The doors to the stage room flung wide open with a kick as Felix led his friends out, his face scrunched together in an angry expression. He bustled down the hall, marching in one direction in search for a way to leave the circus. Janette and Reta staggered behind, pushing through crowds of families and strangers that walked in the opposite direction. Despite the big show taking place at that time, the halls were still populated to an extent that their vision was obscured, making it hard to spot from which direction the exit came from.
"Master, what's going on?" KuliKuli asked somewhat out of breath, struggling to keep pace with him as he pulled her from behind. "You're scaring me."
"We're leaving." He replied in a cold tone, sending shivers through his partner as she began to pull away. He stopped and turned as she yanked her arm free.
"Stop it, what's wrong with you? Why are you so mad?" Her voice cracked and started to stammer. She held her arm against her chest and stepped back, lowering her head in a submissive way when her friends caught up to them. "Did I do something wrong?"
Janette reached out and held KuliKuli's paw, scanning her up and down and caressing her face. The Nekomata froze in a puzzled state, staring back at her friend while she patted down her arm, body and waist. "What's going on?"
"J-Just checking, you disappeared on us and now you're back!" Her answer serving only to exacerbate the problem when KuliKuli recoiled.
"What!?" She turned her head when Felix chimed in.
"When he wrapped you around with that curtain-blanket thing, you were blindfolded so you wouldn't know, but he made you disappear for a short time."
"What do you mean?" She asked again, lost by his words.
Felix rubbed his head and shook his hands anxiously. "I mean you were here and then you weren't, what do you mean by what do I mean? It was like you were never there!"
"Because I never left!" She explained, "You guys are saying I was gone but all I remember was him saying his weird lines, then he wrapped something over me. He took it off and now I see you're there with me. Are you sure I was gone? I thought it was a silly trick."
She huffed and folded her arms on front of her, glaring at Felix. "And you're not helping, pulling me around like that. It hurt and you were being mean and scary!"
Felix raised his hands to protest. "I-"
"Mean and scary!" She raised her voice and stomped her foot down.
It was enough for him to back off, dropping his arms and head in discomfort. He nodded and looked at her with worried eyes. "I didn't mean to scare you, I'm sorry. But I thought I had lost you."
His words and reaction caused her expression to soften as her anger quickly faded. She reached out and wrapped her paws around his arm, rubbing her head on his shoulder with a light purring sound. "Just don't do that again, it hurts. I don't like seeing you mad, I thought I did something that upset you."
"No-o, not you. Not ever." He replied in a soft voice before confiding in her. "But don't do that thing with your foot either, okay?"
"Huh?" She raised her head and stared him in the eye as he explained.
"Just don't, please? It brings up a bad memory and I'd rather not see that."
KuliKuli nodded and held him tight, surrendering to him as he wrapped his arms around her and she leaned into his chest. Janette took in the moment with a sense of admiration, leaning back with a smile and a sense of warmth in her heart. She felt like adding anything would ruin this moment for them, so it was better to stand back and say nothing in her mind.
That perspective was not shared by their friend as Reta stepped in and smacked his arm before chastising him. "Baka Yarô! Why didn't you stay put to avoid making a scene?"
"Hey!" Janette jumped in, "You thought she was gone too!"
Reta glared back at her. "I was shocked but I knew better. You three don't know about Genki, do you?"
"Genki?" Felix repeated back quizzingly.
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "In English it is called magic but in my language we call it Genki. What Arcaye did was display a few tricks of Genki Mizu. They are simple magic tricks with water, nothing but pure spectacle. Genki Mizu and Genki Sora, I believe you call them water and air. A combination of both elements is enough to manipulate the reflective surface of Genki Mizu in order to bend the image that it is presenting. This is common knowledge where I am from, but I can imagine how desolate or remote cities such as this one can pay high amounts of coin to fall for silly tricks when they can practice it themselves. I didn't pay and yet I feel conned out of my time."
"Hey~" Janette intervened with a sour expression. "I enjoyed it. We can still look around and get some worth so long as KuliKuli is fine."
Felix shook his hands to decline. "No way, absolutely not. Not after what just happened."
