The music builds to a crescendo as the acrobatics show builds to its finale... an aerial display involving four separate costumed dancers swinging between each of the three tent poles - at any one time, two of the performers are airborne or swinging on the ropes... and, with a final crash of cymbals they all seemingly plummet into a series of wooden barrels scattered around the tent. There is a moment of silence as the audience watches aghast... and then, hands aloft - and to rising cheers, the dancers spring from the barrels. Taking the applause, the performers bow to the four corners of the tent... and then the lights suddenly go out.
...darkness reigns and the audience waits. A silence falls over the tent as anticipation for the final show of the evening... and a low growl accompanies the sudden blinking of eyes within the centre of the arena. Lady Midnight's wolves, lions, jaguars and bears taking their place...
Even in her distracted state, Joanna can't help but join in the cheering of the finale. It was impressive and did help her cheer up some, and Briana's reminder helped her form imitating a lovelorn fool too much. She leaned over to whisper something back to Briana when the lights go out, and the eyes appear, and whatever Joanna had been about to say is lost as she wonders if Halli is out there.
That was really great... I've never seen anything like this! These acrobats are terrific!
Hearing Briana words despite the cheers
I'm not very flexible myself. The formal dances I learned in my youth are very stiff, when you watch the sensual freedom of Varisian dances. We should takes lessons in this kind of dances, don't you agree, Briana? Maybe Miss Z could even teach us. That would be fun.
that seems rather exhilarating... and I'm sure it would have practical benefits as we explore more ruins... perhaps I should see if Briana would like to take acrobatics lessons with me...
Teldon kisses Briana's hand and leans in as though about to whisper something, but when Arsith suggests that they learn the Varisian dances he quietly sits back up with a far off look in his eyes (and a bit more color in his cheeks than usual).
The lights suddenly come up, a sudden glare of brightness that causes the audience to look away for a moment... and, as the light subsides, Lady Midnight's animals are now within the tent. Each, perched upon one of scores of brightly painted tree trunks, has been sprinkled with a glittering powder... the effect being to make the animals sparkle and seem even more magnificent beneath the lights of the tent. Lady Midnight, now wearing the mask of a grinning court jester, strides in... raises her hand and calls out, "Welcome... welcome to one and all... to our final show of the night... the famed 'Lady Midnight's Menagerie'"
...a quiet settles over the audience and, as one, the animals - wolves, jaguars and lions - start to leap between the trunks... whilst, clambering to ground level, the bears approach Lady Midnight.
Joanna looks and tries to follow Briana's finger to where Halli is, but can't seem to pick the wolf out.
"I can't spot her," she whispers back as she continues to look, but the rest of the menagerie proves to be too captivating for her to be able to focus on looking for her friend.
"Maybe. I just hope those thugs didn't come back and take them," she says when Briana mentions one of the wolves from the cage that Halli was in is missing.
The show, captivating and visually spectacular, ebbs and flows with the music... the audience are transfixed through the various displays - until, as the performance seems to be building to a crescendo, the wolves suddenly stop. Sniffing the air, and pricking their ears up, they lower onto their haunches... and, with Lady Midnight quizzically looking at them, they sprint past her and out of the tent... baying and howling as they go.
The lights of the tent go up... and Lady Midnight looks, almost instinctively, towards the friends. From the look on the Varisian's face as she pulls the mask clear, it is obvious that something is wrong...
Seeing the look on Lady Midnight's face is all it takes to snap Joanna out of the strange almost trance she'd been in. She gives a quick glance to the others before rushing out to meet the owner of the faire.
"I can help, but I need something to arm myself with. Do you have anything you can spare," she asks as she pulls the mask off.
Teldon chases after Jo, drawing his mithril shortsword as he goes. "Take this," he calls to her holding it out, "I have a dagger too..."
"Uh, okay then," Joanna says as she takes Teldon's sword. Turning back to Lady Midnight, she asks, "do you have a shield I may borrow?"
Zee follows Joanna and her friends up to Lady Midnight. On the way, she takes out one of her magic wands. "Jo, you might need some magical protection if we are to see some action tonight..."
As they reach Lady Midnight, she asks, "Something bad has happened, yes? How can we help?"
Seeing the faint glow of the arcane energy now shielding her, Joanna just chuckles and shakes her head.
"Apparently my friends are more prepared than I am. As Zee says, how can we help?"
"We could run and see why the wolves hurried off?" Teldon answers with a hint of impatience.
"Okay, okay! Keep your pants on," Joanna says as she hurries off after Teldon.
Arsith runs alongside Joanna, saying with a smirk
"Keeps your pants on"? Really, Jo? Right now, in front of everyone? Naughty girl..
Rushing out of the tent after seeing the desperation in Lady Midnight's eyes, the friends find a discarded torch - glowing on the floor where it has been dropped - near the cages. The soft light illuminates an unmoving shape in front of the wagon where the wolves previously were... approaching it carefully, the friends quickly see that it is a wolf.
Following quickly after them, Lady Midnight's voice is full of panic, "The cub!!! Can you see him in there? Is he there?" Moving past the wolf lying on the floor, a quick check confirming that it has been knocked unconscious rather than mortally wounded, Joanna and Ziomarra look into the darkness of the cage... there is nothing there.
...of the wolves that ran from the tent, there is no sign...
"Well done!" Teldon answers smiling.
eyes as sharp as they are beautiful
"Wolves wouldn't normally run towards a city though..." he continues, "they must be chasing the cub... it may have run off during the fight or, more likely, been taken by those sczarni."
