Chapter 8: The Beginning Of Stella's Story

With Stella...

FLASHBACK

It was a cold and blustery winter day that day Stella walked with her father, Simon, a gray hamster wearing a fancy suit, through town. The sky was a dull gray, and she thought it might snow. Stella was wearing a graceful hot pink dress with a necklace of jewels dangling from her neck.

Simon glanced around and turned toward his daughter. She glanced up intentively at him with her bright, silver eyes.

"Stella, I'm going to have to find a proper suitor for you soon," he remarked.

Stella frowned. "Oh, Father, you know I don't wanna marry any time soon! And besides, it takes time." She winked cutely. "I'll find my own guy sometime soon."

Simon frowned dissatisfied. "Well," he mumbled, "let's go to the store and see what there is." He turned around slowly and walked to a small shop with Stella trailing reluctantly behind him.

Stella entered the small shop close behind Simon. She looked around and saw no one she was interested in. Stella sighed and looked down to the floor, and she looked up again. Wait..., Stella thought. She looked to the back of the store and saw a tall, black hamster with really brown eyes and two large, muscular, black hamsters beside him. Oh, yes, she knew who he was, and she'd been waiting to see him...

Stella glanced at her father to see him talking to a beige hamster with four light brown spots. He seemed to be looking at Stella more than her father, and she tried to look away, but his eyes were really wide open, and she thought she heard him say his name was Jake.

Stella frowned. Was Simon really trying to find her suitor? Stella thought Simon was inviting this Jake to dinner the next day. She wasn't really listening, but she kept on glancing intentively back at the black hamster. He was so cute...

"This is a stickup!" he shouted at the clerk. The black hamster pulled out a large gun and pointed it at the clerk. "Give me all you got!"

Stella's love was captivated by this hamster. She watched dreamily as the clerk burst into tears of panic as he handed this black hamster all of the money he had in the counter. The black hamster beat the clerk across the face with the butt of the gun as he shouted, "Get it all! Have a safe? Give me all it's got, too!"

Oh, Stella thought dreamily, his voice is SO hot, too...

The clerk gulped and whispered, "W-w-we ha-h-have a s-s-s-sa-safe, bu-but I do-do not know wh-what the combi-combination is."

The black hamster frowned. He whacked the clerk again with the butt of his gun and shouted, "Then give me what else you got!"

The clerk shivered violently and looked toward a panic button. He reached for it, but the two muscular black hamsters tackled him and pinned him to the wall. The black hamster snorted and ripped open the cash register and tore it apart to see if there was anything else inside of it. After seeing there was nothing more, he looked disgustedly at the clerk and threatened, "I wouldn't call the police on the Bad Hams, would you?"

The clerk turned paler as the two other hamsters released him and pushed him into the floor. The black hamster shouted, "Let's move out, Bad Hams!"

Stella watched with quixotic eyes as the black hamster with the two other hamsters ran toward the door. She was hoping her father would stop him and ask him to be her suitor, but, of course, it appeared her father was interested in Jake.

When he ran past her, Stella noticed he did slow down to look at her. The other two hamsters stopped and looked at her. She blushed as the black hamster smiled a cute-but-evil smile at her as he looked back at the clerk. The clerk was just getting up, and the black hamster spun around and ran out the door with the two other hamsters following him.

This had to be Mike of the Bad Hams, Stella knew.

Simon turned toward Stella. "Come on, Stella," he said to her as he walked toward the door. She knew Simon had no idea the small shop had just gotten robbed. Stella obediently followed him, but she was still thinking about the hamster she had just seen...

END OF FLASHBACK

Stella lied back on the big bed. She wondered what Mike was doing. She wondered if he had already thought up how to save her, like in fairytales how princes saved princesses. Of course, she was the princess, Mike was the prince, Jake was the sorcerer, and that...hamster...was the dragon.

Stella paused. Who was that hamster that helped Jake kidnap her?

Stella spent a minute in thought. Jake never called him anything. Wouldn't he have said his name? Or did he even have a name?

Nah, she thought, he has to have a name. But he didn't talk either, did he? Hmm...

Stella sat up while she was still wondering why Jake didn't call the dark brown hamster by name or why the hamster didn't talk. She wondered if he even had a name.

He has to have a name though!, Stella thought. What if he doesn't have a name? What if he can't talk? Ow...

Stella lied back down. She thought again about Mike. She wondered where she was, too.

But..., Stella wondered, ...If I don't know where I am, Mike doesn't have a clue!

She sighed and sank into despair. Mike didn't know where she was. What if he thought she had just run away, like her letter said? What if he had no clue that she was in trouble, and what if he didn't even care where she was?

Stella touched her cheek to realize she was crying. She sniffled and whispered, "He doesn't know I need him. Why did I run away? Why didn't I just get over it? Why did I decide to leave? What the HELL was I thinking?!"