Teddy Newman and the Great Goose Chase

The tent John now found himself in was full of props and costumes, scattered about and left disorganised among crates and drawers. Turning back, he also noted how the frame of the door stood unsupported in the centre of the room. To a mundane eye, it might have looked like some sort of stage prop, but it seemed in actuality to be the entrance to a barrier. Hopefully, that meant John was in the mundane world now.

He didn’t have much time to waste, though; the goose was already pushing its bill through the flap in the door. Somehow, it had got ahold of a knife, and was now eyeing him evilly. John turned and hurried towards the tent flap opposite the door. Behind it he found what looked to be a dressing room, given the large series of comfortable looking chairs lined up in front of mirrors, where the performers could apply their makeup before the show. Even more costumes lay about here, either hung up on coat hangers or strewn across tables haphazardly.

John wasn’t alone in the room. A woman sat by the mirror not far from John, though instead of using one of the chairs, the woman was confined to a wheelchair. She seemed quite pretty from what John briefly gleaned, with pale aquamarine hair that streamed down the back of the chair in flowing locks and a rosy complexion to her face. A warm-looking blanket was draped over her lap, covering her legs.

“Hmm?” the woman hummed, pausing in her application of makeup and turning her head slightly, having caught movement in the mirror. “Oh my! You gave me a fright, little thing,” she laughed in a melodious voice. “Acedia, sweetheart, are you there? Oh, it’s lovely that you’ve come out. Would you like me to pretty you up? Or perhaps I can sing for you… Oh!” The poor woman nearly jumped out of her wheelchair as the angry goose stormed into the room, honking madly. John flew up onto the counter underneath the mirror, dashing by the startled woman and running towards the next tent flap.

John suddenly found himself in a tall and spacious room, no doubt the circus’ central tent where the main performance occurred. He stood on a stage that advanced to the centre of the room. Several rows of tiered seats ringed the stage, disappearing into darkness. The only part of the room that was lit was the centre stage. A set of triplets were busy doing stretches and practicing acts of acrobalance. Another two men sat in the first row of seats with crossed arms, looking upwards. John briefly followed their gaze to the ceiling of the tent. Two figures balanced precariously on a wire suspended well above the ground, seemingly in the midst of a duel with swords.

One of them stood out: a woman wearing an array of tropical colours and a long, beaked mask that covered only the top half of her face. She looked like an exotic bird, and moved nimbly and gracefully along the wire like she was born in the air. The woman was seemingly in the midst of instructing her partner, a boy wearing a suit of protective padding who was quite apparently uncomfortable so far off the ground.

Of course, John had no time to mill about and watch the performers practice, there was a goose chasing him and he had to find a way to escape. Looking around, John could see steps leading up to three large curtains spaced around the tent. In all likelihood, they were where the audience entered. To his immediate right, there was another path that led out onto the stage. If he took that, he wouldn’t have to risk crossing the seats and potentially getting caught by the performers. John hurried right.

The next tent he found himself in was unlit. It was slightly larger than the dressing room, and contained several more of those door frames ranging up to the size of an elephant. One of the doors was ajar, and John tentatively peaked inside. Behind the door was a cave. A single lamp had been affixed to one part of the wall, illuminating with a soft yellow light. It was enough that John could make out most of the cave. Several stacks of warm hay and blankets lay about one end, while another had been fixed with large troughs of water and feed for animals. A man knelt down towards the back of the cave, facing away from John as he tended to a large creature. He could tell that the creature was quadrupedal and had large wings, but not much else given the low light and how it curled diminutively into the cave wall.

“...You need to eat,” the man urged the beast kindly; his accent was a little coarse yet simultaneously whiny. He sounded Australian. “If not meat, then I can get some other kind’a grub… cooked, uncooked, whatever you’d prefer…”

The beast’s attitude seemed strange, but John definitely had no further need to pry. It was clear there was no exit in the cave. John stepped back and glanced over the other doors again. Not one was open.

“Honk!”

‘For fuck’s sake.’ John flinched and turned to face the goose that was entering the room.

