Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu. Only my OC, Tiger. I thank A. for helping me so far.
"Ah! Monster!" an orange-salmon braided haired girl named Duck screamed, falling from her bunk, feathers from pillows and blankets gently flying everywhere.
"Ack! Duck, why?" A voice groaned beneath her.
"Oh, sorry, Tiger. I didn't mean to land on you." Duck apologized standing up, letting Tiger sit up on her mat. Tiger, Duck's roommate, was the same age as Duck, which was 13, and had teal cat-like eyes. With orange hair that went half way down her back and kept in an unbraided ponytail.
"It's ok, Duck." Tiger started standing up, picking the feathers from her hair. "Just remember that I get the bunk tonight."
"OK." Duck said cheerfully and started putting on her school uniform.
"Um, Duck?" Tiger said, putting her mat away.
"What, Tiger?" Duck asked, straining out her skirt.
"Can you please feed your birds now?" She pointed to the window, which was filled with brightly colored birds. Duck nodded and walked over to the window.
"Good Morning!" The girl shouted to the birds as they began to swarm all over her. Tiger sighed, smiling a little, watching Duck struggling to get the bowl of bird food up on the window ledge. Then the cat-eyed girl moved towards the small closet and began getting dressed herself while Duck talked to her birds.
"The school bell?" Duck questioned, listening to the cheerful tune of the school clock, but before Tiger could inform her of the proper time, Duck had already rushed out of the room and down the hallway.
'Dang it, Duck, why didn't she ask me what time it was before bolting out like that?' She thought. 'Oh well, at least we can get some extra practice before class,' and began to walk down the hallway after waving to Pike and Lilie as she walked by them.
When she got to school, Tiger walked toward the practice room and heard music. She smiled hopefully that she would see Duck practicing, but that hope was instantly crushed the moment she saw her friend standing on the stairs, red-faced and leaning in such a way that defies the laws of physics.
Looking back towards the large room, Tiger saw exactly what Duck was intently looking at, there he was, Mytho. One of the most handsome boys and best ballet dancers in the school. 'I can understand why other girls like him, he has a quality that people are naturally drawn to,' she thought, watching Duck get flustered when Mytho stopped dancing.
"I'm disturbing you, aren't I? Please excuse me! I'm leaving right away!" said Duck, trying to motion toward the door, but tripped. Tiger tried to grab her, but she was too late. Mytho had already flung himself across the room, and was holding Duck in his arms.
'His hair white as snow and his big golden eyes. Those things seem so unnatural to me, and his eyes, so many people say they look lonely, but I don't see them that way. They're just empty, unable to feel sadness. I pity him,' Tiger noticed.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Duck muttered, moving out of Mytho's arms. "I'm really such a scatterbrain, and I'm just so bad at things like everything. So I'm weird, I mean don't you think I'm weird? Shot, even I think I'm weird."
"I don't," Mytho said, monotone.
"He speaks!" Tiger's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
"You don't think I'm weird?" Duck asked in surprise.
"I don't," he answered.
"I can't believe it, no one's ever said that to me!" Duck squealed, dropping to the ground.
Then slowly, the door beside Tiger opened. "Fakir!" Tiger whispered, her face turning warm and pink, but the boy with the dark-green hair tied in a ponytail, didn't even notice her. His cold light green eyes only fixated on a singular goal Tiger didn't even do, to speak before he walked over to Mytho.
"Hey," Fakir said.
"Fakir," Mytho responded.
"Didn't I tell you to inform me when you go out?" The older boy questioned, leering over him.
"Yes," Mytho answered, emotionlessly.
"We're leaving, stand up," Fakir ordered, but Mytho didn't move. "What's wrong?"
"My foot."
"Foot? Did you twist it?"
Mytho nodded. "Hmm."
"Idiot."
"Huh? What?!" Duck shouted, causing Fakir to look over in her direction. "Ehm, ehm, it was my fault. He saved me when I tripped so..."
"What were you thinking? Doing such a pointless thing?" Fakir asked, looking back at Mytho.
"Like I said, he was protecting me..." Duck tried to continue.
"That's why I said 'pointless'" Fakir said in a hissing tone, then grasped Mytho's hand. "Stand up, we're going back." He pulled the white-haired boy to his feet.
"You don't have to be so rough with him!" Duck yelled.
