I thank Unnoticeable_Demon for helping.

Once upon a time, there was a man who died. All the stories the man spun came true. So the king, the nobility and the kingdom's rich all went to him, to get him to write them stories. But when they saw their wishes granted, stark terror of his power seized them and they began to abhor him. When the man finally died, the people rejoiced that this wellspring of misfortune had dried up. No one heard the echoing sound of the dead man's scornful laughter.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tiger and Duck were walking to school. They didn't speak, Tiger was too absorbed by her thoughts. She had yet another vivid dream that she would have to draw in her sketchbook, but Tiger really didn;t want to. The story it accompanied was truly terrifying. It had been about Drosselmeyer and how the town's people had feared him and killed him. In her dream, she had seen the image of an axe, jammed into a book. The axe had been bloody.

"I wonder if Fakir finished the story about Mytho. What kind of story will he make it? I wonder if I'll be in it too." Duck mused, speaking her own train of thought.

"Don't rush these things." Tiger replied. They had reached the school's grounds and when they looked ahead they noticed a familiar figure enter the library.

"Is that Fakir?" Duck asked, actually saying what Tiger was thinking and without discussing it, they headed for the school's library.

Walking down the badly lit corridor of the library, they find Fakir in an even darker room, sitting on the bottom step of a climbing ladder and reading a book by the daylight coming from a high window.

"You're doing research?" Duck asked him brightly.

"Yes." Fakir replied. He didn't turn to meet them, but kept on reading.

"Oh so um, did you write a story about Myoooooh!" Duck asked and in her attempt to be casual about it leaned against the door, but it opened further into the room and startled her.

Fakir still didn't look up from his book and just replied in the same dry tone.
"No, I haven't written it yet."

"Oh, well that's ok. Do you want to get started on it now? The faster we help Mytho, right?" Duck continued, not bothered at all by Fakir's lack of enthusiasm.

"Don't pressure him, Duck." Tiger told Duck, cringing a little at her friend's lack of tact.

"It's not that everything I write comes true and I don't even know yet if I still have the same power or not." Fakir said to them.

"I-I'm sure it'll turn out just fine! I mean if you wish, 'I want to help Mytho' really hard as you write, this time you will succeed for sure and..." Duck gasped when she realized what she just had said.

"Duck!" Tiger rounded on her in shock.

"I'm sorry, Fakir. When I said 'this time', I didn't mean the time when your mother and father were, so you see... I'm sorry." Duck hung her head in shame and ran away.

Tiger watched her go. She just knew Duck was hating herself right now and she would need to go after her, but first she looked back at Fakir. As she had expected. He was not shocked nor mad, just annoyed.

"Sorry about her, you know she didn't mean to hurt you, right? She just wants this awful story to have a happy ending." Tiger said to him.

Fakir only grunted in reply and wanted to continue reading again, but Tiger had something she wanted to discuss with him.

"I know this must not be easy for you to do, but I want you to know that you can take as long as you need. We just need to be patient, ok?" She took a bracing breath and continued.

"Um, I wanted to tell you something. I have these dreams. They're about the stories that are happening in this town and Lion gave me a sketchbook to draw them in. But last night, the story I dreamt about wasn't a fairy tale at all. I think it was about Drosselmeyer and it was gruesome. I don't think I can draw it."

"Can you tell me about the dream?" Fakir asked and at last he closed his book and looked at her. There was concern in his eyes.

Tiger shivered. "It was about a man who died. This man had the power to make the stories he wrote come true. At first the rich sought him out for it, but they, along with the normal folk soon grew afraid of the man's power. They killed him, but even after his execution the man laughed at the town's people's naivety. The image I saw shows a bloody axe struck down in a book."

"I don't think you'll do any harm by drawing that picture." Fakir told her gently. "The story of Drosselmeyer isn't very well known, but I think I've heard it once. Like you said, it's not a fairy tale so I don't think your abilities will change anything about it."

Tiger still had a bad feeling about it all. "If you say so." She said to him, hesitatingly. Then she looked in the direction Duck had disappeared to.

"I am going to catch up with Duck. She must be punishing herself right now."

Tiger indeed found Duck bumping her head against a wooden pillar.

"Hey, calm down. You're going to give yourself a headache doing that!" Tiger said, pulling her friend away from the pillar and turning her firmly to face her.

"I said to Fakir to take as long as he needs. Nothing good will come from rushing things. We just need to be patient." She told Duck.

