"Well," Anna says as the door shuts behind Sofi, "welcome to the group. I know this must seem pretty awful to you, especially since you used to be male, but trust me, you do get used to it after a couple years. And if you ever need to talk about it, I'd be happy to discuss things with you."
"How did you know I was a guy?" you ask.
She chuckles. "It's written all over your mannerisms. You don't even move like a girl. But hey, more than a few of the employees here have switched sexes during the change. It's nothing to be ashamed of, at least not here."
"Well," you say, "it's not so much that I'm ashamed of it, I just want to get back to being male again. Sofi told me I need to try and uncurse the rest of the attractions here, and I'm hoping that I'll find some way to change back in the meantime. I've just got to work here until I get legal status, and then I can uncurse this place and get back to my old life."
Anna chuckles. "You know, you sound a lot like I did when I first wound up here. Sofi's a nice kid, and certainly a kinder person than her parents, but she doesn't really understand what this carnival is or why it exists. Have a seat; I think you need to get the facts."
She hops onto the bed, a large mattressed area on one end of the trailer that can also be unfolded into a larger table, and swaths some blankets around her in a somewhat nest-like arrangement. You climb onto the bed as well, drawing your knees up against your chest, your tail curling around your ankles. "Looks like you need to learn how to sit in a dress," Anna smirks. You suddenly realize that your now-oversize shirt is being pulled up by your knees, and quickly extend your legs straight in front of you. But that puts an uncomfortable amount of weight on the base of your tail, so you eventually wind up cross-legged, which you're not exactly used to. "It's all right," Anna laughs. "It's nothing I haven't seen before. But we'll have to get you some proper clothes, unless you feel that fur is adequate. I'll have one of the human employees pick you up some clothes and underwear on tomorrow's supply run."
"Now," she says. "about the carnival. Given your circumstances, I assume your modern skepticism on the existence of magic is safely demolished, so I'll lay it out straight. Back before the modern era, all the way up through the Dark Ages, there were a lot of Curses floating around. That's Curses with a capital C, you see. Most people never really understood this, but they're separate, semi-intelligent entities. That's why there are so many stories where a cursed object displays some sense of irony or malevolence. Nobody's ever really figured out where Curses come from, but they're spiritual entities that wander around the world, looking for victims. You, me, most of the other people in the freak show, we're all victims of one Curse or another. Curse victims provided the basis for a lot of beings from myth and folklore, like werewolves or mermaids or, obviously, harpies." She gestures down at her body.
"Anyway," she continues, "for most of history, the Curses in the world just went wherever they wanted, looking for victims. Fortunately, there weren't that many of them, or the human race would've gone extinct in a flood of you-name-its. They move on a slower time scale than we do, too, so that helped. But there were still a lot of crazy things lurking in the dark corners of the world by the Dark Ages. And it would've kept getting gradually worse if it hadn't been for one priest."
Her eyes seem to burn with a strange fire as she speaks. "Nobody knows what his name was or exactly where he lived, but this was some time in the early 1000s, the very end of the Dark Ages. He single-handedly figured out the true nature of Curses, and how to bind them to a place or object. A few people in other, older civilizations found that out, too, which is why you hear stories about the curse of so-and-so's tomb; usually the places have been de-cursed since, but there are still a few ancient monuments and forgotten mausoleums out there that have a Curse or two bound to them. But anyway, this was the first time anybody in Europe had any idea how Curses really worked. But the Church wouldn't have anything to do with his research, so he decided that he'd have to figure out another way to deal with them."
"But if he figured out how to break curses," you sigh, "why are there still curses around? And what does this have to do with my plan?"
Anna shakes her head. "I'm getting to that. What he found out is that Curses can't be destroyed, just bound to things. For instance, when you 'broke the curse' on the merry-go-round, you didn't destroy the Curse, you just unbound it from the merry-go-round, freeing it to go wherever it wanted."
Suddenly the implications set in. "So that's why Sofi's mom was so mad at me?" you ask.
Anna makes a "so-so" gesture, which can't be easy with wings. "To a certain extent. Mostly, she's just the sort of person who gets a kick out of seeing the Curses claim different victims at her carnival. All she actually probably did was direct the freed Curse at you before binding it to the new attraction. At any rate, I think you're beginning to understand what this carnival is. The priest set out to bind all the truly dangerous Curses in the world to remote locations where they couldn't harm anyone, but he knew that he'd never live long enough to bind all the Curses in the world. Since the Church forbade him to teach any of its priests or parishioners about his discoveries, he turned to the kind of people he could teach."
By now you're thinking ahead, trying to figure out where the stereotypes fit in. "The Gypsies?"
Anna nods. "The Roma people had just arrived in eastern Europe about that time. The priest met some during his travels, and told them what he had learned. He showed them how to bind Curses to place or objects, and charged them with binding any they came across. Being nomadic, they traveled across Europe, binding Curses, and in turn passed the knowledge on to other groups of Roma they interacted with. As they joined or interacted with other nomadic groups, they passed on the knowledge. Some of those travelling groups were circuses and carnivals, and eventually some of the more sadistic ringmasters and carnies got the bright idea to bind the Curses to their own attractions. Thus the famed and stereotypical 'cursed carnivals' were born. And some of them survive to this day, passed down from generation to generation, this one among them. They do mess up some people's lives, but on the other hand, they hold a lot of Curses in one place, instead of letting them roam free to hurt anybody they come in contact with. So uncursing all the attractions would actually be a really bad idea."
"Then what do I do?" you ask, afraid of what she might tell you.
She shrugs. "Whatever you think is best. But just keep in mind that it wouldn't be a good idea to let all those Curses loose."
You moan. "But I can't stay like this! Isn't there some way to change back?"
"There might be," she says. "But I wouldn't get your hopes up. Some of the employees here have searched for years to find a way to regain their old forms, and they haven't come up with anything yet."
You sigh. Are you really facing the prospect of life as a cat-girl? It sure looks that way. "Well," you say, "I guess if I can work here long enough to get legal status..."
"That's the spirit!" Anna grins. "You'll be sixteen again in a few years, and then Sofi's dad can legally count you as an employee, so you'll get an identity for yourself, and then you can look for your way back."
"A few years!?" you screech. "I thought it'd be a couple months at the most!"
"Oh, no," she says. "Pulling the strings required to get someone a new identity is a bit of a risky business, so he doesn't just hand them out like they're candy. Besides, until you're sixteen and plausibly an employee, he'll just claim you're the daughter of whoever's looking after you, if questioned. Which'll probably be me."
You groan, tears beginning to well up in your eyes. Now you're looking at four years of being a cat-girl? And going through puberty as one, at that? "Oh, don't worry," Anna says. "It won't be so bad. You'll get used to it, and all the rest of us will be here to help you. You'll be all right." You sit there, crying softly, and she gently strokes your fur with her wingtip. You snuggle in close, and she pulls a blanket over you as you fall asleep.