Whisper Loudly and the Circus Girl

The inside of the tent was an explosion of noise, lights and dancing colour. The three girls swung wildly about on the trapezes, and the elephants dived into flips from tiny stools. The magic men filled the tent with golden light, breathing fire onto the audience, only for it to disappear just as the flames licked the nearest seats. Sitting in the front row, I gazed wide-eyed at the magic around me. To my left, the man with sandy hair smiled down at me. We both ducked as a trapeze swooshed over our heads and then sprang back up in unison to follow it around the circular tent.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” a booming voice cried. The sound echoed off of the walls of the tent, resonating in the heads of every audience member.
“I am the Great Sirius Moon, and this has been my Travelling Circus of Magic!” he roared. As his voice thundered around the tent, a sudden cloud of smoke engulfed the stage. Then just as quickly as it had arrived, it disappeared, taking all the performers with it. People began to file out of the tent, leaving behind only bits of half eaten food and spilt drinks. As always, the sandy haired man and I stayed until we were the only people left in the audience. The Great Sirius Moon smiled at us and climbed down from the stage.
“So, how did my two biggest fans enjoy the show today?” he asked as he approached us.
“It was the best one yet,” the sandy haired man smiled back.
“You say that every week Jet,” Sirius laughed.
“That’s because they just keep getting better,”
“Well it makes me very happy to hear that,” he smiled, and then turned to me, “and what did you think, little lightning bolt?” he asked, ruffling my hair.
“It was… fantastic! The best thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life!” I grinned enthusiastically.
“Whisper Loudly, you keep this ancient heart beating, I swear you do,” Sirius smiled down at me.
“Whatever it takes to see another show,” I grinned. Sirius laughed, and then flinched suddenly, as if he had just been hit on the back of the head. Uncle Jet hesitated for a moment, looking confused.
“Are you alright Sirius?” he asked. Sirius didn’t reply, in fact he didn’t seem to have even heard the question. Then suddenly he snapped back into focus like nothing had happened.
“Just a crick I’m sure,” he smiled, “Nothing to worry about,”
“Okay, well if you’re sure. Right, we best be getting off, someone needs to get to bed,” Uncle Jet said, poking my arm.
“Yes, yes. It was good seeing you old friends,” Sirius said. The two of them shook hands, and I waved as we left. As we were about to walk through the curtains that served as both entrance and exit, I looked back at Sirius. He was walking away to the back of the stage, a withered old hand on the back of his neck, like he was still in pain. We walked out of the curtains and the elephants dropped the cloth back down. The Magical Travelling Circus of Sirius Moon was held in a fantastically large tent, made from red velvet sewn in the sewing rooms of Ostani, a kingdom on the other side of Hondelacia. On the top of the tent was a gold plated peak that sparkled in the sunlight, it was mined from the best gold mines in Maiow, the kingdom next door. Outside the tent two elephants, Sheeba and Naala, held back the curtains with their trunks to form the most magical entrance in the world. We made our way back through the winding streets, but I was too busy worrying about Sirius to notice the eerie silence in the air. Uncle Jet looked down at me, putting a hand on my shoulder.
“Whisper, it was nothing. Don’t worry, he’s just getting old, that’s all.” He told me. I looked up at him and tried to smile. It didn’t really convince either of us.
“I know that, he just… I’ve never seen that happen to him before, I guess,” I shrugged.
“Well I’m sure he’s fine, we’ll be back next week and you can ask him them, okay?” Uncle Jet offered.
“Okay,” I nodded.
“Don’t think about it until then,” Uncle Jet smiled, “hey, you can help me finish the table when we get home, if you like?”
“Can I?” I asked excitedly, almost forgetting about the whole thing instantly. I loved watching Uncle Jet carving the wooden furniture in the house. I was hardly ever allowed to help because Jet said it was too dangerous. Everything in the cabin was handmade, from the curtains to the bedframes and the doorknobs. The cabin itself was right out in the woods; about two miles outside of town. Surrounded by miles of tiny streams and uninterrupted woodland, it was the perfect place for hunting or fishing. Our friends in town often asked how we coped with being so isolated, but neither of us really mind it. Though I had no way of making new friends or even meeting new people, I didn’t feel like I’d missed out. I had Absorbed when I was six, along with all the other children, and then I’d gone my separate way to them all. Absorbing was the alternative to school. When a child turned six, they would be taken to the town hall, where magic is used for them to absorb all the basic knowledge they would acquire in school. All other lessons were learnt through living and making mistakes.
