Before a Once Upon A Time

Wolf Of Man - A Trip To The Circus

Story 3 - Wolf Of Man

Part 1 - A Trip To The Circus

Lupe lifted his nose and sniffed delicately. He would have liked to take a deep, snorting breath that would have given him a much better idea of the dangers around him but he had noticed long ago that this was not good for the staying hidden - people looked at you as though you were rabid, and perhaps he was. He certainly wasn’t normal.

The smell of popcorn and cotton candy swirled in the air and reminded him sharply of a circus he had visited as a child. He wondered if there was a circus nearby. Ah circuses. He started at a trot towards the source of the smell. He wanted to see the show - and more accurately, how the showpieces were treated.

A deeply hidden idea surfaced in his mind. It was from a time before the magic that had made him what he was now. Before he had become a monster.

His father walked through the village, past the turn off for the circus.

“Papa, papa! I want to go see the circus! Please ,please, please!” His father shook his head without speaking. He wouldn’t talk until they had reached home and then he began to explain softly and urgently to his son.

“The circus is a bad, bad place full of very sad people. It is where all the sad people in the world go when they have nowhere else. They run to the circus because otherwise they would be alone, ostracized from all of the people in the world forever. And since they are there for those reasons, the circus treats them however it likes - after all, it’s not like anyone cares how the deformed and scraps of the world are treated, so long as they aren’t in the cities and towns in the vision of the people.”

The young Lupe had accepted his father’s words without thought. His father was never wrong, after all. It wasn’t until much later, after the spell, that he had considered his father’s words more carefully.

Circuses were places where the ostracized and strange went. They were places where people went when they had nowhere else to go - a shelter and a curse. For it was true no else cared.  No one would defend the different or deformed. They just wouldn’t. Even if it was their fault, their genes fault technically that had caused the malformation.

Circuses where safe havens for the deformed, the wrong or unsightly that people didn’t want to see on a daily basis. They provided a place for those that normal people ignored, blamed or even would kill for things they not done, simply because they looked different. People who were in towns and were deformed where the center of the crime syndicates in that city in the people’s minds, even if they weren’t in real life. However, if one of these people joined a circus, they were suddenly a working person, worthy of nothing more really, accept that they would not be charged for the crimes they had not done. The people would not hunt down someone in a circus to prosecute simply because it was much harder to do so when they were moving and they were more afraid of the people if they were in a pack.

However, these safe places also had a poisonous lining to them that not many saw. No one cared about how the circus performers were treated - as long as they gave a good show. Often, the ring leader of the circus was a normal person who gave introductions and planned acts - and due tot the fact that he was a normal person, he was obviously above the acts themselves. Often, if the acts did not perform things perfectly or do exactly as he said - even if what he said could easily result in death or being unable to perform any further (and of course if they failed in this way they were forced to become backstage hands if they were allowed to stay at all). He would beat them violently in ways that could not be seen from the stage or might even injure them to the point where they would be unable to perform for a period of time.

The most terrible part of circus life was that if people who could join the circus did not, no one defend them at their homes either - even their parents. Even though it was often the parents’ fault, their DNA that had caused the malformation they so hated and feared, they would not defend their child from prosecution. At least if the children joined the circus they might find a certain kind of protection and camaraderie from the other freaks - a bond that they would not find anywhere in ‘normal’ society anyway.

            Circuses were places of protection and lesser dangers to those who joined them - sometimes. However, circuses were often deeply rooted in crime and the members often under suspicion for or charged with the same crimes as before - but now they had the partial protection of the circus also. And since they would receive no protection outside of the circus, perhaps it was the better choice for many.

            Lupe wondered if he too could find refuge in the circus. As he drew near the big top, he heard the leering laughter of the crowd and the calls and shouts and adrenaline fueled screams of the members of circus. He paused outside the entrance, looking at the half intoxicated dwarven man who stood at the flap, half -guarding it and half - napping as he stood there. Lupe sniffed deeply, ignoring the man’s expression and shook his head. No.

             He turned and marched off into the forest that surrounded the circus. It would never be the place for him. It was smelly. And loud. And filled with people who would laugh at him for his problems, his deficiencies and his extraordinary qualities. He would never be happy there.

            And anyway, what would happen if he lost control in the circus? No. That was dangerous. No. That wasn’t quite right.

He was dangerous.