Walk A Mile In Your Shoes
Chapter 4: Breaking Into the City Library
Hamtaro stirred awake the next morning. He stretched out and said "Oowah" in a yawn. He and Laura were still in the wooden blue box they had slept in last night and Laura was finally beginning to awaken.
"Good morning, Laura." said Hamtaro as he sat up.
"Good morning, Hamtaro." said Laura as she too got into an upright position. Suddenly, their sensitive hearing picked up the sound of someone entering the room. The two began to panic.
"Wait here." said Hamtaro as he crawled out of the little box. Upon coming out into the open, Hamtaro quickly realized that it was Marion, Laura's mom, who had entered the room.
"Well good morning, Hamtaro." said Marion. Laura tried to resist the temptation to shout out or reveal herself because she knew that Marion wouldn't hear her and what would Marion think when she sees a second hamster in the cage. Marion pulled out a bag of sun flower seeds and placed a handful of them into Hamtaro's food tray.
"Now that Laura is not here to take care of you, she has asked me to do it." explained Marion to Hamtaro. Marion noticed that Hamtaro's water bottle was low so she pulled off the bottle and left the room to refill it. Hamtaro ran over to his tray and pulled out three sun flower seeds. He ran over to the box where Laura hid and gave them to here.
"Something to snack on until your mom comes back." explained Hamtaro. Laura took the sun flower seeds and began to eat them. About a minute later, Marion came back with the water bottle. She attached it to the cage and then left. By then, it was safe for Laura to come out into the open to have breakfast even though eating inside a hamster cage was not something Laura ever thought she would be doing.
After breakfast, Laura and Hamtaro snuck out of the cage and left to the Clubhouse. Upon entering the Clubhouse, they found everyone had come, including all the other humans who had been turned into ham-hams.
"Hamha, Ham-Hams." greeted Hamtaro. "Has Neteru or Mara come back yet."
"No, Neteru and Mara hasn't shown up at zee Clubhouse, yet." said Bijou.
"I wonder where they could be?" asked Hamtaro. Laura and Hamtaro got a seat at the table as they listened to all the side chit chat.
"I do hope that Neteru can find some way of bring us back." said Laura.
"Don't worry, Laura, Neteru would never let us down." said Bijou.
"Yeah, I'm sure...." said Boss but before he could finish, there was a blinding what light as Mara and Neteru teleported into the room.
"Ahh, don't do that." said Boss.
"Sorry about that, Boss." apologized Mara.
"So, do you have any news for us?" asked Travis. Everyone fell quiet listening to what news they had for them.
"As you may know, I couldn't find anything in Maxwell's library so I went out looking for other places to look." explained Neteru. "But there are no other libraries that are hamster size which means that we have to check in human libraries."
"Are there any in this town?" asked Cappy as he lifted up his pot over his head.
"Only one." said Neteru. "But we face many challenges in going there, though. Human books are too large for us to lift out of a shelf without some risk of safety."
"So? You can use your magic to lift those books and...." said Boss.
"I'm afraid, it's not that simple." said Neteru. "The library is open 24/7 so there are humans there all the time. The use of magic would be far too noticeable thus we run the risk of being caught if I used magic."
"But why the big secrecy, anyway?" asked June. "Why must you keep your intelligence a secret from humans?"
"Because the human race has a tendency to fear what they don't understand." answered Mara. "If humans found out that ham-hams are smarter than they look, they may do experiments on us or even fear us. It would change our way of life forever." Laura thought about that concept and realized Mara was right.
"But there has to be some way of looking through that library without anyone being suspicious." said Pashmina.
"Ookwee." agreed Penelope but no one had any immediate ideas.
Suddenly, an idea came to Panda.
"I know, we can get Mimi to help us." said Panda.
"Mimi?" asked Neteru. "How could she help?"
"We can guide her to the library and she can search through the books for us." explained Panda. "We can remain in hiding next to her and through our guidance, she will search through the books we need." Neteru and Mara thought about this and smiles crossed their faces.
"That might just work." said Neteru. There was some exited conversation amongst the ham-hams but the former humans were some what confused.
"Who's Mimi?" asked Travis.
"You don't mean my cousin Mimi, do you?" asked Kana.
"Of-course we do." said Neteru.
"But how can she help us?" asked Laura.
