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Once upon a time, there was a raven…
And that raven had a chick; a beautiful girl whose beauty only grew with age, and he called her Rue. But the raven did not see his offspring’s beauty.
“You are an ungainly creature. You are fortunate you can even dance without the grace of wings; that way you may still be of use to me.”
His daughter, Rue, curtsied and swore that she would do everything she could to carry on her father’s legacy. And even after the raven had been vanquished, his words still echoed in his daughter’s mind.
One day, Rue went out into the forest and down to the river. She stared out into the currents which rushed by like the countless paths of life, rising and falling, coming together and splitting apart, racing on or crashing against the rocks.
Drifting with the currents, she saw a little yellow duck with an orange feather sticking up from its head. It bobbed up and down with the crests and falls, apparently unaware of the girl standing at the water’s edge, until, abruptly, it glanced up and met her eyes.
The familiar, wide-eyed expression startled Rue so badly that she tripped over her own feet and stumbled into the rushing waters with an icy splash. The current pulled at her, knocking her from her feet. She struggled and kicked, scrambling for purchase on the slick rocks and algae-coated branches, but they slipped out of her grasp and the frigid water pulled her under. After all, ravens are not made for swimming.
Just as the water closed in around her nose and mouth and her lungs began to strain for air, she felt something warm and soft holding her tight, lifting her back to the surface and pushing her up onto the shore. Cold and bedraggled, she lay out on the river bank, hacking the water out of her lungs, her body bruised from knocking against the rocks.
She felt a warm, soft blanket settle over her, and as her eyes fluttered shut, she thought she saw a girl with bright orange hair with a strand sticking out on top just like the duck’s stray feather.
“Ahiru…?” she whispered and gave way to sleep.
When the raven’s daughter next awoke, it was to the sound of steady footsteps through the underbrush. She drew the blanket tighter around herself, as though it might hide her, her ears straining to follow the sound.
The footsteps stopped at the bank of the river, mere feet away from where Rue had been hidden beneath a large bush. First she saw a pair of heavy boots, and then the rest of a young knight, who knelt beside the river.
“Fakir,” she muttered.
The little yellow duck was still out on the river, diving and bobbing back to the surface, but as the knight, Fakir, approached, the duck looked up and swam over to him with what appeared to be an eager shake of its tufted tail. Fakir lifted the duck out of the water and cradled it in his hands, and bent over to brush his lips against the top of its head.
The duck gave a pleased little quack and he set it down beside him. It nestled up against his legs and they stayed there for a long time, until the raven’s daughter drifted back to sleep.
The sweet, rich aroma of food and fire lured Rue into awareness. The sky above was already darkening. Just a few feet away, a girl with bright orange hair sat beside a little fire roasting several small fish on sticks.
“Ahiru,” Rue whispered.
The girl quacked in surprise at the sound and in a puff of feathers, disappeared, leaving behind only the little yellow duck to cautiously nudge the sticks into the fire.
Rue gingerly pushed herself upright, still banged and bruised, and inched toward the fire, savoring its warmth. Ahiru nudged a stick with an already cooked fish toward her.
“For me?” Rue said, even as she picked up the stick and eagerly bit into the scalding hot fish. “I can’t believe you’re doing all this for me after everything I did to you.”
Ahiru stepped away from the fire to nuzzle against Rue’s legs. Her feathers were soft and she let Rue pat her head and run her fingers through her downy coat. She drew the little duck into her arms and buried her face into its back, and Ahiru’s feathers enfolded her.
“Thank you, Ahiru.”
Ahiru quacked softly in response.