The forest doesn't answer him. There doesn't seem to be anyone around at all.

Okay. Stop and think.

(His hand hurts. So that part was not a crazy magic dream.)

A magical ballet princess showed up out of nowhere and danced at him, and he set the forest on fire and then froze it, and now the forest is... not elementally damaged in any manner, and contains no magical ballet princesses.

But he's... pretty sure he wasn't hallucinating any of that??

He turns around a few times, then starts walking back to the studio. He... probably isn't going to succeed at cleaning it, given that he just broke his hand on a tree... but he'd at least like to apologize to that nice...

...ballet student... who looks kind of a lot like the magical princess...

...it can't be her, though, can it? The princess was much older. And... generally more together. And could dance like a magical princess, and the girl from the studio isn't even in the advanced class. Maybe it was her mother??? No, the princess looked a little too young to have a kid that age. Maybe magical princesses age really well. He's never met a magical princess before, how would he know.

Duck also remembers that she has to finish cleaning the room, after she's returned the heart shard and returned to her usual self (insofar as she has a usual self). She's only just gotten out of the probationary class, and she really doesn't want to be on probation again, so she'd better clean the room up right.

She'll just be here, hurriedly cleaning the studio.

When she comes into the room, he's standing by his abandoned bucket, prodding his injured hand and wincing.

He looks up at the sound of the door.

There's probably some sane and reasonable way to handle this situation, some question he can ask that will get at the problem neatly and subtly and not make him sound like a lunatic if she has no idea what he's talking about.

"Are you secretly a magical ballet princess???"

Aaaaaaaaaaa, what, people are not supposed to ask her this, she is not remotely prepared to deal with it.

"......nnnnnnnnnnnnooo," she says, in what has got to be the least convincing lie anyone has ever told. "That would be silly."

...he laughs.

"Well, if you see one, tell her thanks for the help. And, uh, I'm sorry I ran off and punched a tree and left you with all the work?"

"Uh - OK," she says, because that seems like not technically admitting to being Tutu. "But, uh, it's fine! I wasn't leaving I was just - I had to get another mop."

"What's your name?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm Duck! You're Serafin, right?"

"Yep. Nice to meet you! I like you, let's be friends."

"Gosh, really? But yeah, sure!" She notices his hand. "Um - are you OK?"

"...Not really," he admits. "I, uh. Punched that tree a lot harder than I would've if I'd been thinking straight."

"Oh. Well, that, uh, happens," she says, as if she had not just seen him do this and then totally forgotten about his hand. She probably could've patched it up with magic somehow if she'd remembered, but she didn't, and now she has to fix things the mundane way. "I think we have a school nurse somewhere?"

"Any idea where to find them?"

"Yeah, sure!" says Duck, because she's pretty sure she came into existence with some kind of instinctive knowledge of where all the buildings on campus are. "I can take you there if you want, and then finish this up later?"

"That'd be nice."

"OK!" she says cheerfully. She's happy to walk him to the small clinic, which is next to the ballet building because the ballet students are the ones who need it the most. 

The school nurse is an armadillo in a nurse's outfit, but she seems like she knows what she's doing.

"Thanks, Duck!"

Honestly, the armadillo nurse has a really reassuring face. Serafin is fine with her.

"You poor thing," says the armadillo nurse. "Let's get you patched up."

She disinfects and bandages his hand.

Duck waves goodbye to him and walks back to the studio, where she's intent on really actually cleaning it this time.

He thanks the nurse for her help.

Days pass; he doesn't happen to see Duck around, but that's normal, they're in different classes and only practice together occasionally. 

Eventually the day of the Fire Festival arrives. Mr. Cat reminds them that the Fire Festival is a wonderful opportunity, both to practice dancing and to find true love - the couple who dances the best at the festival will be awarded a golden apple, which is said to ensure that the two will remain together forever.

Augh. He'd love to dance in the festival, except that the golden apple sounds terrifying.

It does sound kind of terrifying. Though it also sounds kind of nice, having one person like that and not having to worry about sorting everything else out and making things happen on their own. 

Not that Duck's got any shot at winning the golden apple, of course; she doesn't even have anyone to dance with. But Mytho and Rue are going to attend the dance, and that'll be really good. They really suit each other and will definitely be recognized as the best dancers. So she'll just hope that they get it.

This works OK until she sees that nasty guy from earlier drag Mytho off to the library. It's suspicious, so she follows them.

Serafin, as it happens, is also in the library, trying to ignore whatever that other guy is shouting about. He figures that if he spends the whole day sitting at a table reading a book like some sort of book-reading person, he will be safe from the temptation to dance in the festival and risk winning the magical apple of questionably sourced relationship stability. He's not even dating anyone!