It had been a few days since she had been with the man in the suit over to the Wine Festival. The smell of all the fermented fruits kept lingering in her nose for a couple more days afterwards until most of the clean up was finished and she had left those grounds. However, it did not last as after one item was being torn down, another was being built up. Unfortunately, this twisted her stomach in a different way. While it was nothing like her brothers and sisters in arms, she could still feel their struggle.

After all, who ever enjoys resting in such cages?

While the thought was abnormal for Eden, wandering circuses were a more common spectacle. It allowed people to view more dangerous beasts and animals up close while not having to worry about getting attacked (though they still warned the kids not to put their arms inside the cages). While they did not have the room to prowl to stretch, the caretakers made sure they were well fed… But to be placed up on such a display? If it were not the cages, they were being played with to do tricks  and other performances… almost like how she was a performance item herself.

"Ma'am…" echoed in her ear as the tigerkin looked down the line of cages on wheels. "Ma'am…" It was the tap on the shoulder which caused her to turn her head to a hand holding out her hand. "You can take a closer look if you like for eight silver…" Blinking at it, her mind reflected on the word Silver. The man in black told her something similar when she handed her those disks… And the open hand… She only reflected to reach into her pocket and hand over all the shiny disks  she had, and the ticket man took not a moment to even count, considering she paid way more than needed, and she knew none the wiser. ""Thank you very much and enjoy." Motioning her forward, Eden walked further into the mess of cages.

While Eden walked into the "mess of cages", a singular man, who wears mostly plate armor with the exception of chest which is made out of scales and bones of a dragon and, insted of Vambraces he weares full plate gauntlets, the rest is kind of normal with exception of the helmet which look somewaht like an metal hat with metal mask attached to front of it, and on the back there is a chainmail hood, under which is also a leather hood. The front plate of the helmet has two somewhat narrow slits for eyes and few very small holes in the region of the mouth for breathing, the top of the helmet has a medium sized brim, and forgive me for the using this comparison again, like that of a hat. This man also wears a simple sleevles robe,over his armor. Also robe clearly isn't sleevless by design, no someone or something must have torn the sleeves from the robe, but is one would to look near the belt region of this man body one could easliy indetify the person who is the perosn responsible for this robe's lack of sleeves, for this man wears an improvised belt made out of torn out sleeves, to this belt is also tied simple but sturdy mace, on his back rests a simple backpack, simply stubeled upon this Circus in his travels, travels that are of course motivated by lack of money to settle somewhere for good and of course the fact that man isn't one to just stay in one place for long periods of time. As he neared the "Mess of cages" a man aproached him and asked him for eight silver if he wanted to enter and look around. Even though he was not a man to simply spend money on, in his opinion, enterteinment that will not last long he decided with all the stress he had recently it would do him some good to simply relax and see what is this all about, so he took from his pockets eight silver coins and handed them to the person who then took them and montioned for him to go deeper into the "Mess of cages" which he did in silence, and started observing numerous beasts that were hold in those cages.

While the kids laughed and awed at the dangerous beasts so close, yet in a safe setting, Eden walked down the rows, watching them submit to the torment they were being placed through. Wolves with no room to run. Bears stuck performing tricks for fish. It reminded her of her fight for survival, except she had a chance to view on the opposite end a couple times. It was simply… barbaric to watch. Power struggles with lives on the line were watched as if they were performing a play. If they only knew of the torment they dealt with…

Eden's feet sound herself stopping in front of a cage which held a massive white cat inside, black stripes adorning its body, as it sat there, watching the people as they watched him. Resting the flat tip of her weapon into the earth, Eden walked up to the cage, resting her hand on the bar, her eyes meeting his. However, before she knew it, her eyes slitted as she heard an echo through her mind.

Have you come to taunt me as well?

This drew her eyes open wider before stumbling back from the instance. Her heart was racing and yet… it felt familiar. Like the moment those men on horseback attacked her and the man in black. Giving a nervous swallow, she stepped back forward before staring the beast down again. Why would she want to taunt him anyways? She felt sorry for his situation. Once the thought roller through her head, the beast stood up and walked closer.

