/********** STORY (all fake and fun) ***********\
Disclaimer: Obviously this story is unrefined and long and mostly for me. I don't expect anyone to read it.
My character name is Leaena (Latin for lioness). I'm a half Leonine, half Human. This is my story.
Interracial relationships were not popular in the small town where I was born. My parents were killed when I was very young. I later learned they were killed right in front of me by angry townspeople who didn’t approve of my Leonine father and human mother, but I was too small to remember any of it. They left me there alone. I was picked up by the police and then dumped in the orphanage. I grew up there. No one wanted a halfbreed like me.
One day a nice, rich couple donated tickets to the circus for all of us kids. We all piled into the train, and talked excitedly about acrobats and clowns and,
“I heard there are even elephants there!” my friend Kate said.
“Oh yeah? Well I heard there would lions!” a boy named Ray replied, always trying to one-up everyone else. I looked away as several people looked at me and uncomfortably acknowledged the mention of my distant kin. My friend Kate put her hand on mine and smiled reassuringly. “Don’t forget about the popcorn!” she said, successfully diverting the conversation to the wonders of concession stand snacks.
The smell of popcorn and cotton candy and concessions wafted through the air. Walking up to the main tent, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was huge, with red and white stripes that danced as the wind blew the flaps open at the entrance. I gasped when we walked in. Looking up, I almost couldn’t see the top of the tent. When we found our seats, I could see the rings in the center. I sat by Kate and the lights went down and a loud drum beat filled the air. A man wearing a bright red coat and a black top hat came into the spotlight in the center ring.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” he shouted impossibly loudly. “Get ready for what will certainly be the most spectacular night of your life! Welcome, one and all, to the amazing O’Reilly Brothers Circus!” The crowd cheered wildly. “Tonight,” he said and the crowd quieted. “You will see deadly creatures, death-defying stunts, and beauty beyond your wildest dreams.” With a sleight of hand, he pulled a rose from thin air. Everyone in the audience ooh’d and ah’d. “And so, without any further ado, I am proud to present our first act!”
A loud roar sounded from the darkness beyond the spotlight. My blood ran cold.
“He came from a savage land where it’s hunt or be hunted,” the ringmaster continued. “He has already killed many of his trainers and even a few guests,” he said cryptically. The audience laughed, but I believed him. “Everyone, put your hands together for Leo, the lion!”
The spotlight darted from the ringmaster to the ring on the left which had a lion in a large cage. He roared again, a deafening boom louder than the cheering crowd. I gasped and put my hand to my mouth. I started to look away when I realized, he was looking right into my eyes. And he winked. At first I was confused, but when the tamer came out, bowed, and then went into the cage holding a whip and a chair I realized it really was all part of a choreographed show. Quickly, I relaxed and even started to enjoy myself.
After Leo the lion, the next act was the clowns. Everybody was laughing at the loony antics of all the brightly clothed and made up characters.
The final act was the acrobats. There were five people who looked to be a family. A man and woman stood on opposite sides of a high platform. The man stood with a small boy and girl who were the same size. The woman stood with a boy who was older. First, the man grabbed a trapeze bar and gave it to the little boy. Everyone gasped as he jumped off the platform and soared through the air, holding onto the bar. His older brother caught him on the other side, pulled him onto the platform, and then grabbed the bar and swung to the other side himself. He started swinging upright, sitting on the bar, but when he got closer to the other side, he swung upside down from his knees, reaching his hands out. His little sister jumped from the platform, grabbing his forearms as they flew backwards again. I was mesmerized. They continued to fly through the air in amazing displays of acrobatics.
Suddenly more bars dropped from above, and they were no longer only going side to side, they began to go back and forth. The older boy grabbed onto a bar with very long ropes. He swung toward my section of the crowd, growing closer and closer. When he reached the end of the rope, he was right in front of me. Time seemed to slow as he, like the ringmaster, pulled a rose out of the air. He held it out for me and smiled. I looked into his eyes, a shining silver. I took the rose and blushed, looking away as he swung back to the center of the Big Top. Everyone around me excitedly reached toward me and my rose, so I quickly hid it away in my jacket before they could pull all the petals off.
