she watched Fakir push the heavy stone lid back in place. "The Knight had been a part of you for almost your whole life."
"That story is over." Fakir seemed to be saying this allot. "I'm no longer a Knight and never really was to begin with." He placed an affectionate hand on her shoulder. "I have to speak to the Book Men, why don't you go on back to the dorms."
"'Kay…" She turned too leaved, her back to him she said: "Fakir… I want you to stay out of trouble. When I thought the Knight was going to kill you… I was scared. I mean really scared. I don't want to louse you like…" she paused, thought, fidgeted. "…like Rue lost Mytho." She finished meekly and ran out before Fakir could process what she'd meant.
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"Where would Fakir be…?" The newly released King Mytho wandered confusedly through the streets of Kinkon Town.
It had been so long since he'd last been here. Since he'd battled the Raven in the town's main street. Since he'd danced a pas de deux with Rue in an abandoned building not far from the wall. Since he'd been to the Academy… The Academy, of course! If he couldn't find Fakir, he'd find the Academy and from there figure where Fakir could be. Finding a building was much easier than finding a person.
He turned down a side street that lead him in to a heavily wooded area.
"This looks familiar…" He muttered to no one. "I wonder if the park is near by…" The park that I used to come to with Rue… Rue, I hope you're okay…
He continued walking, the trees getting thicker with each step until he wasn't sure where he'd come from or where he was headed.
"I'm lost." He informed the surrounding shrubbery.
"What a pathetic wretch you are!"
Mytho glanced down at the bottle of his own heart shards in confusion and annoyance. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me." The offending Shard materialized as a red hued and slightly transparent version of Mytho himself. "YOU, my good self, are a pathetic wretch."
"Why would you say that?" Asked the momentarily mystified monarch.
"First of all…" Began the Shard. "All we, all YOU've done for the past week was hang around like dried meat. You never ONCE tried to escape! Secondly, now that you are free, instead of searching the town systematically, street-by-street, you just rushed off in the first direction that looked familiar to spite the fact that you haven't been here in YEARS! And have probably forgotten the lay of the land… And now we're lost!"
Another Shard materialized itself from the tiny glass bottle and placed a restraining hand on the first's shoulder.
"That's enough." He said. "We're never going to get anywhere if you keep scolding him like that."
"I'll talk to myself however I damn well please!" Replied the first.
The latter glared at the former as he prepared his come back. Mytho pinched the bridge of his nose, sensing an oncoming stress headache.
"I need to find Princess Tutu." He muttered. "Forget about Fakir."
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Hoffnung stood on the brass cogwheel platform inside the story and glared up at the silvery strings hanging limply from the darkness. Those strings were the ones that had previously restrained his father. Now they were empty. The other shards he had removed during his "surgery" were also gone; probably taken the same time Mytho had escaped.
"Danm." He muttered aloud.
Mytho couldn't have been able to escape on his own. He had to have had help… The ebony prince stormed from the clock in a mass of dark feathers.
"That treacherous fool!"
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Autor paced out side the door to the Book Men's secret headquarters: the public Library. He couldn't go back to the dorms, not now that he had betrayed Hoffnung by freeing Mytho. But he didn't exactly have anywhere else to go.
'What am I going to do now?' He thought.
It was at that moment that Fakir came jogging lightly up the lane.
"Autor?" He stopped short. "What are you doing her?"
"I… uh…" He placed his hands in his pockets. "What are you doing her?"
"I need to speak to the Book Men about something. You?"
I'm here because I have no where else to go since I freed Mytho from the clutches of his evil Raven child of a son and was hopping the Book Men would forgive my trespass and take me in. "The same." He answered.
Fakir shrugged as if he had expected this answer and opened the door. "Well, come on then."
The inside of the Book Men's headquarters was musky and smelled of aging paper and dry flaking ink. It was pitch dark inside, the moons dim light streaming in through the open door way in which Fakir and Autor stood did nothing to illuminate their surroundings.
The two stumbled about in the darkness searching for a lamp to light when on was provided for them. The old style oil lamp was held in the hand of one of the cloaked figures of a Book Man whom had come to investigate the noise the boys were making.
"And what might this be, eh?" Asked the suspicious Book Man. "A pair of Drosslemyer's spawn, come to rob us."
"What?" Autor asked dumbstruck.
"I'm here to speak to you leader." Fakir's voice was business like, like he had no patience to waste on underlings and minions.
The Book Man glared at Fakir from beneath the hood of his cowl.
"This way." He said at last, leading the two boys down a dark corridor.
He stopped at the door to the same room Fakir had been shown before, the room that contained his story: "The Prince of the Ravens".
"Wait here." Ordered the Book Man, closing the door behind him.
Fakir walked over to the book case and perused the titles until he found the one he was looking for: his story. Pulling the volume from the shelf, he rifled through the pages to find the last entry.
'The Knight gazed upon the figure that was himself…' He read. '"That story is over." Said he. And the Knight new it was true… He had come face to face with himself… and he found peace.' Fakir breather a sigh of relief. The Knight was a peace, he could finally rest.
But wait. He didn't write that. He hadn't been writing anything when that happened. So how…? He flipped to the book's front cover. There. Right beneath his name was that of a co-writer. He looked up in shock.
"What is it?" Autor asked.
