Small dark spaces I don’t mind, but all this bumpy movement makes me sweat. I peep through the hole to get an idea of what’s happening. Shadows and chattering. Then quiet and stillness.

After a few moments of shuffling, the door opens. Huge hands reach in and grab me. Unfamiliar smells invade my senses. Strange faces… the same as all the curious faces I’m used to seeing; peering, and laughing at me.

‘Welcome to your new home, Mabel,’ the small one says. She gently lowers me into a cage. A house all to myself. Exactly what a hamster needs!

In response to Charli Mills’ #99WordStory Challenge. August 15, 2023, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about the journey home. Who is going home? Or are they in search of a future home or ancestral roots? Think of home as a life lived — adventures, relationships, accumulations. What makes home worth the journey? Go where the prompt leads!