"Quiet!" Fakir shouted back. "And you!" He pointed towards Tiger. "Stay out of my way." Then he and Mytho left the practice room.
"Oh, Fakir, why did you have to change so much?" Tiger sighed.
Then the school bell rung it's happy chime once again. Tiger heard Duck muttering something in confusion soon after the room was full of students preparing for class. the orange-haired girl was practicing her balance on the bar when she heard Duck say something that made her stop.
"He isn't a very nice person," says Duck.
"What did you say? You know Fakir's the best," Pike said, nearly grinding Duck into the wall.
"No, the best is Senor Mytho!" Duck shouted. Annoyed, Tiger walked to the farthest wall to ignore the current conversation.
'Duck doesn't know what she's talking about,' Tiger thought, leaning on the bar. 'And honestly, Pike doesn't know what she's talking about either. Everybody thinks Fakir is some kind of cruel and unforgiving fire to Mytho's snow flurry equivalent to ice, but I know deep down in my heart, that's not the real Fakir or Mytho.'
Tiger squinted her eyes, holding back tears. 'Oh Fakir, I want to go back to the time when you were gentle and strong. Back to the time when we used to dance together for hours and we didn't care about anything back-'
"Cat!" Duck screamed, cutting off Tiger's train off thought, turning around to see a large purple cat standing in the center of the room. His name was Mr Cat, and he was the ballet teacher.
"Alright, quiet down. If you don't, rest assured I will have you marry me!" Mr. Cat had a creepy look on his face. Tiger looked annoyed as the room went completely silent. Seeing everyone doing what he said, the cat teacher licked himself to calm himself down.
Though Mr. Cat was a hopeless romantic, he was one of the best ballet teachers around. And Tiger had no choice but to respect him.
"Start in first position, now releve," Mr. Cat said, beginning to instruct the class. "And move your arms to second position."
'Home,' Tiger thought to herself, following the teacher's instructions. 'Where am I from again?'
"Remember, straight legs, and now third position, arm, ah, that's it." Mr. Cat's voice caught her attention, then copied the motions of the girl in front of her.
'Duck said she lives somewhere near the lake,' Tiger continued looking out the window at the walls of the town. 'I don't remember always living in Gold Crown, so that probably means...'
"Don't stick your bottoms out!" Mr. Cat shouted, walking past Tiger.
"Oh, nevermind. I'll remember evantually," the girl muttered quietly.
After the warm-ups. "Students, please take a set along the wall," Mr. Cat called. The student quickly followed directions. "Alright, we will now observe a performance from the Special Class. Members of the Special Class, you may enter!"
Then the doors to the class room opened, reveling the Special Class. Four graceful looking girls wearing dark blue stood beside the pride and joy of the special class. Rue wearing a rose colored dress and shoes, the special class beauty and grace left the class awestruck an before they could register what happened next, the five girls began to dance.
As the music played Tiger herself could not help but be in maze by the five graceful girls dancing and leaping through the air. 'I can be up there with them,' she thought dreamily 'If I try hard enough maybe then I'll get noticed and then I'll be in the special class,' she continued to do dream 'and if I get into the special class I'll be as good as Rue' her mind slowly drifting away from her 'No I'll be even better.' Her joyful day dream was interrupted by Duck who had suddenly stood up right and shouted.
Mr. Cat annoyance towards the interruption seem to have become visible in the air around him. "I won't indulge you anymore! This time I will have you marry me!" He hissed sweat dripping down from his face.
"Sorry, Duck was just so moved, she couldn't help but cry out." Pique said wrapping her arms around Duck.
"She's tacksy but cute, please forgive her." Lillie said cheerfully.
"Mr. Cat, you need to chill out," Tiger stood up and added. Mr. Cat moved to his eyes in Tiger's direction but failed to make eye contact with her then he licked his paw and quickly began wiping the sweat off the face.
In the girls locker room Tiger prepared getting back into her normal school uniform trying to ignore a conversation between Duck and her friend. But then there are conversation became impossible to avoid when Duck shouted "Even if it is weird!"with much enthusiasm.
"But not for!" Lillie waved her arms of excitement.
"I just got a go!" Duck shouted.
"Got to go where?" Pique joining in on the sudden excitement and with the couple off shouts, Duck had ran out the door with everybody looking at her.
"There she goes again making fool of herself" Tiger sighed putting the rest of her clothes on "She probably ran off to apologize to Mytho or something," she thought "Well it's not my problem," and walked the girls locker room casually.
