“The guy before was better. This dude’s only juggling balls.”
“What’s that, I hear?” he questions dramatically, holding a hand up to his ear. “Not so impressed? Well, what if we doubled the amount? Watch very closely as I wave my cane and say the magic word. Abracadabra!”
In a burst of light and sparkles, with some special effects smoke thrown in, two-legged Caspian disappears. Eight-legged OctoCaspian reappears, juggling all eight balls with his six legs... um... tentacles and his two human arms while two more tentacles hold him up. There’s stunned silence throughout the dome, the audience so quiet you could probably hear a pin drop. More whispers.
“Holy shit.”
“No fucking way.”
“Wait, is that a costume?”
“How did they do that?”
“It’s got to be animatronics.”
“Oh, did you think I meant we were going to double the amount of balls? I obviously meant legs, though it’s more like quadruple.” Eric laughs, gesturing to Caspian, and then he and Dylan start throwing more balls until even I lose count.
The audience erupts into thunderous applause, and Eric gestures with his cane again, cueing another flash, sparkle, and some smoke. All the balls drop to the floor and bounce away before Caspian appears again in human form. The applause continues while Dylan and Caspian take a bow.
“Wow,” I whisper to William and John. “That was just…wow.” I lean back in my seat and release a heavy breath. The performance has been going for about thirty minutes, but it’s so fast paced I didn’t even notice the time. “Just wait,” William says smugly.
John interjects next, basically as expected. “That was only the warm-up. Pay close attention to the next act. As the future ringmaster, you’ll be heavily involved in it as you become the ‘lion tamer.’”
I turn to him, mouth open in shock. “I’m sorry, what did you say? Because Ithoughtyou said I would become the lion tamer, but that’s just not possible. I know nothing about lions. I thought you were just joking when you told me that the first day!”
“Oh hush.” That’s William this time. I must have gotten a bit loud in my confusion because I’ve attracted the eyes and much too interested ears of a few audience members sitting near us. He whispers in my ear, “They’re not real big cats. Well, they are, but they’re the shifters you met the other day. If you have their respect, you have nothing to worry about. They will follow your lead.”
John grunts, and I turn to look at him. “Have you got something to add?”
“Yeah, after what you did to Natalia, that may be a bit tricky. She thinks that all the other male cats belong to her. Having another female come in, especially one above her in the pecking order, is going to be a big problem.” I bite my lip in worry, sneaking a glance at William.
“No, it won’t,” he says, sitting back and crossing his arms. “I’ve sorted it. They don’t play nice, then we get new cats. Maybe a new species, who knows, but I’m pretty sure between Maxsim and Echo, they will fix it. Now, shush and watch.”
While we were talking, the crew collected the balls and cleared the arena for the next act. Eric is now talking again, his voice booming out.
“What an act! Weren’t they amazing? Well, we warmed you up with that one, and now we are going to cool you down... way down. If you need to, feel free to reach under your seats. We have provided blankets for people to wrap around themselves as the temperature is about to drop.”
“Cold?”
“Why is it going to get cold?”
“They can’t make it that cold, can they?”
I can see people following Eric’s directions, their brows furrowed in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Eric continues, gesturing to people in the first tier of seats. “People in the bottom row, can you make sure you have nothing sitting on the banister in front of you? If you have handbags, food, or drinks, please move them now. Very shortly, a barrier will be appearing out of there.” People hurry to do as Eric asked as more smoke fills the arena and the lights start to dim. Suddenly, just as he said, a clear glass-like barrier rises out of the banister in front of the bottom row. People’s eyes are drawn to it, the distraction delaying their notice that the inside of the circus ring is changing as well. It now looks like a frozen tundra with mounds and dips throughout the space. A small section rises out of the middle with Eric perched on it.
“Alright, I think we’re just about ready for our next act,” he announces, drawing everyone's attention back to the center ring and earning more gasps and exclamations of surprise.
“You’ve all seen big cat acts in circuses before, but our big cats are just a little different. All the way to us from the planet Iceeen.” He gives a huge exaggerated wink, and they titter and chuckle like the good audience they are, playing to his cues. “I’d like you to welcome our Lightning Cats!"
A thunderous roar, followed by some spine-tingling screeching, sounds through the arena, but the oohs and ahhs from the audience drown it out as the next act stalks into the center of the ring. Holy crap, Dylan wasn’t wrong when he said they looked like saber-toothed tigers. Larger than any Earth cat I’ve seen, their fur is varying colors on the blue spectrum, though one is pure white.
“That’s Echo,” William says, gesturing to the pure white one. “Natalia is the light blue one that's slightly smaller, and Maxsim is the really big one with all the black markings.” The magnificent blue ombre cat stalks his way around the arena. Muscles rippling, claws flexing, teeth baring, he is definitely king of the jungle. He growls and roars, playing up to the audience, pacing back and forth in front of the glass screens.
The white one walks close to him and nuzzles his head against him, but Natalia chases him away from Maxsim, swiping a paw with huge claws in his direction and baring her teeth.
There are three more cats involved in the act, wrestling and rolling around on the snow-covered ground, bringing smiles to the children around the arena. Suddenly, Natalia roars loudly. Her tail points straight up, lightning arcs shooting from it and bouncing around the arena before striking the three who are playing. They all jump when it hits them, then rush behind Maxsim, almost like they’re using him as some kind of shield.
