The Princess and the Bootlegger

When Kade was young and lived on the farm with his family, a circus much like this one had passed through town. It was the first time he had seen non-humans in real life since they didn’t venture to those shabby human towns, and he was completely mesmerized with him. When he went home and asked his mother about them, all she told him was to stay as far as possible from them. That’s the way they wanted things.

As they sat in this round tent and waited for the magic show to begin, he bounced his knee anxiously. Celine, on the other hand, seemed excited. It didn’t seem like anyone shady was around or looking for them, but they could never be too careful. Kade’s attention turned to the stage as spotlights lit up the goblin, who introduced himself as “The Fabulous Fobble”.

He did a few tricks that made the crowd ooh and ahh, but it was pretty simple magic for a goblin. They were more powerful than many knew, but outcasted due to their appearance and rumors that they were thieves and tricksters. Some goblins chose to speak in a sing-song and follow what they had been typecast as, while others like Gibbet acted just like everyone else. Kade had seen Gibbet do much more complicated tricks to clean up the store. He was almost starting to doze off when Fobble climbed up onto a stool and made an announcement.

“For my final trick,” he said. “I will be needing a volunteer from our lovely audience!”

Kade sat up as the spotlight moved over the audience, before finally landing on Celine. Great. That’s all they needed when they were trying to be hiding. A bright spotlight right on their face.

“Lovely lady!” Fobble called out. “Join me on stage!”

Celine gave an unsure look to Kade, but he just smiled casually and gave her a reassuring nod. He lowered his voice so only she could hear him.

“Stay casual,” he said. “We’re just a couple visiting the carnival. That’s it.”

She stood and the crowd cheered as she made her way to the stage. Fobble instructed her to sit on a stool, which she did cautiously. He lifted a sheet in front of her, and with a drum roll and a puff of smoke, dropped it to reveal that she had disappeared. The crowd cheered, but Kade felt his stomach flip. Fobble took a bow, and the curtain lowered. Kade frowned as everyone got up and started to leave.

“Wait,” Kade frowned. “Isn’t he going to bring her back?”

Everyone ignored him, excited to go back to the carnival. Shit. Kade got up and moved down to the front, sneaking past some carnies to get backstage. He kept his hat down and did his best not to look suspicious as he peeked into corners in search of Celine. He found a small dressing room with Fobble’s name on it and when he checked inside, Celine was on the stool. She was tied and gagged with what looked like colorful magicians scarves, but upon closer inspection it shimmered. Fobble was nowhere to be seen so Kade rushed over to untie her, but Celine tried to say something to him from behind the gag. It was muffled and he tried to remove the gag from her mouth, but as soon as he touched the scarf there was a blast of magic and he flew back, hitting the wall hard. He groaned and sat up, seeing Fobble there with a smug little grin on his face.

“Tried to untie her, did’ja?” he teased. “Hard to do with the enchantment I put on it.”

“What do you want?” Kade said. “Let her loose, this is ridiculous.”

“Can’t do that,” Fobble said. “Somebody’s lookin’ for her, yes he is. I’m getting an extra big tip for finding her!”

“Oh come on, don’t be such a stereotype,” Kade argued. “The wolves are looking for me, not her.”

“Not the wolves!” Fobble said, a skip in his step as he circled around Celine’s stool. “Not the wolves at all! Wolves are busy tonight! The other one, yes sir!”

“Other one?” Kade frowned. “Who’s the other one? The one who commissioned the silver weapon?”

“Slice and dice, slice and dice,” Fobble sang as he danced in circles around Celine. “He’s gonna slice and dice you, too! A big tip for me!”

“Fobble, we need to know who is was,” Kade said.

Celine’s eyes were wide, and she made a soft wincing noise. Kade realized that as Fobble danced, her bindings were getting tighter. Kade started to panic. Then he realized that for Fobble, it was nothing personal.

“How much is this guy paying you?” Kade said quickly. “How much is the big tip? I’ll double it.”

“Double?”

This made Fobble stop skipping, looking at Kade with a new interest. The bindings on Celine loosened just slightly and her shoulders relaxed a bit.

“Double,” Kade confirmed, taking a pen and a checkbook out of his jacket pocket.

“I think it’s a deal!” Fobble grinned.

It was a painful sum of money, but Kade wrote the check out. As soon he signed it, Fobble snatched it from his hand. He snapped his fingers and the bindings around Celine disappeared in a puff of colorful smoke. She stumbled when she got out of the chair and Kade caught her, holding her up. She turned to look at Fobble again, eyes wide.

“Who’s the man?” she asked again. “Who’s the one who wanted me? Why was it me and not both of us?”

“Dunno,” Fobble said, shrugging his shoulder. “Dunno who the man is. Dunno why he wants pretty ladies. All I know is I’m getting a new hat!”

He gave them a little salute, then jumped and disappeared himself. They stood there for a moment, then Celine realized Kade was still holding her and she backed up. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said. “Just caught off guard. It all happened so quick.
Uh, thank you. How much did you pay him?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kade said dully. “I just hope it was enough to keep him quiet.”

“It will be,” she said. “Goblins like him don’t care why things happen, just what they get out of it.”

“Yeah.“

Kade looked down at Celine’s hands and took one of them, lifting it to seeing that her wrists had some red marks from the bindings.

“You’re sure you’re alright?” he asked again. “You look hurt.”

“It’s just a little chafed,” she assured him. “My vampiric blood heals it quickly. See how it’s already fading?”

Sure enough, he looked again to see that it wasn’t quite as red as it was before. Must have been nice.

“Let’s go get some water,” she suggested. “Maybe something to eat. Have you ever tried funnel cake?”

“No. Sounds weird.”

“Come on, you’re going to love it.”