It was a normal day in Albia. "Goddess" (the hand) was keeping herself busy trying to rid Albia of the Baobab weed that made so many newborn norns sick. She had installed many cobs to improve the learning level and living standards of her norns. One of her creations, the NewGren Detector, alerted her whenever a grendel was born so she could decide what to do with the newborn. Most of the time, Goddess simply banished the new reptile to the desert island, letting the animal live by itself. Other times however.......

Goddess was just about to test a new cob to rid Albia of the Baobab weed when the NewGren Detector went off. She decided that the testing could wait and went to check out the newborn grendel. Goddess had never seen such a grendel!! Standing there, tapping her foot happily, was a *black* *female* grendel!

"How is this possible?!?" Goddess babbled, "How could the Grendel Mother hatch a black, let alone female, grendel?!?"

"Grah fig narg oogle." the newly hatched grendel cooed.

"Hmmm, Grah you say? Okay, that will be your name." Goddess said as she accessed the Owner's kit and named the grendel.

When she returned to the screen, she saw the unthinkable. Her first and oldest norn, Asta, had happened upon the baby grendel and had decided to teach her. Starstuck, Goddess could only watch.

"Push", Asta said, eating a carrot, hoping the baby would mimic her.

"Puth."

"Push", Asta said again, eating a Feverfew, still hoping the baby would mimic her.

"Push", the grendel said as she ate a piece of cheese.

Asta smiled and tickled the grendel, "Good girl!".

Goddess watched the pair with wonder. The grendel wasn't hitting the norn? Very odd. "This one's a keeper" the hand thought to herself. That little black grendel would not be banished to the island like her older brothers. It seemed as if Asta had adopted the grendel as if it were her own hatchling! She decided to leave the baby in the capable norn's care while she decide to investigate the Mother Grendel to see how it had made a female. The hand *was* tired of only male grendels being born.

Goddess decided to alter the mother grendel to allow for both genders of grendel to be born as well for variances in pigment. Little did she know what pains that would cause her and her norns in the future.......

Annabel watched her mate and her son play in the garden from the refreshing shade of the pear tree. Their little Fren seemed to have an endless supply of energy! He had just finished learning his verbs that day! It was hard to get him to take a nap for longer than a few minutes (norn time)!

Annabel had supervised Fren at the learning machine, it had been an energy drainer for her, keeping her first born near the computer and away from the teleporter and the lift so he couldn't sneak off. Now she felt a bit of sympathy for her own Mother when she had taken her to the learning machine so long ago! Having to keep the wriggly Annabel in one room when she wanted to see the big world Albia with her newborn eyes!

Aaron was waiting with antisipation, wait for his son to grow so he could take on a journey all over Albia. He still remembered fondly of his own Dad taking on a journey around the small world. Most of all, Aaron wanted Fren to see the telescope so he could wonder at the many stars as he had when he was a kid.

Annabel was lesurely going toward Fren when he grew to the size of a child. Both parents beamed. They couldn't wait to take him to see all there was in Albia and teach him the many, many things that they had learned. "You know what this calls for, Annabel?" Aaron said.

"Yes I do," Annabel said proudly, "the Journey Norn's cerimony!"

The family announced the rite and went to the kitchen to wait for friends and family to show up. Eventually, the whole tribe showed up. But Aaron noticed something unusual written in the faces of his military friends. He didn't like it. His army buddies were not ones prone to bouts of seriousness out side of battle. But, here they were, at one of the most exciting events for any norn and they were wearing little, worried frowns. No sir, Aaron didn't like it one bit! He decided to see what the problem was, so he went to talk to his father-in-law, General Flib.

"General Flib? Can I talk to you a moment?"

"It's Dad to you, Aaron. What's on your mind?" General Flib said.

"What's going on? The Goof squad," Aaron said, pointing to his army buddies, "look like they sucked on lemons too long."

General Flib sighed, he couldn't keep the reports from the spys on the island secret any longer, not with his grandson going there soon. "Well, it has something to do with the grendels the Goddess banished there, things are looking pretty scary in that direction."