And just like that, Claire had somehow talked both Kate and Elijah into going to bed. Well, if they wanted to turn in early that was up to them. It was boring to say the least, but she wouldn’t let it get her down. Not that she cared much for Elijah, but she wondered why Kate was so dismissive of her since she talked had with her cats.

She headed towards where some of the other members of the circus could be heard, chatting, laughing and drinking. Solomon followed as if he was a well-trained dog, not a three hundred kilo heavy tiger. 

“Gimme some of that.” She said to a woman with tattoos all over, pointing at the bottle in her hand.  

Claire knew her name. She couldn’t remember it right then though. The woman handed her the bottle with a laugh, after drinking some more of it first. Claire drank what was left to calm her nerves and become more sociable. 

She had socialized with the performers and crew members often after successful shows. The alcohol made her more interested in interacting with other humans. She passed the first half-hour with them by listening to them speak and joining in with the laughter. As she got more booze into her system, she began to inject her own voice into the conversation and joke with them. 

The evening turned into night in their company. Solomon was as welcome as Claire among them, even more so almost. At first he enjoyed being the 
centre of attention and having people pet him, but soon he retreated to lie down behind Claire and take a nap. 

Elena joined them at some point. There was an awkward mood when she did. Some of them didn’t feel like joking as much, which was probably because they had told jokes at her expense. Claire couldn’t help but notice that Elena behaved a lot less confidently than she had during her act or even compared to her normal self. Elena left before long, likely realizing that she wasn’t entirely welcome among them. 

Claire remained seated, but soon began to yawn and doze off. She was prevented from falling asleep in the spot by Solomon who kept pushing at her with his nose or his paw. It was getting on her nerves, so she gave in to the tiger and got up on her feet to find a better place to sleep. Claire mumbled her drunken farewells to the few of the group who were still socializing, and then she stumbled away from them towards the cages of her big cats.

She was too drunk to feel particularly frightened of the dark or what may be hiding in it. The night was beginning to turn into very early morning as well, so the grey light was slowly replacing the darkness.  Claire let Solomon into his cage and was about to head off to her own wagon, but figured there was no need for that. It wasn’t like the movements in the shadows she thought she had seen scared her or anything, but she would be more comfortable sleeping with her big boy.

Claire reopened the door to Solomon’s cage, climbed inside and double checked that she had locked it after her. Finally, she laid down next to Solomon in the hay, who put his paw over her protectively and she felt a lot more secure.