Chapter Text
She stumbles through the woods, trembling from overexertion, her legs burn painfully from all the running she has done, she thinks she’s safe at last, that is until a large furred body slams into her, she stumbles from the force of the hit and she tumbles down a hill, lying still on the ground as she is briefly winded, she stares up at the sky, when she regains her breath, she throws herself to her feet, hearing her pursuers arrive. She dives through bushes, ignoring how the branches cut her up. Behind her, barks erupt, and she hears them approaching. She throws herself at a tree, managing to pull herself up onto a branch, her lower half dangling. Below her, the dogs jump, snapping at her. She’s tired, and her grasp is slipping. A dog manages to snap its jaw around her leg, and she’s suddenly pulled off the tree branch, slamming into the ground. The rest of the pack are on her in a heartbeat, swarming her and taking turns biting. She shrieks as this happens. She doesn’t want to die.
-
Jester’s peace had been interrupted when a cacophony of barks erupted from up ahead; he heard a shriek as well. He moves to investigate the sound that ruined his quiet time. After making his way through the bushes, he finds a group of massive and muscular dogs, covered in scars, swarming something small, the owner of the shriek Jester assumes. He watches as the dogs jerk their heads, one notices him, and stiffens. The others pause when their packmate stops attacking, and they also look up. Jester is soon being stared at by the animals, whose muzzles are bloodied. The thing on the ground is limp; it looks human. He stares at the dogs, and the dogs stare at him, their pricked straight-up tails out. He takes a step forward, and the dogs begin to growl, lowering their heads and bearing their bloodied teeth. Jester snorts and takes another step, letting out a low sound himself. The dogs freeze at this and then suddenly turn tail, fleeing, tails tucked between their legs. Jester grins and approaches the limp human, staring down at a child, no older than 3, he assumes, she’s covered in her own blood. He’s about to consider her dead and bury her body so the circus doesn’t get blamed for a dead child when she twitches, he watches as her eye opens, hazel meets purple, and they stare at each other for a bit, he picks her up gingerly, grimacing as blood dirties him, she whimpers, squeezing her eyes shut.
“They did a number on you. Why were you being mauled by dogs, brat? Last time I checked, there were no wild dog packs in this forest.” Jester says, the child doesn’t answer, just continues to tremble. He finds himself heading back to the circus, heading around back so as not to draw attention. The child lies limply in his arms. Wheezing. On the way, he runs into Ticket Taker, who gives him an inquiring look, and Jester glares at him. Jester heads to the cyan tent, pushing inside, and is greeted by the heavy stench of blood. In the dark, he spots the cyan eyes of the Doctor turn towards him.
“Jester! What brings you here at this hour? Are you feeling unwell?” The Doctor says, clasping his hands together, they are not so concerningly very bloody.
“I found a child in the woods, being mauled by dogs,” Jester says, walking forward. “Peculiar, is it not? There haven’t been any wild dogs ever reported.” Jester feels the Doctor’s eyes settle on the child whose eyes have opened again; she’s stopped wheezing, but is still shaking.
“You want me to patch her up, I assume?” The Doctor says, turning to the table, which is covered in blood, an arm rests on the center, skin peeled back to reveal muscles.
“What have I told you about playing with your food- But yes, I assume she’s a lost child, and her parents are probably looking for her everywhere. If we were to give their child back, one dead or heavily injured, we’d be in grave trouble; we could be chased out of town if we’re lucky or killed. But with that, no access to setting up the circus, as we’d be banned everywhere as news would be spread.” Jester says. “We’re already suspected by the damn police of the disappearances. A child will cause a greater uproar.” He watches the Doctor wipe most of the blood off the table and place the child onto it. The child, much to the amazement of Jester, manages to almost throw herself off the table, only to be caught by the Doctor.
“Go on, Jester, I’ll patch her up, and I’ll be sure to call you back when I’ve finished.” The Doctor says, humming a nameless tune. Jester leaves the Doctor to his work. Standing outside just to ensure the man doesn’t try anything, Jester knew how the man got lost in the thrill occasionally and accidentally took things too far, and that would be bad. Hours pass, and eventually he hears a clatter and a crash from inside. Jester ducks inside, and he sees that the tool stand has been knocked over and the kid is under the table, trembling, slightly wobbly from whatever sedative the Doctor injected her with. She’s glaring at the Doctor, who’s shaking his hand, the glow from his eyes is red, and he’s obviously frustrated. “The kid bit me. Really fucking hard.” The Doctor snarls before calming himself. Jester couldn’t tell where he had been bitten because the man's hands were covered in blood from his previous experiment. “She was very resistant to the first dose of sedatives I gave her. It was a surprise, I’d expected her to be out by the first dose, but she fought it off; the second got her knocked out.” The kid glares at the Doctor; she’s clean of blood, wrapped in bandages. “She’s peculiar; she smells and appears human, yet she has what looks to be a tail. I’d show you, but she’s very agitated at the moment. I fear that if I were to try, she’d pull a stitch in her attempt to fight my hand off. Besides that, she has many scars, surgical, I assume, due to how well they were stitched up; well, some were rather sloppily done. She’s also branded, but I couldn’t really check as that was when she woke up.”
