Act 5: Good News

	Ten minutes later, the quartet arrived in the main part of 
Kinkan. Though most of the buildings and such looked much the same as 
they did when Rue and Mytho had left to return to the story, it was 
strange not to pass any of the animorphic people that had populated the 
town for so long. Animals were simply pets, and nothing more. Rue did 
spot one brown bear in human clothing passing out balloons in front of an 
ice cream parlor that had recently opened, but, upon closer inspection, 
she saw he was just a teenage boy dressed in a bear costume.

	“The story really did end, didn’t it?” Rue commented to herself 
as she and Mytho followed Fakir and Ahiru to the library. 

	Nobody even seemed to remember Mytho. Occasionally, they passed 
one of their former classmates from the Academy, who would wave and say 
hello to Rue, but nobody said a word to Mytho, not even some of his more 
rabid fangirls. That suited Rue just fine. She had tolerated the girls’ 
crushes back when Mytho didn’t have a heart, because she knew that he 
would never be able to return their love, but now that she and Mytho were 
married, she didn’t like the idea of other women flirting with her 
husband, no matter how devoted and faithful she knew Mytho was to her.

	“Well, here we are,” Fakir said when they had finally reached the 
library. “Keep your voices down, okay? Autor can be a real pain in the 
ass when it comes to noise in the library, and I’d rather not deal with 
him in Quiet Police-mode if I can help it.”

	Well, at least some things had stayed the same.

	Opening the door, Fakir let Rue, Mytho, and Ahiru enter the 
library ahead of him. Other than Autor, who practically lived in the 
library, they were the only ones there -- a fact that made the sound of 
Ahiru accidentally knocking into a stack of books seem especially loud. 
To her credit, she managed to muffle her shriek of surprise when the 
books fell down, but Autor’s sensitive ears were already attuned to their 
presence. 

	“Will you please be a little qui-- Oh, it’s you two again,” the 
glasses-wearing young man said, letting out a sigh. “I should have 
known.”

	“Sorry, Autor,” Ahiru apologized after Fakir had come forward and 
helped her pick the books back up. 

	“Honestly, you would think a ballerina would have a little more 
grace and poise, more like the lovely Rue… Rue! Mytho!”

	The book in Autor’s hands fell to the table, his eyes wide behind 
his glasses when he finally noticed Rue and Mytho standing behind Fakir 
and Ahiru. 

	“What have you done?” Autor demanded to know, turning his 
attention to Fakir. “You haven’t done something stupid like setting the 
story in motion again, did you?”

	“Of course not,” Fakir said. “After all the trouble that happened 
the last time, do you really think I would be that idiotic?” Without 
waiting for Autor’s answer, he continued, “Listen, Autor, we need to see 
the 'Kinkan Guild' archives from about…seventeen, eighteen years ago?
We‘re not sure of the exact date, so just let us see all the issues from 
those two years.”

	“Fakir, you know perfectly well that the only person who can give 
permission to patrons to browse through the archives is the librarian, 
who, as you can see, is not here today.”

	“Where is he?”

	“He took a sick day. A nasty flu bug’s been going around town.” 
Autor pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Of course, he *did* leave me 
in charge while he is incapacitated, but -- ”

	“Please, Autor,” Rue said, interrupting him, “we really need to 
see those newspapers. It’s very important to me. Can’t you make an 
exception to the rules just this once?”

	As Rue suspected by the blush that had suddenly crossed the 
bridge of Autor’s nose, he still had a bit of a crush on her. He motioned 
for them to follow him, then led them to the back room of the library 
where the archives were kept.

	“These newspapers are old and very fragile, so I expect you to 
use the utmost care in handling them,” Artur said, his gaze falling 
mostly on Ahiru as he pulled out two large boxes and set them on a nearby 
table. “Latex gloves will be worn at all times, and you will use these 
tweezers to carefully turn the pages. I do not want to see a single tear 
or smudge when these are returned. I trust nobody has snuck in any food 
or beverages?” They all shook their head “no,” satisfying Autor. “Good. 
Then I will leave you to your research. If you require any more of my 
assistance, I will be out front, working on my Chopin paper. Do try to 
keep the noise down to a bare minimum.”

	With that, Autor left, and Fakir began splitting the workload 
between them as they all pulled on the latex gloves Autor had provided 
them.

