Always Me - Chapter 2
#1 of Always Me
Chapter 2
Whole New World
I woke up and thought a train was going past. I scrambled up against the wall and looked around as my heart thudded heavily in my chest. My vision sharpened enough to make out shapes as I grasped the wall at my back. The speeding lights I thought I was seeing were actually a roaring fire and the loud clattering noise were just the voices of the figures around me. I clamped my paws over my ears; every little sound was like someone screaming in my ear. My eyes went in and out of focus as they darted around trying to take in every bit of information that they could.
My heart was racing so quickly I thought it would pop right from my chest. It seemed to be nighttime, but I wasn't in the woods anymore. Instead of trees surrounding me, there were large colorful boxes with little doors, all lined up in a circle. The raging fire sat in the center and there were several figures standing and walking around it.
I curled up in a little ball and watched the new strange world silently. No one seemed to notice that I was there, and I started thinking about running away. But I had no idea where I was, or how far from home they had taken me.
All of a sudden, a massive wave of pain hit my head and I fell over with tears pouring from my eyes. It was a terrible feeling like someone was stabbing my brain. I managed to open an eye and see a pair of legs standing before me. I looked up and saw that it was the lemur from before. I curled up in a tighter ball trying to escape my reality.
I felt his hand on my shoulder again as he tilted me back up. The movement made my head hurt so badly, like my scull was being ripped in half. He rattled me a little and I felt him press something against my muzzle. I shook my head away not wanting to have anything more from him.
He flicked me on the nose a few times, which got my attention and I opened an eye. He was holding a purple flower and motioning for me to eat it. I closed my eyes tightly and tried to move my muzzle as far away from him as I could.
But he flicked me on the nose again and I had to move to avoid it. I peeked my eyes open to see that he was still motioning for me to eat it. When he noticed that I was still avoiding him, he stopped and let go of me. With his hands he motioned a large thudding headache on himself. Then he motioned to eat the flower again, and then went back to the headache motion, which he slowly softened and ended with a calm expression on his face. He held the flower up to my face again, and I looked at it.
As I felt another wave of the pain come over me I took a chance and shoved the flower into my mouth and started biting down on it.
It tasted bitter and had a similar stinging quality to it as the drink, but I didn't care anymore. As soon as I had broken it up into small enough chunks I swallowed hard and waited for the pain to stop. It didn't.
I looked up at the lemur in anger as the pain thudded in my scull. He noticed, and held up a finger as if he remembered something. He made a ring with his thumb and forefinger and placed it methodically on my forehead. With the thumb of the other hand he promptly jabbed in the circle. There was a fierce sharp pain as my head moved back, but as it swung foreword, it was like a cork was pulled from where the ring was and all the pain flowed out and I felt fine.
I shook my head amazed that it worked. Without the distraction of the pain, I looked around again. Everything was a little clearer. All the figures walking around were dressed similar to the lemur. I saw the warthog juggling what looked like pears to entertain a female tortuous in a corset who laughed as they all thudded to the ground. My eyes darted back to the lemur as I studied his face. It had been properly painted now and everything started falling into place.
It was a circus.
The brightly painted boxes around the fire were the boxcars they lived in, and the figures were all performers. A green clad raccoon did a cartwheel past an iguana wearing a barrel and a large red nose. I stood up and the lemur took my hand and started pointing and talking in his funny tongue.
He showed me around the fire and whispering things into my ear about some of the female folk, and laughed softly. He took me to one of the larger boxes and opened the wide orange door that had a mural of the world on fire on it.
As the door swung open, yellowish smoke poured out and into the dark night sky. I started coughing as the strong pungent smell overtook me. The lemur fanned the air and released a little cough too before pulling me inside the dark room.
As he tugged me further into the hazy dwelling, my eyes caught glimpses of the dimly lit walls, which were covered in bottles and preserved plants. There was a large dusty looking portrait of a zebra in a top hat holding a large glass orb in one of his hooves. I looked down and noticed the same orb sitting on a velvet pillow in front of the painting.
The lemur kept pulling me in further and further to the end of the long cart where several lanterns were lit. There was something sitting in the middle of the floor that looked like a giant pile of discarded scarves and leather. The thin streak of yellow flowing from it suggested that it was the source of the smoke. I watched curiously as the lemur pulled me in front of him and stood there silently.
We watched the smoke rise and twist in the air before a raspy, nervous call from the lemur broke the silence of the room.