That is a thought I have not heard much of. Tell me: Why do you pity me so?

Her hand moved over to the collar that rested around her neck, fingers wrapping around the couple chain links that rattled from her movements. After all, she knew his pain…

Alexander was slowly strolling among the cages, looking at the animals, that, in normal circumstances, would be trying to tear his face off and eat it for dinner or whatever serves as dinner in animal kingdom, this this was an interesting change for Alexander whose earlier experiences with animals were either A: with a domesticated or homeless dogs which tended to mark him as his territory or B: which is basicly whole face tearing bit that was mentioned above. To many people the ability to look at those creatures, while they are still alive and with no with no danger or rather no big danger to human life is realy enticing for many reasons: curiosity, entertainment from all the shows that were invetible from any good Circus, yet to Alexander all of this couldn't have been more boring than looking at the growing grass, though as wierd as this sounds this shouldn't have been any suprise to people seeing as a Mercenaries can have the meeting with the wild animals constantly if the so choose, for as long as humans will exist they will try to give their job to someone else and as long as their will be wilderness people and animals will compete for resources and space to live, combine two of those factors and you can imagine how sword for hire can have a ability to meet nasty things from the forrest so easily, but that is besides the point, the point being the even though Alexander tried to observe the creatures closely, he tried to focus on them but he couldn't. You might be now wondering why does he tries his hardest to focus on them? Well it is because he will either focus on them or he will focus on IT, IT being this thought at the back of his mind thought which he had tried to push out of his mind for a long time now, he wasn't quite succesful as you can see but at least he is somewhat sane, which can be counted as small victory but the latest contract he had kind of left him very stressed out and on edge, and not for the reasons one might think for the job itself was very simple he had to stand in front of a door, a guard duty not something people would classify as a stressful job, a boring one but not stressful, well you see he likes his jobs that keep his mind occupied, preferebly the job should also allow him to reales his pent up emotions in a way you all can guess, but I will say it because some of ye got some realy dirty minds so he likes his jobs where he can bash somones or somethings skull in, but if the job cannot provide that he likes to be somewhere where he can talk, even though he is more of a loner but he feels as though he needs to be constatnly distracted because if not his mind starts to wander and he gets to IT, maybe not he won't get to it just like that but he will get to it and then well…….. things tend to either start flying or start being little akward or might lead to situation that no one wants to get invloved in. Even now his mind starts to wander but thankfuly for his sanity he bumped into……….. a girl with wierd ears and a collar 'round her neck(Editors Note: Alexander also smeals realy bad imagine the smell of a man who didn't bathe in months and mix it with slight odor of blood) him bumping into her brought him back to reality to whic he respondent in the most mannered and welcoming way possible
- Oi Lass watch where are ya stand there are people moving about here

