Temple of the Zodiac

Chapter 1: Prologue

Author's note: This is the fourth story in the series. Since this is a sequel, it would be easier to understand this story if you had read all three of the following stories in the order presented: "The Mystery of Snoozer", "Walk a Mile In Your Shoes", and "Journey to the Island of Halastia." Also, special thanks to Crosser, Matthew Strittmatter and Francis Doyon for giving me those ideas.

Far out at sea, far from human eyes, was an island that was ruled by the Ham-Hams. An island known as Halastia. One of the cities that make up Halastia was Zolphville and one night, within an abandoned building in Zolphville, a demonic creature waited in silence. This demonic figure was Glabrezu, a demon who was summoned Hell itself by the god named Bocka. Glabrezu looked like an ordinary Ham-Ham but his visage seemed more devilish in nature. He stood as tall as Boss and he was covered in dark brownish-red fur. His eyes were completely white (as oppose to the usual dark eyes with highlights) and his ears were pointed. He paced back and forth, anxiously awaiting his partner Spat. The dark room he was in was filled with nothing but old furniture and dirty floors, a sign that no one had used the building in years. Because of it's neglected state, it was the perfect place to wait for Spat without being disturbed. Eventually, Glabrezu was greeted by the sound of beating wings as Spat flew in through the open window and landed gracefully onto the ground.

"You're late." said Glabrezu.

"I'm sorry but this place is hard to see at night, even from the sky, pfpth." said Spat. Spat had white fur with some gray around the head, ears, and around the legs. He had long black bat wings and on his head was a black hat with two arrow tipped antennas on top. In his paw was a pitch fork which was his weapon. Just like Glabrezu, Spat wasn't a ham-ham either despite his appearance. He was a creature known as celestial. A spiritual guardian, also from another plane of existence.

Curious, Spat asked, "What are we doing here, anyway?"

"We need a change of tactics." said Glabrezu. "We are not beat yet."

"Pfpth, are you crazy?" said Spat. "We've lost. Neteru and the others have two of the Caidoz pieces, we don't know where the remaining ten are located, we don't have the Giga Stone or know who has it, and your portal to Hell has been destroyed. We've lost."

"Don't be so sure of yourself." shouted Glabrezu, unmoved by the speech. "There is bound to be at least one other portal to Hell out there. The loss of one is meaningless."

"And what about the Caidoz pieces?" asked Spat. "I couldn't activate the pieces with the poem you gave me and not to mention that we have no clue as to where the other pieces could be."

"Fool, you don't have what it takes to activate the pieces." said Glabrezu. "Only someone chosen by the stars can activate them."

"Chosen by the stars?" said Spat. "What does that mean?"

"I'll explain it to you later." said Glabrezu. "As for the remaining Caidoz pieces, I have a plan on how to obtain them. But we can't start the plan now. We must wait. Oh yes. We will wait before we strike..."

Four years later...

Four years had past since the Ham-Ham's adventure to the island of Halastia and even after four years, both human and ham-ham alike have changed. Laura and her friends have matured after fours. Now they are fourteen years old and they had just graduated from their freshmen year at high school. Physically, they had matured significantly since they were in the fifth grade. Their hair styles haven't changed but they certainly have developed a new sense of fashion. But after four years, one thing hasn't changed: they were still hamans. Hamans are humans with the power to transform into a hamster at will and Laura, Kana, June, Kylie, Travis, and Roberto still had this power and they still use it. It was a power they had inherited from a mysterious little statue that was created millennias ago. Now that they can change into hamsters, Laura and her friends can now hang out with Hamtaro and the other Ham-Hams on their fun adventures. Thanks to this new found power, they were now capable of connecting to their hamsters in ways they couldn't before. Even Roberto had managed to get over his fear of rodents and he became more friendly, even to the other Ham-Hams.

Of course, the hamans aren't the only ones who have changed. Although some humans still remain the same, others had made some changes of their own such as Laura's parents, Marion and Forrest, who still have the same jobs as they had four years ago. This fact also applies to Kana's parents, Cindy and Conrad. Laura's cousin, Jake, still lives across the street from her with his pet hamster Moonbeam. Several blocks away from Laura's house, Maria, Bijou's owner, had recently graduated from high school and is now in college so she could receive a music major. Cappy's owners, Kip and Sue, recently had a baby together which they had named Mark. Cappy was concerned that once the baby was born, they would spend more attention on Mark than on Cappy. Luckily for me, that never happened. Infact, both Kip and Sue both spoil Mark and Cappy the same way. Goldie, Howdy's owner, never married her best friend Curtis, who is Dexter's owner. Instead, she married her boyfriend, Henry, but she still owns her grocery store right next to Curtis's glasses shop. Glitter and Sparkle are still in show biz together and they are still selling popular music albums but neither the Ham-Hams nor their owners have seen hide or hair of those two in person for a long time.

