Disclaimer: I don't own Bones, period. FOX does. No copyright infringement Virginia Renaissance Festival (not to be mistaken for the real-life Virginia Renaissance Faire) is fictional. I don't claim to be the creator of any fictitious Maryland Renaissance Festival. It's basically the real one, only all staff/owners described in fanfic are fictional. Maryland Renaissance Festival is copyright to its real owner(s).

Author's Note: This is the first segment of the first fanfiction series I've ever written! (-: Enjoy and please, please, please review! Thankies, and happy reading.

Prologue

Delicate silken banners rippled proudly in the gentle autumn breeze, heralding the entrance to the lively annual Virginia Renaissance Festival. Laughter, music, and pleasant smells emanated from within the labyrinth of tents and displays. Radiant smiles and flashy costumes lit up the fair in spite of the gray clouds that hovered threateningly above. In the midst of the calm, however, a frightened scream shattered the peace.

Heads turned and jaws dropped, but there was a strange silence that overcame the on-lookers. Their stares were directed at the sight of a dog, tail a-wag, holding what looked like a human bone between his parted jaws. He held it up to his disgusted owner, who fought the urge to vomit. Chunks of skin and flesh still clung to the bone, and much of its exposed white surface was caked with scarlet.

The silence was broken by a shaken speaker. "Please tell me that's an early Halloween prop."

"That's not a fake," somebody else whispered, almost inaudibly. Louder, he said, "Call the cops."

There was no need for instruction; at least a dozen people were already screaming into their cellular phones. Carefully, the dog's owner pried the bone from his maw, face pale, before doubling over and emptying his stomach of its half-digested contents.

At that point, the gruesome spectacle had drawn an audience. Some were wide-eyed in utter shock, others were unable to look, and still others were too curious to tear their gazes away. Confused, the dog cocked his head and whined, tongue lolling.

On the sidelines, a man melted into the shadows between the stands, expression grim.

A heavy rain was pelting the ground by the time FBI officials arrived, and the festival had been closed down. After a brief search, a team with sniffer dogs exhumed the rest of the body that the leg bone belonged to. The dog who had apparently taken to snacking on the flesh was crated until he could supply them with excrement to analyze.

A large black car pulled up nearby, announcing the arrival of the two investigators. They jumped out into the downpour and trotted briskly towards the police that beckoned.

Ducking under the yellow tape that boxed in the crime scene, agent Seeley Booth announced, "I never liked the Renaissance Festival. Too many clowns."

"There actually aren't too many," his partner, Temperance Brennan, replied in her usual frank mannerism. She narrowed her ghostly blue orbs against the stinging rain and shuffled closer to Booth's side. "Just a lot of people dressed like them. If you ask me, any such attire is completely unnecessary to express one's exuberance for the time period. Really, why would anybody want to wear corsets or armor for fun? If anything, it's stupid."

Booth grinned, lifting the tarp that protected the body. "Subjective, aren't we, Bones?"

"Is that a bad thing?" Brennan countered, kneeling beside a mound of freshly-turned earth. She peered into the adjacent pit, turning on her flashlight. "The victim is male, Caucasian, probably in his early thirties. After photographs of the site are taken, I'll need these bones taken back to the lab."

She shifted her weight onto her right side and leaned in further. "He can't have been dead more than three or four days, judging by the progression of decay."

Wrinkling his nose, Booth added, "Not to mention the smell."

Brennan almost laughed, but she contained herself and examined the body closely. After ten minutes running her hands over the corpse and taking small samples of tissue, she said, "The cause of death is yet to be determined, but I think it's safe to assume that this is the thing that did it."

With a pair of tweezers, she gingerly removed a bullet from inside the gaping jaws of the skull that were forever frozen in a scream. Booth accepted it and held the entity up to his face. "Definitely from a hunting rifle."

"Who could walk through the Renaissance Festival with a rifle and not be noticed? It's chronologically displaced, and would perturb pretty much anyone in the general public."

"I don't know, Bones," Booth sighed, brows furrowed. He helped her up, and then proceeded to wrap an arm around her as though he could protect her from the pouring rain. "I just don't know."

Brennan leaned her head tiredly on his shoulder and let him steer her back to the vehicle. All she wanted was to be someplace warm and dry, and for the damn case to solve itself. I need a vacation, she thought.

In case you're curious, this fanfic takes place between the first and second episodes of season 5. Chapter 1 coming soon!