14 Forbidden

In this world there was said to be "undeveloped areas". They were considered uncultivated due to various reasons such as there being no resources, dangerous weathers, and difficult terrain.  The Kaoshin mountains was one such 'forbidden zone' for humans.

This area was a mountainous region surrounded by mists and clouds all year round. Although it was a mountainous region, at the same time this was an understatement to its status. Mountains here were jagged, with huge slopes and cliffs. This area was so inaccessible that it was no wonder why it was a so called forbidden zone to humans.

This was not to mention that there were countless dangers surrounding inside these areas. Yearly there were many land slides in this region, even avalanches during the winter near the peaks. A nickname for this area region was "Unstable Peaks".

Counting the mists, clouds, unstable ground, and sheer cliff faces, and land filled with tight spaces, this was a place that no one wished to travel through. However this was not to mean that there was no life within this region. In fact, it was filled with life sources. 

Because of the uniqueness of this place many special herbs, plants, minerals, and species existed within. So even humans, periodically braved the dangers in order to seek this unique items that aren't seen in the outside world. Even with people going in though, every year countless people who went in never came back. These mountains were the essence of danger.

Currently winter had just ended, and spring sprung up.  Spring time was here in this environment, and the sleeping life springed out of sleep, making these seemingly empty zones filled with life once again.

Within all these animals coming out was a unique species of hamsters. Although its species was a hamster, people know that they are basically the cute and better versions of mice. In the wild mice and rats are the carriers of pesticides and diseases. This hamster was also a sickly one herself. None of the predators here dared to eat her, for they knew by instinct that they will most likely die too soon after.

Even though hamsters are a house pet, this one was after all a unique species so it was different from those common hamsters. Even if it was filled with diseases because it lived in the wild, it was not affected by them one bit. Although she sometimes felt sick or dizzy, it did not affect her enough to become a one way trip to death.

This species of hamsters were called Pathfinders. They had a strong survivability in the wild. They had a strong sense of instinctual direction, strong memory, amazing stamina, and powerful legs. They also gave off a pheromone that helped ward off people who wished to eat the cute her.

Most special of these species though were there strong instinctual danger warning and treasure detector. They can sense whether something was bad or good to eat. This helped them not eat poison out of all the special herbs on the mountains. They also had a strong danger sense like those of cats, and can leave before a disaster comes.

This made the species very popular with the adventurers and young noble ladies, but because of its unique skill it was very hard to acquire one of these as they can leave before the poachers even knew there was one in their area.

Pathfinders also were cute by nature and had lovable light yellow tint colored fluffy smooth fur. Because of its adorable nature they tended to be lazy, even if they had enough power to traverse the dangerous terrains here.

As the Pathfinder came out from its hole of where it slept, her eyes were droopy and her light pink nose  was twitching left and right. She was a proud hamster and was even more prideful these past couple weeks.

When she was being a leech to one of the powerful Kaoshin Mountain Wolves, to traverse the terrain safely and gain food her treasure sense detected something. It was the biggest sensation she had ever had when this skill of hers went off. It was the peak of everything combined, she knew there was something very special around so she soon left those wolves to traverse the terrain on her own in fear that they would steal it.

She knew it must be something very beneficial to her as it far past anything she had once experienced. If compared the past things were all toothpicks while today was the tooth pick being shredded to pieces in the biggest hurricane to have ever existed.

She rarely got excited, but she was that day. Quickly she found what was setting off her detector. What she had found was a small glowing orb of water. It was a marble that was changing from colors of white like lightning and the blue of water, then it periodically became clear in some parts like those of air or clouds.

She was confused, but she knew it must be very good to her. Blinking her eyes she soon ate the mysterious orb. Once she swallowed it she felt nothing had happened. There was no taste, in fact once she swallowed, there was nothing that was swallowed… Thinking it was very mysterious she was happy that she had found something so special.

Noticing nothing was happening after she had eaten this thing her instinct was telling her it'll probably be best if she waited here to see what its effects were or if there was something here, maybe she needed to wait here to activate its hidden effects. So she waited.

Luckily there was a small lake with some berries and herbs nearby so she did not need to adventure out and exhaust herself. She was very excited and impatiently waiting for the hidden perks to come out from that marble. This though… was a couple of weeks ago…

Weeks had now passed with nothing happening but her lazily sleeping and eating. Her instincts were never wrong and has never failed her, but for the first time this adorable small Pathfinder felt something was wrong… It was almost like… something was gnawing at her…