"I'm sorry, you're right." Duck replied, she took a deep breath, then straightened up with newfound optimism.

A mysterious man passed through the halls in the library. Duck and Tiger followed him out of the backdoor, but then they lost sight of him.

Duck went to class, while Tiger tried to find the man again. She changed into her cat form to be quick and not raise any suspicion if she caught up with the man. Quickly she checked all the directions the man could have taken and found him leaping over a low wall behind the school's courtyard. Where Piqué and Lillie sat during the dance contest, it's a higher point.

Emerging in the street, the man walked back to the old bookstore. He took off his cloak now that he was among people and Tiger recognized him as the old owner. She wondered what he was doing in their school, but headed back to tell Fakir. She checked the library first, but the student who worked there told her that Fakir already had checked out for today with 5 books.

"Is there something else you can tell me, like why he chose to leave early?" Tiger asked the little bat in uniform, hanging upside down behind the counter.

"Well, only that he checked out four books at first. I was told to give the fifth to him by Mr. Autor from the Music division."

"Someone from the music division?" Tiger repeated in surprise. "Do you know why?"

"Nope." The bat answered casually and he hid his face behind the registration cards he was holding in his claws, marking the end of their conversation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"A guy from the music division. What's this about?" Fakir wondered as he climbed the stairs to the first floor of the Music building. He had found a note inside the book set aside for him by Autor that told him to come to a particular room there. The floor was empty and there was no sound apart from one piano playing. Fakir followed the sound and was not at all surprised to find that the boy from the library was there, occupying the very room he was looking for.

"You're late." The boy said pompously while he continued to play.
"It took you eighteen days, seven hours and twenty-four minutes."

"What are you talking about?" Fakir asked him shortly. Already the boy annoyed him.

"That's how long it took from the time you began to research your power until you noticed me." The boy replied, then he finally stopped playing and stood up to face his visitor.

"Mr Fakir." He said, giving him an unpleasant smile.

"I take it, you're Autor then." Fakir said and held up the book with the note in it.
"What is this about?"

"Assumed you hadn't read it so I set it aside. I think you'll find it useful for when you start writing your stories." Autor said.

"Oh really, and what do you know?" Fakir asked.

Autor gave a humourless laugh. "Everything you've been dying to know." He claimed triumphantly

"What?" Fakir was shocked. Did this boy really know 'everything'?

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Tiger was hurrying around the school building to reach the Music building when she bumped into Duck who had just turned the corner at full speed, looking anywhere but ahead of herself.

"Ow, Duck, what are you doing?" Tiger asked, catching her friend before she would fall and quack like a bird.

"I saw that man again from before." Duck said and she frantically continued to look around them.

"What? When?" Tiger asked.

"Right when I finished class." Duck said.

"That can't be, I was chasing him into town around that time." Tiger said.

"Really, that's odd." Duck said thoughtfully.

"Never mind, we have to get to the music division to find Fakir. Apparently there is a guy there who knows about Fakir's research." Tiger told Duck urgently and without another word she ran towards the Music building and entered it, not even chicken whether Duck was following her.

"Hey, excuse us." Duck said to the first student they met inside.

The girl turned around in surprise. "Yes?"

"Do you know where we could find Autor?" Duck asked her.

"When he's not at the library." Tiger added to clarify.

The girl shrugged. "Up on the first floor, I imagine. Practicing piano." She replied nonchalantly."

"Thanks." Duck and Tiger said together and they moved on up to the first floor. No one was playing piano, but they heard a familiar voice as they came out on the landing.

"I'm asking who you are." Fakir was saying loudly to the boy who was with him, who only scoffed.

Tiger gritted her teeth angrily and burst into the room. She had recognized him.

"It's you, the guy who kept telling others to be quiet." She said to him loudly, then she crossed her arms and added while she leaned on one leg. "Answer him."

What Tiger didn't know was that the man she and Duck had seen wasn't the only one who was lurking around their school. There had been another and that person had stayed at his post. He was up a tree, looking directly into one of the windows of the Music division behind which a boy with dark hair and glasses was playing piano. The men had known about this boy's interest in Drosselmeyer's powers and so had conducted their own research about him. The boy was delusional at best. There was no real connection between him and Drosselmeyer and even through all his efforts and research the boy had not spun a single story. However, his knowledge was remarkable and should he pass it on to the wrong person it could be disastrous.

