Chapter #2! muwahahaha...
I'm still working on the 'Jaded Abyss' story, but the going is a little slow...sorry.
"Trapeze Act?!" Luke demanded. The Cirque de Auldrant crew had just finished eating breakfast the morning after Luke had joined the circus; Anise had dishwashing duty, however with her six Tokunaga to do it in her place the chore was finished in no time at all.
"Yup. You'll start out on the trapeze today to see if you're any good. If not, you'll move down to see about helping out on the floor or getting your own act." Peony told him cheerfully,
"Well-- I mean, I'm all for him helping out in an act," Gai voiced, "B-but starting him off on the trapeze? Ringmaster-- that's just cruel."
"What?" the ringmaster asked, apparently not seeing anything wrong with it, "Natalia and Asch don't have a problem with it. Right guys?"
"Not at all," Natalia agreed, "I'd like to have another partner. We could do more tricks then."
"Hn...I doubt saying anything at this point will actually making a difference, so I'll just say Fine. Stick the New Guy with us and we'll see if he lives." Asch agreed, arms crossed over his chest. Luke glared at the back of his almost look-a-like; he really did like dumping on Luke, didn't he?
"It's settled then. Today, New Guy starts off on the trapeze." Peony announced.
"...oh man..." the boy groaned softly, seriously not looking forward to what lay ahead of him.
---
However, after getting inside the tent, Luke's date with the flying trapeze was cut, somewhat, short.
"Mieuuuuu!" Mieu was stuck atop one of the trapeze, hanging high over the ground and the group of friends,
"Mieu!" the group called at once,
"Mieu! Help! I can't get down! Mieuuu!!" he chirped, clinging to one of the ropes which held up the trapeze.
"How'd he get up there?!" Erika asked to no one in particular. However the magician quickly located the problem,
"Look," the ladder up the support pole to the trapeze platform was lowered so anyone could climb up, "Asch and Natalia left the trapeze ladders down yesterday, he must have climbed up." Jade explained, his voice serious,
"But what's he doing on the trapeze?" Anise asked worriedly, "How'd he get out there?"
"He must have attempted to get down on his own." the man responded,
"Don't worry little guy!" Gai called up, "We'll come get you, just don't move!"
"Oh dear....this is our fault..." Natalia gasped, covering her mouth with her hands in worry of the little mascot hanging up there, "Poor Mieu...!"
"Don't say that, idiot." Asch ordered, "We've gotta get him down, and we will. He'll be fine."
"Right--" Natalia began.
"Luke!" Tear called. Said New Guy was already half way up the ladder,
"New Guy!" Erika yelled at him, running to the base of the ladder, "What are you doing!? Get back down here!"
"Only Asch and Natalia are trained to do this," Jade agreed, "You'll hurt yourself."
"No I won't!" Luke yelled back, "I'll get him down! Just wait there!"
"Asch, go up the other side and try to beat him to Mieu." Peony ordered,
"Got it." Asch took off towards the other ladder obediently, climbing up the minute he was within reach
"Gai," the Ringmaster turned to him, "You go too. Who knows, they might need your help,
"Right." the blonde followed his crimson-haired friend and began climbing the ladder,
"Jade," he turned to the magician, "Follow the New Guy. Try to stop him any way you can. If he jumps after Mieu I need you to use your magic. Can you do it?"
"Of course." he agreed, before pursuing Luke up his ladder.
"Erika, give Jade some magic backup down here." Peony told her,
"Will do." she agreed, nodding. She looked up at her four friends, hands clenched out of worry, /Wish I could do more...\ she mumbled in her head.
"Anise: Get your Toku-Crew and get out the safety net. And hurry."
"On it!" Anise agreed, "Toku! Go!" the six Tokunaga stampeded out of the tent obediently, headed towards the small shed where the props and such for the show were stored,
"Natalia, keep an eye on Asch. Tear, you watch the New Guy." he finished, "If anything goes wrong give a shout to Jade and Erika."
"Yes." Natalia and Tear agreed at once, nodding.
-----------------------
Doing his best not to look down, Luke pulled himself up onto the high platform. Luckily, Mieu was on the trapeze bar closest to him so getting to him would be slightly easier. There were three trapeze hanging from the top of the tent. One in front of each platform, then one in the middle. The ones in front of the platform had a lower bar, then one about eight feet higher on the same support chords,
"Hang on Mieu, I'll get you down." Luke assured, glancing around before backing up a little on the platform, "With a running start I could probably..." he muttered, glancing around again.
"Stop!" Jade ordered, only three quarters of the way up, "Don't jump out there! If you do you could kill yourself!"
"I've got you and Erika to help me!" Luke told him, masking his fear,
"You fail to realize how long it takes to cast a Fonic Arte." the man responded, "The best chance you have is letting Anise and her Tokunaga get back with their net first."
