[img]http://i.imgur.com/xtOCTw7.png[/img] [b][u]Phillis Circus: Big Top[/u][/b] Isabella dropped from her platform with her eyes still serenely shut, her long slender arms reaching out and grabbing the awaiting trapeze to send her gently gliding down forwards to the next set of trapeze awaiting her. She flipped and shifted her body around, so that her legs rested across the next swing’s bar, and she let go of the first to swing backwards, supported only by her legs. Her hands stretched and reached out as her swing continued to arc backwards, this time reaching her companion on the approaching swing: Poppy, who had her own arms reaching out to grab Isabella. Her hands clutched onto her superior’s own, gripping her as Isabella’s legs left the middle swing, her whole body and fate held within her companions’ hands. Swinging back like a pendulum, Poppy and Isabella drew back close to where Poppy had first started off, before arcing back down again with frightening speed. And at the apex of their swing’s height, Poppy released Isabella to spin over and over again throughout the air, aimed towards her starting trapeze. [img]http://i.imgur.com/B2xbVk9.png[/img] As this death defying act continued within the Big Top’s suspended midair, so too did the performance on the ground. The large, muscular foreigner Abram, juggling his huge and weighty pet animals, laughed over and over. The circus was his second home, and this performance his life. The people here and the animals were his friends and family, as close as a replacement to his own back home whom he dearly missed. Constantly juggling his animals over and over, he finally released one, his lion Lidya, named after his second daughter. She was sent hurtling across the ground, aimed directly towards Cammie, at the hushed gasps of everyone watching. Cammie, in his usual apathetic form, simply looked at the barrelling lion without any concern. He simply moved his body, swishing his cape to the side as he did, and Lidya was deflected, barrelling back along the ground in yet another direction:- a repeat of the stunt performed with their human cannonball, Max. This time again, Cammie sent their target to his sister, Tammie. With a wink and blown kiss, Tammie held her cape out to the side like a matador, and with a simple swish as Lidya passed, the lion was gone. Only to reappear again out of Sammie’s held out hat, barrelling down through the air like an errant rocket, directly in the path of the still spinning Isabella! [b]“OH MY GODS!”[/b] A gasped cry screamed from amongst the crowd. [img]http://i.imgur.com/2uDBgEK.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/dO6vRyy.png[/img] “Waa waa waa!” Trixie’s feet started pounding on the ground. “That lion’s gonna… gonna… gonna eat her!” Estelle’s own mouth dropped in horror and fright at the impending collision. There was nothing anyone could do! Except Isabella herself, who flicked her body up in another midair somersault, to narrowly avoid Lidya’s maw. Her foot touched atop the lion’s head, using it as a stepping stone to fling herself back up again into another flying somersault – and catch the trapeze awaiting her. Whilst below, Lidya fell into her Master’s waiting arms, and returned to Abram’s juggling procession along with her sisters. The still and silent tension that had gripped the audience as they watched the unbelievable performance suddenly erupted into frenetic applause, with members of the audience standing on their feet and wildly cheering and exclaiming. Even Estelle and Trixie were caught up in the excited fever, pumping their fists in the air and loudly screaming. Whatever may or may not have been occurring behind the scenes at the circus, they couldn’t deny one thing… …and that was that they were [i]incredible.[/i] --------------- [b][u]Phillis Circus: Big Top: Rear[/u][/b] In the back of the Big Top’s tent, where the majority of the circus’ performers had gathered before emerging into the main performance ring to act, a certain figure’s head suddenly popped out between two folds of curtains, his head swishing from side to side as he checked that the coast was all clear and empty, before stepping out and dusting himself off. [img]http://i.imgur.com/yWeW5Rr.png[/img] [b][center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OPc7MRm4Y8]Stealth Mission: GO![/url][/center][/b] Eric had by now searched the majority of every tent in the circus’ grounds bar the Big Top to little luck, leaving this as the only place left to search around and pray that he could find his missing niece. Fortunately, the coast was relatively clear in the back areas, with most of the circus staff focused on their performance playing out in the front of the Big Top’s main circus ring. Those that were left were patiently waiting for their turn to arrive, their concentration fully focused on listening out for their cue amongst the roaring din of the crowd screaming outside. Both of these helped to make it easier for Eric to slink between various crates and pieces of equipment to stay out of anybody’s sights. So far, so good, but still, he had yet to find his missing niece, and with each passing second, Eric was growing more and more irate. He could feel anger and rage brimming and bustling inside his body. Either that, or he needed the toilet again. “Balti, Balti, where are you…?” Eric quietly whispered to himself, his eyes dodgily turning from side to side. Jogging and exaggeratedly diving and rolling from cover to cover, Eric began to make his way from one side of the tent where he had entered to the other, randomly and haphazardly searching with no particular direction in mind. How hard could this seriously be, though? He had literally scoured and searched everywhere else in the circus so far! Every ride, every tent, every portaloo… what was left other then this Big Top? His niece just had to be here somewhere, and he would find her, no matter what!! [i]Braaaaaaaaaaaaaap~~~~[/i] “Hey… did you just hear something…?” Asked one of the two performers a short distance away from Eric, on the other side of the cover he hid behind. Their voice immediately made him freeze on the spot. “Huh? Yeah, I did, actually. What was… oh my gods, what is that [i]smell?[/i]” [b]“Was that you?!”[/b] [i]“Me?! [b]Don’t blame me!”[/b][/i] [b]“Ew!”[/b] Eric flopped onto his stomach, and began rolling away from the pair, and his cover, this time towards the curtains’ bottoms. He needed to flee the scene of the crime as quickly as he could, and this was the best way possible. Crawling under the curtains should prove a lot more effective to trying to push apart an opening between the folds of two curtains… …but then there was no guarantee of what he might roll into on the other side. And what Eric found, as his body bashed against the felling of something solid hitting his stomach… made him stop immediately. “Uh oh.” “And who…” Eric’s eyes focused first on the foot he rolled into pressed against his stomach, before gradually rising up, up and over the figure of the glaring man in the red waistcoat looking down at him, and the regally refined woman standing next to him. He could feel his stomach drop. Or maybe he just needed the toilet again. “…are you?” [img]http://i.imgur.com/wDtzFvU.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/qND0pAj.png[/img]