The goose waddled with smug authority, its head turned sideways so that it looked at John with one gleaming eye. John slowly backed up, passing through the open door and into the cave beyond. The goose followed him inside. Glancing back, John saw that they were, as of yet, unnoticed by the man and the beast, who were still turned away.

John turned back, watching the goose carefully. The goose stared back at him in turn, its eye black and unblinking as it stepped further into the cave. Slowly, carefully, John began to circle around. But the goose had the instincts of a predator and knew when to attack. It lunged across the cave, honking viciously and spurring John into a bolt. He almost made it back to the door — but the goose was a fast motherfucker. It snapped, catching Lorelei’s foot in its bill, and tugged with strength that John couldn’t hope to compete with in his current form. They were both dragged by the goose.

“What is going on?!” The man whirled around at the sudden outburst of noise in the cave. “Marcus! What are you doing in here, mate?! Are those Ace’s dolls? Get away from them! Fucking hell.”

The Australian sounding man hurried over, grabbing the goose and wrenching Lorelei’s foot from its bill. “Damnit, Marcus! Quit struggling, leave the dolls alone!” the man swore as he put John and Lorelei down, carefully holding the goose away with his other hand. What he didn’t account for was one of the dolls suddenly springing to life and bolting with the other out the door and abruptly forcing it shut.

John would have grinned if he could… and had he, that grin would have frozen right on his face. As the door swung closed, he looked up, catching the gaze of the beast that had turned its face curiously towards him. A feline face looked at him, but above its ears sprouted two curled goat horns — and adorned in the centre of its forehead was a gleaming black jewel.

‘No fucking way…’ John froze as he stared at the now closed door. ‘It couldn’t be… could it?’

The beast matched Peter Keaton’s description of the monster that had attacked him precisely. John’s mind reeled. ‘Why here… why am I here?’ The Tower Goddess had brought him to this circus, instead of taking him back to his body. Here, with what was quite possibly the Monster of Mitchum. Was she simply trying to help? John doubted it. There had to be an ulterior motive somewhere, else why all the smoke and mirrors?

In any case, knowing what he knew made it doubly important to get out of here and back to his friends at the Order. As usual, he was wasting too much time thinking about things and not enough time actually doing them. He needed to get out. John checked his mana. He still had plenty of time left before he’d have to find a hiding place and recharge.

John turned and ran back down the hall and into the main tent, again. All the lights had been turned on now, and the clown named Otto was yelling with a booming voice across the tent. “BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR ACE’S TOYS. ONE’S POSSESSED AN’ ON THE FUCKIN’ RUN. CATCH ‘IM BEFORE HE BOOKS IT. THAT ORDER COMES STRAIGHT FROM THE MISTRESS!”

‘Great,’ John thought irritably as he hurried into the stands, hoping the seating would provide ample cover for his small form as he made his way to one of the exits. ’Just shook off the damn goose and now I got half a dozen clowns hunting me.’

Awkwardly, John began to climb up the stands. He stayed hidden underneath the rows of seats to avoid being spotted by the performers. They had begun to spread out across the room. The triplets each to an exit, performing unnecessary rolls, cartwheels, and pirouettes up the stands.

“QUIT WALKIN’ ON YOUR HANDS, MAY! AND LOOK FOR THE DAMN RUNAWAY BEAR!” Otto called out to the triplets near John.

“It’s MAE!” the triplet yelled back, doing a half turn on one hand and pointing towards her sister on the other side of the room. “That’s May!”

“Just look for the bloody bear!” Otto roared back.

“I am!” Mae pouted back. “This way I can look under the seats… see?!”

“I am seeing, too.” The woman dressed like a bird, who was perched like such on the wire high in the sky, nodded. She also had an accent, though John couldn’t place where from.

“What are you seeing, Faye?!” Otto asked from below.

“I am seeing… up Mae’s tutu,” the birdlike girl responded cheerfully.

“Quit looking!” The triplet blushed, finally deciding to turn rightside up.

