We silently sat inside Trent’s trailer. As of now, everything’s on the Circus train and we have already left from our previous location. My body felt less pained anymore, and since they told me that I am a Neogen, they decided to let me in the conversation. With all honesty, I don’t know what abilities I possess as a Neogen, or to what extent I can do but I would love to know what’s happening and above all, get my memory back. I don’t have the slightest clue where to start but for some reason, I took my tattered gown and hold on to it whenever I go. It feels like there’s some sort of connection that somewhat helps me feel better, or I don’t know. We all looked at Trent as he cleared his throat.

“For the past years, Althea has been seeing stuff like those creatures that follows us. And as you might have guessed, those are the reason why we are changing our location and I know that it is inevitable for us to never encounter them, as we are Neogens” Trent started. We all looked at each other uncomfortably.

“Not only that, we are also being followed by strong Neogens, thanks to Ronald’s ability, when can track anything that comes near us.” Trent looked at Ronald with a gesture of thanks.

“For some reason, I don’t know how these creatures got passed to us, or even our new member Aria in our radars. Yes, we are getting ready to leave since yesterday but we didn’t catch the creatures arrival and Aria, knowing that Thea and Ronald are always on the lookout for the current events. Althea saw the creatures but not at this early and above all, not even Aria’s presence” Trent said. I felt the chill on my spine as Trent spoke his words.

“Just to clarify, I have already seen Aria in my vision but not in this scenario. Frankly, she was supposed to appear not too long after this day, and that’s all I saw. Unless, someone like me might be around and changed the course.” Althea said.

“Going back to these creatures, I know that you are all well-aware of the past. These creatures are former humans who possessed the Neogen gene and has failed to manifest their ability, as chosen by the nature. I don’t want to call them rejects but in some way, ‘Rejects’ are the most fitting term I have for them as they are supposed to be a Neogen like us.” Trent said. I looked at the window and saw the rain started to pour. Then came another silence from everyone.

“Since we are the only Neogens in this circus, and since we are the only ones who can protect everyone, I urge everyone of you to use their abilities in times of need, just like yesterday. I cannot afford to lose anyone, regardless of who you are.” Trent said, looking at us one-by-one. “In addition, we have this group of Neogen who tails us. Sometimes, they appear in the radar, and sometimes not” Trent added.

“So what are going to do now?” asked Serena.

“We stay together, live our usual life and as for everyone inside this room, I am thinking of letting all of you learn how to fight. We may be performers and has a delicate touch of our powers but in cases like this, I want you to know that you are never restrained. I want everyone to understand that performing is a different matter than fighting. We’ll take Tanya as an example” Trent said, and we all looked at Tanya.

“Her ability to tame animals is not a just. Never in my life have I seen someone made all the animals live with crazy people like us. And without Tanya, these animals might have already killed us. They may know how to jump, roll, sit or do anything that Tanya wishes but in times of danger, I bet we all agree that rolling, jumping, or roaring will not do anything.” Trent explained.

“So, you want me to let my babies engage in the combat?” Tanya asked.

“Ideally, if the situation requires. But of course, who wants that? I’d rather see your elephant catch and throw the Trapeze performers than to trample someone. Right?” Trent said. Tanya nodded in agreement. The Cobra that hanged on her neck looked at Trent as he explained the details and seemed to understand his point. Tanya rubbed the serpent’s back as she talked.

As Trent started to speak again, the train captain from the front of the train paged Trent from the speaker.

“Trent, Sir! we are approaching a tunnel. Can we have you and Ronald to report in the captain’s cab?”

“Oh, I guess it’s time. I think that’s all for tonight. Take your rest and we’ll have our first stopover on the next town, about tomorrow morning” Trent announced. As everyone was adjourned, I saw Trent tapped the guy named Gale on his shoulder and asked him to hold his Ring master’s cane. I saw him whisper something but I did not mind checking out. Althea asked me if I wanted to go and I agreed.

Althea volunteered to have her trailer shared with me and without anything to start with, I gladly accepted her offer. “Since you’re with us, I think it’s a shame if we wouldn’t let you with us” Althea started as we walked through the cabs. The rail was a bit of bumpy so I had a hard time following Althea, though she waited for me anyway.