Eighteen days ago the boy called Fakir had started research on spinning stories and this boy would prove to be a problem should he succeed. He was the reincarnation of the Prince's failed protector and knew about his fate since childhood. This could lead to him trying new methods to defy the story and he happened to be a direct descendant of Drosselmeyer on top of this. If he would retraise his ancestor's footsteps he was most likely to become unstoppable. Up till now, however, there had been no need for alarm. The boy knew nothing about his ancestry and was a novice when it came to finding the right path that would lead him to writing a story.

The two boys didn't know each other and that had to stay that way, but while the Bookman was lurking by the high window, the boy named Fakir entered the room suddenly. The Bookman knew this could not be a coincidence and he jumped down from the tree to sneak around the building where he continued to listen more closely to their conversation, hearing every word they were saying.

"You are as short tempered as everyone says you are." The boy wearing glasses was saying to the direct descendant. "But remember this, brute force has no power in the face of words. You want Drosselmeyer's power, because you are also aware of that truth, yes?"

The bookman came closer, listening intently now. It was indeed what he had feared. The fake descendant will tell the real one how to use the power. The man knew he had to warn the others. It was time to act! But the man also knew that he had to wait and see and so he did not move away from his spot.

"The power to make stories into reality, it's splendid! In the books that had their endings stolen by those who wished to stop them from becoming reality, isn't it thrilling?" He went on and a hysterical smile appeared on his face.

"No, it isn't!" Tiger cried out, she stared at Autor in disbelief. How could anyone be thrilled to know such power exists?

"You mean they took out the endings to stop them from becoming real?" Fakir asked in a hushed voice. He was also shocked by all of this.

"Yes!" Autor confirmed and still he was smiling madly.

"But still, every book that was written by Drosselmeyer?! That's insane!" Tiger said.

"Even though the originals are all sealed away and all we can get a hold on are the copies, imagine, a power so great, those endings still had to be torn out!" Autor went on. "If you're serious about obtaining this power, I wouldn't mind helping you, but you will have to follow my every order and be prepared to die if you should fail."

"What do you mean?!" Duck yelled, entering the room as well. "'Follow my every order? Be prepared to die?' What the heck are you talking about? Why does he have to do those things, huh?"

"I am giving him a warning! Do not take Drosselmeyer's power lightly. If you use it improperly, there will be hell to pay. People may even die." Autor said.

"Like when…" Tiger whispered, but the rest of that sentence got stuck in her throat.

"You need to be prepared for that possibility. If you want out, I won't force you." Autor told Fakir and he sneered as if what he just warned them about wasn't a big deal to him.

"No. Teach me." Fakir said, ignoring Autor's attitude.

"Fakir!" Duck turned to him in concern.

"Are you sure?" Tiger asked him, but Fakir chose not to reply to either of them and averted his eyes.

"A wise decision. Come to my house tomorrow, I'll be waiting, Fakir." Autor said, triumph in his voice and he left the room with his hands nonchalantly in his pockets.

"Fakir?" Duck asked him again.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning Tiger and Duck accompanied Fakir to Autor's house. Uzura had tagged along as well.

"Say Fakir, I've been thinking and I've decided I'm going to help you." Duck said cheerfully.

"Me too." Tiger agreed.

"Huh?" Fakir, who evidently had been deep in thought, looked at them both in mild surprise.

"Well, 'cause that's the only thing I can really do right now. So I'm just going to do what I can with all I got." Duck said.

"Yes, if there is something I can help you with, tell me!" Tiger told him as well.

"But isn't there something weird about that Autor guy? I wonder if this is ok." Duck went on, more thoughtful.

"Weird or not, we have no choice." Fakir replied.

Autor was waiting for them in front of an enormous building. It did not even look like a house, more like a museum or a chapel. It had a high roof, decorated with little tower-like structures. It had four upper levels, marked with windows and a sort of coat of arms at the top. On the ground floor there were three points of entry, a small door and two large archways which could be shut with shutters as well as with the double doors behind them.

Autor was waiting for Fakir in front of the small door and he frowned at them as they arrived.
"No entourage." He said bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Tiger asked him, an edge to her voice.

"What? You mean me, Mr Autor? I'm just..." Duck said, more put off by Autor's comment than Tiger was.

"I won't repeat myself. Things related to Drosselmeyer are gathered inside this house, it is a holy place." Autor said and he pointedly turned to go back inside, but he was interrupted by Uzura, who had sneaked up on him while he had been talking.

