Worried was a word rarely used to describe Leon Publian. Leon had been thinking all day about what to do in his life, he had always dreamed of dancing but his fathers wishes were for him to be a courier and he had been... for two years.

Leon was the best in the business, he could send letters and parcels so quick a moa would be jealous. But ever since Leon first learned to dance he has always wanted to perform and now opportunity was knocking at his cart step.

As Leon approached the tents he could see a short, stout man sitting by a fledgling fire, he felt a sudden chill go down his back, Could this be the amazing Balder. What am I doing, I am a courier that's all I'll ever be. Despite his fear he still drudged on hoping to find a job as a dancer in Balder's Circus.

Balder was nose deep in his notebook, oblivious to the festival around him. He'd already wandered it, and had his fill. Now he was planning a small circus event for the final week. Nothing like Cirque De Vienda...more of a Cirque De Need Some Cash. His troupe needed to bring in some more money for themselves and to keep the whole shindig together. Winslow had told him about the rift between Dorian and Taegan, and poor Calli in the middle. It was not encouraging to hear. And since the Weddings, Taegan had done nothing but brood. Granted he'd gone shopping and mentioned some new additions to his act - that renewed Balder a little - but the balding man was yet to see these additions.

Chewing on his pencil, the human wasn't even aware of the wick.

Leon walked up to the short, stout man that was fiddling with his pencil. Leon's black and white hair was extra spiky today, he thought it would impress Balder. Balder seemed to be writing something that looked like notes, Maybe he is planning a show, a show i can be in.

"U-um sir, by any chance might you be the amazing Balder King." Leon said as he fidgeted with his hands. "Because if you are, I am your man. I heard balder was looking for a performer to add to your troupe so i came running,. My name is Leon Publian and I have always wanted to be a Performer." Leon said with as much confidence as he could find.

Balder looked up from his notebook with a blank expression. He blinked once, then shook his head. Grinning, he closed the book and nodded. Winslow had poked his head out of the tent, cigarette hanging from his lined mouth, grey hair sticking out everywhere, wearing suspenders and pants. The old clown came and sat down by the fire.

"I er...well I am he. And I am always looking for good performers, but at the moment the budget is tight, so pay is even tighter. If your alright with that, then show me what can you do Mister Publian?"

Leon could not believe what he had just heard. He might actually have chance to be in the circus and get to perform. Leon dreamed of this moment ever since he learned how to dance. Leon was so excited he almost forgot what he was going to do, then it came back to him.

"Alright sir, I am fine with a tight salary as long as I get to travel with the greatest circus in the ten kingdoms." Leon said as he took off his pinstriped blazer and shirt, revealing his not so perfect body.

Leon focused on an image of his mother in his head, the one who taught him to dance. Leon could feel Balder's eyes on him and readied himself for his Dance. She taught him when he was 15. She was from the falling stone tribe and she had been dancing since she was three so it was most appropriate for him to learn how to dance.

Leon took one step back and did a back flip. luckily he was wearing his dancing shoes so his landing made a BOOM! sound which was loud and noticeable. He then he than ran as fast as he could and jumped up spinning in the air, the only part that could be distinguished from the spinning tornado were his arms that were ejected from his body and moving separate from it. When landing instead of landing on his feet he landed in a tumble and emerging from it on his hands. He did a handstand for about a minute then he decided it was time for some traditional falling stone dancing. Leon stretched out his hands as far away from his body as they could go almost like he was praying to the gods. He then closed his eyes and then arched his back as if he was an angry cat. Then he tumbled on to the ground, when he came up clapped his hands twice while he stamped his foot the traditional falling stone way. Then he saw a tree and ran towards it. When he came to to the tree he ran up the trunk and did a back flip.

As Leon approached Balder he could feel that same chill from before come back just like a ghost. "So what did you think Mister Balder, I hope I did well." Leon thought he could see that Balder didn't know what to say but he did not know if that was good or bad.

Balder scratched his chin and looked at Winslow. The clown squinted at him through his cigarette smoke, giving one groggy cough. He wasn't a morning person. Lunchtime as morning wasn't much better. Taking a breath, Balder smiled at Leon.