	“Ahiru and I will take this box,” he said, grabbing the one 
closest to him and moving it to another table so that there would be 
enough room to spread the papers out. “Mytho, you and Rue look through 
that one. Most likely, the story of a baby being kidnapped by a flock of 
crows will be a front page story, but it’s probably best to comb the 
whole thing, just in case.” 

	Rue and Mytho nodded their understanding and sat down at the 
table with the first box. As Autor had warned them, the yellowed 
newspapers were indeed very delicate. Rue was almost afraid to touch 
them, for more reasons than just their apparent fragility, but Mytho gave 
her a comforting smile and placed a paper from July in front of her.

	“Don’t give up hope just yet, Rue,” he whispered. “These papers 
just might hold the clue we’ve been searching for.”

	Rue forced herself to return the smile before starting on the 
first paper. “Right.”

	No matter what Mytho said, though, she refused to get her hopes 
up once again. It would be wonderful if they did find an article that 
gave her parents’ names, but Rue wasn’t expecting much. That way, when 
their search proved fruitless, as it most likely would, she wouldn’t be 
as disappointed. Pessimism had firmly taken hold of her heart, providing 
a shield from the pain -- a shield that became all the more necessary as 
Rue finished looking through all the papers from July, August, and 
September without any luck.

	None of the others appeared to have found anything, either. Even 
Ahiru, who had been the one most optimistic about finding the article, 
seemed disheartened by their lack of progress after a couple of hours had 
passed without even the hint of a clue uncovered. The former duck heaved 
a heavy sigh as she turned the page of the newspaper she was reading with 
a pair of tweezers.

	“Maybe this is hopeless after all,” Ahiru said, rubbing at her 
eyes. “My vision’s starting to blur from all this read -- Ah!”

	Rue’s head shot up, along with Fakir’s and Mytho’s.

	“What is it, Ahiru?” Fakir asked, getting up from his chair and 
coming up behind Ahiru.

	“I-I think I may have found something,” Ahiru said, grabbing her 
paper with both hands with no regard for Autor’s rules. “It’s just a 
small blurb, but it says that a candelight vigil was held at St. 
Wenceslaus’s Church in the memory of Gisela Odile Hoffmann, a baby girl 
who was kidnapped by crows and presumed dead.”

	“Does it say who her parents were?” Rue asked, her heart pounding 
in her chest as she and Mytho gathered around Ahiru as well. *Gisela 
Odile Hoffmann? Was that the name her real parents had given her?*

	Ahiru shook her head. “No, but the kidnapping supposedly happened 
the previous June. Fakir, maybe there‘s an arti--”

	Fakir didn’t wait for Ahiru to finish her suggestion, already 
knowing what she was thinking. Pulling the box toward him, he rummaged 
through the remaining papers until he found what he was looking for.

	Rue gasped as Fakir yanked the paper out of the box and held it 
up for all to read.

	The headline on the front page read "Local Girl Kidnapped by 
Crows," and it was accompanied by a short article and a black-and-white 
photograph of a happy family.

	“Hey, doesn’t that woman look kind of like an older version of 
Rue?” Ahiru asked, pointing to the mother, who held a dark-haired baby in 
her arms.

	The woman did indeed strongly resemble Rue -- or perhaps it would 
be more correct to say that Rue resembled her. She had dark hair and 
eyes, and they shared most of the same delicate facial features. The only 
noticeable difference between them was that the woman was softer and more 
curvier than Rue, who had the lithe and willowy body of a ballerina.

	The man, on the other hand, was fairer than his wife, with light 
hair and what Rue could only assume was blue eyes, since the picture was 
not in color. He was standing behind the seated woman and child in the 
family portrait and appeared quite tall. What struck Rue the most, 
though, was the man’s smile. It seemed so…kind, the way she had always 
dreamed the Raven -- and later, Mytho -- would smile at her.

	Are these people really my parents? Rue wondered to herself as 
Fakir cleared his throat and began reading the accompanying article 
aloud.

	“In a crime that has shocked Kinkan, a six-month-old baby girl 
was kidnapped last Friday in a local park. According to the girl’s 
father, Karl Hoffmann, who owns Hoffmann’s Jewelry, his daughter Gisela 
was asleep in her carriage when he and his wife were suddenly attacked by 
a flock of crows.

	“’I can’t believe this has happened,’  the grief-stricken father 
said. ‘Eva and I were just taking our little girl on a walk. We’ve 
strolled through that park hundreds of times, and nothing like this… 
Everything was so peaceful until those damn crows appeared! It‘s been a 
nightmare, an absolute nightmare.’ 

