Gren shivered a bit, and crept under the safety of his Observatory. He was afraid, that no one could deny... but inside a terrible rage bubbled. With every Norn, came The Hand. Not to mention the fact that they were disturbing his territory. His. That single thought brought a burning blaze to his eyes.

He muttered every curse his mind could come up with. Something had to be done, but what could he do? Ideas whirled through his head, flashing by and disappearing just as quickly. Finally, after reviewing all of the possibilities, he choked up a little with despair. Nothing could be done unless one of the Norns came down and bothered him personally.

Suddenly, a muted "ding" sounded off, and the lift creaked up. Gren took in a sharp breath, and silently watched the lift as it disappeared through the roof. For a second, he felt an insane giggle rising up in his mouth, but he quickly muffled the urge. If they were to come down, he might as well drive them out dignantly. He scuffled about, and tried to brace his bulky body for the fight. The lift creaked down...

...and in it was a beautiful female norn. Her eyes were away from him for the moment, hazel eyes cast downwards on the floor. A charming smile was on her face, and she stood up and examined the gaudy lift buttons. Gren stood motionless, staring rudely towards the young blonde norn as she moved her hand over the down button. He gave off and abrupt growl, and she wheeled towards him quickly, shock drawn over her face.

"And who do we have here? A norn? Not only that, but a foolish norn trespassing on my domain," Gren spat out, stepping towards the girl awkwardly. She stared at him fearfully, looking as if the concept of this situation hadn't even been registered in her mind. Suddenly, she gasped and frantically slammed at the up button. However... not before Gren could step up in the lift with her.

As soon as they reached the top, Gren gave her a head wheeling slap. The norn cried out in pain, and landed on her side, eyes staring guiltily up in the beast's face. They both stared each other down, gasping down deep breaths. When the girl finally withdrew her eyes, closing them as if unable to bear the sight, Gren took the precious moment to survey his upper Island.

"Anything and everything in its place," he thought smugly, a small smirk upon his lips. That is, until he caught sight of the small, oval object at the end of the dock. He gawked, not believing that he was seeing this, of all things, on his land. Finally, he ran up to the norn, took her shoulders and started shaking her.

"I can't believe this! You come here, acting like the Queen of all Albia, and then you lay an egg here! An EGG!" Fuming, the Grendel threw her down, growling dangerously. "What makes you think I should spare your little meaningless life?"

"I-... that is-... I-I didn't mean to!" she gasped. "I'm so-so sorry Mr. Grendel! I really am! Wh-what can I do to make it up?"

Regaining his composure, Gren glared bloody murder.

"What can you do? Ha... that's a laugh. Tell me, what exactly is your name, you self worthy Hand slaver?"

The norn stared, trembling a bit. Finally, she shakily muttered, "Alicia."

"Ah... Alicia. So I see. You know what? I think I will spare your life... but only," it was at this Gren paused and raised a boney claw, "Only if you let me have that egg for myself."

"My egg?! What would you want with my egg? I can't spare that!"

"Well, you should've thought of that before coming here," Gren sizzled, swooping up the egg and standing mightily before Alicia. "Good day, dear Norn. I hope your trip back is absolutely dreadful."

And with that, Gren sent the lift back down into the Observatory. He fumed silently, tossing the small egg into the rubbish heap in the corner of the room. Hearing the pitiful sobs coming from upstairs, he gave a little self righteous grin. "That ought to show her. Next time maybe she'll use a little more common sense about coming here," he thought grandly, settling himself comfortably on the floor. Soon, he fell asleep, as Alicia cried her heart and soul out.

Ocean waves, a hunger gnawling in his stomach, and the sounds of cracking greeted Gren as he groggily woke up. He opened his eyes slowly, adjusting them to the sudden burst of light. When that was done, he stumpled quickly to his feet, ready to retrieve the rotten, cracked coconut near the rubbish for his somewhat meager breakfast. As he stepped heavily over to the heap, he noticed a slight bit of movement under his moth eaten blanket and... some sort of sound like cracking, and a baby cooing.

"It couldn't be," he thought naively to himself, "Norn's eggs don't hatch out that quickly, that I'm sure of." But he wasn't as sure as he thought when the blanket heaved around and a delicate hand appeared. Before Gren even knew it, a little baby norn grinned up at him, waving his hands around and burbling excitedly to himself.