"Mieu can't wait that long!" Luke argued. He bounded to the end of the platform, and launched himself off,
"Luke!" Tear shouted, followed by a chorus of 'New Guy!',
"Damn--!" Jade cursed, beginning to gather wind fonons as quickly as he could from his place on the ladder. Erika followed suit on the ground as Anise and her Toku-Crew rushed back into the tent with the safety net rolled between the two columns of Tokunaga.
"Hurry up!" Anise yelled, now standing on the ground, "Hurry up and unroll that net under the trapeze! Move!" her Tokunaga followed her orders obediently, running underneath the trapeze and beginning to unroll the net.
---
Luke flew for two seconds though the air, arms out in front of him, before his hands clamped around the trapeze bar,
"Waahh!" the force of the inexperienced boy and his sloppy jump onto the bar jostled it, and caused it to swing in a wide arc,
"Mieu--!" Mieu fell from the bar, his tiny hands unable to hold on, however Luke quickly caught him right as the trapeze neared the height of its swing. The cheagles little top hat fell from his head, falling down...down... The redhead quickly ripped his eyes from the ground when his vision began to spin.
"H-hang on! Quick!" he ordered, struggling to keep hold of the swinging bar with only one hand. Mieu quickly jumped to his shoulder; Luke clamped his hand on the bar again as it swung down and backwards. His arms ached as he forced his hands to grip the trapeze bar tighter.
"Gah! You idiot!" Asch yelled at him from where he had reached his platform, "Hurry up and jump off that thing while it's still swinging! You don't want to get stuck there!"
"Off?!" Luke demanded. It was hard enough getting on.
"Yes! Just let go and throw yourself in the right direction at the height of the swing--" Luke did what Asch told him. Flying off the first bar...towards the next.
"Not that way!" the crimson-haired boy screamed when Luke just barely caught the center trapeze.
"H-huh?" he asked as the trapeze swung back and forth, the arc of this trapeze not quite as wild as the arc of the last one,
"I meant let go in the back swing, you stupid dreck! You would have landed on the platform where you started!" he yelled, obviously enraged by Luke's 'Act and save now, think about how to get out later' attitude.
"You should have said that!" Luke yelped at him as he continued swinging.
"You should have been able to figure that out for yourself!" Asch responded. Gai finally made it to the platform,
"Aw great..." he groaned softly, Luke was in an even worse situation than before.
"Don't worry. I know how to get him down." Asch growled to the blonde, "Just be here to catch him, got it?"
"Right." Gai responded. Asch climbed up another small ladder, to another smaller platform overhead. He then leapt from that platform to the upper of the trapeze in front of him.
"New Guy!" he called,
"What now?" Luke whined,
"Jump to the trapeze below me--now!"
"What?" Luke asked, "How will--"
"Now!" Asch roared at him. Luke released his bar and flew through the air, Mieu clinging to his shoulder; again he just barely managed to catch the trapeze below Asch. The aching in his hands told Luke that he wouldn't be able to make a jump like that again; he could barely hold onto the bar with all of his strength. The crimson-haired boy had changed position so he was holding onto the bar by bending his knees over it, hanging upside down. "Now grab on!" he called, holding out his hands,
"How?" Luke demanded, looking up, "My hands are kind of full here!"
"Swing your legs up here!" he barked.
"My...? R-right!" the boy built momentum up in his swing, before beginning a complete three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn around the bar. However Asch securely caught his ankles after one-hundred-and-eighty degrees.
"Let go of your bar." Asch demanded, and Luke did as he ordered, Mieu still clinging to his shoulder. "Alright--I'm going to swing, and throw you to Gai on five. Got it?"
"Th-throw me--?!"
"One, two--"
"--Wait!--"
"--Five!" blatantly skipping the numbers between two and five, Asch used the force of the back swing to throw Luke towards Gai and the safety of the other platform.
"Waaahhhh!!!" Luke was anything but graceful, as he flew through the air. However, graceful or not, at least he flew. He glanced down to see the six Tokunaga had long since spread out the net below him, the crossed fibers forming a large oval. But, even if it meant he would be safe if he fell, he didn't exactly want to.
----
The new guy landed on his stomach on the platform with a thud, his lower waist and legs not on the platform. Gai quickly grabbed his wrists and helped him up; his legs flailed around in the air of their own accord when he realized he hadn't fully landed on safe ground. Anise, Natalia, Tear, Erika, Gai, and Peony applauded Luke's heroic, if not somewhat stupid and suicidal, efforts to save Mieu.
"Way to act on impulse, New Guy!" Erika called, giving him a thumbs-up from her place on the ground.
"Next time think things through!" Tear called up to him. Jade had long since reached his platform, and watched the spectacle with some interest; the magician shook his head,
"My, my...Quite the new one we have on our...hm?" he noticed someone standing outside the tent, spying on the troupe through a small space in between two flaps of canvas. A smirk crossed his lips when he recognized who it was, "Well, well, well..."
