The Circus Of The Seven Emeralds

Chapter One: Ladies and Gentlemen

The wind was cold, the sky was gloomy and the atmosphere was thick. Not your typical day out to the Circus but in this part of Europe it was particularly gloomy. It was November 22nd, 1874, on a Friday night. The entirety of the town, around about 100-150 people had shown up for this grand event. It was rare for such a famous circus to be visiting this remote area, nothing usually happened here. The showground was never used, with the exception of the Sunday markets.

The giant circus had brought a fete along with it. Stalls lined their way up to the big top, filled with exotic food, trinkets, animals and people. It was odd to see such activity among these people, Shadow honestly found it to be rather creepy. The merchants proved to be rather freaky as well, a dark gypsy aura with twisted, yellow smiles. Shadow never trusted them.

He stood in the middle of the dust road way. The towns' folk not even batting an eye at him, it didn't both him, he was used to it. Not even the broker's payed attention to him, they eyes more focused on the children and the wealthier dressed dwellers. And here he was, in his typical day-to-day clothes, a cotton, long-sleaves, button up shirt with a red vest and green plaid plants. He blended into the crowd pretty well.

Shadow stood in a daze, examining the world around him. The darkness swallowed the paddock, but small candle lights stretching across the stalls shooed it away. A large crack followed by shots of bright colours. This made Shadow jump. Quickly, he turned to face the light, his quills still puffed up and on-end in fright. Once again he found people pushing him out of the way to get to the source of the disruption. It seemed he had no choice but to follow the herd of people. Slowly walking in time, he moved towards the stage.

A tall dark hedgehog beckoned the group closer, a large mischievous grin across his muzzle, half of face shadowed. The hedgehog was a deep violet, the ends of his quills a pale cyan in a jagged pattern, an arrow shape was on his forehead and his chest was covered in a large patch of cyan fur. Slit pupil acidic green eyes studied the crowd, a large black top hat with a purple ribbon shading his face. A broad red swallow tail coat trimmed with gold tassels adorned his body; it concealed a purple vest with small crimson buttons. His pants were black silk, a swirly gold line divided where it turned to purple. A silver belt went over his vest and pants, a small green half emerald lined with gold decorated the right side of it. Pale purple gloves went over his hands, it to, seemly made of silk. In his hand, a cane made of ebony a large red emerald as its handle, gold glue holding it in place. He was quite an attractive fellow, tall and lean, handsome face, nice quills, but he had a malicious ray about him that seemed all too familiar.

The hedgehog flashed a grin before dramatically extending his arms to the crowd and booming, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Children of all ages! Welcome to the Circus of the Seven Emeralds!" In turn, the crowd let out an audible roar as they cheered on the ring master. The said person grinned, his eyes scanning the crowd. "I am The Magnificent Mephiles! Ring master and Magician for this Circus." The handsome man known to be Mephiles bowed, earning yet another cheer from the crowd.

"And this," He said gesturing to a door beside him, "Is my lovely assistant, Lady Rouge." Out from the door, came a young woman, a bat. She had short white hair and sparking teal eyes. Poufy black feathers stood tall from a small pink, peal-lined cap she wore on her head, harmonising with the tight fitting, black and pink striped corset that squeezed her frame, making her cleavage more showed than needed. Black fishnet stockings cased her tanned legs and a pair of small black slippers with a pink heart on the toe was on her feet. She battered her long lashes at the boys in the crowd. They responded with loud wolf-whistles and cheers that flattered her good looks.

"Mistress Rouge," Mephiles' said, smirking at his busty assistant. "Would you please step into this stone coffin?" The white bat stepped inside the said place and turned around to face the crowd. She winked at them and waved before the coffin door was shut and the ring master locked it up. A large shiny red blanket was placed over the coffin and the violet hedgehog ran his fingers over it so it softened all the creases. He switched his cane so he gripped the opposite end to the emerald and swung it at the coffin as if he was going to strike a gong. The emerald followed through and hit the sheet, suddenly falling and revealing the coffin has gone.

The audience applauded the magician, whistling and creating uproar of clapping before he readied himself to make the coffin re appear. This time, he lifted up the sheet high and dropped it, tapping it in the middle with his cane. This time, it hit something. The sheet fell showing that the coffin had in fact appeared. The crowd yet again expressed their entertainment through their round of applause.

The ring master stepped back and began to unbuckle the box, going through the many chains and locks to reach his much needed eye-candy assistant. The crowd waited in anxious silence, waiting to see if she was okay. The door finally opened and Mephiles stepped back, revealing that the bat was not there. The audience turned and whispered, a loud lot of mutters and murmurs replacing the silence. "It seems Lady Rouge wants to play hide and seek." The ring master grinned smugly. "Oh Lady Rouge, come out, come out where ever you are~!" He spoke in a lyrical tone.

The balloon decorations above the stage suddenly burst and fire crackers exploded showing the shadow of the burlesque bat. Fireworks erupted in colours as the smoke faded at the girl was shown in clear view. The crowd went absolutely crazy. Apart from grunting when the people around him jumped up and down and bumped him about, Shadow remained silent. Consequently, he caught the eye of the ring master. Icy green met blood red as they had a heated stare down. The dark violet hedgehog smirked at him, before throwing something on the ground and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

The crowd had begun to move towards the big top for the show and Shadow was being moved along with them. He began to move sideways quickly, breaking free of the current of people. He waited and the people slowly moved away, all of them disappearing into the mouth of the big top. Shadow sighed and moved out into the deserted showground. Rubbish rolling about like tumble weeds and softly blowing about in the wind. What was he to do now? It was so silent, and he surely did not want to go into the show just yet. That, ring master…He shivered… he didn't like him at all.

