Journey to the Island of Halastia
Chapter 9: Devil's Island
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful for our heroes. Neteru and his companions spent much of the day riding that zeppelin bored out of their minds. With nothing to look at but open ocean and with little else to do, the flight became long and boring really fast. They played more games with Terra's spare tarot cards but that was quickly getting boring as well. Much of the trip was spent just sitting around and telling stories and they even played charades before going to bed. The rest of the Ham-Hams also had their problems as well but their problems revolved more around over exertion than boredom because the they didn't have the luxury of flying to their destinations. They all had to walk and many of them were beginning to grow tired and weak. The group that followed Harmony took a small hamster size trail to Rokugon. Harmony led the way and despite how much work they had to go through to walk to Rokugon, Harmony was still enjoying herself and she was not tiring at all. The other team that split up to find the girls were just as tired. They managed to find the river Harmony had mentioned and, with the help of Maxwell's compass, they followed North up the river to find the tribe that held the girls hostage. By the time night had fallen, all of the Ham-Hams curled up into a restful night sleep, sleeping on the portable sleeping mats they had brought with them and thus ended day two of their journey...
The sun rose in the distance, announcing the beginning of the third day since the Ham-Hams left Halastia and that sun light rose over all of Japan, including over a large brick building. This building was a single prison cell and contained inside, the eight kidnapped ham-girls remained imprisoned at the mercy of the tribe. The inside of the large cell was made out of cement and bricks, making the cell look more like a dungeon, scaring the girls out of their wits with its morbid appearance. Just two days ago, after Spat discovered that none of them had the Giga Stone, the girls were left to this horrible looking tribe of ham-hams who want to harm them. The tribal chief had mentioned that he was planning on using the girls in a sacrificial ritual. The ham-girls had no idea what this ritual could be but they can tell that it can't be good.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, its light filtered through a single barred window in the cell. Its light cast out onto the floor where the girls slept.
"ZuZuZu." repeated the girls as they slept. One by one, they were all awoken from the cold hard ground, the bright morning sun shining in their faces.
"Oowah, morning everyone." yawned Sandy.
"My back hurts." complained Bijou. "Zis eez not comfortable at all."
"I'll have to agree with you on that one, Bijou." said Kylie. As they awoke, they all huddled together in a circle for comfort. Despite how warm it was outside, the inside of the cell was surprisingly cold, leaving the girls to huddle for warmth. As they huddled, a small compartment door opened and a tray full of sun flower seeds was pushed into the cell through the door. Seeing the food that was brought to them, Pashmina walked over to the tray and carried it to the other girls, repeating "Ticky-Ticky" as she did. She placed the tray in the center of the circle the ham-hams had made and they all began to eat the seeds, saying "Packa-Packa" and "Krmp-Krmp" slowly because they were not in the mood for eating.
"Ookwee." whined Penelope as she began to cry.
"What's wrong, Penelope?" asked Pashmina.
"I'm scured." said Penelope which means "I'm scared" in her untested vocabulary.
"It's all right, Penelope." reassured Pashmina. "We'll get out of here some how."
"Zis eez offal." said Bijou. "We're caged like wild animals, waiting to be slaughtered."
"We'll, like, never get out of here." said Sandy.
"Don't say that, you two." said Laura. "Hamtaro and the others is no doubt on his way over here to save us."
"But they don't know we were left here." pointed out Kana.
"And by the time they find use, we might be already dead." said Kylie. There was a silence in the cell as that horrible realization occurred to everyone.
"Ookwee." cried Penelope.
"Now you girls have scared Penelope." scold Pashmina.
"I'm sorry, Penelope." said Kylie.
"Yeah and even though our chances are bleak, we can still get out of here somehow." said Laura. "Perhaps we can escape from here by ourselves."
"How?" asked Kana. Out of hesitation, Laura created a sweat drop on her head in response.
"I don't know." admitted Laura. There was another silence as their hope of a rescue once again disappeared.
Meanwhile, several miles away, a small hamster size zeppelin was flying high over open ocean and upon the zeppelin, Neteru and his companions slept soundly on board, repeating "ZuZuZu" as they slept. A strong cold breeze blew by, causing their fur to ruffle in the wind. This suddenly breeze awoke Mara, who was a light sleeper. Mara opened her eyes slowly and shivering a bit from the cold breeze.
