The man walked to the front of the tent, where the little circus orphans played. "Listen, my children," he began. He was an older gentleman, tall with graying hair, yet still cool, clear eyes. He sat on a bench. The children gathered around. They knew him simply as the story-teller, when the circus finished every night, he would come and tell a story, to help them forget about the trials of life as an orphan. Even the older, teenage children listened, although they pretended not to. He cleared his throat and looked at the children.
"In a beautiful valley between the mountain cities of Xiaolin and Heylin, two circuses set up for the winter months. You know traveling circuses cannot travel during the winter, but these two circuses should not have been together. It was the Monatio and Calienta circuses, and they were sworn enemies. Trust me, my children, I was there. I wasn't much older then…" He peered around, his eyes finally settling on a 17 year old Spanish boy. "Not a day older then Faust there. Being in this valley together invoked new anger in the Monatio and Calienta circuses, and there were scuffles and fights almost daily. Unfortunately, before they had time to get away from each other, a huge snowstorm blew in, and the mountain passes were filled. It became so cold that the snow between the passes froze, and so they were caught with each other. But, there was one boy in my enemies' circus."
FLASHBACK
"It's f-f-f-freezing!" said the large man. He looked at his red-haired counterpart. "But we can't take the Monatio Circus' garbage anymore!"
"Then we'd be garbage men, wouldn't we?" he laughed. He tipped up his goggles and smiled at his friend. "Tubbi, calm down!"
"If they make me angry," said Tubbi, shaking, "I'll pull out some tricks like they've never seen before!"
"I think you should focus on pulling yourself out of trouble, Tubbi," replied Gemini.
"I hit hard when I'm angry," said Tubbi, appearing not to have heard a word Gemini said.
"Most people can't make you angry. You're not as tough as you look," he said, casting a nervous glance toward his friend.
"One of those Monatio dogs can make me angry."
"Angry enough to run away! You won't stand and fight, you're afraid of what Prince Chase will do to you. You know he doesn't like us fighting!" said Jack's twin, Gemini.
"A dog from that circus will make me angry enough to take a stand," he growled venomously. He spotted Rai, the Monatio clown, walking over. "Pull out your tricks!" he whispered to Gemini.
"If he tries anything, I'm ready," he whispered back. "Don't worry about me. Let's not get Prince Chase worried about us by fighting. Let's let them start something. I'll frown at him when he passes, and he can react how he wants," he said.
"You mean however they dare," Tubbi spat. "I'll flip him off. If they let me get away with it they'll be dishonored." He flew the bird at them.
Rai saw it and strode over. "Are you flipping me off?" he asked.
"Is the law on our side if I say yes?" whispered Tubbi.
"No," whispered Gemini back.
Tubbi cleared his throat. "No, not at you, I'm just flipping off," he said innocently.
"Are you flipping me off?" Rai hissed, giving Tubbi a cold, hard stare.
"No, not at you, I'm just flipping off," Tubbi repeated, grinning at him cheekily.
"Are you trying to start a fight?"
"Quarrel, sir? Why no, sir!" replied Tubbi, military fashion.
"If you want to fight, I'm your man. My ringmaster is as good as yours."
"No better!"
"Yes, better!"
"You lie!" He flew at Raimundo, fists flinging, burying him in the cold snow. He stayed on top of Rai, trying to suffocate him, while punching all the parts he could.
Ashley ran over and grabbed his shoulders. "Break it up, you fools. Put your fists away. You don't know what you're doing!" She pulled out her lion tamer whip.
The big Texan Monatio also spotted what was going on and ran over. "What, lioness? You've pulled out your whip to fight with these immature kids? Turn around, Ashley, and look at the man who's going to fight you, and you know I don't fight girls." He pulled out his lasso.
"I'm only trying to keep the peace," she said venomously. "Either put away your rope or use it to help me stop this fight!"
"What?" said Rai, pulling himself up and brushing the snow off. "You take out your whip and then talk about peace? I hate the word peace like I hate hell, all Monatios, and you. Let's go at it, coward!"
They flew at each other. Gradually, a crowd of circus people gathered around Clay, Tubbi, and Gemini to watch. They cried, "Use your whip! Use your tumbling! Hit them! Beat them down! Down with the Calientas! Down with the Monatios!"
Mr. Dashi saw what was happening and made his way over. "What's happening?" he cried. "Get me my baton!"
Wuya, the Monatio ringmaster, also made her way over. "I want my staff. Old Dashi is here, and he's waving his baton around just to make me mad."
"Wuya, you villain!" His pet komodo dragon, Dojo, grabbed his pant leg and held him back. Mr. Dashi looked at him. "Don't stop me. Let me go."
Dojo gave him a look that said, 'I'm not letting go.'
Mr. Guan walked over and shouted, "You rebels! Enemies of the peace!" He was their designated peacekeeper, and his voice was said to stop storms. At that moment, they believed. "Men who turn their weapons against their own neighbors—They won't listen to me?—You there! You men, you beasts, who satisfy your anger with fountains of each others' blood! I'll have you on elephant duty if you don't put down your swords and listen to your angry peacekeeper." The fighters put down their weapons. "Three times now riots have broken out in this valley, all because of a casual word from you, Dashi and Wuya. Three times the peace has been disturbed in our snow, and the valley's old citizens have had to take off their costumes and pick up rusty old spears to part you. If you ever cause a disturbance on our streets again, you'll pay for it with your lives. Everyone else, go away for now." He turned to Dashi. "You, Dashi, come with me." He turned to Wuya."Wuya, this afternoon come to see me and I'll tell you what else I want from you. As for the rest of you, I'll say this once more: go away or be put on elephant duty." The crowd soon dispersed, save Wuya and Ashley.
"Who started this?" Wuya demanded. "Ashley, you were there, who started it?"