Gren's first instinct was to strangle the little nothing, and throw his mangled corpse out into the ocean. He was about to do so, when the little thing curled himself around Gren's legs, and stared affectionately towards him. Gren's upraised claw trembled, and he darted his eyes around, undecisive. Suddenly, he flung the baby norn off of his feet, and fled over to the other side of the room.

The little boy sat stunned, then whimpered uneasily and dragged himself onto a pile of dust, where he tried unsuccessfully to bury his body into. Finally, he settled into a little notch he had made in the dust, and laid down in it, trembling slightly.

For the first time in his life, the Grendel had no idea what to do. Millions of voices danced in his head, telling him to kill, strangle, or even eat the thing out of its misery. But one came above them all, and for some reason... this voice told him to do something other than slaughtering the norn.

"It must be hungry... give it some food," it sang, its voice soft and soothing.

"No way!" the other voices cried. "Give it food? That's unbelieveable!"

Gren sat there, confused as to what to do. Finally, he shook his head decisively, and stood up. Out of the rubbish heap, he came up with an ancient jar of honey, seal still permanently in place and full to the brim. He was saving this for a special day, when food was so low he could barely even get up to feed himself. Instead, he popped the lid off, and shoved it towards the norn.

It slid its head up, and stared forlornly at the jar. Finally it struggled to its feet, and took a taste. Soon the jar was empty and on its side... not a drop left in it.

Gren was surprised at how quickly the little thing ate. He opened and closed his claws, unsure what to do next. But before he even knew it, the norn was at his side, snuggled comfortably against his smooth skin, and fast asleep.

The Grendel look down. He took out one claw, and scratched the little boy's head affectionately, ruffling its mohawk into curls. A relationship was born....

Days passed, and before Gren knew it, the newborn had changed into a child. He even stared proudly as the norn took his first tottering steps to Gren's side, a sweet smile on his face. He named him Fig, a very respectible name among the Grendel kind, and Fig wore his name with pride. It took Fig quite awhile before he could even speak properly, often saying foolish syllables to express himself. One was "Fi-ig eem Gwen!" which took awhile for Gren to compensate that that meant "Fig come Gren". Either way, Gren found himself with a new emotion to deal with... parental love. It was an uncomfortable, and rather confusing emotion to deal with, but still Gren put up with it.

Until one day, an enraged knocking came upon the end of the lift, and The Hand appeared. It seemed furious, shaking uncontrolably and waving around the room like a maniac.

"Take my baby norn will you? Abuse and mistreat them too I'll bet! I'll teach you my disgusting worm devoured jerk!" and with that, it started slamming Gren against the walls and slapping coldly at his face. The Grendel grunted and cried in pain, huddling down into a small ball and turning his back against the blows. Poor Fig stood by amazed, and scared beyond belief. Here was his Father, the one he grew to love being beaten by some unknown terror.

When The Hand had its fill, it faced the young norn and pointed at him. "Come on," it said gruffly, "Let's leave this little monster behind and I'll take you back to your rightful home."

Fig shook his head furiously and stared defiantly at The Hand. "Nono! Gwen fwiend! Fig wun Hand!" he cried out desperately, and reached for the up button on the lift. However, The Hand suddenly raced by his side, and started beating the little norn off of the button panel.

"You little creep," it growled dangerously, "From now on, that beast is not your friend... and I'm your rightful parent, along with that poor norn family back in the Gardens."

"Nono Fig!" he sobbed, crawling around the floor and trying to reach for Gren.

The Hand punched him again, and dragged him up by the arm.

"Act like a decent norn! Also, your name isn't Fig... its now Benedict. Fig indeed, Benedict is a far more respectable name."

Benedict bawled as The Hand slapped him again and again up the lift....

When Gren woke up, the world looked red.

He gingerly stood up, holding in various parts of his body that felt beaten and broken. The remainder of the room was destroyed, smashed to ruins by The Hand and his fellow minions. But worst of all, Fig was gone....

The thought wasn't even passed before Gren was up the lift and racing towards the dock. He searched desperately among the ocean, looking for the tiniest clue that Fig was still here.

Nothing.

Gren slumped down, his eyes tearing as the dock ship came towards him. Most of all, he was stunned that he would never see his little Fig anymore. He was gone... forever it seemed.

"And they call us the monsters..." he thought, as he trudged back to the lift, a newly ruined Grendel.