Calli had spent most of the morning hiding under a caravan and sucking on mint leaves. She'd almost eaten hingle this morning. Her teeth had touched dough before she'd realised just what was in the dumplings. She'd thrown the thing so hard away from her that it had hit a tree and exploded.

She just... She didn't like to eat things with paws, ok? It seemed very disloyal. She wouldn't eat kenser either, how could she look Kenny in the eye if she ate kenser?

She didn't want to walk back into the bigtop again. Not after running out of it so quickly this morning. She felt silly but she also felt like she'd been tricked somehow. Sometimes other people used to pull that on her as a joke, back when she'd been littler. She hadn't liked jokes like that, it made her feel stupid and small.

She sniffled loudly and patted a happily cheeping Froof.

((Just a little response. I don't want to go too quickly with this one till I know what's going on with Hal's position in the circus, so please forgive late responses after this one. ))

Hal had wandered away after the proceedings with Balder. Seemed like the circus was right on its way. He was walking away from the tent and wandering between the carts when he heard a sniff nearby. He hadn't heard anything until then but the wind, and the sound made him jerk. He looked around about him and didn't see anyone. He ducked down and looked, and there was Calli sitting under a wagon. She looked sad. Hal didn't like it. Without thinking of how he'd been hiding from her and for her, he blurted out, "Why are you crying?"

((No worries ))



"H-Hal?" Calli said, taking a moment to believe it was him. "Hal!"

Calli tucked froof into the sizeable pocket of the jacket she was wearing. Froof popped his head out immediately and began looking around. Calli scrambled up from under the caravan, knees getting a little dirtier but not caring. She wrapped her arms around Hal's shoulders, careful not to squish the hingle in her pocket.

"Oh my gods, how did you get here? I couldn't find you to say goodbye and I have had such a crappy day, I missed you!" She blurted it all out, running from tangent to tangent, still sniffling.

She was very happy to see him.

Hal ignored her questions, half out of self-preservation, half concern, "Why were you crying? What's wrong? Why was your day crappy? Did anyone hurt you? Are you okay?"

Hal tried not to squish the hingle as he grabbed her shoulders firmly and looked her in the eye.

Calli sniffled pathetically. "I almost ate hingle!"

She pulled a hanky from her pocket and blew her nose loudly.

"I know it's stupid and I made such a fool of myself but I just feel like such a traitor after what happened to Mister Bingles so I've been hiding under the caravan feeling shitty and sucking on mint!" Calli paused for breath. "And I bet everyone thinks I'm stuffed in the head now and I hate it when people look at me funny and I just hate it when... When..."

Calli slumped like a jasmine vine in the sun.

"And where were you?" She said again, her jumbled mind slipping around again like a pig in mud. "This is Froof."

Calli pulled Froof out of her pocket and held him up so Hal could see.

Hal listened as she babbled, growing relieved that she wasn't hurt, but upset that someone had made a fool of her. And who was Mister Bingles, anyway? I don't think you're stuffed in the head... he nearly said it, and almost thought he had when she blurted,



From white knight to awkward teen in .5 seconds flat. "Erm, well, I..." he stood awkwardly, gangly legs leading to dirt shuffling feet; he held onto his left elbow with his right hand, and couldn't quite meet her eye. He looked at the puffball in her hands, "Hi."

He looked up at Calli, wide eyes taking in her slumped, unhappy appearance. "H'okay, here goes... I was on the beach the day you were leaving, and I don't like sayin' goodbye, 'specially to people I actually like, an' I din' wanna ask t'come, 'cause I thought they'd say no, so I hopped in a cart and hid in the caravan, but I couldn' bring myself to talk to ya, 'cause I'd look like a stalker, an' even though I came for you, I couln' talk to ya, an' it's not like it was only for you, but it was, but I needed summat diff'r'nt from Ol' Rose, but that's not the only reason I came, an' the longer I waited the creepier it'd look, but jus' now I saw ya an' I thought someone had'a hurt'ch'a, an I wasn' about ta tolerate that, an' so I talked to ya, but I didn't want to, well, I wanted to, but I didn' want'ch'a to know I was here, but in the end I did, so maybe it was better this way, but... but..." Calli was giving him a look he didn't understand, "What?"