"Wow, are you the weird Autor-zura?" She asked him curiously.

Autor gave her one look, then he picked her up by the back of her little outfit and carried her back to Fakir and the others, holding her at arm's length as if she was something he wanted to throw away.
"People like you three who are totally unrelated aren't allowed inside. Now come Fakir." He said coldly and turned back to the house.

"What? Unrelated?" Duck repeated, slightly insulted.

This made Fakir chuckle. "Please take Uzura and go home." He said to the two girls and followed Autor.

"Fine." Tiger said.

"Good luck, Fakir." Duck called after him before Autor shut the door.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Duck and Tiger had no choice but to go back to their everyday life. That morning they just went to class, but did not see Fakir come on. They did not see him for a whole day.

"Everyone, pay attention! Today, Miss Rue and Mr Mytho will demonstrate the art of dance partnering." Mr Called at the end of their first period of free practice.

Tiger looked up from stretching and saw with one look that Mytho had not changed since his true self had saved Fakir from the Raven's blood. He was not even looking at Rue who stood beside, smiling into the room. No, he had his face turned away, a bored and unattached expression on his face.

'His eyes still have that cold look, even with that red blaze in them.' Tiger thought.

"All of you, please watch Miss Rue's pointe work very closely." Mr Cat told the class as Rue and Mytho began their dance.

Tiger's eyes wandered to Duck who was sitting between Piqué and Lillie just a little further down the line of students. Apparently she hadn't even been given the chance to learn how to dance on pointe. Mr Cat had not given her shoes to do so. Tiger thought this completely rude and uncalled for. How did Mr Cat expect Duck to learn and get better if she wasn't even allowed to try? As a teacher, Mr Cat should put more effort in thinking of solutions to her block instead of blocking her off and giving her up as a bad job!

Suddenly Mr Cat's head perked up. He had noticed something in Rue's behaviour. She had flinched away suddenly and had not taken Mytho's hand in their dance. Mytho had noticed too and he got angry. He grabbed her pulse and dragged her up.

"It hurts!" Rue cried out and she pulled herself free and fell on the ground.

Now everyone knew something was wrong and there were gasps of shock and muttering among the students.

"Miss Rue!" Mr Cat cried out, but he didn't approach her.

"You hesitated to take my hand. Can you really say you love me?!" Mytho shouted at Rue.

"No way!" Piqué gasped.

"A breakup!" Lillie cried out, a little too excited.

"Rue, are you ok?!" Duck asked Rue as she stood up to go to her, but Rue flinched again, making Duck stop in shock. Without another word, Rue ran away, out of the classroom.

"Miss Rue! Mr Mytho, what's wrong? Are you two getting-" Mr Cat asked bewildered, but he stopped when Mytho left them all as well, at least he tried to. Just before he reached the door Lion slid in front of him and, without warning, punched him hard in the face.

More gasps and mutterings from the students as Mr Cat turned towards them, too shocked to even speak.

"I'm sorry, Mr Cat. I couldn't hold it in anymore." Lion said truthfully and he let Mytho go without a care in the world. Duck, however, followed Mytho out to learn more about what just had happened, but before she could come close to him he vanished, leaving only a few crow feathers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Duck and Tiger were running through the streets, towards Autor's house.

"Mytho was always kind to Rue, but he's changing more and more!" Duck said in distress.

"And soon, he won't be Mytho anymore!" Tiger agreed, speeding up as she saw the huge building coming in view.

Duck wasted no time and started banging on the door as soon as she had reached it. "Fakir! Fakir!" She called out.

Autor opened the door. "Will you be quiet!" He hissed.

"We don't have time for this!" Tiger said and she pushed passed Autor to let herself in.

"Um, is Fakir..?" Duck asked, looking around Autor to see Tiger just reach Fakir in time to catch him before he crumpled to the ground.

"Fakir, hang on!" She cried out and ran into the house as well.

"Just hang in there!" Tiger said to him urgently as she helped him up slowly.

"What did you do to him?" Duck yelled to Autor, who had made no effort to help whatsoever.

"Nothing." He shrugged.

"Liar!" Duck spat back.

"It's true. He's been standing there for three days, not eating, not sleeping, nothing." Autor said and he almost sounded amused.

"Why did you make him do that?" Duck wanted to know.

"To be able to hone his mind this way. If he can't even endure this, he's a lost cause." Autor said.

"You know, you're horrible!" Duck growled at him.

