Chapter 3: of instincts and monkeys…

It had been three days and no food or water was given to Jack, his stomach growled like enraged lion and it felt he had a black hole in his gut. His tongue was like sandpaper which didn't help his attempts of trying to regain his ability to talk.

What was more of a problem was every now and again he would forget things, serious things like his name and who he was. At one horrible moment Jack had almost forgot that he was even human, he winced and grasped his head.

"No I'm not going through that again!" Jack hissed "I. Am. Human!"

Just then the Circus boss came up to the cage with a very nasty grin, he grabbed Jack and tied a chain around his neck and yanked him from the cage.

"We've got to break you in haven't we? Luckily I know just how to…"

Jack was shoved in what looked like a pit, there was nothing to climb or hide behind, he looked around as a guy dropped in holding a whip grinning. Jack smirked as they eyed each other up.

"The big fat slob against a nimble monkey boy? Feh it'll be like me going up against Chase Young…oh wait that came out wrong!" the man kept trying to hit Jack but he leapt out of the way again and again, he then swung around and kicked the man in the chest. That man clambered out and another came in, this one wielding a piece of chain, and once again Jack found himself dodging flails and whips and each time Jack got rid of one another would come in.

By the end Jack was breathing heavily, completely exhausted his body trembling, and every fibre in his body to scream 'let me sit down and sleep!' The Circus leader leapt down as two more people hung out some hoops.

"Now for those who have no idea how to tame a beastie such as this, I will show ya. First you wear it down…"

Jack made a leap but he was so tired it was sluggish and the circus leader dodged it.

"So the little bugger won't give you no lip…or tooth!" he then unfurled his electric prod and then pointed at the hoop.

"JUMP!" he barked.

"Get screwed!" Jack muttered the man jabbed the prod forward and stabbed Jack, Jack flinched back and whimpered.

"Now jump!" he barked again, Jack leapt through the hoop just to shut him up. The man grinned and jabbed the prod again.

"Again!" he barked and Jack looked up at him angrily.

"I just did it!" he saw the prod come towards him and he leapt through the hoop. They continued this for hours and by the end of it all Jack obeyed his commands more to the reasons he knew he would get hurt if he didn't and he didn't have the energy left to dodge the blows or resist.

"Good boy" the circus leader cackled and Jack looked up at him sadly, he was dragged back to his cage and Jack went in listlessly. He slumped down on the floor and looked up at the night sky.

"God I know you exist and so far you've used my life as a cosmic joke book but please…just this once…help me!" Jack whimpered.

So it went on from there really, for about two weeks the circus travelled around and Jack performed by doing tricks like dancing to music and leaping through flaming hoops.

Each night Jack would have to battle the instincts that were slowly becoming stronger by the day, they would parade him around villages and people would come and stare at him. Jack had given up asking for help because he knew none of them understood a word he said, all he did was sit there and looked at them sadly wishing sooner or later someone he knew would come and say 'Hey wait a sec…that's Jack!" and save him. At first he was hoping for one of his allies or jackbots or even Chase…hell even the Xiaolin Dragons! By the end of it he would have settled with someone like Katnappe or Hannibal coming to his rescue.

But no one did.

It was one night while they were moving on to the next town Jack saw it, Mount Hong the mountain near the Xiaolin Temple and his only hope.

"Hey boss are we gonna try and set up on the other side, I heard there's a village on the other side" the guy driving his cart asked.

"Don't be daft!" The man snapped "On the other side are those animal-loving bastard monks, if those twats saw our main attraction they would try and stop us"

"That's what I'm counting on!" Jack muttered.

"Nah after this we heard west"

"No!" Jack whimpered if they went west they'd head away from the temple! He had to escape now or never!

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