Claire snorted. “I can stay clean for days if I wanted too, alas my sweet kittens would miss me then.” She finished eating the apple and threw it away. 

“Well, I am queen of the kings of animals.” She pouted when Kate laughed at her, brushing some hay out of her hair. “More than anyone else could claim.”

“Yeah, Yeah. I can handle Elena. She’s just another lioness, albeit of a more terrifying kind.” Claire laughed. It was too true a description regarding the circus director. 

She waved farewell to Kate as well when they parted ways. Her first stop was to clean herself up in one of the baths. As she wasn’t particularly fond of water she didn’t spend long doing that, and returned to her own wagon to find that someone had been inside it. She hoped they’d just come looking for her and not gone snooping through her belongings. Either way, she changed into a different set of clothes. They were torn here and there, because it seemed more realistic if her kittens did scratch or roar at her while she did her lion taming act. No one wanted to watch a bunch of big cats lying still, enjoying being petted and purring loudly. It wasn’t what they paid for. 

She picked up one of her whips as well, and then headed back towards the cages of the big cats. On the way there she made sure to pass by Elena’s wagon, since she wanted to check if she was in her wagon or walking around keeping an eye on everyone. Claire heard chanting coming from inside the wagon, not a rare occurrence, but usually it was in a language she could recognize as a language. It didn’t sound like Russian or English. It sounded like she was speaking in tongues. Claire raised an eyebrow, but kept walking, confident in the fact that Elena wouldn’t be coming to check up on her anytime soon.

Claire released a couple of her kittens that were already awake. The panther and a lion to be more specific. The panther walked out of its cage with its head turned upwards, acting like a true prima donna. Claire petted her on the back, and got a glare in return. “Oh shush, Sheila.”
The lion acted more like he was glad to see her, putting his paws around her neck and purring. “Good morning, Scar, lovely day.”
She spent a couple of hours going through their routine, changing which one of her feline partners she trained with every now and then to make sure no one was going to try to act more wild or playful than usual that day. Sheila was the only one with an attitude on her, but she was always like that and still performed with the most grace during training and show. 

Claire only had to use her whip once, and even then she hit the ground to make two of the tigers stop play fighting and pay attention. The sound of the whip alone was usually enough to control any one of them.  She hated when she had to actually use it, so it had happened that situations had gotten out of control before she went that far.

Once her stomach began to complain, Claire decided it was time to take a break. The animal caretakers would come and feed each of her partners, but she had to find food herself. She headed over to where Kate would be practicing and found her alone. 

“Oh, did your manly assistant not want to eat dinner with you?” Claire teased. “I guess only the wild cats dare approach someone as sharp as you. How about eating something, or would you rather get another hug?”