Journey to the Island of Halastia
Chapter 6: A "Piece" of Information
Neteru woke everyone inside the cargo bay and they all ran up to the front of the ship, repeating "Badda-Badda" as they did. Upon reaching the front of the ship, everyone looked out upon the island as it drew closer to them. The island was certainly large by hamster standards. What was also noticeable was the small town that was built along the shore of the island. The experience was like traveling by boat to New York City except without the Statue of Liberty and the tall sky scrapers. Curious about the city, Hamtaro asked Sabu, "Is that Zolphville?"
"It sure is." said Sabu. "One of the many cities that make up Halastia and it has the most busiest sea port than any other city in Halastia."
"Why is that?" asked Pashmina.
"The majority of ham-hams who leave or enter Halastia travel by boat." explained Sabu. "And the majority of visitors who come to Halastia are from Japan and Zolphville just so happens to be facing Japan."
"Also, Zolphville is were nearly all of the major import and export sites are located in Halastia." said the captain as he walked up to them.
"Hey Captain, thanks for giving us the ride." said Hamtaro.
"Yes, thank you." chorussed the other Ham-Hams.
"No problem." said the captain. "I was happy to do it. By the way, if you don't mind me saying so, why are all of you going to Halastia, anyway?"
"We need to see my cousin, Daruth." explained Sabu. "He lives in Zolphville."
"Is that so?" said the captain. "How long has he lived in Zolphville?"
"About three years." said Sabu. "Daruth and I were born and raised in the city called Spark, another one of the cities in Halastia."
"Were you and Daruth close?" asked Hamtaro as he and the other Ham-Hams began to eavesdrop.
"Yes actually." said Sabu. "We were like best friends. Infact, people often mistaken us for brothers."
"Interesting." said the captain. Upon realizing how close they were getting to the city, the captain said, "Oh, I need to get back to the control room. We will be reaching Halastia in about thirty minutes so pack up."
"Yes, captain." said Neteru. Neteru and the other Ham-Hams all headed back to the cargo bay so they could pack, repeating "Ticky-Ticky" along the way there.
Down in the dark and damp cargo bay, the Ham-Hams began to pack their bags, relieved that they were finally going to get off the boat.
"So Sabu, any idea as to what artifact Glabrezu is after?" asked Boss.
"I have no idea." said Sabu. "Daruth always had an interest in archaeology which is why he moved to Zolphville to work for the Halastia Museum. He keeps all sorts of artifacts in his home but what kind of artifacts he has is a mystery to me. Of-course, it has been a long time since the last time I saw Daruth. Who knows what he could have obtained since then."
"Whatever it is that Glabrezu is after, we must focus on catching him, not protecting the artifact." said Neteru. "Remember, our goal is to retrieve that magical stone that Glabrezu has so we can change everyone in town back to normal."
"But if Glabrezu wants it that badly, there must be something sinister about the artifact." said Mara. "Lives could be lost if he were to obtain it."
"Just because Glabrezu is a demon, doesn't mean that he intends on using it to cause harm." said Neteru. "But you are right, Mara. Odds are, Glabrezu is planning something sinister. However, we don't know what it is that Glabrezu is after. All we assume is that Daruth has what Glabrezu wants." From the top of the stairs, the captain called out, "We will be reaching Halastia any minute now so everyone please head back to the docks."
"You heard the man." said Sandy. "Lets get up there so we can get off of this boat."
"But I haven't finished packing." said Stan as he struggled to fit his portable sleeping mat into his back pack.
"Fine, I'll help you with that." said Sandy helping her brother. Once everyone finished packing and closed their back packs, Neteru and the other Ham-hams all put on their back packs and climbed up the stairs leading out of the cargo bay, repeating "Wasa-Wasa" as they did.
The Ham-Hams all watched as the ship began to park itself next to the docks. Just like the docks they had come from, this dock too also had shops, ships, and hamsters but in much more larger quantities. Laura and the former humans were overwhelmed by the sight of all these hamsters who were on their way to the their boats or shopping at all the shops. It was certainly very crowded and full of activity. The Ham-hams all were aloud off the boat after it had been tied down. A long board was used as a bridge to allow the Ham-Hams to step off the ship and onto the dock, surprising themselves with the sudden stillness of the ground. Even though they had only been out at sea for three days, the feeling of being on stable ground felt rather disorienting.
"I guess I don't have my land legs yet." said Hamtaro.
"A little walk should fix that." said Sabu. "Just follow me and I'll lead you guys to my cousin's house."
"Oh no, not more walking." whined Oxnard.
