The Parade

The crowds had mostly disappeared into the tent by the time Marie had returned the animals to Marguerite. Marie sprinted across the grounds, muttering annoyed things to herself. "Has the show started yet?" she yelled at a stage hand as she passed.

"They're heading in now," the stage hand yelled back, but Marie was already back to the main tent and could see the parade filing inside, to a huge swell of the brass instruments already playing, the sound bouncing off all the metal rigging with tinny enthusiasm.

The acrobats were towards the back, which Marie enjoyed for several reasons. For one thing, it meant that she could slide into her place and have half of a second to fix her hair and scowl in response to hissing questions from the other acrobats before stepping into the glowing, echoing, tightly-packed tent. For another thing, it meant that she could see all the other acts as they wrapped around the stage.

The horses ran in first – slowly enough to keep pace with the parade following them, but still managing to look like a dramatic, spangled and sequenced stampede of four, their trainers walking between them and waving. The jugglers followed, juggling colorful balls back and forth. The lions, padding calmly as can be with their trainer behind them, casting lazy glances as the gasping crowd. Marie personally liked the real-sized lions better than the little ones - though they could certainly act scary when it suited them, they were often quite sweet. Their trainer was an odd, quiet man who mostly kept to himself and chatted with his animals, but in his colorful costume and with a broad grin on his face, he looked every bit the showman. Other animals followed behind - the snake trainer and belly dancers, all four helping to carry an enormous banana python, and then the bird act, with a few bright peacocks flocked by a whole host of bright little songbirds. Some were real, and as brightly colored as jewels themselves, their songs clashing with the orchestra's music; but others were little mechanical marvels, that flapped a bit more stiffly and were decorated with actual jewels and sequins.

The tumblers and contortionists reached their place on the stage in all manner of fantastic jumps and flips and turns. Behind them, the fire eaters followed; the nature of their act wasn't immediately visible except for the flames embroidered on their pants, but their lack of shirts made up for the corresponding lack of theatrics. The acrobats paraded in behind them. Marie often thought they could have put on a better show - why not jump in at the back of the parade from the ceiling or something? But they mostly just spun a few little ballerina-like tricks and smiled charmingly, looking half-naked and delicate. Some of the other girls had tried to explain to Marie that if the acrobats looked half-naked and delicate, the audience found it that much more shocking to see them fly through the air, ever an inch from a long, dangerous fall. Marie thought they were just lazy and liked parading around half-naked, but she had learned to keep this opinion to herself. She made a face and Asmodeus, walking behind them in a particularly extravagant hat, smiled at her.

When all the performers had filed into the tent and circled the edge of the state, they waited for the appropriate point in the music and struck a variety of exciting poses. Marie made a concerted effort not to cough as she threw her hands above her head. The stands were packed, which was of course wonderful, but they were packed with people who had recently been exposed to stink bombs and were now sitting close together in an enclosed space. Marie glanced over at the girls next to her and noticed with amusement that their noses were wrinkling, too; Marie herself probably didn't smell terribly fantastic.

There was a creaking of machinery underneath the music, and a cloud of steam hissed out and floated across the stage. A platform in the center spiraled up, until Colette appeared in the center of the circle of performers. She waited until the machinery had clicked into place and the music quieted.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Colette said, loudly enough that her voice echoed through the tent, though she didn't sound at all like she was yelling. "Welcome to Cirque de la Vapeur!"