“Hey, mates!” The Australian stepped into the circus ring, scratching his head with apparent confusion. “Any of yous’ seen a teddy bear? Bloody scamp’s running around on ‘is own.”

The goose waddled into the room after the Australian man, snapping once at his heel, before turning its eye towards the stands. John wasn’t entirely sure what he’d done to that goose, but it sure seemed hellbent on pursuing him.

“We’re lookin’ for ‘im now!” Otto responded. “The mistress thinks he’s an imposter — and maybe the cause of Ace’s gloomy mood, lately.”

“Gotcha,” the Aussie nodded. “Should I go get the shirshu?”

“Oh!” The birdlike girl clapped her hands together before Otto could respond. “I am seeing a teddy bear! To your right, Mae!”

‘What?!’ John whirled around to look at the girl dressed as a bird. How she had managed to spot him in the back rows of the stands was beyond him, and he had no time to ponder on it either, Mae pounced on him immediately. John barely managed to elude her grasp by slinking back behind a seat and down one tier.

“Careful, he’s a nimble bear!” the triplet warned the others.

“Never mind the shirshu. Hurry, catch him!” The clown called Otto signalled to the other performers as he leapt into the stands and began to circle behind John’s position. His coperformers followed suit. John soon found himself without any easy escape. As much as he wanted to avoid draining his mana, it was looking like he’d have little choice but to fight his way out. The problem was, he could do three, maybe four spells before he was tapped out. There was no Astral energy to draw upon this time, either; he was once again bound by the rules of the physical world. Kinda — he was currently a mobile stuffed bear.

The triplets lunged as one. Where other enemies might have collided on their way to seize a small target in cover, like John currently was, the triplets danced and coiled nimbly around one another. There was no dodging the triple ****. John was **** to temporarily end his Possession on the stuffed bear while he cast Mana Shield.

The triplets cried out as their hands were suddenly thrust away by a blue bubble of energy. Their sudden imbalance presented an opportunity for John to slip between them. He made it up seven steps before something sharp and narrow pinned him to the wooden stand. John glanced down to see a diamond shaped throwing knife sticking through the bear’s belly. He felt no pain, thankfully.

One of the men, a dashing swashbuckler if John had ever seen one, smirked triumphantly. “He’s fast, but not as fast as a knife.”

Without wasting any time, John possessed the knife, flinging it out — along with some stuffing — before immediately continuing his mad dash as the bear.

“Careful, there’s no telling what other tricks he can do!” Otto warned the group. “Fergus, do somethin’!” he spoke to a chubby man dressed in red and orange.

“What? I thought you wanted us to catch him, not burn him.” The man shrugged and pulled a whip from the holster attached to his belt. John suddenly felt emboldened to scamper away even faster as the whip burst into flames and cracked at his feet.

“Yes! I mean, no! Catch him! Don’t burn him!” Otto sighed.

“Oh… sure.” The man shrugged again, extinguishing his whip and making a half-hearted attempt to lasso John.

John was nearing the exit now. It was only a few steps away. The performers were too cautious of his magic to make any daring attempts at nabbing him. Or so John thought.

There was a sudden boom, like a crack of thunder, that resounded through the tent, causing the walls to ripple. The shrill cry of a bird soon followed. John turned in time to see a giant bird of prey, with feathers coloured a beautiful amethyst and gold, bearing down on him. Before he could act, sharp talons punctured his frail body and lifted him off the ground.

They were suddenly soaring up the side of the tent and looping back around to land by the group. The goose honked irritably below, turning its head away and folding its wings with apparent jealousy.

But John hadn’t given up. As the bird evened out to land, John fired a Mana Arrow directly into its feathered underbelly. The exotic creature shrieked and released its grip on John. The momentum of their flight carried John right through the exit and into another long hall. He crashed into the ground, thankfully still holding onto Lorelei.

“Oh my god, Faye!” John heard one of the triplets cry. “Are you alright?!”

John didn’t care to hear the rest. He started running the moment he could, heading down the corridor and towards freedom.