"It can't be that bad, can it?" asked Maxwell.
"It will become a long walk but we can handle it." said Sabu. "Come one, we need to get to Daruth." With a groan from Oxnard, they all began the long walk to Daruth's house.
Upon leaving the docks and entering the city, Laura and the other former humans began to realize how different Halastia was from Rokugon. Rokugon looked like a combination of an agricultural farm land and a seventeenth or sixteenth century town, at least in the part of the city they had seen. The city called Zolphville was little different from Rokugon but Zolphville looked more like a modern city. Instead of having the dirt roads that Rokugon had, it had paved roads that looked like miniature versions of human roads. There were also some cars on that road, something you would rarely see in Rokugon. None of the hamster-size cars ran on gas, however. They mostly ran on manual peddling (like the ones on the Ham-Ham Train) or by electricity and they came in many different varieties and sizes. Unlike Rokugon, there were also more modern looking houses and other technological advances such as stop lights, pay phones, and street lights. But perhaps the most stunning technological achievement of this city was it's public transportation. Zolphville possessed public transportation in the form of trains. The trains resembled those above-ground trains you see in San Francisco and just like in San Francisco, they ran along tracks built right into the road. The trains themselves looked more like basic trollies with rows of seats and no roof. Laura wanted to ride the little trains instead of walking but since they had no money, they could not ride the trains. Like in Rokugon, there were hamsters everywhere and while the majority of them were nude, some did wear hats or scarfs or any small pieces of clothing. Only a few wore more covering pieces of clothing such as pants, vests, shirts, skirts, etc. So far, they hadn't seen a ham-ham who was fully clothed.
They all walked along the sidewalks of the city, repeating "Wasa-Wasa" tiredly from all the walking.
"Aren't we there yet?" whined Howdy. "We've been walking for so long that I've got blisters on my blisters."
"Yeah, and I'm starving to death." complained Oxnard.
"Will you two quit your belly ache'n." said Dexter.
"Don't worry, guys, we're almost there." said Sabu. The Ham-Hams followed single file behind Sabu as he led them to a large house that was on the side of a hill. The house was painted bright green and it had a certain old fashioned elegance to it.
"This is it, the home of my cousin, Daruth." said Sabu. "I'll go knock on the door to let him know where here." The Ham-Hams all gathered at the foot of the steps leading to the front door. They watched as Sabu climbed up the steps to the door and rang the door bell. A minute later, the door was opened and they were greeted by the sight of a short hamster with large light brown spots all over his white fur. The ham-ham wore a large thick pare of glasses and a small gray vest. The large glasses caused the hamster's eyes to become larger than they really are, giving him that owl-like appearance.
"Cousin Sabu?" asked the hamster surprised. "Is that you?"
"Daruth, nice to see you again, cuz." said Sabu.
"It's great to see you too." said Daruth shaking Sabu's paw. "It has been a long time since you've come to visit. How's Francoise doing?"
"She's fine." said Sabu. "Oh Daruth, I've brought some friends of mine with me." Daruth immediately looked behind Sabu and noticed the large group of ham-hams behind him.
"Are they the friends you were talking about?" asked Daruth.
"Yep and they all came here." said Sabu. "I hope you don't mind." From the look on Daruth's stunned face, Neteru could tell that he did mind but none the less, he said, "Okay, Sabu, but will they cause any trouble."
"We wont cause too much trouble." said Hamtaro. "We promise."
"Well..." said Daruth uncertainly. "Okay, you guys can come in." Daruth stepped aside as everyone began to crowd into the building.
As they walked in, Sabu said to Daruth, "Let me introduce to you my friends." One by one, Sabu told Daruth the name of every Ham-Ham who walked in. "There's Hamtaro, Bijou, Laura, Oxnard, Kana, Boss, Pashmina, Penelope, June, Kylie, Howdy, Dexter, Travis, Sandy, Stan, Maxwell, Roberto, Cappy, Moonbeam, Panda, Neteru, Mara, and Terra." Daruth was surprised to see Terra since he had never seen a hedgehog before and it is rare to find an animal other than a ham-ham in a ham-ham dominated city. Everyone crowded into the living room which was decorated with ancient artifacts from hamster ancestors, including tribal masks, vases, small statues, ancient weapons, etc.
"Wow, what a collection you've got here." complemented Boss.
"Yes, each of these artifacts are very priceless so please do not touch anything." said Daruth. At that moment, Penelope noticed a beautiful blue vase nearby.