As Tiger left the building the school court yard, a thick layer of fog started to roll in 'Gee I hope Duck's all right I this fog' she wondered, as she began to walk to the main gate the people the in crowded walk way be mere shadows as the fog became more dense.
"Here fishy!" a little voice called out the moment. Tiger reached the step's leaving the front gate.
"Who's there?" Tiger pried out to see the bridge that lead out of school and a little boy leaning dangerously close to the edge.
"Come on fishy!" the boy shouted holding a piece of bread over the water.
"Hey you shouldn't be doing that!" Tiger shouted move closer to him. In her worry, she slipped down one of steps, falling on her knees.
"Fishy! Why are you sleeping!?" the boy pried into the water then suddenly a crow swooped down and began to attack the little boy "ah bad birdy!" waving the bread in the crows face.
"Get out of there!" Tiger said standing up to immediately fall back down again.
"Are you just gonna sit there and watch that little boy get hurt?" a small gentle voice whispered in Tiger's ear.
"No, but my legs, they won't move," Tiger said watching the little boy try to maintain is gripped on the bridge.
"If that little boy falls into the river, nobody's around to see him. But you see him, so you must be the one to save that little boy" the little voice said encouragingly.
"That's right, I have to" she said popping herself on the stone bridge. Only the boy slipped off the railing, falling straight into the river. As she reached out to grab the boy, Tiger saw her deep blue pendent began to glow. While it glowed, a strong wind wiped, pulling the fog and leaves from nearby trees blinding the girl. In her blindness, she felt stronger. Her cloths, hair and the shape of her pendent changed.
As Tiger opened her eyes she saw a boy falling towards the river as if time had changed. "Fields of Wheat," she said breaking into a grand pirouette as wheat shoot up from the rock and with a filck of her hand, that now had blue beaded bracelet around her wrist, lifted the wheat in the air and sent them down towards the boy. With great speed and accuracy, it made a net underneath the boy right before he reached the river.
The little boy looked up in awe to see a young woman in a beautiful ballet dress with tiger stripes on the fabric covering her shoulder. "ah who are you?" the boy asked.
"I'm .." the beautiful ballerina said helping the boy up on the bridge.
"Um ...well my name is." the women tried to continue, but was stopped by the sound of voices whispering and shouting all at the same time all trying to something impotent yet confusing " Ex-excuse me young lad" she said, fear welling in her chest as she gracefully turned around run into the still fog filled town. "But … I fear I can't stay."
As she walked deeper in the town, Tiger felt herself to change back normal and in her transformation she collapsed to her knees and fell on the grass in deep sleep.
When Tiger awoke she felt different, instead of feeling extremely graceful and powerful, she felt small and almost misshapen.
"Um, why did everything get so big?" Tiger wondered trying to rub her face. This simple task much longer than she accepted do to the awkward shape of her arm when she managed to touch her face, her arm felt oddly fuzzy. She moved her arm away from to her face to inspect the fuzzy feeling, gasped to see her arm was not an arm but a large paw.
"What the-!" she squeaked, examining the paw closely. As Tiger tried to get herself upright the worse thought came across her mind "I'm a cat!"
Tiger looked that her surroundings frantically hoping that nobody noticed her she then flipped herself over on all fours and began to move this fast as her new body would take her, lost and confused not entirely sure what to do. As she ran away, a misplaced brick in the road caused her to trip and fall. "Running with four legs is harder than it looks..." she squirmed.
Tiger's ears prick up when she heard the sound of tiny little bells heading her way "Oh no, I can't have anybody see me like this!" She said as she crawled into a bush. She then curled up into a little ball, hit her paws over her eyes and waited until the sound of bells disappeared.
Poking her head out the bush, she noticed that the source of the bells had not quite gone away. At the far end of the street there was a small brightly colored child, its pastel colored clothes standing out against the more darker colors in the town. Tiger could not quite see whether it was a boy or girl that she could see that it was an oddly shaped fishing pole.
Out of curiosity, she crept towards a small child. It's hair was not as white as Mytho's. The child's hair had more a warm cream color to it.
'Who is this child' Tiger wondered slowly approaching it as she approach it she strange getting close to it the child's eyes which were deep green looked strangely unnatural in contrast to its cheery clothing.
"Uh?" the child gasped turning to look at Tiger.