Episode 2

The sun settled down in the west on Puroro Town and the moon rises up in its peak, no longer the sound of birds singing in the trees but the sounds of owls hooting. Inside my house, Mom and I were with Maria, who was gonna go to bed instead of going to the festival with me, because her condition had gotten worse since this morning, but she kept complaining about not going.

"No, no, no, no!" she yelped not wanting to go to sleep. "I want to go to the festival with Savannah!" she whined.

"Your condition has gotten worse since this morning! You can't go out like this!" she barked in a serious tone.

I felt bad that Maria can't go. Every year we would always go together with Dad, but since Dad's not in the picture, it's just me and my sister.

Mother looked at me. "Savannah, I'll take care of Maria, ok? Go and enjoy the festival!" she barked.

I was about to say something to her, but I sighed and left home.

Outside my house, was my two friends, Amedio, and Viviana.

Amedio was a pug, he was wearing a cap that was white and said "The Dog", and he wore a checkered scarf, he is a bit of a klutz, but other than that, he's a great friend.

Viviana, was a Carin Terrier, she wears a hot pink ring on her front left leg, and wears checkered bows, she would always say "she's the prettiest dog in town".

They were both howling telling me to come out of the house.

I opened the door, just slightly though, my head was down and my tail felt droopy.

"Hey Savannah, what's wrong, you're feeling sad aren't you, what's going on?" Viviana asked as I walked and stopped.

I said nothing and walked by them.

Amedio barked, "Hey, come on it's the festival isn't it? So, just let loose and party hearty!"

I paid no attention to my friends, all I wanted was Dad, and Maria to be here right beside me, I really wanted them to come along with me, like we always do, but this year, it felt different.

Suddenly, something caught my eye, it was shooting stars, no longer was I sad anymore, I just paid attention to the sky, along with my friends.

However, Donatello felt something was wrong. His body was shaking a little with worry. "Falling stars are a sign that troubled times are ahead. I hope the stars are wrong this time!" he thought.

But Donatello was wrong about the stars being wrong, inside the house, Mom and Maria were sleeping, but Maria woke up and snuck outside the house.

I walked around wondering what to do for the festival. I had no idea what to do, normally Dad would be the one to tell us what we want to do.

"Come one, come all, gather round gather round!" a dog barked at the fountain.

There were a lot of dogs around the Flat Coat Retriever named Gustavo, who was wearing a white hat. I was very amused, I've never seen him last year at the festival, I decided to join in the crowd.

"All dogs who want to enter the shell finding contest, sign here, only a max up to three dogs can join." barked Gustavo as two dogs walked up to him and signed by putting in their paw prints. Gustavo checked his clipboard but only saw two paw prints. "We need one more!" he howled. He looked around, and pointed at me.

"You there!" he said pointing at me.

For a few moments I said nothing.

I looked around to see if he was saying it to someone else, but everyone starred at me. "M-M-Me?" I stammered.

"Yes you, you looked skilled!" barked Gustavo. I blushed, no puppy ever said that to me, except my dad. "Would you like to enter the contest?" he asked as I walked up to the clipboard.

I thought for a moment, and put my paw print on the paper.

"Alright, is everyone ready? Then contestants, start your...hey isn't that your sister?" the black dog asked as everyone including me turned around to see Maria sitting near the crowd.

I blushed again. "Um...excuse me for a minute." I barked as I walked to her.

Maria wagged her tail.

I gave her a serious glare at her though. "Maria, what in puppy whiskers where you thinking?!" I yelled and whispered at the same time.

Maria didn't take my glare and my serious tone too seriously. "I followed you...sorry." she apologized.

I growled. "What are you doing?! If they find out that you are sick, they'll call Mom and a doctor!"

Maria rolled her eyes. "You worry too much Savannah, look, I'm fine. I drank the milk this morning, I should be fine." she barked.

I face pawed myself. "Unbelievable. Oh what will Dad say?" I whimpered.

"I don't know, he's not here. He left to find a cure for my sickness." barked Maria.

I thought for a few minutes of what to do with my sister now that she was out here, then, I made my choice. "Alright Maria, you can watch me win the contest and then go home ok?" I told Maria as she gave me a thank you lick.

"Thank you so much!" wagged Maria.

I walked away from her and back into the crowd. "Sorry about that." I said.

Gustavo took my apology. "It's fine, young lady. Now where was I? Oh yeah. Contestants, start your sniffers!" he announced.

The two contestants and I bent down our heads to sniff.

"Ready?! GOOOOOOOOO!" he howled.

The contest started.

I sniffed out the spiral shells, I only found two, one of the contestants found the last one.

"The results are in! The winner is..." barked Gustavo as drumroll started playing. "Savannah!"

Everyone howled and barked and wagged their tails (including my sister in the background.).

"Congratulations!" he barked.

I blushed as he gave me a bouquet of flowers as a prize.

"That pup, ain't she Doluk's daughter? She comes from a nice family." El Dorado barked as Maria walked into the crowd with Amedio and Viviana.

"So, Savannah, what are you gonna do with those flowers?" asked the pug.

Vivana laughed. "Silly, she's obvisously going to give them to her sick little sister." Maria jumped up and down.

"Huh? Really? Flowers! Ya-y!" she barked.

But something happened, she coughed louder and fell to the ground.

"Maria!" I barked. Everyone ran to her, everyone barked and called her name.

"Maria... Maria speak to me!" I barked.

No answer.

"Shiver me timbers! Somebody call a doctor!" replied the Captain as she got my sister on his back and took her to my house.

"Maria..." I sobbed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I howled.

To be continued...