Nolantan
Chapter 3 The Cave
The tiro have been following the map up the mountain it’s a hard climb and they are high up.
Dyani is getting nervous about the height but is staying near Aurora.
The clouds are starting to form.
" It looks like it's going to rain we should find somewhere to take shelter and it's not a good idea to climb a wet mountain" Slor suggests and they find a place to hide since it’s more dangerous to climb a mountain when it’s wet.
They look and find a cave which they go in.
Walking into the cave they find a circus very colorful with a type of rope in the middle and multiple pathways.
Then a jester comes down from a rope hanging upside down with his smiling painted face gray star and diamond-shaped eyeliner his blue and red eyes staring at them.
"Ooooo new guests~ hello new friends!"
"Who are you and what is this place?" Says Aurora.
“My circus duh hehe! I’m the owner. Names Tatters!” He does a flip and a little bow.
"A circus in a cave? On a mountain?" Slor questioned.
Tatters ignores her “ Here the party never ends the clowns love it here!” As he says a bunch of clowns come out and do clown things and tricks.
Dyani is in awe and likes the environment Aurora is skeptical about everything here but couldn’t help but laugh at some stuff.
Tatters encourages them to explore Slor wonders off on her own while Dyani and Aurora stay together.
Slor oooos at a trapeze about 24 feet high.
“Want to try it?” A trapeze lady asks her.
“I do but I’ve never done anything that high…”
“ Don’t worry here everyone is amazing at everything here you can never be hurt here.”
She helps Slor get on the trapeze “Try to walk across it.” Slor stares at the height “ I-I can’t!” The trapeze lady just smiles and pushes her.
Slor stumbles expecting to fall.
But she doesn’t her feet stay steady on the rope like they’ve been there millions of times shocked and confused she looks back at the lady and waves her on.
Without thinking Slor walks across with perfect balance she gets to the other end amazed with herself.
“ How did I do that??” “ It is Ringmaster Tatters magic as long as you are here you will always do it perfectly every time!”
“ So I don’t actually learn how to do anything….” “ You don’t need to! You can already be the best without wasting time failing”
“I like learning and failing is how I learn sure I know all the doctor's names but every scrap and bruise is a lesson learned.”
“ Why bother with that when you can already do this?” She does some tricks on the rope flips and lands next to Slor.
Slor claps “ What you can do is really cool and I do want to do it one day but I want to be able to do it without any help.”
The lady is annoyed and baffled “You're just being ungrateful don’t worry you will learn to love it!” She pushes Slor back onto the trapeze and this time Slor can’t stop herself from doing tricks.
"wha?? I can’t stop!"
"That’s your desire you want this more than you think~ embrace it and let it consume you!" Slor struggles but finds it hard to want to this is what she always wanted and here she can do it-
“This is the 5 time this week you’ve had to stay here!” Liam scolds Slor “You are being too reckless dear,” Mythias says.
“ I’m improving you should have seen me up there I just got to do that last jump I just keep slipping,” Slor says lying on a medical bed with a hurt leg.
“You need to be more careful! Every day we see you with new cuts, bruises, and banaids. You're still young at this rate everything is gonna hurt when you’re older!” Liam rubs his nose in annoyance as Slor looks down “What my brother is trying to say is you need to take it easy and as your doctor, I suggest that you at least wait for your leg to fully heal before you try anything again
“ But that takes too long I’m never gonna learn if I wait every time I get hurt!”
“ Why do you do it anyway?”
“ I like the adrenaline I like how free I feel when I do stunts and I like being self-taught and learning.”
Liam sighs “ Well it’s time you learn to take better care of yourself your lucky those kids brought you in.”
Slor asks where they went and Mythias says that she brought them to the inn.
Slor takes a breath. “ No this isn’t what I want!” She starts to slow down “ I will be able to do this one day with my own ability! The day I don’t have to sit on that medical bed is I day I will earn myself!” She lets go of the rope and does a superhero landing on the ground.
The lady growls and sends other trapeze artists after Slor as she runs to find her friends.
Aurora and Dyani arrive at a stage where people are doing a fire dance.
Dyani looks in awe at them he loves dancing it’s his favorite thing to do at home.
Aurora living in the snow has never really seen fire she knows it’s used to keep warm and dangerous but The Winter Fawn never needed it cause of the crystals they wear as a necklace.
When the dancers were finished Dyani went up to one of them “ That was really cool!” “ Thanks, kid would you like to try it!” Dyani nods but Aurora stops him “ Wait this doesn’t seem safe..”
“ Oh don’t worry you can’t get hurt here.” Another dancer chimes in “And if you want you could try the dance first.”
Excited Dyani drags a still hesitant Aurora onto the stage.
“ Um, I’m fine with just watching from here…” She says. Dyani understands and some of the dancers show him part of the dance.
While he’s distracted Aurora notices a dancer off the stage looking scared. Curious she goes over to him.
He sees her looking at him gets more nervous looks around then silently calls her over.
Aurora looks back at Dyani who’s doing a cool move then goes to the guy who brings them to a private place.
“ You need to get out of here as fast as possible! He won’t let you leave!”
“Who..”
“ Tatters he’s some kind of spirit He keeps us trapped here and we can’t stop doing acts!”
“ How is that possible!”
“ The longer we’re here the more our desire takes over the bigger it is the harder it is to leave I’ve been here for weeks! Others have been here for decades! You need to leave now before you can’t!”
Aurora goes back to the stage to see Dyani doing a full-on fire dance in a suit with hula hoops on fire with different colors.
He sees Aurora and smiles “ Aurora look at what I can do!” He takes out a burning marshmallow on a stick and eats it.
“ That’s great… but we need to get going we’re trying to get to the dragons remember?”
He looks at her a little confused Aurora just huffs grabs his hand and just runs with him.
The dancers run after them.
They meet up with Slor.
“ We got to get out of here!” Aurora hurries.
“ Why? This place is really fun.” Dyani is confused.
Slor looks at him confused “ Because we need to get to the dragons right?”
He blinks for a second before remembering “ Yes! How did I forget that!”
“ It’s this place it wants you to stay that's why we need to go!”
They get to the entrance but Tatters appears in front of them.
“ Where are you going friends!” He says in a more sinister tone.
“Out!”
“Oh, but you were having so much fun~” his smile widened “ And like I said” a bunch of the circus members surrounded them “This party never ends!”
Aurora scowls “ we’re not staying here!”
Tatters stares at her “ well why not stay for a little bit to hear my fun jokes I’m sure you’ll find them to die for!” he opens his mouth and a mist starts coming from it.
Once they breathe it in they start laughing.
“ HAHAHAHWHATSHAPPENINGHAHA!” Aurora laughs out unable to stop.
Tatters smiles wide as they start choking on their laughter.
The star clip glows black and creates a black shield around them giving them clear air quickly calming down and coughing with some giggles left.
Aurora looks up at the shield confused as Tatters smile turns into a terrifying frown.
They decide to run pushing past him as he lashes out at them.
Tatters lunges at them but they get out just in time for him to be stopped by a barrier keeping his spirit trapped.
He’s yelling getting violent and throwing a fit as the group runs away.
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