Claire watched Kate’s performance from the backstage area, where the curtain had been rolled aside to allow fellow members of the circus to watch their friends’ acts, but it still covered them from view for most of the audience. 

She didn’t flinch or look away once during Kate’s show, as some of the members of the audience did. Claire had seen Kate perform so many times that she was confident Elijah was as secure as he would be if he didn’t have blades, arrows or other things coming at him. 

It was enjoyable to watch Kate perform, even if Claire had seen pretty much every act enough times that she should be bored of them, she was not. The combination of the atmosphere of the circus, the audience and the different performers was lovely. It was home.

They got to the end of their act, where Elijah was strapped to a spin board and Kate threw knives at him. Claire watched the first two miss 
Elijah like intended, but then the third hit him in the neck and she blinked a couple of times, shocked to see that it wasn’t her imagination running wild. 

“Get the doctor!” Claire roared to the assistants that were making sure everything was running smoothly backstage. One of the boys ran off to get the doctor that shouldn’t be far away. 

Despite what she’d said earlier, it wasn’t as fun to see the expression on Kate’s face or everyone else’s. It was disturbing and surreal. Claire 
turned her eyes away from the scene. This wasn’t supposed to happen and never had as far as she could recall. A moment later, she heard how the chaos among the audience turned to applause and cheers. When she looked at the scene again it seemed as if Elijah was unharmed, but how could that be?

Kate and Elijah was lead backstage by the doctor that had arrived in a hurry. The man was concerned, but since he hadn’t witnessed what had happened he couldn’t possibly understand what was going on. Then again, Claire had been right there and didn’t grasp it either.  

She didn’t see her friend again before it was her own turn to step up to perform. Kate’s act wasn’t the only act where strange events had taken place. It was by far the bloodiest though. Claire knew some of the things that had happened tonight weren’t supposed too. 

In some cases, it had made the performers look much better than usual, and some cases had been like Kate’s. The clowns had exhibited abilities they’d never had, like how they fit six into such a small space or made the balloon animals come to life. One of the acrobats had fallen past the safety net, towards the ground, but begun to soar right before she hit it. Of course, to the audience that looked as if he had some kind of rope attaching her to the roof which she didn’t. They found it disappointing to say the least.

Claire was nervous when she entered the ring. It wasn’t the regular old nervousness because she had to stand in front of hundreds of people. 
She’d worked past those years ago by now. She was genuinely concerned for her own welfare and the welfare of her kittens.

Five of her cats were let out into the ring after her; Solomon, Sheila, Scar and two tigers by the name of Lee and Tang. There were a lot of impressed and approving noises among the audience as they saw Solomon. The props that had been prepared for her were a number of rings, beams to balance on and furniture. She held her whip in her hands, prepared and worried that she may have to use it on any one of them.

The cats began to wander around the ring, glaring at the audience, clawing on the wooden furniture or playing with each other. Claire had taught them to control their play fighting in the ring, as normally they could trade serious blows and appear real frightening. To the audience it must appear as if the cats acted like they wanted too, not like Claire had taught them too. She had full control of the situation, but she wanted the onlookers to believe she had none to begin with. 

Solomon roared at the audience, then jumped up on the beam at the edge of the ring closest to them. He snarled at them, and Claire grinned on the inside. It would be bad press if she showed such an expression outwards when a wild animal was supposedly about to attack the audience. She let the whip sound against the ground, and Solomon turned his attention towards her. He leapt off the beam towards her, but Claire stepped aside as he was about to crash into her. She let the whip resound through the air again.

“Down.”  She said to Solomon, stretching out her hand towards his face. 

At first he snarled and growled, which raised her nervousness when he kept at it longer than he should, but eventually he gave in and lay down on the ground. Claire petted him and scratched him behind the ear. She smiled.

The rest of the act went by as it should without a hitch. She tamed each of the cats before having them do their tricks with the rings and the 
beams. Those kittens that were not part of the current tricks moved around the ring in a circle, sometimes stopping to sit down and glare at the audience.

The final trick to finish her act included setting fire to a couple of the rings, then having Solomon and Sheila jump through them one by one, and together. Claire got the torch to light fire to the rings while everyone observed her. Solomon and Sheila paid special attention at this part. 

“I hope the two-legged lion made sure the rings are larger this time. My fur smelled of smoke for days last time we did this.”

Claire turned in the direction of the voice, but found Sheila and Solomon sitting there. She was about to finish lighting the fire, when she heard the growls and noises Solomon always made in a whole new way.

“Two-legs has my trust and respect. You’re cranky.” Solomon said.

She was surprised, but at the same time strangely overjoyed. Claire checked if anyone else had noticed the tiger and the panther speaking, but no, no one had. She heard someone humming a tune loudly, and turned to find it was Scar.

“Come on, Four-legs, jump the damn ring to get your well-deserved rest and food.” Claire said to them. 

It was obvious that they were as surprised as she was that she could suddenly understand and speak with them. The audience didn’t know what to think when the lion tamer herself began to growl, snarl and mutter incoherently. 

All five of them jumped the fire rings after her promise of food and rest. The trick had never been trained with more than two at a time, but they did it so well she almost suspected they had trained without her.

Claire bowed to the audience, then she lead her animals into their cages and skipped out of the big top, grinning from ear to ear. She realized that this was messed up and another sign of today’s freak show, but right then she was happy that she had gotten one chance in her life to communicate with her kittens on this level. 

She asked around for Kate until she found where she was. It had been a great day for Claire, but not for everyone.

“How are you two holding up?” She asked with a highly inappropriate grin.