P R O L O G U E

Green and fresh, grass runs throughout the vast plain as far as the eye can reach, where it joins the almost-bright blue shade of a cloudless sky. A river cuts through the landscape, winding around its clear and clean waters like a snake. Decorating the surroundings of this peaceful valley, sparkling mountains encrusted with bright-colored crystals seem to pulsate.

Far away, the sound of a storm takes form and thunders; the sky, once clear, comes to life with the greyish clouds striking lightning throughout the quiet landscape. A few leaves that had fallen onto the ground whirl around in the wet wind, and the storm seems to be approaching fast. Little flowers get crushed when fast paws step into them. A hamster runs. Apparently, he is running away from something. He crosses the green land at full speed, the color contrasting with the vibrant ones of his fur. He stops next to the trunk of a tree. His neck bears a necklace with a single blue crystal, which pulsates hot and bright, evoking the rocks in the landscape here and there.

Holding the crystal in one of his paws, he looks back, but does not see anything other than the storm intensifying in the background. He catches his breath, then starts off again, swiftly. He runs until his little paws get exhausted; then runs a little more, occasionally looking back, until he gets to the river’s banks and realizes that the current is strong, “probably because of the storm,” he thinks, trying to figure out what to do next. He looks around as if he were searching for something and when he looks back, he is attacked…

Rose wakes up startled. “This dream again,” she thinks and tries to get back to sleep.

The hamster is in the water. The current seems to be getting stronger, dragging him to a huge waterfall. The lightning storm intensifies, striking the sky above him. In the water, he faces what seems to be the end of the line: The great fall.

He closes his eyes and dives. Once fully submerged, he opens his eyes, focusing and fixing them in the water vortex ahead. The crystal on his neck is brighter than ever. With a single movement, he torpedoes himself through the water and crosses the fall’s wall, meeting air and droplets coming from the waterfall and the storm that finally reaches him.

Where once there was nothing, a small platform of water forms underneath him. He stands up and watches lightning now striking only a few feet away. His ears move, listening attentively. He is looking for something. It is dark, and clouds are now lower, but he can distinguish one figure among them; that is all he needs.

The hamster moves his right leg and arms behind; using his lower limb as support, he starts a movement as if he were lifting and pushing something extremely heavy. His face contorts due to the strength he applies, while his arms and body slowly move forward, shifting his support point.

At the bottom of the waterfall, a vortex forms and starts to ascend. The hamster’s arms rise towards the shadow at the center of the storm and immediately, the flow of the fall is reversed; its vortex of water gets thrown upwards and hits someone. The storm dissipates and…

“Wake up, my child,” the mother tries to wake her daughter up. The little one is twisting and muttering little murmurs rolled up in her sheets. She holds a bracelet in one of her paws, and the mother notices that it beams a feeble yellowish bright, that fades. “Come on, look at me,” the mother makes another attempt.

Rose slowly opens her eyes; amid the depths of her sleep and the fog inside her head, she recognizes her mother, who starts talking again, her voice still distant to Rose’s ears. “Come with me, I have to show you something,” she says while passing through the bedroom door towards the hallway.

Still drowsy and scratching her eyes, the little hamster stands up and walks towards the light of the hallway, not without stumbling; she follows her mother, who looks back and smiles when she sees her daughter struggling to keep herself awake, sometimes even walking with her eyes closed. In the middle of the hallway, the mother stops and turns to her daughter, who bumps into her and falls to the ground. The mother’s mouth opens in a tender smile, saying:

“Remember…”

“I know, I know… Be prepared, not a dunderhead,” Rose answers with a yawn while getting up from the floor. “I’m alert.”

The mother chuckles.

“Why did you wake me up so soon? Where are we going?”

“You’ll soon have all the answers… and maybe even more,” the mother answers and goes back to walking.

They pass by the kitchen; breakfast seats are set on the rustic wooden table, and the little hamster gets filled with hope by thinking they are headed that way. It is cold, and the warmth of the fire while porridge is being prepared would be very welcome. But the mother goes straight through the kitchen and stops only when she gets to the front door of the house, that she opens, revealing the darkness of the night. A cold breeze enters through the door, and the mother notices her daughter’s ruffled fur.

“Get something to warm you up,” she says, while putting on her own scarf.