"Well, remember how I mentioned that some humans have a rare gift to understand the ham-ham language?" said Hamtaro. "Well, Mimi is one of them." Kana's mouth was wide open.
"I don't believe it." said Kana. "Mimi always told us that she could hear hamsters talk but I never realized that she literally could."
"Come on, gang." said Neteru. "To Mimi's house we go."
Using an underground tunnel, they walked all the way to Mimi's house located in a shop on the other side of town. Eventually, the Ham-Hams reached the all too familiar home of Kana's aunt, uncle, and cousins. They all ran around the house repeating "Badda-Badda" as they went. They came to the back entrance and there, they found Mimi playing tea party with the china dolls she got for her birthday. She had a small pink plastic table that was small enough for the dolls. She also had some plastic cups and a bowl full of real peanuts.
"There she is." said Panda as all the Ham-Hams gathered behind him.
"And look, she eez playing tea party." said Bijou.
"And look at those peanuts." said Oxnard hungrily.
"Lets get in closer." said Hamtaro. They all walked towards Mimi repeating "Wasa-Wasa" as they walked. The former humans couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about walking up to Mimi primarily because this small girl was now much more taller than they were now.
"Hey Mimi." said Panda.
"Oh." said Mimi. She turned her head and saw the Ham-Hams. Mimi greeted the miniature visitors with a smile. "Panda, you brought the Ham-Hams over. Would you guys want some peanuts?" Mimi picked up the bowl full of peanuts and offered it to the Ham-Hams.
"Don't mind if I do." said Oxnard and before anyone could stop him, he ran over to the bowl and began eating the peanuts. Mimi giggled.
"Oh Oxnard, you're so funny." said Mimi.
"Mimi, we have come here asking for your help." said Neteru.
"Oh, what is it, Snoozer?" asked Mimi.
"My name is Neteru." corrected Neteru. "We really need your help, Mimi. See those ham-hams over there?" Neteru pointed to the former humans.
"Yeah, I see them." said Mimi.
"Well, one of them is Kana and the rest are four of her friends." explained Neteru. "They have all been changed into ham-hams through some evil spell and we need your help in order to break the spell."
"Really?" said Mimi surprised. "Which one of you is Kana?"
"I am." said Kana timidly as she raised her paw. Mimi leaned over until she was face to face with Kana.
"Wow, Kana, you're a hamster." said Mimi. "Oh, you're so cute. Can I be a ham-ham, too?"
"I'm afraid not." said Neteru. "Listen, we need to change them back. Can you help us?"
"What is it you want me to do?" asked Mimi as she sat up.
"We need you to go to the city library and help us find a book that will hopefully hold the key to reversing this spell." said Neteru. "Do you think you can sneak out of here without letting your family know you're gone.
"The city library?" asked Mimi. "I don't know. I've never been outside of the house by myself before."
"Don't worry." reassured Neteru. "We will be at your side the whole time to guide you through everything you need to do."
"Please, Mimi." pleaded Kana. "We really need your help." Mimi didn't want to let her cousin down so she agreed.
"Excellent." said Neteru. "Know, where is your mom?"
"She and Tina went to buy groceries." said Mimi.
"What about your brothers?" asked Neteru.
"They are at a friend's house." said Mimi. "Only me and daddy is the house."
"And where is your father?" asked Neteru.
"Down stairs working on another project of his." said Mimi.
"Do you think he would notice if you were gone?" asked Neteru.
"Doubt it." said Mimi. "Whenever he is working on something in the basement, he always spends several hours down there."
"Perfect." said Hamtaro. "That means we can go immediately."
"Mimi, do you have a small bag you can carry us in?" asked Mara.
"Let me check." said Mimi. She walked over to a nearby drawer and searched inside it. She looked through all the clothing and found a small plastic pink purse.
"Will this work?" asked Mimi.
"That will do perfectly." said Neteru. "But it's not enough for all of us. We will have to travel light." He faced the Ham-Hams. "Myself, Mara, and Hamtaro will go with Mimi to the library while you guys stay here and try and make sure that no one notices that Mimi is gone. They all agreed to the plan and everyone got themselves ready.
