Along Came a Crowd

By Lauren K. Joyce

Ajani perched on the cart’s edge, his feet dangling, as Baba’s animals ate in their cages. The evening shadows stretched as the sun descended and the troupe packed up their tents.

They should be preparing their acts and hoping for a crowd, not leaving after only a few days. And at night? Everyone else seemed happy to go, but Ajani’s heart sank. The nearby town offered many strange sights, sounds, and tastes. And the people were so unlike anyone in the troupe. Ajani wanted to stay longer.

He launched himself from the cart and landed like a dancer. He kicked through fallen leaves as he trudged toward Baba’s tent.

“Ajani!” Hadiya sat on the back of her wagon, watching him. She lived and worked in that cart, claiming to be too old to make and break camp every time they traveled.

Ajani trotted over.

“Boy, what are you doing?” She tousled his thick black hair. “You should be helping your father.”

“I’m going there now. Hadiya, why are we leaving?”

A tight, pained smile flashed on the old woman’s lips. “The people here dislike different.”

“But, they’re different.”

Hadiya laughed.

“Well, what do the spirits say?” Ajani wiggled his fingers in the air. “Will the next town like us?”

Hadiya patted his cheek and kissed his forehead. “Run on and help your father.”

Ajani pulled away from the old woman. He liked Hadiya but gazing too long into her crystal ball made her… unbalanced. He hurried to Baba’s tent.

“Ah, there you are.” Baba was bundling crimson canvases as Ajani arrived. “I thought I’d have to leave without you.”

Ajani scowled, though he knew Baba teased him.

“I’m almost done here,” Baba said. “Then we can go.”

Good. It would be dark soon, and no one had made a fire.

“Did you feed the animals?”

“Yes.” Ajani’s eyes rested on the lone cage remaining on site, standing dark and quiet. He fed all the animals–except one.

“Don’t go near that cage.”

“I know.” Only Baba could handle Bo.

“Good, because he’d eat every bit of you.” And though Baba winked, Ajani knew he meant it.

Ajani watched Baba pack. His dark, muscular arms gathered every inch of the troupe’s largest tent and tossed it over his shoulder. They returned to the cart together, leaving Bo in the glade. Baba was the strongest man in the world, but even he couldn’t lift the cage alone. The whole troupe would help load Bo onto the wagon.

Baba prepared a slop bucket for Bo as the troupe finished preparations. Dusk fell, the sun long disappeared.

Ajani started climbing into Baba’s cart.

Baba caught his arm, pulling him down. He held out the slop bucket. “Go feed Bo.”

Ajani gaped at Baba, but he watched the horizon. A group of townspeople approached on horseback, with torches illuminating the dark. Ajani knew they’d packed too soon. Along came a crowd to see the show, but they wouldn’t get one. Ajani turned to Baba. “I don’t want to feed Bo. He’ll eat me.”

Baba knelt beside him. “You’ll be fine. Go to the cage and wait for me.” He handed Ajani the bucket and nudged him toward the darkening woods.

Ajani stumbled through the dark, the slop bucket swinging in his hand, hitting his legs. Shouts erupted behind him. He glanced over his shoulder. Torch flames shone through the trees, shapes moving.

A shrill, bloodcurdling scream pierced the night.

The bucket slipped from Ajani’s fingers, spilling flesh and blood.

More screams followed the first.

Ajani raced back to the caravan, floundering in the dark. The torch fires swelled, razing carts. People ran, wailing, knocking each other over. Horses shrieked. Baba’s animals thrashed in their cages. Ajani searched for Baba but couldn’t recognize anyone. He stopped at a burning wagon. Its blaze was blinding—Hadiya’s wagon.

Turning away from the inferno, Ajani saw Baba lying in the dirt nearby, his face and eyes lit by the fire. “Baba!”

Baba didn’t respond, didn’t even move.

“Baba?”

Baba stared at Ajani—stared through him like he didn’t see him, like he didn’t see anything.

Ajani stepped toward him.

A man passed between them. Ajani and the stranger both stopped, each startled by the other. The man held a dagger.

Ajani bolted, fleeing into the trees. He soon abandoned the firelight, running blindly through the forest.

He slipped on wet earth and fell. Rancid goop, dark and sticky like molasses, covered him. Slop. The cage. Bo.

Ajani glanced behind. Men with torches stumbled after him through the woods. He clambered to his feet and rushed on.

He reached the clearing where Baba’s tent had stood the night before. The cage loomed before him—a black mass among the trees. Ajani crashed into its side. Bo shifted and huffed within. Ajani climbed the cage walls, pulling himself over the top as the men entered the glade, their torches illuminating the space.

The men laughed among themselves, speaking in a foreign tongue, as they circled Ajani. The cage beneath him remained quiet.

“We won’t hurt you,” one of the men said in common tongue. “Come down. Make this easier for everyone.” He stepped closer.

A low moan sounded from Ajani’s chest and grew into a wail. He punched the cage, splitting the skin of his knuckles. His spent lungs wavered in his cry.

A guttural roar reverberated through the countryside, drowning the night.

Ajani pulled the cage’s door open.

Out bounded Bo. Bone-crushing feet. Curved fangs and claws. Broad shoulders scraping the boughs of the trees. Sinewy legs thick as tree trunks. Thick neck thrumming a deep bellow.

The men pointed their torches at the monster, a futile attempt to evade its assault.

Ajani slid off the back of the cage and ran. The shrieks of the men behind him encouraged him on. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Good. Let them scream.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lauren K. Joyce is currently building her craft with shorter works of fiction but dreams of being a novelist (with many ideas bouncing around her brain). Her true love is fantasy but she dabbles in other genres when the mood strikes her. Lauren writes weekly on her Facebook and Instagram accounts with movie and TV show reviews, as well as dribbles and drabbles of fiction, so be sure to check those out!

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