"But I wasn't hurt!" KuliKuli lunged forward with her paws on his chest. "We-we can still look around, right?"
Felix gave her a serious look. "KuliKuli, I don't like the look of that man."
"I agree, that man was revolting." Reta chimed in much to KuliKuli's dismay.
"You are not helping, Wolfy!"
"Nor was it my intention to help." She hissed back, "His behavior was unnecessary and his manner of speech was condescending to put it nicely. His magic tricks were nothing special, but judging by his introduction I would guess that kind of knowledge about magic is uncommon around here. I cannot fault him for finding a profit among fools, but taking advantage of the ignorant or uneducated is detestable."
"Making a profit the way he is doing is just business. He's not hurting anyone, just playing up a show for entertainment." Janette retaliated.
KuliKuli turned her attention back to Felix, cupping his hand in her paws while pleading with him. "We can just look around for a little bit more! I won't be in any more shows, just watching. I-I promise to be out of harm's way! Please?"
Felix turned around, contemplating her words. His eyes met Janette's as he reached out to her. "I'd prefer we leave, do any of the other shows have that man around?"
Janette shrugged and stepped closer, taking a look around them. "All of the other places are those little performers in their stands or those four towers in the map. They have those biomes, we could still go see what those are about?"
Her eyes lit up as an idea came to mind. "Orrrrr we could settle on a compromise and meet in between. We can stay maybe an hour longer and go see those biomes, and after that we can go back home. Or, well, I can take you guys home."
"You live around here, you can go home and I can take us back to our cabin." Felix reminded her.
KuliKuli hopped up ecstatically. "Oh! Oh! We can go to your place and go see your house this time! Please?"
Janette stuttered and brushed her hands down her dress, stepping back. "I errr, welll it's possible, I mean-"
"It isn't necessary, we couldn't ask that of you without your permission." Felix added.
Reta approached Janette with a questioning look. "Unless this one has something she intends to hide from us."
That drove Janette into a panic, frantically waving her hands in front of her. "No! Not at all! It-It's just, well I don't think I'm re-ready, and I know that's a bit hypocritical for me to say, I-I er uhm-"
Felix reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, calming her down. "You're fine, Reta is just being herself. I forgot that you paid for our trip tonight, thank you. As such, I would rather we go home but... it's not a bad idea to see the biomes before we leave."
"You mean, we can stay?" KuliKuli asked with a hopeful look, raising her paws to her chest.
"For one hour." He reminded her, but his words did little to prevent her excitement as she cheered and clapped her paws together. "Just the biomes, I don't want any other performers reaching out to us. Do you remember where they were?"
"Does it matter?" Janette smiled back, gesturing for them to follow her. "This whole tent is one big dome with four towers around it, we just walk in one direction and we would find a biome eventually. C'mon."
And so they did, marching forward and keeping close together while passing by the other side shows. Most of them were busy with smaller crowds which made it difficult to walk through, stalling their time shortly. By this point, music began playing through the circus. It was instrumental music using instruments that they were unfamiliar with, though Janette recognized one of them as an accordion.
KuliKuli wanted to watch but she contained herself and followed her mate and friends quietly, despite her wandering eyes.
There was something that perplexed her, the feeling she had when she was called upon at the circus ring. It was difficult for her to tell but it was a mixture of excitement and unease. Coming out of that performance unharmed left her wondering why she found the show to be so alarming before. She remembered fighting her natural instincts while standing on that stage in front of hundreds of people, praying for that moment to pass quickly. She felt like it did, but now she was thinking if perhaps she felt uneasy because of the implications made by her friends. They said she disappeared but she hadn't a clue due to the blindfold. Just how long had time passed before she was brought back, and if the man didn't bring her back, would she be lost forever?
She held onto Felix's arm before they arrived to an entrance with an arched doorway and a sign up above, similar to the center stage but in a smaller size.
"The sign reads in some fancy in cursive writing, I think it reads something like a Tundra?" Janette explained in a questioning manner. "How the heck are people suppose to read this, there aren't any schools nearby to teach cursive! And it's even sloppily written!"
Entering into the biome was like walking into a different world. The temperature was icy cool, nearly freezing Felix's skin as he wiggled his body and rubbed his arms. Reta followed in last and looked around, stuffing her hands under her arms.
