Chapter IV

It was roughly seven or eight when Ariel woke me up and enlightened me regarding her conversation with Gavner.

"Did you know Mr. Crepsley used to be a Vampire General?" She asked.

"Really?" I raised a brow.

"Yep. Gavner told me he was gonna be a Prince too, but he stepped down."

"A Prince?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's not like a regular human prince with a crown or anything." Ariel explained. "There are a few princes that are elected in the vampire clan. He said he doesn't know why Mr. Crepsley decided to be a normal vampire. No one knows."

"That's.. Odd. What about the judging thing?" I inquired, praying she knew.

"I asked, he said that he'll have to plead innocent to the princes, like a trial." She replied, and I was glad that she remembered to ask. "Gavner said he doubts they'll go as far as to kill him, since he's very respected."

I nodded slowly. "They'll probably ask for your opinion, too, since you're the princess and all."

She shrugged. "Maybe. If so, we won't need to worry about him; either way I think he'll be fine."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Did he say anything else interesting?"

"Mhm, he hinted that we'll be leaving the Cirque soon.. Well, Mr. Crepsley will be, I don't know about us. I highly doubt he would leave us, though."

"Really? Where to?" I asked, surprised.

"I dono, Gavner wouldn't tell me. He said that he'd already told me too much."

We were quiet for a moment.

"Do you think we should go talk to Mr. Crepsley..?" I asked.

"Let's go." Ariel replied, standing up and leaving the tent. I got up and followed.

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"Whatcha doin?" Ariel asked, entering the van and sitting at the empty chair by Mr. Crepsley, who was staring off into the distance. I followed his gaze to see what was so important, but he was just staring off into the shadows, with obviously a lot on his mind.

"I have to reflect on some news Gavner informed me of.." He answered vaguely. I sat down as well, seeing that answers were gonna be hard to get.

Ariel tapped her nails on the wooden surface of the table for a moment, then sat silently, waiting to see if he would say more, but he didn't. "What kind of news..?" She finally asked.

"It does not concern the two of you." He said. Ugh, the end. Ariel then looked at me as if to say, back me up, so I decided to ask more questions.

"Don't we have the right to know?" I sighed.

Mr. Crepsley was scratching the scar on the side of his face. "Fine, I will enlighten you, since you clearly will not leave me alone until I do."

Ariel smirked at me.

"We're leaving."

Our smiles dropped.

"What? Why?" I asked with disappointment, even though- in spite of the fact that I made myself believe Ariel and I would stay at the cirque- there had been doubt in my mind all along.

"Gavner brought unpleasant news, so we have to leave- I have my reasons." He replied stiffly, then stood. "I am going to go clear things up with Hibernius now, so pack your belongings, and see me before dawn. We must depart as soon as night falls."

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After Ariel and I had Madam Octa taken care of, we began to pack our things. I packed my diary- of course- along with some clothes. Ariel packed her clothes that had been given to her by Truska awhile back, and helped me pack Mr. Crepsley's bag as well. All in all, we decided not to bring too much. After hours of packing and unpacking, saying goodbye to Evra and some others, we headed out at dusk.

"How will we get there?" I asked, once we had left the cirque. "Flitting?"

Mr. Crepsley shook his head. "I do not plan on flitting with both of you on my back again. We will catch a train or a bus, and save me the soreness."

"Oh." I replied simply. "We.. Can do that?" I asked, confused.

"Why not?" He laughed.

I shrugged. "Okay."

A few miles away from the Cirque, we found a city, and took the next train out. Ariel was yawning as we got on, and quietly fell asleep on Mr. Crepsley's shoulder after a few minutes, while he stared out the window. I was glad that there weren't a lot of people on board- Imagine if they found out they knew they were on a train with a vampire who was two hundred something years old, his half vampire assistant, and a vampire princess!