13 - The Jester

The cat stopped pulling the collar and approached the old lady. He didn't know if these people had any power or what they wanted. The only option he found at the moment was to be close to people, like a normal cat, without causing much uproar. They would not harm other people to catch him. At least, that was what Ataz thought.

Sebastian suddenly came running towards the direction Dona Rosa and Ataz were in. He put his hands on his knees, supporting his spine and said trying to pull the air into his lungs "Dona Rosa... My God... Here you are!" He stood up, placing his hand on his chest.

"My God, son, you look like you ran a marathon. I just came to see some pets." Dona Rosa looked at him with a pink teddy bear in her arms.

Ataz noticed Hector also approached the two of them with his eyes glazed on that strange device he had in his hands, and said calmly to his grandmother, "He didn't even run that much. We were over there," pointing to the stand on the other side of the park entrance.

Sebastian stood up tall and said to Dona Rosa, "We are going to go see the magician. Do you want to go? It will take about 30 minutes, but by the time we get close to the stage, it will have probably already started... Wait, how did you get this?" he took the pink teddy bear to examine what it was.

"A magician? I think I prefer to look at the pets," she said looking at other stuffed animals hanging from the tent. Then Ataz despaired when he heard that and began to meow and walk on the old woman's foot, informing her that he would like to see the magician. Dona Rosa looked down, raising her little eyes and said nodding, "Okay, Cutie. Yes, we can see the magician." Ataz was no longer bothered to do things like this to please the old lady. He was slightly comfortable not having to be rigid all the time, but he still didn't think it was acceptable to have to walk around with a collar tied around his small neck.

Dona Rosa held Ataz's collar with her little hands and they went towards the show that was about to happen. Sebastian had taken one of the park's maps to identify where it was, because the park was quite large. They walked for a few minutes with Sebastian in front, staring at the map in his hand, making strange paths. "Does he not know where we are going? Or apparently the maps of my time were easier?" Ataz thought, seeing signs scattered around the park indicating where the circus would be and them going in the opposite direction.

"Dad why don't you ask someone?" Hector said as he played his game on the device.

"Hector, for God's sake, I know what I'm doing!" Sebastian said as he held up the map more to get a better look.

Ataz, halfway through, started to realize that some of those strange people were following them. He was not sure how to discern if there were more than two, but they seemed to be in very similar clothes. Perhaps it was not even more than one person, but only one who was teleporting. He had to get out of sight of those people right away; getting into the crowd would be his best choice. He realized that their group should hurry to get to the show. There would be many people gathered there and it would not be possible to find him amongst the crowd.

The cat then, realizing that the man Sebastian had no idea where they were, began to pull hard on his collar that the old lady held towards the plates. She, distracted by the colored trash cans, walked over to the direction Ataz pulled while talking loudly for the others to hear "Hey, Cutie is looking for a walk over here! Come on!"

They went towards the old lady who was further ahead, being pulled by the cat. Sebastian soon after said, "Dona Rosa, we have to get to the magician right away. We're going to be late for the spe-"

Before he could complete the sentence, Hector held his arm down to remove the map from in front of his father's face, making him see a huge sign stating that the circus was just ahead. "... Oh. See? I was on the right path the whole time! Let's go!" he added, putting his arms on his waist, feeling proud.

Ataz started to realize that the person or persons were trying to get closer to him; they had started to understand the cat's plan. The cat picked up the pace to get himself in the middle of the audience that was gathered next to the stage. Dona Rosa started to accelerate the pace along with Ataz and said to the others, "Come on! We want to sit towards the front to see the show better!"

The three arrived very close to the stage, closer to the corner of the audience section, where it was possible to see the magician well, but also, Ataz was able to have a broader view of the people around. Behind a section of the audience, he saw one of the strangers passing by, looking for where the cat might be. He felt more relieved that they didn't find him. Because Ataz was really small and his 'new family' did not have such striking characteristics, it would be a little more difficult for them to find him.

A very beautiful woman took the stage. She was dressed in an outfit that was glued tight to her frame and dyed with black and red colors. The woman walked to the front of the stage, opened her arms and with a beautiful smile on her face, and spoke out loud, "Welcome to the best magic show in town. Today you will meet the greatest and most powerful magician this world has ever seen. With millions of trophies and prizes, I present to you the Grand and Spectacular Pierre Santiago, The... Magician!" At the end of the sentence, behind the woman, it was possible to see a small explosion with smoke and lights, where the magician Pierre Santiago appeared.

Santiago walked towards the front of the stage with majesty and grandeur. He was dressed in a black cloak and a top hat with a red sash around it. "So this is a magician? How strange. I thought they called these people jesters," the cat said, laughing at his own thoughts.

The magician then introduced himself. "Welcome everyone to today's great show. We will have a special show today, due to the inauguration of the park's newest attraction, The AMAZING RUNNER Roller Coaster. Today, all of you who are watching today's show will be the first to take a ride on it." Ataz looked at the magician after he finished the sentence and thought that for some reason, even though he didn't know what it was, this attraction didn't seem to be very attractive to him.

Upon finishing his thought, the magician turned to the side where Ataz was looking and pointed with his finger at something in a strange shape and a few seconds later, the roller coaster ascended whole, with colorful and beautiful lights. As they had taken so long to arrive at the park, it was almost night when the performance started, so it was possible to see the lights shining, enchanting everyone who looked at it.

Ataz was startled at first, seeing all those lights, and thought that this man really might have some kind of power, mainly because the voice of the magician and the woman came out louder than any other voice there. But he didn't know if it was because they were up on a stage that could be magical or if they really had powers themselves, but why could they then show magic to everyone? Ataz remembered that in his day, magic was something more secretive, more hidden, so he was curious why his pursuers were not interested in the wizard on stage, flagrantly showing off magic to commoners. Ataz and this man were basically the same sort of thing, both being wizards, and the one on stage was obviously now of a threat in general, if one disregarded that Ataz had just acquired the mana of death, indicating that he was a potential Necromancer.

"But the newest roller coaster in the park will only officially open at the end of the show. So have fun with the presentation that is about to begin," the magician said, revving up the audience and going back through the curtains. Ataz seemed excited about the new magic that would be presented to him here. He ended up forgetting a little about the people who were chasing him and looked anxiously at the stage.