Character Intro:
Toffee: a young Syrian hamster who was born in a pet mill and doesn't trust humans, until she meets Charlotte. She has goldenish/brownish fur with a darker stripe along her back (not sure if that's the best description, but her coloration somewhat reminds people of toffees.)
Charlotte: the girl who buys Toffee at the pet store. She is knowledgable about hamsters, although Toffee doesn't trust her at first
Charlotte's mom: she's...um, Charlotte's mom.
Btw: instead of chapters, there's going to be days like Day 1 or Day 2.
Day 1
For the past few days, I’ve been in this horrible place. It was small, it was cramped, there wasn’t enough bedding to burrow in, the food is boring, and I could often hear the horrible creatures called humans moving around outside. And guess what? I had to share the place with another hamster!
We Syrians are solitary hamsters. We don’t like company. Back in the pet mill I came from, my mother often told me stories of hamsters older than the age of six weeks old being forced to live together. In the end, they almost always fight each other to the death. Even though my roommate and I are both under six weeks old, I still can’t help wondering how long it would be before one of us snaps and attacks the other.
Do you see how horrible humans are now? They are these cruel creatures that keep us in these small, cramped cages with boring food and other hamsters. They have pet mills, where they breed us mercilessly for who knows what reason. All humans are evil, and I will never trust them.
Today, I was sleeping, when I felt a pang of hunger and woke up to get some food. I walked over to the food dish and took one of the bland pieces of food. That was when I noticed a human child staring at me. I tried not to show any fear. Fear is a sign of weakness, and humans would take advantage of it. As calmly as possible, I pouched the food and headed back to the hideout I slept in.
“Move over,” I grumbled to my roommate. “Stop hogging the hideout.”
I sat down and took a bite out of the food I’d pouched.
“Ugh,” I muttered. “Boring. Always tastes the same.”
After I was done, I laid down and went back to sleep. Unfortunately, my dreams were full of nightmares about the beastly humans back at the pet mill I was born in. After who knows how long, the hideout was suddenly lifted. I was awake immediately.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
My roommate was already cowering in a corner in fear. I looked up and saw what she was afraid of. A male adult human, or a man, was holding the hideout. He tossed the hideout aside carelessly and said something. That was when I noticed two other humans, both of them female. One was an adult, and another was the child I’d seen before. Both of them had black hair and were saying something to the man.
Finally, after a long time, the man left and returned with what looked like a box. He took the hideout he’d lifted away and held it in front of me, clearly wanting me to climb on. I narrowed my eyes at it suspiciously. I didn’t trust humans. You could never trust humans. But if a human could get me out of this place, I was willing to take the risk. I climbed on. Immediately, I was dumped into the box, which was sealed. All I could see was darkness.
I walked around the box, assessing my new surroundings. Suddenly, the box jerked, and was suddenly still again. I looked around, panicked. What was that? It took me a while to calm down. Just when my heart stopped pounding, the box jerked again, and I got a sensation that the box was moving. I peeked through one of the holes in the side of the box.
The girl I’d seen before was holding the box I was in. She walked up to a blue piece of machinery, opened a door on it, and stepped in. She sat down on a seat and waited. After a while, the adult human, who I guessed was her mom, sat down on the seat next to her. That was when a horrible growling noise filled my ears, and everything starting vibrating. I looked around frantically in fear, but there was nothing I could do. That was when the mechanical monster jerked into motion. I panicked.
“Let me out!” I shouted, scratching furiously at the box. “Let me out!”
But it was no use. After what seemed like forever, the dreadful growling and the vibrations stopped. I peeked out through one of the holes and saw that we were moving once more. I was carried through multiple doors, until the two humans stopped at a red door labeled with three numbers. I squinted at them. They said: “403”.
The mom pulled out something shiny, inserted it into a hole in the door, and turned it. She pulled the shiny object out of the hole and opened the door. The two humans walked into the room behind the door and closed it. I was set on the floor, where I was left alone for a long time. After a while, I heard the big, clumsy footsteps of the humans once more.
“Let’s set up the cage,” the mom told the kid.
Uh oh. I saw where this was going. I was going to be imprisoned by humans. Again. I paced around the box frantically, thinking of what I should do next. I could not get imprisoned again. After a long time of considering, only one option was available. I reared up and began scratching the box like crazy.
“Let me out!” I screamed. “Help, someone help! Someone! Anyone!”
The girl must’ve heard my scratching, because she said, “Mom, we have to hurry. She’s getting restless.”
“Oh no, no, no,” I muttered, and scratched with a new ferocity.
It was no use. No matter how much I scratched, the box wouldn’t budge. Finally, I sat down on the bedding in the box, trying to catch my breath. That was when the box was opened, and light poured into it. I looked up curiously. The two humans were staring down at me, and I eyed them warily.
“Look,” I told them. “I don’t know what it is with humans and hamsters, but imprisoning me won’t do you any good.”
They kept staring at me. Of course. Humans couldn’t understand our language. This was useless. Suddenly, something unexpected happened. The girl tipped over my box, and held a white object in front of me, trying to coax me into stepping into it.
“Nuh uh,” I told her. “No way.”
I turned and bolted out of the cage. Immediately, I noticed that I was in a brightly lit place with a wooden floor. Behind me, I could see the door I came in from. I ran over to it, trying to see if I could squeeze under the crack. We hamsters could squeeze into a ton of small spaces. Unfortunately, the crack was too small. I don’t think that even a dwarf hamster would be able to squeeze under it.
