“Surely all I need to do is remove this confounded thing?” Terry shoved the Life Changing Costume Store flyer back into his jacket.
He quickly started to rotate his shoulders and slide out of his tamer’s jacket. Of course, he quickly realized that he was still wearing his tamer’s pants, boots, and still had his trusty whip.
“I may need to find some place a touch more discrete,” he mused, bashfully getting his jacket back on.
The two of you glanced off to one side of the tent. You knew the basic layout of the circus from watching them set it up over and over again. If this layout was anything like normal, the trailers and RVs for the performers would be on the far side of the circus. No one wanted their sleeping quarters right next to a bunch of restless animals after all.
He… wasn’t going to run off and leave you here, was it?
“I’ll be back in a flash Wallace,” Terry waved his hand at you apologetically. Nyao? Hey!
Your tamer turned started for the tent’s exit. He had just about made it when he nearly walked headfirst into a clown.
“My goodness, apologies!” Terry did a quick bow.
The clown quickly backed up, “No problem Terry. Everything alright?” He apparently wasn’t in “clown” mode at the moment.
“Yes, quite. I’m afraid I must be on my way-“ Terry started to turn, but stopped. “My good clown, I had the most dreadful sleep last night. Can you tell me which town we’re performing in again?”
Your ears twitched curiously. Terry had suddenly developed one heck of an accent. Or maybe more of an… affect? You couldn’t quite place where his inflection was supposed to be from. You got the strangest impression that he had been putting on a posh act for so long that he couldn’t completely drop it even if he wanted to.
The clown tilted his head, “We’ve been here all week Terry, you really need to start grabbing a sleep aid if you’re this out of it.”
“Right you are lad. All these towns seem to blend together though.” Terry nodded.
You trotted over to the end of your cage to sit in on the conversation. Now that you had calmed down a bit, you were able to get a better view of your tamer. Terry’s hair was still a startling mixture of pure white and streaks of more darker grays and silver, but he honestly didn’t look that old. He was maybe somewhere in his forties? It was as if he had gone prematurely gray after a lifetime of being startled by big cats.
Actually, this would be a pretty good time to say hello.
“Grrrrrrr-ow!” You experimented with putting a bit of extra grumble on your roar this time.
“Good heavens!” Terry leapt into the air. Even the clown took a step back.
The white-faced (face paint, not surprise-pale) clown looked up at you with a certain amount of detachment, “Wally hungry today?”
“When is he not?” Terry tried to regain his composure. He shot you a look, “Settle.”
The word entered your ears and immediately bounced around your skull. It burrowed its way deep into your subconscious, and hit upon one of the earliest things you had been trained on: How to sit still and not react to anything around you.
You found yourself laying down in your cage. You crossed your paws and gently laid your muzzle down on top of it. Your muscles relaxed, and even the carnival music in the background seemed to fade. You could chill out like this for at least twenty minutes with a full blown circus going on around you. The longer you waited, the bigger your reward.
“Good kitty,” Your human nodded at you.
The clown finally seemed at ease. He gave your human a sympathetic smile, “We’re on the road Terry, you should try to enjoy it. I hear the seafood here is great.”
Seafood? Fish! You ears perked up, but the rest of your body stayed obediently relaxed. Wait, seafood… were you in a coastal city?
You could practically see the hair on Terry’s neck stand up. Until about twenty minutes ago, the two of you were comfortably situated in a landlocked state. He ran his fingers through his hair, “Lad, when you’ve been in showbiz for as long as I have, the towns start to blur together.”
He reached into his pocket. Your tail stopped wagging. You stared at his hand. Was he going to pull out some salmon skin for you?
Instead, your tamer simply pulled out his phone. Grr. Your tail started wagging lazily again.
“Righto, if you could just show me how to check our schedule again.” the tamer gave the clown a nervous grin.
“Fine, here…” The clown ever so slightly rolled his eyes.
The two of them poked at the gadget for a minute. Terry tried to play things cool, but you could pick up on his scent changing. It was a scent you knew all too well from your timid lion tamer: He was scared.
“I’ll try to remember that for next time!” Terry waved as the clown left the animal tent.
“I’m not giving you another lesson on this!” The clown waved. He wiggled his arms and loosened up a bit, getting back into character as he went back to the circus crowds.
When the coast was clear, your tamer quickly ran back over. His eyes were a little wide.
“Wallace, we’re in-“ He blinked, watching you remain motionless on the floor of your cage.
“Oh, you can get back up.” He laughed softly. He reflexively reached into his pocket and finally pulled out a chunk of dried fish for you.
He arced the salmon through the air. You caught it expertly in your muzzle. It was a rote action for both of you at this point. Mhmm, rote but delicious action.
Terry wiped his hand off on his pants before starting to fidget, “Look, I uh- I have no idea how, but we’re two states over from where we should be.”
He held up his phone, “According to this, we’re not scheduled to pass through our town for another three weeks…!”
You could tell how anxious he was. Performing on stage was like playing for you. You had to be in tune with him to know when things were a game and when it was time to be serious and follow his commands. That instinct was firing on all cylinders at the moment.
“Look, umm… Maybe all we need to do is take our costumes off? I’m going to go back to my trailer and change,” he looked up at you curiously, “Do you… still have your zipper?”
You looked down at your chest and let out a simple, “Meow?”
Terry sighed, “Right, I- Wait, you know how to roll over, right?”
Your tamer didn’t say the command sternly, but you still picked up on the words. You rolled over by the edge of the cage so that he could stick his hand through the bars.
Me-ow… Belly rubs felt nicer than you expected. A content happy purr started to fill the air. You only stopped when you smelled your tamer’s anxiety again.
“Uh- I don’t see anything,” Terry stammered, “Oh man, you, you’re really a lion Wallace. I can’t find any trace of a costume.”
You rolled back over. You sat up and looked down at the human expectantly.
Terry’s eyes went a little wide as he read your body language, “Would you focus on something besides treats please?” He fished another piece of salmon skin out of his pocket for you.
“Look um, I’m going to go change!” He gave you an anxious grin as you chomped on the treat, “I’m sure we can figure out something for you if I’m able to turn back!”