🐹Hamsters And Heists🥷

(Quick Note: My story takes place in a world where everyone is an animal/human cross- basically human, but with animal features such as ears, tails, whiskers, etc. This particular short story takes place in Cricetinae, the country of the Hamsterpeople.)

For once, Pebble was grateful for her odd-looking hair. She had approached the castle doors claiming to be a “new guard who’d forgotten her uniform”, and the real guards hasn’t suspected a thing! She had completely passed for a Winter White! Now she was strolling confidently through the halls of the castle halls, quietly slipping anything that looked valuable into her pouch when no one was looking.

Then, she found herself in a room full of nothing but running wheels. It was just like the room she’d seen in the Roborovski castle last year…..

For a moment, she hesitated, looking around cautiously. THIS was how she had landed one of the horde members in the castle dungeon last year, during her first heist. But then….. the horde wasn’t here. She knew they were outside, just on the outskirts of the woods and a short distance from the castle, waiting for her to return, but they weren’t HERE in the castle with her right now.

She remembered Boulder’s words to her before she’d walked to the castle. “Don’t screw up again, dwarf, because this time, the one paying for your mistakes will be you.” Guilt knotted in her stomach. The hamster she had landed in the dungeon had been Boulder’s sister, and it had all been because Pebble had been stupid enough to try out one of the running wheels in the Roborovski castle and alert the guards as a result.

But she was on her own this time. And the hamsters here thought she was one of them, not knowing that they had really allowed a European hamster with a genetic mutation that made her look just like a Winter White to infiltrate the place.

She looked around again. No one would know if she just…..

Before she realized what was happening, Pebble had hopped onto one of the wheels and was running as if for her life, a strange thrill and excitement coursing through her. It was so stupid, she thought; she knew the wheel was taking her nowhere, and yet she couldn’t help but continue. It just felt so good…..

“EXCUSE ME?! WHO ARE YOU?!”

Pebble immediately froze in place, causing her to rock slightly on the swinging wheel. A hamster had entered the room and was staring at her with a shocked expression. “What are you, a guard?! Don’t you know that this room is for the ROYAL FAMILY only?! YOUR room is downstairs, I-“ She stopped, her eyes widening. “You…”

Pebble stared back, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. This hamster….. she was IDENTICAL to her. The same snowy, silver-white hair, the same eye and face shape, even the same HEIGHT…..

A new look had come into the hamster’s eyes. “Snowdrop…..?” she whispered, the anger in her voice completely gone. “It’s….. it’s really you!” She threw her arms around Pebble, who blinked and quickly backed away. “What? What are you talking about? That’s not my name.”

“Oh, Snowdrop….. I’m your twin sister, Petal.”

Pebble laughed slightly. “I don’t even have any siblings, let alone a TWIN. You must be mistaking me for someone else. Besides, we can’t be related- I’m a European hamster, not a Winter White-“ She stopped abruptly. She wasn’t supposed to reveal that…..!

The hamster, Petal, laughed softly. “Really? A European hamster?”

“Yeah,” Pebble muttered. “I just look like this because of a genetic mutation.”

“Is that what they told you? Come on, Snowy, do you REALLY think a simple genetic mutation could make you look like an entirely different type of hamster?” She shook her head sadly. “The truth is, you were kidnapped by a hamster horde when we were just pups. Our parents searched everywhere for you, but were never able to find you. But now…..” She threw her arms around her again. “Now you’re here!”

Pebble stared at the floor, unsure of what to think. Was it true? Had the horde lied to her? Of….. of COURSE they had lied to her! They were a band of robbers who always treated her as an outcast! How had she never seen it before?

“But…..” Pebble- or rather, Snowdrop- murmured. “What now?”

Petal smiled. “Now, we tell our parents and get those horrible thieves in the dungeon.”