Marthaen had been out flying, he loved to fly, but now with darkness falling he knew he should land before the light failed completely. As much as he loved flying; landing? Not so much and landing in the dark was a spectacularly bad idea. At his size and weight his landings had been known to create a meadow where before was a copse of trees. But the twilight did help in one way. With no sun to glint off his scales he was much less noticable and could land closer than he normally would. He noticed the circus now crowded with people and being nothing if not curious settled as close as he dared, thankfully going un-noticed. He landed bouncing only twice and skidding a few hundred feet to a stop. "Perfect!" He thought happily. "Not one thing killed. I'm definately getting better at this." Then, "Human me," and his form changed to that of a slightly built man, unremarkable in every way save for his blood, red eyes.
He trotted t'ward the crowd remembering at the last moment to say clothes. He'd found long ago if you didn't wear clothes people would point and stare and generally be rude and he just wanted to satisfy his curiosity and be around other beings that could talk. He was very lonely even if he didn't know that's what the emotion was called, and being around people, even loud stinky ones like this, seemed to help.
He wandered through the crowd watching the jugglers, fire-eaters and the like try to squeeze a few coins from the awed crowd. And over all the bustle and din were the smells. Marthaen often wondered how people could stand being in large groups but they rarely seemed to notice and he tried to ignore it as best he could. The worst part was the food. They'd take perfectly good meat and stick it in fire for no apparent reason. He'd tried to make himself eat some but it didn't taste much like meat but more like plants and smoke. He shook his head wondering not for the first time how long it would take him to adjust. He'd eaten less than a week ago so he wasn't that hungry anyway.
Finally he found his way to the animals and started to walk past the man touting the rarity and danger of the creatures within when the man grabbed his arm, "Eight silver," He growled. He wasn't sure why he was being asked for money but ignoring requests like that when others were offering up their coins always led to problems. "I'm sorry," he said ruefully. "I don't have any silver but," he dug into the pouch hanging around his neck, "Will this do?" And he pulled out a small (well, small to him) red stone and asked, "Will this do?" When first he said he had no silver the mans face scrunched into a scowl but before he put his hands on Marthaen to throw him out he saw the stone. His eyes grew large and his scowl instantly turned into a large, if unappealing, smile." That.. that will be fine young master. And as Marthaen passed by he called out, "And if there be any other needs ye have you just come ask. Old Barnaby will see yer well taken care of. And I mean ANY other needs" he finished giving Marthaen a bawdy wink. Marthaen still wasn't sure what that look meant but he knew enough to know the man was now satisfied.
Walking through the gawking crowd he began to wonder where the terrifying beasts were that he'd been promised. While some of these looked aggressive, they weren't all that big and for some reason they were inside of boxes with iron bars. He shrugged it off. He only barely understood any kind of animal and if this was what they wanted who was he to judge? He would've left but perhaps they enjoyed this life.
Finally he came to the white and black striped tiger. Now THIS was something new! He stood admiring it's beautiful coat and impressive fangs until another… what was she? Two legs. Some kind of human though she certainly didn't smell like one and those ears… he wanted to touch them but one of the first things he'd learned was that you don't touch random body parts on anything looking even remotely human. They never took it well. Then there was that necklace she was wearing. He'd seen females wear jewelry but they were always small and shiny. This one looked downright uncomfortable. He moved closer just as she started to back away from the cage and ran into a reeeeally BIG human. One of those that wore metal and carried pointy things. His scent was easy to pick up as it practically overpowered every other smell in the place. He'd seen people run into each other before and stepped in to see what would happen this time. Would it be a fight? Would one them say excuse me? Whatever happened it'd be a chance to learn just a little bit more about humans and… whatever she was.

The bump broke away Eden's gaze from the massive cat, causing her to turn over to the armored man, tail standing tall and ears perked up. His sounds accusation were as pleasant as his smell, but then again she had been in the same seat herself. IN fact, the smell of the aged grime and blood only reminded her more of her time in captivity. Being stuck in her own cage and performances. Her gut twisted again at that reminder, causing her to shake her head to toss away those ideas before looking up at the man once more.

However, they showed  no sign of intimidation. If anything, she was rather mused on how much he worked his get up to try to be as intimidating as possible. In the end, though, he was yet another man within his own personal cage, with its own little cracks to pierce through to reach in for the squishy bits. Her ears and tail drooped back down from their startled state before turning away from the man and back to the cat. However, as she stared, she curled her fingers around the handle of her "blade" before pulling it back out and resting it upon her shoulder.

Her eyes stared at the bars themselves, thinking about that night. The one wear the woman had set her free. Her mind screaming for freedom. Killing off her owner for such a feat. If she did it now… would it be like returning the favor? Her fingers danced along the handle as she worked upon her inner turmoils…

- Ehm Ok Ignore me but ya do not want to take this blade out ,yer scaring children and the parent might not like that - He said as he just stared at her and then walked away from that wierd tiger girl person ………..
- Oh Gods it will be one of those days - he groaned as he moved away from her. You might be wondering what he meant by "One of those days" you see recently Alexander had, Unfortunatly, met some wierd folk one of them being strange not quite albino, a dragon lady and a one of those constatly mysterious jackasses and some wierd monster girl in middle of nowhere and everytime he met one of them it resulted in a fight or heated discusion that might have resulted in a fight, not that he minded the fight part he minded the WIERD part. I mean he can take elfs, dwarfs orcs and the other normal lot but those encounter were realy something and they were all clusterd in such fashion, merely days apart form eachother, this realy didn't sit well with for it only added to the fuel of IT.

