“Zinnia?” Lulupo asked, to which she nodded sheepishly. “Wait, why are you telling me your real name if you’re going to kill me?”

“Because I do not like being called ‘Mrs. Kite.’ I would like at least one person to respect that, even if they are about to die,” she replied, more tears streaming down her face.

The performers with the guns started shooting at Lulupo, but he extended his hair and pulled it together tight, making the bullets lightly bounce off of it and harmlessly land on the ground in front of him. As they loaded in new clips, the ones with the knives charged forward.

Lulupo swiftly dodged past all the slashes, and dispatched his six attackers with a kick to the face or a gut punch. He tied them up with his hair, and proceeded to dash forward, knocking out the remaining slavers with swift strikes to the head while dodging their gunfire.

After binding all his assailants with his hair, Lulupo returned his attention to Zinnia, who still had tears streaming down her face, and was now trembling, but still maintained her fighting stance, even if her staggered breathing made her unable to draw in Aether.

“I cannot do this… I do not want to die for this scum!” she thought in her native language.

“Darling, you’re shaking,” said Lulupo, slightly relaxing his stance. “My mama always taught me not to hit a lady… but I will if I must.” He tightened his grip on the slavers and readjusted his fighting stance. “You’re not one of them, are you?”

Zinnia’s shoulders trembled as she desperately tried to steady her breath, but the effort was futile. The dam broke, and tears flowed uncontrollably. Her voice, once calm, but firm, was now a mess of stammers and sobs. Lulupo didn’t relax any further, though.

“N-no… I-I am n-not…” she stammered, syllables shifting between Brightese (the language spoken until now) and a foreign language Lulupo didn’t understand. “I-I-I am a s-slave, too…”

Zinnia readjusted herself. She turned around, then pulled down the back of her leotard. She dropped it down a bit to reveal her bare, muscular back to him. On her back was a large, oddly shaped burn mark. It was shaped like two concentric circles with a cross through them.

“Do you s-see this? I was told this is a symbol anyone in the underworld understands… I-It means I-I am forever… l-l-less than human…”

Zinnia pulled the back of her leotard back up, wiped the tears from her face, and turned back around to face Lulupo again. He finally relaxed his stance, but was still holding onto the slavers tightly with his hair.

“Hold on, if you’re a slave, why aren’t you wearing one of those dreadful bomb collars?” he asked, looking at the corpse of the woman who had her head blown off.

“Th-they have o-other ways of controlling m-me…” Zinnia replied sheepishly. “You see…”

She turned back around and went back to the cage with the snake in it.

“I come from a country of warrior women in the far east called the Orinoca Queendom. I am… different… from the other women. But when I was a child, I met this snake in the jungle, and she became my only friend growing up. I named her ‘Meilong’. In Orinocan, it means ‘beautiful dragon’.”

Zinnia reached into the cage to stroke the snake’s chin. Meilong was a long snake, as long as her owner was tall, with red and white scales and what seemed to be a helmet on her head. Zinnia then looked back up at Lulupo, but again struggled to maintain eye contact.

“I was always much weaker than the other women… It took me a very long time to awaken my… In my culture we call it ‘liliang’, but I believe you know it as ‘potentia’... so I learned how to sail the skies by studying navigation charts. I stowed away on a trade ship, but after sneaking out at the first stop we came to… Meilong and I were captured by human traffickers and brought to auction, sold as a package deal.

“Meilong and I were traded to a wealthy man in the province of Vicksdavis by the name of Greele. And while he did unspeakable things to me… he was at least kind enough to keep us together. Although, that might also be because my wailing if Meilong and I were separated was very intense.”

“Stop crah-in’!” Greele shouted as he beat Zinnia with a fire poker again, each word punctuated with a strike of the poker. “STOP CRAH-IN’, DAMMIT!”

Zinnia’s crying became even louder.

“Darling, your story is terrible… I can hardly believe they still keep slaves in this country!”

“Yes… I was what they call a ‘human slave’... they forced me to–”

“I know what they do to ‘human slaves’, and it’s horrible.”

“H-human slaves…?” asked one of the captives.

“Darling, don’t you know your history?” Lulupo asked. “This country held fish and birdfolk slaves from its founding until that civil war eighty years ago. Cartagians like myself were part of that, and we’re still considered ‘less than human’ to some. But now, ‘human slaves’ are what they call captives, usually young women, who they kidnap and sell into human trafficking.” As he said this, Zinnia gritted her teeth and shut her eyes tight.

Lulupo shook his head and turned back to Zinnia. “I understand the gist. We need to break you and your snake friend out of here!” he declared with a flourish. “From what I can tell, they’re holding your snake hostage so you do what they say, is that correct?”

“Yes… Meilong is my only friend… if you are trying to give me an outlet for escape, I am not leaving without her,” Zinnia responded, slowly opening her eyes.

Lulupo smiled, but there was a fierce resolve behind his usually playful eyes. “Darling, I’ll have you and your precious Meilong out of here in two shakes of a lamb’s tail! No one should be shackled like this—not in my world. But I need you to do me a favor, too!”