Luckily, silence fell as the acrobats left the spotlight and drifted into the shadows beyond, distracting the audience around me and bringing their attention away from me and back to the center. I sighed in relief. The ringmaster seemed to materialize back into the spotlight.
“Well now, did everyone enjoy the show?” he asked. The crowd cheered loudly in response. “Thank you all! Since you have been such a wonderful audience, how about one more act?” The crowd cheered even more loudly. “That’s what I thought you’d say,” he said, and with a sweep of his arm, the spotlight grew and he was standing across from a gigantic elephant. The crowd gasped, and was silent. No one could believe their eyes. Most of us had only ever seen elephants in books and pictures. This was a real, living elephant.
The ringmaster went up to her and held out his hand. The elephant lifted her trunk toward his hand in greeting. “Well met, Eleanor,” he said. “Everyone, this is Eleanor! She’s a 50 year old elephant from Africa,” and he continued to tell her story. This act was different. No tricks, no stunning displays of daring and bravery, just the quiet beauty of Eleanor and her story. Her parents had been killed by poachers for their ivory in Africa when she was still a baby. She had been captured by the poachers and sold to a zoo in America. She grew up in captivity. Alone. Like me. I tried to hold back the tears as the ringmaster went on to say that the zoo lost funding and went out of business, and thats how she came to be in this circus. Instead of using her for tricks and thrills, the O’Reilly brothers had decided to take care of her, and let her story stand as a testament to not only the pain humans can cause, but to the good as well. There wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium.
Walking back to the train, everyone was talking about their favorite part of the circus. Kate liked Eleanor the best, Ray liked the clowns. As for me, I liked the boy with the silver eyes who had given me the rose.
The day I became a legal adult the orphanage kicked me out. I didn’t care. All of my friends had been adopted at this point. I was by far the oldest one there. The only reason I had stayed this long instead of running away is I had nowhere to go.
They gave me a small suitcase, filled with all the possessions I owned, and sent me on my way.
Wandering through the city that night, I found myself on the wrong side of the tracks. I sat in one of the still train cars, and looked up at the starry sky, looking for purpose, for guidance, for any indication of which way I should go.
Hearing the crunch of gravel, I turned to see a man in a bright red coat and a black top hat approaching me. He gave me a harlequin handkerchief and asked if I wanted to escape my problems. I looked into his golden-orange eyes, like flames. I took his hand.
/************QUESTS (the real stuff) *************\
This will actually be my third 4-week challenge in a row, but the first one I'm posting here since last year. So far in the last 7 weeks I'm down 22 lbs and would like to lose 25 more. 2 months ago, I changed my diet completely. I gave up all forms of sugar (including all fruit except berries and green apples), all starch (no sweet potatoes for me), and all grains (goodbye bread and pasta). After 4 weeks of focusing on my diet, the next 4 weeks I focused on adding in exercise (12 minutes of high intensity) 6 days a week. This challenge goes until August 22, which is perfectly timed to pick up this new challenge.
This challenge starting on August 21 I will add in one more thing: sleep.
So here's the breakdown:
1) Keep up diet
- No sugar, no starch, no grains, etc.
2) Keep up exercise
- This one is changing a bit. Instead of high intensity 6 days a week, I will be doing high intensity 3 days a week and yoga 3 days a week, with 1 rest day with no scheduled workout.
3) Sleep
- I will be in bed by 9:30 (lights out by 10) and up by 6 am every. Single. Day. For 4 weeks.This one is going to be a challenge, so I think I will have to give myself some grace at least with the bedtime. I will be able to wake up at 6 no matter what, but there may be some days I can't get to bed on time, but I will do my best.
