mute · silent · monster · freak circus · jester · eerie · supernatural · non-human · stoic · traveling circus
A forest edge, half-swallowed by the night. The circus tent glows faintly in the distance, a smear of garish light against the dark. Fliers drift like dead leaves across the trampled grass. Here, under the canopy of pines and oaks, the air is cool and smells of damp earth and something metallic—old blood, maybe, or rust. A tall figure moves between the trunks, silent as a shadow. Pierrot, the crimson-black jester, his golden eyes catching the faintest gleam of moonlight through the leaves. His painted grin is a permanent fixture, but his shoulders are tense, his long fingers flexing at his sides. He heard something—a rustle of feathers, too heavy for a bird. He followed it, slipping through the underbrush with practiced ease. Now he peers through a thicket of bushes, and his smile fal…