XxFadingAwayxx Yes, I tried my best to detail the moment there with Boss and Pashmina, I appreciate your positive reviews.

DolphinAngel 14 Thanks, and hopefully you'll like some of my other angst stories once I create them, but I'm not too worried about them just yet. I think I'll try my hand at a romance next.

Gamer Lioness I'm not much of a Hamtaro fan either, but I used to watch it a lot when I was younger so I have a good understanding of the characters and settings. And as to what Boss' virtues are, read on and see. And your comment about the people who intend on naught but insults was okay. I never even reply back to anyone who is purely bent on a negative aspect on my work and doesn't focus on the good points of a story, oh well, they're just wasting their time.

Virtues Chapter 3

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PART 1:

I put my face in my hands and wondered the lonely path of my mind. Silently thinking of how frightened I made Pashmina, and remembering her eyes. The eyes that told me she understood me. It had left a dark imprint of her in my head. Deeply drilled, forever in the back of my skull.

I placed my, now life-less, bloody hands underneath my stomach, clasped the blade of the dirk and thrust it out of my flesh. I supported myself on the concrete wall behind me that I had been sitting against, with my hand, and pushed myself off the ground with the other. I wasn't conscious of my blood-loss, or my pain. I simply put one foot ahead of the other and staggered blindly into my surroundings.

Whether or not I collided with anything, it didn't stop me. I was to busy battling my thoughts. My virtues are the values of my mind. I would have thought to believe Pashmina almost destroyed them. Forcing me to haplessly take the outcome of my apparent revenge. I had been obsequious to the fact that it had back-slashed me. So now the corruption of my virtues was more likely to have been caused by me than Pashmina.

The stray, lonely path that I followed, in my head, and the one being trotted on by my feet, seemed endless. Its obscurity drove me to insanity. I knew the path home, but why should I further degrade myself by conceding defeat? I had given my obeisance to Pashmina, by allowing her to get away from me. Still, I needed her. Not for my revenge; I had already taken that upon myself. But to alleviate my loneliness, and cure the burden of my pain.

Sure enough, my path became obstructed…by a quick-flowing river. I should have known I couldn't have walked in the same direction forever, without anything stopping me. It was a little downhill from me, the water was clean so I crept down to the banks to wash the blood and filth from my fur. The water was like ice, it almost froze the blood in my veins. I got out of the water and stood dripping on the grass. I stood there remembering Pashmina, hours went by. The water went right through my fur and chilled my heart. The breeze laid a cooling blanket of fog around me.

Eventually, I sighted the sun, budding through the trees. It finally put some warmth on me. Soon the hams would arise from their snug beds of hay and wood-shavings and come looking for me. I couldn't pretend that nothing had happened…but what was stopping me? Pashmina was.

I could never approach her affable face, or her affectionate stare after this. Could I?

When the last few droplets of water had evaporated from my skin I resumed my heavy walk. A few Kilometres short of the clubhouse, I veered west to avoid it. I walked through some trees and bushes, only to find Sandy and Maxwell walking together in my direction. I couldn't let them see me. Yet I didn't have to fear much. They were too diligent with each other to notice me.

I dived clumsily into the nearest bush, it was fairly large, prickly and leafy, so it was a good place to conceal myself. Sandy and Maxwell stopped right in front of my bush and then looked at each other in their eyes. Maxwell whispered something gently while Sandy gave him a faint smile. Maxwell, being the tallest of the two, slowly bent over to kiss Sandy on her mouth. Sandy returned the kiss. It was good they were kissing so amorously. They would not be distracted by the fact that I was hiding in the bush directly in front of them.

When their lips departed one another's, they stayed there and stared each other in the eyes. Both were gently smiling at each other. It was difficult to not see that these two obviously had a great connection, and were not afraid of being a couple. But it didn't help when Sandy said "Hey, lets take a short-cut through here." She indicated the path through my bush and beyond with a nod in my direction. Then they took-off.

I didn't have the time to get out of the way. Before I could even get off the grass; Maxwell stepped through the leafy overhead and kicked my nose. Quickly, I scuttled away and dived into a slope that went downhill. Hopefully Maxwell thought that he had kicked a rock, or the trunk of a tree, and would not come investigating in the small valley I was currently concealed in.

I rolled down the sides of the valley and ended up at the bottom as a mud-covered fiend, lying face down in the dirt. I made my decision there, it tore my heart in more than two pieces, and felt like drowning myself in the mud for saying this. But, I would have to return, get my stuff. Then walk out of my friends lives, forever.