"Nothing." Fakir studied the name on the cover again. Yes. It was Autor. It was Autor whom had written about him and the Knight, and it was most likely Autor whom had… whom had brought Hoffnung out of the story and stated this tragedy.
"I thought you'd be back." The leader of the book men entered at that moment. "But why are you here?" He asked upon seeing Autor.
"I… uh… "
"He's with me." Fakir answered for him, his voice deadpan, still not taking his eyes from the cover of the book.
"I see." The Book Man leader said slowly. "What can I do for you, my boy?"
"I actually just learned all I needed to know." He replaced the book on the shelf. "We'll go now. Sorry for disturbing you all at such a late hour."
He grabbed Autor's arm and pulled him from the room, down the corridor, out the building. "You're coming with me." He said when they were outside.
"Where are we…?" A sudden and hard fist to his stomach cut his question short. He staggered backwards in the street. "Fakir! What are you on about?"
"THAT was for lying to us." He glared at the pianist from behind the curtain of his dark hair. "All that time we thought you were working with us to find Mytho, to stop Hoffnung. And you were the writer who brought him here in the FIRST PLACE!"
"Fakir, I can explain." He held his hands out in an attempt to placate the enraged writer.
"You explanation better be something like…" He paused. "Like, 'I didn't know what I was doing until it was done and then I couldn't take it back and I thought if I help you, you would do it for me'. Nothing short of that will let me forgive you."
"That's… that's exactly how it happened, Fakir. Exactly." He took a cautious step closer to Fakir and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I wanted to write a story." He began; using the lie Fakir had already provided him with. "I wanted to write like you could, but I didn't have the power." That part t least was true. "Something came to me and said that he'd give me the power if I helped him, so I did. But… I made a horrible mistake, and because of that we were cursed with Hoffnung."
"How can I believe you knowing that you lied about your connection to Hoffnung?" Fakir crossed his arms over his chest, still skeptical.
"I can help you find Mytho." He answered.
"What?"
"He's here in the town." Autor elaborated. "Let me stay at your house tonight. Mytho's probably looking you as well, we could search the streets systematically: each person taking a few blocks until he's found."
Fakir silently regarded him for a moment. "You can stay at my house tonight and tonight ONLY. But I don't want you interfering with us again. Do you understand? I'm not inviting you over because of your offer, I want to keep an eye on you for a while."
"I understand." The cobblestones had once again become very interesting.
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With the morning came fog, thick and congested. It blanketed the town, making it hard to see no more than a few feet in front of you. It blotted out the sun and gave those walking to their jobs or to the Academy a feeling of foreboding.
Hoffnung gazed at the fog through the window of his dorm room. So thick was it that he couldn't even see the girls building on the other side of the courtyard. It was almost as if a sheet of gray fabric had been pulled over the window pains.
The fool didn't return last night. The ebony Prince brooded and he watched the thick cloud bank swirl and shift.
The clock chimed in the distance.
No matter. I can always get him in school. No one is safe from me…S
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"Aw, man. Even the weather's depressed today." Complained our favorite pink Princess. "Hey, cheer up Rue-chan." She nudged her friend in the side. "We'll find Mytho soon. Then we can give him his heart back and he'll help Hoff-chan and save the day! Just like when you were taken by the Raven."
"But Hoffnung IS a Raven, Ahiru." Rue's spirits were as bleak as the weather as they made the short walk from the girls' dorm to school. "It is completely different than when I was swallowed by the Raven."
"We'll find a way." Ahiru insisted. "All we need is enough hope." She patted her heart shard necklace affectionately. "Oh, before I forget! Here."
She pulled a small drawstring pouch from her school bag and handed it to Rue. The latter took it with expressions of interest and confusion mixing on her face.
Loosening the string, she peered in to see and slight sliver of red glowing at the bottom of the bag. "This is…"
"Mytho's shard of Resentment." Ahiru finished. "I know it's not the nicest feeling, but I thought, since it was a piece of Mytho, I would bring you some comfort to have it."
She pulled the strings shut again. "Thank you, Ahiru."
"Sure thing." She gave one of those awkward smiles that only Ahiru could pull off.
It was then that the Ahiru's pendant began to glow. Rue lifted the pouch containing Resentment, thinking that it had set off the necklace. But then it too began to glow; it's blood-tinged light showing through the seams in the bag.
"There must be another heart shard near by." Ahiru explained.
"Let's go find it." It wasn't a suggestion.
"But school…" She had finally gotten back in to the normal ballet class and wanted to have at least ONE lesson before the fan fiction was over. But Mytho, his heart and stopping Hoffnung was more important at the moment and so she complied. "I think it's this way."
Rue followed her down a side street that led to a heavily wooded area.
Fin for now…
(A/N: I AM going to finish this! I am determined! I have put my other fan fiction on hold so that I could finish this. It's to long and needs to end. I will end it, I just don't want to cop-out.)
Thanks to:
ClumsyXjinkx: I'm glad you think so.
CamiCw: As promised –up-dated before June.
Jishinibaka-chan: Welcome back. I'm glad you're no longer grounded. I love how all your reviews are always so positive and energetic. And you review almost every chapter which is nice. Thank you.
James Birdsong: I'm happy you think it's beautiful, but I would hardly call it "divine".
(A/N2: Sorry I haven't been thanking you all recently. It's really very poor form on my part and there really is no excuse.)