Ham-Ham the Wandering Black Hamster

Book 1: Journeys

Arc: The Meaning of Power, Chapter 10: On the Road

On the morning after the celebration, the group of three decided to discuss where they were going next inside of the tavern that they slept in last night.

Shoutaro: "So where are you two going next?"

Rai: "I'm not sure since I followed Ham-Ham here, although I need to go to a town to research more on the weird plague. Hopefully I'll find some references on it"

Ham-Ham: "Well I'm going back to Elderan since I need to talk to Sache about what happened here."

Rai: "I guess that decides it then, I will be travelling with Ham-Ham back to Elderan. Wait, what about you Shoutaro?"

Shoutaro: "I will continue my knowledge seeking south to the village of Horo and then to Bam before going to Elderan. So you guys might not see me for a while."

"Well take care then," chorused Ham-Ham and Rai.

When the three of them said their goodbyes and were ready to leave, a voice shouted

"Wait!"

Grim came running and was most insistent that they restock on their supplies for free. Of course the three were most humble and said that it was unneeded, but they finally relented to Grim's stubbornness.

With that settled, Shoutaro went south, Grim went back on his honeymoon, and Ham-Ham and Rai went east.

Timeskip two days later in the outskirts of Noctal

When Rai and Ham-Ham reached the outskirts of the village, they saw a female hamster with the iciest blue eyes they had ever seen. As she walked towards them, they could hear her mumbling something, but couldn't make it out. Then suddenly, she addressed them,

"You two, did you come from the village of Foret just recently?"

"Yes we did, why may we ask?" replied Rai.

"Has there been any odd occurrence there lately?"

"Yes, there was a plague in the village, but it is gone now."

Before the hamster could continue her musings, Ham-Ham voiced out a question that shocked her, while Rai watched the ensuing conversation in confusion and surprise.

"You're an Elder are you not?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Sorry but lying won't help since I've only sensed such dominating power from Sache and no one else could compare to the power of flow that he had, but you also have that dominating power. Although I can't tell if yours is stronger or weaker than his."

"Boy, who are you and as far as I know, Sache never had a student?" icily questioned the female Elder.

"Umm, is it not polite to introduce yourself first before asking who other people are?"

The female Elder only raised an eyebrow and said, "Ezmerelda, that is my name and I am the Elder of the Frozen Lands, the Sage of ice."

"I am Ham-Ham the Wandering Black Hamster, an elder of Lightening and the first only and last student of the Great Life Sage Sache. Now, why do you want to know about the plague?"

"Well since you're an elder, I can explain everything, so how about we talk in the village?"

"Okay."

Ham-Ham and Rai followed Ezmerelda into the village of Noctal. However, it took a while for the group of three to reach the tavern to talk. The instant Ham-Ham reached the village; all it took was for one hamster to recognize him. Someone in the crowd shouted,

"Oh My Ham he's back, it's Ham-Ham!" elder

Instantly, a crowd of people began to mass around Ham-Ham. It was a new experience for him so he didn't know what to do, which also left the other two hamsters confused as to what he did here. Eventually, the mayor stepped in and had everyone leave Ham-Ham alone.

"Sorry about that, we're still caught up with that incident."

"Oh it's okay, can we use one of your conference rooms?"

"Sure go right ahead, here I'll show you."

The mayor led the group of three into one of his conference rooms and let the three go about their business.

"So where to start….Two days ago, the Council of Elders had a meeting. It was about the vile energy that we felt, however Sache was the one to bring it up first. The session ended up in a vote of 10 to 3 in favor of disregarding the evil energy as a fluke."

"Wait, if it was disregarded, than why are you here?"

"I talked to Sache afterwards and it was decided that I would go to Foret to investigate. Plus, I'm interested in this plague. So what can you two tell me?"

Then for the next few hours, Rai and Ham-Ham told Ezmerelda the story of what happened in Foret and with the Black Demon Plaguren. Also Ham-Ham told her of what occurred in this small village. He went through his accounts of the events that happened in the mine and how the Black Shadow connected with Plaguren, which Rai didn't know about.

"Oh my, it seems that you have been busy in your travels," said Ezmerelda with a smirk

"Yea, so what are you going to do with the information?"

"I will go talk to the other Elder that agrees with Sache and I. His name is Ruin the Elder of Nature, Sage of Energy."

"Wait, isn't Sache the Elder of Nature?"

"Ah, I forgot you don't know that much do you. I guess I'll have to fill in what Sache didn't tell you. The first part is what branch of power someone wields and the last part is the person's aspect."

"So the branch of power is like an element and there are many aspects that compose of an element."

"Sharp boy you are. Next is the ranking, which you sort of know. There are many ranks for an elder. In ascending order are trainee, student, apprentice, intermediate, adept, elder, master, Grandmaster, druid, Arch-druid, and finally a Sage. A Sage has the Sage Title, but not the Elder Title. Also I will tell you information that is not well known. If you can achieve enough power and have the acknowledgement of at least three Elders, then the Council will vote to see if you receive the Elder Title or not. It is a common misconception that there are only thirteen Elders. The truth is that only the thirteen strongest and wisest Elders are on the Council. There's like four other Elders around I believe."

"Wow, I can't believe that Sache didn't tell me all of this."

"You learn something new every day," replied a shocked Rai who was listening intently to the conversation."

"Hey, Ezmerelda, what rank do you think I would be?"

Ezmerelda just stared at Ham-Ham like she was peering into his soul, which frankly unnerved Ham-Ham and Rai. After a few minutes, she finally spoke,

"Well you definitely have the power of an master level and you took care of that vile energy in Foret, but I can only make a rough estimate. I would guess that you are roughly in the apprentice ranks in skill level. So if another Elder/elder asks you to introduce yourself, then you would say apprentice Ham-Ham the elder of lightening. Oh and before I forget, Sache is no longer in the Forest of Elders. I have no idea where he has gone; he just said that he had to go somewhere east."

"How did you know that I wanted to see him?"

"I didn't, I just figured that you'd want to talk to him about the events in Foret. Well it's getting late so I'll head out early morning tomorrow."

Timeskip – next morning sometime after Ezmerelda left for Rubedon

Ham-Ham and Rai left for the town of Elderan after they replenished their supplies in Noctal. The trip was oddly uneventful and they made it to the city two days later. They made it at about an hour or so after noon.

The two of them went to the library and looked up books with any mention of plagues, demons, or the Black Shadow. Unfortunately, their search turned up negative until they came across a book about ancient history of the New World. In the book, there was a brief mention of the Black Shadow fighting the Council of Elders, but not much more information than that.

"Well, I don't think we'll get any more information than that from this library."

"Yea, however, Ham-Ham the book gave us a clue that the Black Shadow is very old. So, there might be some mention of him in the books about myths or legends. Our best bet would be to go to Rubedon or the Capital's library for more research."

"How about we continue east since the Capital is that way and it probably has a bigger library."

With Rai in agreement, the two hamsters decided to call it a night.