The show had ended with a rather grand finale. Susan-Joan Tiikeri walked out of the circus tent with her two children, Emily age five, and Ben Billy Tiikeri. The stars were out, and the circus was beginning to close up for the night with last call for rides and performances. A crescent moon rose over the horizon.
She sincerely hoped John was okay... if he didn't remember any of this... maybe it was for the best, given the humiliating things he'd done.. then again, that would be Susan would have to bear all the humiliation for the both of them.
Emily and Ben were talking nonstop about how cool it had been. Ben 'knew' his father hadn't really been turned into a tiger, but hoped his dad would tell him how the trick worked. Emily meanwhile, was struggling with doubts not being quite old enough to have been told what was 'real' and what was not.
The family arrived at the main gate as asked... strangely, there didn't seem to be anyone else around, in spite of how the crowds should have been gathering. It was eerie, like Susan had taken her children into a different world all together.
Then stepping out of a tent, was Mesmero, and a woman Susan recognized as the one who had given her the note, she was in fact, the make-up artist who had applied the 'mask' to Shasta earlier that day. Behind them was Shasta the tiger.
"Hello miss," Mesmero said politely, "A pleasure to see you this evening, I hope you enjoyed the show."
"Hello," Susan said trying to be as nice as possible, she felt this sideshow hypnotist had ha way way WAAAAY too much fun at her husband's expense, and what should have been a brief show had become a whole day affair. "Can you please bring my husband out."
The make-up artist held back a laugh.
"Oh sorry, where are my manners? This is my wife, Mascara the Magnificent. But I'm sure you don't care for formalities, and you wish to be reunited with your husband?"
Susan narrowed her eyes. "Yes, and I think this show has gone on long enough."
Mesmero bowed. "My deepest apologies, I never meant you, nor your husband, or your family any sort of distress. Your husband simply proved very good at being a tiger, as I knew he would. I am a showman after all, I have to give the best show I can."
"Can I please just have my husband back? It's late, and my children are tired."
"No we're not!" Ben and Emily said together, naturally.
"So you DO want to be reunited with your husband?"
"Yes!"
"Alright then." He took out three shinny golden tickets with odd markings on them. "Please take these tickets as apology for my behavior, see how they shine? The way the real gold flashes? The way the light dances in your eyes? You can't take your eyes off it. It's beautiful isn't it? It twinkles like the stars in the sky. It's all your want to think about, all you can think about... you feel calm don't you? You like your free tickets don't you? DO you want them?"
"Yes." Said Susan.
"Uh-huh." Said Emily.
"Yeah..." And said Ben.
"These are special lifetime tickets to our new circus, and your husband gets one too... are you SURE you want them?"
"I do."
"Yes please."
"Yep."
"Well, they come with a free face painting, good tonight only. Wouldn't it be nice for your husband, if you were all tigers like him?"
"That... sounds nice."
"Okay."
"That sounds fun."
"Alright then, dear?"
"Yes dear." Mascara said, and taking out her kit, and with amazing skill and speed, applied the same make up as she had to John/Shasta before. The tiger face boy, girl, and woman politely stood still as the Magnificent Mascara did her work. Mascara then stepped back and admire her handy work, perfect as always, she did have her pride in her craft after all as much as her husband.
"I meant what I said about having done this trick several times before and it always going off without a hitch." He politely explain, the family all politely listening. "I have been preparing for this night for a long time. Slowly but surely. Not just anyone would do.
"I and my wife come from a family of gypsies, but also a family of animal trainers. Both of which society these day frown upon. My wife lost one of her grandparents in Auschwitz. We kept our craft, and perfected it, long after it had turned to myth and fantasy, taking it far beyond what it had been able to do before.
"Certain people have over the years been gaining more and more raw political power, one country after another, who do not just see something wrong with animals being mistreated, but inherently sees animals PERFORMING as abuse in of itself. Several countries now ban animals performing at all! The animal show you saw, will likely be the last one this circus would ever have. It's the death of era."
The family all frowned sadly at this idea. Realizing the animal show they'd seen would the last.
"But my wife and I, had a revelation, a realization, a vision almost of how to preserve our way of life in these changing times. We realized we'd have to make some compromises, but we had ways of keeping the animals at the circus so to speak."
The family smiled.
"Now then, just nod yes or no, are you all the same species as your husband, father?"
They nodded.
"Well, this is your husband, father right here." He gestured at Shasta. "Does he look like a human to you?"
They shook their heads.
"What does he look like?"
"A tiger," they all said together.
"Correct! And if he is a tiger, and he is the same species as you... what are you?"
"Tigers," The family echoed.
"Excellent. Now... since you are like your father, who is obviously a tiger, and therefore is named Shasta and not John, that name means nothing to you. Now what is your father's name?"
"Sahshta."
"Good tigers, you will address me as Master, you will also all dress me as Master, you will address my wife as Madam."
Shasta nodded. The family responded with a calm, "Yes Master. Yes Madam."
"Now, Susan-Jan, Emily, and Ben Billy are obviously not very fitting names for tigers now are they?"
"No."
"Not really."
"Nope."
He flashed the reflective tickets with runes inscribed at Susan-Joan. "Your name is Sukanya. Now what is your name?"
"Sukanya."
"Is your name Susan-Joan?"
"No."
"Then the name Susan-Joan means nothing to you."
"Yes."
"Good. Your little one," He flashed the tickets in Emily's eyes. "Your name is Esha, doesn't that sound like a good name for a tiger?"
"Yes, it really does."
"And so you don't need the name Emily anymore if you're a tiger do you?"
"No I don't."
"Do you know the name Emily?"