	“The kidnapping allegedly occurred around 5:30 p.m. on June 24th 
at a local park. Mr. Hoffmann and his wife, Eva, regularly took their 
daughter for late afternoon walks through the park, which is located near 
their Peach Street home. 

	“’Gisela loved those walks,’ Mrs. Hoffmann said. ‘Whenever she 
was fussy or upset, all I had to do was take her for a ride in her 
carriage through the park, and she would almost immediately calm down and 
go to sleep. I think the birds’ singing soothed her.’

	“On the afternoon in question, the park was nearly deserted. Mr. 
Hoffmann recalls he thought that strange, but he didn’t think much of it 
at the time. There had been a heat wave going through town that week, so 
he assumed most people were staying inside.

	“’We weren’t planning to stay out long ourselves,’ he said. ‘We 
didn’t want Gisela to become overheated.’

	“The couple were on their way back home when they were suddenly 
attacked by a flock of crows.

	“’The crows were absolutely vicious,’ Mr. Hoffman said.  ‘My wife 
and I sustained several serious cuts while trying to shoo them away from 
Gisela’s carriage. Our only source of consolation was that Gisela 
appeared unharmed when the crows took her from us. We… We can only hope 
that is still the case.’

	“Anybody who may know something about Gisela Hoffmann’s 
kidnapping is asked to contact the local authorities. A $10,000 reward 
has also been set up by the Hoffmanns for any information leading to 
their daughter’s return, whether dead or alive.”

	After Fakir had finished reading the article, the four of them 
sat in stunned silence, letting what they had just learned sink in. Karl 
and Eva Hoffman were Rue’s real parents, and her birth name had been 
Gisela; there was little doubt about it. If the crows had kidnapped 
another little girl, Rue surely would have known about it, but she had 
been the only one.

	“Peach Street?” Mytho asked, finally breaking the silence as he 
took the newspaper from Fakir’s hands. “That’s near the school, isn’t it? 
It sounds familiar.”

	Fakir nodded. “We passed it every time we went from the dorms to 
Karon’s house to visit.”

	“Do you think the Hoffmanns still live there?”

	“Who knows?” The former knight shrugged his shoulders. “Not many 
people have moved in or out of town since the story took over. I’d say 
it’s possible, but with all the bad memories…”

	“No, they have to still be there,” Ahiru insisted, jumping up 
from her chair. “Rue deserves a happy ending, so they *will* be there, 
waiting for their beloved daughter to come back. I know it!”

	“Ahiru,” Fakir said in an uncharacteristic gentle voice, “the 
Hoffmanns believe their child is dead…”

	Ahiru stubbornly shook her head. “I don’t care. I can’t believe 
those kind-looking people in that photograph would ever give up hope that 
Gisela would return to them, no matter how long it‘s been. They loved her 
so much… Just look at them!” Grabbing the paper from Mytho, Ahiru shoved 
the photograph in Fakir’s face. “They would never give up hope -- never!”

	Beside Rue, Mytho wrapped an arm around her trembling shoulders. 
“Rue, are you okay?” he asked in a soft voice. “You’re being very quiet. 
I thought you would be happy to find out who your real parents were.” 

	Rue didn’t quite know what to think about it, if she was honest 
with herself. Despite what they had learned, it didn’t feel real to her. 
For so long, she had been Princess Kraehe, the Raven’s daughter, then 
Rue, the Academy’s prima ballerina and Mytho’s lover and wife; the 
identity of Gisela Odile Hoffmann -- the daughter of Karl and Eva -- was 
still a mystery to her, even if she now knew the facts of her first six 
months of life.

	Still, she felt a connection to the smiling people in the 
photograph. It was faint, but definitely there.

	“I‘m fine,” Rue said to Mytho, smiling a smile that was half 
sincere happiness and half trepidation. “This is just…so new to me, I 
guess.”

	“Do you want to meet them?”

	After a slight hesitation, Rue nodded. She had already come this 
far in her search; she couldn’t turn back now when she was so close. 

	“Let’s go. I want to meet my parents.”

	Ahiru and Fakir, who had been arguing about something or other, 
stopped their bickering at Rue’s words, and Fakir tore the front page of 
the newspaper, placing it in his pocket.

	“Yes, let’s go,” he said, taking the lead and ignoring Ahiru, who 
scolded him for vandalizing private property.

DISCLAIMER: "Princess Tutu" doesn't belong to me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Any comments or criticisms can be sent to me at 
ElysionDream@aol.com.