Chapter 1 Humble Beginnings

He awoke on a cold fall day next to his wife. as he stood on the cold wooden floor. for the first time on this particular day,

-please 5 more minutes” Tiffany uttered

Our hero just looked at her and said -I have important things to attend to” in a semi-happy voice. As he slowly stepped down the short staircase feeling the wind of the window he had left open the night before. He made it to the kitchen to make tea so he would make it through the day.

As he enjoyed the drink he noticed a strange note on one of the cupboards. as he looked at the note that was made of almost ancient scroll-like paper it simply read, ‘Buy iceberg lettuce and ketchup.’ Ferret was intrigued; it could be some strange note or his kids Dom and Tom could be playing a practical joke on him or maybe his wife left a note for him yesterday. but this was no ordinary note it was like it was calling him whispers of some kind.

He opened the door and left for the store, as yet another breeze hit his furry body, this one a bit different from the one from the kitchen window. as he was walking down the narrow road to the little town center, leaves of every color imaginable fell from the massive steram trees. He also passed his crazed neighbor on the way; a strange hamster with a big red tophat selling crystals,

-Have you come back for more of my crystals" the man said with a slight grin

-Last time I bought something off of you I got demoted at my work, your shitty silver tongue crystal did not even work" Ferret said with an angry tone.

-I promise this time it will work so I highly recommend the soul crystal" he said slightly annoyed at Ferrets angry tone

-Fine’ how much is it" he said now way calmer than before

-Nothing" he said quickly

-Nothing? he asked very surprisedly

-Yes here you go" he said as he handed over the crystal that was most likely just glass.

-Thanks I guess" Ferret said as he slowly backed up from the strange man

The man tipped his big red tophat revealing a scar across his forehead Ferret did not think that it was weird. he was already the strangest man he had met a scar did not change him that much

Ferret waved goodbye to the strange man slowly piking back the pace and walking away towards the small town again

The walking goes by quickly as he makes his way towards the town of Hamville. As he enters the outskirts of town in the “rough” district he sees a fellow hamster getting mugged in an alleyway by two rats. he quickly hurries past the robbery in the alleyway because Ferret was a coward, a big one at that. along the roads that looked like a cracked concrete road, even though the road was gravel.

After a couple of more seconds Ferret made it to the store’ a big industrial-looking building in the middle of town,- industrial looking for a medieval town that is, Ferret made his way towards the entrance to the mega building titled walnut.

Ferret entered the huge building as if it was trapped, carefully treading across the flooring of the entrance until he realized’ maybe this is just an ordinary store after all’ he thought, he straightened his back and started walking normally through all the different isles of items until he reached the greenery section. carefully looking at every shelf and the same shelf after looking at least ten times he concluded there was no iceberg lettuce here.

now slightly disappointed he looked at the scroll-like note again and sighed. Ketchup it is then “he thought to himself while fiddling with the note. He began looking for the ketchup in the gigantic store but after thirty minutes of looking he gave up, there was no ketchup or iceberg lettuce here, maybe there was never any ketchup or lettuce to begin with. No I have eaten it before” he thought back to his childhood remembering the times his mom had served iceberg lettuce and ketchup. He left the store with a disappointed face.

As he got back out to the street he saw it, a tiny little store at the corner of the merchant street. perfectly named’ Iceberg and ketchup’ It was a miracle Ferret said out loud. no one was around to notice it.

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He casually makes his way through the pothole-covered gravel road towards the mysterious little store. As he got closer to the store his pocket started vibrating slightly.“weird” he thought to himself, it did not really bother him at all. The slightly magical door slid open in front of him as soon as he got close. “Even weirder,” he thought out loud’ that statement made the shopkeeper look strangely at Ferret

The shopkeeper was a peculiar creature’ he looked like a bigger hamster with some differences, completely black fur and he was also wearing a golden ring on one of his paws.

-Welcome, anything you see for your liking” the keeper said with a voice that matches every eager door-to-door salesman.