"That was pretty good Mister Publian. But I need you to have a routine, y'see? All your tumbling was good. But do you have a sort of, act? Have a think about it, and come back to me with a short routine." Winslow eyed the black and white haired wick.

"Mmph..routine." He said in a croaky voice. Taking out the cigarette he cleared his throat.

"A routine is what you need for sure. Got moves, but nothing to stick them in. Some good clown moves there too." Pausing, he looked like he might say something else, but instead gave up and put the cigarette back in.

Leon new he would get this reaction, but he was still a littler disappointed. He wanted to be in the circus so bad and carrying messages from place to place just wasn't doing it for Leon. Leon thought this could have been his golden ticket but he thought wrong.

Just when Leon was about to walk away back to a life of solitude and parchment it hit him like one of Lester's psychotic hind leg kicks. "Sir, I understand i need a routine that is why I am here. Maybe you and your fabulous performers could find it in your hearts to teach me a routine and let me study under them. I was thinking I might help your animal trainer while I did this, I have a kenser of my own and I am very good with animals. Please sir find it in your heart I would not ask this to any other person besides the great Balder King." Leon said all the while having the biggest puppy dog face anybody could imagine.

Calli appeared from behind a kint, walking in her usual bouncy fashion.

"Hey, Balder?" She said, after catching sight of the man. "Have you seen Dorian? I wanted to catch him before the Fotamos ceremony today..."

She realised that Balder was talking to someone new and smiled at them.

"Oh, epaemo for interupting. My name's Calli." She said, extending her hand.

Leon could feel the hairs on his neck stand up as soon as he felt her field. When he turned around he saw, what he thought, was one of the cutest women he had ever seen. She was blonde with eyes that looked like rich chocolate.

"Leon, my name is Leon" Leon said as he gave calli a hardy handshake. "Do you work here at the circus, you look like you could be a dancer." Leon wondering who this girl was and how she might be able to get him in with balder.

"That's because I am." She said cheerfully, returning the handshake with equal exuberance. "I'm an acrobat on stage mainly, though. I've been with the circus for about two months."

She glanced between Balder and Leon.

"Are you trying out, maybe?" She asked, casually looking around the tent now.

Well Leon was not surprised such a graceful women could not have been anything but an acrobat working for the circus. He could see that he was probably older than her but he wondered by how much and would she even return his advances. But it did not matter, Nothing about relationships mattered right then, that day it was all about the circus.

"Well actually, I just tried out." Leon said pointing to all the shoe prints in the dirt. "Mister King here says I need a routine, which I understand fully. But I was thinking i could maybe train under the people of the circus until i had my routine down, you know an apprenticeship. What do you think?" Leon said staring straight into the chocolate brown eyes of calli.

"We all tend to make up our own routines. It's kind of important to be able to at least make yourself an outline. I'm sure if you had that people would be happy to help, everyone's really nice." Calli wondered why he was looking at her so intently, she tended not to pick up on interest very well. "Balder knows best though, of course. He's the boss."

Calli smiled fondly at Balder, she trusted his decisions.

Balder smiled warmly at Calli, almost fatherly. He looked around thoughtfully.

"I haven't seen him this morning Calli, I thought he was with you. I know he aint with Taegan." He said the trainers name a little meaningfully. The boy was a shadow of himself. Lost without Dorian and too proud to apologize to either Dorian or Calli. Looking over at Leon, he tapped his notebook thoughtfully.

"You need to be able to make an outline, like Calli here has just said. I don't mind letting you tag along to learn a few things, in the meanwhile you can help the stagehands to earn your keep. I wouldn't suggest bothering Taegan about the animals, he is not in the best of moods. I don't think he'd take your offer to help as a nice thing. Our tamer is a little...well...he's Taegan." Opening his notebook, he looked at the first page.

"I will give you a month to learn and create a routine. You can audition again after that. If you can't offer me something by then, I'm sorry lad, but I can't keep you on. For now, stagehand it is." Winslow nodded in agreement with the ring master. He threw the cigarette in the fire.

"I'd be happy to help the lad out Balder. Till he decides where he stands. Clown, Dancer or Acrobat?"

Leon could feel his heart start to beat faster and faster. Leon was about to explode with glee, his dream had finally come true. He would finally have a group of people he could help out and vice versa.

