Lion's Roar (Clexa)

4. Vanishing Act

By the time Clarke reached the big top, a moderate crowd of people had already amassed inside. Octavia was there, and so was Ontari, staring daggers at Clarke from the back of the group. Octavia stood next to a tall, muscular, dark-skinned man - from the way they looked at each other, Clarke guessed the pair were most likely romantically involved. A sudden movement drew her attention and she saw Bellamy standing to the side, beckoning for her to join him.

"I got the job," she grinned, moving over to stand near her friend.

"Congratulations," Bellamy replied, feigning surprise at this outcome.

"Must've been because you put in a good word for me," Clarke smirked. He laughed.

"I've got a question for you, though," she continued, her tone changing to one of intellectual curiosity.

"And what might that question be?" Bellamy said, eyebrows raised.

"What on earth is with all that bread?" exclaimed Clarke, struggling not to laugh. Someone else appeared to have the same problem: the young woman standing behind Bellamy - tall, lean, caramel-skinned and seemingly about his age - let out a hearty guffaw.

"You just left her to make her own breakfast with no explanation whatsoever for the six tonnes of bread you've got in that kitchen?" she exclaimed in disbelief. "She probably thinks you've got, like, a bread fetish or something!"

Bellamy rolled his eyes. "It's your fault, Raven," he chuckled, shaking his head in mock disapproval. Clarke sensed that there was definitely something going on between these two as well. Was that what happened in circuses, she wondered? Did everyone just date each other?

Raven frowned theatrically. "It's not like I ask my gran to send three loaves of bread by express post every Thursday." she said defensively.

"Well you don't exactly do anything to stop her," said Bellamy, grinning matter-of-factly.

Clarke's eyes widened in understanding: the mystery of the bread was finally solved.

"Anyway," Bellamy clapped his hands together. "Clarke, this is Raven, she's our fire eater and resident engineer; Raven, this is Clarke, she's going to be taking on Murphy's old job as lion tamer." Both girls nodded in acknowledgement and shared a firm handshake.

Bellamy continued to identify the rest of the ensemble.

"That's Octavia, she's a knife thrower." He pointed to Octavia.

Then to the guy next to her. "That's Lincoln, he's our strongman."

"Those two clowns over there - literally, they're clowns - are Jasper and Monty." Raven clarified, drawing Clarke's attention to a pair of young men having an animated discussion about something or other. Jasper was tall and lanky, with unkempt black hair and a pair of ski goggles perched on his head. Monty was shorter, Asian, and looked to Clarke like he wouldn't be out of place in an emo-leaning k-pop band.

"The sulky one's Ontari, she does trapeze and all that," Bellamy pointed to the acrobat, her arms crossed and a sullen look on her scarred face.

Then he turned to look at the final unidentified performer, a woman not much older than Clarke, standing by herself in the corner. She was tall and lean with long, dark hair, and her forest-green eyes darted toward the floor when she noticed Clarke watching her.

"That's Lexa," Bellamy explained. "Until you showed up she was the newest recruit. Sword swallower. She's a runaway too."

Clarke nodded in recognition, and looked like she was about to say something in reply, but stopped as everyone turned to face the front of the tent. Kane had arrived and was standing on a stage of sorts, ready to address them.