Completely forgot I hadn't actually posted this yet... Anyway, if somebody out there is still interested in this story, here's chapter 2!

Enjoy

Cautiously Sierra lifted the bottom of the colourful fabric and sneaked into the tent.

"Wow," she sighed as she twirled around. "I've never seen anything so..."

Her sentence was cut short by a sharp pain shooting through her, and before she knew it she fell unconscious on the ground.

-:-

Sierra cracked open her eyes as her head pounded like she would have been hit by a train.

"Well well well," she heard a sharp voice say. "Look who's waking up".

Sierra looked towards the direction of the voice, but because her vision was still a little blurry, she couldn't quite make out what she was looking at. All she knew was that there was something pointed at her.

"Alright, Skipper, calm down," a different voice said.
"And call your men off," it continued. "I hardly believe she's a spy".

Now Sierra could see who were talking. The second voice seemed to belong to a lion, and the first one to a penguin, who spoke up again: "Okay, but if she is, it's all on you, lion-man".

"C'mon boys, they think they have it under control," he continued in a slightly sarcastic tone, pulling back the red and white stick he had been pointing at Sierra, and suddenly three more penguins emerged from Sierra's sides and followed the first penguin, whom the lion had addressed as 'Skipper'. Sierra followed them with her gaze as they retreated to a platform hanging high up in the tent and glared suspiciously at her.

"Sorry about the penguins," the lion said, directing his words to Sierra.
"They think they're some sort of a 'commando' group and they take that a bit too seriously sometimes," he continued, speaking in low volumes as to keep the penguins from hearing him.
"I'm Alex, by the way, and if you let me, I'll free you from those ropes".

Only now did Sierra notice her arms and legs were bound with ropes, and cloth was covering her mouth to stop her from speaking.
She nodded her head frantically, and Alex the lion kneeled down next to her to untie the ropes.

"I apologize for this," he said. "It's totally the penguins' fault. Totally too serious with the commando-stuff..." he muttered until finally getting off the final rope. "Sorry".

"So…" Sierra began as Alex helped her up from the ground.
"Is this the basic treatment for all of your guests?" she asked as she wiped away dust from her fur.

"For all the 'guests' who sneak in unauthorized!" the penguin, Skipper, answered from the platform the penguins were standing on, air-quoting the word 'guests'.

"Skipper, relax! We got this!" Alex yelled back at him, and received a sarcastic shrug for a reply.
"And answer to your question," Alex whispered to Sierra, "yes, unfortunately that is the way those penguins treat anyone who they think is a threat. Which is practically everyone".
"So yeah, anyway, umm... I'm Alex," Alex said, sounding a bit nervous.

Sierra snickered. "You said that already like five minutes ago," she pointed out. "But it's okay. And I'm Sierra, by the way".

"Sierra. Well, Sierra, welcome to the circus!" Alex announced, spreading his hands to emphasize his sentence.

"Thank you," Sierra replied with slight amusement in her voice. "Aren't you gonna introduce me to your friends?"

"He doesn't have to," a zebra stepped towards Sierra, "We can do it ourselves. I'm Marty," he said, making a theatrical bow.

"Okay, yeah, um... nice to meet you, Marty," Sierra replied with a bit of a smirk.

"Don't mind him, he's always like that," a female voice said, "hi, I'm Gloria," the hippopotamus introduced herself. "And this is Melman," she said about the giraffe next to her.

"Hi," he muttered quietly.

"Hey," Sierra waved her paw.

"Oh, oh, we must introduce you to the rest of the circus," Alex suddenly yelped, grabbing Sierra's wrist.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," they heard Skipper remark and before anyone had managed to say anything more the penguins had made their way to the rest of the animals, and blocked their path.
"She could still be a spy," Skipper said, eyeing Sierra with suspicion.

"Skipper, I don't think..." Alex began, only to be interrupted.

"Good, leave that to someone who can," remarked.
"Kowalski, give me the math," he then ordered one of the other penguins, who got out an abacus, moved the beads on it from side to side and made a small nod, seeming content with himself.

"There's exactly a 38.7% chance she's a spy, sir," the penguin addressed as Kowalski said.

"Exactly," Skipper confirmed, crossing his flippers on his chest. "And that's a risk I'm not willing to take".

"Well, I am," Alex replied. "C'mon, let's go," he said to the others, and they started walking, trying to go around the penguins, but they weren't going to let that happen.

"Not on my watch!" Skipper announced as the penguin quartet jumped in front of the other animals, taking their fighting stances.

"What? Now you're going to use your secret commando moves on me?" Alex asked with a mocking undertone.

"Hey, you asked for it," Skipper replied, shrugging.

"Oh bring it on!"

"Boys, boys, calm down..." Gloria began, but soon a whole different voice stopped the scene.

"What's going on?" was the question asked with a thick Russian accent.

"Oh, Vitaly," Alex began, noticing the tiger who had appeared from the backstage with some others, "this is our guest..."

"Don't you mean 'spy'?" Skipper interrupted.

"Sierra," Alex continued, trying his best to ignore the penguin.

"Hi," Sierra said cautiously, waving her paw a bit.

"What is she doing in here?" Vitaly asked, crossing his arms on his chest.

"She's here to..." Alex began, but silenced and turned to Sierra.
"What are you doing here?"

"I..." Sierra began, and sighed before continuing, "I guess I ran away from home".

"Kinda cliché, isn't it?" Alex asked, scratching the back of his head, "Running away from home to join the circus?"

"Yeah," Marty agreed, "At least we joined the circus to get home!"

"What happened then?" Sierra asked.

"Well, this sort of became our home," Alex answered, "bit of a long story, but if you have time..."

"Guys, we're getting off topic," Gloria interrupted.
"Sierra was telling us her story," she continued, walking over to Sierra and placing her hands on the lioness' shoulders.
"Go on, sweetie," she nodded to Sierra.

Sierra swallowed.

"Well, so, I ran away from home and... I actually don't know what I want to do now".

"So you don't want to join the circus?" Vitaly asked, looking at Sierra up and down.
"But isn't that why you came here?"

"No!..Yes!..Maybe...I don't know!"

"So what do you want to do?"