Knights of the Realm ch. 3: The Celebration

[Raiden]

Morning came, and Adin returned, with a new friend in tow.

The members of the circus were a little shaken from last night's raid, but were thankful for the newcomers to help in the fight. They were more friendly to the Knights in disguise, and welcomed them freely. After an hour of breakfast, packing, and attendance, the large caravan set out for Incrad once more.

They spent all morning on the road. It was hot, but the circus drudged on, allowing the old and the young to ride in the carriages, where it was nice and cool.

Finally, sometime later in the evening, but not yet dark, they arrived at Incrad. The city had changed since the Knights had last been there. The Mountain Gate was no longer open. Large wooden fences and a grand steel door had been erected to protect the only safe passage towards the city. There were Incradian gaurds everywhere, and more weapons than were people. Thomas raised his hood to cover his scar.

Callos went forward towards the large platoon of gaurds, holding the dragon Totem in front of him. The gaurds checked the totem several times, and after fifteen minutes of extreme searching, they finally allowed him passage through. The Knights hid amongst the other performers, easily passing by the soldiers.

Once inside the city, the Knights were expecting the streets to be filled with happy festival people. Instead, the streets were deserted. Thomas hurried up to Callos.

"Callos, where is everybody."

Callos looked down with a bit of a sadness that pained his eyes.

"I've told you, Thomas. Times have changed. King Roland placed a severe lockdown on Incrad several months ago. Unless you had certain reasons to leave your house, such as going to work or getting groceries, you aren't allowed to leave. Even when you have good reasons, you're still watched like a hawk by the roaming soldiers. The King has set a special time for the festival. At around 7:00, the festival will start. King Roland will make an appearance at around 8:00, and the festival will end at 10:00. Then, everyone not back in their houses by 10:30 will be arrested under suspicion of wrongdoings."

Thomas shook his head.

"That's horrible. This place was once alive and bursting with life. Now, it's nothing more than an extravagant prison."

Time passed. The circus performers had set up their attractions, poles, tents, and different animals. The performers were ready, and when 7:00 rolled around, the people came bustling through with great fervor. They had limited time to enjoy themselves, so they were taking full advantage of it.

(OOC: Time to go to work, people. Let's perform!)

[Kima Azure]

Kel was making sure the cages had no problems. He moved back and forth, checking the locks, bars, and other stuff. There wasn't much he could do, but he would make sure it worked perfectly.

[wilysword]

Pilo introduced Adin to the other tightrope walkers as they set up the highwire. Since he was the best, he led the group: The two who were good said they were twins, though they didn't look very much alike; the first, Haas, was about average height and had dark skin and light hair, while the other, Phil, was quite short and had hair that almost matched the brown of his skin. The trainee was a young woman named Wave, who said she was from a port town; her tan skin and good balance said she'd probably been a sailor.

Though they appreciated his help with the bandits, they were skeptical of his abilities on a tightrope. "Ye don't look like a circus performer, Mive," said Haas, calling Adin by the name he'd picked. "How good can ye be?"

Though the tightrope wasn't quite ready, they'd already set up the low rope for warming up. Without a word, Adin walked over and climbed on the platform, then stepped out onto the rope. Standing as if he had solid rock for miles around, without warning he did a backflip, on the spot. Without stopping to regain his balance, he did a few cartwheels out to the middle, stopping in a handstand. Shifting his grip slightly, he dropped and swung beneath the rope, almost scraping his knees on the low ground, coming back up and doing a double backflip, landing with one foot back, before sweeping a bow to a small crowd that had gathered.

Returning to Haas, whose mouth was hanging open, Adin said, "I don't look like a circus performer, but I used to do that kind of thing for a living." Looking around at the increasing numbers, he added, "It's already after seven, we'd better finish this up."

[Astral Harmony]

It was nearing time for Jilleen to perform, but she was nowhere to be seen. No signs of struggle or blood. She was just missing. She clearly entered Incrad with the rest of them, but shortly after the place was set up, she was simply gone.

[Raiden]

Thomas looked around. Most of the other Knights were accounted for, but he couldn't find Jilleen anywhere. He grabbed Kal.

"It's time for our act, friend. Like we practiced. I'll take the air, you take the ground."

Thomas and Kal walked towards a little clearing made for their act. The ground was littered with different platforms and poles, and even had two tigers running around on leashes.

