Animal World/Duck Confit

## Traveling Marvel

The circus put up a new tent.

Ruby stones hung like drops of blood from the domed ceiling, and resplendent banners interweaved with flickering lantern lights.

A beautiful woman arrived there.

Her appearance was dazzling and flawless, with pale blue eyes mutedly regarding everything like blue roses dipped in frost.

People called her: the Seer of Secrets.

Legend had it that the Seer of Secrets could spy upon any secret, but each visitor could only inquire into one.

Eager people hesitated outside the tent, looking left and right like tentative sparrows.

With dusk falling fast, the tent finally welcomed its first client—

a penniless gambler wearing a busted hat.

"What secret... do you wish to see?"

The Seer spoke slowly as the flickering firelight dappled the tips of her hair and the hem of her dress.

Behind her, a massive serpent lay with its snow-white scales shimmering in the fractured light. Its dainty top hat made it seem like an adorable little gentleman.

The gambler gulped as a hint of hesitation showed in his eyes, but that quickly faded from view.

"I... I want to know the grand prize number at the casino on Sunday!"

"Stare straight into the Snake of Secret's eyes. It will give you your answer."

The man looked up with a twinge of nervousness upon hearing these placid words.

He saw the beautiful woman close her eyes, and meanwhile the white snake suddenly opened its... its starry eyes hid an infinity of secrets in its depths, almost exactly like the woman's!

"I... I see it... I see it!"

The next day, news of the gambler's winnings quickly spread in the town.

The people put aside their hesitancy and doubt, and a long line formed in the circus. Desire and eagerness were written all over their faces.

"Hahahaha! I finally know that scoundrel's Achilles heel! He's going down now!"

"So my husband... really does have a mistress..."

"How could he have been cheating me all this time. I've been so good to him!"

"I just knew it! Grandfather's property will end up in my hands!"

Some were shocked, some thrilled. Some sad, and some enraged.

The grass of the circus was trod roughshod by everyone's coming and going, but the light in the tent did not go out.

The moon sunk low, and the gambler in the busted hat came before the Seer of Secrets again.

"I also want to know the prize-winning number for the casino's next grand prize! Please! I'll pay any price at all!"

The gambler's yearning face reflected in those calm eyes.

The white serpent opened its eyes, and the gambler got what he wanted again. With a big laugh, he ran off.

After him were a gardener, a married woman, a miller, and an aristocrat's son.

They plucked up their courage like the gambler, and under the staring gaze of the Snake of Secrets, all their secrets sprouted up from obscurity.

"Look, it's that busted hat! He's back again! He looks happy as a clam... No... He's laughing like some horrible clown!"

The busted-hat gambler paid no mind to the stares and remarks of the people outside the circus. With a hideous grin on his face, he couldn't help burst out laughing.

I'm the most amazing gambler in the world! I'll wipe all the casinos clean! And then we'll see what everyone thinks of me!

Thinking that, he strode into the tent without hesitation.

The Seer was leaning back on a pure white rug looking as cold and indifferent as the goddess of the tundra.

The gambler blurted out that he still wanted to spy upon a secret about money.

He knelt at her feet as if spellbound, both intoxicated and yearning, like a honey-drenched bee.

"I can grant your wish, but the price..."

"I'll pay it! I'll pay anything!!"

The man nodded his head maniacally as desire flooded his eyes like the tide.

A dim glow suddenly lit up, and the pupils of the Seer's eyes became sharp and vertical.

Her skin started to crack open and peel away. She dripped with blood like a shedding snake that had been torn open.

Then, those places grew snow-white scales, and her cherry-red lips parted as a scarlet snake's tongue flicked out.

An insane, sky-rending laughter came from inside the tent which was instantly snuffed out by stifling silence again.

At dawn, the gambler was missing, but someone found a busted and broken hat outside the tent.

No one ever knew exactly what it was he saw that night.

"Who's next...?"

Silence returned deep inside the tent. The ruby pendants entangled with endless streamers, and a white snake licked the murky shadows.

Those eyes of the color of the heavens cast their gaze at some unknown distant place. She continued staring into insatiable desire, awaiting the arrival of something.