ageha_bleeds

I feel so pathetic. I just want to sleep forever.

Title: My Hamster Could Paint That
Author: Licking_My_Wounds aka Shoujo's Revenge

Fay Fay groaned, sitting upright on the couch. "How's Hammond doing?" She asked, a slight smile on her face.
"He's doing fine," Aki replied, opening the top latch of the hamster cage. The nibbling hamster watched as her hand slowly lowered into the cage. It climbed onto her hand after sniffing it and determined that there wasn't a snack on it. Her brown eyes watched a golden hamster sitting on a corner of the cage. It sat with his back to her while his little fingers were making measuring gestures in front of a piece of paper.
"He's been like that all day," the hamster in her hand squeaked. "The others and I were trying to get him to play with us but he snapped at us. I'm worried about him. He won’t even eat his treat."
"Don't worry about him. He's just concentrating on his next masterpiece to enter the Galleria of the Distorted contest. But if you want to blame someone then you should address that certain someone on the couch," she said, her voice rising.
"He wants to win the contest, you know." Fay Fay said, stretching her arms over her head. “Besides, every artist has to suffer in some way for their art. In Hammond’s case, he’ll give up eating his treats.” She hid her chuckle behind a forced cough. “In my case, I’ll give up going to class.”
“Oh, however will you live?” Aki said sarcastically. “Aren’t you ashamed to be named after this good-for-nothing?”
The white hamster in her hand tilted her head to the left, not understanding what she meant. Hamster aren’t goal oriented creatures by nature but there were some exceptions to every rule. For example, her brother was trying to become an accomplished painter.
“So finished your biology homework?” Fay Fay asked Aki, pushing her shiny black hair from her face.
Whether she liked or not, she has to concentrate on her homework now. Aki simply nodded, setting Fay down into the cage. She scampered off to the nearest empty wheel before any of her two brothers or two sisters could get to it. Once in a while she turned her head to side to watch her owner and her owner’s friend compare their papers. Her feet running quicker every second on the wheel. Today her owner had her long black hair down instead of tying it up in many styles like usual. Her owner’s friend, Aki was wearing an aquamarine kimono style shirt with flowing sleeves and sleek black pants. Her black hair twisted up into a high bun with sticks sticking out of it. Sometimes she saw her owner pulling them out and using it to pick up food. Aki usually wasn’t happy about that.
“How could you not do your homework! It’s due tonight!” Aki snapped, her hair falling down her back.
“Sorry! I was busy reading manga!” Fay Fay said, picking up a dumpling with her friend’s hair chopsticks. “Crossdressing manga is very addicting.” She added.
“You could’ve just finished your homework first.”
“Manga is easier.”
Aki woke up the next morning to find Fay Fay asleep on Jasmine’s side, her writing materials abandoned by her side. Her hair was sprawled on the tiger’s striped fur. The white tiger was chewing on her breakfast, a horse’s leg. Her tongue licking the sides of her mouth, her fangs poking out. Aki nodded a greeting and Jasmine nodded back lightly, careful not to wake up her mistress.
The morning passed by without incident as usual since the occupants of the dorm were still sound asleep. Only Aki, Jasmine, Jasper and Hammond were still awake but quiet, absorbed in their own activities. Aki sipped coffee while she was reading the latest manga that her roommate wasted time on instead of her own homework. Jasper the thick emerald snake slithered around the corners of the dorm, hoping to find a stray mouse in various holes. Jasmine nudged a blanket over her mistress’ shivering body, her tail swishing. Occasionally she licked the side of her face when Fay Fay grimaced in her sleep. Hammond, on the other hand, was sitting bleary eyed in front of a small blank canvas. His shoulders were hunched over. A few minutes later he finally succumbed to his fatigue and slept, his face squashed against the glass of the aquarium.
Fay Fay yawned and stretched her arms over her head, sitting upright. “Afternoon,” she murmured to Aki.
“Finally awake, huh?” Aki asked, putting down the chopsticks. “Well, come on. Get dressed. Classes start in an hour.”
Scratching her head, she looked down to see that Jasmine was sleeping. She had fallen back asleep. She took a long hard look at the cuckoo clock on the wall, her eyes focusing. Aki was right. Her classes start in an hour but she took the example of the sleeping tigress and laid down again.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Aki said, pointing at the back of her friend’s head. It shook as it was trying to fight the spell that was preventing her from laying down. “Your grades are already slipping! Do you want to get another detention slip?”
“Miss Aki is right, Mistress,” Jasper said, gliding towards her. A baseball cap draped over his eyes though his excellent sense of smell guided him. “Plus, you should check out that hamster’s competition. I heard the mermaid is the favorite this year.”
Fay Fay chuckled, taking the cap off his head and putting it on her messy head. He gently coiled himself around her bare arm, his tongue tickling the tip of her nose.