Some of them were already taking the trip to the clubhouse, so I would have to make haste on my departure from them quickly and quiescently. That was how I can to be sprinting at my full pace through my surroundings. Pushing my edge further than the far distant ends of the ocean, and more swiftly than can any will to love.

Through a park, more thick than a forest I was running through, and the bushes and small plants were dying out fast, and so was my disguise. I ran to a old, bleak oak tree. It scaled over me in a midst of darkness and shadow. Yet a put a paw to its dry bark and dug into it, what nails I had left from climbing that cement wall last night. I ascended the tree with more difficulty than any of the buildings.

I did not need to get to the top of it, just a high up branch. I pushed myself onto the branch and walked along it with and en-even balance. Towards the end of that branch came the branch of another tree. I leaped from my position to that branch. Leaves scuttled off of both sides in my attempt. They dangled loosely in the open sky before gloomily falling to the far-down ground.

I continued this for about half an hour…that was until I ran out of trees to jump onto. I had travelled quite a distance, but there was still a bit to go. I knew I went quickly because I passed Sandy and Maxwell, Oxnard, and Stan, all in that time period, and none of them guessed to think that I was jumping from tree to tree ten metres above them.

I descended the tree I was currently on. I hit the ground, hard. Then rushed past the scenery, bush through bush, tree through tree. I came to another oak tree, like the one I climbed earlier. I ran over the roots that were showing atop the ground to come to the base of the tree. I knew, hidden, was the entrance a long, ascetic tunnel that I had built. One like the one I used for the clubhouse. The entrance was hidden by a large, bulky stone I had placed there. Knowing that most hamsters could not lift that weight; I was content with this.

I moved slinkily so I would not attract someone to investigate the means of me pushing the rock. The soil around the tree had been dry and cracked. So when I rained a few days ago; it made it slippery, so I could push it out of the way with ease. It left deep cuts in the earths surface. I came out and fossicked the my surrounding area. I came across a large branch. It was rough, hardy and a bit uneven, it was larger at one end than the other. Much like a club.

I took it into the tunnel with me. No sooner than when I was through the entrance I turned around and swung ferociously at the roots of it. I ran it down with my strength until the whole entranced collapsed around me. I put the club above my head to protect myself from falling rocks.

There, now no one would be able to follow me.

PART2:

Continuing into the dark, gloomy tunnels. Most would have no way to navigate my peaceful, usual undisturbed tunnel, but years of going through the darkness of the night had enhanced my vision. I glided through the tunnels with ease, the concept of darkness to me, wasn't the least bit frightening.

I wondered what would happen if I arrived at the clubhouse to late, stormed in, then found Pashmina waiting for me… I would probably collapse and kill myself. Hmm, that didn't sound to bad. Death was presumptively the alternative solution for me.

But what if I talked to her? "err, hello Pashmina…" No, that wouldn't work. Our relationship would never be the same. Since she understood me, maybe that meant she also loved me. But I could never be sure. What if I did run, what if I still met her again one day? I could imagine it. I wouldn't be able to control myself, I would give her an open-hearted hug and tell her how I feel, and of my grieve.

My virtues, my mind, my conscience are all probably tried of me… that's why they want me to be with her. Cure my corruption, end my tragedy.

And yet, if I never met her again what would my life be? Wasted, empty, sullen. What would be my reason for living? Other than to see her smile at me, that was why I live.

Coming to the end of the tunnel, I could see some sunlight, poking through the back entrance of it. It was shrouded in leaves, and the leaves were in a bush, and then the bush was surrounded by bigger bushes, which were surrounded by trees. So it wasn't going to be a simple job to find this entrance.

I pushed the leaves out of my way, and forced my way through the bushes and into a clearing. After being in the tunnel, the bright glare of the sun's rays almost melted holes through the pupils of my eyes. So I didn't realise, I was standing right behind Hamtaro. I almost ran into him, I almost peremptorily knocked him to the ground. Luckily, I was still I few centimetres from him, I had room to back off.

"Bijou! Wait up! I'll walk with you."

I was almost frozen solid. Hamtaro had called out to Bijou, she must only just be ahead of Hamtaro. Surely she would turn around, look through the trees at Hamtaro, then see me behind him.

"Hamtarzo! Where arz you?"

Good! She didn't know where to look for Hamtaro, but when Hamtaro called out for her again, she would track us down by where his voice was coming from. I couldn't let that happen.

I picked up the club I still held in my right hand. Then struck Hamtaro over his head…

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I may be a while for the next chapter.