Calli took in his change of body language and hated herself for being weird.



Calli's heart burst, he liked her! He was her friend too.

"I am so happy to see you!" She cried, wrapping her arms around him and crushing him to her chest. Froof ran up her arm to rest on her shoulder. "I'm so glad you came and I wish you'd come talk to me sooner because I swear I wouldn't have minded! But I'm so glad you're here now."

Calli sniffed again, slightly overwhelmed. Hal had come back. No one had ever followed her before. It made her teary.

"You're not creepy at all," she hiccuped, "I think you're very sweet."

Hal's ears turned red at Calli's hug, and a solid red blush crept from his collar upward to his hairline when she said she thought he was sweet. He half stuttered some unintelligible reply. Mentally shaking himself, he cleared his throat and spoke, "Th-thanks. I guess I shouldn't'a worried, but I- I didn' know you'd react... but I'll be aroun' more, I think. So... so you won' 'ave ta be alone."

Despite (or perhaps because of) her pleasant reaction, he still felt awkward, and he realized he was still holding on to her. He jumped and withdrew, but meant nothing unkind by it. He hoped Calli wouldn't think too much of it.

Calli accepted it when Hal pushed her away but still wished that she could have held on a moment longer. She was a physical person and the few weeks she'd spent without family had been difficult. She enjoyed being demonstrative and she couldn't be around Dorian and Teagan.

She rubbed her eyes a little again, glad that Hal was going to stay.

"I'm glad, it'll be really good to see eachother more." She had a gigantic soft spot for Hal and she almost felt as though it was her right and privilege to look out for him, whether he needed it or not. "Hey, have you met the rest of the circus yet?"

Her voice brightened slightly, her self esteem bolstered by a friendly face.

"Erm, only in passing..." He had gotten to put faces and names together when he was in hiding, and had heard it all when he introduced himself to Balder that morning, but Calli seemed intent on sharing and wasn't about to dampen her freshly dried mood. "You wanna introduce me proper?"

Calli was still a little reticent about seeing everyone after her earlier display but the thought of making Hal part of the family warmed her.

"Sure, why don't we go see the guys, I bet they're not really paying too much attention to the auditions. They get flighty after a while." She reached for Hal's hand, ready to guide him towards the side of the big tent.

Hal hesitated for just a moment, but took her hand and followed her. He didn't really know anyone there. Not really, anyway, so maybe he could deal with the whole... hand-holding... thing...

He didn't actively shy away, at any rate, and followed her gamely toward the tent.

Calli lead Hal towards the main tent, tugging him through a side entrance. Balder and Winston were still watching the auditions but Teagan and Dorian were lounging off to the side, watching idly.

Calli saw some faces that looked familiar but didn't want to interupt them.

"Hi guys." Calli said, waving at the two boys. "My old friend Hal came to visit! Hal, Teagan and Dorian."

Calli had yet to let go of his hand and was beaming happily.

The boys looked at Hal like he was something found on the bottom of their shoes, Taegan in particular. He didn't just look at Hal, he glared at him, at their hands, then back at his face. Slowly, the blonde pushed himself away from the crate he was leaning against and faced them, pointedly keeping his biceps slightly flexed. The boy was quite muscular from handling Clarabelle.

"Old friend?" He said in a sort of accusing way, keeping his gaze hard. He extended a hand.

"Hi." Dorian watched from the crate, scowl still on his face. He felt for Calli almost as much as Taegan did, but only Taegan was tolerated. This Hal was an outsider, a threat.

Calli let go of Hal's hand so he could shake Teagan's. She completely missed the undercurrent of tension because she liked Teagan and Dorian. She tended to presume that everyone was kind and good. She'd been taught not to think ill of others.

