Chapter 9: Light and Dark, Day and Night, The Sinner and the Pure...Yin and Yang
Fakir walked silently to class beside Ahira. A black swan feather...and a spastic white swan? What was with birds in this town? He wondered what exactly was going on...
They entered the class to see most others were practicing the pas-de-deux of the Prince and Swan. He started to wonder why it had taken Ahiru such a long time to practice on her own last night. He watched the Director walk through the class, his eyes lingering on the other dancers.
"Times up. Class is starting. Find your partners and we will see who took enough time to practice. Pas-de-deux you have to depend on your partner...you have to fill the role... If it is not natural...you will not complete such task." Director Kugamaii's silver eyes, piercing the crowd, narrow chin high, finally resting his eyes on Ahira. "Now, I shall watch." He looked away sharply.
"I'm sure you're practice will be worth it, I know you can impress him so you-" Fakir said as they prepared.
"I'm not worried." She said rather bluntly, in a way that threw Fakir off. So maybe Ahiru had gained a confidence from all the practice and praise from the Director? The music started and so did they.
The Director walked around. No two partner fit the part. No person seemed to have the same ability in this pas-de-deux as the couple Fakir and Ahiru did. He was right. His eyes drifted to see a change in the girl. She danced more objectively, with more strength and confidence. She was not she. He ended the music rather abruptly.
"So I see our star couple is the only one once again to fulfill this task. However I must mention...Ahiru was it? Your style has changed...or maybe...maybe it was a more a change in character?" His smile seemed sly but satisfied as he passed the two. "Next class... I want to see the Prince and Odile's paux-de-deus. However...please work on the other as well...as third year students I should expect that the two should be well known by the end of this year...your abilities should excel my expectations...all I ask is that you perform what I ask of you." His eyes locked with Ahira, and she looked back at him with an obedient confidence. "You may practice longer here for the evening, but I suggest you take it upon your self to even the scales."
Fakir wondered why he'd once again, taken a liking to Ahriu's style. Ahiru had seemed different since last night.
"Wow, Ahiru you were so good!" Lillie doted with some of the other dancers.
"I know. Thanks." Ahira smiled confidently. Fakir, again was taken back by her change...normally Ahiru would have become speechless to their words, or gratefully appreciated them...was she changing or was it just a phase?
"With that cocky attitude you would be better off playing Odile." Pique muttered just loud enough to reach the group standing around her. Ahira looked at Pique with a small confident smirk.
"You okay Ahiru?" Fakir said, as she turned to look at him, now with an innocent smile. Pique and Lillie had been her best friends...this distance she was keeping wasn't something she wanted right?
"Perfectly fine." She gleamed and left with him.
Ahiru had been pacing...or rather waddling around back and forth at the lake. She needed to change back now! But no matter how many times she entered the water she couldn't! She couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't! She couldn't be stuck like this? Not after she'd just switched back?
The sun was going down slowly...Fakir should be back from class soon! Maybe she could get him to-
"Being a bird sucks doesn't it?"
She turned to see herself, as a human smiling back at her. "When you finally figure out what's going on, it will be too late for Fakir. I will perform my master's orders and then I will get my wish. To be human forever. I was made to become you're dark side, and soon I will become you."
Ahiru-swan looked at her angry, and honked at her in the same anger.
"Why? I was made, I was given a chance to help my master fulfil his wishes, for my own chance to be human! What did the master tell me to say..." The fake, Ahira, took a breath and recited what Ahiru wasn't sure was a poem or a curse, as she paced slowly around her, with a dark grin.
"You can have the night, and I can have the day, but your Knight in shining armor wont win either way! You can't say 'swan', otherwise you'll turn back! Spill the secret we share and all you'll do is quack! Our pas-de-deux takes two, under the light of the moon you will become yourself, but under the morning sun you will sing a different tune. Should you fail to reach the moon on the water, more or less ... you'll be a goner." She continued to smile, snidely.
"And when the time comes, when the magic is at its peak, when the master takes his vengeance, will the Knight begin to leak...A crimson river, the blood that was lost will be taken back, at true loves cost, I will become you, and you will become me, and the knight will give back the son, and the debts will have paid their fee."
Ahiru only understood parts of it, but she expected it had none the less to do with Drosselmyer's story...and the swan..or at least seemed to play a key role. She looked as the sky was dark now and the moon began to rise, less full than the night before.
Still as the light of the moon hit the lake, she saw the doppelgänger begin to dance the same Swan Lake pas-de-deux she'd danced last night, and soon enough her own body mimicked it...like as if it she couldn't help it and either the moonlight or her twin controlled her. And again they danced on the water, soon enough she opened her eyes and found herself on the grass near the water, in her blue bodysuit, staring at a black swan on the lake, who flew off into the dark sky. She wondered what damage the evil thing had done...its master had some dark power and a knight in the story was mentioned...could the night be Fakir?! She rushed back to the cottage house Fakir lived in, and saw him sitting at the fireplace.
"Practicing again?"
"...something like that..." Ahiru mumbled. She didn't feel like trying to say the word swan in front of Fakir should she turn back...plus he hadn't been to welcoming to her earlier. He knew her as a duck not a swan. Plus she'd be stuck one until the next moon...