"Oowah." yawned Mara as she sat up and stretched. She awoken to realized that her companions still slept soundly around her, particular Terra who was curled up into a ball while she slept. Because of her quills, Terra preferred to sleep on her belly and rolled into a ball like that but whenever she did that, her quills stuck out everywhere. Because of this, she had to sleep on her back during the boat ride to Halastia because of how crowded it was. Now that she had more room to spread out her quills, she now slept all curled up, causing herself to look like a round cactus who was breathing softly. The cold breeze that continued to blow caused Terra's quills to sway in the breeze, making those long quills look like they were alive. With a smile, Mara walked up to Terra to see if there was some way she could wake Terra up. Using her magic staff, Mara poked at Terra's body through the forest of quills on her back.
"Wake up, Terra." said Mara quietly. The poking finally awoke Terra from her slumber. She unrolled herself, folding her quills along her back in the process.
"Morning, Mara." yawned Terra. Terra got onto her feet, enjoying the cool breeze that flowed around her. Noticing that the others were asleep, Terra asked, "Should we wake them up?"
"Yes and I know just the way to do it." said Mara. Mara leaned over to Terra's ear, being careful not to poke herself with Terra's quills, and whispered her idea to Terra.
A few minutes later, the two mischievous girls picked up a few pots and pans and began to bang them loudly with metal spoons.
"Wake up, you guys." shouted the two girls. The noise woke up Neteru, Moonbeam, Sabu, and Daruth instantly, scarring them out of their senses. Mara and Terra laughed at their little joke.
"Mara, why did you have to go and do that?" asked Neteru, irritated.
"Sorry but I couldn't resist." said Mara. "Besides, I have to make a lot of noise to wake you up because you're one heavy sleeper." Playfully, Neteru threw his pillow at Mara. Sabu walked over to the steering wheel, repeating "Wasa-Wasa" as he did.
"Could someone please look out over the deck to see where we're heading?" said Sabu.
"I'll do it." said Moonbeam. She ran over to the front of the zeppelin, repeating "Chick-ah Chick-ah" as she did. Moonbeam walked over to the nose of the zeppelin and looked out over the open ocean. To her surprise, an island was in the distance but the island didn't look like Halastia. This island was barren and blood red without a single trace of life on the island. The island had a hamster sized volcano in the center of it and the volcano itself was clearly active. Moonbeam didn't know why but the sight of the island itself sent a shiver down her spine as if some kind of evil radiated from the island itself. Moonbeam's small heart raced as she felt an intense fear flow through her body but why she felt so afraid was unknown to her.
"What do you see, Moonbeam?" asked Sabu.
"There's an island." said Moonbeam, not taking her eyes off the island. "But there is something not right about it."
"What's wrong?" asked Terra.
"I don't know but there is something evil there." said Moonbeam. Curious, Neteru, Terra, and Mara walked over to the front of the zeppelin and when they saw the island, the same horrible feeling past through them, just as it did to Moonbeam.
"You guys feel it too?" asked Moonbeam.
"Yes and there is indeed a strong negative force coming from that island." said Neteru. "No wonder why Glabrezu likes this island so much. It's the perfect breeding ground for such an evil creature."
"You mean were going there?" asked Moonbeam. "Oh man, I don't like this."
"Neither do I but we got to get that magic stone away from Glabrezu." said Neteru.
"Atata." said Moonbeam in response.
After breakfast, Sabu reluctantly drove the zeppelin towards the island and he landed it safely onto the island's beach. However, that beach didn't look like one someone would want to visit because it had blood red sand and lots of rocks. There were so many rocks on that beach that Sabu had to be careful not to land on any as he lowered the zeppelin onto a small patch of bare land. Once they landed, everyone got out to help tie the zeppelin down with ropes so that it wont fly away. Once that was done, Terra, Neteru, Mara, and Moonbeam all gathered their supplies, ready to search for Glabrezu. Sabu and Daruth wanted to stay behind since they would be rather useless against someone as powerful as Glabrezu. As the two of them sat inside the zeppelin, Neteru and the others stood outside the zeppelin, ready to go.
"Good luck." said Sabu.
"Thanks." said Neteru. "We're going to need all the luck we can get."
"Just wait here for us." said Mara.