"Oh wow." said Penelope. She ran over to the vase and tried to pull it off the small podium it was on, saying "Grooba" as she did, but the vase was too heavy for Penelope and almost immediately, she began to tip over.
"Oh no, Penelope." said Pashmina upon seeing the vase in Penelope's paws. Boss immediately grabbed the vase as Penelope lost her grip, saving it from falling onto the ground and breaking, and Boss placed the vase back onto the counter. Daruth was not happy about seeing his vase so close to being broken.
"I said 'don't touch anything." shouted Daruth.
"Sorrwie." said Penelope with guilt about what she had done.
"Now Sabu, this is too much." said Daruth angrily.
"I'm sorry I brought so many here." said Sabu. "But this is an emergency."
"Emergency?" asked Daruth. Sabu was about to explain but then he was interrupted by a female voice from up stairs who said, "Daruth, what is all that shouting for?" Everyone turned their attention to the top of the stairs. There they saw a female hamster staring down upon them. Curious, she walked down the stairs towards the Ham-Hams. She was a young hamster with some light brown fur on her head and white on the rest of her body. On top of her head was a red barrette tied onto a small collection of fur strands. Another hamster, a male one, came up to the stairs in curiosity and he noticed the ham-hams below and decided to come down and find out who they are. Half of his face was light brown and the rest of him was white. The only thing he wore was a turtle shell that was strapped to his back.
The two hamsters walked down the stairs and examined the Ham-Hams.
"Who are they?" asked Sabu to Daruth.
"They're my roommates." explained Daruth.
"Roommates, huh." said Boss. Daruth was about to introduce to the Ham-Hams his roommates but he didn't have a chance when Stan wasted no time in introducing himself first. Stan ran over to the female ham-ham and said, "Hello, gorgeous, I'm Stan and I'm going to read some poetry for you. 'You're as beautiful as a sun flower, baby, and you smell just as sweet. You're a wonderful ham-ham girl and you look good enough to eat.'" The girl blushed from the sudden string of complements. She began to rub her head with her paws, repeating "Kushi-Kushi" as she did.
"What's your name, beautiful?" asked Stan.
"I'm Barrette." said the ham-girl. She then pointed towards the male hamster and said, "And this is my boyfriend, Seamore." Upon hearing that the other hamster was her boyfriend, Stan looked up at Seamore and realized that Seamore was giving him a nasty stare that indicated that he was not happy about the way Stan was flirting at his girlfriend. Stan quickly backed away from Barrette. Lucky for Stan, Seamore was not the type who can easily become jealous, or violent.
"So who are you guys, anyway?" asked Seamore, taking his attention away from Stan.
"We're the Ham-Hams." said Hamtaro. "We all came here with Sabu."
"When did you guys move in?" asked Sabu.
"Seamore and I own a photo shop down town." said Barrette. "We didn't have the money to buy a house of our own yet so Daruth offered to allow us to stay here until we have the money to buy our own house."
"That's nice of you, cuz." said Sabu to Daruth.
"So anyway, why are you guys here to look at Daruth's artifacts?" asked Seamore.
"How did you know that?" asked Neteru.
"Barrette and I over heard you." explained Seamore.
"Oh, well, the reason why we're here is because everyone in our town has been turned to stone by a demon named Glabrezu." said Neteru. Neteru expected the reaction to this statement to be one of disbelief or confusion. He didn't anticipate what happened next. Barrette screamed in terror and fainted backwards into Seamore's arms, frightened upon hearing the name "Glabrezu."
"What's wrong, Barrette?" asked Mara.
"Did you say you have met Glabrezu before?" asked Barrette shakily.
"Yes, why do you ask?" asked Mara.
"We've met Glabrezu before." admitted Seamore.
"You have?" asked Mara in surprise. Barrette nodded her head. There was a silence amongst the Ham-Hams as they realized that Glabrezu has terrorized others.
"So you say that this 'demon' has changed everyone to stone?" said Daruth changing the subject.
"Yes, with a magical stone and we think that Glabrezu is here and if so, then so is the stone." said Moonbeam.
"But why do you think Glabrezu wants to come here for?" asked Daruth.
"Because we found this." said Neteru. He pulled out the map from his back pack and gave it to Daruth. Daruth looked at the map and was surprised to see the red writing on it. "Because the map had your name on it, we figured that you must be the one Glabrezu is after."
"But how do you know it is me?" asked Daruth. "Zolphville has a population of over 4,000. There could be more than one Daruth here."
"Heke!" chorussed the Ham-Hams.
"You mean we came all this way for nothing?" said Howdy.
"Now now, Howdy." said Terra. "There is still a chance that we have the right Daruth."