Higher up, the poles had small platforms on top, and there were trapezes set up between them. Samuel was waiting atop a pole, already prepared for the act. Thomas smiled, and patted Kal on the shoulder.

"Let's put on a show, eh?"

Thomas ran over to a pole, and began to climb up to the top.

[Overcast]

Niall readied his many little tricks in his cloak and top hat and pulled out his favorite trick and the finale, The Mystical Snowball Of The Southnortheastwestern Lands. He smiled at its rediculous name, but it was quite a show to behold. He sat back and took a pipe from the air and began to smoke it until his time came up.

[Fuzzydoom]

Damion lifts a long reed pipe from a cloth bag he wears across his back and plays a slow and sweet melody. "Where's Jilleen? Hope she's back in time to dance while I play. Hmmm." Damion muses to himself for a while, then goes back to playing the pipe.

[lazy man]

"So... Jack, was it? What brought you to this fine circus of ours," one of the other guards he was working with in the back asked Rulick.

"Oh, the usual. Money, a couple of friends coming along, and a guarantee for booze once I was finished."

"Story of my life," the other guard replied with a smirk. It was obvious he'd been, and worked, here for quite a while, and obviously was here for the same reason as Rulick's excuse. "Wait a minute, tell me again why you don't have any weapons?"

"Well, the damn things are so expensive, and I'd rather have some money just in case something happens. That, and I just happen to like seeing the looks on their faces when I steal their weapon from them," Rulick told him. "Oh yeah, I never got your name."

"Oh, geez, sorry. I do that sometimes. Name's Rick." Rick stuck out his hand, and Rulick shook it lazily. There was a bit of silence and all that could be heard was the crowd, then Rulick wondered if anything was actually going to happen.

"So does anything ever happen around here or is it always like this? I hate being useless," the knight mused.

"Oh, don't worry. Something'll happen eventually, we just have to wait until someone gets drunk and comes back here looking at the pretty girls." Both of them chuckled, and then went back to waiting, joking around every now and then.

[CelesJessa]

"Must I wear this?" Cecilia said, peeking her head out from one of the tents backstage. A couple of the circus women had taken to Cecilia, as if she was a little sister; and when they learned she had "always dreamed of being a bareback rider at the circus" they had stuck to her like glue all day, trying their best to teach her some basics and one impressive trick. By the end of the day, Cecilia was feeling pretty confident about her ability to do the stunt. She was even able to use her own white horse, Blanca, in the show.

The one thing she wasn't too confident in was the rediculous costume the women had put her in. Cecilia was their little dress up doll, and their final costume they had decided on was this red number that was adorned with a red sash around her waist, silk scarfs and red feathers. Nothing like anything Cecilia had ever seen before, "Perhaps there is something with a little more of a.... dress?" In all of her years of fighting to defend the land, she has never had to do something as outragous as dress in such an outfit.

"Nonsense Arya," One of the women said, calling Cecilia by her circus name, "A dress will just make it difficult for you to do the few things we taught you." She said, grabbing "Arya" by the arm and pulling her out from the tent flap and inspecting the costume she had made, "All eyes will surely be on you!" The woman smiled and nodded wisely, obviously pleased with Cecilia's appearance.

Cecilia smiled uncertainly at the woman, but grimiced inside, <Being noticed isn't my goal...> She said to herself as she prepared to go on stage.

[Lycanthrope]

Devon looked at the course in front of him. A series of poles and ropes stood before him, suspended at all angles. He had used courses like to this one in training as a Sword master. Certain ropes were triggers for traps that would swing out at him, forcing him to dodge and evade as he worked his way through them. except back then they had used sandbags. In order to appease the crowd, something more deadly would have to be used on this corse, and so spiked balls the size of his head were waiting to swing down at several points. He went over the course in his mind as two assistances helped him prepare for the act

"And in this ring" the master announced, "Master Jared Stone shall preform a feat of agility, strength, and daring upon this, a most carefully designed obstical course. In order to get to the other side, he must evade traps, triggered by the very ropes he must climb on to move through the course. More over, he shall do all this, with his right hand tied behind his back." Devon winced at this part. True, as a sword master, he was used to going through the course with only one hand unoccupied, however he was used to being able to counterbalance his movements, however, it was his suggestion in the first place and it wasn't like he hadn't practiced this routine before. Running forward, Devon lept up and grabbed the first of the ropes, and slung himself into the maze of ropes.