But I did find something else. There were tiny bugs crawling around, entering through the crack under the door. I licked my lips. They looked tastier than the bland food I was given before. I lowered my head and snapped one up.
“Yum, it’s chewy,” I mumbled.
I ate a few other bugs. They were the best food I’d had in a while. Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in eating these little bugs that I had forgotten all about the human girl and her mom. By the time I remembered, she’d already had me cornered.
“Come on, little hamster,” she cooed. “I won’t force you to do anything. Just come into this container and go into your cage.”
Yeah, right, I thought bitterly. I stayed where I was. The girl frowned, disappointed, and left. I sighed in relief and ate some more bugs. But after a while, the girl returned with the same white container, except this time, there was food in it.
“Look,” she said. “Yummy food!”
I snorted. “Did you really think you could trick me so easily?”
I looked around and saw another door with a larger crack. I ducked and squeezed through it. But before I could do anything, the door opened, and the human girl loomed before me.
“Come to me,” she said, holding a mealworm out to me. “Please?”
I ignored her and ran around her. I kept running until I hit another corner. Before me, there was what looked like a mini evergreen tree, draped in lights and ornaments. The girl followed me and crouched down. This time, she didn’t seem to be doing anything. She was as still as a statue, staring at me. I froze and assessed her threat level. I decided that she wasn’t going to harm me.
“Hey,” I heard the voice of her mom. “I think we should just grab her and put her in the cage.”
“No,” said the girl. “It’ll stress her out.”
I sat calmly in the corner and began to groom myself.
“Listen to your daughter,” I squeaked, licking a paw. “And while you're at it, maybe let me go?”
The girl stared at me. “Is this hamster seriously grooming herself at a time like this?”
She shook her head and stood up. She came back again with a handful of food and set it down in front of me. Then, she waited. I looked at her cautiously. I didn’t know what she was playing at. Before I could decide whether I should take the food or not, I heard footsteps, and the mom came.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” she asked her daughter.
She shook her head, unsure.
“You know, maybe we have to grab her by force. We don’t want her getting her paws on something dangerous.”
“Well…” the girl replied reluctantly. “I suppose…”
The mom reached her hand out toward me and grabbed me. Terror shot through me, and I wiggled away. I ran for my life, running down a hallway and past several doors. I could hear the humans behind me. I backed against the wall, before realizing my mistake. Too late. The mom’s hand came down and trapped me against the wall. Her other hand pinned me down lightly, preventing me from escaping.
She walked calmly over to a cage as I thrashed and screamed. The girl opened cage’s door, and the mom set me down inside. The girl closed the cage before I could make another escape attempt. Scared, I immediately dove into the bedding. To my surprise, it was deep enough for me to dig in. I dug into the bedding and stayed there, trembling with fear.
“Sorry,” I heard the girl’s muffled voice coming from above. “I tried to make you go yourself, but my mom was right. I don’t want you going somewhere dangerous.”
“Are you sure we shouldn’t buy the hamster an exercise ball?” that was the mom.
“Nope,” the girl answered. “They’re dangerous for hamsters. What we do need is a decent sand bath.”
“But honey, the reptile sand with no calcium was too expensive,” said the mom.
“I know. We’ll find another solution.”
Through my fear, I thought, this girl knows what she’s doing. After a long time, I finally calmed down enough to stick my head out the hole. I looked around at my surroundings and crept out cautiously. The first thing I saw was a large exercise wheel.
“Not bad,” I remarked. “It should be fun to use.”
But I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I was going to figure out an escape route. I climbed up the bars of the cage, but I couldn’t find anything. Suddenly, I lost my grip and fell into the soft bedding.
“Ow,” I muttered, getting up.
“Hey, look, mom,” came the human girl’s voice. “The hamster came out.”
I tensed, but the girl only looked at me. She made no threatening moves, then left after a while. For the next few minutes, I climbed around the cage, looking desperately for an exit. Finally, I was ready to give up.
“Nothing,” I sighed. “I’m trapped here forever.”
Dejected, I looked around at my new surroundings. There was the hamster wheel I saw before, along with a wooden stick. It looked like it would be great for chewing. There was this ramp that went up to a platform. I walked up the ramp and onto the platform. There was this large food bowl with some of the food that the human girl had tried to bribe me with. There was also a water bottle similar to the one I had before, except the water in this one looked much clearer. I walked down the ramp. I was surrounded with many toys and a few hideouts. Like the girl said before, the only thing missing was a sand bath.
“For something made by humans, this place isn’t too bad,” I muttered.
I tried out the hamster wheel. It was just the right size. Then, I tried out the food.
“This,” I exclaimed, shoving a sunflower seed into my mouth, “Is the best food I’ve ever tasted!”
The food was nothing like the food I was fed before. It was flavorful. It had variety. It was the BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD!!! For the rest of the night, I explored my new cage. Fortunately, the humans didn’t bother me anymore, although at one point, the girl had walked up to the cage, took out some white stuff from her sleeves, and tossed it into the cage. I looked at it curiously. The white stuff was soft and thin, with the girl’s scent all over it.
“Ugh,” I grumbled. “Does it have to smell like human?”
That morning, I laid down to sleep in my burrow, thinking that maybe my new home wasn’t so bad after all.
Edited by Hamsta507, 19 December 2021 - 11:58 PM.
