Amongst all the vibrant colours that brought the circus to life with light and festivity, there were rare occasions where you would find a dark spot in a corner or behind something large and, if you looked well enough, they were found on the ceiling, too. Not many people seemed to notice these shadows. Most were far too intrigued and enchanted by the light of the performances to really acknowledge them. However there are exceptions to every rule, and in this case Dan seemed to be one of them.

He first noticed one of the shadows when he took a step back for a moment in order to take a long, panoramic gaze around the circus. The dark spot stood out against the colourful material that the tents were made of, if only a little bit, yet people kept wandering past and paid it no attention. It would have looked like a shadow, the way it blended itself into the darker shades of the night. Upon closer inspection, however, Dan came to realise slowly but absolutely that it was alive.

Hidden in the shadows was some kind of creature that followed the people around with slow-blinking, dark grey eyes. The eyes were the only things that could be seen clearly, as the lightning cast on the corner of the tent hid the creature well enough that no contours could be seen. And then it turned its head, even if only slightly. It was alive.

It appeared to have no interest in the passersby, merely watching them with indifference, but as it turned and caught Dan staring at it the grey eyes opened wide into something that almost looked like shock. They angled themselves to the right ever so slowly, as if the shadow was turning its head.

This creature seemed strangely out of place in an environment where everything was so bright and coloured, but before Dan could even begin to consider it, it was gone. He blinked a couple of times, eyes still locked on to the space where the shadow had been just moments before. It had taken a random passerby asking if he were alright to shake Dan from his confusion. Burning scarlet, Dan reassured the stranger and moved on to the next tent.

All of the questions the black shadow had left in his head disappeared the moment Dan’s vision focused on the room he had unwittingly wandered into.

The tent was as colourful as any other but it was different, too. Very different in fact. The room felt warmer and it radiated comfort. The air smelled like sugar glaze and warm doughnuts, and the ground was covered in snow. In the middle levitated a giant crystal, coloured like the sun but fading into a vibrant green. Puffy clouds hung in the air, supporting their fair share of children and adults as they tried to make it to the top, bouncing from cloud to cloud. Screaming snowball fights took place on the ground, and on one of the highest and biggest clouds sat a person who, undoubtedly, worked at the circus. He was surrounded by a cheering audience as his fingers twirled and danced, pouring forth a flock of colourful birds made from sparks.

The crystal caught Dan’s gaze over and over, for it was hard to ignore. It was the only light source for the whole tent and yet this was by far the brightest place in the circus. It illuminated and coloured the clouds with all the hues of the spectrum, toasting the edges with warm honey and dripping down with peach tinted fluff. It was like a thousand sunsets and sunrises all in one room.

Dan could have simply sat and gazed for hours, but something else caught his gaze - the very antithesis to all this light - another shadow, sitting silently right beneath the crystal. This one didn’t look around, didn’t blink, only nestled there, unmoving. Perhaps asleep. Dan glanced around, brows furrowed. It was sitting in plain sight, yet nobody seemed to pay it any attention. The children walked past it, their eyes moving from one side of the crystal to the other without ever haltering or focusing on the shadow.

“You still seem rather confused,”

Dan looked away from the creature and the crystal and locked eyes with the same stranger that checked on him just moments before. Same black hair, same blue eyes, same amusement written on his face.

“To be fair, I think it’s justifiable,” Dan said. “It’s not every day you see the things you see here.”

“Yet I have never in my time here seen as much confusion. Mostly it’s amazement.”

“Yeah well, there’s always the odd one out.”

Blue eyes smiled a little bit when little children cheered louder than they did before. The magician in the sky above had made trampolines out of the clouds before he jumped down cloud to cloud until his toes touched the ground.

“You work here then?” Dan asked.

“I do,” Blue eyes confirmed. “In this particular room, actually. I control the weather and help with some of the acts that perform here. My name’s Phil.”

Dan shook the hand that was held out to him and introduced himself, too. “Are you just as impressive as all of the other magicians? I’ve seen dragons and talking lions. You’ve gotta be good if you’re working here.”

Blue eyes - Phil - grinned a little bit. “So there’s the part of you that’s impressed by all this, rather than confused. Haven’t seen it yet.”

“Avoiding the question now, are we?”

“No, just haven’t answered it yet.”

“Well, are you going to?”

“Like I mentioned before, I control the weather in this room. I can make it rain, I can make the wind blow you out of your socks, but for now I settled for a nice layer of snow,” Phil replied, nodding towards the playing children. “They seem to enjoy it. And it fits the performances given here tonight. Oh and the clouds? They’re not actually clouds. We just call them that. They’re very small sheep that contendly float around here. They have a lot of wool, so they don’t really notice the people that are on top of them. They don’t really mind though. They don’t get hurt, if anything it’s a soft massage on them because of all the wool.”

“These clouds are flying sheep? You’re kidding me.”

Phil’s grin returned. “They’re mischievous sheep at that. Can’t leave them alone too long when they’re awake. Luckily they sleep most of the time.”

“Sounds like my little brother,” Dan murmured.

At that comment, Phil smiled widely and every bit of amusement on his face was there again. It seemed like an expression that he had on his face often, but it suited him well.

—-

They sat and talked for many minutes, Dan’s stream of questions about the circus seemingly endless and Phil’s willingness to oblige equally indefinite.

“Ahh, well if it isn’t The Marvellous PJ.” Phil exclaimed suddenly, looking at someone over Dan’s shoulder with a friendly wave.

“Come to visit Amazing Phil,” the stranger grinned. He was tall and brooding with a mop of curly hair atop his head, and he was sheathed in an emerald green cloak that covered from head to toe. The material was like velvet but it shimmered as if it held a thousand green stars. “And who’s your friend?”

