"Mommy! A cannonball just fell from the sky!"
Elian groaned. His face was half-buried in sand, body twisted at a painful angle, as his nerves screamed mutiny.
He spat out sand, blinking until his vision stopped swimming. A pink blur stood a few feet away.
A little girl.
She was pretty like a porcelain doll. Her frilly pink dress shimmered even under the dark cloudy sky, dusted with faint sparkles that didn't belong in a place like this.
Her face, however, was painted white, with a wide, exaggerated red smile that stretched to her cheeks.
Huh? A mini clown?
She tilted her head, staring at him as though she'd found a fallen animal.
Elian blinked again. "...What the hell?"
He pushed himself up on trembling arms, sand spilling off his hair and back. The air smelled faintly of sweetness—burnt sugar? And something underneath… like rust.
Before he could speak, another figure approached.
A slender, graceful woman, wearing a clown hat trimmed with faded gold.
