Calli walked barefoot across the dunes, slippers in hand. The sand felt pleasant under her feet and she couldn't resist the urge to skip a little. Calli looked around for some grass that she could dance on and found a reasonably sized patch near some closed stands.

Calli threw her shoes on the ground and started doing some warm up stretches, making a triangle with her feet and heels on the ground, then balancing on one leg. It was a miserable day and barely anyone was on the beach.

Calli stretched her hamstrings, wondering where the rest of the circus was.

She hoped she had the right place.

Taegan creeped quietly from behind her. He'd seen her coming and escaped the rest of the troupe. Watching her stretch, he walked closer, very slowly and...

"BOO!" He yelled and grabbed her shoulders, laughing.

Calli shrieked, startled by the unexpected, grasping touch and the loud voice. She spun, pulling herself from the grip, her right knee rising, her leg extending to kick her assailant in the head.

By the time she realised it was Teagan, it was too late to stop it.

"Oh my Gods!" She squealed, mortified and ashamed, "I am so, so, so, so sorry! Are you ok? Oh no, I hurt you! I didn't mean it, Oh my Gods!"

A few surprised tears squeezed their way out of her eyes. She'd never hurt someone before! Her normal unplacability went out the window.

Taegan went down like a sack of potatoes.



Taegan sat up and held his head.

"Oww! Calli!" He said loudly. Across the beach, a figure was running towards them. It was Dorian.

"By Alioe! That was hilarious! Winslow is laughing so hard he can't stand up." He walked up to Calli and patted her shoulder.

"Don't feel bad Calli, Taegan is a moron." Grinning at his friend, Dorian motioned for them to follow.

"Come on you two, we're over here." Taegan grumbled at Dorian and stood up, rubbing his head. He grinned at Calli.

"You got a kick on you like a rouge kenser! Good one. Come on, let me introduce you to a few more friends." He turned and walked the same way Dorian had, towards the water.

"He is? I mean, I am so sorry!" Calli said, still mortified.



Calli scooped up her shoes and followed the boys. She was so embarassed, not even her first day and she'd already assaulted a coworker.

She jogged a few steps to catch up with Teagan.

"I can heal that for you a little, if it hurts." She said, eyes big and mournful, arms loosely overlapping behind her back.

She bit her lip and looked down at the sand. She'd never really performed on sand before. She wasn't sure how long she could dance for without stacking it or getting much tireder than usual.

Taegan smiled and waved her off.

"Nah, its ok, I'm alright." Dorian scoffed ahead of them. As they walked the rest of the circus troupe came into view. There was Winslow, sitting in the sand, pointing at Taegan and roaring with laughter. And Balder just stood to one side, arms crossed, looking stern. As they came closer, he reached out to smack Taegan around the head.

"What are you doing, you fool! Scaring a poor girl like that, I'm not surprised she gave you a kicking." Looking at Calli, he grinned.

"Hello Miss Calli! I hope your doing well. Don't worry about all this sand dear, we've got somewhere for you to practice over here, at the edge of the beach there is a really nice empty field." He pointed to the field, a big grassy lot. Suddenly from the right of them a loud snort sounded. It was deep and rumbling.

"If you're sure..." Calli said, hunchin over a little more.

She knew what she was capable of, that kick must have hurt.



Calli relaxed a little when Balder whacked Teagan upside the head. It reminded her a little of her relationship with her siblings. She brightened further when she saw the field.

"Ooooooh." She said, stepping forward. "That's perfect!"

She heard a loud snort coming from the right. She turned to see what it was.

There, standing by the ocean was a large, black creature. It was reminicent of a large cat, but only barely. Thick scales covered its body and horn type appendages grew from its low set head. Dark glistening eyes looked at her, and deep within its massive barrel chest a grumbling sounded.

"Clarabelle, be nice now, or I'll feed your Binkie to the fishes." Taegan said gruffly. The chrove made a sort of hiss and flicked its tail around. Bringing the flexible fifth limb around she turned and took something from it to her mouth. It was a teddy bear, an utterly mangalated filthy teddy bear. Clarabelle purred and sat down to wash the ratty thing. Grinning, the animal tamer thumbed at the chrove.

"Calli, that there is Clarabelle, terrifying chrove whom's mouth I put my head in on a regular basis."

Calli gasped aloud, completely awed by the enormous creature.

"She's beautiful!" She said, charmed by the elegance of the creature, the brute strength. "She lets you put your head in her mouth? She must really like you, most chroven would eat you soon as look at you."