“What is that, sir?”

“Join my crew! We desperately need a navigator! Do you know how to pilot an airship?” Lulupo exclaimed with another flourish.

“I can navigate… but I do not know how to pilot…”

“We’ll figure something out, then.”

“And… How quickly does a lamb shake its tail…?” Zinnia added.

As soon as she said that, a slaver in a gas mask entered through a flap near Zinnia, carrying the unconscious bodies of Andy and Roxanne. He looked around and saw Lulupo and Zinnia staring at him, with all his slaver buddies tied up in Lulupo’s hair.

“Uh oh,” was all he managed to get out before being met with a Aether-powered knee to the gut and a chop to the back of the head from Zinnia, knocking him out cold.

"Please, sir,” Zinnia’s voice cracked, her gaze darting between Meilong and the chained slaves. “Release Meilong and my fellow slaves. I will navigate your airship anywhere if it means we can be free again. I beg you.”

“Who am I to turn down a beautiful lady?” he replied with a wink and a bow.

Lulupo walked towards Meilong’s cage and extended several hairs from the top of his head. He twisted them together and stuck them in the lock of the cage. After a few seconds of fidgeting around, the lock popped open, and with it, the door to the cage. Meilong immediately slithered out and wrapped herself around Zinnia, much to her delight.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Oh, Meilong!” Zinnia exclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes again. “I thought you were going to be stuck in that cage until I died!”

“Now, as for you darlings…” Lulupo said, addressing the other slaves in the room. “Line up in an orderly fashion. I’ll unlock your collars as well so you can get back to your families.”

The slaves did as they were told. A middle aged man was first in line to have his collar unlocked. Lulupo stuck his hair in to pick the lock… but the collar exploded anyway, killing the man instantly.

Lulupo’s playful smirk vanished instantly as the explosion tore through the silence. “Oh, Serenicus…” He pulled his hair back, the reality of the danger setting in as the slaves erupted into panicked screams.

One of the slavers trapped in Lulupo’s hair piped up, laughing. “You fool! Only Mr. Andre’s key can unlock the bomb collar without it exploding!”

Lulupo tightened his grip on that slaver and turned to Zinnia, asking “Mr. Andre is…?”

“The owner of the Zaba World carnival. He is the one who originally purchased me from Greele. Greele was going to kill me because of my crying… but Mr. Andre made him a business proposal and is now in league with the federal government of the United Provinces’, bribing any federal agents who would try to stop him from going town to town and capturing slaves,” Zinnia replied, tears welling up in her eyes again from the carnage.

Lulupo's eyes narrowed, the glint in them hardening. “Hmm… I see.” His voice remained smooth, but there was a sharp edge to it now. “This Mr. Andre has a lot to answer for.”

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A few minutes earlier, Schwarz was milling about the carnival, trying to find the missing members of Worldwide Smoke. He made his way to the big top where “Mrs. Kite’s” show was.

“Only two places I haven’t checked. Here, and the Tunnel of Love,” he thought aloud.

Schwarz went through the entrance of the big top, where he was stopped by a burly security guard.

“Sorry, sir. Next show’s not for another thirty minutes.”

“I’m looking for my associates. Young couple, the woman wearing a sapphire pendant, and a tall, dark-skinned guy in a pink suit with big glasses. Seen ‘em anywhere?”

The guard’s eyes narrowed. “You need to leave, sir.”

Schwarz responded by spawning a hole under his feet and one right behind the security guard. He dropped through, then immediately appeared behind the guard.

“Sorry, plebeian, I’m gonna have a look around here, if that’s okay with you,” Schwarz said, lazily holding his hand up as he walked toward the back.

The guard tried to grab Schwarz, but Schwarz dodged as soon as he felt the guard’s hands on him, and soon had the guard’s arms pinned behind his back. “Listen, bud, there’s two ways this ends: either you let me explore this place, or you wind up with your throat slit and I explore this place anyway. Which sounds better to you?”

“First one…” the guard choked out.

“That’s what I thought,” Schwarz growled as he released his grip on the guard and started walking toward the flap in the back.

It was at that point the middle aged man’s bomb collar went off, prompting Schwarz to run toward the sound. Meanwhile, the guard pulled out his hand radio. “I need all hands to the big top! We have an incident! Over!”

Schwarz entered the adjacent smaller tent behind the big top to find Lulupo with a group of slavers in his hair, a bunch of panicking slaves, two headless corpses, and the still-unconscious Andy and Roxanne.

"Apparently, I missed something interesting," Schwarz muttered, glancing at the two headless corpses, the bound slavers, and the rising panic around him.

“Schwarz! These collars are rigged to explode if anything but a special key opens them! I need you to find the ringleader of this circus!”

“What am I, everyone’s errand boy?” Schwarz sarcastically asked.

“Schwarz!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll go poke around for–”

Suddenly, a voice came on over the carnival’s PA system.

“Attention, guests of the Zaba World carnival, this is the owner, Mr. Andre speaking.”

