Queen hazel

Chapter 18

I was taken aback with her response. I thought about her tinkling laugh, which only seemed to sound whenever Shadow was around. To be honest, Shadow appeared to be the only thing keeping Danger alive.

"You don't have to do this, Danger,"said Sadie quietly, placing a paw on her arm.

"Shadow deserves to know why and who put him in that dreaded place. You need to find out who did that to you, for your own sake, Shadow. You can leave anytime you want today," said Danger. "Go and smash that jerk!"

She managed a weak smile. And with that, she headed back into the corridor with the air of a defeated dog.

It has been three days since we left Danger's place. And today, we agreed to find an owner. We sniffed around doorsteps, and looked into windows, but no one seemed to want a dog, or no one really fitted.

"Ugh. 67th house. No luck." Sadie sighed.

"WAIT! Look! A circus is coming to town today! I bet you anything there would be tons of children wanting a dog as soon as they see us perform!" I chatted excitedly.

"US?"

"WHAT?"

"We can't perform!"

"Sure we can!" I responded. "Remember Fluff Muff?" He was the dog we met after we left The Savages.

"Course we do! He does amazing tricks!" Rose sighed dreamily.

"Yes! And remember he taught us a few too? We can use our new talents to perform in the circus!"

My friends started nodding, "It could work..." Sadie said thoughtfully.

"GREAT! Let's practice! First, we'll need a routine... Hm... Well, Rose could do this, and Sadie will run there, and I do this...." I trailed off, thinking hard. "Well, Rose, you learned the most tricks, why don't you teach us?"

"Um.. Sure!" She responded happily.

Soon, she came up with a routine, and showed us a few cool moves and tricks. As soon as noon settled, we came up with a perfect routine. We practiced hard until nightfall, when the circus took place. We could do this! Wait....

"HOW DO WE EVEN GET INTO THE CIRCUS?" I yowled, panicking.

Rocky smacked his head with his tail. "AGH! Hazel! I thought you thought this through!"

I ducked my head, ashamed. "Hey guys, no worries! I actually have the perfect plan!"

"Great! Spit it out!" Sadie barked.

Uh-oh! I rapidly came up with a plan. It was terrible, but it could actually work. "O-okay." I stammered. "H-here's what we're going to do. We'll find an opening between two acts, and just suddenly burst in before the ringmaster presents the next act. So basically, let's say the next act is called the 'elephant wonders.' Right before the ringmaster says: Presenting the 'elephant wonders,' we burst in, so the ringmaster will have no choice but to say: Presenting, the Divine Dogs!" I stared at my friends uncertainty, it was really a bad plan. But to my surprise, they were nodding!

"You're a jewel, Hazel!" Rocky said. I blushed, overwhelmed with happiness.

We raced to the circus, and ducked behind caravans, waiting for an opening. It seemed to have never come. The Miraculous Maiden, then the Amazing Acrobats, the Mind-blowing Magician... We waited, until finally...

"Presenting the..." There was a dramatic pause, as fireworks cracked and confetti sparkled. This was our chance!

"Let's go!" I whispered.

We silently crept to the big tent, no one saw us or tried to stop us. We rushed into the spotlight dramatically. The ringmaster looked shocked, but shakingly stammered, "The Mysterious Miracle!"

We immediately started, Rose leaped up in the air, twisting her body with grace. We copied her, one after another, and landed on top of eachother. Poor Rocky was at the bottom, his legs shaking. We jumped down, onto our hindlegs, and started doing tricks. We did rolls and leaps, and even I couldn't help but feel proud.

I looked at the ringmaster, expecting to see a pleased expression, but his face was white with pure terror. What? We were doing splendidly! It's not like a man-eating crocodile would pop out!

WOOSH!

A column of flame burst right in front of my face, no wonder the ringmaster looked so fearful! The crowd gasped, waiting for more. I took a quick glance at Rose, she looked scared, but she quickly recovered and started weaving around the rows of flames that appeared. Rocky, Shadow and Sadie copied her, I pulled myself together and did the same. It was amazing! The fire made everything seem so much cooler, because there would sometimes be rings of fire that we could jump through! I looked at the crowd, they were transfixed by our performance. I couldn't help but look for Rachel or Sam, even though there was only a slim chance of them being here. My eyes scanned the crowd as I performed, and I saw the one figure I hated the most, well second most. Mr. Bilnos. We ended our performance with a low bow, and we exited the tent, but my eyes never left Mr. Bilnos's, and I glared at him until my whole body fizzed up.