" Mephistopheles says he wants to talk to me about something. . ." Clari awkwardly spoke. She glanced to her left side at Anishaa while adjusting the millions of rolled up flyers in her arms. It was hard to hold everything while walking.
" Did he say about what? Or is he keeping it a secret? Let me guess, he wants to talk to you in private?" Anishaa questioned, all too casually.
" H-how'd you guess?" Clari sheepishly asked. The fire eater laughed.
" It seems like a Mephistopheles move. Just something he would do. In that case, you better wear your nightgown."
" I- pardon!?" Clari frowned, blinking. " What does my nightgown have to do with anything?"
" If he wants to meet you in private. . ." Anishaa raised a brow. " Then there's no way he'll let you leave his room tonight. It's almost dusk. Any later than this, I suspect it will be dark out. If you're meeting in private, my guess is he'll take you up to his chambers. And Clari, trust me. Once you get in there, he won't let you leave the room without him getting into your-"
" Nonono! Not that way!" Clari yelped, hugging the flyers close. " I haven't even mentioned anything about his room!"
" Well, did he say where he wanted to talk!? Exactly??" Anishaa questioned. " If not, trust me I know what he's doing."
" Yes, he said later today while we're in town putting up the flyers and decorations! He just wanted to catch me while I was alone."
" Well?" The fire eater frowned, turning to look around them. " Where is he? That way I can walk off for you two."
The two girls stopped in their tracks in the middle of the sidewalk, glancing around town.
Afternoon had rolled by fast due to everyone who was working at the carnival grounds. Mephistopheles had wanted to stick to his schedule and send performers out to hang up advertisements. What he ended up doing since the job at the circus grounds wasn't finished yet, was splitting everyone up. He assigned Houdini to stay and watch half the performers finish the tents, while he led the others into town for other work.
Mephistopheles had said by tonight the carnival grounds would be ready for use tomorrow. Witnessing the men work together to put up that large tent earlier that morning, she definitely believed it.
" Putting up flyers, obviously." Clari gave a smile. She looked around at the faces on the street, not seeing her ringmaster anywhere.
" He probably walked down a different street than us."
Anishaa shrugged, leading Clari over to the nearest brick wall. The wall they stopped at belonged to a small Cafe shop with white tables, umbrellas, and chairs sitting outside on the pavement. It looked like a cozy little place to eat. Perhaps Mephistopheles would let her visit it some other time before their next move?
Together, while Clari unrolled posters and lifted them up against the bricks, they nailed down their flyers.
" You know. . ." Anishaa breathed through hammer clinks. " You were awfully close with Mephistopheles this morning. . ."
Clari ducked her head, flushing bright red.
" He was all over you as I had predicted! Did you regret your choice of clothes when he was-"
" N-nothing happened!" Clari whined, causing Anishaa to break into laughs. The performer dropped her hammer slightly to her side, grinning at her.
" Sure. Nothing happened my bottom, Clari! Next time around, I'm doing your makeup again. This time though, he won't be allowed to touch you!"
Clari blushed darkly, turning her beet red face away to bite back a smile. If this morning would be Mephistopheles' everyday reaction to her, she looked forward to it. . .
Nailing the last flyer corner down, Anishaa glanced behind Clari.
" Let's go to that lamp post. I'll stick it on with the tape Mephistopheles gave us. You go look around for other areas we can put posters up."
Clari nodded, wandering a few feet away from her friend in search of good advertisement spots. It seemed to her almost every spot was taken already by other advertisements or flyers. She didn't feel it would be right to pull down these people's advertising. Because of this, she put herself on a mission to find already bare spots.
It was much harder than she thought.
There were no spots big enough on walls, or really, no spots at all! Not even on lamp posts! By this point, she had walked a blocks away from Anishaa. Luckily, she had trekked in a straight line down the streets. She wouldn't get lost from the others, she had made sure of it!
While turning her attention left and right around town, she discovered that the more she walked forward, the more something big in size began to appear up ahead in front of her.
Innocent curiosity cutting in, she found it would be no harm to take a quick glimpse at what was hovering up ahead. Looking over her shoulder once, she quickly jogged further down the sidewalk to the large hovering silhouette. . .or silhouettes.
Upon the reveal of the great site, Clari let gravity sink her figure low. She stopped slow in her tracks, mouth hung open wide as she stared up in wonder.
The large shadow was a Ferris Wheel. Around it, there were other shapes and figures that turned out to be tents. . .Carnival tents, to be exact.
Another carnival was in town! And judging by the people walking by and forming lines near it, this circus was packed and busy!
" Woah. . ." Clari breathed. She took a step closer, her eyes following the trail of bright blinding lights that were strung up in the opponents circus grounds. The colors of red, yellow, blue, and pink lit up the sky and streets. She found herself in awe, wondering what could be inside a carnival this big.
A figure stepped next to her, standing on her left side.
" Marlowe And Bronze Circus." Mephistopheles spoke. He eyed the large tents and circus wheels in a slow manner. " I've heard they have good shows. Nice tricks. I've also heard they tried to swipe Houdini's act. Nothing they have is original work."
" You've been?" Clari asked, looking at him. He snorted, the sound clashing against his beautiful features. That made her smile.
" God no." He responded, folding his hands behind his back. " Least, not yet." They stood in silence, staring ahead of them. " The Moonlight Carnival is getting a tad predictable. I need to get some fresh ideas for new acts. . ."
Clari blinked.
" You- you're gonna steal acts?" She asked, turning to him in shock. He looked back at her, grinning.
" I'm not gonna steal! I'm gonna get inspired! Clari, you always think so low of me. I'm hurt." He turned on his heels to walk away. Clari rushed after him, juggling the flyers in her hands.
" Isn't it wrong?"
" Course not!" He laughed. " What they do is fake, so I've heard. I'm just going to make their seemingly labeled impossible acts, possible. We are a show of death defying acts, afterall!"
Clari shifted uncomfortably at his statement. She didn't like the sound of that. Mephistopheles noticed her uneasiness, nudging her teasingly.
" Don't look so worried! You've spent two weeks with us at this point. Relax a bit my love, what you've seen by now is basically what we do! It only gets dangerous when we start new acts. Training is taken very seriously, I'll tell you that."
Clari nodded, looking back at the circus. Beside her, the ringmaster looked back too. He reached his left arm out to wrap around her waist, walking her away.
" We'll come back, don't stare too much."
" Come back?" Clari asked, frowning. " What do you mean?"
" Our talk, Starlett." He simply replied. " We'll discuss our trip to Marlowe And Bronze once we finish putting up your flyers."
(If you happen to see mistakes in writing, or don't understand something written, please comment where so that I can fix it!)