Luz toured practically the entire circus in less than an hour; every time she saw something new, her attention was always drawn to something else, and then something else, and so on. There were animals, clowns, acrobats, musicians, carousels: it was all so varied and fun that she didn't even know where to start.
"I really did the right thing to come here today instead of going to school!" she said to herself. "I wouldn't have had so much fun at school. I was absolutely right: there's always time for school, but things like the circus are better enjoyed straight away!"
And with any guilt completely erased (not that there ever was much of it) she spent the morning enjoying herself. However, her mind was constantly directed at one of the tents, inside which the puppet theater would take place. She couldn't wait for it to open: if that was a theater, then there clearly had to be a show, so the puppets had to be animated just like her, right? It would be a perfect opportunity to meet someone who looked like her!
She anxiously waited for the tent to be opened to the public, and finally after what seemed like an infinite amount of time the start of the show was announced. Luz didn't hesitate even for a moment and lined up to enter, and in a short time she was inside; she then discovered that the puppet theater was a very large stage with openings in the ceiling, as if something had to pass through it. And it was precisely through one of these openings that the same man who had let her in, Adeghast, came down onto the stage making a small leap: "Dear audience, you are welcome! Let me introduce myself: I am Adeghast, the storyteller! It is my duty to tell the deeds of heroes and wizards, dragons and knights, fairies and gnomes! I will make them come true here before you; therefore listen to the sweet sound of my words!"
While saying this, Adeghast moved like a true entertainer: he smiled, he bowed, he opened his arms as if wanting to embrace everyone, he stood straight like a statue. He was clearly very good at impressing audiences. Luz noticed that strangely, what looked like a thread, or a large tentacle, was coming down from the opening in the ceiling and was connected to the man's back; she didn't understand its use, but it was probably a prop that would be needed later. After all, she knew almost nothing about entertainment, so she had no way of questioning the scenographic choices of an expert like Adeghast. The audience was applauding, so what the man was doing must have made sense.
Adeghast smiled and moved his hands as if they were two octopuses: "Today I will tell you a terrible story... a story of betrayal and love, of magic and punishment! The story of two brothers who loved each other more than anything else, but who were then divided by the cruelty of one of them! The story of the birth of the most monstrous creature that has ever terrorized the oceans, the nefarious being that every fish, every dolphin, every whale, every octopus, every crustacean, every ship be it sailors or pirates, fears most than anything else! The story of the terrible giant monster who earned the infamous title of Cruel Emperor of the Sea... Belos!"
The audience held their breath, as if frightened, but continued to watch the show with wide, interested eyes. Adeghast's narration was really grabbing everyone's attention. And suddenly, other individuals came down from the openings above the stage. Luz's eyes lit up: those were definitely puppets! Aesthetically they weren't much different from Adeghast, but she could see that some of them had joints on their arms just like her. The puppets in question looked like two men, one tall and blond without a beard and with very well-groomed hair, and another a little shorter with a thick beard and brown hair. They too were connected to the ceiling by wires (or tentacles? Luz wasn't sure) and moved in a somewhat mechanical manner. "It all began a long, long time ago, according to some even four hundred years ago; no one is left to tell it except Belos, and he himself is probably too old to remember it" Adeghast continued, moving a little to the side to give space to the two puppets. "At that time, two brothers were traveling together around the world, intent on exploring it all; their names were Caleb and Philip Wittebane, and they were two excellent scholars who had set themselves the most difficult of challenges: to learn everything unlearnable, to absorb every single drop of knowledge of the entire world, excluding nothing. And so they travelled, and travelled; they did everything, they observed everything, they discovered everything, until the sky and the earth and the sea had no more secrets for them. But they were not still satisfied: after having discovered everything about this world, they wanted to go further, towards a higher plane of existence. And so they began to study magic, chasing and capturing magical creatures wherever they could find them; but while Caleb, in his good nature, merely speaking and being taught by the magical creatures, Philip began to show a darker and greedier side. Philip despised the magical creatures, who had so much power but never used it for what, in his opinion, were important purposes"
On stage, the two puppets were shown walking and behind them the scenography moved, showing ever-changing places, and then other puppets came down from the ceiling, impersonating the most disparate magical creatures: gnomes, basilisks, elves, and so on. Caleb was shown smiling and fascinated by what he discovered, while instead Philip became more and more bitter and angry, until his mere look gave Luz shivers.
"Philip began to want to possess magic; not just to know it, but to control it, to use it for everything he wanted. But he held back his desire, at least for the first time; he knew that Caleb would not tolerate such behavior, and he was convinced that if he gave him enough time his brother would end up seeing the world the way he did" Adeghast continued. "But one day something happened that changed everything. One day, the two brothers came across one of the most powerful, beautiful and mystical beings in this world: a fairy named Evelyn!"
