Chapter One

Once upon a time, there was a boy, lost and alone. A boy full of hope and despair, full of a love that could never be returned to him, no matter how much he wished it. A boy blessed and cursed with a gift, a gift with words and stories, inherited from a long-lost ancestor. This boy was known as Fakir.

Fakir had danced with her, in a place dark with despair and gloom. He danced because it was the only thing he could do, the only thing that would reach her fragile yet loving heart. He danced because it was a part of him, a part of his soul, a part of his life, and he wanted to share it with her. He danced because it caused a light of hope to surround them, hope and happiness and some strong emotion that neither one would dare acknowledge so soon.

As they danced, Fakir had promised her, a sworn oath, with the loyalty and determination only true knights had. He promised that silly, beautiful girl that he would accept her for who she was, duck or human, and that she should accept herself as well. He promised to be by her side always and forever. And because of these promises, they were able to overcome their darkness together, and save the lives of those they loved and those they knew.

But with their success came a time of change. The prince and princess left to another place, another story, where they would rule together in love and happiness. They left the small, quiet village behind and, in doing so, left the knight and the duck behind to begin the new chapter in their tale.

True to his promise, Fakir stayed with Ahiru, who had stayed in her duck form indefinitely. While she floated on her beloved pond, peaceful and content, Fakir sat atop the dock, writing the stories of those who needed their tales to be written. But he never did allow his pen to write stories of her, lest his deepest longings awaken the words to reality.

As the years passed, Fakir's mind strayed to times long ago, when he and Ahiru argued as knight and princess. He knew his love ran deep for her, but he would not change her fate. His honor was all-consuming, no matter how much he loved her. For, as much as he loved her, he knew that by changing her story, he would go back on his promise to accept her as she was. He could not turn her into a human, not when he had convinced her that being a duck was a thing to be content with. He could not do it, no matter how much his heart cried for it.

So, he stayed where his heart knew he belonged, at her side, his eyes seeing her as she once was, an innocent, clumsy girl. And though his love grew and grew, his honor stayed intact, and his quiet longings to see her again as a human were silenced, leaving him powerless. His powers as a knight would do nothing here, and his powers as a writer... they would serve no honorable purpose. Not for her.

But Fakir had forgotten one, important fact when he promised to be at her side always. He forgot that ducks age differently than humans. In the back of his mind, he had assumed that enchanted ducks would live as normal humans did, but she was no longer enchanted. She did not stay the fluffy, yellow duck that she had always been; instead, she lost the down belonging to ducklings and earned the feathers belonging to mature ducks. For, in her human form she was a thirteen-year-old girl; which could only mean she would be a thirteen-year-old duck when the enchantment ended. It was this fatally important fact that Fakir failed to realize... until it was too late.

On Fakir's twentieth birthday, Ahiru stopped floating above the water and nearly drowned. Fakir saved her immediately, diving down into the cold depths of the pond, bringing her to safety on the shore. There he found sixteen-year-old Ahiru to be weak and brittle with old age. It was then, and only then, that he finally saw the cloudy film obscuring her vision, the slowing of her heartbeats, and the long pauses between her breaths.

"Ahiru," he whispered, tears filling his eyes as realization of her inevitable end hit him. "Please. Don't leave me."

Her eyes were full of pity, and she let out an unhappy, "Quack!" asking him for his forgiveness, begging him not to suffer over her death. But his mind was closed to the meaning of her quack, his heart too close to breaking to hear those silent words.

It was then, at that moment, that Fakir saw he had to proclaim his love, before it was too late. Maybe, just maybe, his proclamation of true love would change her ending, would change their ending. It worked in other stories before; maybe there was still hope. But, as his lips parted to speak the words, Ahiru took one last, shuddering breath and closed her eyes for the last time.

Grief clutched at Fakir's heart until he could hardly breathe. Gently cradling Ahiru's still-warm body, he sobbed, "Ahiru… I love you."

After burying her body under their tree by the pond, where he had first shed his tears in her company, he gazed out onto the pond, unable to face the cold grave that held the one he loved. With a bitter sigh, he looked down at his dirt-covered hands, and murmured quietly to himself, "What good is a gift if I am unable to save the one I love? I could not change her story, and thus her fate. It is not a gift that I possess; it is a curse."

So, with a heavy heart, Fakir returned home and began to pack his things. Once finished, he took his sword and, with a clenched jaw and a determined glint in his eye, sliced off his right hand, his dominant hand, the hand that held within it the power to write truth. Crying out in pain, he fell to his knees, tears pouring down his cheek, but he did not regret his seemingly mad action. He had to stop the source of his inheritance; it would have only been a constant reminder of what he could have done, what he should have done, to protect her, to save his beloved Ahiru from her untimely end. It would have haunted him, driven him to insanity, made him think twice of his knightly honor, the honor that filled the very fiber of his being.

In the foggy evening, his cloak and belongings adding to the weight on his shoulders, Fakir left the town that had been his home and his life. He did not tell anyone he was leaving, nor did he say any goodbyes, for that task was too big when he was already itching to go. He had to leave; too many memories surrounded him here, too many happy times shared with Ahiru. They were only more reminders that he could not face, not when his heart was already brittle with the ache that filled it.

It is here that a chapter in his life ends and another begins, and it is here that the world that he knew changed forever. Whether he knew it or not, he walked towards a destiny that would both make and unmake him. For he did not want to forget Ahiru, the girl that stole his heart from him. He just wanted to rid himself of the terrible aching that filled him when he thought of her. So, he walked to a new world, a new life, with nothing but thoughts of her holding him back and moving him forward.

With a groan, two full-lashed eyes opened to reveal cerulean orbs. "Fakir…"

Whoo. Okay, I wasn't planning on writing a Princess Tutu fanfiction, even though I absolutely adore the anime, but this idea just popped into my head. Let me just say it won't be one of my better stories, and that the plot itself is pretty lame. It's based on the Arthurian legend, centering on the knight Bedivere. Don't worry. You'll see how it all ties together in the next chapter. Promise.

I do not own Princess Tutu.