Blindly walking down the side of the city street, Auric tried to keep at the side of his caretaker, the eccentric woman walking with all speed, narrowly avoiding collisions which were much closer calls for him following. Finally he managed to run directly into a woman carrying a wicker basket of textile cloth, causing her to drop it, thankfully none of the cloth was lost.
The woman looked up from the ground where she had already begun to pick up the basket, no doubt to hurry home and empty it to buy more things, with the economy doing so well, she began to tell Auric to watch where he was going in a very rude tone, but then noticed his blindfold.
She quickly excused herself, going the way opposite of which she was just walking, leaving Auric alone in the crowd. A sudden tug at his arm told him that the caretaker had backtracked, found him, and they were on the move again.
Auric was once again overwhelmed with the dissorienting sounds and smells of market day. The many types of delicious foods and stridency of shouting and talking began to make him just as helpless as when he first wore the blindfold.
Eventually, the woman stopped tugging his arm and Auric knew they had wound up at one particular stall. It was small, and held out on the street rather than inside of an actual store, the man who ran the stall wasn't as old as Aurics caretaker, but he was getting on in years. He squawked a greeting as soon as he saw one of his best customers,
"Tenna! I was wondering when you would show up, business is slower than usual."
Tenna, the name of Auric's caretaker, immediately began chatting up with the stall owner, Sergei. Auric stood patiently for several minutes as their conversation switched from Sergei's business, to the weather, to an argument over whose knees were in worse shape.
Auric began to get bored, he searched around for something to occupy his ears and nose while the elders kept up their conversation. He tapped Tessa's shoulder, their sign that he was going to walk around a little, she waved him away without interrupting her conversation.
As Auric walked around, he made sure to stay near the edge of the street to avoid any unwanted contact. Everyone else seemed to be having a good time, but one crowd was louder than the others, he approached stealthily to see what everyone was so excited about.
He managed to get behind a small crowd of children, many were shorter than him, and lifted his blindfold ever so slightly to see what was gong on, disguising the movement as simply rubbing a troublesome eye. The strange noises he was hearing suddenly took sensible shape, he quickly pulled the blindfold back over his eyes.
A small platform, only a few meters square, had been erected near the edge of the street, on which there were two members of a small traveling entertainment troupe. Currently on stage was a man with snakes covering his heavily tattooed body, he wasn't very big and Auric figured he was struggling under the weight of the various, large snakes draped over him. The other was a woman, her face painted in white and gold balancing herself seven feet in the air, suspended upside down by a simple wooden pole that she looked down on.
Auric began to turn away, he could see what might happen already. One of the snakes could get spooked, many of them were venomous. Or the lady could lose her grip, the pole peircing right through her eye socket. He shivered.
But just as he turned away, he heard a loud thump. Fearing the worst he began to walk faster, waiting for the horrified screams to start. But they didn't, a voice began to speak loudly, addressing the quickly quieting crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen! I am proud to announce that our main show is about to begin! As soon as our payment box has been filled, you will see the most amazing acts of human strength, agility, and speed unfold before your very eyes!"
Auric now thought it was definetly time to go, even if nothing bad was going to happen, he still wasn't going to get to see anything. He already took a huge risk just to get a glimpse. People suddenly seemed to notice him, he heard them parting around him as he tried to get to the walls of the buildings to walk unnoticed again.
Eventually, the hole around him grew larger and larger until he could clearly be seen by anyone in the crowd, a public intake of breath seemed to burn in Auric's ears as he tried to get away from their pity filled and disgusted eyes, he could feel them on him as he walked.
A sudden movement through the air caught his attention. It was headed straight for him, he wondered wheather to duck or let it hit, and which action would call the most attention. He decided he would take it. A small crunching sound and a small gasp of the crowd was heard. Auric's head was tilted forward slightly from the shock of the dead-accurate blow.
Auric had a sudden rush of anger that faded almost immediately, yet he felt the need to pursue it. He turned slowly around to face what he assumed was the general direction of the troup leader on his little stage. Auric kneeled down to pick up what had hit him, a small lump of cheap paper wrapped around a weight, probably a rock. Auric assumed the paper was blue.
He had been targeted for the performer's trick. It was a small, disrespectful gesture that had recently grown popular among the performers of troups and circuses. If someone wasn't paying attention, they would hurl a harmless, blue projectile that marked them as fools, as well as the participant in the most dangerous, or at least seemingly so, performance they had. Auric had heard about it from listening to kids who pretended to be thugs in the alley, just around the corner from his window.
--Incomplete--
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