The dusty rose hue of the morning sky is obscured by the trees as our caravan makes its way into the forest trail. I sit atop the second carriage, listening to the squeaky wooden wheels and the horses' hooves as they clop against the beaten down dirt. Small songbirds chirp overhead, welcoming the new day. I smile to myself and whistle their bright tune in response.

"What the hell are you doing?" A gruff voice shouts from the front of the carriage. I turn around to face the large, muscled man with a sheepish smile, pointing to the birds above. "You think I give a damn about some pigeons? Get inside before someone sees you, bitch!"

I nod without a second thought and begin climbing down from my perch. A calloused hand reaches up to give me support. I look down to see the new stagehand, Grant, giving me a sad smile. I merely shrug and take his hand, landing silently inside the cart.

"C'mon Arthur, she sounds exactly like them. Nobody's gonna be suspicious if they can't tell the difference," he says, defending me.

The man turns around in his seat, accidentally yanking at the horses, who snort at the brisk action and slow down. A deep laugh erupts from his throat. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that, newbie." He turns to eye me dangerously, growling, "besides, it's not just the sound I'm worried about."

My hand instantly flies up to grasp at one of my long auburn strands.

"There's been too many raided caravans in this forest. We don't need one of our monsters to make us stand out. We're too noisy as it is. The ticket sales from the last show may be enough to fix the wheels on carriage five, but some of you will have to skimp on your next meal." Arthur snaps the reigns, urging the horses forward as he looks around warily. He may be the scariest man I've ever met, but he's extremely paranoid when it comes to people following us. I remember a particular young boy he attacked just last week when he was out hunting. The poor child ended up with a knife in his shoulder.

I pull my navy blue hood over my head, completely covering the curls, and walk over to sit by my friend, Kati. She pulls her olive green cloak over herself in solidarity with me, not that she needs it with her tame, dirty blonde hair.

Ever since the traveling circus found me when I was six, newly orphaned and mysteriously missing a tongue, I felt like I found my new family. Nobody asks about each other's pasts because it doesn't matter. We're all here for our own reasons and none of us choose to talk about it. It's easier that way. The only place we have to go is forward, that's the foundation of our family.

"Don't listen to him," she whispers. "The crowds love you and your wild hair. It's like you're a lion dancing on those ropes. And that thing you do when you pretend to get it in your face, but manage to land your dismount perfectly? Priceless!!"

I blush as she chuckles to herself, recalling all the times that I actually did get it in my face and had to scramble to not let it distract me too much. I make a gesture of snipping with shears and grab a clump of my hair.

"No!" She protests. "It makes you stand out and it's beautiful!"

I roll my eyes and shake my head. She just giggles and nudges my shoulder.

"Believe what you want, but you know as well as I do that the new guy hasn't been able to take his eyes off you."

We both turn around to look at Grant. He's sitting on the floor of the crowded carriage, rewinding a thick rope. His hair is a dull brown, maybe naturally, or maybe from all the dirt. He was only hired yesterday and he already seemed to be from a bad place. I just feel bad that the handymen never get as pleasant accommodations as the talent, if you can even call it that. All of us have to bring our bedrolls around, but us performers at least get to have a designated space to bathe.

He glances up briefly, his eyes immediately flicking over to where I'm sitting, then back down to his lap and his face reddens.

Kati elbows my side and we both snicker, looking away. There's nothing wrong with him, I guess, but I'm not really all that attracted to him. He wouldn't like the monster that I am anyways, so why bother?

Kati pulls out a deck of playing cards and begins shuffling them, then dealing them out to each of us. We pass most of the trip, like always, playing our made up game. Both of us were brought on too early to know any card games from the outside world, so we made up our own. Some of the "elders" in the group tried to teach us more sophisticated games, but we always ended up going back to our roots.

Around mid-afternoon, when Kati and I are leaning up against each other for a nap in anticipation of the setup tonight, the carriage grinds to a halt. I hear people shushing around the caravan and notice a couple of the passengers grabbing weapons, looking out of the little holes cut in the cloth walls.

Arthur cautiously draws his pistol, pointing it off to his right. A gunshot echoes through the woods, and all of a sudden, the bushes and underbrush seem to come alive as about 20 people shed their camouflage and charge for the caravan. A large bird, sitting in a tree, makes 6 quick clicking sounds and the whole crowd rushes our last carriage, the one with all the animals.

I grab onto Kati and start filing out to help with the fight when I'm yanked back harshly. The large hand on my shoulder whips me around to be face to face with Arthur.

"You're staying here," he growls. I try to pry his meaty fingers off me, but he grabs the fabric of my tunic and lifts me effortlessly from the ground as I flail my legs to try and kick him. "They don't know how much a monster like you is worth, and it's gonna stay that way, is that clear?"

I sigh and nod my head, letting my legs dangle beneath me. I can tell he's about to say more, but the large bird lets out a shuttering screech, drawing all of our attention to it. It opens its wings, diving down from the branch and soaring straight for the animal carriage. As it travels through the air, it appears to get larger and more deadly, its talons elongating until they're as tall as me, and its wingspan widening to cloud the sky above us.

