2econd 2ight 2eer

It had been a busy few weeks with the beasts.

Zander was nursing a new wound on his arm, gained when a misunderstanding broke out between him and the panda-human. The same creature who was looking apologetically at Zander.

“It’s ok, really!” Zander put up the injured arm, “See, it’s all bandaged now, yes?”

The creature still looked apologetic, making vague noises that sounded sad.

“He feels bad,” the cat-human mumbled, “He apologises again and again.”

Zander flopped back on the horrible armchair the boss had given him, “Everyone thinks you guys hate me.”

“Everyone thinks me hate you,” The harpy woman parroted the words.

The cat stomped over to the harpy, not in anger but simply for the fact his feet fell hard, “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

He would do this, sometimes, when the harpy was short on words and she couldn’t parrot anything to express her thoughts.

“Not question, me not hate you,” The harpy nuzzled into the cat, clearly happy to have the words she wanted.

Zander shut his eyes, sighing deeply, “The old beast tamer, he was bad?”

In a cacophony of squawks, growls and screams, Zander had his answer. He needed to fill the old beast tamer’s boots, which included being hated by the beasts. Suddenly, an idea

“You lot, you will hate me outside of here,” Zander opened his eyes, sitting up, “You will go to attack, to bite, to maim.”

The creatures all looked at him as he sprang up, walking up to a cane he was given alongside the outfit he was donning now, “This will be our fake controller, yes? So if I wave it like this!—“

Zander threw his arm to the side as if flourishing, and all the creatures moved with it, “You will go that way! And if I do this!—“

Zander raised his hands in the air, and the creatures made a cacophony of sounds. With a sigh of relief, Zander put his hands down.

“You control us, when no one else can,” The cat mused, “It makes you seem like a miracle.”

Zander tapped his finger to his chin, “It still feels something is missing…”

Walking around and trying to jog his memory, he looked to the door to his train cart. The sign on it had a name scratched out, replaced with Zander’s show name, Zagan. Show names…

“That’s it!” He turned back to the creatures, “You need names!”

“Names?” The harpy parroted, “Need names.”

“Yes, you understand me!” Zander stared at the group, thinking deeply, “I think I have some ideas…”

The creatures all looked at him, clearly confused.

“Panda, you shall be known as Typhon; a formidable beast from mythology!” Zander sent his cane forwards like a sword, “For a formidable beast like yourself!”

Typhon clearly took this as a compliment, glimmering with a wide, sharp toothed grin.

“Cat, you shall be known as Morfran; a warrior from Scotland!” Zander flourished in Morfran’s direction.

Morfran purred slightly, scratching at his chin, “I like it.”

“And to you, harpy,” Zander bowed slightly to her, “You shall be Keres, the personification of doom.”

Keres clapped her wings together excitedly, “Doom!”

Zander grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, putting it on with a flourish, “I say we go and show the rest of the circus their new beast tamer, don’t you?”

———

“Hey everyone, look!” Dimdim yelled, “The idiot decided to show his face after his flop earlier!”

Zander stood straight, confident in his new outfit in a way he hadn’t felt before, “Dimdim, you’re just who I wanted to see!”

The clown was obviously confused, “What do you want, Zagan?”

“If you would just stay still, I’ll show you what I’ve been practicing,” Zander cleared his throat, and then pointed his cane towards Dimdim, “Morfran, attack.”

Morfran burst out of the door of the train cart they all shared, growling and teeth bared as he ran full speed at the clown in question. Dimdim wasted no time in starting to run away, yelling profanities as he did.

“Stop your crazy fuckin’ beast, Zagan!” Dimdim yelled.

“The more you run, the more he wants to eat you!” Zander laughed.

Dimdim yelled out a few more colourful words at that.

After a few more seconds of watching the chaos, Zander lifted his cane, “Morfran! Come here.”

Morfran skidded to a halt, glaring at Dimdim before walking over to where Zander was, standing at his side with a look that could kill.

“Typhon, Keres, to me!” Zander commanded, sinking his cane into the dirt.

Keres and Typhon practically shot over to Zander’s side, staring at him and awaiting their next command.

With all eyes on him, Zander took a bow, “Bear witness to your new beast tamer!”