"Will do." said Sabu. "Bye-Q."
"Bye-Q, you guys." said Moonbeam as she followed Neteru and the others into the barren dry land of the island.
The island was just as barren and desolate as it appeared from the sky. The ground was covered in what appeared to be dead blades of grass as well as the crimson colored soil and rocks. The sight of the red ground frightened Mara and Moonbeam because it reminded them of blood. As they walked closer to the volcano, that ominous feeling began to grow more intense inside of them, as if there was a powerful will from an evil source that was coursing through their bodies. Neteru knew what this feeling was. It was the feeling of a tainted land. He had heard stories of places that were so evil, the very land itself was tainted. No plant could grow on the soil without it being tainted. No water can flew through the land without it being tainted. And it was said that if you tread into such an evil place, the evil presence itself will corrupt your mind and reduce you to an insane entity, a slave to the will of evil. Neteru prayed to himself that the last part of those stories were not true...
Meanwhile, back in Japan, Harmony led her group of adventurers to their destination: Rokugon. The five adventurers (Harmony, Cappy, Panda, Oxnard, and Roberto) had reached the long stone wall that surrounded Rokugon like a fortress protecting its people. Roberto, who had never seen Rokugon before, asked, "What's the wall for?"
"I don't know but I'm sure that they have a good reason for putting it here." said Harmony.
"I can't help but admire the craftsmanship of this wall." said Panda. "It's so beautiful."
"We can look at the wall later." said Roberto. "Right now, lets focus on how we're going to get over this thing."
"I see a gate over there." said Cappy as he pointed towards the right. As everyone's gaze moved towards the direction of Cappy's finger, they quickly realized that he was right. There was an entrance into the city over there. They all ran towards the gate, repeating "Badda-Badda" as they ran.
They came up to the gate to find it wide open. To their surprise, there was a samurai (dressed in green samurai armor) sleeping near the gate. The samurai was presumably the guard who was supposed to be guarding the entrance. Making sure that they didn't wake the samurai, they tip toed into Rokugon. Once they had gone past the guard, they continued on their path into Rokugon. Along the dirt roads they were walking on, there was a fork in the road. The road on the right led to the city while the left road led to the more rural parts of Rokugon.
"So where to next?" asked Harmony.
"How about we see our friend Soshi." suggested Oxnard. "I bet she can help us."
"Soshi?" asked Harmony. "Does she live around here."
"If I remember correctly, she lives down that way." said Panda as he pointed towards the rural parts of town.
"Then lets go down there." said Harmony. The five adventurers walked down the road, repeating "Wasa-Wasa" as they walked. As they entered into the rural parts of Rokugon, they were quickly surrounded by familiar sights and smells from the last time they were here. The town looked like Hobbiton from the "Lord of the Rings" movies, with its houses that were built into hills, lots of tall blades of grass (large by a hamster's perspective), and plenty of ham-hams just living out their simplistic lives. For those few ham-hams who wore cloths, they wore simple cotton shirts, hats, scarves, or vests that weren't terribly stylish but they were charming none the less.
"So who is this Soshi, anyway?" asked Roberto.
"Soshi is a samurai friend of ours." explained Panda. "We met her the last time we came here."
"What's a samurai?" asked Roberto.
"The samurai are a team of dedicated warriors whose job is to protect Rokugon." explained Harmony. "Each samurai family is assigned to a different clan and they serve that clan without question. In addition to their servitude towards their clans, samurai are also required to follow the rules of Bushido which is a samurai's honor code. There are nine tenets in the code of Bushido: Honesty, Courage, Compassion, Courtesy, Honor, Sincerity, Duty, Responsibility, and Family. All these tenets are basically the samurais' highest priorities."
"Sounds tough." said Roberto. "How do you know so much about samurai?"
"I was there when they first started the religion over five-thousand years ago." said Harmony.
"Heke!" chorused the Ham-Hams.
"You mean to tell us that you're over five-thousand years old?" asked Roberto.
"Yes but don't I look young for my age?" said Harmony cheerfully. While everyone else was too stunned to talk, Oxnard was the first to notice the familiar house nearby.
"There's her house." said Oxnard as he pointed over to house. "That's Soshi's home, I know it."
"Are you sure?" asked Cappy skeptically.
