• Chapter 1

    The beginning


    It was long ago that we first met Loyal and I, when we were children. I was new and so was my family. We lived a life that most children would only fantasize about in their deepest dreams, we were a circus family. My dad was a trapeze artist while my mother walked the tight rope, though she did from time to time accompany my dad in his high flying stunts. Then there was me, I hadn't yet begun to train for anything since I was still only a little girl of eight years old. I had a thing for the circus animals especially the tigers, they had always been my favorite and to the utter disbelief of my high flying parents I wanted more than any thing to work with them.

    But that unfortunately that would have to wait as our original home had sadly been shut down do to lack of funds. " It'll be fine." my father had assured my mother and I when we heard the news " I've already found us a new place to go." My mother who already looked like she was going to break down looked tearfully to my father and said in a hushed tone thinking I wouldn't hear " Are you sure you want to continue living and working with the circus? I think it's high time we settled down like a normal family." My father gave my mother an utter look of confusion " Settle down?" he croaked as if the words were to hard to say let alone hear. He stayed silent for a moment contemplating his words before he spoke again, " But this life is all we've ever known." he said bewildered " If we take Arie away from this she'll be crushed."

    My mother sat silently as my father spoke and when he finished she sighed heavily " I know what your saying is true." she replied " I just worry what will happen to us should our new home shut down as well." My father smiled softly and placed his hand on my mothers cheek " You have my word." he told her " That no matter what happens we will always have a place to go." and with that we moved to the new circus in France. It was cold when we got there and clouds hung gray in the sky, we had landed in Paris and were to be taken by a guide to where the circus was currently set up. While we walked down a damp sidewalk outside the air port I looked out at the scenery the Eiffel tower looked like nothing more than a silhouetted dot against the gray sky from where we stood. " That car there." I heard my father say as he pointed out a black sedan that was sitting a little ways down the side walk.

    " Come on Arie." my mother said softly as she lead the way holding my hand, it was much warmer in the car as we all crammed our selves in the back seat. " We're headed to the address on this paper." My father told the driver in broken french as he handed him a crumbled piece of white paper. " Ok got it." the driver answered in his best English. We drove for what seemed like forever before we made it to the countryside. There were trees and fields as far as the eye could see and houses were few and far between with some hidden just off the main road where only the dirt roads leading to them were visible. Then finally the car slowed as we approached a small nearly hidden dirt road, it turned and crunched it's way down the uneven path and then came to a halt at the end which opened into a wide advance of green fields. There in the middle of the field stood a large ten of black, white and gold, " Is that the big top?" I asked my eyes wide. It was bigger than any circus tent I had ever seen.

    Even bigger than the one I had previously lived in and my parents worked, " Yes." my father said opening the door and letting me out first. " This is where we will be living and preforming from now on." he said placing an arm around my mothers shoulders and smiling. All around the large ten were a host of small trailers and enclosures. My father turned and thanked the driver as he heaved one of our suite cases out of the trunk, he than turned to my mother and I " Go on a head." he told us gathering up our luggage " I'll meet up with you two later." My mother straightened her coat and looked down at me with her green eyes and smiled. She turned to my father as she took my hand and started walking " Alright if you say so." she called out waving as we headed toward the large tent. As we neared the tent I found that the enclosures clustered near the tent housed most if not all of the circus animals, the trailers from what I had seen were the homes of the performers.

    When we made it to the tent door I could feel warmth emanating from under the flaps and a thin strip of light stretched across the ground in front of it. My mother looked back at me and pushed a strand of my blond hair out of my face. " Are you ready to see your new home?" she asked me a hint of excitement in her voice. " I'm ready! I'm ready!" I replied happily jumping up and down and clapping my hands and with a rush of warm air my mother opened the tent flap and light flooded out. The inside of the massive tent was huge with three large rings in the center and with enough room to pack enough people to fill a small base ball stadium. "It's beautiful." I said staring around the tent in awe.

    There were a few people in the tent who seem to be practicing their routines, there was a woman in one of the three large rings with an elephant whom she had standing on its hind legs and trumpeting loudly. Up near the top of the tent two trapeze artists practiced catching each other, while a man on a unicycle bobbed dangerously on the high wire. " I love it!" I exclaimed running ahead of my mother to get a closer look at the elephant and the woman in the ring. Just as I stopped outside of the ring with the elephant something else caught my attention, on the far side of the ring I saw a little boy with blond hair and golden eyes he could not have been much older than me. He was fascinated with a magician who had just preformed a rather difficult card trick and was laughing and clapping enthusiastically.

    " Why don't you go and say hello." I heard my mothers voice say from behind me. she gave me a small push in the direction of the boy with the blond hair. My first reaction would have been to hide behind my mother but of course she blocked me from doing it by putting out her arm every time a tried. My mother eventually took me by the hand a lead me over and as we walked up I heard the boy talking to the magician " Father will be really surprised when he sees that trick." he said as the magician smiled brightly and straightened his hat. " I should hope so Loyal." The magician replied still smiling " I've been trying to add new and more difficult tricks to my act when ever I can so that it will be always be new and fresh and of course never boring." The magician winked at the boy as he turned at trotted away.

    At that moment we caught the boys eye as we walked up to him and he smiled and bowed " Bonjour" he said as he bowed. " You must be Mrs. Mikaru and this must be your daughter." he said still smiling " My father has spoken a lot about your family, he seems extremely pleased that you joined our circus." My mother smiled softly " Yes and I'm very pleased to hear how pleased your father is to have us." she replied. She than turned to me which I was hoping she wouldn't do " This is my daughter Arie" she said pulling me forward a little as I had tried once again to hide behind her. " It's nice to meet you." the boy said happily " I'm Loyal I hope to be a Magician someday."

    I looked up at Loyal and I could feel my face reddening slightly, I hadn't really met anyone my age before at that time and was unsure of what to say when finally I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. " I'm Arie and I like animals." I said quickly before I could stop myself. A small smile crept a cross Loyal's thin lips and his eyes lit up " I bet you'd make a great animal tamer!" he exclaimed so loud it made me jump. " R-really?" I stammered surprised by he'd said " Y-you really think so?" he jumped up and down excitedly " I know so!" he said with a happy giggle " You should come see the animals!" at those words I turned to my mom but before I could say anything she replied " Go on have fun...just be careful now." and with that Loyal took my hand and led me out the back of the tent to where the animal enclosures were and from that point on we became inseparable.