“Of course you can,” Uncle Jet smiled. We walked out of town and continued along the dirt paths that led into the woods. We didn’t really need the lights in the trees to guide the way to the cabin, we knew the paths off by heart, but they hung in the trees to light up the night. It was just me and Uncle Jet who lived in the cabin. I had never really met my parents. Though Jet would never say it to my face, it was common knowledge around town that they had been ashamed of me. In B-Hola (the kingdom we lived in), the only residents were Humanites. Humanites were the descendants of the Humans, the race who had come to this world, Hondelacia, when they had destroyed their own world, Old Earth. Humans had been in Hondelacia for thousands of years, and as they were exposed to magic, they became something slightly different: Humanites. There was a rule among all of the Humanites that had been created by the magic in Hondelacia: your eyes and your hair. Your eyes were an indication of what kind of life you were going to have. They changed colour as you made decisions that changed the path of your life. There was a general colour code for eyes that went through all the basic colours of the rainbow. Purple and black were the exceptions. No one had ever been born or with purple or black eyes, and no one had ever had their eyes change colour to purple or black. Except me. Hair again was a different thing: the colour of your hair depended on where your family were from, and the shade of colour was different for every family. Hair was generally passed from your father’s side. The North was a sort of golden yellow colour, the East was orange, the South was black and the West was pink. The centre of Hondelacia was green haired, but no one really saw the people who lived there because they lived up in the trees. My parents had been part of an incredibly proud pure bloodline, of pink hair and golden eyes. Then they had had me, a boy with purple eyes and electric blue hair. I didn’t fit in anywhere. Jet said that colour was affected by where you individually were born too. He had been born in the north and his hair was sandy coloured, despite coming from a long line of pink haired Westerners. It was difficult sometimes, and that was why Jet had kept me out of school and instead had me Absorb. Absorbing was the only type of magic that the Humanites used. Magic altogether was becoming more and more rare, and as Humanites were not a magic species, in places like B-Hola it was only ever seen in the circus.
“Right you, get the stuff from the shed, let’s start on that table,” Jet announced.

    The second sun was just rising, but I had already been awake for hours. While we were making the table last night, Jet and I had got into an argument. I had once again bought up that I wanted to visit Lake Cutum in Rhedarn (the furthest and biggest kingdom) to attend a protest the people were having. As usual, Jet completely shot me down, coming out with:
“I don’t think you understand just how dangerous it is Whisper!”
“Yes I do, if it wasn’t dangerous, people wouldn’t be protprotesting!” I’d said. Normally he would’ve laughed at a comment like that, but he wasn’t in the mood.
“Why do you always want to go to these things? You know that only the Freedom Fighters and Rebels go!”
“Exactly, if more people went, they would get their point across a lot better. Besides, maybe I want to be a Freedom Fighter,” I’d challenged. He’d put his hammer down and looked me dead in the eyes.
“Never say a thing like that again.” He’s said in such a terrifyingly serious voice that I’d clammed shut. After a moment, he sighed and took my hand.
“Just, please don’t try and make yourself any more different. You know I’ll always love you no matter what, but I don’t think the world is ready for you, just yet,” he sighed. The words don’t try and make yourself any more different kept rattling around in my head, torturing me. Any more different. We hadn’t really talked since and he wasn’t up yet so I hadn’t had a chance to apologise. I don’t know why I kept bringing it up, I just knew that I wanted to go to that protest. I had always been interested in things like that, I wanted to know what was going on in Rhedarn and what was happening in Ostani. I knew that the King of Rhedarn, Leirbaag, was trying to become ever more powerful, and that the whole of the North of Hondelacia had become the territory of the Rebels and Freedom Fighters who worked to stop him controlling the world. I wasn’t sure exactly what was so bad about Leirbaag because Jet liked to keep me in the dark when it came to politics. My friend Carl and I liked to sit outside the town hall and listen to news being read out in the mornings. Carl was a serious pessimist. He said that he liked listening to the news so that when our little kingdom was captured and forced into slavery, he would know first. I just liked to hear about all the other kingdoms, the ones that used magic were absolutely fascinating to me. I had never been able to understand why the Humanites repressed and discouraged magic so much, it was so amazing. I checked the food supply and saw that we were a little low on bread. I wrote a note to Jet, left it on the new table, and set off to town. I knew my way through the woods easily, in fact I could probably get through it blindfolded, so it didn’t take me long to get onto the dirt