Nika and Erik visit a strange circus by the old forest, but when night falls, they discover Luna Circus hides a secret no one in town has heard about.
Luna Circus rolled in at the edge of the old forest on a stormy night, its lanterns flickering like trapped stars against the rain-dark sky. By morning, the whole town was talking about it. For Nika and Erik, it was the sort of wonder they had been waiting for all year.
Nothing exciting ever happened in their little town, and now there was a circus on the field beyond the trees. Before lunch, they were already arguing about what they would see: magicians, jugglers, acrobats, and Captain Elf with his famous trained parrot.
Erik, who was two years older and never tired of being the first to hear a secret, leaned across the breakfast table and lowered his voice. "I heard something strange happens there after midnight," he said. "The animals talk. And the big top stretches higher and higher until it touches the clouds."
Nika snorted, but she felt the same spark of excitement in her stomach. Rumours were one thing. A circus that grew into the clouds was another.
That evening, their parents took them to the premiere. The air smelled of popcorn, sugar, and wet grass. Inside the ring, the magician pulled a white pigeon out of his hat, then sent a whirl of bright butterflies spinning over the crowd. Clown Miro vanished into his own shadow and came back with his shoes on the wrong feet, making everyone laugh. The whole tent seemed to shimmer with colour and noise.
Still, Nika and Erik kept stealing glances at the curtains and the dark spaces beyond the ring. Something about the circus felt different from the others they had seen. As if it were waiting.
When they got home, the house was quiet and everyone was asleep. Nika pushed up the window, and she and Erik slipped into the night without a sound. The storm had passed, leaving the grass cold and silver under the moon. Across the field, the circus lanterns burned softly in the dark.
They crept closer, careful to avoid the lantern posts and the muddy patches near the path. Then Erik stopped so suddenly that Nika nearly bumped into him.
In the middle of the arena stood a tent neither of them had seen before.
It was smaller than the others, stitched from deep blue fabric that seemed to drink in the moonlight. Fine lines of gold ran across its roof like cracks in glass. From inside came a faint rustle, then a whisper, then a burst of low laughter that made Nika's skin prickle.
A yellow light glowed behind the canvas, moving once, slowly, as if someone had just turned to look straight at them.