"Tubbi and Rai were fighting before I got here. I drew my whip to part them. Right then, Clay showed up and that hothead Rai got up with his fists ready. He taunted me!" she added defensively. "As we were trading blows, more and more people showed up to join the fight, until the Mr. Guan came and broke everyone up," she said sheepishly.
"Oh, where's Jack?" she asked, head in hands. "Have you seen him today? I'm glad he wasn't here for this fight. He would've screwed us all over."
"To answer your question," said Ashley, "I had a lot on my mind this morning, so I went for a walk. In the evergreen grove that grows on the west side of the valley, I saw Jack taking an early-morning walk. I headed toward him, but he saw me coming and hid in the trees. I thought he must be feeling the same way I was—wanting to be alone and tired of his own company. I figured he was avoiding me, and I was perfectly happy to leave him alone and keep to myself," she said.
"He's been seen there many mornings," said Wuya confusedly. "Crying tears that add drops to the morning dew and making a cloudy day cloudier with his sighs. But as soon as the sun rises in the east, Jack comes home to escape the light. Even his twin Gemini can't cheer him up! This mood of his is going to bring bad news, unless someone smart can fix what's bothering him." She made a sulky face. "He won't even tell me what's wrong! I've tried, believe me, and many of our friends have tried to make him talk, but he keeps his thoughts to himself. He doesn't want any friend but himself, and though I don't know whether he's a good friend to himself, he certainly keeps his own secrets. He's like a flower bud that won't open itself up to the world because it's been poisoned from within by parasites. If we could only find out why he's sad, Gemini would be as eager to help him as we were to learn the reason for his sadness."
They spotted Jack in the snow not far off, then. He was indeed looking sad, his eyeliner run from tears. He sniffed, then shuffled forward a bit.
"Step aside," demanded Ashley. "He'll either have to tell me what's wrong or else tell me no over and over."
"I hope you're lucky enough to hear the true story by sticking around," said Wuya, shaking her hand, then went off, wringing her hands.
Ashley walked over and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and she grinned her long, pointy teeth at him. "Morning, Jack!"
He sighed and looked emo again. "Is it still that early?"
The grin slid off Ashley's face. "It's only nine now."
"Time goes by slowly when you're sad," he said. "Was that Wuya who left here in such a hurry?"
Ashley nodded. "What's making you so sad your hours are so long?"
"I don't have the thing that makes time fly," replied Jack, looking wistfully at the mountains.
Ashley nodded wisely. "In love?"
"Out."
"Out of love?"
"I love her, and she doesn't love me."
"It's sad," said Ashley, patting him on the shoulder. "Love looks like a nice thing, but it's actually very rough when you experience it."
"What's sad is that love is supposed to be blind, but it can still make you do whatever it wants." His stomach growled. "So, where should we eat?" HE saw the blood on the snow. His hand flew to his chest. "Holy! What fight happened here? No, don't tell me—I know all about it. This fight has a lot to do with hatred, but it has more to do with love. O brawling love! O loving hate! Love that comes from nothing! Sad happiness! Serious foolishness! Beautiful things muddled together into an ugly mess! Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake—it's everything except what it is! This is the love I feel, though no one loves me back," he finished dramatically. He looked at Ashley. "Are you laughing?"
Ashley tried to cover herself. "Uh, no, I'm…crying."
"Why?"
"Because you're so sad."
"Yes, this is what love doe," he said sadly, not catching Ashley's mistake. "My sadness sits heavy in my chest, and you want to add your own sadness to mine so there's even more. I have too much sadness already, and now you're going to make me sadder by feeling sorry for you. Here's what love is: a smoke made out of lovers' sighs. When the smoke clears, love is a fire burning in your lover's eyes. If you frustrate love, you get an ocean made out of lovers' tears. What else is love? It's a wise form of madness. It's a sweet lozenge that you choke on. Goodbye, cousin." He stuffed his hands into his pockets and began to walk off.
"I'll come with you!" said Ashley, feeling bad that she'd laughed at his emo poetry. "If you leave me like this, you're doing me wrong."
"I'm not myself. I'm not here. This isn't Jack—he's somewhere else," said Jack, waving a dismissive hand.
"Who do you love?" demanded Ashley.
"Seriously? You mean I should just groan and tell you?"
"No groaning," she said, "but yeah, that's the gist of it."
"Well, it's a woman," Jack started, "and she's smart as heck. But…she's shielded by the armor of chastity. She can't be touched by the weak and childish arrows of love. She won't listen to words of love, or let you look at her with loving eyes, or open her lap to receive gifts of gold. She's rich in beauty, but she's also poor, because when she dies her beauty will be destroyed with her."
"She's gonna be a virgin forever?" demanded Ashley. "You just want to get into her pants?"
"I'm a dude, of course I want to!" exclaimed Jack. "Plus, if you starve yourself of sex you can't ever have children, and so your beauty is lost to future generations. She's too beautiful and too wise to deserve heaven's blessing by making me despair. She's sworn off love, and that promise has left me alive but dead, living only to talk about it now."
"Stupid male hormones," muttered Ashley. "Take my advice. Don't think about her."
"Teach me to forget to think," said Jack sarcastically, "then we'll talk."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're desperate. Do it by letting your eyes wander freely. Look at other beautiful girls," Ashley suggested.
"That will only make me think more about how beautiful she is. Beautiful women like to wear black masks over their faces—those black masks only make us think about how beautiful they are underneath. A man who goes blind can't forget the precious eyesight he lost. Show me a really beautiful girl. Her beauty is like a note telling me where I can see someone even more beautiful. Goodbye. You can't teach me to forget," said Jack dismissively, shuffling off.
"I'll show you how to forget, or else I'll die owing you that lesson," murmured Ashley, before walking to her cart as well.