Rose follows her mother’s steps, gets her own scarf – which is hanging on a coat rack next to the door – and puts it on. Then they step out to the cold air of the village where they live.

She follows her mother, who walks through the grass wet by dew and climbs the little mount of earth that shapes the walls and roof of their house. Even though it is still night, the path is well illuminated by the Moon, which has already started to descend in the sky. They get to the top of the house – that is covered by the leaves of the tree which their home belongs to.

They both sit on the ground, soft with the grass and leaves, and watch the horizon: Small burrows extending for some feet down the village below them and under the faint moonlight, their facades and doors shine in different shades – some bluish, others yellowish, and of an earthy tone. Very few windows have their lights already on, where those who get up early to get ready for work live. A creek crosses the village, and a large bridge goes over it. Further away, there is a wood; and upward it lies the Human Village and its enormous houses, great towers and a thick layer of greyish smoke above. Some hamsters live there, but Rose and her family prefer the calm life of the outskirts.

Shivering with cold and rubbing herself to get warm, the daughter asks again, “So why did you wake me up so early?”

Sitting next to her, the mother looks at the horizon, but her eyes seem to see beyond. “It’s time for you to listen to a story.”

“That’s it? Couldn’t you tell me later? Like, after the Sun had already risen…”

“When the Sun brings along a new day, you’ll have to make a choice. And to make that decision it’s important that you’re aware of one thing.”

“Hmmm… What?”

“The story of how we got here. The story of how the world we live in is not ours. And of how those dreams you have fit into all of that.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” She looks around with confusion in her eyes.

“You dream of a place where everywhere you look, over the green grass, there are rocks and mountains that are covered by several crystals and almost reach the sky,” says the mother.

Rose is even more confused and asks, “Do you also have these dreams?”

“Yes, but they’re not dreams. They’re memories.”

“I don’t understand anything, Mom… How can they be memories if I have never been to a place like that and all I know is right here in front of me.”

“A long time ago, hamsters had everything they needed to live without having to fight or hunt. A place where everyone lived in harmony with each other and in balance with nature.”

“Hmmm, I thought that hamsters had always had to… hmm, fight…”

“Fight for what we believe. This is our reality, but not our story…” the mother stops talking, as if she remembered something that was far, far away. “You see this bracelet that you have on your wrist?”

“This one?” Rose holds the bracelet in her tiny paws. The mother comes back from her trance and looks at it.

“This crystal holds the memories of our ancestors. And now you have begun to awaken those powers.”

“Wow, now I really don’t understand anything. Are you sure you couldn’t tell me this after breakfast?

“When the Sun rises…”

“I know. A decision. Which one?”

“First, let me tell you how we got here, so you can choose where to go and what to do. These memories that you began to access are experiences of a world that might be ours again, but for that to happen we need to search for the portal that brought hamsters here. Since the first portal was open, our world was connected to this one, and then some things started to happen. Some will say that the portal was a form of salvation; others, that it only caused unbalance and chaos. But since the connection was made and hamsters were thrown here, we never found balance and our way back again. You will hear about pride, but along with it came prejudice; and we had peace without them. That’s why we fight now: To restore peace, balance. To be ready to find our way back home.”

“How do we find this portal?”

The mother looks at her child and caresses behind the little hamster’s ear with her paw. A kind of awkward smile comes to form between Rose’s fluffy cheeks.

“It will show up one day, and we need to be ready. That’s why you need to decide today which path you’ll take. Your father is a Crystallizer, and his job ensures that we have access to more crystals, thus more memories and knowledge. And me, as you know, I prefer making a fist and fight, hunt. After all, we don’t know what we’ll find once the portal opens up…”

“That’s what you trained me for?”

“No, it was for you to be ready. From now on, the choice is yours. A new day will soon rise, and you must make your decision. What will you be? A Crystallizer or a Hunter?”

“I don’t want to have to choose.”

“Not choosing is also making a decision, Rosie.”

The mother stands up and raises her arms, stretching them. The first beam of sunlight begins to appear far away, behind the burrows.

“When you’re ready, just call me.”

She steps away, leaving Rose alone with the rising Sun. A light breeze blows and a few leaves are falling from the tree next to her; one of them falls into her paws, and she realizes she is still holding the bracelet. The Sun emerges in the horizon, making her crystal pulsate brightly.

Rose takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and feels the light warming her body.

NEXT CHAPTER COMING SOON