Well, ordinarily, I would post another chapter to prevent the joke of Saffa simply reposting her previous post.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
It's A Traaaaa -- Oy
"He was here," Cloak said, holding some debris from this abandoned, mouldering building to his nose before deftly discarding it. "He spent a great deal of time here."
"He must have stayed here overnight." Saffa said, having demorphed. "There are scraps of food everywhere."
"But, still, the scent grows faint." Cloak said quite seriously. "He must have vacated this site a couple of hours ago."
"But why?" Underseen asked, he had gone human again as the armor faded away. "There has to be a reason.
Yarin looked to his left, blinked all six eyes in disbelief. Then he narrowed them. He asked rhetorically, "There, maybe?"
He was looking at the circus that lured Preston away like a moth to a flame. Nothing about it looked overtly sinister, but it just looked like one of your run-of-the-mill circuses.
Cloak scowled. He never liked circuses. Seeing animals perform
stupid tricks while the "trainers" act like they have such bonds with the animals (when they usually have to hurt or abuse the animal to do such a thing) -- this never appealed to the Realm Walker. That's not to say there aren't cirus animal trainers that legitimately care for their nonhuman charges, but Cloak suspected that this was few and far in-between.
Saffa noticed this reaction, and said, "Wow, Cloak. If looks could kill . . ."
"You see all those people there?" Yarin said.
"Yeah," Saffa and Underseen said, in unison.
Cloak's expression changed to one of shock. His voice carried the shock. "No . . . no, I don't."
"Huh?"
Yarin nodded. "I don't sense any minds either."
"Wait, I can Earthsight two, maybe three people down there. But that's it." Cloak said.
Yarin nodded, "Yes, the big top there seems to harbor some telepathic barrier or shielding. I would not have guessed such a thing could be disguised in such a way."
"Wait, so all those people we see down there, milling about." Underseen said. "They all are --"
"Illusions, fake." Cloak said, offhandedly.
"Yes, it was a trap." Yarin said, as the group headed toward the circus. "A remarkably well-thought out one."
***
Preston was really enjoying the circux, but did not seem to notice that Billy didn't seem to share the enjoyment. He stole hungry looks at Preston whenever the boy took his eyes off him.
The two sat on the bottommost portion of the stands, as it was packed higher up. One could question how the wooden stands could tolerate such weight -- but twelve-year-olds rarely consider such things.
"Now," called the ringmaster, with a foppish, Eggman-like voice, "time for the main event."
"Indeed," Billy muttered sinisterly.
"What?" Preston asked without glancing back.
"Oh, nothing," he said, deflecting the question. Then he promptly spilled his drink over Preston. Billy spoke with what sounded like genuine sincerity, "Oops! Sorry, Preston!"
Preston's lap, wrists and ankles were no bound to te seat -- wait,
seat?
Suddenly, the circus began to flicker, as if it was an ancient hologram.
"Ah, the technological advancements of this day and age," Billy said. His voice sounded the same, but yet older at the same time.
