AN: Wow, i has been a really long time since I wrote and i apologize, but so many things have been going on in my life recently that I haven't really had time to sit down and write, but I added a few words here and there, so thats good. Well, I dont know exactly how I feel about this chapter, but its out of the way I guess. XD I hope you enjoy. Remember to Review!

Symphony of the Swan

Before River even realized it, Saturday was already approaching and fast. She was tired, because daily rehearsals after work would drain anyone out of whatever slivers of energy they had left. River didn't mind her lack of energy, because she was dancing and that's all that mattered. Sure, her lack of energy blurred her mind at work more than usual, and made the pain of stretching and parts of the dance almost blinding, but it didn't matter.

After all, she had gotten the lead part in the ballet, so a tired and pained body didn't matter.

So on Saturday, River arrived early, today was the dress fitting and rehearsal, and so getting dressed would be pointless. River, sat down on the floor of the dressing room, staring at the cracks in the worn down wood floor, smiling as she ran her hand over the smooth surface. She stood up and looked at her reflection in the wall length mirror in front of her. It seemed strange to her, she had been so busy that it seemed like she had not paid close attention to her appearance in a while. She smiled a bit and scooted closer to the long piece of glass.

River was what most would call "naturally pretty". She was not gorgeous, but she was definitely beautiful. With clear, mildly tanned skin, and long wavy brown hair, she may appear average. Her honey brown eyes were covered in long naturally curly, thick eyelashes, and her cheeks were toned with a gentle flush, with two recognizable small moles on her left cheek. Her hair was soft and silky, and kept in good condition, because of the fact it was usually tied up in a tight bun for ballet.

She was short and petite, like most ballerinas, River was thankful for this fact, at least for the reason it helped her career. She had a nice body most would say, curves in all the right places. Her muscles were toned her legs were long and muscled beautifully. River liked her appearance. That is except for her feet.

A ballerinas curse of some sorts, their feet were usually damaged. Pointe shoes were not ideal shoes for pretty feet, River thought. The platform had turned one of Rivers unpainted toenails black, because she had not cut it short enough, and her feet had blisters, red hot, bleeding blisters that sting and bruise. And she hated having them bleed and burst when she walked or danced, and she hated having to soak her feet at night after a particularly hard practice, but it was her life and she loved it.

River was taken out her thoughts by a knock on the open door of the dressing room; it was Madame Helen's signature knock.

"River, sweetie, you're early."

"I know," River said, smiling up at Madame Helen. Madame Helen smiled a bit, and sat down on the floor of the dressing room floor, patting the ground next to her for River to scoot closer.

"Well then, talk to me. You'll be surprised how lonely it gets here when practice isn't going on." Madame Helen said, in her usual gentle manner, folding her legs nimbly. Sometimes, River was amazed at still how flexible Madame Helen seemed, but once a ballerina, always a ballerina, she guessed.

"Ok then," River said, as she sat down next to her mentor. "I actually wanted to talk to you, Madame." River said.

"Oh," Madame said, "What about, dear child. Are you worried about the performance? I want you to know that I have my FULL faith in you dear. You have more talent than anyone I know, River."

"No, nothing about the performance…. But thank you Madame Helen you have no idea what that means to me….actually I think I may have found a musician that maybe could perform his music for the recital."

Madame Helen stared at River, blinking a bit at the younger woman.

"You did?" Her words were quick, clipped but an eager, almost unbelieving hope burned in the short words. Maybe part of Madame Helen thought the ballet would never be performed, and finding a possible composer would be like making her dreams one step closer. River smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, his name is Adam, and I found him playing the piano in the park, I don't know if he can compose at all, but there was just something about how he played it just seemed so…natural for him. It is kind of impossible to explain… for some reason it just seemed like he was the right one for the job." River said, her eyes glued on Madame Helen's grey ones, who burned with a fire of understanding. The two sat in silence for a few moments.

"Was he cute?"

"W-WHAT? Why would you ask something like that?" River stuttered out, a blush scratching at the back of her neck and inching closer to her face, whether from embarrassment or anger she was unsure.

"I don't know," Madame Helen said a smirk playing at her bright red lips, as she fiddled around with a bit of her jet black hair. (The woman was not aging much; there wasn't a grey hair on her head.) "But anyway, did you tell him to call the office or stop by to speak with me?" Helen said changing the subject to allow poor embarrassed River a chance to calm down.

River allowed her face to return to normal, if a shade or paler than normal.

"Yeah, he's supposed to come today, to speak with us and get a sense of the ballet and see the dances to incorporate the music. I mean I didn't guarantee him the job or anything, if we don't like him we can always find someone else."

"No, no," Madame Helen said as she began to stand up, knowing that class was about to begin, "I'm sure he'll be fine."

