[Hamster Tales Part 7]

Day 7
Tuesday, 1 January 2008

With more tissue falling from the sky and no thieving sisters to disappear it this time, Pixie manages to stuff her house full. Once done, she burrows into it happily.

There is peace and quiet the whole day. Since the opportunity to fight has been taken away from them, both girls spend a lot of time hiding in their respective burrows.

But, as the day wears on, Pixie begins to brood. Maybe she misses Picnic, or maybe she’s upset that Picnic had inherited the Princess Castle instead of her.

She goes and sits in the sealed connector and refuses to budge from there. She sits silently for ages, as if thinking that the door will open if she sits there long enough.

I resist giving in and opening the door for her. I don’t think Picnic will welcome her just yet.

Because Picnic, on the other hand, couldn’t care less. She spends the entire day working on her tissue nest and preening.

Day 8
Wednesday, 2 January 2008

The girls have been separated for more than 48 hours. I think it should be enough time for them to reflect on their crimes and resolve to be better hamsters.

I open up the door between the two cages. At this moment, Pixie is wandering about restlessly.

But all too soon, because she keeps checking there, she discovers that the door to the castle is open.

Hurray! Pixie ventures into the castle happily.

While her tyrant sister is still sleeping in her gigantic tissue nest, Pixie invites herself into the luxurious castle wheel to enjoy its facilities.

She runs for a while, humming softly to herself, not too loud because she doesn’t want to wake her sister.

After some time, she decides that she’s tested fate enough for the day and quietly tiptoes her way back to her own cage before Picnic the Tyrant Queen Hamster can discover her.

At some point in time, Picnic the Tyrant Queen Hamster deigns to wake her royal self. She stretches her little bones out and then begins her daily stroll around the royal grounds.

Her royal walk takes her to the royal wheel where she prepares to start on her royal exercise for the day.

“What is this?” she booms.

Queen Picnic sniffs and peers around suspiciously.

“I smell the smell of a peasant ham!”

Outraged, Her Royal Highness Queen Picnic storms out of her wheel and calls her guards to arms as she marches off to dispense royal justice.

Carrot Stick and Milk Biscuit try to scamper after her, but they soon fall behind because one can only go so far without legs.

Very quickly, the resourceful queen discovers the source of the transgression.

With a cry of vengeance, the queen sweeps into Pixie’s cage… and comes upon a fallen cheese biscuit.

“Die, peasant!” she yells as she swoops onto it.

Satisfied with the sentence she has pronounced on the unsuspecting biscuit, the queen continues her patrol.

She discovers the village granary and claims its contents for the royal tax.

When the royal purse is stuffed so full that nothing else can go in, Queen Picnic continues on her queenly mission for world peace.

There!

The queen spies the Villain Pixie, Trespasser of Royal Wheel, who has unsuccessfully gone into hiding.

Yelling a queenly battle cry, Queen Picnic pounces on Villain Pixie and a tussle ensues. Fur and paws tumble together in a blur, and then the two bounce away from each other like magnets repelling.

Pronouncing herself victor, Queen Picnic squeals triumphantly and jumps into Villain Pixie’s wheel to celebrate her victory.

Pixie is somewhat traumatised. Since her cage and food and wheels have now been usurped by Picnic the Tyrant Queen Hamster, she has nowhere to go but into the castle.

She slinks away to the connector, through it, and into the castle. She hops into the royal wheel out of habit.

The two loony bins are now in each other’s wheels.

But, very soon, Her Royal Highness bores of Pixie’s wheel because it’s too small and peasantly for her royal bones. She swaggers haughtily back to the castle to seek out the luxurious royal wheel.

What is this?

The queen finds Villain Pixie, Trespasser of Royal Wheel, in the royal wheel, befouling it once again with her peasant self!

Enraged, Queen Picnic leaps into the royal wheel and goes for the jugular.

Squeak!

Pixie jumps out in fright and dashes for the connector. She rockets home in record time and sits quivering in her own peasantly backyard.

I seal off the connector before Queen Picnic can amass an army to give attack.

I fear they may have to be separated forever.

We shall see.

Coming Up Next: The Great Escape Artist