|
Anoril -> (DF) The Gorrillaphant Circus (8/23/2008 17:57:33)
|
“Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare yourself as tonight you shall be astounded, shocked and mesmerised! You shall leave wondering if the laws of physics even exist as you shall be witnessing the most acrobatic, agile, flexible and truly amazing creatures in the world!
“Ladies and Gentlemen I am Marco the Magnificent and I will be your Ringmaster this evening and let me be the first to introduce you to…Le Cirque du Gorillephant!”
* * *
True to his word Marco provided the audience with perhaps the most bizarre and exciting performance that any of them had ever seen. The Gorillaphant Circus’ lived up to its high reputation.
It was easy to doubt that the huge cumbersome beasts, easily thrice the size of a man, rippling with muscles and sporting a pair of tusks that would make many war hammers blush, could pull of anything more elaborate than a stately walk. Yet they did, at Marco’s commander they would march out carried by their massive arms and their tree trunk legs alternately. Surrounding the ring they would remain quite still until Marco the Magnificent, cape swirling and Ringmaster’s Staff gripped firmly between his jewelled fingers would gesture at a gorrillaphant who, without a moment’s pause would climb atop the shoulders of the gorillaphant to the right. At this the crowd gasped, and again when the gorillaphant below turned to his right and climbed atop the next gorillaphant’s back. There they stood, a totem pole of grinning muscle, fur and ivory. The Audience let go of its contained breath as the gorillaphant on top surpassed all expectation and back-flipped to the floor where he was caught by a fellow of dark purple hue.
For two hours this exhibition continued, gorrillaphants would run forward and jump through rings, swing from ropes and trapezes suspended from the deceptively strong scaffold, they would juggle balls, swords and even burning branches. Throughout it all Marco the Magnificent stood or marched around the ring all the while giving off a powerful impression of dominance and authority as well as adding the touch of eccentricity and showmanship that pleased the audience. Marco was not afraid to get involved in the acts himself either, he frequently somersaulted through the gorillaphant’s rings, landing on the next gorillaphant’s shoulders and raising his arms to the adoring crowd. Marco laughed and stirred up applause as he pretended to fight a pair of Gorillaphants who were disguised as Cthulions and vaulting around the ring as though they and their shaggy attire were a single body. The most impressive act that Marco gladly took part in was The Pyramid. A base of five grey gorillaphants knelt and waited, tensed as four brown gorillaphants stepped easily onto their backs. A group of three dark purple gorillaphants came next followed by two blacks and then a single misty blue.
A single gorillaphant standing upright is taller than a man, by at least head a shoulders. A pyramid of gorillaphants five levels high is not only a great deal taller than a man it is sufficiently tall enough that should a flaw occur anywhere in it, a fly tickling a lower gorillaphant’s nose or a sudden spontaneous bowl movement up above would send the structure not only crashing down to earth but crashing down to crush several dozen people also. Therefore the breathe that the audience now held in was not simply one of respect and surrogate fear but of the terror that comes from the human survival instinct kicking in.
Marco, in light of the petrified onlookers decided to go all out. Smiling, Marco came to stand at the base of the pyramid in the centre; the most dangerous place to be should an accident occur, or so was the audience’s first impression. Fitting his Ring master’s Staff firmly into his belt and swishing his cape overtly over his shoulder Marco reached out and touched the ivory tusk of the first grey gorillaphant. The beast closed its eyes and strained, supporting the monolith of its gorillaphant bothers on his back and now Marco off his face as the Ringmaster stepped fully onto the tusk. He paused and raised his arms, there was in answer a brief smattering of applaud many if not most of the audience were physically unable to move for fright.
Marco took this strained silence as a challenge and reached up for the tusk above him. With a nod from the Grey below Marco was given the push he needed to grip the tusk of the brown gorillaphant above him. Swinging himself up and onto the Brown’s tusk must surely have been difficult, afterall these gorillaphants were getting tired and the whole pyramid, to begin with unsafe was beginning to sway. Marco however made it look easy and continued in this manner as though he were climbing a flight of stairs. Reaching the Misty Blue at the top of the Pyramid he paused to wave to the audience who had now moved through the entire spectrum of emotions from amazed to terrified and were now just watching the Ringmaster, mouths wide open.
The act concluded with Marco the Magnificent sitting astride the highest gorillaphant’s shoulders, almost casually. Nothing but a blurred dot to the majority of the audience Marco could be heard audibly clearing his throat and then saying simply, “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Great Gorillaphant Pyramid!”
The Audience, as though hypnotised or by overwhelming force of habit and deep respect began clapping. The applause rose as Marco made his way down the mountain of fat and fur and the gorillaphants themselves began disassembling.
A spectator looking at the huge tent from outside would have seen a visible expansion of the canvas as simultaneously the crowd let out a breath of relief.
After this amazing display of living architecture the general consensus around the big top was that no act that Marco could conjure would top what they had just seen.
You see the great thing about the circus, and indeed any live performance is that you know there is a possibility of things not going as they were scripted. Marco knew this also, but yet decided to gamble. Fifteen years of being Ringmaster of le Cirque du Gorillephant and nothing had gone wrong before.