KuliKuli exhaled. "Ooh, I can breathe smoke like a dragon!"
"It's not smoke, it's the air we breathe, or technically the gas we exhale." Janette corrected her.
KuliKuli looked puzzled. "We breathe gas?"
"No, it's condensation. I'll explain later." Janette reached out and pressed her palm over the glass display in front. The biome was a dark setting where the lights were dim and the room offered very little space to walk around as it was cut short by a wall of glass.
Reta looked up and jumped back, startling Felix as she hid behind him.
"What?"
"Tsuki!" She pointed over their heads toward what looked like a full moon illuminating the biome. "Tsuki, Moon!"
She cautiously turned her hand around, analyzing it and touching her face while trembling in a cold sweat. "H-How am I not turning?"
Janette snorted and pointed to her panicked friend. "It's not real, it's just a ball of light. Didn't you just say that Genki was c-common?"
"Tch!" Reta snarled back, choosing to stay behind Felix when KuliKuli hugged her from behind.
"It's okay Wolfy, nothing is going to hurt you."
"Get off!" She bared her teeth to frighten the Nekomata away before using Felix's cloak to hide under.
"Hey! Knock it off." He turned his head back, alarmed. He calmed down when he felt her shaking arms wrap around his waist for comfort. "Fine, just don't start any fights, okay?"
"Hmph!" Reta huffed and stayed quiet.
"It's not too bad," Janette remarked, gazing through the looking glass. "But I don't see much."
Looking behind the looking glass was like gazing into a different world. A blanket of snow covered the grounds and trees alike in an outdoor setting, with artificial lights that resembled a starry night sky decorating the ceiling. The landscape included a lake in the far back, it was difficult due to tell if the distance mountains were real or just an incredibly well-made painting that fit perfectly to complete the illusion. It took a minute for them to notice that the instrumental music had changed when they entered the biome, the rhythm and beats were similar but the accordion was replaced with a tambourine and xylophone.
"Look!" KuliKuli turned everyone's attention as a polar bear emerged from a small cave hidden in the left, stretching is wide jaws and rubbing the snow off its snout. It was accompanied by a smaller cub who trotted out into the snow, rolling on its back before splashing it paws at the very tip of the frost-covered beach. Its mother followed behind in a sluggish pace with the snow crunching under its paws, lifting its head to look at their visitors.
"Ooooh this reminds me of the time Mom would let me and my sisters play in the snow! There was this big bear kind of like her, but she had brown fur and looked more like us, but like waaay bigger!" She spread her arms out to demonstrate the size as she continued. "And-and she would help protect us and follow us around. Ooooh, she taught us how to catch fish like salmon and trout, or maybe we taught her? We use to play in the snow and make little shapes on the ground until we got cold, and when we would visit our Auntie! She would teach us how to make a nice warm fire to keep warm, and she would gift us blankets to wrap around our bodies, and she would tell us these wonderful little stories at night! Oh and over there, that looks like-"
"OW!" Everyone spun around as Janette was on her butt, rubbing her nose and gazing up with a puzzled look.
"You ok-kay?" Felix asked, helping her to her feet.
"Yea," Janette looked around. "I th-th-thought I c-crashed into someone, weird."
She furiously rubbed her arms and tucked them under her dress, her teeth chattering while she herself was a shriveling mess. "H-Hey, I'm glad you like it but I'm going to w-wait outside. If I sss-stay any longer, I'm going to ca-ca-catch a c-cold."
"Actually, we should all get going. It's freezing for me too." Felix agreed, breathing onto his hands and rubbing them together.
KuliKuli wanted to protest but she nodded back, appreciating their company for being there. She glanced back and pressed her head on the glass, waving at the little cub and causing the glass to fog. She looked around checking if anyone else was there first, sneaking her tail from under her dress to draw a smiling face before blowing a kiss goodbye, skipping back out of the biome to join her friends.
The face stayed behind, a friendly reminder of the cub's most recent visitor. A smoke-like vapor remained in the desolate room, emerging twice more to the sound of breathing before the curtains at the entrance were pushed aside, leaving the polar bears alone.