“People of our age usually hang out to one of our friend’s place whenever we are travelling. As for tonight, we are up to the twins’ place – Flint and Blanche, if you remember them” Althea said.

“Uh, Yes, I remember them”. I answered. Actually, I spent the entire day with Althea introducing me to everyone. I remembered most of them but others, I don’t know.

“You’ll love them, I promise. They hate each other most of the time but for some reason, they are always together” Althea said.

“Like magnets?” I asked.

“Exactly! They are literally the Fire and Ice of our crew.” Althea answered with full of joy, as if she heard something from me that made her day. She opened the door and everyone was there.

“Owwwww-kay, so for a recap, we have the twins Flint and Blanche, Lea, Sif, Gale and Edward! Too bad we don’t have Ronald because of the tunnel but he’ll be here soon!” Althea said, pointing after the names. I smiled as she pointed.

“How about the others? I saw many teenagers this afternoon” I asked.

“Oh... they don’t really belong. I mean, we are in good relationship but not in this types of fun” Althea explained.

---

Minutes passed and we are huddled in a circle, talking about the things that are happening, when Gale started to change the topic.

“I’m sorry, Aria, but what is your power?” he asked. Everyone looked at me.

“About that, I don’t know. I don’t have the slightest clue.” I answered.

“I see. Well, at least it’s the three of us now. You, me and Ed.” Gale said. “We don’t know our abilities too but Trent told us that I due time, we will have it”. I smiled in reply.

“Don’t categorize yourself to Aria, man.” Flint snorted. “Trent said she might be a Primus-level Psychic, and you don’t even know what category you fall in” Flint added.

Everybody laughed at Flint’s words, even Gale, who seemed to not mind the joke.

“Be thankful that I haven’t got mine yet because I will crush you once I got mine” Gale said while laughing.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what is a Primus?” I asked. Everybody fell silent. At this point, I felt embarrassed for asking that.

Lea nodded slowly. “Primus levels are Neogens who are on the top of their class. It is not necessary that there is only one Primus but the number of Primuses confirms the force of the Noble houses” Lea explained. “though of course, in the end, it’s just a norm that everyone has started to accept”.

“Noble houses?” I asked.

“They are the ones who are in the main city, those who hold power, riches and control over the city. Anyone can be a noble, but I don’t know how that works. Anyway, once you are in the nobility, you are identified by your class: The Primus, as to what I have explained, The Secundus, who are either the Primus candidates or an Ex-Primus, and the Tres, who are regarded as the common ones.” Lea said, as all of us were listening to her.

“I see, so how can Trent say that I am on a Primus level, even though I don’t even know what my power is?” I asked again, out of curiosity.

“Well, as everybody knows, Trent can see other’s abilities, manifested or not. For your case, I think it had something to do with your loss of memory that’s why he was able to easily see what’s going on. And for Gale and Ed’s case, Trent decided to let their powers awaken by themselves as pushing it to awaken earlier might create some unwanted events” Althea explain. Her tone sounded more serious this time.

I looked at Gale and he seemed sad of that fact. His grip on Trent’s cane tightened. The floor grumbled a bit but everybody seemed to notice it. After a few seconds, the lights flickered and a huge bang echoed somewhere. A huge hump made took us off of our seating positions as we scurried around and looked at the windows to see what’s happening. The night sky covered the view, and the rained poured stronger than before. I felt that the train was gaining momentum which makes standing a bit of an effort.

Lea knelt in the middle of our small circle and told us to hold on to something as she used her power to keep the furniture together. I held on the leg of the table but the bumping continued and the train accelerated.

The sounds, bumping and flickering of lights stopped and as we looked at the windows, an explosion nearby caused our floor to shake. Our cab was removed from our line. As our cab plummeted on the edge of the mountain, I saw Blanche at the edge of my eye. She was blowing, producing a light breeze inside the train and rapidly producing a stack of snow.

The train finally stopped, throwing all of us in the pile of snow created by Blanche.