For the final act several trolleys were wheeled in. The trolleys held large panels of different materials; polished oak, five inch thick glass, chemically strong crystal and obnoxiously tough stone.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, do any of you doubt my gorillaphants’ strength?” asked Marco beaming to his audience. There was perhaps a slight outcry but otherwise no reply was given. The gorillaphants had proven their strength to them. Yet predictably Marco began twirling his staff and with a single command the panels were set up standing around the sides of the ring.
The crowd knew what was coming but leant inwards to see all the same. A selection of gorillaphants stepped forwards and stood behind each of mini walls that had been erected. As one they reached forwards and gripped either side of their panel and in unison they brought their heads forwards and their arms back.
The spectators in the front row were showered with splinters of polished oak, fragments of shattered glass, chunks of crystal and pieces of rubble. The four materials had failed to stand up to the gorillaphants’ might.
“Now Ladies and Gentlemen, for our final act I would like a volunteer.” Unspoken agreement wafted through the circus tent much like the smells from the McDrakels food stand outside and that agreement was: You’ll never get me in that ring you wonderful, wonderful man!
“Could I persuade any of you if I said that you would be duelling one of my gorillaphants here?” Marco must know the answer, had anyone at any point volunteered of their own free will?
“Even if I said you could choose which of these fine beasts to duel?” Again the audience was less than willing.
“If you win then I give you gold equal to the amount raised by le Cirque du Gorillephant tonight!” Marco waited a few seconds…and then…
“Okay!”
Marco gazed into the audience to see who had replied, that was usual, there were always idiots from the Hero’s Guild who thought that because they had ‘defeated’ gorillaphants in the wild they were weak creatures. A Dangerous mistake to make, a gorillaphant in the wild never went for the kill or even fought particularly well if it was alone. In fact if a gorillaphant is alone in the forest somewhere and it is threatened by a human it will seek to disengage from combat and move to protect its young and its Hand. In captivity however a Gorillaphant is focused and trained to use its body to maximum effect.
“Come forth then sir!” commanded Marco. The challenger didn’t hurry; he took his time and sauntered into the ring, quite as ease with the gorrillaphants around him.
Marco was slightly taken aback by the challenger’s appearance. If ever he did get someone willing to fight a gorillaphant they were usually rugged types from the Hero’s Guild or occasionally a drunk and once a village idiot. This man however was as tall as Marco and if possible dressed even more ostentatiously. Marco had entertained a few Kings in his time and they had been dressed more simply. Not that the man’s ensemble was offensive, delicate robes that looked comfortable even after two hours of sitting. Purple patterns woven in felts and fabrics only sown in the far off eastern lands lay splayed across the man’s shoulders. His shoes were immodest at best clearly the best cordwainer in the country had been brought in to create them. His hair was dyed white as was the fashion amongst the Aristocracy lately.
Marco couldn’t think why a man so overtly rich would need the gold but then again he himself was fairly wealthy and he still put on this show three nights a week.
“Well sir,” said Marco, a bit unsure of his position, “Which gorillaphant would you like to take on tonight?”
The white haired man looked into Marco’s face for a few moments before saying, “You could set them all loose upon me and I don’t think I’d be in too much trouble.”
Marco turned to the audience as they let out a long ‘oooooooo’
“Your wish is my command sir!” Marco, keeping his eyes on the man all the while, walked backwards out of the ring.
A number of audience members averted their eyes as the troupe of gorillaphants surrounded the ring with the white haired aristocrat standing calmly in the center. A shout from Marco echoed suspiciously round the giant tent and the tribe of gorillaphants, as one, made their way towards the man in the center of the ring.
Marco couldn’t believe it, his gorillaphants were not trained to kill but he imagined that they’d work out how if need be. He watched, fascinated as the paying audience as the man disappeared from sight amongst the fur. All the audience could now see was the gorillaphants standing tightly packed in the center of the big top.
Nothing happened, at least nothing perilous to the white haired man standing somewhere near the center of the mob of gorillaphants. The audience took a deep breath. Marco the Magnificent took a deep breath. The gorrillaphants took a deep breath and used it to create a truly incredible roar. One by one the assembled gorrillaphants turned and vaulted towards the tent’s entrances, exits and canvas walls.
Marco, panicked, ran at the nearest escaping gorrillaphant and commanded it to stop. In response the purple haired giant lunged at Marco and ripped his staff from his grasp. With apparent relish the gorrillaphant bit easily through the wood.
The crowd at this point were delighted, standing and cheering they made their way from the stands and onto the floor to watch the gorrillaphants as they ran outside.
The last anyone saw of Marco the Magnificent was a small man in a torn robe seeking refuge from the stampeding gorrillaphants and audience under the empting tiered seating.
Outside it was getting dark. The Circus was in the most total sense of the word, over. People were walking in groups, making their various ways home. Occasionally they’d point out one of the escaped gorrillaphants on the horizon, heading away from Swordhaven. The people themselves were heading back into town after a thoroughly entertaining evening.
The McDrakels food stand seemed to have been overturned by a hungry gorrillaphant or two, a procession of carriages had appeared to take people back into Swordhaven and the circus tent, having been dealt some serious damage by the gorrillaphants making their violent exit was slowly by surely falling to the ground.
The white haired man jogged briefly and caught up with three of his friends who were making stately progress away from the destroyed Gorillaphant Circus. “You were right, the circus was a good idea for my birthday!” he said.
The woman to his left, wearing a purple robe featuring several green dragonflies said, “You can’t just sit down can you? You’ve always got to make a scene!”
|
|
|
|