The doors to the stage room flung wide open with a kick as Felix led his friends out, his face scrunched together in an angry expression. He bustled down the hall, marching in one direction in search for a way to leave the circus. Janette and Reta staggered behind, pushing through crowds of families and strangers that walked in the opposite direction. Despite the big show taking place at that time, the halls were still populated to an extent that their vision was obscured, making it hard to spot from which direction the exit came from.
"Master, what's going on?" KuliKuli asked somewhat out of breath, struggling to keep pace with him as he pulled her from behind. "You're scaring me."
"We're leaving." He replied in a cold tone, sending shivers through his partner as she began to pull away. He stopped and turned as she yanked her arm free.
"Stop it, what's wrong with you? Why are you so mad?" Her voice cracked and started to stammer. She held her arm against her chest and stepped back, lowering her head in a submissive way when her friends caught up to them. "Did I do something wrong?"
Janette reached out and held KuliKuli's paw, scanning her up and down and caressing her face. The Nekomata froze in a puzzled state, staring back at her friend while she patted down her arm, body and waist. "What's going on?"
"J-Just checking, you disappeared on us and now you're back!" Her answer serving only to exacerbate the problem when KuliKuli recoiled.
"What!?" She turned her head when Felix chimed in.
"When he wrapped you around with that curtain-blanket thing, you were blindfolded so you wouldn't know, but he made you disappear for a short time."
"What do you mean?" She asked again, lost by his words.
Felix rubbed his head and shook his hands anxiously. "I mean you were here and then you weren't, what do you mean by what do I mean? It was like you were never there!"
"Because I never left!" She explained, "You guys are saying I was gone but all I remember was him saying his weird lines, then he wrapped something over me. He took it off and now I see you're there with me. Are you sure I was gone? I thought it was a silly trick."
She huffed and folded her arms on front of her, glaring at Felix. "And you're not helping, pulling me around like that. It hurt and you were being mean and scary!"
Felix raised his hands to protest. "I-"
"Mean and scary!" She raised her voice and stomped her foot down.
It was enough for him to back off, dropping his arms and head in discomfort. He nodded and looked at her with worried eyes. "I didn't mean to scare you, I'm sorry. But I thought I had lost you."
His words and reaction caused her expression to soften as her anger quickly faded. She reached out and wrapped her paws around his arm, rubbing her head on his shoulder with a light purring sound. "Just don't do that again, it hurts. I don't like seeing you mad, I thought I did something that upset you."
"No-o, not you. Not ever." He replied in a soft voice before confiding in her. "But don't do that thing with your foot either, okay?"
"Huh?" She raised her head and stared him in the eye as he explained.
"Just don't, please? It brings up a bad memory and I'd rather not see that."
KuliKuli nodded and held him tight, surrendering to him as he wrapped his arms around her and she leaned into his chest. Janette took in the moment with a sense of admiration, leaning back with a smile and a sense of warmth in her heart. She felt like adding anything would ruin this moment for them, so it was better to stand back and say nothing in her mind.
That perspective was not shared by their friend as Reta stepped in and smacked his arm before chastising him. "Baka Yarô! Why didn't you stay put to avoid making a scene?"
"Hey!" Janette jumped in, "You thought she was gone too!"
Reta glared back at her. "I was shocked but I knew better. You three don't know about Genki, do you?"
"Genki?" Felix repeated back quizzingly.
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "In English it is called magic but in my language we call it Genki. What Arcaye did was display a few tricks of Genki Mizu. They are simple magic tricks with water, nothing but pure spectacle. Genki Mizu and Genki Sora, I believe you call them water and air. A combination of both elements is enough to manipulate the reflective surface of Genki Mizu in order to bend the image that it is presenting. This is common knowledge where I am from, but I can imagine how desolate or remote cities such as this one can pay high amounts of coin to fall for silly tricks when they can practice it themselves. I didn't pay and yet I feel conned out of my time."
"Hey~" Janette intervened with a sour expression. "I enjoyed it. We can still look around and get some worth so long as KuliKuli is fine."
Felix shook his hands to decline. "No way, absolutely not. Not after what just happened."