A few seconds passed, and the pile of fabric began to move and twist around to face us slowly. An eye appeared around the corner. It was encased is rough warty brown skin. The pile stopped and the eye stared, frozen on us. The only thing that dared to move was the yellow smoke, but even that had seemed to lose its twisting quality in fear of drawing attention to itself.
I tried to hide behind the legs of the lemur, but his strong hands held me fast before him. By the tightness of his grip, I could tell he was even more nervous than I was; the reputation of this creature must have been something great.
The lemur's voice cracked as he muttered something to justify the meeting, but he was instantly silenced by a sagging brown hand covered in rings that shot up from under the scarves like a whip. The thin bony fingers shifted in thought beneath the aged, worn skin and the many rings clanked and grinded together. That glassy, orange eye still studied us.
We watched the decrepit, adorned hand return to its home beneath the layers of cloth. Then the entire mass continued to twist, and the face that belonged to the watchful eye revealed itself to us. The leathery, bumpy, brown skin of the elderly toad shifted as her wide mouth moved, letting out little juts of the yellow smoke.
In her other hand was a long thin pipe that held a large wad of glowing embers. When she had finally twister her whole way around I noticed that there was no other eye to match the one still staring me down.
I could not read the old toads face; it did not seem to have an expression one second and then, a second later, would have three different ones all at once, without even changing. Finally, that bright orange eye blinked and moved to the lemur.
The toad opened her mouth and a curtain of the yellow smoke lifted from her lips adding to the gentle flowing miasma of the room. A deep croaking voice emitted and pushed the wall of smoke towards the two of us.
She spoke in the same strange language, but it was even more distorted from her rough, gravelly voice. I watched her lips move over her wide sagging face as she spoke. She was staring at me and paused, waiting for my response. The lemur shook my shoulder trying to get me to say something.
I looked up at him as he smiled down at me and I looked back at the surly looking toad.
"I... I don't... know what you're saying," I said nervously to the toad.
A look of surprise washed over the old wrinkled face, which slowly turned into an enormous smile.
I watched the toad shuffle down inside her clothing as the bottom layers of the cloth pile stirred. Then, without warning, she sprung up from her spot and hopped into the air landing on a pair of thin pale legs. I could hear her joints crack as she landed, but the large smile still remained stuck to her face. She moved on her disproportionately lean legs and wobbled over to me, placing her bony hands on my shoulders and leaning down to my height.
Her wide wrinkly face was only inches from my own and the yellow smoke from her pipe, which was still firmly locked into her jaw, slowly wrapped around my head.
"Well, of course you don't!" she said in the same croaking voice. "You don't speak our language!" she gave a deep laugh from her belly and leaned back up to the lemur. I was surprised to find that the round mass of a toad was actually taller than him. I was so happy that someone else spoke English around here.
She said something in the language again and went to hit him, but he flinched and she stopped midair. He took notice and let his guard down, which she quickly responded to by whacking him in temple with her pipe using her lips. He backed away rubbing the side of his face and the toad returned her attention to me.
"Ludme tells me that you've come to join our little circus troop here," she said blowing the yellow smoke in my face again.
I coughed and said "What?... No, I... I want to go back home."
The smile disappeared from her face.
"Oh, child. It's too late now. We're much too far to go back now."
I felt my body go numb and cold.
"But, he took me this morning, how could we be that far away already?"
The toad looked up at the lemur in disappointment.
"Oh, child. That wasn't this morning. You've been here for a week, and we've been traveling ever since."
"A week? But... but why don't I remember anything?"
"Ludme gave you a very powerful drink, and from the sounds of it, he gave you a bit too much. You've been out cold since."
I felt my knees give out for a second but caught myself. I couldn't believe it; I'd never see home again. This couldn't happen. There must be a way.
"There is no way, child," she said before I could even ask. I looked at her puzzled. "I can read you, child, you have a very clear mind; all young people do. You aren't clouded by useless things like everyone else."
"Oh..." I said confused and scared. "But there is no way you can get me back home?"
"Not unless you want to travel by foot for a month. You are better off staying here with us."
"But... you took me. I didn't even want to come with you!"
"According to Ludme, you nodded when he asked you. That's a binding contract in our world."
"But I didn't know what he was saying, I..."
"I know child, I know. But it's too late now anyway. We are not even in the same country anymore."
My eyes started watering, and I couldn't help but bawl. The old toad went down on her knees and wrapped her arms around me trying to calm me down, but nothing was going to do it.