Jester listens as he watches the child, whose back is facing him. He takes the chance to grab her, keeping her arms pinned to her sides. She’s snarling, baring sharp baby teeth. He thanks the Doctor who hums, “If we find she doesn’t have a family and isn’t being looked for, think about giving her to me to poke and prod at!” Jester glares at him; the man would jump at any opportunity to experiment and learn. Jester carries her out, ignoring her snarls and her attempts to snap at him. He enters his tent, and as soon as he puts her down, she dives under the bed, letting out little growls. She doesn’t come out at all, staying under the bed, just staring at him. Ready to bite him if he tried to grab her again. He takes a seat facing the bed and stares back. He thinks back to the forest, why had there been dogs, he’s been there countless times, every inch of the woods, and never smelt a dog, just the occasional smell of a wolf, but today there were suddenly a large pack, but what bothered him was that they were well fed, indicating that they had a home, and judging by the scars that had littered the beasts bodies, they were probably trained to attack. He blinks to find that the child has curled up and gone to sleep under the bed. He shifts, and she jolts awake, staring at him, before resettling down, just further under the bed. He makes his way over, ignoring the little growl he hears from under his bed, and he lies down. Listening to the soft, barely audible sniffles of the child under the bed. Pitiful.
-
Jester’s awoken when the bed dips a bit, when he opens his eyes he finds the kid staring at him, looking startled, she tumbles backward off the bed and onto the floor, the child then dives back under the bed, Jester watched the entire thing slightly startled himself, he hadn’t expected her to get so close to him, he looks up, its morning already. When he heads out, he’s greeted by Pierrot, who’s shifting from foot to foot. Looking expectant, he had a tendency to come up to Jester to give him eyes begging if he could go to see the human he’s gotten such a strong interest in. Jester doesn’t understand what Perrot sees in them; humans were good for nothing, cruel creatures who enjoyed other people's pain. Yet somehow Pierrot (And oddly enough, Harlequin) had gained an interest in one. Often heading out after performances to stalk the human back to their home, that is where Jester assumes the two go, usually at different times; he doesn’t know the outcome if the two found each other in the human's home together, both sneaking in. Jester shakes off the thoughts and ignores Pierrot. Jester knows that no matter the answer, Pierrot will still go off to see the human. He heads to one of the stalls; he’d have to get something for the kid to eat; he can’t give back a starved child after all. He stares at the stands, the Fools always stood idly behind the tables, only responding when asked for an order. Jester knows he couldn’t give the kid just sugar; the closest thing to real food is the hot dogs, which, in the end, is what he settles for. Heading back, he finds the child has crept out from under the bed; she stares at him, and he stares back at her. She doesn’t run. He puts the food onto the ground, the cardboard tray rests on the ground, and he takes a step back and waits. He watches as she creeps forward, staring at him. She grabs the hot dog cautiously, before heading quickly back under the bed to hide.
.
She stares at him when she finishes eating. She doesn’t know what to make of him; he hasn’t killed her yet, though. She rests her head on her arms, trying to get into a position where she isn’t in pain. She closes her eyes, falling into a dreamless sleep.
.
Jester watches her get settled. She had completely ignored the bread, just eating the meat of the hot dog, wasting the rest of the perfectly good food. She also just stayed cooped up under his bed, not moving out from under it. He thinks back to the Doctor’s words, branding, why would a child be branded? Was it something humans did to count how many children they have? Why would humans have 14 children? He looks under the bed at the sleeping child who’s curled up tight, face buried in her arms. Jester looks outside. It was beginning to grow dark; he’d have to get ready to perform soon. With a final glance under the bed, he heads to prepare the stage
-
When he returns after performing, he finds the child has vanished. Jester would like to just let the kid stay lost, but if she discovered their secret… Fuck. He leaves his tent, and some people are still moving between the tents, doing the last attractions for tonight. He looks over all the heads, trying to find a glimpse of the child. He thinks she’s vanished when he spots a small figure limping into the crowd. There she was, he avoided the small crowds before grabbing the kid who stiffens and then goes limp, resigning to her fate. He snorts and carries her back to his tent.