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The next few days went by lazily Evra andthe Little People I’d tried talking to a couple of the silent blue-hooded creatures, but none of them looked at me when I spoke

It was impossible to tell them apart One stood out because he - or she (or it) - was taller than the others, and one was shorter, and another li But the rest looked exactly alike

Sa out more and more around the ca, but we let him pitch in with most of our other jobs He was a hard worker, determined to impress us and earn himself a full-time position with the Cirque

I didn’t see much of Mr Crepsley He knew I had to be up early to hunt for the Little People’s food, so he left me alone most of the tihu, which caused great exciteperfore crowd around Cormac e arrived at Mr Tall’s van (where he reported in to) People were slapping hi what he’d been up to and where he’d been He smiled at everybody, shook hands, and answered questions He -headed

"Evra Von!"he shouted when he saw the snake-boy He reached over and gave Evra a hug "How’s ed reptile?"

"Fine,"Evra said

"Have you shed your skin lately?"Cormac asked

"Not recently,"Evra said

"Remember,"Cormac said, "I want it when you do It’s valuable Huold in some countries"

"You can have as much of it as you like,"Evra assured him Then he pushed me forward "Cormac, this is Darren Shan, a friend of mine He’s new at the Cirque and hasn’t seen you before"

"Never seen Cor to be upset "How can this be? I thought everybody in the world had seen the nificent Cormac Limbs in action"

"I’ve never even heard of you,"I told hi a heart attack

"What do you do?"I asked

Corive a deerly

Cor at the back of the crowd Mr Tall sighed and nodded "You may as well,"he said "They won’t leave you alone until you do"

"All right then,"Corive me room"

The crowd moved back immediately I started to move with them, but Cormac laid a hand on my shoulder and told me to stay

"Now,"he said to the crowd, "I’ve been traveling for a long tih my entire routine, so we’ll keep this short and sweet"