Panda's owner, Mimi, has grown. She is now nine years old and she still lives in the shop that her parents own and run. She still has her rare gift to understand ham-hams and whenever Panda's around, she frequently talks to him like a best friend. Tina, Mimi's little sister, has also grown too and the two sisters are still inseparable to this day.

Hillary (Sandy's owner) and Noel (Stan's owner) are officially boyfriend and girlfriend and the two are making plans to get married. Philip Yoshi still works in the same fifth grade class where he taught Laura and next year, Mimi will soon join his class. He and his wife, Charlotte, now live in their own house next to the school where they started their life together and agreed to raise a family. Two years ago, Charlotte gave birth to their first child. A girl which they had named Robin. Charlotte is currently five months pregnant with her second child and she's in school studying to be a veterinarian. She still works at her father's farm in order to pay her way through school and support her family. Dr. Lion, the traveling vet, had set up a permanent practice in town and he receives the Ham-Hams as patients frequently. Gabriel Black is still writing and he's still as strange as ever. Kana's uncle Dylan still lives on his farm with Pepper. Laura's grandparents, Willow and William, still live in the old house where Forrest grew up. Tragically, about two years ago, William suffered a heart attack. He survived but he's now no longer as active as he used to be but he still invents and he's still the cheerful grandfather Laura had always known.

Of course, even the ham-hams have made their own changes but not by much. They all still exhibit the same happy and friendly nature they've always had and they still exhibit their own habits such as the fact that Boss still tries to impress Bijou, Dexter and Howdy still have their eyes on Pashmina and compete for her attention, and Panda still builds for the Clubhouse. Maxwell and Sandy are still together and now they show their feelings for each other more openly which tends to gross out some of the boys. Penelope has matured a lot. She now speaks fluent english and she has also out grown her old blanket. Terra, the psionic hedgehog, and Moonbeam, the young sorcerous, still come by the Clubhouse. However, despite their seemingly peaceful and carefree lifestyle, the Ham-Hams were none the less struck with tragedy when Elder Ham past away about a year ago. He was buried on the top of a hill that over looked the sea which, according to Auntie Viv, was Elder Ham's favorite place to sleep. The Ham-Hams visit his grave at least once a month and they like to give him sun flower seeds and flowers to him.

Despite the tragedy and all the other changes that were made, there was one change that was the most joyful to the Ham-Hams. It was the glorious change that happened between Mara and Neteru. Those two still live together in their own underground house but their lives together have become even more special when they had a baby together. Shortly after they had returned from their adventure, Neteru and Mara made the big decision to take their relationship one step further and two weeks later, Mara made the exciting discovery that she was pregnant. At the time, some of the Ham-Hams didn't even know how pregnancy worked. Fortunately, Maxwell had medical books on the subject which helped Mara endure the physical demands of pregnancy and it also educated the Ham-Hams. After months of preparation, Mara first felt labor pains early one morning. The Ham-Hams did everything they could to comfort Mara as she went through the labor process in which Neteru bravely volunteered to deliver the child. After hours of labor, Mara successfully gave birth to their first son which they had named Kaiu. Kaiu resembles his father but instead of a white front, his was yellow, just like his mother's fur. The Ham-Hams loved the little ham and Kaiu became an important part of their family as well as Mara and Neteru's.

With their lives heading for wonderful futures and the new additions to their families, it seemed that the Ham-Hams and the hamans will never again have to face any of the dangers they faced four years ago but that was about to change. Glabrezu and Spat are still out there and they seek to obtain the twelve Caidoz pieces so they could free their lord and master, Bocka, from the Astral Plane. After four years, these two miscreants have plotted to steal the pieces. Meanwhile, two of the Caidoz pieces are still in the possession of the Ham-Hams, unaware as to how to use them and they probably never would have learned how if it weren't for the events that happened across the sea...