Other than that she was fairly on the ball though...

"Yeah." Calli said to Teagan. "I met him in Old Rose just before I joined the circus. He's really noble."

Calli grinned at them all.

Hal took the older (taller) boy's hand in what appeared to be a shake. But he locked eyes with the man and a silent battle was instantly initiated. Though he didn't look it, Hal was packed with lean muscle, and he squeezed the other's hand threateningly.



Noble? His ears were going red again, but he refused let go, blink, or look away till the other boy did, despite Calli's... distractions.

Taegan held the boy's gaze as he felt the tight squeeze and returned the favor. He wouldn't back down yet.



The blonde boy grinned through gritted teeth, his eyes burning into Hal's.

"Oh yeh? Noble you say? Seems like a silly title to me." His tendons stood out on his hand with exertion. If if didn't stop soon, someone would break a hand.

Hal had no intention of backing down, but Alioe, did it hurt! His hand was tensed and he was clenching his jaw.



"It's not a title," he said through gritted teeth. He wanted to continue that he wasn't, and that it was a silly sentiment, but his eyes flicked over at Calli as he realized it would hurt her more than his hand currently did... "It's none of your damn business, is what it is."

He gave one final rough squeeze, then jerked his hand back to his side. He resisted the urge to shake some blood back into his fingertips. Dorian didn't seem too bad, but this Taegan... Hal didn't like him. Not at all.

Calli's eyes turned a little stormy. This looked like the sort of trouble her brother got into.

"You two aren't playing nice, are you?" She said, voice gaining a lilt none of the boys in front of her had heard before. "I just don't get that. Bad vibes hurt my performance, I full miss handsprings and cartwheels and that."

Calli patted Hal's head and gave Teagan a hard look.

"I don't think calling someone noble is silly. Do you think that I'm silly?" Calli allowed a pinch to form between her brows. "I thought we were all family... We share business, right?"

Taegan shoved his hand in his pocket, still glaring at the boy. What did she even want to bother with a scraggly thing like Hal for?



The blonde animal tamer looked at the girl with sulky eyes, hearing the noise in her voice, but still narky at the whole Hal situation.



Rubbing the back of his neck, Taegan kicked at the dirt and looked at his feet.

"Aww Calli, that's not...I mean," He shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorry Calli."

Calli gave a Hal a look, hand still resting on his head. Convincing people into getting along wasn't as hard as it looked. Just like vaulting, all you really needed was leverage. Getting a body or an argument into the air, it was all the same.

She wanted them all to get along. She got stressed when people didn't. Teagan had backed down from hasseling Hal, now she just needed to know if Hal felt that was good enough. She hoped he did but it was his decision to make.

Hal was half-frozen, blanched. Calli was touching his head. It made him feel incredibly short, which he didn't care for, especially in front of the older, taller boy. And she was touching him.

He didn't like the shortness thing, but he didn't want to shake her off. He settled for a compromise. He reached up and took Calli's hand. Color rose in his cheeks. "You're not silly, Calli," he told her, avoiding looking right at her,"Let's go," He paled slightly before the rest,"g-get lunch... o-or summat."

He cast a dark look at Taegan and started to draw her away from the other two.

Calli let Hal pull at her arm, the Red Crow tribe had always been generous with physical displays of affection and reprimandation, so she usually didn't think twice about them.

"It's a little early but why not? I should take you to see Kenny, I think he missed you." Calli turned back to Dorian and Teagan. "Do you two want to get something to eat as well?"

Hal flinched. Did she jus' invite them?!

He tried to not physically roll his eyes, but failed. He turned and looked at Taegan with a look that said "Accept and Die."

The look on Taegans face was one of a boy thinking of good excuses to say no. Then he saw Hal's face. And he grinned. Turning slightly to Dorian, the animal tamer raised an eyebrow.

"What say you Dorian, feel like a bite?" The sword swallower walked over and stood beside his friend with a matching grin.

"Absolutly, I am starving. Lead the way Calli!"