path. I followed it for about a mile, and then I came to a crossroad. There were three roads made of gravel and one of dirt, the one I was on, and they all met in the middle. I was just about to step onto the gravel, when a huge carriage came out of nowhere. My arms rushed to protect my face before I was crushed. My eyes were squeezed shut and my face was wincing, ready for the pain that would arrive in a split second. Nothing came. Slowly, I opened my eyes. The carriage had stopped. Not just stopped where it was, actually stopped moving altogether. The horses were in midstride, the coachman had his whip in the air. There was a woman with her head leaning out of the window. Her mouth was open as if she was screaming and her eyes were locked on me. One of the horses had one leg in the air and the other on the ground, while the other horse was in the middle of shaking his mane. It was as if someone had just pressed pause. Still in shock, I managed to get to the other side of the road, and then I shook my head. Looking back at the carriage, it was still stuck in the same position. I didn’t know how long they would be stuck like this for, and I was just starting to worry a bit… and then it hit me. Everything had stopped. The birds were in the sky, not flapping their wings but staying where they were. The trees were caught mid-breeze and the most unnerving thing of all: there was sound. There was a deathly silence everywhere. Naturally, I was an honest person. But even I saw the opportunity of earning a few extra pounds right then. I quickly took my coat off and pulled hard at the sleeve until it tore. I dropped to my knees and scuffed them in the gravel, then I rolled around to get covered in dust. I rubbed my hair into the gravel and made sure it scratched my face. Then I went to the side of the road, just out of the way of the carriage and I laid down and got into a broken-looking position. I waited for a while, but nothing happened. Everything stayed paused.
“Come on, start again!” I cried. The horses started braying and their legs started running again. The carriage hurled forwards, and the sound of a woman screaming pierced the air. The birds began to flap again, and the sound came back. The carriage came to quick stop, crunching on the gravel, and the coachman jumped down. I smiled to myself and then I shut my eyes and looked injured.
“Oh my days!” the coachman cried. I heard the sound of two doors opening and the gravel crunched as footsteps came towards me.
“Oh!” a woman cried, “the poor little boy!”
“I’m sure he’s quite fine Moona, the little scamp’s milking it,” a man’s voice said. Cheeky bugger, I thought milking it indeed! I knew I was faking the whole thing, but he didn’t!
“Help him up Greg,” she ordered frantically, “Benjal help him too!” With a groan from the arrogant idiot who said I was milking it, they began to heave me up. I made a nice show of coughing and spluttering and looking rather dazed.
“Oh you poor thing,” she cooed instantly.          
“He came out of nowhere Miss,” the coachman, Greg, stuttered.
“Sorry,” I coughed, “I didn’t see you either,”
“Where are your parents boy?” Benjal asked.
“They abandoned me when I was a baby,” I said truthfully, though now it was really coming in handy.
“Oh you poor boy,” Moona said, putting her hands on her heart.
“Where do you live?” Benjal asked, clearly quite tired of me.
“In the woods,” I nodded weakly towards the trees I had come from. It really did sound like a totally different story when you told it this way. I made sure I kept my head down as I talked to them. My hair usually came as a bit of a surprise to people, but they usually came to the conclusion that it was just a funny mix of colours. I didn’t want to push my luck with my eyes though.
“My dear boy, how do you survive?” Moona asked. I coughed a little dramatically and looked up at her.
“I fight the animals,” I lied, suppressing a smile, “It’s not so bad… once you get used to it,” She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Benjal, give him some money, he can get a good meal in town,” she ordered, patting me gently on the head. Benjal sighed heavily, as if he hadn’t the time for beggars, and reached into his jacket. He pulled out a little silk purse and fished around in it with long bony fingers. Finally, he pulled out a silver coin and held it out, looking in the opposite direction. Being charitable actually seemed to be causing him pain.
“Thanks mate,” I said, grabbing it before he could change his mind, I had made that mistake before. As I grabbed it, the third sun came out from behind the trees, hitting me square in the eyes. I squinted, but it was too late. Moona’s hand whipped off of my head and she jumped away from me.
“Argh!” she cried. She shielded half of herself behind Benjal while the two men stared at me in horror.
“What are you, creature?” Benjal whispered in fascinated shock.
“I have no idea.” I said, and then I turned and ran. I didn’t stop running until I was well into town and I could hear the familiar sound of my shoes smacking down on the cobbled streets. I ran to the pub, and ducked down through the small door which was the entrance to the tunnel that ran right underneath the pub and out the other side. It was the only way to get to the other side of town without going around all the shops, a nice little shortcut I had discovered a few years ago.