Arthur drops me to the ground as the bird crashes into the carriage, talons first, gripping onto the weak, wooden framing. The boards splinter under the pressure. Kati and I run back to our carriage, hiding behind some barrels with the other trapeze and satin dancing girls, but I peek my head up long enough to see our burly ringmaster run between the carriage and the bird, grab the creature by the leg and breathe fire straight up its body in a deadly cone.

Feathers fly off and burn to ash as the bird lets out a pained shriek and crumples, shrinking back down to the size of a normal man who now lays immobile on the ground, his skin still smoking. The others in the raid party recognize Arthur as the biggest threat and go to attack him. He may be a strong man, but once the fifth man gets in close with a lance, he stumbles. I watch as many of our people get injured, taking on these much stronger and more skilled fighters.

I see one of my trainers get stabbed through the stomach and fall to the ground lifeless. I steel my nerves and rush forward, but somebody, once again, holds me back.

"What do you think you're doing?" One of the dancers asks. She's only a year younger than me, but she acts as though she knows much more than the rest of us. Yeah, well guess who knows about all the guys from the troupe you've slept with and are currently "dating." Blackmail, slut, don't mess with me.

I shrug her arm off and hop out of the carriage, nodding to Kati's "you got this, Koto" from behind. I fill my lungs with a deep breath and begin slowly walking towards the fight, humming as loud as I can. A small fire of comforting warmth flickers to life, deep in my stomach, letting me know the magic is taking effect. I clench my jaw as warriors and circus people alike stop in their fight to turn and look at me with glazed over expressions.

"Koto?" Arthur slurs, staggering to try and stand, but he slumps back against an enemy fighter. I walk up to the closest raid member and remove their silver falchion easily from their slack grasp, immediately proceeding to slice their throat with a small cringe. They hurt your family, Koto. Don't feel remorse.

I walk through the battlefield, cutting down every enemy as they fix their attention on me, entranced by the music. I reach the last enemy soldier and tap him quickly on the shoulder with the sword in a mocking manner before swiping his head clean off.

I stop humming and the gentle warmth in my belly fades away, leaving only the twisting guilt of what I just did. And yet, even so, there is that small part of my bloodline that cheers me on and commends me for my actions, but the humanity in me can't help but feel disgust in myself.

My hair shimmers as yet another red strand turns to silver. Every time I use my powers to kill, I gain more resemblance to my evil ancestors. This curl falls right next to my face, making it pretty much impossible to conceal. The more silver strands, the more likely somebody is to realize what I am.

Our crew slowly stumbles out of their stupor and looks around at the carnage I left in my wake. Many of my friends come over to pat me on the back, but my attention is only on Arthur, who doesn't look pleased. He groans and he brings himself to his feet, clutching his heavily bleeding side.

"What did I tell you..." he takes a moment to cough as he stumbles over to me. A couple of the men go to his side to help, but he brushes them off.

I frantically point around at all the soldiers lying at my feet, my message clear: but look what I did!

"Koto!" I hear somebody call out from behind me. When I turn to see who it is, an arrow embeds itself in my thigh. A gasp comes from my throat as the pain registers, ripping through my body. Not a moment later, a gunshot rings out and I see a figure in the woods collapse.

"Koto!" The same voice calls out. Kati runs up to me, holding a revolver, barrel smoking. "Are you okay?!"

I nod and look to Arthur, brushing away the tears and the immense pain blooming from my injured leg.

"You weren't supposed to leave the carriage," he growls, raising a bloody hand to clutch at my jaw, forcing me to look up at him. "Get this taken care of yourself. If you're too injured to perform, then you'll at least make a good pet."

He spats the last word in my face while slowly trailing his hand down my neck. Kati supports me as I stumble backwards.

"Don't touch her!" My friend cries.

"Hmph," the man grumbles. "We're taking her to the next town and then we drop her. Maybe my brother would like to have you as one of his slaves. You're too much of a risk to have around."

"If you're kicking her out, then I'm leaving too!" Kati shouts in his face, running forward to stomp on his foot. He easily disarms her and throws her to the side.

"Not if you value your life, missy," he growls, pointing his gun at her. He gestures towards me with his head and instructs some of the stagehands, "take her to the beasts' trailer."

Two men lift me with sad eyes, trying to be careful of my injury, and haul me over to the last carriage, the wood planks still splintered and creaking from the attack. Another opens the door and they lift me inside, closing and locking the doors behind me.

------Author's Note------

Hey guys! Welcome to my Fantasy AU story! This won't really be updated often, as it is a side story to Muted Voices, but I hope you enjoy.

My friend lovelyavvz and I have been working on some art for this story, so here you go!

These are some pictures Avvz did of Koto in her circus costume!

And here is one she did of Koto in her traveling outfit!

And I tried my hand at drawing Koto and Kati in their traveling outfits!

Anyways, thanks for reading! Feel free to comment and let me know what you thought!

Happy holidays, everyone!