Mimi put on her shoes and boldly walked out of the house as quietly as she could so her father wouldn't hear her leave. She carried the small purse she had and inside was Hamtaro, Mara, and Neteru. Mimi was obviously nervous but determined to help, after all, the Ham-Hams have done so much for her already. Neteru carefully guided Mimi along the sidewalks until she reached the City Library which looked more like the White House than a library. The huge building dwarfed Mimi as she stepped into the place. Even from the inside, the interior reflected the large size of the library. The large library was filled with wooden furniture all polished to a beautiful shine. Neteru, Mara, and Hamtaro stuck their heads out of the purse to see what is going on. Neteru led Mimi through the library. Fortunately, the library was not as crowded as Neteru feared.
Neteru led Mimi to the computers that had the book listings. Each one had a black background on the screen and words written in green.
"Now, find a vacant computer and take a seat in front of it." instructed Neteru. Mimi found a computer and sat down in front of it. "Type in 'magical incantations." Despite Mimi's unfamiliarity with computers and key boards, Mimi managed to type in the word it as Neteru spelt it out for her. "Click 'okay." Mimi clicked the "okay" button using the mouse and a short list of matches appeared. Neteru told Mimi to scroll down the list as Neteru read all the books.
"Stop" ordered Neteru when he noticed a particular book which was entitled "Magical Artifacts of Our Universe."
"Mimi, it's that book we're looking for." said Neteru.
"Which one?" asked Mimi. "I don't know how to read yet."
"It's the book called 'Magical Artifacts of Our Universe." said Neteru. "Now, we just have to write the book's code number and then we can search for it." Neteru noticed a pad of paper next to the computer. Also nearby was a pen connected by a chain attached to the table. Neteru leaped out of the purse and ran over to the pen. He lifted up the pen saying "Grooba" as he lifted the pen. Although he was a little awkward with the pen, he wrote down the number of the book on the paper. Neteru then tore off the paper from the pad and gave it to Mimi.
"Now Mimi, click 'log out." said Neteru. Using the mouse, Mimi clicked on the "Log Out" button on the screen and the computer reverted back to the main screen.
Neteru led Mimi through the bookshelves searching through the books by the code numbers written on the spines of the books. Mimi managed to find the book entitled "Magical Artifacts of Our Universe" and pulled it out. The book was heavy and it looked like it hadn't left the shelf in years. As Mimi carried the book to a nearby table, Hamtaro asked, "How could a book on magic exist in a human library?"
"Although humans are oblivious to magic, they are not entirely oblivious." answered Neteru.
"Oblivious?" said Hamtaro. "What does that mean?" Neteru didn't answer because Mimi had already put the book on a table and was ready to flip through the pages. Neteru looked around the room to make sure no one was looking. Certain that no one would see them, Neteru, Mara, and Hamtaro jumped out of the purse saying "Oopaa" as they did.
"Okay, open the book and flip through the pages until you find the table of contents." said Neteru. Mimi did as she was told and with Neteru's guidance, she went through several of the sections that might be useful. After about thirty minutes without success, Mimi came across a page that talked about an artifact called the Ankorbak Pylons. Neteru's eyes were wide with surprise when he noticed a picture of the pylons and realized that they were the exact same pylons he saw in his dream. Although it was only an artist's conceptual drawing, it was a perfect match. Neteru read the article under picture:
The Ankorbak Pylons were believed to be a tool of the gods. With this artifact, people could actually summon spells with the power of a deity. Very little is known about this artifact, only that it exists in a city called Ankorbak.
The voice of the hedgehog's message played out in Neteru's mind: "Ankorbak is within your reach. Once you find your purpose to go there, first travel to a ham-ham city called Rokugon and find the ancient seer." Neteru's vision all made sense now.
"This is like my dream." said Neteru.
"Heke?" said Hamtaro. "What dream?"
"You mean your vision?" asked Mara.
"Yes, it all makes sense now." said Neteru. "This artifact is bound to be the only way to bring those humans back to normal and it says right here that it is in a city called Ankorbak. This is what the dream was trying to tell me. We were meant to go to Ankorbak so we can change those humans back."
"So we're going to Ankorbak to find these pylons?" asked Hamtaro.
"Yes but we must first go to the city of Rokugon and find some ancient seer first." said Neteru.
"Why must we see a seer?" asked Mara.
"Perhaps he or she has some kind of clue to finding the city." said Neteru.
"Rokugon will be a long trip." pointed out Mara.
"I know." said Neteru. "But it is the only way and besides, it is obvious fate or some other divine force wants us to go and if so, perhaps we may have a bigger purpose in going than even I have expected."