"Thank you so much mister Balder, thank you so much." Leon said jumping up in the air joyously. "Thank you too mister. I will be glad to be under you tutelage until we figure out what I am. I do not think i caught your name mister, you mind telling me." Leon said while extending his arm out. "And I am fine with being a stagehand, maybe it will teach me more discipline."

Calli frowned a little, sadly. Oes, that was going to fix itself.

"Dze..." She said, really wanting to find her boyfriend and just hang about with him for a while.



"Congratulations, Leon!" Calli said, now mustering some enthusiasm. "welcome to the team!"

Winslow grabbed the offered hand and gave it a firm shake.

"Sorry boy, name is Winslow Coors. I'm the head clown in this little troupe." Balder clasped him on the shoulder with a grin.

"And my oldest friend." The clown waved the balding man off with a grin. Stretching, he looked over Calli's head.

"I think I see someone looking for you Cal." Behind the blonde girl, a brown haired figure was jogging over.

"Calli! Calli! I've been looking everywhere for you! But I couldn't find you...oh, hi!" He stopped abruptly and looked at Leon. Putting an arm around Calli's waist, he nodded.

"Dorian Slick, how you doing?"

"Really?" She said excitedly, face lighting up as she caught sight of Dorian.



"I'm sorry, I was searching the circus for you." She said, putting her own arm around him and looping a thumb in his belt.

She kissed his cheek fondly, ridiculously happy. They'd almost been dating for a week. A week! Aside from all of the horribleness with Taegan and Hal being unhappy and that one time Dorian had too much to drink... It had been the best week of her life!

"Well hello, Winslow. You seem like a great 'teacher' cannot wait to start learning on how to build on a routine." Leon could see that this man was a good man, he almost wanted to give him a hug.

"Why hello, I am Leon. You could say I am the new 'recruit'. So you're Dorian, it is nice to meet you. So what do you do." Leon said extending his hand.

Taking the kiss on the cheek with a goofy grin, Dorian reached out and shook Leon's hand firmly, before pulling back.

"I eat swords. Ha! No, really. I'm a sword swallower and I can do a little juggling, a little fire breathing...nothing to crazy." He grinned down at Calli, reaching over with the other hand to give her a rib crushing squeeze.

"As I said, trying to find you. Need food. You want?" He feel into half sentences, comfortable enough with Calli that he didn't feel the need to articulate everything.

Leon watched the brown haired man explain his role with unequaled intent. Leon could see that this circus was more amazing then anything he could have dreamed up. Leon was slightly embarrassed though. He felt like a beige horse in a sea of beautiful golden moa.

"Wow, so that is what you do. That is amazing, you must have such talent. Leon was quit flabbergasted at such the talent he had around him that he almost fainted. "Maybe you could show me some of your moves later if you don't mind. You guys want lunch I can buy. Before I came to the festival I did a job that made me go into the stacks, I charge double for that." Leon said as he pulled four shiny shills from his pocket.

Calli was torn.

On the one hand she had making a new friend and helping someone new to the circus feel welcome.

On the other hand she had been wanting to have a date with her BoyFriend and possibly sneaking him into her kint. To make out. Until someone caught them!

"Hey, that'd be great, Leon. Epaemo, Dorian and I have to go see my camp today, do some things." She squeezed Dorian's side, willing him to play along. "How about tomorrow instead? We could meet here!"

It wasn't really lie, depending on the definition of "things". She hadn't seen him all day, there were only so many hours they could spend together. Her da tended to get twitchy if Dorian was around when it got dark. She was going to be very welcoming tomorr... Gosh, Dorian had nice muscles under his shirt...

"Sure! I'm looking forward to it. How about you two meet me here around 13 O' clock." Leon Realized the "stuff" they were gonna do was intimate so he got the picture really fast. "So I'll see you guys tomorrow. You guys have fun alright, just not too much fun." Leon could see the look in Calli's eyes, she really had strong feelings for this Dorian fellow.

As Leon walked back to his cart he realized that his afternoon was not so bad and he actually got a few friends out of it. Maybe now he could get a routine down and become an official part of the circus, Hopefully.