    Across the world, in the darkest part of the highest mountains, there is a tower. The tower stands one thousand metres into the sky, and is half as wide as it is tall. At the very top of this forbidding tower, there is a cold room. In the centre of this room, should you ever dare to venture inside, on most days you will find a man sitting on a throne.
“Hyenth!” His voice rumbled like thunder all the way down the tower. A small hunch backed man appeared by the door. He fiddled with his hands and looked at his feet.
“Yes, Your Powerfulness,” he muttered in a nasal voice that hurt the ears if it was heard for too long. The long black nails of the King clicked one by one against the golden arm of the throne. This tower is truly a place that you should pray never be sent to because if you are, there is no hope that you will ever return. None. His piercing black eyes stared out of the window and his lips began to part. He controlled the urge to shake with a violent rage as he sent the command.
“Bring down the circus.”

    The wheels turned and splattered mud over the people walking nearby. Every head they passed was turned to look at them as they moved down the road. It’s hard to argue with a King, especially a sly one, so when he had pointed the finger and labelled her a criminal, that’s what she became to everybody who saw her. It didn’t matter that she was innocent. Her prison was a small iron cage on wheels, being towed by two horses. She sat with her legs dangling between the bars, her lips pressed to the first of four holes in a silver flute. The magical sound that flowed from the instrument weaved its way through the bars and fluttered away across the breeze. It was her flute, it had always been hers. Her name was engraved into the side of it, written in her own language. She didn’t know where she was going and she didn’t know what would happen to her. Perhaps she would be sold on the black market, and perhaps they would just dispose of her in a quiet spot in the woods. She had been on route to O-hala, the capital of Maiow, when suddenly her family came under attack by the King’s army. She had been the only survivor. A silver tear ran slowly down her cheek and dropped from her chin to the floor of her cage. They had been travelling west for days now and she hadn’t once been out of the cage. Her back was aching and her joints were stiff. Her wings could barely move in the cramped space. She watched as the houses thinned out, and then stopped altogether until there was nothing around them but woods. Suddenly one of the wheels went over a bump in the road and the cage lurched to the left, teetered for a second, and then tipped over and landed on its side with a powerful thud. Her eyes were squeezed shut tight as the force lifted her off the ground and then slammed her back against the bars. She cried out as her face hit the cold metal. She was startled from the shock of the force, but she managed to clamber onto all fours and crawl towards the cage door, which was lying broken and twisted on its hinges. She pushed against the door, which was now above her, but it didn’t budge. She held her breath and braced her knees and tried again to push the door. Outside, she could hear the guard and driver calming the horse, soon they would be coming to check on her. She took a deep breath and tried one last time, pushing with all her might until she felt dizzy. There was a groaning, creaking sound and the door popped off and slid down the bars onto the floor.
“What was that?” she heard the driver ask. Before they had time to react, she sprang out of the cage and started running towards the trees. She ran faster than she had ever run before in her life. She heard them shouting behind her and some footsteps followed her but she did not stop. She kept running until she couldn’t run anymore and still she kept going. Eventually she couldn’t move her legs another step and she dropped to the ground where she was, sweat sticking to her face and back. She rested for a while, taking out her flute and playing her favourite melody. The music always helped her to relax. She was cold, frightened and hungry and she was very, very lost. She rested her head against the trunk of a tree and looked up at the stars. They twinkled back at her, seeming to encourage her to keep going. She heard a crack. Her eyes widened as she whipped her head from side to side, checking every place she could see for the driver and the guard. They would definitely be carrying chains and that large piece of wood her guard like to hit people with. She heard another crack. There was a line of purple mist-like light shining through the forest. It was dark and the purple seemed to glow against the blackness of the forest. She followed the beam back to the hand of a boy. He stood a few trees away from her and he hadn’t appeared to have noticed her yet. The purple light stopped and he turned into a dark figure, very nearly invisible. She watched as the shape of his hand reached slowly out and the purple started again. It lit up his face and she found herself smiling in a dazed amazement at his purple eyes and blue hair. Other than that, he looked like a normal teenage boy experimenting with magic. There was a shout from further away and though she didn’t catch what was called, the boy did. The purple mist stopped short and he called back:
“Coming Uncle Jet!” she didn’t know which way he was going to go. He could go right past her, he could see her! In a flurry of furious panic and bemusement, she started running again before she had even stood up properly.