Chapter 7: ...Hat Balloon?
With Caitlin, Natsu, and Megan...
"Well, we're not having any luck finding things to get to Hamster City with, are we?" Caitlin inquired with a slightly pained voice.
Natsu and Megan shook their heads. Megan spent a few moments in thought before she suggested, "What about balloons?"
"Hmm...that would be pretty convenient," Natsu remarked.
Caitlin nodded. "We could find one of those ballons in the human part of town. Let's get a purple one!"
"Let's get whatever color we get," Megan responded. "It's gonna take a little work to find one, though."
Natsu nodded. "We need to take what we can get," she added.
"Well, let's check out what town has got." Caitlin had an upbeat of positiveness in her voice.
The three girls were beside the river at the moment. They traveled beside the calm river until they came to the park exit. Caitlin, Megan, and Natsu followed the sidewalk to the nearby human part of town.
The town was crowded with people as the three girl hams squeezed their way through the crowd. Not a human noticed the three hamsters walking right past them. It didn't surprise Caitlin, Natsu, or Megan that a human didn't see them.
Caitlin wandered around with the two other girl hams following directly behind her. She walked to the front of the supermarket, where she saw a bright, red balloon tied to a sign.
"I'm sure Snot Almighty hasn't thought up flying on a balloon," Megan pointed out.
Natsu giggled and responded, "Snot Almighty... I wonder what Becky would do if she heard you calling Mike that!"
"She'd wring your neck," Caitlin rejoined. "But, you have to admit, Mike is sorta mean..."
"Mike is Snob the Great." Megan winked with satisfaction.
"So, how long will it take to get to Hamster City on a balloon?" Natsu inquired.
Caitlin looked around and said, "Well, it'll take us about three or four hours, maybe less because of the wind." She pointed up at the air. "It's a bit blustery today."
"Will we have to hold on to the balloon for three or four hours?" Megan asked.
Caitlin glanced at the red balloon. There was no way she could hold onto it for four hours straight. They had to figure out something to tie the balloon to that they could be on...
"Uh, guys...," Caitlin muttered, "...we're not gonna be able to hold on for four hours. We're gonna have to find something to tie it to..."
"Tie it to...a hat," Megan suggested.
"Where do we find a hat?" Natsu queried.
"There," Caitlin announced as she pointed at the supermarket.
"We steal one?" Megan inquired.
"Yup," Caitlin responded with doubt in her voice.
"...This is insane," Natsu mumbled.
Caitlin nodded and walked toward the supermarket as Natsu and Megan followed. She paced in through the open door and looked for a hat. Natsu and Megan followed behind her closely. When they didn't expect it, a human walked by with a purple hat on. Caitlin stopped immediately and pointed at the head of the human.
"HAAAAAAAAAAT!" she hissed.
Caitlin ran after the human with the purple hat. She jumped and clung to the jacket he was wearing. Megan and Natsu ran beside the human but didn't jump onto him. Caitlin rushed up his back to the hat. When she grasped the hat in her paws, Caitlin jerked it off of the human's head and fell to the ground. The human continued sauntering as if nothing had happened.
Natsu and Megan ran up to Caitlin and helped her up. "Hat," Caitlin mumbled mindlessly.
"That was stupid, yet brave, CC," Megan remarked.
"Tootru," Caitlin uttered.
The three girl hams walked out of the supermarket prudently with the purple hat. Luckily not a human saw them as they walked out through the open door. When they returned to the red balloon, it was still tied to the sign.
Caitlin walked up to the balloon. "Two of us will have to hold the balloon while the other unties the balloon and trusses it to the hat," she remarked. She was confident that would work.
"Hmm...who's good with knots?" Natsu inquired.
"I'm pretty good with them," Caitlin acknowledged.
"Okay, then Natsu and I will hold the balloon," Megan commented.
Caitlin nodded and hopped up onto the sign. Natsu and Megan followed close behind her. Megan and Natsu held onto the string of the balloon as Caitlin fleetly unlaced the tiny knot. When she unfastened it, the balloon started to rise higher in the air and lifted the girl hams into the air. Caitlin quickly snatched for the purple hat and caught it onto the sign. Megan and Natsu were very pale and breathing hard.
"That scared me, CC...," Natsu mumbled.
"That scared me, too...," Megan declared.
Caitlin nodded and hastily tied the balloon's string through a big hole in the hat. She shouted up to Natsu and Megan when she was done, "I'm finished! Hurry quick! This balloon will lift once I let go!"
Megan and Natsu quickly jumped into the hat. Caitlin released the hat from the sign and got into the hat as fast as she had gotten the hat off of the human's head. She relaxed when she got into the hat, for she was now safe.
"What do we do when we need to get down?" Megan inquired.
Natsu turned pale and remarked, "We pop the balloon."
"Then we'll fall!" Caitlin panicked. "And it'll go down, and down, and down, and BOOM!"
"Well, it's better than never getting down," Megan pointed out.
"...Tootru," Caitlin mumbled. "Well, hopefully we'll get caught in a tree...or something."
The girl hams were high up in the air by now. They looked over the sides of the hat to watch their familiar town disappear into nothing.
"When do we know we've come to Hamster City?" Megan asked.
Caitlin paused. She knew that Hamster City was four hours away, but she didn't know what it quite looked like! She thought for a minute, trying to remember every detail from a familiar story...
"Merry-Go-Round." Caitlin paused again. Merry-Go-Round?
"What?" Natsu and Megan querried.
Caitlin thought again. What was up with a...Merry-Go-Round? It would be too small to see from the sky, but why did she say that?
"Pashmina and Penelope." Caitlin whispered to herself without thinking of what she was saying.
"What's up with them?" Megan asked.
"...Park!"
"A park?" Natsu inquired.
"...Hamster City is next to a park with a big river and that's where the Bad Hams went when they were doing that three weeks thing! Hmm...and Pashmina and Penelope went to a red Merry-Go-Round!"
"Who cares about Pashmina and Penelope?" Natsu murmured.
"Caitlin-Chan, are you saying you know what it looks like?" Megan questioned.
"...Yes." Caitlin winked. "I think I know."
"Great, just," Natsu sighed with relief.
"You be our watch-out, CC," Megan said.
"Akay," Caitlin whispered as she looked over the side of the purple hat. "I'll try..."