A shrill roar impaired the silence making Shadow's quills puff and stand on end. He turned around quickly, hearing a loud CRACK and yet another roar. He moved towards the sound, a tent around the side of the big top, supposedly for the performers and circus folk.

His eyes widened, that roar, it sounded…in pain. Shadow looked around the tent, glancing at the sight. A green hedgehog wearing a gold crown stood with a whip in hand. His back was towards Shadow, he was yet to see what the hedgehog looked like, but what worried him was the gigantic cage that was in front of him. It was an extremely large box-shape with long thick vertical metal pipes.

Inside of this cage, was a large ragged beast. It was shaggy, and its vibrant green eyes glowed out from the shadows. As well as its teeth, large white canines that pulled into a snarl as the horse crop cracked down over its muzzle. A roar erupted from the caged other, making Shadow jump. I brought its large paws up to its face and nursed the wound, whimpering in ache. That…thing was in pain! Was there even a reason for him to abuse the wolf creature? Shadow inhaled sharply as the beast roar again, more in agony then in aggression. He had to do something.

"Hey!" Oh he is going to regret this…

The green hedgehog stopped, his ears rotated backwards, soon followed by his body. The hedgehog was a chartreuse colour, with fawn arms and a patch of that colour on his scared chest. A black jacket adorned his body, with red flames bursting from the shoulders. He had ice blue eyes covered by red glasses with shaded lenses, and a jagged teeth smile was directed at him. "Well, look we have a visitor." The hedgehog chuckled and looked back over to the blue beast behind him. "Do you think he's a fan of us?"

Shadow took a deep breath, rage entering his body. He stepped into the open, walking up to the beast tamer with narrowed eyes. "I am no fan of yours."

The tamer lessened his large grin and put on a phony growl. "Well, then what brings you the performers only tent?"

"Is your punishment really necessary? Did it do anything wrong?" Shadow growled back, gesturing to the feral wolf who let out a whimpering noise.

The hedgehog made an effort to look down upon him. He began to walk forward, getting closer to Shadow and making him feel uncomfortable. He took a step forward; Shadow took a step back and so on until Shadow's back hit something hard. "I was simply training him." The hedgehog's hand shot out and placed itself beside his head, blocking him from sliding away. "You have a problem with that, Sugar Stripes?"

Shadow's eyes narrowed and he was about to protest when the beast inside the cage roared again. It began to thrash against the bars for whatever reason, making its trainer growl and turn away from the other.

"What's your problem you stupid mutt?" He growled, bring his crop down on the beast again. Instead of cowering away, the beast effectively caught the crop in his giant maw, before ripping it out his hands.

The beast tamer was rather shocked at the reaction shown by the wolf. The shaggy blue animal let out a deep growl, bowing his head, pinning back his ears and snarling. The green hedgehog challenged his growl with his own, stumbling back and feeling over for something. Shadow's eyes widened when his hands ran over the handle of a proper whip. This whip had large beads on the end of it, wet from the vinegar poured onto them...

"No! Don't do it!" Shadow yelled in anger, approaching the green hedgehog with an extended arm. The hedgehog ignored his warning and cracked down the whip over the beast's body. The wolf roared vociferously, enough for the people in the big top to hear. Shadow had to cover his ears to avoid any damage to his ear drums.

The hedgehog was about to strike him again when a shaded figure grabbed his arm.

"Now, now Scourge, you don't want to cause any more damage than you already have." The voice was deep, husky and familiar. A pair of acidic green eyes stood from the shadows, and soon, a body began to form from the sentimental dark. Half his face was covered in shadow, but you could clearly see it was The Ring Master, Mephiles.

"S-s-sir!" The green hedgehog jumped back at the sight of his employer, almost dropping the whip he held. "What are you doing here?" He said, turning around to fully face the taller man.

The violet hedgehog ripped the crop from the performer's hands and snapped it out straight. "You were making quite a ruckus. Also, you're on in about 15 minutes." The green hedgehog's icy blue eyes glared at the man, snatching back his whip and walking over the beast's cage murmuring to himself. He grabbed the chain that was attached to the cage and pulled it through the opening of the tent.

Mephiles sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, his other hand resting underneath it. He turned his head, glancing at Shadow and only now noticing his presence. His hand clenched into a fist at his sight, his eyes and face now bearing an unreadable expression, but for a few minutes, those eyes never left him.

A familiar flirty voice called to the man, making his head snap back around to face the voice. He let out a murmured "Yes, coming." But no further words were spoken. His head turned back and flashed a grin at Shadow, his off coloured tongue darting out a licking over his lips.

Shadow shivered, the bad vibe about ring master returning to him. The violet hedgehog chuckled and turned away, walking slowly out the tent.

Leaving Shadow, alone, by himself.

A/N: OMG THAT WAS SOME HARD BA JAZZ TO WRITE.

Yes, I stopped making Hourglass to make this, yay! (This has a way better plot)

But yeah.

I CALL THIS IS A TWO COUPLED STORY! Sonadow and Mephadow! Yay! First!