A bald, mustachioed man in a fancy tuxedo sat at an ornate desk, speaking into a microphone, hardly a care on his face.

“There is currently an incident at the big top, and it could be very dangerous for any guests. Please, do not panic, and exit the carnival in an orderly fashion. Our top-notch security service will handle it.”

The tent was soon surrounded by Zaba World security, all of whom had guns drawn.

“Come out with your hands up!” shouted the security captain. “No one needs to get hurt! We have you surrounded!”

“Ah, crap,” Schwarz murmured. “Looks like we’re gonna have to fight our way out.”

"Fight?" Zinnia’s voice wavered. "I… I do not like to kill." Her hands shook, but she braced herself for what was to come.

"Then don’t," Schwarz said with a shrug, his sword sliding free. "Just aim for the legs or something. Whatever keeps us alive." He paused, then asked “wait, who are you? What’s with that huge snake?”

“This isn’t the time for introductions! We need to take Andy and Roxanne and get them out of here!” Lulupo declared. “Before we’re all wearing bomb collars, too!”

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Back in front of the Humo Robinson, Shaska was pacing back and forth, blowing smoke, incredibly frustrated. “Agh, what’s taking them so long?”

“Lady Shaska, it has only been half an hour,” replied the prince.

“That’s it, I’m going to look for them, too. I’m bored,” she said, flicking away her cigar butt and pulling out a new one to light. “You’re coming too, prince.”

She looked up at Ren, who was putting the finishing touches on the canvas of the ship’s envelope. “You, mechanic, you can fight, right? Guard the ship and the doctor kid while me and the prince go get the rest of the crew back.”

“Ah am not yer employee!” declared an incensed Ren.

“C’mon, prince. Let’s go.”

Shaska and Samudra disembarked, leaving Ren and Carne by themselves with Ren’s other workers. Carne took the opportunity to look up the ladder and up Ren’s dress with a smile on his face, which in turn caused Ren to scowl and “accidentally” drop her hammer on his head.

“Oops,” she muttered with mock innocence, glaring down at him.

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Schwarz, Lulupo, Zinnia, and the couple were trapped in the big top, the latter still unconscious. “So, we gonna fight our way out?” Schwarz asked.

“There should be an escape route leading to our vehicles somewhere around here,” said Zinnia. “The slaves’ next stop after the carnival leaves town is a lawless land called Rioja.”

“It might not be a good idea to fight when two of our friends are still unconscious,” said Lulupo.

One of the slavers in Lulupo’s hair piped up. “You guys are stuck! As long as your friends have those bomb collars on, they ain’t leaving the carnival except as slaAAAAAA!” The slaver was cut off by Lulupo squeezing his hair even tighter.

“Any ideas, darlings?” Lulupo asked.

“I got one,” said Schwarz, raising his sword.

The group left from the tent adjacent to the big top, showing them exactly what they were up against for the first time. The security guards cocked their rifles, all trained on Schwarz, who barely flinched at the firing squad.

“Alright, listen up!” Schwarz called, his voice a mix of authority and thinly veiled uncertainty. “We’ve got your precious cargo here, so unless you want your ‘merchandise’ damaged, you’ll do exactly what I say.”

The security captain ordered his men to fire. The guards did as they were told, but thanks to Schwarz’s Aether-powered reflexes, he was able to throw up a set of portals in the nick of time: one right in front of him, and one right behind the guards, resulting in them getting shot from behind.

More security guards rushed in to fill the gap. Meilong uncoiled herself from Zinnia and became straight as a ruler in her hands. Zinnia spun gracefully into the fray, each movement a blur as she wielded Meilong with lethal precision. The snake’s body struck like a quarterstaff, her kicks landing with crushing force, felling guards as if they were made of paper.

“Lulupo! Protect Andy and Roxanne!” Schwarz called out as he jumped into the fray.

Lulupo obliged, and crouched down around their unconscious bodies, making a protective barrier out of his hair. The slaves, meanwhile, had no other option but to sit back and watch as Schwarz and Zinnia fought off the carnies.

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Shaska and Samudra reached the entrance to the carnival, which at that point was crowded with throngs of people desperately trying to get out.

“What do you propose we do, Lady Shaska?”

Shaska said nothing and blew smoke. Then, she leapt as high as she could (quite high after focusing her Aether into her legs), and then bounced off the air’s water vapor to launch herself over the crowd.

Samudra stood there in shock. However, he found a creative use for his Aether strength, as well as his potentia. He, too, leapt as high as he could, then propelled himself over the crowd with a blast of steam from his back, landing right next to Shaska on the other side of the crowd.

A voice came on over the carnival’s loudspeaker again.

“Good day, guests of Zaba World carnival. This is Mr. Andre again. Please, have a good day, and be sure to exit in an orderly fashion. The commotion at the big top should be solved within the hour. Please wait patiently, and you’ll be able to resume your fun day at Zaba World!”

“Big top, eh? Looks like we know where the party is,” said Shaska.

She puffed on her cigar, cracked her knuckles, and flicked her tail. “Let’s go get our employees back, prince.”