A Strange Collection

Chapter 6: A Strange Tale of Those I Met

Bubbles' POV

I woke up early in the morning, though I slept late last night. I made gentle blinks with my heavy eyelids. It was dawn. The sun rose with a cape of colors at its back, colors it slowly puts away upon reaching the sky's peak. I watched as the heavens turn from fuchsia to a light orange in an expanse of vivid blue until it finally grew lighter in hue, giving the tint of periwinkle.

By the time I stood up, I went into the Ringmaster's tent. It was dimly lit by lava lamps of various types: baby blue, blood red, honey yellow, and emerald green; they have shapes like spheres, waves, tubes, and squares. I can say that it would have been dark if it weren't for those lamps. There was also a huge carpet; it had a hue like drops of blood mixed with purple dye along having striped patterns of a bright blue glow.

Hilary was there, and he was speaking to the Ringmaster who happened to be behind a damaged tiger mascot. I went closer but only a little and I was a meter and a couple of feet away from them. I didn't want to interrupt their discussion at the moment, as I felt that it would be disrespectful to do so. Then a bird that emerged from fire was mentioned. The tale of a former ringmaster. Hilary went out with confusion in his eyes.

"I thought he was dead," a faint statement that he said.

In my own curiosity, I took a few steps forward. I raised a brow and bent on the sideways. Ringmaster had been wiping a mirror. His eyes had a great deal of focus on it, and he spoke to it. Since I didn't find it too important, also kinda crazy, admittedly I proceeded to give out my concern. It was a question about the incident that happened in this circus.

"Hello, Ringmaster? Are you still mad at me?" I gave an awkward smile. "I hope not."

"What is it?" He faced me with an apathetic expression and reclined on the mascot's head. His eyes looked to the ceiling. "Come on, ask."

I walked some more towards him until I was at his side and sat down. 

"I was simply wondering. What happened to this place? Why was it ruined?"

He stood up and went to a chest of eerie shade. He opened it with a discernible creak being made by the hinges; it may have a considerable old age, but I don't know. He took out a few things and returned to our spot. Then he laid out what he gathered and arranged them on the floor.

The items were a few photographs, a music box, a feather, and the mirror he was cleaning a while ago.

He hovered his left wing on each of the things and picked up the middle one, a photo in sepia of the seven pictures. This image is of a school located somewhere near a path that leads to the forest. The building was nowhere too great in size, but the decor that adorned the roof and the chiseled patterns of the doors were magnificent in my eyes. They give the picture of nature in simplicity. It had the students captured in the shot with one particular young bird in isolation but apparently joyous delirious disposition.

"Let me introduce to you Ringmaster Jenuel Ariston Jackson."

I stared at the photo for a while. 

"Dazed?"

"Well, yes. I think?" I replied, raising a brow.

He put the picture down and took another one. This time, it was a grayscale photo. It contained an imagery of a circus located by a lake. This must have been taken from the inside of the tent. The stage lights were around a slender built bird who held out a microphone, presumably the grown youngling from the previous image, hosting the night's show. On the left of him was a cage that has a large creature whose teeth were like flint. He appeared to be reaching out on it without fear for the sake of his audience.

"Part of the show, isn't it?" I asked.

"Indeed, during this time there was supposed to be a stage performance by Crystal but she wasn't ready and the show was delayed. Jenuel called for the bunyip to be brought in to entertain the people. He was a stage performer himself, I guess. I was so young at the time."

"What does this have to do with the destruction of the circus?"

"You'll figure," he said. He then put it down and picked up another photo. This one was in sepia again, unlike the last picture however, this was much more simple by nature. He handed it to me, so I assumed that he wanted me to observe it. The photograph shows an image of Jenuel with two female birds. The one on his right was shorter than the one on his left. This female also appeared to have a short beak with wide eyes and dark feathers. The other one I couldn't make out much of what she looked like as her side of the image was burnt, and the only thing I could see was a little bit of her eyes and barely anything from her body; I assumed that this female had a lighter color due to her remaining visible wing and may have been less round in shape because of her height.

"Why are you showing me these? I could barely even see what you're trying to convey," I told him.

"Well, I could hardly remember what happened during those times. I simply showed these to you because there are some things that I have seen in the circus as a kid, and while I may have been taken in by the people there, I never got myself too involved with Jenuel himself. I only knew that these to women got into a fight sometime before the fire began. I didn't exactly know why, but it felt as though it involved them. Ever since then, they and the former ringmaster where nowhere to be seen so I took in their two eggs and hatched them myself."