“Ah, yes. Flora does do some great sculpture work. Hammond is just as great with his paints though.” She got up from the silk cushions, the snake coiling around her neck. The skirt of her champagne Victorian dress dragged on the marble floor as she walked to her room.
As Aki and Fay Fay walked towards the column supported school, she was still yawning despite getting ten hours of sleep. Aki was wearing a sailor style school uniform, her hair up in a messy bun. Fay Fay, on the other hand, was capturing her classmates’ eyes with her bright red flapper dress. Her long hair was pinned back by bright red clips. Uniforms weren’t required so the students and the staff were used to unusual clothes but each person usually had a specific style. With Fay Fay, she wore ridiculous outfits after another.
A slim bright red and yellow snake encircling her wrist looked at them, confused. Why were they staring at his Mistress?
Four hours later, Aki was cursing her friend’s irresponsibility. She was supposed to meet her in the courtyard at lunchtime. She can never trust her to do anything. Scrambling over the rocks of the rock garden, she skipped over the goldfish pond.
Where could she be? Aki thought, pushing aside bushes barring her way. Her navy blue skirt was tattered from catching on branches. She didn’t care; she could easily mend it with a simple spell later. Finally, she neared the edge of the school campus near the lake where the infamous sculpting mermaid resides. Two weeping willows and a small bush full of blue berries covered the view of the lake.
“-you should rest,” a musical voice was saying as she took a step forward. She stopped, embarrassed that she was listening in on a private conversation.
“If I go back home now, they’ll suspect something is wrong,” Fay Fay’s voice said seriously. Aki froze up when she was about to turn around. “I covered it up this long. There’s still a few more weeks left. They can’t know now.”
“It is rather cruel,” the mermaid said after a few seconds. Aki quietly adjusted herself so she could see the mermaid combing her hair through the space of the leaves. She was sitting on a rock on the edge of the lake.
“This isn’t cruelty. I come from the outer world. The things I have seen done to others is cruelty.”
The snake coiled around Fay Fay’s wrist stirred from his nap, flicking his forked tongue in the air. The scent of a particular fabric softener couldn’t hide itself from his sensitive tongue. Tightening his grip on her wrist, he warned that a human was spying on them. She instantly got the hint and quickly changed the subject.
“So I hear that you’re the favorite for the art contest this year,” Fay Fay said casually. “Hammond's determined to win it. He wants his artwork to hang up in the Galleria.”
“How is he faring so far?” The mermaid asked serenely. Her long blonde hair draping on her bare shoulders.
“Not very well. He just stares at that little canvas day and night. His siblings tell me that he doesn’t eat or sleep. He finally fell asleep when I checked on him this afternoon.”
“And you just let it go on. You don’t stop it,” the mermaid continued to say serenely though a hint of disapproval was there.
“Don’t worry about him. Just worry about your entry. He might just sweep the judges away with his next masterpiece.”
With that said, Fay Fay turned away and walked towards the school. Aki waited until her footsteps faded before coming out of her hiding place. The mermaid stopped combing her hair with the golden comb, replacing it in a pouch on her belt. Her startling green eyes looked into the anxious eyes of the witch.
“Ah, a Japanese witch. It’s not nice to eavesdrop on private conversations,” she said calmly.
“What were you and Fay talking about? What doesn’t she want us to know?” Aki asked anxiously. The mermaid didn't say anything. She just smiled at her, intending to keep her promise to Fay Fay.
"WOW!" Hammond exclaimed, taking his hands off his dark eyes.
All forms of art were either hung on the walls or displayed on the mantels lining the large rectangular room. The ceiling was a hundred feet tall, supported by white pillars. Fay was now dressed in comfortable pajamas. She wore fluffy white slippers. She had woken Hammond an hour ago after successfully avoiding Aki for the remainder of the day. She knew that it was Aki who had been spying on her. The moonlight was now spilling into the long window, providing light. Faye held up a lantern to better view the art works of the past participants and winners of the local Galleria of the Distorted competition.
"Wow," Hammond said again, perched on her shoulder. "Who did This?" He was referring to the wooden sculpture of a family of bears huddled up in a cave.
"Hmm...It says that a gargoyle was the sculpture. Who knew that they could create something so cute?"
"Ooh, those butterflies are glowing!" He pointed out. A mobile with butterflies of different species dangling from it glowed different colors every ten seconds.
"That one's made by Jasper's great-grandfather. One of his favorite things to do was to catch butterflies...with his mouth. Nevertheless, he was a great artist."
Hammond's round ears drooped at these words. Even Jasper, one of Fay's laziest pets had more artistic talent in his blood. The art competition was less than a week away. He still hadn't gotten an idea on what subject to paint.
