Catherine sat down with the hamster in the cage. The blind ogre sat on one side of her, and Grinthal sat down on the other side. Talon stood in the background. Catherine kept chanting softly, and letting the ball of energy grow on her fingers. Sometimes she would let the ball of energy fly out, and zap the hamster. It squealed in protest.
“You don’t like the electricity?” said Catherine. “A small little furry hamster like you, I shouldn’t wonder. I wonder how much electricity it would take to kill you.”
“What do you want?” asked the hamster angrily.
“You know what I want,” said Catherine. “I want us to come to some sort of agreement. I want to form an alliance”
“You mean you want me to be your slave,” said the hamster.
“If that’s how you prefer to look at it,” said Catherine. “I’ll be the one giving the orders in this relationship, if that’s what you mean. But you won’t fare badly out of it. I’ll make sure you are richly rewarded for your service.”
“Rewarded with what?”
“Well, I don’t know. What does a monster want? Do you want gold? Wine? Meat? Land?”
“Territory. And fresh meat. But I don’t need you to give them to me. A monster like me just takes what he wants.”
“You know,” said Catherine, “I don’t know why I even bother keeping you in this cage. I should just let you free in the forest. There you can terrorize all the animals, and take all the meat and territory you want.”
“Do it,” said the hamster. “Set me free. I’d rather run through the forest in this form, and be free, then to regain my old form, and be your slave.”
“Well if that’s how you feel about it,” said Catherine. “Then go free. Run around the forest as a free hamster. But remember, the offer is always available, if you want to come back some day.” And Catherine took the cage to the window, and threw the hamster out.
The creature might have fallen to its death (for a fall down from the window is a long fall for a hamster), except Talon cast a spell, and the creature floated gently to the ground. Whereupon it hit the ground, and went running into the forest.
“Give it a 5 minute head start,” Catherine said to Grinthal. “Then I want every cat, fox and ferret in this forest to be looking for it. I’ll give a reward to whichever creature eats the monster hamster.”
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