A new puppet came down from the ceiling, which had the features of a beautiful woman, with brown hair (although more faded than Philip's), pointed ears and skin as pale as snow. "She too was a traveller, like them, and went from one part of the world to another to see it and distributing gifts to those she deemed worthy. When they saw her, the two brothers were immediately interested in her and asked her to travel together. For Philip, this was his chance to try to gain absolute power directly from the hands of a fairy; but for Caleb, Evelyn was instead someone with whom he could share his desire for knowledge. A friendship soon blossomed between the two, a friendship that turned into a very solid trust. Both were fascinated by each other and wanted to immerse themselves in each other's world. and then... well... I don't need to explain what happens in these cases: it took not a long time for love to blossom between the two, and when they finally kissed, both Evelyn and Caleb felt they had received the greatest gift that could ever exist in the world. But they didn't know that Philip was watching them, and that a nefarious plan was forming in his mind"
The music got louder and the atmosphere got darker; even the lights became less strong. Luz felt a shiver down her spine; it was clear that something bad was about to happen. "Philip's thirst for power had become increasingly stronger, and this had been compounded by his increasingly intense hatred towards magical creatures and his anger and jealousy towards Evelyn. He became absolutely convinced that the fairy was driving Caleb away from him, and that prevented him from understanding what immense power magic could provide them and what incredible goals they could achieve with it. His madness reached its peak when Evelyn revealed to them that fairy magic came directly from the heart; and so he became convinced that by eating the heart of a fairy he could gain such extraordinary powers. And so, he planned the assassination, completely regardless of how much his brother would suffer from Evelyn's death"
The puppet named Philip suddenly grabbed a large knife; his gaze was dark and malignant, devoid of any emotion. He walked towards Evelyn with the knife hidden behind his back. Luz began to tremble when she saw that scene. "N-No..." she whispered. Philip couldn't do it, that was a horrible thing... why didn't anyone intervene to stop him?
"But before Philip could inflict the fatal blow on poor Evelyn while she slept, Caleb arrived and discovered everything. An argument arose in which he finally discovered his brother's cruel nature. Caleb begged Philip to give up his evil purpose, but he, consumed by greed, didn't listen to him at all. Then Caleb stood in front of Evelyn, declaring that if Philip wanted to kill her she would have to kill him first... and that was the fatal mistake". The puppet named Philip raised his knife. "Without any second thoughts or emotion in his eyes, with the old brotherly affection now completely erased by his insatiable thirst for power, Philip looked Caleb in the face for an instant, and then he lowered the knife violently..."
"NO!" Luz couldn't hold back any longer and ran towards the stage, and jumped on the puppet named Philip just as he was about to kill his brother. "You can't do that! He's your brother! You don't... uh"
Only then shed realize that what she was holding in her hand was not an animated puppet at all: it was motionless and lifeless just like all the others she had seen in her mother's shop. Sure, it was made of very fine wood, so much so that it looked like real leather, but it was still just a simple puppet. Now Luz understood: those large tentacle-like threads that descended from the ceiling were nothing other than the puppeteer's way of moving the puppets that would otherwise have been immobile. She felt quite disappointed: she had really thought for a moment that she had found someone like her...
But she didn't have time to feel sorry: Adeghast grabbed her arm and dragged her away, to the back of the stage, where many other puppets were stacked. "You stupid cheeky little girl, how dare you ruin my show!?"
"I'm sorry! I didn't do it on purpose!" Luz tried to justify herself, but then she realized something: Adeghast's hand was strangely hard, as if it were made of wood... "Wait, are you a puppet too?"
"That thing, yes. But that is not me" Adeghast's voice replied, but this time it didn't come from the jovial old man, but from behind a pile of puppets. The old man who was holding Luz suddenly went lifeless and fell to the ground with a thud, and behind the puppets appeared a fat, stocky individual, with a face so wide it looked like an octopus's and with protruding teeth. "That's my best puppet; I originally used it as a magician, but then I made it a means of speaking to customers. If I showed myself in my true appearence, none of those silly children would ever come to the theater!"
Luz gulped as she saw the puppeteer's true appearance; it was truly terrifying. She took one last look at the puppet in the shape of an old man: it was built so well that it looked like a real person in every way, even better than her, and if she hadn't touched it she would never have realized that it was fake. She tried to apologize again, but the real Adeghast grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and threw her into a dark room. "Now you stay here. This evening you'll have to deal with Mr. Bump. I warn you, he doesn't appreciate those who ruin his circus shows! You better say your last prayers, eh eh!"
"Wait! No! Mom's expecting me for the afternoon!" Luz begged.
"Then I'm afraid your mother will be very disappointed, and she will soon have to shell out some money for your funeral... assuming there will be anything of you left to bury when Mr. Bump is done with you!" Adeghast responded without any empathy, then he locked the door and left her alone in the dark.
In Collodi's original book Pinocchio goes to see a comedy in Mangiafuoco's puppet theater (in fact there are typical figures of Italian comedy such as Harlequin) and ruins it because they recognize him and greet him and therefore stop acting, and for this reason Mangiafuoco rages and imprisons him. How these puppets knew Pinocchio and why they knew how to speak and move even if they were technically attached to strings is not known to us, because, as I have already explained many times, Collodi's book is very metaphorical and therefore certain concepts are not illustrated. To make everything more realistic I changed the situation a bit: in my story Luz is actually the only animated puppet and she interrupts the show due to an error of judgment on her part. Furthermore, the show she went to see is not a comedy but a story that I wanted to include to give some hints of the lore of one of the characters we will see in the future; we don't know the whole story yet, but try to draw your own conclusions with what you discovered in this chapter. I'm curious of what will come out in the comments!