Carnival People

We were circus performers. And my god, what fun it was.

I was a member of the carnival troupe aboard the S.S. Emerald – a travelling airship that sailed throughout the Lands of the Sky under the patronage of Isle the Great.

I danced the trapeze then. Night after night, to the excited echos and coo's of the audience, I flew through the air to the sound of the drums, and they called me Peppermint Pearl.

I came to the troupe at a young age in the back of the wagon of the carnival's Medicine Man. The Emerald had stopped along the Floating Mountains to perform for the people of Lesškem; and that very afternoon, as the Medicine Man worked his way through the town offering herbal remedies and care for the occasional bump or bruise, I climbed into the back of his hay filled wagon and quickly fell asleep.

I was an orphan and pickpocket, well-versed in the streets of Lesškem, which left me tattered, barefoot, and with a boy-like appearance from the dirt and soot of the chimneys I would reside upon that kept me from freezing during the winter months.

But when I woke up, I was surrounded by many a odd and smiling faces of carnival folk peering over me.

"Alpie" said one. "I think there's someone sleeping in your wagon".

A small hand positioned itself on the top of the wagon's side, and the head of a strange little man with glasses the size of magnifying goggles popped into sight as Alpie hoisted himself onto the wagon's wheel to look at me.

"Oh my" said he. "Hello, there. What's your name?"

"Pearl" I said. "Who are you?"

"Well that is a very pretty name, Miss. Pearl" Alpie said as he jumped down from the side of the wagon. I watched as the carnival folk looked down at him and moved out his way as Alpie walked past them. I judged by the way they watched him, he was no bigger than I and my nine-year-old self.

I saw his small head at the end of the wagon, he held his arms out to me and I slid across the hay.

"My name is Alpie. I am the healer and medicine man for this carnival troupe".

I jumped down from the wagon. Looking up at the folk around me, I was in awe of their company. Misfits, to say the least, of all shape, colour and sizes. Alpie, the smallest of them all, watched me curiously.

"Have you never been around circus folk, Ms. Pearl?" He asked.

"No, sir". I smiled.

"Well, would you like to be?" I looked at Alpie and smiled.

As the year moved onwards, I sailed with the carnival from city to city. One of the performers, Mary - who specialized and with the magical horses, took me in as her ward. She taught me to read, write, and showed me what smaller jobs I could do and enjoy throughout the carnival shows, as I was too young to perform at my age.

She later told me, as it turned out, I wasn't the first or only orphan to be taken in by the troupe. As I learned later, multiple carnival members were adopted or rescued - and in many cases, in much stranger ways than I.

Bronn, the carnival's strong man, was found hanging by the waste band of his coveralls from a sour birch tree on the cliffs of Shoremoor when the Emerald sailed by. According to a giggling Mary, he was sky fishing for funnybugs; however, if you were to ask Bronn, he would deny this with embarrassed pink in his face.

The contortionist twins, Mia and Tia, were dropped on to the deck when their crane accidently flew into the ship's mass. Luckily for everyone, the safety nets were set up on deck as the trapeze artists were practicing that morning mid-flight, but there wasn't exactly a return address on the side of the basket.

But the most peculiar case, was Hazelnut - who arrived the morning of my nineteenth birthday.

We were anchored in the Sky of the West, and I opened my door one morning to Alpie running down the corridor of the apartments which rested below deck. I was fully grown then, leaving Alpie behind at the height of my hip.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear - " He muttered himself as I watched him toddle along.

"Alpie! Anything the matter?"

"Miss. Pearl ! I found another one! Oh, why do I keep finding children!"

It had seemed that the day I arrived, Alpie had become a magnet for finding children. Following finding me in the back of his wagon, for the last ten years, Alpie had found and rescued 35 children on and off deck of the Emerald. Orphans, runaways, or kids who stray from their parents.

Not all of them stayed, most of them were adopted into homes or reunited with their families at the carnivals. The orphans like me, with no where to go and no parents, were adopted into the troupe, just as I was.

I turned to look down the corridor, the door to the conservatory of which Alpie used for his plants and medicines was open. Bright sunlight from the conservatory windows lit up the hall. Walking towards the door, I opened it to find a toddler-aged baby sitting in one of Alpie's flowerpots covered in soil.

She turned her head to look at me with a big toothless grin. I smiled at her and laughed.

"Hello, what are you doing in Mr. Alpie's flowerpot?".

I looked around her in amazement. Throughout the air around her flowerpot, petals and green leaves floated magically in the air.

The baby murmured and giggled at me. She let out a short sneeze and the petals dropped to the floor.

Walking over to her, I picked her up from the flowerpot and played with her in my arm. She had brown hair, and bright green eyes. As she looked up at me and smiled, the petals rose from the ground and floated around us like little beams of light.

Years following that, Mary and I raised Hazelnut, just as Mary had done to me years before. But it proved to be trickier than it made itself to be, as we very quickly learned that Hazel was not like any of the carnival folk, and seemed to be gifted in a way we all weren't. Things moved, appeared and just happened depending on Hazel's mood, and as she grew, these gifts became much harder for her to control.

One day when she was helping one of the show's pyrotechnics, Billy, his son, Chez, made fun of her aviator helmet and goggles, and when her face filled with tears, she accidently sent the room full of fireworks firing off the side of the ship. She didn't mean to of course, but that was when the troupe suggested I take her to see Mr. Bumble in Abenthy.

Abenthy was a town in the North Skies, and a popular spot for the troupe to stop during the holiday season. When I first joined the troupe, I was taken back by the shimmering lights and the snow of Abenthy, as it truly was a fairytale like land.

