Meaning: Mystery, interest
With how often her father spent helping Mr. Nelson with "grown up stuff", Sindella typically found herself tasked with entertaining their daughter on her lonesome. Zatanna was a girl who enjoyed the unorthodox, a trait she picked up from her mother the astrologist. And today Sindella decided to take her to a traveling big top that Giovanni had once guest performed with. Being old friends with the owner did have its perks; she scored pretty great seats for the two of them.
The old man called it "the greatest show on Earth", and the longer it went on the more little Zee believed it. Firebreathers, animal trainers, strongmen, even some magicians came to perform tonight. Though she had to admit that after watching her daddy perform, the magicians were really nothing special.
But the crown jewel was saved for last. The lights began to dim and the old man walked back onto the stage as the various performers took a halt in their acts. Zatanna sat up in her seat, wondering what all the fuss was about.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the amazing, the spectacular, the astonishing Flying Graysons!"
People started to cheer as a trio of rather brightly-dressed acrobats stepped out of the tent, and young Zatanna kept her eyes trained on them intently, curious about what made them so remarkable. The first two, a man and a woman, leapt off from opposing ends of the stage and swung to the other sides with impeccable precision. Once they got there, they spun around and went back for seconds, and this time the woman dropped off her trapeze and grabbed onto the man's legs as he carried them both to the platform.
Okay, Zatanna thought, that was pretty cool.
But the third performer was what truly caught the young magician's eye. A boy - from the looks of things a boy her age - with sparkling blue eyes and raven black hair just like his father. She wasn't normally very attentive of boys at her school, but something about this one stood out to her. He smirked and waved to the crowd, clearly quite confident about his capabilities. In the blink of an eye he flipped off the platform with effortless grace, grabbing the swing with one hand and twirling around it before leaping off and spinning like a torpedo, flying straight through a ring thrown up by the gymnast below and grabbing back onto the trapeze all without breaking a sweat. Zatanna's eyes went wide as she watched him tear through the air with such finesse, and she gently tugged on Sindella's arm.
"Mommy, who is that?"
"His name is Richard, baby. He's their son, and he's only 6 years old."
Zatanna smiled. "He looks like Aladdin."
Her remark got the woman to chuckle, and she gently rubbed the little spellcaster's shoulder. "He does. Maybe after this is over you can get to meet him." Zee tore her gaze away from 'Richard' to Sindella, her eyes shining with excitement at the very thought of getting to meet him.
"Really?"
"Of course. I'm sure he would love to meet you."
"It'll be like in the movies when the princess meets the pretty prince!"
Sindella smiled. "Exactly."
Zatanna turned back to watch the rest of the act, specifically the boy, and her mother took note of her newfound attentiveness and smiled knowingly. Her daughter was hooked, and she knew exactly what that was like. It was probably for the best that her husband couldn't come with them, she thought, because she didn't think she'd ever seen this type of interest in her before.
One of little Zee's favorite hobbies was to sit with her mother in the meadows and watch the cosmos glimmer in the moonlit sky.
But of all the stars she'd ever shown her daughter, Sindella was convinced that none shone brighter in the young girl's eyes than that boy who dared to defy gravity itself.