She seemed to remember some kind of incident from her youth related to that. She also seemed to recall that general consensus determined that it was her fault.

"Can I go closer?" She asked Teagan, already starting to pace through some dance steps on the sand.

He looked at her, then back at the big black animal cleaning its Binkie. Clarabelle was docile with him and the rest of the gang, but if she did get her ire up, Taegan wasn't sure how he would stop her. Still, Calli's excitement was infectious.

"Sure, but hold my hand and walk slowly. She's gotta get used to you. And don't touch Binkie. Ever. I almost lost a hand doing that." He held out his hand for her to take. Balder watched the interaction with narrowed eyes.

"Be careful boy, I want her to be able to perform. Cripples and dead people aren't very good at that."

Calli took a deep breath through her nose and let it out her mouth, relaxing her posture and her body language. She reached out and took Teagan's hand, feeling his fingers wrap around hers beneath her gauntlets.

"It's ok Balder," She said in a reassuring voice. "Chroven can't manoeuvre well. If she decides to eat me I'll make a run for it."

Calli turned back to Clarabelle before she had a chance to see his reaction. She kept her limbs soft, her breathing easy and she followed Teagan's lead. She looked the chrove's powerful, muscular body and wondered what it would be like to ride one.

Clarabelle watched her, pausing mid lick. She made a deep growling in her chest and her tail whipped angrily. Taegan eyed her carefully.

"Come on Clara, be nice. This is Calli. She's a new friend." Edging closer, he pulled Calli gently along with him.

The chrove rested her nose on the teddy, still growling, top lip lifting slightly. She opened her heavily toothed mouth and hissed slightly, still crouching protectively over Binkie. Taegan reached into his pocket and fished out a strip of garmon jerky, holding it out towards Clarabelle. The black creature extended her nose, sniffing the air, but as they moved forward again, she feinted at them making a loud, rasping snarl, lips curled back and teeth gnashing.

"Woah. Okay, too much too fast." He looked at Calli.

"Give me something of yours, something with a smell on it."

There were some rocks Calli could climb in the distance if Clara got snippy.

Calli wondered if she was fast enough to get to them in time.

Call didn't remove her hand from Teagan's, just in case. She slipped a bit closer behind him and used her teeth to unbutton and slip off one of her gauntlets. She passed it to Teagan.

"Here." She said, voice soft but unafraid. "Hey, how long do you think you can distract her if she decides to kill me?"

Calli had always wanted to die on a sunny day. Today was not a good day to die.

Taegan took the gauntlet and threw it to Clarabelle. The large animal watched it fall in front of her, then hesitantly, she walked forward to sniff it. Grimacing, she shook her head and went back to Binkie. Smiling, the animal tamer waggled his eyebrows at Calli.

"I don't know, but I think its ok." He pulled her confidently towards the chrove. They were within an arms reach of her.

"Go on. Try now."

Calli wasn't sure how that she was walking into something particularly safe. Then again, you had to show trust. She walked forward until she was as close to the chrove as Teagan was. She extended her free hand just a little.

"Hi Clara," She said because she always felt you should introduce yourself to animals, "I'm Calli."

"Wow," she whispered to Teagan, "I've never been this close to a chrove before. This is great!"

Taegan grinned at her as Clarabelle extended her large muzzle towards Calli's hand. Her hot breath blew against Calli's skin as she smelt her, then a dark purple tounge extended to lick her hand once. It was like cut timber, rough and not as wet as one might expect. The animal trainer turned his head to Dorian and waggled his eyebrows. The blonde boy scowled at him with crossed arms. Balder adjusted his top hat.

"Alright Taegan, that's enough showing off. Get your butts over here, we got practice to do and a circus to sort out. Calli, why don't you go over in that field and work on a routine." His voice was firm, but still friendly. Play time, it seemed, was over. There was work to be done.

Calli laughed happily, Clara liked her!



"Okay!" Calli said happily, bowing slightly at Balder.

Calli let go of Teagan's hand and skipped towards the field. As she moved she picked up speed, going into a jog and then a sprint. She flipped a cartwheel in the air, pushing her landing into a backflip. Before long she was doing pike rolls and spinning her way around the field. She switched to a kind of drunken dance, doing slow backflips and controlled falls that turned into forward rolls.

When she looked up again the sun was higher than it had been and she was thirsty. She paused to take a quick breath and looked around for a water pump. She saw Teagan and Dorian nearby.

"Hey... Guys..." She said, a little out of breath, "Is there a tap nearby?"