"No I don't."
"What is your name?"
"Esha."
"Good Esha."
"Thank you Master."
"And finally, my young tiger cub," he spoke to Ben Billy, "Your name, since you're a tiger, is Bhavesh. What is your name Bhavesh?"
"it's Bhavesh."
"And is it Ben or Billy or Ben Billy Bhavesh?"
"No."
"What is it?"
"Bhavesh."
"Now, you will become perfect tigers, like your father/husband at the count of three, one, two, three!"
The collective power that had been directed at Shasta for his transformation, now the rest was directed towards his family/owners, combined with the infallible logic that had been set by the family, and the transformation began.
Their clothing vanished, along with any other personal objects they had, and were quickly covered in fur, white on their bellies and orange with black strips on the rest of their bodies. Hands and feet were replaced by paws. Long stripped tail grew from their spines. Their ears moved to the top of their heads, and their faces stretched out as Shasta's had. Claws and fangs grew, and contacts ceased to be contacts.
The smaller tigress fell on all fours, followed by her cubs. They stood politely at attention.
Shasta instantly recognized his family and went to them, and they began to lick each other. They purred as they nuzzled each other.
"Your family last name, Tiikeri, means tiger in Finnish. No you never told me it, it told me it. In a way, you were always destine to come here, like the others before you, you could say this was always their destiny. From the moment you chose to come to this circus of your own free will, you had made the unconscious decision to accept this fate. You must have had few attachments besides each other."
"Don't worry about your former lives." Mascara said proudly. "If you had left the carnival grounds, you'd have found your car had already vanished. Everyone here remembers you now as circus animals. None will notice you are gone, at the greatest extreme, they'll simply accept you have gone away and aren't coming back. You've joined mine and my husband's Animal Circus."
Mesmero and Mascara had already cleared everything with the ring master and had already done the paperwork having the circus' animals now legally under their care.
"But if course, if you were be just animals, no matter how clever or intelligent, we'd run into the exact same problems, making this all rather pointless," Mesmero said. "But this was only phase one, you are the last additions to our troop of performers before we take our show on the road. You should feel honored." And the family of tigers was. "And speaking of which, I'd say it's time for phase two, ready for my dear?"
"I've waited years for this day dear, I've prepared everything."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Mesmero clapped his hands three times, loudly and clear. And then blew a whistle, that humans couldn't hear, even if they and the family of tigers were not slightly out of phase with everything else.
And they came... a couple of elephants and their son. the triplet white mare sisters and two brown stallions. A mama bear and her three cups. A lion and lioness. And a lone male poodle.
The circus animals stood at attention, perfectly lining up in formation, the tigers doing the same instinctively.
"You've all performed well, you've all done well. And while the days of your showtime at this circus have come to a close, now a circus that is yours opens." Mesmero addressed.
"And now it is time to take things to their next level," said Mascara. "Least our performances are exterminated. You are our only hope. To win back the crowds, to win their admiration, whether our circus succeeds or fails will be only due to yours and our own merits." She clapped her hands. "Now... [i]stand up[/i] stand up."
And... and the animals did... their hips bones and shoulder shifted and changed, as did their next bones... Their torso titled upwards, and their faces now faced forward, and the animals began to balance on two legs like it was completely natural, their forelegs now swung on their sides, their tails keeping them balanced.
"Don't worry," Mascara continued, "None who look upon you will find you strange or alarming. They will calmly accept your existence, just as they calmly accept your human existence never were. Your nudity means nothing to you, and it'll mean nothing to them. You are beasts that will draw the crowds and dazzle them with your performances. But since you are quite intelligent and rational beasts, even if there is nothing human in those brains of yours and never was, the more extreme animal rights groups cannot claim you are dumb creatures being physically abused into painful and humiliating performances. You have all come here ultimately of your own free will, even if most of you were not aware of it. I and my husband do not pretend we are somehow 'good' we merely wish to give a good animal show to those who like it. "
Sukanya meanwhile, calmly moved her tail aside and took a dump on the grass without a thought, she was outside, what should she care if she did her business? None of the animals gave her a glance, let alone her Master and Madam.
They had no concept of shame, humility, or humiliation, it wasn't part of their brain chemistry.
To call them human/animal hybrids wasn't really correct, they were more like animals who could walk upright. 'Intelligent beasts' was another way to describe them, while indeed intelligent and capable of rational thought: the intelligence they had was no longer human, not anymore, in fact, it had never been as far as reality was concerned. They were both something new, and something that had always been.
"Now line up," Said Mascara, "Let's practice a little by getting you all into 'costume.' "
The humanoid animal all nodded, and obediently lined up before Madam.
Taking out her make-up kit, Macara applied beautiful patterns and decorative symbols to fur (and hide in case of the elephants) to each of the biped animals in turn, none were identical, but the same beast families did share a similar style enhancing them, looking like beautiful neon electric lines out of Tron.
Once they had all been beautifully decorated, yet all of them still completely naked, the biped animals all gave out a celebrating cry. None of the few humans nearby even noticed, passing right them with a glance, still slightly out of phase with everything.
The furries were not human, and had no desire to ever BE human, what they DID WANT however, was to put on a good show for the audiences to come.
Having already packed up all their equipment and belongings before, the circus furries took their leave with their new Ring Master and Madam. The five horses, and the two adult elephants, harnessed themselves to the large travel coach. The bear cubs, tiger cubs, and baby elephant, rod in the back, enjoying the view. The adults rod in the middle. While Mesmero and Mascara took turns at the driver's seat. They had a long way to go. Maybe a new town, maybe an entirely different world all together, maybe a different reality, but already making plans for their first big show.