"I'm sure all right." said Oxnard. "Come on." Oxnard ran over to the house with everyone else following him, repeating "Badda-Badda" as they ran.
They ran up to the front door of the house and Oxnard knocked on it gently. The door was opened a ham-ham but it wasn't Soshi. It was instead a ham-ham they had never met before. The ham-ham had a white front and her back was orange. Tied to her left ear was a single purple ribbon. In her arms, the ham-ham held, presumably, her infant son who was wrapped in a white blanket. The little hamster had the same orange and white coloration as his mother. The ham-ham looked at Oxnard and the others curiously before she asked, "Can I help you?"
"Oh, sorry." said Oxnard while blushing in embarrassment. "I think we must have the wrong house. Tell me, do you know where Soshi lives?"
"Soshi?" asked the ham-ham. "She doesn't live here anymore."
"She doesn't?" asked Oxnard. "Then where is she?"
"Why, she's the new daimyo for the Sun Flower clan." said the ham-ham.
"Heke?" chorused the Ham-Hams. They were shocked by the news. A daimyo is a leader to a samurai clan and some how, Soshi became the new daimyo to her clan.
"If you want to see her, you can find her in that mansion in the city." said the ham-ham.
"Okay, thank you." said Oxnard before the ham-ham closed the door in his face. Oxnard then turned to his companions and said, "Wow, Soshi's the new daimyo."
"I guess after Tamori died, they gave his job to Soshi." said Panda.
"But where does Soshi live now?" asked Harmony.
"I remember where that is." said Oxnard. "Follow me." Oxnard immediately ran off in the other direction with the others following, repeating "Badda-Badda" as they did.
Oxnard led them clear out of the rural parts of town and into the city. The city was not as advanced looking as Zolphville. It had a more primitive look to it, kind of like a second or third century Asian city with its tall buildings made of plane wood and gravel covered roads. But just like any city, this one too was crawling with activity with ham-hams of all social statuses going about their daily lives. Once they managed to pass through the city, they came across a stone castle that was twice the size of a doll house and located a bit distant from the rest of the buildings but not by much. It looked like a typical European style castle with a hint of Chinese culture.
"Isn't that where Tamori used to live?" asked Cappy.
"Yep and if Soshi is the new daimyo, she must have inherited it." said Oxnard. "Lets go in." The five adventurers ran over to the front door where a large samurai guard stood guard. After they explained to the guard that they are friends of Soshi and that they must see her, the guard granted them permission to come in and he led them through the large rooms and hallways of the castle.
The guard led them to a large bedroom where they saw a ham-ham, dressed in red samurai armor, who was sitting in a chair and writing in a diary.
"Daimyo Soshi, you have visitors." said the guard. The samurai in the chair stood up and when she turned around to face the visitors, it was confirmed that it was Soshi. Soshi looked no different than the last time they had seen her. In addition to her red armor, she also still had her katana (samurai long sword) and wakizashi (samurai short sword) on her belt. If she weren't wearing that armor, it would reveal that she was white with brownish-yellow spots all over her body and one spot that was over her right eye. At first glance, she didn't recognize her visitors.
"Who are you?" asked Soshi.
"Don't you remember us?" asked Oxnard. "My name's Oxnard, Hamtaro's best friend."
"Oh yeah." said Soshi as she began to recognized them. "Now I remember you. And if I'm remembering correctly, the black and white one is Panda while the one with the hat is Cappy. But I don't remember the other two."
"My name is Harmony." said Harmony.
"And I'm Roberto." said Roberto.
"Nice to meet you." said Soshi. "What brings you all here?" They began to tell her the story involving what happened to the town, Glabrezu, the Caidoz pieces, and how the girls were kidnapped. When they were finally done, Soshi was shocked at this news.
"I don't believe it." said Soshi. "So you say that this Spat is after the Caidoz piece?"
"Yes and we need to stop him." said Harmony.
"Indeed, I know the Caidoz piece that you seek." said Soshi.
"Heke, you do?" chorused the Oxnard.
"Yes, just last night, a prowler tried to break into the museum that held the Caidoz piece but a samurai managed to scare him off."
"That must mean that Spat is already here." said Roberto.
"We must stop him." said Harmony.
"I can get Nin-Ham and Topaz to help us." said Soshi.
"Good idea because we may need all the help we can get..." said Oxnard.