"What does it matter? Halli is heading towards the city, and we'll need to follow," Joanna says as she run towards the main road.
Spilling out from the tent, the crowd - having sensed that tonight's entertainment is over - starts to mill around the stalls and, gathering along the main thoroughfare, get in the way of the friends as they start to race towards the city.
Teldon looks for a thin spot in the gathering crowd and attempts to slip through it...
Barely breaking stride, Shadlah turns her broad shoulders side-on and slips through the crowd, giving chase.
Joanna calls out, trying to put as much steel into her voice as she can, but the desperation she feels is leaving a hollow void in her chest as she worries for Halli and makes her sound more like a petulant child than she would care to admit. Seeing that the crowd wouldn't be parting, she finds a gap to rush through and keep the distance from widening.
Let us pass.Please.
The voice is both gentle and commanding
Joanna, shouting as she runs into the crowd, finds herself jostled and slowed... and, in the jumble of confused folk, finds herself next to Briana who, having crashed into a particularly corpulent fellow in a hog's mask, has lost track of her friends...
Up ahead of them, Teldon, Shadlah and Arsith can see a couple of figures, trying to get past a small crowd, clambering along the edge of the bridge into the city... they are too far away to see who they are but intuitively, that must be their quarry. They don't have too long to think about it before come into the last row of food stalls, specifically set up to channel the crowd past all of the appealing smells and traders selling their wares, the stalls do somewhat block their way.
Teldon hesitates for a moment when he notices that Briana hasn't made it through the crowd...
she's with Jo... they're alright together, don't lose sight of the sczarni...
Scanning the layout of the booths and the distribution of the crowds, he quickly calculates the most efficient route through and attempts to gain some ground on their quarry. As he moves he calls out, "This way, follow me!"
Round 1: Location 1 (Crowd)...
Following her friends into the crowd, her way is briefly blocked by a gaggle of drunken aristocrats. Pulling off her mask, she snarls, "
Muta, proștilor!"
However, the aristocrats, emboldened by their drink, are not impressed by a bossy Varisian. They close ranks around her and begin berating her for her rudeness.
Round 2, Location 1 (Crowd)...
Her temper flaring, she continues to shout Varisian insults back at the drunken aristocrats, theatening them with curses upon their firstborn.
Suddenly realizing that they might be risking a Varisian blood-curse, they mumble apologies and melt back into the crowd. Zee catches a glimpse of Teldon ahead and hustles in that direction.
Round 3, location 2 (Food Stalls)...
Zee loses sight of Teldon and attempts to pick him out again...
...but doesn't see him!
Taking in a deep breath, Joanna braces herself and does her best impression of Brother Titus when he'd used his command voice on her.
she bellows before rushing through the widening gap.
There might have been a shortcut somewhere, but the white haired woman hasn't seen it.
Finding a voice that firmly grasps the attention of the crowd, Joanna finds her way suddenly unimpeded... indeed, a particularly helpful fellow - slightly inebriated maybe - points out a short cut between the nearby cider stalls... and, ducking through the tight space, Joanna is quickly rushing along the road to the city... Teldon, also seeing a clear space near the edge of the fair, is quickly behind her... running at speed towards the low bridge that leads to the city gates and onwards, into Ordellia.
Meanwhile, back near the circus tent, Ziomarra manages to clear a route... and catches up with Arsith although Briana, uncharacteristically clumsy, is still trapped somewhere within the growing mass of folk...
Briana's falling behind... it looks like she's alone back there, but if I turn back Jo will be alone when she reaches the sczarni... Briana's safe back there--there's been no sign of any other danger back there--she'd want me to press on... but if anything happens back there I'm going back immediately...
Teldon scowls at the widening gap between himself and Briana.
Teldon and Joanna, finding themselves running alongside each other, move onto the bridge that crosses a dry ditch around Ordellia... and, ahead of them, the cloaked figures they were chasing have moved into the city and out of sight. There are shrieks of panic at the far end of the bridge as the crowd parts... something moving at speed into the city streets...
Joanna, seeing the ruckus ahead and spurred on by a sense of dread, hops onto the railing and tries to navigate around the crowd, but as she opens her mouth to try opening a gap, her feet slip and she tumbles into a couple nearby and gets tangled between them.
"Sorry," the young paladin mutters sheepishly as she begins trying to extricate herself from the tangle without hurting anyone further.
Teldon takes a cue from Jo and tries to make haste across the bridge by both calling out and climbing...
Finally, Arsith notices a shortcut, and run throught the crowd
Shadlah, here, follow me!
As Arsith notices the gap between 'Aggie's Magic with Apples' and 'Flavours of the East', she grabs Shadlah's wrist and pulls her clear of the crowd... running up towards the bridge, they catch up with Ziomarra... and, somewhere in the chaos of the crowd, is Joanna.
The crowd seems to part as Teldon scrambles along the edge of the bridge... and the City Watch, normally ruthlessly officious in their checking of people entering the city, simply wave him through... presented with a maze of winding alleys leading from the main thoroughfare, and having not seen which way the cloaked figures went, Teldon is momentarily thrown off the trail. Until the howling of wolves comes from Blueberry Lane to the north...
Cautiously moving into the tight alleyway, Teldon suddenly finds himself walking with two wolves... both prowling forwards with their teeth bared - a low growl coming from each of them....