“This is Dan,” Phil smiled, prodding Dan on the shoulder.

“How do you do?” Dan stammered.

PJ’s gaze had caught him and held him, temporarily speechless so that he’d had to fight to regain his composure. PJ’s eyes were the colour of his cloak. Glittering, glimmering green, with an intensity that rendered Dan immobile. With a flourish, PJ opened his cloak and a shower of sparks fell out into the air, some floating downwards while others spiralled higher into the clouds. Without thinking, Dan reached out to catch one. It burned in his hand for just a second before dissolving into a tiny pile of silver glitter. Enraptured, Dan let it fall slowly through his fingers. He blushed suddenly, glancing back up at the two laughing figures.

“So what do you do?” He asked the curly haired man, whose crooked grin was making his head spin.

“I’m a magician.” PJ said. His voice was deep and throaty with a singing quality, and it made Dan’s ears tingle.

“I thought everyone here was?”

“Everyone here has magic inside of them,” PJ explained. “But I’m closer to the typical conjurer. I’m a storyteller. A weaver of tales and dreams. A master of card tricks and illusions. Would you like to see one?”

Dan nodded eagerly, and PJ reached a hand inside his cloak and pulled out a deck of cards, black with their suits engraved in gold gilt. He fanned them out with a flick of his wrist.

“Pick a card, any card.”

Dan examined his card hungrily. It was very beautifully made. There were four rearing unicorns arranged in a diamond, each one an individual work of art. He put it back where PJ had told him to and watched as the magician’s fingers danced. As he was talking, a wisp of pink cloud floated down past Dan’s face. He brushed it away impatiently, only to gasp in surprise. Where his fingers touched the fluffy mist it had transformed with a pop and there was his card, floating in front of his nose. His face was the picture of surprise and he could hear PJ and Phil laughing once more.

“That was amazing,” he breathed.

“That’s the thing with Peej though,” Phil grinned. “You never know whether he was playing his trick on the cards, or on your mind. He has a gift for storytelling. He really makes them come alive, because he can paint the picture inside your mind. A devilish one, this one.”

PJ punched Phil affectionately in the arm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he winked. “Dan knows exactly where he is.”

“Huh?” Dan blinked, looking around him, before his mouth dropped open in surprise. The cloud - no, sheep - they were perched on had floated all the way outside and into the open air without him even realising. He shook his head to try and clear it. Phil was right, PJ had a way of messing with your head, but somehow Dan didn’t feel uncomfortable. He trusted the grinning man almost immediately, and he didn’t feel as though he were in danger.

“I’m impressed that you managed to take us right through the mirror maze and he still didn’t notice.” Phil giggled, and PJ took a mock bow.

“What can I say? I’m marvellous.”

Phil rolled his eyes.

“I’m sorry, what?” Dan said, aghast. “We went through the mirror maze?! But we’ve barely been talking a minute!”

“Seems that way, doesn’t it?” PJ winked.

“That’s just - that’s,” Dan spluttered.

“Incredible? Amazing? Impossible? Marrrrvelous?” PJ rolled the ‘r’ with an exaggerated spin, and as he did a series of purple spirals rippled out of his cloak and shot up into the air.

Dan said nothing, opening and closing his mouth silently a few times like a fish.

Phil had barely stopped laughing since he had first spoken to Dan, and Dan turned to him resentfully. “Hey, it’s alright for you. You’ve all got magic powers. Us boring normal folk need a bit of help taking it all in. It makes a bit of a change from sunday dinner in front of ‘The Antiques Roadshow’.”

Phil’s smile faded a little and his tone became a little more sombre. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that. I wasn’t laughing at you, at least, not really. It just makes me so happy. Seeing the amazement on other people’s faces, and knowing that a played at least a little part in putting it there. I don’t mean to make you feel bad.”

“No, it’s okay, I’m not actually mad,” Dan reassured him. “Just very jealous. I’ve never met so many magical people.”

“That’s partly why there are so many of us here,” PJ explained. “There are so few of us in the world that we get lonely. We are drawn to other sources of power, so we tend to group together. This is the largest gathering of folk like us in England. It can be hard to live a normal life when you shoot green sparks every time you sneeze.”

“I can see that it could be a little inconvenient, yes,” Dan chortled.

“Is this not the best night of your life, though?” PJ asked.

“Yes, absolutely.”

“Well then. Quit complaining.”

“What’s been your favourite bit so far?” Phil asked.

Dan considered for a moment and PJ jumped on his hesitation. “Well that would surely be meeting Amazing Phil and The Marvellous PJ, would it not?”

“Yes, of course, absolutely,” Dan giggled. “Can I ask you something?”

“Ask away.” PJ said graciously.

“What does PJ stand for?”

“Oh, no,” Phil chuckled. “That’s his best kept secret.”

“Well my friend, if I told you that, I’d have to kill you. It ruins my air of mystery, and it’s an air I’m quite attached to,” PJ grinned wickedly. “But you seem nice. So maybe I will spill the spleens. It stands for-”

With that, PJ spun on his heel and vanished in a cloud of glittering green smoke.

Dan let out a low whistle.

PJ had left behind a only few sparks and the faint smell of gunpowder, and Phil smiled fondly at the space he had occupied just moments before. “What a drama queen,” he laughed. “I need to put this sheep back before he wakes up. He’s getting a little chilly out here, I might get PJ to watch over the weather for a bit and stop clowning around with his theatrics. I’m hungry and fancy a wander. Go get us some toffee apples, Daniel Howell, I’ll be right back.”

It wasn’t until Dan had walked a good few metres that he realised he’d never told Phil his full name, but by the time he’d turned back around the blue eyed conjurer had vanished.