He sighted as he walked "Well now I have to preaper for the worst" he thought "God know what might happen now…………….."

Marthaen was a little disappointed as the large man in metal walked away. He seemed different from other humans and Marthaen always liked meeting new and different kinds of people. Even if sometimes the end result was him either running away or fighting. When those things didn't happen he'd found the experience could be very pleasant, even if it was often confusing. In his human form he was certainly not intimidating but he didn't really understand how to interact with people yet. Some of the things they did were a complete mystery to him."But," he shrugged, "if you don't ever walk among them you'll never understand them." Not even aware he'd said this out loud. He tried to avoid doing that, people even reacted strangely to that of all things.
He turned to the female and his eyes narrowed a bit as she removed her sword. When people took those things out nothing good ever came of it. They were either about to try and hurt him or someone else but this time… her eyes were on the great cat in the iron-barred house and as inexperienced as he was he recognized the look on her face. She was considering… something. She wasn't tensed up as though she was about to attack though. Only one way to find out.
Finally he spoke, "Excuse me… (he wasn't sure what to call her so he went with an almost certainly poor choice) animal person, but you're not going to hurt that cat with your pointy, swordy thing are you? After all you both have some things in common like tails and fluffy ears. "The words poured out of the young dragon. He'd found if he didn't talk quickly people would just grunt and wander off, so on he went,"My name is Marthaen and I'm the ruby of the clan Kharendaen and I'm three years old and I like sheep. "He favored her with a smile but he wasn't really very good at it yet. People often thought he was just baring his teeth at them."Am I happy to meet you? I'm often not really sure about that until later but I hope so." Finally he finished with, "Do you like sheep? *His eyes took on a dreamy look, and he murmered something that came out as hooting and chirping rather than language.

The man in the shell muttered to himself before walking away, leaving her to her own business, but before more could be dine, yet another man came up to see her, causing her to direct her attention away for yet another moment. While he spoke of accusations, his voice more rested upon the cautionary side of things, as if to ensure she was not going to attack the beast itself. Why would he think that, though? The beast was in as much pain as she was being stuck in the cage, so why attack it? To place it out of its misery?

Still, there was something off about this man. His breath had the scent of… soot? And his sweat was certainly different than the others she had met before as well. Well, almost. It smelled a bit familiar, but it was hard for her to place where she had encountered it before.

At the very least, she caught word of his introduction and… his fascination with sheep. What a random thing to bring up. Sure, they tasted good, but it was still a bit out of nowhere. At the very least, she could return a greeting of her own. Turning her attention towards him, she pushed the handle up while the weapon still rested upon her shoulder, as if part way through placing the weapon into a back sheath. However, she did not. Instead, she simply held it in place, hoping his eyes would catch the carvings underneath that spelled out EDEN.

During the brief greetings, her ears caught the quick sound of shuffling feet, though her eyes were too slow to move over and see what caused it. Her gut told her to be cautious…

Marthaen watched her carefully but she didn't show any signs being aggressive. Cautious yes, but that seemed to be always a good idea when in large crowds of people. You could never tell what they'd do, especially when there's a lot of them. He noticed how the big cat watched her too, as if it expected something. The two of them had been looking intently at each other as if they were talking though he hadn't heard a sound. Hmmm. Maybe they communicated some other way? He'd seen people talk with their hands and had heard of beings that could talk to each other with their minds. If that was the case there must be some other reason she'd unsheathed her sword as neither seemed angry. But now the pair were looking at him and he felt he'd interrupted something.

She moved her sword and on the hilt he could see writing. What was she… Oh! "Eden! Is that your name?" he tried the word out a few times. "Eden… I like that name. It sounds nice. Yes. It's a good name. But why don't you say it? Can you not speak?" He finished not realizing how silly that sounded because if she couldn't speak she couldn't very well answer his question. But she didn't seem to have any problem understanding what he was saying. "I'm sorry but if you're doing that mind talking thing I don't hear anything but I've been told that my mind is very small and slow, maybe that's why."

Then he saw her ears perk up and she started to look away. Marthaen looked around wondering what had caught her attention.