[center][img] https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/654438713455149084/873479307715051540/image.png[/img]
[sub][color=goldenrod]Interaction[/color] | Currently None
[color=goldenrod]Location[/color] | Haly’s Circus
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Kilamanjaro bounced about on the balls of his feet to the introductory music, being more percussive in origin. It sounded like they were trying to imitate the tones of a Djembe drum, trying to set the tone for his act. The name he had given them, despite the anxious feeling it gave him, was that he was to be called “Ja Zaki, King of Beasts”. Despite the fear that the name gave him personally, it was all he could think of in the spur of the moment. Besides that, very few would actually know that name, much less common American people. 

The green and brown colored costume offered was weird in fit. The torso had a full sleeve on only one arm, yet came with a smaller detached sleeve for his uncovered forearm. Then on top of that, it was tight up top, with the pants being the opposite as they were swishy and loose. Ja had also gotten Kassy to tie his hair back into a puffy sort of tail on the back of his head. That way the top could fit under a golden colored bandana that covered the scalp, eyes, and nose. Even for Ja’s liking, he felt a little goofy, but he didn’t mind much.

The surprise about this act was that Ja didn’t know what animal they’d be bringing out. He told them to bring him whoever among the animals they had, and he could tame them to perform actions. In order to do this, he’d have to impose his Spirit of The Wild on them though. He didn’t like to do it, it felt wrong to project his will onto them opposed to asking, but this mission needed to be completed effectively. There could be no room for error, like the last mission.

Before long, two burley men walked out with a cage on wheels, covered in cloth. As they came to the center, Ja felt a foreboding feeling come to him in response. He felt something akin to heartache, rage, and hunger coming from the cage. 

“For our next performance, we have Ja Zaki the King of Beasts. He claims to be able to tame any animal he comes into contact with. However, can he navigate 250 pounds of pure muscle and unbridled ferocity?! Allow us to present…”

The fake Djembe drumming picked up. Rings of varying circumference size and heights flicked to life with fire. Then, in a sudden motion, two of the men pulled the cloth from the cage to reveal a young female bengal tiger. The sudden lights and loud sound caused the tigress to flatten her ears and snarl in a defensive position. 

“Bhoomi!! And the Flaming Rings of Fury!!” The announcer shouted followed by the guitar riff for Eye of The Tiger, causing the crowd to cheer in astonishment. Ja stared at the tigress and his jaw nearly dropped but he caught himself. To most, she would appear muscular and fearsome, but off the bat, he could tell that she was underweight. If Ja could guess, it appeared that they fed her just enough to keep up appearances. Already, Ja wasn’t happy about the circus anymore.

One of the men from before came to him holding a whip and a bucket of meat, another holding the door to the cage. To the man with the “taming” materials, Ja didn’t even look at him again, waving him off, to which the announcer made commentary to boost crowd reactions.

[color=goldenrod]”Open it.”[/color] Ja commanded, to which the attendants hesitated. They looked to the ringmaster, who gave an approving nod, and they complied. 

With one metal wall of the cage opened, the attendants all took a step back, clearly on edge. Ja, in the meantime, crouched down and kept his eyes on Bhoomi, who surveyed the opening of the cage. In an instant, Bhoomi zoomed out of her cage, forepaws thrown directly into Ja’s chest. As he crashed on his back with the tiger atop of him, there was an abundance of crowd gasps and concerned murmurs following quickly. A few more attendants started to move in and there was a moment of silence in the crowd, the music turned down. However, they stopped.

From under the tiger, Ja had raised one of his arms, waving them away from Bhoomi, who looked all around her with a growl. Ja put hands to the sides of her head, causing her to abruptly stare down at him. Upon eye contact, Ja felt the flow of the Red surge through him, flowing out to Bhoomi. In a moment’s notice, it could be observed that Ja Zaki started rubbing up and down the tigress’ neck. Then with a small groan, she seemed to playfully roll over and off of him.

Just like that, Ja popped up from the ground, looking around the crowd. Remembering that this was supposed to be a performance, he smiled and raised his hands. The additional attendees backed off and the announcer simply picked up where they left off playing it off as though part of the act. Bhoomi stretched her shoulders and upper body with a much calmer aura.

“And so the Ja Zaki has proven to finesse the feline femme fetale!” Was the remark, to which the crowd built itself back up to cheering. The man from earlier that had the bucket of meat, having relinquished the whip now, tried to approach once again. Ja once again waved him off. Food, even if for a reward for jumping through the rings, would be too much right now. With the tigress in mind, seeing memories through her eyes, Ja now knew that she was long hungry.