"But I wasn't hurt!" KuliKuli lunged forward with her paws on his chest. "We-we can still look around, right?"
Felix gave her a serious look. "KuliKuli, I don't like the look of that man."
"I agree, that man was revolting." Reta chimed in much to KuliKuli's dismay.
"You are not helping, Wolfy!"
"Nor was it my intention to help." She hissed back, "His behavior was unnecessary and his manner of speech was condescending to put it nicely. His magic tricks were nothing special, but judging by his introduction I would guess that kind of knowledge about magic is uncommon around here. I cannot fault him for finding a profit among fools, but taking advantage of the ignorant or uneducated is detestable."
"Making a profit the way he is doing is just business. He's not hurting anyone, just playing up a show for entertainment." Janette retaliated.
KuliKuli turned her attention back to Felix, cupping his hand in her paws while pleading with him. "We can just look around for a little bit more! I won't be in any more shows, just watching. I-I promise to be out of harm's way! Please?"
Felix turned around, contemplating her words. His eyes met Janette's as he reached out to her. "I'd prefer we leave, do any of the other shows have that man around?"
Janette shrugged and stepped closer, taking a look around them. "All of the other places are those little performers in their stands or those four towers in the map. They have those biomes, we could still go see what those are about?"
Her eyes lit up as an idea came to mind. "Orrrrr we could settle on a compromise and meet in between. We can stay maybe an hour longer and go see those biomes, and after that we can go back home. Or, well, I can take you guys home."
"You live around here, you can go home and I can take us back to our cabin." Felix reminded her.
KuliKuli hopped up ecstatically. "Oh! Oh! We can go to your place and go see your house this time! Please?"
Janette stuttered and brushed her hands down her dress, stepping back. "I errr, welll it's possible, I mean-"
"It isn't necessary, we couldn't ask that of you without your permission." Felix added.
Reta approached Janette with a questioning look. "Unless this one has something she intends to hide from us."
That drove Janette into a panic, frantically waving her hands in front of her. "No! Not at all! It-It's just, well I don't think I'm re-ready, and I know that's a bit hypocritical for me to say, I-I er uhm-"
Felix reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, calming her down. "You're fine, Reta is just being herself. I forgot that you paid for our trip tonight, thank you. As such, I would rather we go home but... it's not a bad idea to see the biomes before we leave."
"You mean, we can stay?" KuliKuli asked with a hopeful look, raising her paws to her chest.
"For one hour." He reminded her, but his words did little to prevent her excitement as she cheered and clapped her paws together. "Just the biomes, I don't want any other performers reaching out to us. Do you remember where they were?"
"Does it matter?" Janette smiled back, gesturing for them to follow her. "This whole tent is one big dome with four towers around it, we just walk in one direction and we would find a biome eventually. C'mon."
And so they did, marching forward and keeping close together while passing by the other side shows. Most of them were busy with smaller crowds which made it difficult to walk through, stalling their time shortly. By this point, music began playing through the circus. It was instrumental music using instruments that they were unfamiliar with, though Janette recognized one of them as an accordion.
KuliKuli wanted to watch but she contained herself and followed her mate and friends quietly, despite her wandering eyes.
There was something that perplexed her, the feeling she had when she was called upon at the circus ring. It was difficult for her to tell but it was a mixture of excitement and unease. Coming out of that performance unharmed left her wondering why she found the show to be so alarming before. She remembered fighting her natural instincts while standing on that stage in front of hundreds of people, praying for that moment to pass quickly. She felt like it did, but now she was thinking if perhaps she felt uneasy because of the implications made by her friends. They said she disappeared but she hadn't a clue due to the blindfold. Just how long had time passed before she was brought back, and if the man didn't bring her back, would she be lost forever?
She held onto Felix's arm before they arrived to an entrance with an arched doorway and a sign up above, similar to the center stage but in a smaller size.
"The sign reads in some fancy in cursive writing, I think it reads something like a Tundra?" Janette explained in a questioning manner. "How the heck are people suppose to read this, there aren't any schools nearby to teach cursive! And it's even sloppily written!"
Entering into the biome was like walking into a different world. The temperature was icy cool, nearly freezing Felix's skin as he wiggled his body and rubbed his arms. Reta followed in last and looked around, stuffing her hands under her arms.
