"Dinner's here, guys!"
My eyes opened after hearing the voice of two people at the same time. Even though they didn't sound much alike, when they spoke in unison their voices complemented each other.
I rubbed my eyes with my left hand while the other one embraced Axie and Dom.
My face wrinkled when a weird aroma invaded my nostrils, and I sighed hard after realizing where it was coming from.
"Why is it still here?" I thought to myself as the remnants of Metis scent entered my system.
Fuck! It's been two weeks and my companions still smell like her. Couldn't she have put her scent elsewhere? I barely use my chains! Why couldn't she put it there?!
"What are you thinking about so hard?" Fiona asked as she approached me on top of a tigress. She patted the side of the animal's neck and delicately, it sat beside me.
I watched astonished as they placed themselves close to me. The tigress yawned and then rested its head on its paws.
"Glasgow? Why aren't you coming?" the girl asked as her head descended to my height.
I put my axes aside and moved my head to face her. "Coming to what?" I asked, half-asleep.
Fiona raised her hand as if she was gonna say something, but after looking at what was behind me, she remained in silence. As I saw what she did, I turned my head to the other side, only to be met by Johnny's sister.
"Coming to dinner, of course!" she cried out in excitement while stuffing a piece of meat in my mouth.
I gagged when the food entered my system, working hard to swallow it, but also, almost dying in the process.
Using my mouth, I wiped off the remnants of meat and saliva out of my mouth. Then, I leapt up, trying to get away from them.
"Where you going?" the woman asked me while suddenly appearing in front of me.
My body flinched when she did that. I thought I would be used to it already since her brother always did that, but apparently I still had a long way to go before getting completely used to it.
I took a deep breath and then let it all out in a big sigh, speaking to her afterwards. "Do all of you do that?" I asked, ignoring her question while walking back to where I was sleeping, picking Axie and Dom up and putting them back on their place.
"Do what?" Fiona asked while emerging from above.
"That…" I pointed out the habit they all had of emerging from weird places.
As soon as I was done talking, Johnny's sister appeared right behind me saying "Don't worry, you'll learn how to do it soon".
I raised my left eyebrow, looking at them awkwardly. What does "You'll learn how to do it" mean? Is she saying that the circus teaches people how to disappear and reappear in weird or unexpected spots mid-conversation?
GRR
GRR
I felt a little tug on my pants, so I lowered my eyes to see what was going on. Beneath me, a little animal was biting and pulling my clothes.
Fiona let out a worried "Oh, no…" before jumping off of the tigress, passing above me and rolling on the ground as soon as she made contact with it.
During her stunt, she took the animal that was biting me with both of her hands and finished her act.
She jumped from the ground and landed perfectly on the ground, all while holding the feline closely.
"Jody, can you not tell my dad?" Fiona requested before scolding the cub.
We stood there in complete silence, waiting for any kind of response. Only a loud purring and a cub's crying could be heard around us.
"Jodie, are you there?" Fiona called for her again, but this time she said it in a nervous tone.
"Poor little girl…" two voices said from above. Both me and the girl looked to the tent's ceiling, but after that, the voices split in half.
With a playful tone, a male voice said "Nice to meet you" from my right side. A few milliseconds after he was done talking, the silhouette of Johnny's sister appeared in the air, flying in the opposite direction of where the voice came from.
"What my brother said!" a woman shouted before catching the person in the air.
They both descended while making tricks, holding tightly to some ropes as they played with the woman in the air.
Once the 3 of them got to the ground, they rushed to hug the ringmaster's sister. "Hi, mom" they said in unison as the woman hugged them back.
I looked at Fiona, asking for some kind of explanation on what was happening, but when she tried to answer me, Bill suddenly appeared from behind and dragged her away. "I'm sorry, Glasgow. 'Someone' forgot to take care of the lynx cub and now it has bitten your pants. My most sincere apologies" the man said before walking away with her daughter and a cheetah by his side.
As they left the scene, a loud whistle echoed inside the tent. After listening to it, the tigress that was sleeping at our side woke up from its slumber. It made a big, long yawn and then ran to its master side, playfully biting his arm as he scolded his daughter.
"Sooo, you won't introduce us?" the man behind me asked his mother.
I turned around, remembering that there were still people with me. My eyes checked them out really quick, analyzing them from head to toe.
The only thing that caught my attention was that only the siblings looked alike, while their mother didn't seem like she was related to them at all. In fact, they looked so similar to each other that even their height, hair and face was almost the same. Could've they been twins?
"Hey, creep. Quit staring at my sister, will you?" a voice said behind me as I lost sight of one of the "twins". I turned around to face the man behind me, but as soon as I was up against him, his sister touched my back.
"Don't pay much attention to him" the woman said while putting a strand of her hair behind her ear.
I gave her an awkward smile, telling her kindly to not worry about it because I just wanted to listen to him properly.
She corresponded my awkward smile, and after looking at her pretty, smiley face, I had the desire to keep talking to her.
I tried to articulate new words to maintain a conversation with her, but the moment I opened my mouth, Johnny's sister patted both of her children's backs.
"Ehem. Didn't your uncle tell you to do something?" she said while putting me apart from them.
They both looked at each other and nodded, and after a few seconds, they got my attention.
The "twins" bowed down at the same time and just like they did before, their voices merged together as they spoke in unison.
"We are Daniel and Lyra, and we are Jodie's children!" they claimed as their mother applauded behind them.
Wait, so that's why Fiona said the name "Jodie" before? Why didn't I know her name? Was being bad with introductions something that ran in Johnny's family's blood?
"And what did you guys had to tell our new recruit?" Jodie said while patting her children's back again.
Her offsprings stood up and got into an artistic stance, moving around me as they took turns to speak. "If you want to know the answers… You must be a part of us… I suggest you begin your training… If you want to get what you're looking for" they chanted in a weird yet mesmerizing tone.
Lyra opened her eyes after her performance and rushed up to me. She patted my shoulder and told me to talk to his uncle if I had my doubts about what they just said. She then added that he also had the food that she and her brother got earlier, so I had to get to him if I wanted to eat.
I watched as she returned to her family, admiring how she skipped happily on the ground while going back to her brother and mother.
I let out a contented sigh and turned around, walking in the direction of Johnny's voice, determined to talk to him.
I wasn't planning to stay there long, but if he assured me that he'd give me everything I wanted in exchange of becoming one of them, then I at least had to take the time to do it properly.