A Hamster's Life

Chapter 1

I stretched, yawned, and scrambled over to where my mum should be. Her scent was old, as if she hadn't been here for a while. Where was she? I just had to find out, my siblings would be terrified when they woke up to find she wasn't here. I blinked open my eyes, and I saw my surroundings for the first time. I was in a nest, I guessed it was about three times the size of my mother, and beside me were my siblings. There were about eight of them, all asleep in a pile with their eyes still firmly closed.

Their fur was lots of different colours, some black, some golden, some black and white. I twisted around to see my own fur, and realised I was the only one with a golden banded pattern, and my fur was much longer than everyone else.

I saw a gap in the bedding where light streamed in, and smelled my mother's scent there. She must have left the nest. I looked behind me to check none of my brothers and sisters had awoken, and carefully pushed through the opening.

I was stood in a large open space, at least ten times the size of the nest, and this time there were little flakes of wood on the ground instead of the soft paper in the nest. I felt suddenly afraid to be in such a large, open space, but I pushed that thought out of my mind, and told myself I had to find my mother, no matter what.

Ahead of me was a large, round object attached to the wall, blocking my view of the other side. I figured she might be behind there, so I scrambled towards it. It was very tiring, walking so far for my short little legs, over the uneven bedding, but with determination, I made it to the round object. I could now see the other side, but to my disappointment, there was nobody there.

I was lost, tired and alone, and I wished I had just stayed in the nest and gone back to sleep. I huddled underneath the round thing and closed my eyes.

"There you are!" a voice said from behind me. I opened my eyes and turned around. Behind me was a larger version of myself, towering above me. I jumped back, scared, but then realised this stranger had my mother's scent. I had found her! I rushed forwards and threw myself on top of her "Mother! I found you!"

"What were you doing out of the nest? You didn't know what dangers might be out here!" my mother scolded.

"I was looking for you, Mummy, I didn't know where you had gone, so I decided to open my eyes, and look for you! The others were panicking!" I said, exaggerating.

"Come on, back to the nest! I only went to get some more food, silly! I wasn't gone long!" I looked away from her, embarrassed. I had only been trying to help! I had expected she would be proud of me for going out here on my own!

Mother started to walk back to the nest, looking back over her shoulder to check I was following. I scrambled after her; energised after my power nap. She was quite far ahead of me, and when she reached the nest she pushed her way in without looking back. Above me, I heard a creaking sound, and stopped to look up. The lid of the cage was lifting up, and I watched as a shape like a giant, hairless paw reached down into the cage. Terror surged through me, telling me to run, but for some reason I stayed frozen to the spot. As the paw got closer, I shot towards the nest, but the paw reached down, grabbed me from above and closed its claws around me.

I was trapped.

I felt the paw moving me upwards, out of the cage. Where was it taking me? What was it going to do to me?

The claws opened out flat, and I walked to the edge. I looked down, which was a big mistake. Far, far below me I could see the ground, I felt dizzy, and for a moment I thought I was going to plummet all the way down, but luckily I managed to hold on with my claws. When I had regained my balance, more cautiously I looked around. To the right, about half way down to the floor, I saw the cage I had come from, and my mother's head poking out of the nest, probably looking for me. "Mother!" I called.