As the train slowly rolled to a stop, Nona's blue eyes slowly opened. The world outside was grassy, green and almost bare save the tents where they would be staying whenever they weren't performing. She rubbed the exhaustion from her eyes and moved to stand. It was difficult due to the tiny blonde head which rested on her lap. She shook her little sister's shoulder and said softly,
"Lillia, it's time to wake up." When her sister didn't move she sighed and picked her up princess style. She managed to make it to the door before her sister's eyes slowly slid open.
"Nona?" she said, squirming in her sister's arms to be placed back on the floor,
"Are we there?" Nona grabbed her and Lillia's bags before she jumped from the car, turning to catch her sister who followed behind her.
"Yes, Lilly, we're there." Nona held on to her little sister's hand as they moved from the door of the train to the list that was attached to a nearby post.
"You're in tent 5 with the others, Lillia. I'm in..." She skimmed the list looking for her name. When she found it she stopped.
"...tent four with.. James, Coraline, and... Liam." She smiled to herself a little at the last name. Liam was really the only person she got along with besides her sister. The others were fine, but didn't talk to her much. He was really good with animals too. She heard her name being called behind her over the loud, panicked cries of one of their elephants.
"Speak of the devil," she said and turned to the source of the call.
"I'll be right there, Liam! I just need to walk Lillia to her tent!" She looked down at her sister and smiled reassuringly.
"Ready, Lillia?"She took a hold of her sister's hand and walked her to the door of her tent. Once they had arrived, she crouched down so she was face to face with Lillia.
"Now, Lilly. I'm only a few tents down from you if you need anything okay?" She kissed her sister on her forehead and muttered an
"I love you" before turning and headed towards Liam.
She hopped up into the train cart with the animals, grabbing a few of Duchess's favorite treats as she went.
"Shhh. Duchess. It's alright. Everything's okay." She held a treat up to Duchess's nose and waited for her to take it before stroking i her trunk.
"See? It's alright. You can get off this scary contraption now, but you have to follow me, ok?" She grabbed another treat from her pocket and guided the elephant down the special ramp. Once she was on the ground, Nona gave Duchess the treat. Then she placed the rest of the treats by a nearby post where she tied Duchess to make sure she didn't try to run away. The thing about elephants was, when they're as big as Duchess, once they run, there's not way you're going to be able to stop them. Then again, they weren't as skilled with animals as Liam and Nona. Once Duchess was tied up, she turned and smiled at Liam.
"There. Done. We should head to the tent though before all the good beds are taken." She placed her "mask" back on her face and headed to tent four. She looked around the room and noticed that the other two girls, Nala and Cora, had already arrived. Confused, she looked back for Liam before turning back to the two.
"Hi, Cora... Nala... Wait, Nala are you in this tent?" She moved over to one of the beds and placed her bag on it before looking around. It seemed Cora had claimed the cot in the back, but the bed was still open. Odd, but she decided to claim it for herself.
Meanwhile, Lillia stared at the door, thumb in her mouth. She wasn't sucking on it. She was just biting her nail. She knew better than to be sucking her thumb at the age of 7. She took a deep breath, picked up her bags that Nona had placed beside her and climbed the stairs into the tent. There were already four others inside, discussing the living arrangements. She looked around the room and noticed that there was only 3 places for five people to sleep. She placed her bags by the front door and walked over towards them. She was afraid to speak up, mainly because Alec scared her when he was in a bad mood. She looked at the others and wondered if they were going to let her share the bed or if they were going to take seniority and make her sleep on the floor. She really hoped she could sleep on the bed. She had a hard enough time sleeping on the train. Sleeping on the ground wasn't going to be any better for her.