River nodded and followed the older woman out, grinning a bit and shaking her head, Madame Helen really was something.

Adam stared at the sheet of scratch paper in front of him. He held the paper up to the sign above the building. Yup, this was the place.

He took a few steps closer and opened the door, a little bell jingled as the door swung open to a large lobby. He walked past the chairs and waiting area, and through the hallway to the studios. He passed by parents and children, tripped over shoes and little girls, before finally finding the studio he needed, the last room. The studio room for Madame Helen's star pupils, the room he was needed in.

He removed his hat from his raven locks, the fedora clutched in his hand tightly as he neared the door, his hand about to knock on the door, when something caught his eye. A person, a human being, it was River. He saw her in the glass window of the dance studio, dressed in her costume, in the middle of the room, dancing.

The tinted glass dulled the colors of her costume; it appeared to be a shimmering white, with jewels of blue and green encrusted on the chest. It was rather simple, but very beautiful, from the cut of the fabric, to the way it fit the curves of her body, to the way it flared out to allow her legs maximum movement, it was a beautiful costume.

Adam really couldn't take her eyes off of her, she was just so enchanting. The way she looked, but most especially the way she moved, like the dance was her very own, moving along in harmony with her body.

Adam cleared his throat, and forced himself to stop looking at her; if he didn't enter soon he didn't know if he ever would.

He rapped his knuckles on the hollow wood, receiving looks from everyone in the room, which he could see through the one-way glass window. Madame Helen ushered him in the studio with a kind wave and an even kinder smile. She was rather tall, with jet black hair and large, doe like grey eyes, with small wrinkles forming around them. Madame Helen had a serious gentle feel to her, which calmed Adam's ever growing nerves.

"Hello Adam, good evening." Madame Helen said, as she grabbed Adam's long hand and led him into the studio room where he was met by kind looks from the rest of the dancers. Madame Helen's voice matched her perfectly, kind and gentle, just as graceful as a ballerina.

"Hey…" Adam muttered out cheerfully as he hid his nerves a bit, he wanted these people to like him.

"Everyone," River called out, "This is Adam Hunting, he's going to be the musician for the ballet, he's going to compose and arrange the music and everything. So, why don't we take a short break as we inform Adam of everything and then we can get to business?" River said and everyone disbanded to the dressing room, where they would sit and drink water until they were called inside. It seemed like to Adam that River acted as a second dance coach for these young women, everyone respected her, and if anyone was jealous of her, no one openly showed her disrespect.

"So glad you could make it, Adam." River said with a smile as she made her way over to him and sat down on the ground by the barre.

"Glad you'd allow me to come today, I know dress rehearsals are important and all. Say, is your entire ballet featuring women?" Adam asked as Madame Helen sat down by River, sipping a bit of vitamin water.

"Oh," Madame Helen answered, "No, Mr. Austin teaches the young men, I just teach the girls."

Adam nodded, and began to feel a bit uncomfortable and out of place. He obviously didn't belong here, he knew nothing about the Dance World, he was a musician, and it just felt odd to him to be surrounded by this dance atmosphere. Not that he minded.

"Well, Madame Helen, I would want you to know that I am really interested in this job, but of course I would like to know some things before I begin."

"Of course."

Adam begin bouncing on his heels a bit as he thought of all the questions he wanted to ask, and wondered how to combine them to where it didn't seem like he was babbling.

"Well first off: When will the ballet recital be taking place, so I can arrange accordingly?"

"The recital will take place in two months' time from today, on the 18th of December." Madame Helen responded.

"Alright, and secondly, what is exactly the story of your ballet, I hear that it is an original?" Adam asked.

Madame Helen smiled fondly, as the thought of her work entered her mind.

"It's rather similar to Swan Lake I suppose, I thought of the idea while I was performing that in London…."

"It's about a young swan named Iris, whose kindness and beauty, was untouched by any other. She was loved and she loved others. She especially loved her home though, a lovely little pond in the middle of the forest. Unlike most swans, she loved the trees, she loved to waltz around them and pretend that they were dancing. One evening Iris goes walking through the forest and finds a demon. He is entranced by her beauty and turns her into a human, and dances with her."

"Iris is amazed by her grace as a human, but longs to be a swan again, in her original form. So she begs the demon to change her back. He formulates a plan to take Iris's soul, and responds that he is unable to change her back, and lies that he doesn't know how. And Iris believes him, and he tells her of a legend, that if you dance in a magical pool of water on a hill in another forest you will be granted a wish. So she agrees to go with him, but figures out he is lying on the way to the mystical pool. So she created her own plan, to kill the demon after she had been changed back to her original form.
Time has passed, they finally reach the pool, and the demon begins preparing for the ritual. So Iris is left to figure out the best way to kill the cunning devil. He told her that they would have to dance together in the pool for the waters powers to take effect and Iris to be returned to normal, so Iris decided that would be the time."