Taegan waved her to be quiet and threw a canteen at her. Then he turned back to Dorian. The blonde boy had spent most of the morning meditating and warming up. Now he was standing in just a pair of very loose jodhpurs, holding a rather long, very straight sword. Breathing calmly, he was sort of poking around his abdomen and straightening his body. Finally he turned his face to the sky and tilted the sword so it was resting on his lips, hilt straight up in the air. Opening his mouth, he slowly and carefully began to feed the long steel into his throat. Down it went, deep inside his body. Finally, it was all the way in. He let it go, clamping the steel in his teeth and held his arms to the sides in a sort of 'tada!'

Behind him, Winston was juggling eight balls and a fish. He shook his head at the boys, knowing full well that they were being ever so slightly competitive around Calli. But at least it made them put in some more effort. Balder was sitting to one side, writing in a red leather bound note book.

Calli chugged down as much water as her stomach could take, then poured a little over her head. She watched Dorian for a moment, wondering just how he was going to manage to swallow a sword. She wondered briefly if it was a trick but she knew a trick sword when she saw one and Dorian's definitely wasn't.

Calli gasped when he swallowed the blade. It was amazing, she hadn't known that you could get a body to do that.

"Awesome." Calli breathed out. If she weren't out of breath to begin with she would have been going pink.

Calli clapped her hands, not too loudly becase she didn't want to hamper his concentration. She was going to marry that boy one day.

"That is so benny." She said, after she'd stopped clapping, hands limp by her sides.

Dorian took a moment to withdraw the sword carefully, then gave a florishing bow. When he stood he was grinning from ear to ear. Taegan clapped..almost, then frowned and turned his back. Winslow threw the fish at Taegan mid juggle, grinning.

"Gonna have to step up you game boy-o." Balder, chewing on his pencil, stood up and walked over, tapping his book. He looked at Calli.

"I watched you missy, I like what you've got, but just remember we will be in a ring. Your tumbling act is brilliant, but a bit wide ranged, tighten it up dear. I've got the whole thing written out." He looked at his troupe.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Balder's Traveling Circus will have its first showing in Vienda in two weeks. I will introduce us, then our funnyman will do his thing, get the audience happy and ready for the animals. Taegan can strut his stuff, and Winslow can come on again. I will then introduce the next act, being Dorian. Then after the audience finishes loosing their dinner, I will introduce the finale. Calli. You can dance them to their beds." Grinning, he looked at them one by one.

"What say ye?"

"YAY!" Shouted Calli, jumping into the air as was her usual habit. "How much space have I got!?"

Calli liked to include business with with exaltation, it was the only way she could get everything she needed done in a day. Calli turned to Dorian, still smiling and excited, hair falling in wet spikes.

"Hey, how do youdo that?" She asked, enthralled. She looked between him and Teagan, "I've never seen anything like you guys!"

She realised she was going to have to head over to Vik's soon... She also had yet to practice her singing today.

Balder tapped his pencil on his book. How much space did they have? He frowned.

"I would say, about fifty feet across and seventy back. Like a semi circle. But when we get the tent sorted, it will be much much much bigger."



"Talent."
"Skill."

The boys answered together, then looked at each other.

"Skill."
"Talent."

They frowned at each other. Dorian quickly jumped in.

"It takes a lot of practice, years of dedication and the ability to control your gag reflex. I meditate before I swallow, to be more at one with my body and centered in my mind." Taegan made a face then shouldered his way into the conversation.

"Well for me it takes patience and kindness. My animals trust and love me, and I do the same for them. Only care and friendship can get a chrove to be such a pussy cat." He looked at Dorian and smiled.

"But sword swallowing, thats a feat. A feat you can keep, you weirdo." Dorian grinned and nodded.

"Thats ok, I'd rather be a weirdo than a girly man." They laughed at each other. Winslow came over and hung off both boys shoulders.

"It's settled, your both weird girly men!" The two young men started to protest, but the clown just laughed loudly.

With his boots over his shoulder and his pants rolled up to his knees to enjoy the sand,
Tristaan had wandered the beach for sometime, remembering Calli's words at lunch a few days ago that she would be there to practice. Worried that he had totally walked in the wrong direction, he was relieved to find the small gathering just in time to watch the sword-swallowing.

Approaching quietly, he couldn't resist chuckling at the young men arguing for Calli's attention. Clearing his throat, he offered a wave in her direction, "I see I have finally found you! Did I miss all the fun?" He smiled, removing his hat so that Smirk would fly noisily in her direction.

The whice complied, flapping his runty wings to flop on her head, squawking, "Fun!"