Authors Note: Barnum and Bailey was started in 1881 and this story takes place much earlier than that. Second, Cottonmouth snakes are not common to Canada but let's pretend, shall we? Third, I don't know when cotton candy was invented but it was early in the nineteenth century.

“Pa? Where we goin’?” The little boy had big brown eyes and blackish blue hair that grew funny as if it were a pair of dogs’ ears instead.

“We’s goin’ to the circus, don’t’cha wanna go to the circus, boy?” The man was tall and gruff. His hair was brown and his eyes were dark.

“The circus?” The boy repeated to himself with wonder. He seemed much  too short for his age but it didn’t seem to affect his self-esteem or confidence. He jumped along side his father to catch up but stopped  dead in his tracks when he saw the giant tents yonder.
 

“What’s this, pa?” The brown-eyed boy asked as a large wad of pink fluff was handed to him on a stick.

“It’s candied cotton, boy.” The man replied a bit irritably.

“What’s it taste like?”

“I dunno, why don’t you try it?” His dark eyes darkened at the child’s baseness.

“Taste like sugar.” The boy beamed up at his father with a mouth full.

“Whatever. Here’s a penny, go look into the freak show over there.” He pushed the youth off into its general direction. He himself, headed towards a girl standing near the elephants.
 

There was an immense poster advertising the freak show inside the tent but what caught the boy’s eye was the picture of the Lion Man. He had a  tail and a lion’s head and claws…what a marvel.

“Excuse me, mister? Is that man still here?” He tugged on the man who was taking the people’s money to enter.

“Yeah he is, kid. Big guy, likes ta eat li’l children too so stay away from the cage.” The man smirked. He took the boy’s money and permitted him entrance.

Behind the red curtain was a cage but the youngster couldn’t see inside of it due to his height. People were gathered around it and were yelling  to its occupant. Some even had sticks to poke the inhabitant and rocks to throw at him. The boy found a pail and dragged it over to the front.  The public moved to let him in and he flipped the bucket over and stood on it.

Inside was a muscular man lying on his side, his back facing them. He had blond lion hair that grew past his shoulders. The Lion Man had kept  care to tuck in his hands and feet from the audience but this only provoked them to throw things at him.

Finally fed up, the people left and went on in the freak show tent. The  boy remained to stare. The only movement the Lion Man made was pushing out the things the people had thrown into his jail

“Hi. My name’s Logan.” The boy said to the beast. He received no response.

Logan got off his pail and found some rocks that the man had pushed out of his cage. With a handful, he stepped back up and tossed them at the  brute.  He didn’t quite understand why they had been throwing pebbles but  thought it might be welcomed.

“Do you eat rocks er somethin’, mister?” Logan asked innocently.

“No.” The Lion Man growled lowly.

“Why was they throwin’ them at you then?” The man only tossed a hateful look over his shoulder at the boy, without revealing his face. “Can I see you, please?” Logan inquired.

“No.” Lion Man replied.

“Why?” Yet another dirty look proceeded one of his questions. “I just wanna see you.” Nothing. “You want some cotton candy?” Logan poked a bit of  pink cotton in between the bars of the cage. He watched as the Lion Man took it, still hiding his face in the shadows. “You like it?”

“Yeah.” Growled the other.

“Boy? Are ya’ll done in there? I wanna get home ‘fore the sun goes down!” Logan’s father called into the tent.

“Please? I gotta go, I just wanna see you once.” He begged, but the man didn’t budge and Logan was dragged out of the tent a few minutes later, disappointed.
 

TEN YEARS LATER
 

“Barnum and Bailey, huh? Doesn’t look like it changed much.” An adolescent boy with blackish blue hair that grew funny as if it were a pair of dogs’ ears said to himself. He bought himself admittance and began to look around at the attractions.

The boy was short for a seventeen-year-old but it didn’t seem to bother him much. He wandered aimlessly forwards but stopped at the sight of a poster advertising the freak show. What caught his eye wasn’t the Siamese Twins or the Bearded Lady but the Lion Man. The poster hadn’t changed in the last few years.

He paid his penny and threw back the red curtain. In front of him was a two-headed goat, so where was the Lion Man? The boy’s brown eyes found the cage of the beast in the very back and he walked purposefully towards it.

He was alone at the cage and the man was still lying in the same position as ten years ago. “Hey. Remember me? I’m Logan. I gave you cotton candy once, you wouldn’t turn around for me…remember that?” The beast didn’t turn around. “Can ya turn around for me now? Please?” He didn’t even flinch.

Angry, Logan picked up a stick he found on the side of the cell and picked it up. He maneuvered it between the bars and started to poke the Lion Man’s back. “I’m gonna keep doin’ this ‘til you turn around and thank me fer the candy.” He threatened. Others saw what he was doing and came and joined him.

Once again he found people with sticks, poking at the occupant and throwing rocks at him but this time, he didn’t need a bucket to stand on.