-Nothing yet” Ferret said while still staring at the keeper's ring. To be fair Ferret had not even started looking around the store yet’ it was a pretty compact store with only three different shelves all made out of the finest wood at least to Ferret’ each containing a different item the first one had ketchup the second one had lettuce and finally the last one had iceberg lettuce locked behind a small leaf with a tiny keyhole.

Ferret looked back up to the shopkeeper

- I want ketchup and iceberg lettuce” he said confidently

The shopkeeper looked back at him with a concerned expression.

-Are you sure, no one has bought iceberg lettuce in years, so I need a good explanation why you are getting the special lettuce” he said still with a bit of concern in his tone.

-I have got to, the note told m…….” all he managed to say before the shopkeeper interrupted him

-You have it….. The note??? He said with a savage voice that Ferret would have never thought the big Hamster could use.

-Yes my……. Shopping note” Ferret said knowing that the Hamster in front of him probably would kill for his vibrating note.

-I see……” he said now back to the typical seller's voice.

-so can I buy it?” Ferret said slightly concerned but with a happy voice

-Of course you can” the big hamster said, moving slowly towards the shelf with iceberg.

The hamster picked up a key from his pocket and glanced down at the key as he inserted it in the lock’ with a click the leaf fell down to the floor. The hamster put on gloves he also got from nowhere, he picked up the iceberg with ease as he turned to Ferret.

-do you need a special container to store it, or did you bring one?” the shopkeeper said, looking sincerely at Ferret.

-I would like to buy one” Ferret said, slightly confused as to why he would need a special container for some iceberg lettuce.

-I’ll go get one then” the shopkeeper said as he disappeared into the back of the store.

Ferret felt another vibration in his pocket as the note started to vibrate once again this time more powerful than the last time. He picked it up and held it firmly as the vibrations grew in strength. Before he knew it the shopkeeper was standing right in front of him, but something was off; His eyes were completely blood red.

The keeper looked down at Ferret's hand, which contained the vibrating note. and let out a savage grunt as he swung his gigantic paw right at Ferret's face.

Ferret was frozen in place not knowing whether to run or fight, He pretty quickly came to the conclusion that the Hamster in front of him was insane’ and quickly grabbed the ketchup and iceberg with his paws and ran out the front door.

As he got back to the street he looked around and saw no one around, The note now making him tremble in place with its sheer strength it almost felt like an earthquake.

The doors slammed open as the shopkeeper emerged from the store.

Ferret is frozen in shock standing still right in front of the mad hamster.

The beast of a rodent lunged at Ferret, Ferret just slightly being able to sidestep its path at the cost of falling to the ground and dropping all his belongings. it quickly turned around and started walking menacingly towards Ferret that was now on the gravel ground.

-please stop this” Ferret said with the most scared voice ever uttered by a rodent

-NOOOOOOOTTTTEEEEE!!!!” the giant hamster said with a broken yet enraged voice

Ferret looked at the mad hamster in horror as it stood above him. The mad hamster clenched its fist, preparing to smash Ferret to pieces.

Ferret preparing for impending doom looked all around him for an escape, that’s when he spotted the iceberg lettuce. Ferret quickly snatched the special lettuce from the gravely ground and threw it with all his might at the mad beast.

-Take that!! He screamed with the bravest voice he could muster.

As the iceberg lettuce hit the rodent in the face, barely flinching, the rodent looked back at Ferret even more mad than before. As the beast clenched its fists once again to strike down Ferret for good. The fur off the giant hamster started to freeze. The hamster slowly backing away from Ferret as its limbs started to become solid ice, it fell to its knees looking at its paws and then back at Ferret

N...ooo...tt...eeeee??!” it said in a broken voice as it fell to the ground and shattered into small ice pieces covering the entire street.

The only thing left was its golden ring that Ferret reluctantly picked up as he got up from the ground. Surprisingly he felt very little for what just happened, “Am I a hero now?” he asked himself out loud….