Adam looked at Madame Helen with a curiosity she had never witnessed before, like a child being opened up to another world, but containing thousands of questions in his eyes.
"So? How does it end?"

Madame Helen smirked a bit, "Impatient are we? Well….they both die."

"What?" Adam retorted, his voice sharp with confusion, "They die?

"Well of course," Madame began, as she stood up and moved to the center of the room, before turning and looking at us with all the justification in the world. "I didn't want the story of the ballet to be cliché, with the hero living and the bad guy being defeated. So I created its own cliché, to where neither lives."

Adam just stared at Madame Helen for a few moments, blinking at her.

"How do they die?" He asks.

"Well, Iris attempts to stab the demon during the dance as she is being turned into a swan, but really the demon is taking her soul, so she stabs him and it turns into a battle. Fierce attacks are landed and Iris succeeds in killing the demon first, but is severely wounded, so as the demon crashed to the ground dead, he fell on Iris and too weak to do anything to save herself, she drowns in the shallow water. As you can tell it's not a very kid friendly ballet. But it's theatrical and beautiful, just like ballet is supposed to be." Madame Helen finished, her soft grey eyes, steely with determination.

Adam was looking into space for a moment before nodding at Madame Helen with a short curt movement of his head. As if he agreed 100% with what Madame Helen was saying. Minutes passed in silence as River stood and walked around the room anticipating the next move that was to be made.

"So do you have the choreography planned already?" Adam asked suddenly. If River hadn't known better, she would have thought it to be another person's voice. It sounded too serious, far to business like than Adam's usually emotional voice. She didn't know what to think of it.

"Of course." Madame Helen responded immediately, with a serious tone to match. And River immediately knew what to do, these two were in working mode, they were about to do exactly what they were born to do. So River rushed off and fetched the rest of the dancers, and told them to be prepared to dance. When River and the rest returned, Madame Helen was standing in her usual manner, letting the girls know to immediately get into position.

"Let's take this from the very beginning, all right? And if you would just ignore Adam he's here to work just as we are."

And like that River was rushed into her dance sequence.

Practice had never been so hard for River; Madame Helen had never pushed like them like that before. There was a determined fire in her eyes that River had never seen, but she liked it, and it seemed like Madame Helen was soon going to get her dream of having this ballet performed.

River continued dancing but in her pauses or breaks, she would sneak a quick glance at Adam, who was sitting on the dance floor, Indian style with his nose buried in a sheet music spiral, with a bitten pencil sitting atop his ear. Occasionally he would take the pencil off his ear and jot some notes down on the paper feverishly, and then glance back up at the dancers. His foot tapped the tempo unconsciously, as if he was listening to an inaudible melody no one else could hear. River really wanted to watch him work, as she saw his masterpiece become one with paper, as her feet became one with the floor, but sadly she had to continue.

Rehearsal was over eventually and River had to go undressed, but couldn't help getting a glance of Adam speaking to Madame Helen before she left the studio to the dressing room. She undressed quickly and got back into her comfy clothes and then stalked out of the dressing room, only earning a few glances from her fellow dancers. She walked back over to the studio to find Madame Helen perched on the floor, as Adam explained his music to her, occasionally showing her a bit of music from his pad and pointing to sections from his music with the back of his pencil. She stuck her head in, not wanting to interrupt to badly.

"Madame Helen, Adam?" She said curtly, "Sorry I got to run, you don't mind if I don't help out with the other classes today right?" River asked gently, hoping and praying to get home, to get away from this weird feeling she had burning in her chest.

"Oh, River honey yeah your fine, go on ahead, see you tomorrow."

River smiled and darted off into the hallway, not quickly enough to miss the "See ya" that erupted from another being in the room.

When River got home, she sat down at her dining table, fumbling around with the fork in her hand. Her honey brown eyes were shiny, specks of light glinting off of her irises, and bouncing off of the glass light fixtures that hung off of her ceiling. River looked around her small modern apartment, looking for something to do, she was on her day off today and she had already talked to her parents, and her favorite TV show wasn't on for another hour… she needed something to quell her uncommon boredom.

She continued to look around when an alarming ding responded from her laptop, which sat on her couch. With nothing better to do, she walked over to the couch and opened up her worn laptop, noticing an email from Madame Helen. She opened it.

The email was short, a rather uncommon thing from Madame Helen, it was very simple.

"Adam is a perfect choice. "

Oddly enough, at the sight River snapped her laptop shut, and threw it haphazardly on the couch cushion before rolling onto her back, feeling odder then before.