The weather was nice that day and Ahiru felt like taking a walk through the forest. It had been a while since last time she really had some free time. Her life in the ballet Academy was a bit hard because she was not very good at dancing and had to spend more time practicing than others, even in breaks.

- “ I suppose an ass is but an ass, though laden with gold. ”- Ahiru sighed. – Demo… I want to enjoy my spring break! I better forget all the bad experiences…”

Ahiru walked deep in the forest little by little, searching for something. “I’m sure I saw a pond this way, I need swimming a bit into my true form, it’s stressing to be a girl all the time…”.

She walked and walked and walked…but there were only more and more trees “I’m tiiired, where is the pond?! Maybe was it a dream?”
But then a beautiful big lake appeared in front of her, the water reflected the sunrays in blue curves.

“Quack!! Yatta! It’s here after all!” After saying the magical word she turned into the little yellow duck, she kicked out her pendant and entered quickly into the warm water. “Kimochi! Ah! It feels so good”
Ahiru swam, floated, ate little bugs in the surface of the water, and all the stuff a duck can do in a lake. Soon the warmth of the water made her feel sleepy. Her eyes closed and her mind started to float with the clouds in dreamland.



The time passed in the peaceful pond but suddenly a drop startled the sleepy duck.

“Quack! What is this?” she looked to the sky and saw grey clouds covering the sky. The weather had changed in a few hours and now it was raining. The little duck shivered, the water was cold like ice now.

“I have to take the pendant and go to a safer place. It seems it’s night time, so I cannot go back to the town” she looked at the banks but didn’t see the pendant at first sight.

“Where is it??” She went out the water and looked for it desperately but the result was the same, there was no sign of it.
The rain was pouring and her feathers were absolutely drenched. The red pendant used to shine when it was in contact with water, but Ahiru didn’t see any red glow around, neither felt anything.

‘Is it the end of my life as a girl? It was my fault for not taking care of the pendant.’ She sobbed ‘ I wasn’t able to help the prince, I can’t even help myself…I’m a failure’ she broke into tears while the humming of the raindrops made louder.

‘Try to relax, Ahiru and concentrate on the pendant’ she thought for herself. Drying her tears with her wing, Ahiru closed her eyes and pictured the pendant in her mind. After some minutes of feeling nothing she started to sense the jewel.
“It’s coming from there!” she ran into the direction her heart told her, falling several times because of the tree roots and mud.

‘I can feel it closer, even see a little red light…just a little more…’
Finally she arrived to what looked like an old cowshed, thought it was empty. Ahiru was exhausted but made a last effort to take the pendant with her bill. Then she passed out.



When she woke up she was in human form, naked over a pile of straw. Ahiru sat up but she regretted it soon, her head was going to explode. “Itai!” She had a severe headache. Looking at her surroundings she remembered what happened.

“What I’m going to do now? It’s still night and I don’t have any clothes, I can’t go out like that” She began to search for something to cover herself and found a blanket full of moth holes. “Bleh! Well, I suppose it’s better than freezing”.

Ahiru noticed a window and came closer to it. Looking through it she saw a big house. Some light came from one of the windows. “There is people living there! I didn’t know there were houses this deep in the forest.”
Ahiru opened the door of the stable and took a look around her. ‘It’s odd…Neko-sensei told us that nobody used to live here because there are packs of wolves and it can be dange…’ her chain of thoughts was interrupted by a howl.
“Aaaaaah!!!” she was scared and ran to the house searching for help.

Someone was watching the scene from a high window of the house. When the girl arrived to the main door a wrinkled hand with long nails drew the curtains and disappeared into the darkness of the room.