"Duck, I want to hear this from Fakir." Tiger said, putting a soothing hand on her friend's shoulder to calm her down a bit. Both girls looked at Fakir with concern.

"I'm fine." Fakir whispered to them.

"Fakir?" Duck wasn't convinced and neither was Tiger.

"You don't look fine." She said to him.

"Then stop lying on the floor and stand! Tonight we test your aptitude, keep going until then." Autor told him loudly.

"Before we leave, you should know what happened in class today. That's why we came here." Tiger told Fakir quietly. Throwing Autor a look.

"Today during class, Mytho and Rue were dancing when all of a sudden Mytho snapped. He dropped Rue and questioned her love for him. Rue really looked hurt and distraught!" Duck explained quickly and she caught Fakir's eye when she mentioned Rue. She wanted to make it clear that this had not been played by Kraehe.

"Then Lion punched him and Mytho left." Tiger concluded.

"I see." Fakir said, still in that weak voice. "We have to hurry and save Mytho before he changes anymore, but the only way to do that is by staying here and do what Autor tells me to do. I'm sorry I can't be of any more help." He said to them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That evening, Tiger and Duck went back to Autor's house and he took Fakir to a barren garden behind the town's museum.

"Here in Gold Crown Town there's an oak tree that they say the tale spinners used to test their powers, a very long time ago." He told them as they stood on the edge of the garden. There was almost nothing to see, except for a few rocks, sticking haphazardly out from the grass.

"I remember this. Charon told me about the oak tree and how it inspired the story of Cinderella." Tiger said.

Autor turned to Tiger. "It's not at all unlikely that that author also conversed with it beforehand." He told her. "If you touch that oak when the bell is just finished tolling midnight, you should be able to hear its voice if you have the power. That's the proof of your gift. Incidentally I clearly heard the tree make a sound, like a faint sigh. Without the power, someone would most likely think it was just the wind."

"So where's the oak tree?" Duck asked, intrigued, and she looked around eagerly.

"You're quite observant." Autor said to Duck. "The oak tree was felled long ago. Its roots alone are sleeping beneath this museum and one of the stones through here is the soul entrance through which the tree can be contacted, although, even I had some trouble finding out which stone it was." Autor confessed, then he straightened his back and continued with confidence:

"I'll tell you as a special-"

However, Fakir paid him no more attention and walked straight to one of the smallest stones in the garden. It was half buried in the grass and in the shadow of another stone so that it had been missed at first sight by Duck, whose eyes widened in surprise.

"Huh?" She cried out and Autor gasped.

"I'm impressed. Just what you'd expect from a direct descendant, I guess I'll give you that." He said and he sounded indeed impressed.

"Huh?" Duck said again and she turned to Autor, Tiger did as well.

"What do you mean, 'descendant'?" She asked him directly.

Autor didn't answer her, but continued to inform Fakir. "That's the soul position from which you can hear the oak tree, but be prepared, there are also many who messed up the contact and got sucked in by the tree, ultimately losing their lives."

"No way!" Duck said, struck with sudden panic. "Fakir, maybe you shouldn't after all."

Fakir couldn't help but smirk at her reaction. "Weren't you the one who told me to hurry up and write?" He asked in a teasing way.

"This isn't funny, Fakir!" Tiger scolded, who agreed with Duck and was also very shaken by this news.

"I'm sorry Fakir, I'm sorry! I didn't think it was this big major thing, I didn't know. I thought it was just writing, but now..." Duck tried pleadingly.

"Midnight." Autor informed them all, checking his watch casually.

"No Fakir, stop!" Duck called out and she reached towards Fakir to pull him away from the tiny stone but Autor grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her back.

"Don't get in the way." He told her.

Fakir closed his eyes and touched the stone. Tiger gasped and a silence fell. In the distance an owl called out and the clouds shifted, revealing the moon at last, but Fakir didn't move a muscle. Concerned, Tiger approached him and bent low to see his face, she gasped.

Autor, who only saw this as an anticlimax, approached Fakir unconcerned.
"Hmm, seems it was no good after all. Hey, hey, you should just give up already and-" but he didn't get to finish his sentence. As soon as he touched Fakir's shoulder, a shock of electricity shot through Fakir and blasted Autor backwards across the garden.

"Fakir!" Duck called out, but she halted in the act of checking on him when she caught sight of Fakir's face.

"Fakir?" Tiger asked in a whisper and her voice trembled with fear.