KuliKuli exhaled. "Ooh, I can breathe smoke like a dragon!"
"It's not smoke, it's the air we breathe, or technically the gas we exhale." Janette corrected her.
KuliKuli looked puzzled. "We breathe gas?"
"No, it's condensation. I'll explain later." Janette reached out and pressed her palm over the glass display in front. The biome was a dark setting where the lights were dim and the room offered very little space to walk around as it was cut short by a wall of glass.
Reta looked up and jumped back, startling Felix as she hid behind him.
"What?"
"Tsuki!" She pointed over their heads toward what looked like a full moon illuminating the biome. "Tsuki, Moon!"
She cautiously turned her hand around, analyzing it and touching her face while trembling in a cold sweat. "H-How am I not turning?"
Janette snorted and pointed to her panicked friend. "It's not real, it's just a ball of light. Didn't you just say that Genki was c-common?"
"Tch!" Reta snarled back, choosing to stay behind Felix when KuliKuli hugged her from behind.
"It's okay Wolfy, nothing is going to hurt you."
"Get off!" She bared her teeth to frighten the Nekomata away before using Felix's cloak to hide under.
"Hey! Knock it off." He turned his head back, alarmed. He calmed down when he felt her shaking arms wrap around his waist for comfort. "Fine, just don't start any fights, okay?"
"Hmph!" Reta huffed and stayed quiet.
"It's not too bad," Janette remarked, gazing through the looking glass. "But I don't see much."
Looking behind the looking glass was like gazing into a different world. A blanket of snow covered the grounds and trees alike in an outdoor setting, with artificial lights that resembled a starry night sky decorating the ceiling. The landscape included a lake in the far back, it was difficult due to tell if the distance mountains were real or just an incredibly well-made painting that fit perfectly to complete the illusion. It took a minute for them to notice that the instrumental music had changed when they entered the biome, the rhythm and beats were similar but the accordion was replaced with a tambourine and xylophone.
"Look!" KuliKuli turned everyone's attention as a polar bear emerged from a small cave hidden in the left, stretching is wide jaws and rubbing the snow off its snout. It was accompanied by a smaller cub who trotted out into the snow, rolling on its back before splashing it paws at the very tip of the frost-covered beach. Its mother followed behind in a sluggish pace with the snow crunching under its paws, lifting its head to look at their visitors.
"Ooooh this reminds me of the time Mom would let me and my sisters play in the snow! There was this big bear kind of like her, but she had brown fur and looked more like us, but like waaay bigger!" She spread her arms out to demonstrate the size as she continued. "And-and she would help protect us and follow us around. Ooooh, she taught us how to catch fish like salmon and trout, or maybe we taught her? We use to play in the snow and make little shapes on the ground until we got cold, and when we would visit our Auntie! She would teach us how to make a nice warm fire to keep warm, and she would gift us blankets to wrap around our bodies, and she would tell us these wonderful little stories at night! Oh and over there, that looks like-"
"OW!" Everyone spun around as Janette was on her butt, rubbing her nose and gazing up with a puzzled look.
"You ok-kay?" Felix asked, helping her to her feet.
"Yea," Janette looked around. "I th-th-thought I c-crashed into someone, weird."
She furiously rubbed her arms and tucked them under her dress, her teeth chattering while she herself was a shriveling mess. "H-Hey, I'm glad you like it but I'm going to w-wait outside. If I sss-stay any longer, I'm going to ca-ca-catch a c-cold."
"Actually, we should all get going. It's freezing for me too." Felix agreed, breathing onto his hands and rubbing them together.
KuliKuli wanted to protest but she nodded back, appreciating their company for being there. She glanced back and pressed her head on the glass, waving at the little cub and causing the glass to fog. She looked around checking if anyone else was there first, sneaking her tail from under her dress to draw a smiling face before blowing a kiss goodbye, skipping back out of the biome to join her friends.
The face stayed behind, a friendly reminder of the cub's most recent visitor. A smoke-like vapor remained in the desolate room, emerging twice more to the sound of breathing before the curtains at the entrance were pushed aside, leaving the polar bears alone.