It would have to wait until later…for now, he elected to slap the ground instead to get Bhoomi’s attention. Carrying on with the act, the King of Beasts ran towards one of the larger, lower rings of fire, jumping through it with ease. Once through, Ja turned around and beckoned for her to follow, which took no time at all. With the first completed, the music cued back up, and the crowd’s cheers built back up. 

With that, Ja continued jumping through rings, and Bhoomi continued to follow through. Each set of rings increased in difficulty, shrinking in size, increasing in number of jumps necessary. This went on for a little while, as they didn’t seem to anticipate “Ja Zaki” to be able to tame the tigress for that long.The crowd seemed to like it, so the attendants started readjusting the rings in new patterns while the act was going on, to which Ja and Bhoomi simply adapted. At this point, they were going beyond what was rehearsed when it was just him earlier.

Ja was starting to break a sweat, but it wasn’t because of the heat. Given how feral in mind she was from the mistreatment by this circus, Ja had to completely focus on tasks and getting her to complete them by copying him. It was a huge mental strain, and he felt his adrenaline level going the wrong way as her fury crept into him. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep this up.

“And now… the final challenge. Ja Zaki and Bhoomi now must jump through not one, not two, but [i]three[/i] rings!” Went the announcer’s charismatic voice as they set it up. Ja sighed, bending over with a hand on his knee, but waving with the other hand for the crowd to cheer louder. Looking back at Bhoomi, she seemed to be a bit off, looking around as though bewildered. A small, low rumbling growl caught Ja’s ears. His hold was loosening as he was getting tired. He eyed the three rings in particular, which were setup to be a little taller than he was. Thankfully they were close together.

All he needed was one more push…thus, standing up straighter and jumping a few times in place, he sprinted for the rings. Jumping up, Ja dove through, narrowly avoiding flames, and rolled upon impact with the ground. Taking in a breath, Ja rested on his hand and knee for a second after getting out of Bhoomi’s landing path. Though, there was hesitation from her this time, clear resistance to his compulsion now.

It was an awkward sort of pause in the action, and Ja felt it. With the potential of jeopardizing this mission on his mind, and Bhoomi’s feral drive fueling his disposition, he yelled out to her directly: [color=goldenrod]”Kurumidza, Bhoomi!”[/color]

After which, he felt a pang in his head. The young man’s body started to feel weak, and vision became blurry for a moment as he rode the wave of a sudden headache…[hr]By the time his vision was restored, he rubbed the space between his eyes before opening them and looked around him. It was clear that Bhoomi had gotten through the rings, as the audience gave them a round of applause. 

The tigress in the meanwhile was pacing about. Going by her body language, and the way her ears started twitching, he somehow realized what had happened. What would follow, wouldn’t be pretty if misexecuted. He quickly got up to his feet and jogged in her direction.

[color=goldenrod]”You! The bucket, give it here! Give it now!”[/color] Kila called the same man with the meat bucket from earlier. Clearly irritated, the man started walking over with the item. When Kila got close to Bhoomi, he stopped, as now she was looking right at him. He opened his palm for the man with the bucket to stop. Instead, he opened and closed his hand. As if instinctively understanding the gesture, the man tossed a turkey leg his way.

Bhoomi watched the meat as it crashed to the ground. She growled, then roared at Kila as he was slowly reaching down to pick it up. Rearing back, she pounced for it and the young warrior dodged to head towards the man with the bucket. With her briefly occupied, he took the bucket and made a break for the cage. Following her nose after having only gotten a morsel, the tigress dashed after Kila. 

Trying to keep up with the act, “Ja Zaki” waved to the crowd as he was running with the bucket. With some oohs and aahs, the crowd clapped along. Bhoomi, in a feeding frenzy, jumped to pounce on the boy to end the chase. 

In a single motion, Kila jumped to the top of the top of the cage and threw the bucket into the cage for the slightly bloody chops of raw meat to spill about inside. Barely missing him, the tigress followed her stomach and went after the dead meat instead. Once inside, Kila pulled the latches to close the cage’s metal door.

Exhausted, Kila remained laid on top of the tiger’s cage, to which attendants came to roll them off.

“Give it up for Ja Zaki and the Flaming Rings of Fury!”