He wasn’t supposed to be here. Every fiber of his being screamed for him to leave.
The smell of cheap booze and foods far too sugary and unhealthy tickled his nose. A large red and white tent stretched out in front of him. The fairgrounds were quiet. It was the middle of the night, everyone was asleep. The perfect time for him to creep around and get what he was sent for.
He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small digital camera, one of the few trusty tools he had for his job. Turning it over in his gloved paws, he turned it on and flicked through the images already on it.
They were blurry and out of focus, probably from a cell phone camera, of one of the “attractions” this circus had. A dark creature was in a cage, not even big enough for it to move around in comfortably. Although it was of very poor quality, it did appear that the creature had blood staining its fur.
And that’s what the hedgehog was here to confirm.
He took a moment to prepare himself mentally. He wasn’t looking forwards to what he was about to face, but he had to do it. It was his job after all. Taking a deep breath, he glanced around the area, making sure no one was around. Then with one swift motion, he pulled up the canvas and ducked inside.
The lamplight inside cast a pale glow over the multitude of crates. The hedgehog had to pick his way through and over them as quietly as possible to get further in. He tripped over a coil of rope and just barely caught himself from falling on his face in the dirt. He picked himself up and dusted himself off before taking a moment to check his long jacket for damage.
Finding everything okay, he began searching the area in earnest. Somewhere in here the cage he was looking for. He knew he could look in the crates for the ‘training equipment’ but he wasn’t sure he could handle seeing them.
As a member of the Society for the Protection of Feral and Tamed Mobians, he’d seen more than enough of it in his life. As a victim of it himself, he had been more than happy to join the police force when he came of age just so he could work on cases like this. Sure he worked mostly with humans, but having him on board had been helpful in so many situations already.
Such as cases like this. He was small and quick, and (usually) stealthy; perfect to do the detective work necessary.
He crept in further around one of the storage boxes and stumbled across the cage he was looking for. Sure enough, it was as the pictures showed. The cage was small and cramped, with just enough room to turn around. If the mobian walked upright, there was no chance it could even stand up straight in the cage. There were two dishes clamped on the bars of the cage, one of them fully empty and the other containing a little bit of kibble.
The blue hedgehog raised his camera and began to snap pictures, giving each one time to focus appropriately in the low lighting. He didn’t want to risk using flash here and drawing attention. Feeling he had enough pictures of the cage itself from different angles, he stepped closer to get pictures of the food bowl and whatever lay inside.
And that’s when he noticed it.
The cage door was ajar. The chain and padlock that kept it shut hung nearby, open and innocent looking. So wherever the creature that was supposed to be inside was, it had been let out. Now on alert, the blue hedgehog dodged back and worked on hiding himself in the darker areas. He really didn’t want to get caught here...
But the pictures he had, while incriminating, weren’t quite enough to get the warrant to get the creature out. Plus, they needed to know what the creature was in the first place.
He began easing around the far side of the storage tent to look into the big top itself, camera in hand. He switched it to filming mode, but did not activate it just yet. He wanted to make sure there was something to film before he did. He was able to shimmy though the doorway and duck under the bleachers set up around the three large rings.
Sure enough, there was a person and what looked like the creature from the picture inside the large center ring. It was a rather large mobian, which made the cage the hedgehog had seen even more distressing. Just from looking at it, it was very clear that this mobian had been raised mostly as a feral animal. It was currently balancing on a platform on warped back legs, a light stool balanced on its forehead.
The blue hedgehog pressed record on the camera.
The human was circling the stand the mobian was on, a dressage whip in one hand. Her blond hair hung in ringlets around her head and the sparkly red outfit clung to her form. Blue eyes observed every movement the mobian made, and every time it wobbled, that crop came down with a firm, resounding “smack” against the dark flanks. One pop made him jump so hard the stool fell.
“Shadow, really? You know better than that!”the human huffed at him. “Tonight’s the last night we’ve got to practice this new trick and you’re by far not ready.”
“Sssss...”
The blue hedgehog’s ears perked at the raspy sound. Did the poor creature actually know enough to talk?”
“S...Soo...reeee...”
“That doesn’t cut it! I’m not going to be a laughing stock just because you can’t perform!”
