Stomach full of butterflies

The cold winter air filled Drift’s lungs as she wandered the lightly snow clad streets. Next to the monochrome, bioluminescent Carno was her dear friend, Agatha. A fellow Carno, however a much murkier colour with a feathered coat with beautiful stripes and an appy butt. On her other side was another, newer face, an almost fully black male Carno with light stripes on his tail, Abaddon was his name. The two females only very recently stumbled upon him, and all three of them seemed to find each other to be good company, which was very nice. The more the merrier.

The three peaceful carnivores had one goal, and one goal only today. The limited time carnival that had appeared out of nowhere. They had to see what it was all about. As they got closer to the procured museum, more lights and noise could be heard. Laughter and music, dinosaur chattering and cheering, or even sometimes roaring in frustration. What a thrill! 
Abaddon took a slight lead as they entered the museum entrance, colourful tarps and decorations could be seen almost anywhere in the building, with signs leading to different activities in different parts of the museum. He curiously observed everyone that was already attending and standing in line for things.
“What do you two want to do first?” he asked his two friends, still with a smile on his face, albeit even more subtle than before. 
Agatha thought a little bit about it to herself before deciding to reply. “We could check out what everyone else is doing in the natural history part?” she ended up suggesting. 
“Sounds like a good plan, I'm too indecisive!” Drift agreed and started to walk off towards the natural history wing. 
Agatha smiled towards Abaddon, as they both followed their glowing friend to see what was going on. Well in there, a bunch of different activities seemed to go on, but they drew the conclusion that they had to perform some sort of skill. 
“Oh Drift, I am getting flashbacks to those euoplos in Atlantis.” Agatha said as she put on an exaggerated face of disgust, which made Drift chuckle while Abaddon looked slightly confused. 
“We must have forgotten to tell you about that whole ordeal.” Drift snorted. “So you see this hidden facility showed up, and in order to let us pass they demanded we perform something for them. I really never understood why that would classify us as trusted visitors but hey, it worked! We just pulled off some sick dance moves and they let us in to explore.” she then explained, with Agatha nodding occasionally. 
“Curious.” Abaddon replied, looking almost more confused than before. “Should we see if there are any dance performances going on then, perhaps?”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea, Abaddon. And do not worry if your dance skills are lackluster, Drift and I can carry you to victory!” Agatha confidently said as she puffed out her feathery chest with a prideful facial expression, which Abaddon couldn’t help but snort and smile at.
“If there even is a victory. It may very well just be for fun.” he said.
“As long as I am having fun, I don’t mind that.” Drift said. “And neither will she.” she also added as she gently smacked Agatha’s forehead with her glowy, scruffy tail.

The three carnos walked around for a bit, keeping an eye out for any stage or similar where other dinos might be performing or dancing. A lot of them seemed to enjoy singing, balancing or juggling balls and the like, and many others seemed to enjoy showing off their strength by whacking a thing to ring a bell. Very curious..
Eventually, they found it. An open stage, it seemed! Agatha observed as dinos went up and noted to herself what they did, and it seemed that any kind of skill was allowed. Score! She looked over at Drift, and then Abaddon, and nodded. She was determined that this would be their time to shine.
“This has to be it!” Agatha happily exclaimed to her friends.
“What are we waiting for then, let us queue up with the others.” Drift smirked as she walked up to the end of the line.
“Well we can’t exactly say no now that you are already there.” Abaddon chuckled as he and Agatha followed Drift to the queue.
Thankfully, it was neither too long and the performances all seemed pretty quick. Agatha was a bit nervous but tried not to let it show. This would be the first time she willingly put herself in the spotlight, rather than being forced to do so by someone else in order to not be locked up.
Drift could tell from Agatha's body language that she was not as confident as she had made it out to be, so she gently nudged her with a warm smile.
“You will do great, I just know it.” she said in an attempt to encourage her feathered friend.
“Haha, you think so..?” Agatha nervously asked, stage fright creeping up more and more the closer it got to their turn.
“I don’t think so, I know it.” Agatha assured her.
“You said so yourself, remember? You will for sure carry this performance.” Abaddon added with an encouraging look on his face.
Agatha let out a snort and smiled. She did indeed say that not long ago at all.
“Thanks, you two. We got this, surely..” she nervously said, and just in time for the queue to empty before them. It was time.

Agatha took a deep breath before leading the way up to the stage, Drift and Abaddon following close behind her. They stood in position on stage, looking out over the small crowd. 
“Would you like some music?” one of the stage hand Oviraptors asked. 
“Yes please, something catchy!” Drift said with a broad, glowing smile.
The oviraptor started a fun, catchy song that it started to bob along to a little bit while awaiting the dance trio to start. Drift looked over at Abaddon, who seemingly was not nervous at all, and then to Agatha, who was trembling slightly.
Agatha smiled awkwardly towards Drift before she took the first, swift move, stepping along well with the music and graciously spinning and swaying around as she seemed fit. She could feel the music within her soul, as if it was made just for her, and came up with dance moves on the go.
Drift happily observed her friend’s rhythm and followed along as best as she could, and even though they had not planned anything and their dance moves did not necessarily match, they tied in well together as they both moved around on stage.
Abaddon was not much of a dancer and had in all honesty only tagged along to psyche his two friends up, so he just swayed along with the music and stomped a bit along with the rhythm occasionally. Not much of a dance perhaps, but it did show that he could also tune in okay with music despite not being musically aligned. He hoped that this would be enough to at least impress someone, even though there were seemingly no judges present or anything.
Their swift performance went on for the remainder of the song without any fumbles, and the crowd seemed delighted and impressed with their performance, as they stomped and clapped while cheering after they had finished. It was definitely a huge ego boost to have so many others cheer like that.
“Thank you so much for your show here today!” the stagehand oviraptor said to the three of them. “Feel free to return for another performance whenever you like!”

“Wow.. That was terrifying!” Agatha shuddered as the three of them had gotten off the stage and walked to the side.
“But you did well!” Drift cheered. “And so did you Abaddon, don’t think I didn’t see you.”
“Thank you Drift.” Abaddon scoffed. “You two did amazing.”
Agatha smiled, this day had been so fun, she was happy they all went here together to experience this carnival.
Drift also smiled, as wide as her glowing mouth was able to, while she did not miss Atlantis at all, she did miss dancing. 
Abaddon was also very satisfied with the day. When he woke up, he definitely did not have dancing on his agenda, but I was not so bad. He had fun and enjoyed seeing his two friends let loose and perform.