"Well I asked the woman at the shop where you got that other body suit you wore today...she said not her shop. So i guess I don't really owe her anything...is something going on Ahiru?" Fakir looked over his shoulder to her.
She bit her lip. It was so hard. All she had were a few precious hours between nightfall and morning to help Fakir realize what was going on...and it seemed like her lips had to stay rather sealed for now. "No...not really."
"You know. I think the Director really seems to like you for the part of Odette...but do you think you can do Odile tomorrow? You seemed to be more confident now with your practicing by the lake?" Fakir walked over to his desk and took a short glance at his notepad before looking over to Ahiru.
"I'm not at all confident actually. I'm not nearly as good on my own by the lake..." Ahiru admitted. She'd never had much ease doing the pas-de-deux on her own by the lake, but Fakir really didn't need the extra practice...and her evil twin wasn't a partner. She felt so much tension and frustration. In a few hours she'd be back to being a swan and she almost had no clue about what the Black Swan had been talking about. She sighed and sat on the bed. She hadn't even seen what her other self had danced like...how was she even supposed to get a her teacher to like her when her wasn't her. She could be ruining her friendships...she could be hurting Fakir! What did she say about a knight and a-
"Ahiru?" Fakir walked closer interrupting her thoughts. His face had that cold, tough appeal at times, but since their friendship, she'd seen a concern for her through it all...sometimes more obvious than others.
He noticed her deep thoughts. Her troubled look. Ahiru was always more...bubbly? On the other hand her actions...her confidence today didn't seem like her. The difference between now and then... it was almost like the Ahiru at ballet practice and the Ahiru now where two different people... yin and yang almost. She was probably just struggling. "You are way too troubled about this dance part. He's not actually having us perform the ballet...its just practice you know. You aren't Odette...and you don't have to become Odile tomorrow either."
Ahiru swallowed hard. As if he knew how damn wrong he was...she felt like Odette...and she was going to be replaced by some god awful dark twin. Still...even if she did say swan in front of him... she felt like she'd just quicken the dark fate for her and possibly Fakir...if she could turn into Princess Tutu again maybe she could change that but...
"Here if you're that worried..." Fakir took her silence as a yes. He'd started to wonder if this story was ever going to take flight or if this whole Black Swan Feather was some kind of hoax. He walked over to her and took her hand and guided her, wide eyed, to the front of the cabin, only lit by moonlight and a single street light. He then guided her in the starting position for the Odile dance. "We'll practice together."
She nodded. Odile's dance was more hard, less soft...it was still ballet, but the dancer had to have a certain deviousness about themselves in order to play the part, considering the role. She didn't really feel comfortable in that kind of role. She let him guide her, but it didn't feel natural like it had before.
He noticed she didn't seem nearly as confident. He wondered where the Director found all the insight he'd had so far on her.
"Stop." Ahiru said suddenly. He jolted out of his thoughts and stopped dancing and looked to her.
"Can...we...can we just practice the Odette part..." She muttered softly.
"We're likely to practice it again...so I don't see why not." He took his position and she took hers. They began and Fakir noticed something different. She wasn't nearly exerting as much confidence, but more a humble gracefulness about her this time. Ahiru was like night and day today.
She let this dance become more comfortable. Not the dance she did with her twin that was forceful and self-reliant, as they both mirrored this pas-de-deux to each other without a partner...but now with a partner...with Fakir...she felt at ease.
Fakir noticed it too...he'd had this feeling when they'd auditioned...or rather Ahiru had auditioned to join the Academy again... an ease...but maybe even a sense of de ja vu ... almost as if...Ahiru was Princess Tutu...again...or was it before-
They both stopped at the same point, at the same confused point of de-ja-vu dancing, Ahiru's face close to his, as they both inwardly wondered what the hell was going on in Drosselmyer's little town of stories.
"So even when you play your games in the day, the Knight and the White Swan find themselves together under the moonlight... it would be a pity if they remembered too soon..." Director Kugamaii said as he stood from the balcony of his office which overlooked most of the grounds.
He turned to the Black Swan which sat on his balcony. "My pet...you really must bring this love to an end...it hurts me to see the Knight in such happiness in this life, when he really deserves nothing of the sorts after what he did. So what I wanted to take over the Prince's Kingdom? Instead the defending Knight intervenes and when I show him the truth to his one-sided-love, he strikes my own for showing him the truth..." The director's eyes winced away recalling his own pain.
"And now, now that I am strong enough, now that I have my magic...and the creation of you, my dear sinful twin, I can tell you your Master Kuro is back. You will do the damage, you will draw him out, and with sacrifice will come rebirth..."
The black swan hit his shoulder rather abrubptly.
"Yes, and you will get to become human...what better way is revenge taken than to make him suffer as he has made me by taking what he has, and then..." The Director looked slyly to the black bird and smiled evilly. "Then all will be right again...and maybe now that that retched Raven has done his damage... I will take over the Kingdom...but here first. Here ... is a perfect place to start." He grinned out into the dark moonlit sky and disappeared into his dark chambers.