Mr. Bumble, a favourite among the troupe members, travelled with the Emerald before I was born. Every few years, he would board the Emerald with gifts for all of the children, and to meet the new members of the troupe. He travelled with the carnival for many years, before retiring to Abenthy to look after his daughter. Although I never had the opportunity to ask him if the stories were true, I heard through song he was of the cunning folk.

When we arrived at Abenthy, I took Hazel by the hand as we walked off the ship. She nervously looked around at her surroundings. I looked down at her.

"Hey, you're going to be okay". I assured her. She nodded.

Walking through the street, I looked up at the sky to see the snow starting to fall as a smile grew across my face.

We came to a store in the square, with a wooden sign hanging overtop the door. It read: "Bumble B. Rue : Clockwork and Toymaker". Hazel gasped in excitement at the window display of puppets and toys dancing behind the glass.

A bell rung as the door opened. The store sat quiet, the only sounds came from the toys dancing in the window. Against the backwall, winding clocks swung back and forth.

"Hello?" I asked to the clocks.

Hazel held my arm, standing behind me with her body.

"Mr. Bumble B?"

"Is that a Miss. Pearl I hear in my store?" A voice called out from the back.

An old man with a white beard and a thin pair of gold glasses popped out from behind the counter. I let go of Hazel's hand and ran to hug him.

"Why Miss. Pearl, you sure have grown". I let go of him. He looked over my shoulder at Hazel.

"Oh, who is this?" He asked me.

Hazel stepped forward.

"This is Hazelnut. Hazel, this is Mr. Bumble B."

Mr. Bumble knelt down on his knee in front of Hazel. He raised his open palm in front of her. A blue tulip forms from a little ball of light. Picking it with his other hand, he offers the tulip to Hazel.

"It's very nice to meet you Miss. Hazelnut".

Hazel blushes as she takes the tulip from Mr. Bumble. Mr. Bumble stands up and looks towards the shelving.

"Did you hear that, Mr. Magician! We have a new guest of the troupe!"

I looked towards the shelves along the wall. Covered in handmade wooden toys and windup dolls, a small pattering of feet tapped along the wood around them as a baby owl popped his head out from behind the toys.

"Is that a bird?" Hazel asked.

"It's a barn owl" said Bumble. "Or, I think it's a barn owl. I found him sick a month back in the woods. Hazel, Pearl , meet Mr. Magician, or Magi".

The owl hopped down from the shelve and hopped towards Hazel. She let out a giggle as he hopped onto her arm.

"What can I do for you Miss. Pearl?" Mr. Bumble asked me.

"Well" said I, "I was wondering if you could help Hazel, you see, she -"

Before I could finish my sentence, Hazel let out a sneeze, and just as she does, the clocks behind her against the wall pop and crack as the gears snap. The clocks then burst with dust as they explode and fall off of the wall.

Mr. Bumble watches in amazement.

"Oh, I haven't seen that in years" said Bumble.

Hazel looks back at the wall before making eye contact with me. Her eyes begin to fill with tears. I rush over to her to try and calm her down.

"Ssh" I said to her. "Calm down, remember?" Hazel wipes her face and nods.

"Hazel" said Bumble. "How long have you been experiencing this?"

"Since I was a babe" said Hazel.

I stood up and walked back to Bumble.

"Does this happen out of the blue? Or do things happen sometimes that you can control?"

Hazel wiped her face again.

"Sometimes I can, but it doesn't last for very long".

Bumble nodded his head, before walking back behind the counter.

"Is she your daughter, Pearl?" Bumble asked me.

"No, we found her on the ship when she was maybe a year"

"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary when you found her?" Bumble began digging through the shelves behind him.

I explained to him what happened with the petals and the flower pot. Bumble smiled as he turned his head back to watch Hazel and Magi.

"There was no sign of a Mother at all?" Bumble asked.

"No, it was like she just -"

"Appeared out of thin air?" Bumble finished my sentence.

I stood there shocked as he continued to dig through his shelves.

"She's one of the cunning folk" said Bumble.

I looked at him with an unsure grin. I had heard that name in passing, but the direct definition was unknown to me.

"Magic" Bumble continued. "I have it, a select few others have it. Its a trait passed through the Mother."

"But Mr. Bumble B. there was no Mother".

Bumble paused as he watched Hazel.

"I know" Bumble said. "Sometimes what can happen, mind you, this is only legend, and I've never seen it, when a cunning folk is carrying a child, and the Mother dies, legend has it that the baby will disappear from the stomach of the Mother and appear in a near-by spot of a family member for care".

I turned back to watch Hazel, but was sharply brought back to Bumble's attention as a pulled out a small clock-work bird made of brass and laid it on the counter.

Hazel walked over to the counter with Magi on her shoulder.

Holding both hands on other side of the brass bird, Bumble closed his eyes as a bright light appeared from his fingers.

Hazel watched in amazement as the bird lifted off the counter in front of us. Suddenly the bird sprung into action as if it were alive.

"Hazel, meet Sigma" said Bumble.

Hazel let out a laugh as the bird started to jump around her. Flapping its wings, it jumped off the counter and soared throughout the store before landing on the counter beside Hazel.

Mr. Bumble B. reached for a flower in the vase that sat on the counter. Pulling out a daisy, he held it out in front of Hazel. He nodded to her to try.

Taking a deep breath in, she positioned her hands on the other side of the daisy. I smiled at her as she closed her eyes.

A quiet moment passed as we waited. Sigma curiously sat next to Hazel, looking at the flower.

Then, without second thought, the flower lit up. Hazel opened her eyes and laughed as the flower floated upwards towards the ceiling. She let out a laugh as Sigma jumped from the counter and began to fly around it.

Letting go of the flower in the air, Hazel gestured her hand and the flower burst into a beam of light as a ghost-like dog formed and danced throughout the air with Sigma following behind.