As she pressed me into her soft bosom I thought about my house and my siblings and my parents and how I would never see them again. I'd never again get to spend lazy summers on the porch watching people fight over ice cubes. I'd never get to stand in line waiting to see if there was enough toast to go around for breakfast. I'd never get to sleep in my cardboard bed again. I'd never have to be teased about being different anymore. I'd never have my birthday forgotten again.
I noticed that my tears had stopped. I could feel the old toad's hand running over my head fur and I looked up. She had another smile on her face.
"See, I told you, child. You are better off staying with us. We'll treat you like a real family," she said.
"Now, you'll stay with Ludme. One of his car mates speaks your language."
"English?" I said cheered up by the fact that there was another who I could talk to here.
"Oh, is that what it's called?" she said laughing. "It's been so long since I've learned it."
She patted me on the head and turned me around, telling Ludme directions in the strange language. He nodded and grabbed my hand as we walked away. I turned around and watched the old toad settle down in her little nest of pillows, becoming motionless again with her twirling pillar of yellow smoke.
We walked past the portrait and the bottles and out the door, which closed all on its own. I took a heavy breath of the clean air and looked up at my guide. He was looking around. The fire was starting to go low, and there was little light other than the moon. He looked down at me and nodded, and we were off.
We walked past the fire pit where there were some rebellious flames still flickering amongst the charred glowing logs. The place was mostly abandon; everyone was shut up for the night.
We continued on to the opposite side of the ring where the lemur tapped a rhythm on the door and we waited. The door slid open and Ludme pulled me inside.
The room smelled very heavily of the liquid I had drunken earlier, and there were five others sitting in a series of hammocks hanging in the back. The front of the car was dedicated to dressers and boxes holding who knows what. I noticed a fake paw sticking out of one of them, but I didn't want to ask questions.
Ludme started talking to the clan as he walked over to them. He pointed over towards me with his thumb and motioned for me to come closer. I slowly walked over to them, were there was a small lantern sitting on a large box. There were cards lying around like they had just played a game, but they weren't any kind of cards I had ever seen before. They didn't have any numbers on them, only one circle drawn in the center that came in different colors.
When I reached the group, I noticed that they were all looking at me. I recognized the warthog, and beside him were a pair of identical salamanders. Directly across from me was a muscular teal bird, and next to him was a giraffe in nothing but a loin cloth.
Ludme continued talking and then pointed to the muscular bird who nodded. A few more words and the lemur stopped and sat down next to the giraffe.
I looked at the teal bird who was looking at me and smiling awkwardly.
"Hallo. I... am... Narno," he said slowly and in a thick accent, obviously a little uncomfortable speaking in English. "Wheel come."
He nodded, and I slowly nodded back, a little disappointed that he wasn't fluent like the toad.
"You... get pleasure from place yet now?" he said smiling and nodding again.
It took me a while to understand what he was trying to say, but eventually I got it.
"Yeah. I wish more people spoke English, though."
He gave me a weird look of confusion for a while, but nodded anyways.
"I regret inform your body, I am not of the soup," he said.
I could tell he was very lost in the conversation, so I just nodded again and sat down. I curled up against my knees and looked around the room. There were a lot of newspaper clippings on the walls, and I'm not entirely positive if they were being collected, or used to cover up the peeling paint. They seemed to be in every language I could imagine, and a lot of them were pictures of circuses and attractive females.
I looked up above to the hammocks and watched the shadows they casted on the ceiling from the lamp as it burned. I laid back to find a pile of what looked like carpet samples and continued watching the shadows and listening to the group talking together.
I felt something hit my leg and looked down to see an old, empty can by my foot, then over at the group who were all staring at me.
"Sleep is best of moment for night. Busy day come next day. Tents grow!" Narno said doing his nod.
I nodded back and let my head fall back trying to figure out what he meant, but my mind just went back to the swaying shadows. It was so calming. That is until the giraffe in the lion cloth started to climb into the top hammock having little disregard for the view of those below.
As I lay there with my paw clamped over my eyes, someone blew out the lantern and the room was instantly dark. With no more shadows to look at, my mind started to wonder and get lost in my dreams. It didn't seem like much of a jump that day, so I didn't even notice the transition. But I had assumed that I was not eating a three hundred pound olive to win a ride on a pterodactyl in reality, so I knew the change had, in fact, happened.