"So you guys came all this way because you think Glabrezu will come here to steal one of my artifacts?" asked Daruth.
"Yes." said Neteru. "We figured we could catch him in the act so we could steal that stone he had used to turn everyone into stone. Could you take us to see your artifacts?"
"Okay, I'll take you upstairs and show you my collection." said Daruth.
Daruth led Neteru, Mara, Terra, and Moonbeam up into his "collection room" and Seamore and Barrette followed them. The room was like an attic with lots of dust covered objects and supplies. Most of it was in boxes but some of it were on shelves or hanging on the walls.
"I doubt we can figure out what Glabrezu is after by searching through a bunch of boxes." said Terra.
"He's most likely after something magical." said Neteru. "That's one way of narrowing it down."
"But that might not also be the issue as well." said Terra. As they continued to discuss what to do, Moonbeam noticed that Barrette still looked a bit shaken up by the mentioning of Glabrezu.
"Barrette, do you mind telling us how you met Glabrezu?" asked Moonbeam. Barrette just looked up at Moonbean questioningly but decided to tell them.
"About a year ago, Glabrezu kidnapped me and held me hostage." said Barrette. "He then tortured me, trying to get me to talk and when he was finally convince that I had no information that was a value to him, he released me." Tears began to well up in Barrette's eyes as she remembered that day.
"What was Glabrezu after?" asked Mara.
"He said that he thought that I had something called 'The Giga Stone." said Barrette. Upon hearing the name, Moonbeam's mouth dropped open and Neteru and Mara were also concerned as well. The same thought ran through their minds as they realized what this meant: Glabrezu was after the Giga Stone. The Giga Stone was created by the Ham-Ham Goddess named Neanna. She created the stone to allow her to guide the planet's evolution. The Giga Stone is so powerful that if anyone gets their hands on it, they could have the power to create or destroy anything on Earth. The magic of the stone radiates powerful magical energies that can be easily detected. To conceal the stone's power so it wont be found by evil forces, it was decided to use magic to place the stone inside someone in order to hide its magic from detection. After Moonbeam's entire family was murdered, she volunteered to allow Neteru to cast the spell that will hide the stone within her. After hearing Barrette's story, they went back to work, searching through all the artifacts, hoping to figure out what Glabrezu was after. All the while, Moonbeam kept a paw to her chest, knowing the even now, that magical artifact was still inside her and if Glabrezu found out, she would be put in the same position as Barrette.
Daruth showed them all the magical artifacts he had. From recently made nik naks to ancient magical tools, they searched through boxes of them and although some are very valuable, none of them seemed useful to a demon. As Daruth pulled out all of these artifacts from the boxes, he laid them out all over the floor. Neteru was becoming frustrated and he was beginning to believe that they were wasting their time. Terra was also beginning to think the same thing until she placed her paw onto a nearby box and she suddenly felt the presence of a strong psychic force that was calling her. Curious, Terra opened the box and there, on top of some old artifacts, was a strange looking piece of gold. The piece was in the shape of a pizza slice and it was almost an inch long which, to a hamster or a hedgehog, was really large. The piece was flat and and thick and at the pointy tip of the piece, Terra could see a raised bar of some kind.
"Daruth, what is this?" asked Terra. Daruth was in the middle of showing Neteru a magic sword when he heard Terra talking.
"That's a Caidoz piece." said Daruth.
"Caidoz?" asked Terra.
"Yes, one of twelve identical pieces." explained Daruth. "They are located in various areas and I just so happen to have one."
"What do they do?" asked Moonbeam.
"No one knows." said Daruth. "Who made the Caidoz pieces, how long ago they were made, and where they come from is all one big mystery. Some sorcerers and psions have tried to find some form of psionic or magical feature about them but they just can't seem to unlock their power. However, according to legend, it is said that the pieces are designed to come together and form one large wheel. However, many ham-hams have tried to put the pieces together but all have failed because the pieces have no way of attaching to each other despite how well the fit together."
"Neteru, do you think Glabrezu might be after this?" asked Terra.
"What do you think?" asked Neteru.
"My psionic senses tell me that Glabrezu is after this." said Terra.
"And that is what I think too." said Neteru. "If your hunch is right, then Glabrezu might be going after the other eleven pieces as well. Perhaps he knows how to put the pieces together and he knows what they are capable of."
"But we don't know that for sure." said Moonbeam.
"That may be true but since we have no other alternatives, we might have to depend on our powers." said Neteru. "And there is one way we can test if the piece really is what Glabrezu is after."