Forgotten Carousel

Chapter 3

  A day or two passed before I became restless. I would start messing with my bandages whenever I was lost in thought or I would tug at my silver hair, accidentally pulling out strands of hair. I would tug at the golden ribbon in my hair until it became undone, the ribbon would fall into my hands and I could feel my hair fall on my neck and cover my eyes. I sighed and stood up, feeling my legs shake a little as I lost my balance, quickly recovering as I looked at my arms, seeing my skin was starting to get paler. Chryl would occasionally allow me to walk outside for fresh air, and even that only lasted for five minutes. I looked at the banner that hung in my tent. It was a grey banner with the black silhouette of a fox. Everyone had a banner in their room with an animal emblem, showing people what animal they were. Some performers tore down the banners, not wanting others to know what their animals were. I stared at my banner in silence before looking outside, hearing screaming and grunting. I poked my head outside only to see the snake-like female from a while ago being held back by Chryl and another medical hybrid while a Werewolf was dragging a branded hybrid to the carousel. The snake hybrid was screaming at the Werewolves as they injected something into the other hybrid, watching her painfully shift into a border collie.
"Calm down Liukaiir.." Chryl could be heard talking to the female as she had tears streaming down her face as she continues to yell at the Werewolves in a different language, confusing me entirely. I watched the Werewolves carefully lift the collie to make her look like she was running before the pole pushes itself through her body, making her scream before she's suddenly silenced. Liukaiir started screaming loudly before Chryl pushes her inside the medical tent. The other medical hybrid glancing at me and waving their hand before walking inside the tent, Liukaiir's screams slowly dying down. I slowly walked out of my tent to move to the medical tent, Chryl noticing and making a confused noise. "Do you need your wrap changed?" I nod with a weak smile before looking at Liukaiir, who was curled up on a cot and crying, her purple tattoo on her leg becoming visible.
"Paladiin, can you take care of Liukaiir for me?" A hybrid looks over at Chryl and nods before moving over to Liukaiir, having her sit up as they talked to her in a soft and calming tone while Chryl changed my bandages. I was escorted out of the large tent soon after, gently being pushed by Chryl back into my tent. I sighed and sat down on my cot.
~*~
A week finally passed, I stood up and stretched, feeling my back pop before I walked outside, seeing Raluukir run over to me with a smile before he ruffles my hair. "Good to see you're feeling better Syll." I smile and hugs Raluukir quietly before letting go of him and walking around the clearing, taking in a deep breath of fresh air. I continued to walk around before noticing Liukaiir, her thin frame leaning against a crate as she stared at the carousel. I felt concern wash over me as I quietly walked over to her.
"Is something wrong..?" Liukaiir's head snaps in my direction, making me jump a little before she sighs and looks back at the carousel.
"They found her.."
"Who?" Liukaiir curled up, her tail circling her as if it was protecting her before I look at the carousel. I saw the collie from a while ago lifelessly hanging from the carousel and my ears flatten. I looked back down at Liukaiir and crouched so I could gently shake her. Liukaiir makes a noise sounding like a loud hiss, making me squeak and back up before she stands, baring her fangs.
"You wouldn't understand!" I looked at Liukaiir with a startled look while Raluukir runs over, carefully picking me up as he looks down at Liukaiir. She backs up and looks at Raluukir, her violet eyes dulling in color as she looks away. "Sorry... I almost lost control." Liukaiir sighs and runs her hand through her short hair. Raluukir continues to stare at her in silence before sighing and setting me down.
"That dog they hung, Liukaiir was dating her. They found her and they didn't have a place for her.. So, they branded her and set her for death." I make a face and cover my mouth before looking over at Luikaiir before slowly walking over to her, watching her look down at me. She didn't move an inch. I slowly curled my arms around her, making her flinch as she stays silent.
"I'm sorry.." I speak quietly. I continue hugging Liukaiir before I hear a soft sniffle before her body starts shaking, signalling she was crying. I let go of her and look at Raluukir with a confused look as he moves over to her and talks to her quietly, managing to calm her down. Raluukir picks me up again, letting me sit on his shoulder before he picks up Liukaiir as well, making her yelp in surprise before he starts laughing.
"Come on you two, let's go practice."
~*~
I sat on the ground, messing with a throwing knife as I watched Liukaiir and Raluukir practice, the act for tonight as me standing on one of Raluukir's shoulders while Liukaiir curled around him like an actual snake. She's not allowed to change into her animal but she can imitate it very well. "She's as flexible as she is beautiful" Shibii put it. Which made a few of us raise our eyebrows at her but we brushed it off. Shibii was weird enough, being a soft spoken, nice tortoiseshell cat hybrid, she's still weird enough if you get her drunk enough.
A few hours pass and we walk into a large tent, seeing other performers eating and talking to each other quietly as the three of us walk over to Shibii, watching her look at Liukaiir before quickly looking away, hiding her face. Raluukir smirked while I laughed quietly. We all got plates of food and we sat at a lone table, talking to each other quietly and occasionally making Liukaiir hiss angrily at Raluukir as he smirked. Everything was great when we were all talking.
"Sylliorah, can I talk to you for a moment?"