"Why did you bring me here, Mistress?" He asked sadly.
"To give you inspiration. I know that you've been struggling with your painting. There's nothing to be ashamed of. All of these artists had tough times trying to create a masterpiece themselves."
"What did they do about it?"
Fay Fay remained quiet while she contemplated this question. Her form of art was always writing so she didn't know much about painting. She finally said,"Think about the most important thing to you. Keep this important thing in your mind and your heart. An image will form in your mind and it'll slowly transfer to your fingers." It was corny and she knew it but somehow, she felt it was true. "Like this one." She indicated a watercolor painting of various faces in shades of tan, brown and black. It was a collage of people of different genders but one could see the resemblance in them. "This was painted by an ex-police officer. The most important thing was to keep his family safe."
The hamster tilted his furry head to the left then to the right. He didn't notice Fay Fay clutching her heart, grimacing.
"We should go home," she whispered, gasping. "So you can work on your entry."
Hammond wanted to protest; there were still so much he wanted to see. But her words were law to her pets, he had to comply.
Jasmine rose from the silk cushions when Fay Fay finally returned at twelve in the morning, Hammond asleep in her hands. She followed her to the hamster cage where she set Hammond down near his art supplies. Jasmine stopped uncertainly when she saw the tears glistening in Fay Fay's eyes.
"Where's Aki?" She asked, kneeling down and touching the tiger's head.
"Miss Aki is asleep on the couch. She asked me to wake her up when you came home. She seemed very worried," Jasmine said, licking the tears off her cheeks.
"Jasmine, you were originally supposed to be Aki's protector but you chose to abandon her for me. If I asked you to protect her and the others, would you do this favor for me?"
"Anything for Mistress," Jasmine said, nodding.
"Do you promise, Jasmine?"
"Yes, you can trust me.” Jasmine said, bowing her head.
The next day, Jasmine woke up to find all traces of her Mistress gone. She couldn’t tell Aki anything about her disappearance. In truth, Jasmine didn’t know anything about it either. All she knew was that she had promised to protect everybody in this odd family. Everybody from Aki to the hamsters were devastated. Hammond was the one hit the hardest; nevertheless, he finally had the inspiration to work on his entry.
“Congratulations, little one,” the mermaid said, smiling. She was sitting on a rock next to her sculpture made out of colorful seashells. A third place ribbon was pinned on her belt.
Hammond was sitting on top of a chair, his painting leaning on the back of it. He looked up at the golden trophy of a paintbrush, a chisel crossed together on top of a round stand.
“Thank you,” he said, wiping his eyes.
The judging just ended. The crowd was thinning and the judges after congratulating everybody went for refreshments. The contest was held around the lake for the mermaid’s convenience and the school nearby was the perfect place for other contests to be held. The other participants of the contest were collecting their own entries and going back to the school for refreshments. Within a few seconds, it was only the mermaid, Hammond and Jasmine that were left around the lake. Jasmine, having no interest in art, napped near the bushes.
“Where’s the Japanese witch?” The mermaid asked, jumping into the lake. The chair was placed two feet from the lake so he didn’t get wet. “Shouldn’t she pick you up?”
“Miss Aki is busy at the school,” Hammond said. Aki had volunteered to be in charge of refreshments. “Jasmine can bring me back...after she wakes up.” He looked away at his watercolor painting, his winning entry.
There was a five minute silent broken only by the tiger’s snores.
“Why did she leave us?!” Hammond shouted, panting heavily. Another silence followed while the mermaid hesitated; should she or shouldn’t she break the promise?
“I cannot say,” she said finally, aware that the tiger was pretending to sleep now. Her ears were perked up.
“Where is she?” He whimpered, looking up at the painting. His tears ran down his cheeks.
“I cannot say,” she said, her eyes closed. Tears squeezed from underneath her eyelids.
“What can you tell me?”
“She wants you, all of you, to forget about her. That is all I can say,” she whispered. “We are not like humans or animals. Merpeople cannot break promises. I am sorry.”
Hammond looked up at the lightly painted canvas. A picture of a little black haired girl holding a weak pink pup of a hamster in her open palms smiled down at him. The pup had his eyes closed. Her eyes were closed serenely, her knees kneeling on the colorful leaves. The hamster’s weak paws clung onto the girl’s warm hands, never wanting to feel the coldness of abandonment again. That was the most important thing to him but so was she.
A/N: This story is confusing but that's because this was for a forum contest. The rules were that it was supposed to be around 3,000 words. I also did this at the last minute even though I had plenty of time to write it. This story is part of an animal themed series of short stories in the style of Sherlock Holmes. It is set in a nameless utopia where Fay Fay, a girl who can connect to animals lives with a witch roommate. In each story, she deals with cases involving animals to maintain peace within the utopia.