The large creature lowered itself back to the platform and shrank in on itself from the scolding. The hedgehog’s heart went out to it; it was clear that this “tamed” mobian was intelligent. He wondered just how smart the other mobian was if it was smart enough to apologize and feel scolded. He could only watch as the creature ducked its shoulders and rolled so that it was laying on it’s side and exposing its belly; a sign of submission to the human.
She approached the creature and brought the crop down on its cheek. “We are going to practice every night until you’re exhausted. We’re going to get this new trick before we leave this place.”
The creature yelped but otherwise did not react to the pain. She did it a second time before she popped its flank. The creature rolled to all fours and eased its way up to the girl.
“So...ree...”it murmured again, trying to root at the girl’s hand. She jerked it away and the creature’s head lowered once more, looking scolded.
“Let’s just...get you back in your cage.” The girl definitely didn’t sound happy as she stormed past the stands and into the tent the hedgehog had snuck out of. “C’mon, don’t drag your feet!”
The creature followed at a slow gait, favoring one hind leg. The hiding hedgehog shifted to try and get a better look, making the beams creak faintly. The dark head jerked towards his location, ears alert and perked forwards. A cautious hop-step was taken in his direction.
“Shadow! It’s probably just a damn bird or something. C’mon! Hole!”
Immediately, the creature cringed and hurriedly limped into the other tent.
The blue hedgehog breathed a sigh of relief when the creature turned away. He thought for sure he had been caught. It took him a moment to get his heart from out of his throat and make his legs work. Carefully, he slid back into the back tent, paws shaky from adrenaline.
He was just in time to film the creature crammed into the pen and the girl furiously working on the clamp that held the food and water bowls. He could just barely make out the heartbreaking whines and he hoped the camera was getting it all. Eventually, the girl gave up and instead picked up the bowls out of both before slamming the door shut and padlocking it back. She set the bowls down in front of the cage just out of reach.
“No, you’re not going to eat tonight. Maybe an empty stomach on tomorrow’s performance will teach you to learn faster.” With that, the girl turned and left.
The creature whined, reaching one paw through the bar to try and grab the dish. The blue hedgehog felt so sorry for the dark one, but he couldn’t interfere. He wasn’t allowed to, according to his job.
He filmed it for as long as he could stand before cutting the camera off. It hurt to leave on this note, but he had what he came for, and hopefully his work could escalate this whole case to get the creature out before they left. He wanted to see justice done.
He looked up when he heard the metal pan rattle and blinked. The camera was lifted to film the creature using a part of the rags that made up bedding in the cage as a way of dragging the bowl closer. His pain eased a little, glad that the creature was at least going to get to eat.
He pocketed the camera and worked his way stealthily out of the tent.
Come hell or high water, he was going to make sure the black and red hedgehog known as Shadow was going to be removed from this circus.
Epargné du Cirque by Yami Kaiyoh
Chapter notes:
Lectori Salutem!
...Wow, it's been a long time since I've said that. 7 years to be exact. Life kinda took over and I dropped out of the fanfiction game for years. But now that things have changed, I figured I might as well try and ease myself back into it. This story, back when it was "Epargné du Cirque" has always kind of remained on the back of my mind. If I was to start again, why not focus on one that had potential? So here we are, with me dipping my toes into the water of writing once more. This fic will take time to get moving, but hopefully it will be a wonderful ride.
And now I leave you, dear readers, to enjoy.
*an aside for this, This is only the first chapter of the rewritten version, The rest will be published over at
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7798557/
or
http://honeyscriptscribes.tumblr.com/
...Wow, it's been a long time since I've said that. 7 years to be exact. Life kinda took over and I dropped out of the fanfiction game for years. But now that things have changed, I figured I might as well try and ease myself back into it. This story, back when it was "Epargné du Cirque" has always kind of remained on the back of my mind. If I was to start again, why not focus on one that had potential? So here we are, with me dipping my toes into the water of writing once more. This fic will take time to get moving, but hopefully it will be a wonderful ride.
And now I leave you, dear readers, to enjoy.
*an aside for this, This is only the first chapter of the rewritten version, The rest will be published over at
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7798557/
or
http://honeyscriptscribes.tumblr.com/