Fakir's face was frozen in a state of shock. His eyes were sunken and white open, his face had the color of paper and his mouth hung open in terrified confusion.

"Fakir!" Tiger cried out once more, but deep down she knew Fakir could not hear her anymore.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What you see cannot be seen, what you can hear makes no sound. See what cannot be seen, hear what cannot be heard." a soft, misty voice was saying.

"Who are you?" Fakir wondered aloud as he was vaguely aware of what was happening to him. He seemed to be floating through the air in a sort of dream. He could hear the rustling of leaves underneath him and it came to him that it had been the spirit of the oak tree that was speaking to him.

"Submerge yourself in a bulk of truth that lies far, far away." It told him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Fakir?" Tiger tried again and to her horror she watched Fakir suddenly stand up and spread his arms wide, allowing a shape of a tree to take hold of his body. A thick bark grew around his chest and along his arms grew lengthy branches. Fakir's face twisted in discomfort and he seemed to become slowly crushed by the thickening wood around his ribcage.

"Fakir!" Tiger screamed in panic and she transformed into Princess Clara to try and pull him out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A constant ticking sound seemed to fill Fakir's ears. "This sound, a clock?" He wondered, but then it came to him.

"No, this is…a heartbeat."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile Clara was dancing around Fakir, trying to come through to his subconscious. "Fakir, please wake up. You have to stay strong! Don't let the oak tree suck you in!" She told him desperately.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Everything is one, one is everything. All stories are spun into one. The beginning is the end, the end is the beginning." The oak Tree told Fakir.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Fakir, please answer me! I beg you, please return to me!" Clara begged, hugging the tree lovingly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"The start is a happy accident, the end a fate for which is meant. Existence is false, truth is nothingness." The tree said.

"Yes, you're right. I'll go to nothing, in the end becoming one with everything else. I'll watch over everyone in this way and go to the eternal ending." Fakir replied, understanding more of what the oak tree was telling him. He was sitting in a field of flowers, surrounded by bright light and flowers. He closed his eyes and could see all the lives he would have to manage this way. He could see Mytho and Rue, both struggling with their roles in the story.

"To those who accept everything, happiness. To those who resist everything, glory." The tree said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, in the physical, Fakir's body bounded more and more with the tree that had once taken root on the very spot he was standing, held in place by the hold of the new tree growing from his body. His hair grew green and leafy and even his face sunk deeper in the shadows as his collar transformed into a bark, connecting the branches that once had been his arms.

"Fakir!" Princess Clara cried out in desperation, but she could do nothing more than continue her dance and hope her words would reach his mind.

"To those who accept everything, happiness." The oak tree said again while it had taken Fakir's spirit into its structure. Fakir tried to listen while he was floating in chloroplasts, but another voice was slowly penetrating his solitude and it distracted him from understanding the oak tree's words.

"Fakir! Fakir! Fakir, answer me. Let me hear your voice." Princess Clara begged Fakir's stagnant body and ran her soft hands over his still warm cheeks and down to the place where his heart must still be.

"To those who resist everything, glory." The tree said, but Fakir was not listening anymore, he reached up to escape his solitude and go towards the begging voice. He looked straight into the light and uttered her name. The name of the one he wanted to return to.

"Tiger…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Princess Clara was losing hope, she collapsed onto the roots of the newly grown tree that had once been her dearest friend and cried bitterly.

"Fakir, answer me. Please, don't leave me. I love you." She whispered through her tears. But then a glowing light made her sit up straight and look up in hope. The entire tree seemed to dissolve into tine twinkling lights, slowly fading into nothingness. Then, with a sigh of relief, Fakir was whole again, released from the tree's hold on him. Slowly Fakir lowered his tired arms and sank down.

"Fakir!" Princess Clara called out and she opened her arms to catch him and enclose him in her safe embrace.

A little further away from them Autor regained his consciousness. Duck hurried towards him to see if he was alright, but he didn't pay her any attention. His eyes were on the spot where Fakir was lying in Princess Clara's arms.

"He… he was… chosen." He muttered, before he lost consciousness again.

Duck knew she couldn't do anything for him at the moment and followed his gaze towards her two friends. 'Poor Tiger, she really does love him.' She thought and she couldn't help a small smile curling her lips.

Princess Clara was still sobbing while she held Fakir close.

"I'm sorry, in the end I couldn't do anything." She said miserably.

"I heard a voice. It was yours." Fakir whispered and he managed a smile.