A Shadow of Light |girlxgirl|

Chapter 9

|CHAPTER 9|

The charming, good-natured smile remained glued to his face, as he led her back out of the white tent.

"Even with the stuff I slugged you with, your bruises will not heal before the sun falls from the sky. So I'll just do a quick run-through of the major tents you would need to know about. Then we will stop at the Main Tent, and I'll show you some simple exercises to consolidate your fundamental strengths."

Mira babbled as he showed her where the bathing area was.

She wondered why he hadn't taken her there earlier, until he told her it was communal, for every member to use as they wished.

Paling at the thought of being bare to a number of strangers, she was glad for the privacy he had provided her.

She would have to find a way to work around public bathing in the future....

"Ringo told me that he doesn't need you to perform until our next round of touring. We still have tonight's finale to perform, then we move on to the next town over, then the next after that. Once this is completed, we have a month-long break to collaborate supplies, rest our bodies and fine-tune our acts. When we start performing again, you'll be doing the Aerial Silk. That gives you quite some time to adapt your mind and body to our way of life."

Mira then showed her the dining hall, which only held a few stray individuals, who thankfully had no interest in chatting with them.

"I think the most difficult task you'll face is trying to stay alive. Ringo's word is law, in both this Circus, and the Underworld, but you are certainly appealing for a mere human. I heard Shine is geared to dine on your flesh, and I'm sure Kali didn't like you when she met you. Most of us are pretty content to just live our lives here, but some of the more... Erratic... members may cause trouble. I'd suggest steering clear of Reaper, first of all. Razor sharp tongue, that one. Her blades cut even deeper. Perfect aim, but very anti-social. She doesn't get along with anyone here, and stays in her tent all of the time, except to train, eat and bathe. Oh, and Soteria may not like you very much. Nymphs don't really appreciate when people pay attention to someone other than them. Just think of her as a Greek succubus from Hell... No wait, somewhere scarier than Hell..."

While Liana was grateful that Mira had filled the silence, she did not need to add more fuel to her nightmares.

Shuddering at his cheerfully blunt depiction of ripping off someone's fingernails and stabbing them into their eyeballs, she was quite glad when they reached the Main Tent, which doubled as their training area when they weren't doing actual performances.

He said most of the members would be heading to the dining hall or the bathing facilities at the moment, so the ginormous tent was almost empty.

A woman of average height was pumping iron in an obscured corner, but did not pay them any attention as Mira showed her the basics of what she needed to know.

By the time they were done, people dressed in various Gothic outfits flitted into the training arena.

Letting out a sigh of relief, that they could leave the crowds that were trickling slowly in the large space, Liana happily followed Mira towards the exit.

But they did not get very far.

A woman stepped in front of their path, stopping them from leaving.

Thin to the extreme, her charcoaled caramel hair was curled down to her lower back, and partially secured away from her face by an intricate gold headband.

Her model-like figure was accentuated by an almost transparent black peplos, cinched at her waist with an onyx-encrusted golden belt, and left to hang over her left shoulder.

Her creamy skin seemed almost radiant, as if it were bathed in sunlight, even in the shaded confines of the tent.

Large, dark green eyes peered at Liana with the lazy curiosity of a cat.

Mira stepped forward with his usual broad grin, and Liana remembered the maniacal gleam in the farmer's eyes as he bathed in Sam's blood, lapping it up with a greedy tongue, as if it were the Elixir of Life.

"Soteria, what a pleasure to catch you here. Why don't you come and meet Ringo's new little human? I assure you, she is delicious."