“Papa, get the animal to turn around, I wanna see his face.” A little girl tugged on her father’s sleeve. The man took a stick from a thin teenager beside him and began to prod the prone figure in the jail. The Lion Man made no attempts to please the viewers.

“Someone go get the man outside the tent, he’ll get this atrocity to show his face.” A chap from the left called and others fled to do just that. The freak show operator showed up promptly and warned that anyone squeamish should look away. He grabbed a horsewhip from off the wall and uncoiled  it.
 

“Now I ain’t gonna tell ya again, you show yer pretty face for the folks or I’m gonna rip yer back apart.” The operator warned the Lion Man, but still he didn’t move.

The boy shut his eyes as he heard the thick sound of leather hitting  human flesh. He had hoped never to hear that noise again, and even though it wasn’t him being punished, it still made his skin crawl and his reflexes cringe. The whip came down five solid times then the man returned to his post. The Lion Man was now facing everyone.

“Oh my! How hideous!” Cried a lady, others had the same reaction, Logan noticed the man’s green eyes were a bit wet and he was shaking. He looked normal enough, he didn’t exactly have the head of a lion, or the mane of one. He was actually a quite handsome fellow.

Then it hit Logan that this man, not a lion, not a freak of nature, not even hideous, was subjected to this attitude every day of the past ten years, and be damned if he didn’t feel somewhat responsible for it.  After all, he was on the right side of the cage.
 

It was darker that midnight as Logan ran through the fields towards the circus. It must have been pure luck that he caught up with it in the process of packing up and no later. He found the freak show tent with  ease and stumbled into it without a soul to watch him. He had only a pry bar with him but he figured it would do the job.

“Why are you here, Logan?” A growl asked him. The adolescent whirled around in surprise and saw two orbs of light staring at him. He realized they were the eyes of the Lion Man.

“I…I came to get you out of here.” Logan asserted himself and walked smoothly over to the cell. He stabbed the metal with his tool and began to struggle against it. The figure watched for a moment then decided to help. His strength of one hand aided enormously and the door sprang open in minutes.

“Alright Logan, now where do we go?” The voice taunted him.

“We get outta here.”

They peered out of the curtain and then made a hasty break for the forest. Unfortunately they were spotted and a chase ensued with the pursuers on horseback.

“Wait! I can’t keep up!” Logan called to the blond haired man. The Lion Man turned and stared at him in the dark, in that moment of hesitation, their hunters had gained quite a few meters of ground. The man grunted in anger then threw Logan onto his back and began to run with unnatural speed of a man that was cramped into a cage for so long.
 

Logan and the Lion Man had lost the people from the circus with ease after it seemed all was lost and Logan had told the man he could stay in the barn for the night.

It was dawn now and Logan shot up in bed when he realized his father would be up and in the barn in a few minutes, surely he’d see the ‘guest’ and explode.

***

The barn door creaked open and the Lion Man opened a weary eye to see an old man standing above him. He held a gun but looked too fragile to carry it, he must be operating on pure mean, he thought.

The gun’s hammer was drawn back but the Lion Man didn’t seem too threatened, he heard the thunderous pounds of Logan’s boot heels slamming into the dirt as he ran like a maniac towards the barn.

“Pa, no!” Logan threw himself in front of the old man’s target. “I told him he could stay here fer the night!” The old man looked at his son for a moment then swung the butt of the gun into his head.

“What’cha doin’ dumb things like that for? You think I want a freak on my property?” Logan was bleeding profusely from the head but still his  father didn’t relent his attack. The butt of the gun was brought down a second time but the Lion Man caught it and then dug his claws that had earned him his stage name into the old flesh and torn out the neck.

Logan shimmied against a far away wall and shielded his eyes from the sight of his father being killed so gruesomely. When it was all done, he dared a peek and saw the bloodied corpse being dragged out of the barn. Logan followed.

“You…you killed my pa.” He said breathlessly.

“Sorry.” The Lion Man responded.

“That’s okay.” The other man looked up in surprise. “He was old…not very nice…”

“Horses are comin’.”

Logan couldn’t hear anything but he assumed that part of being a Lion Man was having instincts like one. “What do we do?”

“Get yer stuff, we’re leavin’.” He found himself a good-sized stick and walked into the house and towards the dying fire. He lit it and waited as Logan wasted time in staring at him. “Get yer stuff, we’re leavin’.” He repeated. The boy staggered but then ran to his room and began to shove clothes into a bag.

“You ain’t gonna do what I think you’s gonna do, are ya?” Logan flipped the bag over his shoulder and stared at the other man in fear. He was answered when the Lion Man began to torch things with the fire he held. “But this is my house!” Logan dove at him.

“Let’s go! It’s too late now.” The other man pulled on his arm with unrealistic strength. Logan blundered out of the house and he could finally hear the horses, not to mention see them. The duo ran into the trees.