---
From outside the tent, a white haired man from their rival circus watched the group. Had been waiting for them since three in the morning (for some odd reason) and witnessed the whole trapeze rescue of the cheagle-mascot. However, he hadn't heard the yelling of Asch at Luke; he thought Luke and Asch did their whole 'get the dumbass who dosn't know what he's doing off the trapeze' act on purpose and in unison...
"Hmm...That new guy is good..." he muttered, adjusting his tiny eyeglasses, "However he and that sniveling Jade are no match for me! Dist the--"
"Anise--a Spy!" Jade called, a spear materializing in his hand in a flash of light. He hurled it towards the intruder; however buried itself in the ground right in front of him instead of actually making contact.
"Hah!" Dist mocked, sticking his head fully into the tent and sticking his tongue out at Jade, "You missed--...me..." in that instant he realized how stupid he had just been. He glared at the smirking Jade, "Aaah! Darn it!"
"Tokunaga Five-- Duel Punishment!" Anise ordered, smirking at the spy and pointing towards him. One of the Tokunaga abandoned their place at the net, bounding with surprising speed towards the intruder,
"Naaa!" he squeaked trying to get away, but was unable to avoid the dolls swinging arms, "You'll Regret This!!" he yelled, flying through the air away from the tent. He then said something about a 'Revenge Journal' but they couldn't quite hear.
---
Five minutes later the whole circus crew was down on the ground.
"Good job New Guy." Peony congratulated, "I wish the circumstances of your test could have been better; however, I'd say that solves that. You're part of the trapeze act now."
"...S-sure..." Luke agreed, holding his quivering knees to try and keep them still. "Just as soon as my legs stop being made of jell-o."
"Haha, we've got a kidder, great." Peony told him, smacking him in the back heartily and knocking him down on the ground,
"Oof--!" he groaned hitting the ground. Despite the intense workout from the day before, his arms hadn't been hurting...before he got on the trapeze to save Mieu, that is.
"Oh dear..." Jade sighed, shrugging his shoulders, "Now he's gone and died. How rude."
"Guess you really can make me that Seventh Tokunaga~~ Right Jade?" Anise asked him, suppressing her giggles with much effort.
"Hmm, well...Unfortunately, he's not that big. I suppose I could make half of a doll with--"
"No!" Luke yelped, jumping up to his feet, "I'm still Alive! ...ow..." he rubbed his sore arms which had begun to throb after he used them to spring up so quickly. Everyone, aside from Natalia, Tear and Asch, laughed lightly at the antic.
"They're only kidding New Idiot. Jeeze, don't be so gullible." Asch told him. Luke glared at him for his attitude. All the redhead did was come and join the circus, and his crimson-haired almost look-a-like treated him like shit because of it.
"Aside from the idiot part," Erika commented "Asch is telling the truth; Jade's just kidding, New Guy. He wouldn't really make another Tokunaga out of you if you died."
"It's pretty damn hard to tell when he's kidding." Luke grumbled,
"Don't we know it..." Gai sighed, shaking his head,
"For your sake, Gai, I'm going to ignore that." Jade announced, placing his hands in his pockets once again. The blonde laughed nervously in response.
---
Later that day, Peony had given Luke somewhat of an 'off day', and he could help out wherever he deemed necessary. Around one o'clock, Erika had taken a break from helping Jade, and Gai had also taken a break from his routine. He was assisting Erika with taking care of three rapigs which had found their way into the tent. One had a collar which said 'Nephry'; another had a collar that said 'Nebilim', the final rappig's collar said 'Saphir'. Gai was feeding Saphir and Nephry, Erika was brushing Nebilim's coat with a grooming brush. There was a general lull in training all together, and it seemed like one o'clock was a bit of a break time in the training day. Lunch would be ready soon, and Luke guessed that the training would pick up again after that.
"New Guy!" Anise called, "I need your help!" Luke grumbled under his breath about still being called 'New Guy'. He walked over to Anise,
"Here, hold this together." she ordered. One of her Tokunaga's arms had split open. She asked for Luke to hold the two sides together so that she could sew them back up with a thick thread which she held at the ready.
"Sure." he agreed. As the boy pulled both sides of the fabric taut he peered subtly into the arm to see it was filled with cotton-cushioned machinery. Anise quickly sewed up the tear in the arm, and tied the string off tightly,
"Thanks, New Guy." the little girl told him, beaming up at him.
"Uh-huh..." he responded, finding that being called 'New Guy' was wearing on his nerves, "Say, Anise."
"Hmm?"
"When are you guys gonna stop calling me 'New Guy' and call me by my real name?" he asked, putting his hands on his hips,
"After your first show." she explained, adding cheerfully, "But our next show isn't for a little while, so you're just gonna have to put up with it." Luke grumbled under his breath, wondering if he would be able to survive that long...
Tada...!!!...
Please review to tell me if you like it or not!!
