"Weird. So it's like a teleporter bracelet?" They were walking into the clearing now, and he led her past a blue-striped tent and a man in white makeup shining a clown shoe. Felix reached out and grabbed Rue's wrist so he could get a better look at this 'teleporter' bracelet. He didn't believe for a moment that anything like that could possibly exist, let alone that it was right in front of him, tail or no tail. He fancied that she was an alien and her stories were true, that there was a planet deep in space where everyone had a tail and they invented personal teleporters, but deep down he knew she was just another slightly-insane sideshow girl, sold to the circus so her family could afford bread. He turned her wrist in his hand. "Looks kinda high-techy."

A burst of fire startled him and he bumped into Rue; half his stack of sticks and branches clattered and rolled on the ground, and he spun around, wide-eyed, his arm extended to protect her.

The fire-breather was shirtless and sadistically grinning. An angular symbol was tattooed over his heart, he wore a fang on a strap around his neck, and he was watching Rue with peculiar interest. "Sorry, 'Lix." He wasn't actually sorry. He was staring at the device on her wrist.

Felix huffed and, ignoring the fallen sticks, urged Rue to keep walking. "Try keeping your hot air to yourself, Cole," he snapped. "C'mon, Rue, I'm sorry, most everyone around here isn't so bad."

Cole straightened his spine, tipped back a canteen and took a mouthful of lighter fluid, without letting his eyes leave Rue. He [i]knew[/i] her -- at least, he knew what she was. More importantly, he knew what she had.

He grinned, and he flared his torch into a billowing inferno. Tonight would be his last act.