It happened a while ago, in the year 1999, on the peaceful planet of Albia. A grendel was born. The world was already home to a pack of norns, there were at least ten of them all living together in the norn house. The grendel was just a baby, he didn't bother me, although he wouldn't have done even if he were an adult, as my experience with grendels taught me that they weren't that bad. I couldn't pay attention to him now, though, the norns were more than a handful, and having a newborn norn didn't make things easier, it was bad enough attending to the adults, without having to teach a baby all the words and feeding it.
I began taking care of the baby norn, it was hard. The baby was distracted by all the adults fussing over it: tickling the little thing, slapping it and trying to teach it words. I pushed the adults away, and used the lift to get them all to the ground level, like I always did. I then began teaching the baby words, and when it was time to learn from the computer downstairs, it was time to use the lift again and take the adults upstairs (though most of them refused to go near the lift so I didn't bother.)
I guess I forgot about the grendel after that, until one day I wondered how he was doing. I went to see him. The grendel was still young, he'd probably only just become a child. I named him Flame. Being the typical grendel that he was, and not having any food since nothing grew in the volcano, Flame was hungry and bored. By that time I'd got sick of norns. Their non - stop chattering annoyed me and they were never happy. I couldn't cope. I decided to let them take care of themselves, they could amuse each other. I got the flying saucer ready and transported Flame to the norns' house.
Most of the norns were downstairs, hovering round and hogging the cheese vendor. They were making a lot of noise, but at least they were feeding themselves, even if they were randomly hitting each other, and then making their friends giggle with tickles, and some kisses.
I waited for the spaceship to arrive with Flame. When it had put him down, I put the flying saucer away, so the norns couldn't play with it. Flame seemed to be attractive to the norns. They began to walk over to him ... and I was angered by what they did next.
Most of the norns had never even seen a grendel, and the ones that had, had only seen one for a short while, certainly not enough to associate them with danger. That, however, didn't stop them from attacking Flame. Flame was young, so those older than him took advantage and hit him, laughing and showing their friends. Even the norns which were as old as, or younger than Flame hit him, or laughed gleefully as he stood, shivering in pain and fear. I heard the giggles of norns, and their irritating voices. I read what they were saying:
"Hit grendel."
"Push grendel."
All they did was talk about attacking Flame. I started hitting the norns, and I typed in
"No hit grendel." it didn't work. They ignored me (no change there.) All I could do was watch. I grew angry, and I was about to get the flying saucer to take Flame away from them when I heard a high pitched voice, and read a speech bubble saying:
"No hit grendel."
I watched as Ginger, my golden desert norn, repeated my words, and began hitting her norn friends. I smiled, amazed, as the norns began to wander back over to the cheese vendor, talking about food and expressing their hunger.
Ginger walked up to Flame, with a big grin on her face. She was the only norn I liked to keep happy, she was my favorite. You can guess her colour by looking at her name. She was a ginger colour, hence the name "Ginger". Ginger had wavy blonde hair and big blue eyes that constantly sparkled. She was in youth stage at the time, so she was older than Flame.
Flame looked at her, still trembling. He closed his eyes and she got closer and began speaking in the strange grendel language that I didn't understand. I watched Ginger, cautious in case she too began hitting him. Ginger did. She hit him. I was about to hit her and tell her off when she tickled Flame. Flame looked at her and moved closer. Ginger tickled him again, and he tickled her back. That was where their friendship began.
I found teaching Flame harder than teaching a norn. Being a grendel, he just wasn't interested, so I had to make the learning computers repeat words. Ginger stayed with him through most of his education, she liked Flame, and he liked her, but it was a little annoying because playing with his friend drew even more of his attention away from the computers. I was glad he'd found a friend, though.
After Flame was educated, I began looking after the norns again. I didn't neglect him, but I tried to take care of the others, who were tired and hungry as usual (but mostly just tired, although it never occurred to them to SLEEP!) I left Flame with Ginger, or rather, Ginger went off to play with Flame. The norns were too much of a handful though. I knew no matter how much I told them and disciplined them, they'd be distracted by each other and wouldn't eat or sleep unless they wanted to. So, I decided to let them take care of themselves, and I went to see Flame and Ginger.
They weren't always together, though. Ginger had grown up with norns and some of the others were her childhood friends, so she still found time to be with the norns, but they were different to her. Norns are simple when they're together. They hit each other and tickle each other, they mate and forget they have had a baby. They were like sheep. If one wanted food, all of them would say they were hungry, and they'd venture off to the cheese vendor or a mushroom patch together. If one said they were bored, ten norns would go for the same toy. Everything was done in a group, in dependance wasn't a word to them. Ginger was different. She liked being with others, but the norns were too simple for her. She liked having her own mind, Ginger wasn't a sheep, she was her own self, and just didn't find what she was looking for in those norns. I remember, even as a young norn she'd educate herself and ignored the words they'd teach her. She'd quietly go off to find food instead of suggesting that the entire race should go to dinner.
Ginger seemed to find what she was looking for in Flame. Grendels are naturally independent, because only one at a time is born into the world. Flame had his own mind, and Ginger seemed to like that, perhaps he made her feel independent, but at the same time, not alone. They began to hang out together more and more. They'd hit each other sometimes, which I was a little worried about at first, but after a while, having tickled each other or, on rare occasions, giving the other a kiss after hitting them, I accepted the fact that hitting to them was just a game, or getting the other's attention.
One day, I noticed Ginger looked tired. I told her to sleep but the noise of the norns and their constant tickling and attention seeking made it hard for her to rest, and Flame distracted Ginger. I got out the flying saucer, and took her to a beautiful place. It was where the getting would normally hang out. It was full of fruit, and there was a bee hive on a building made out of logs. There was an ant hill on the ground, and a dog lived nearby. The ettin wasn't around, I decided to let Ginger stroll abut for a bit, before telling her to go to sleep. I followed her as she walked away from the fruits, and got closer to a bridge which went across a lake. At that point I told her to go to sleep, being the obedient norn that she was, Ginger did. I watched the glum looking on her face turn into a smile and her tiredness decreased. I took a couple of photos.
Ginger woke up, and got into a funny pose. I watched as she lay on her stomach, her legs up in the air, and her head resting on her hands. She had a big smile on her face and her eyes were as sparkly as ever. I was about to take a photo when Ginger laid an egg, and stood up. I gasped and smiled, I'd forgotten she was pregnant. Immediately, I thought of Flame. I knew he couldn't ben the father, as ettins and grendels can't breed, but I knew I'd make sure he met the baby. I planned to let it grow up with its mother and her best friend. I tickled Ginger, and programmed the flying saucer to take her home. As I waited for it to arrive, I picked up Ginger's egg and took it home. I put it in front of Flame. He looked at it and said:
"Egg." I tickled him.
"Ginger's egg." I typed. I knew the grendel couldn't understand that, but I was happy that Ginger would be a mother. This was gonna be one baby I didn't mind teaching.
I went back to check on Ginger, but the flying saucer had already got her. Instead, I saw the only getting in the world walking around. I named him Jarvis, and decided to give Ginger and Flame a new friend. I got the flying saucer ready ...
Ginger's baby was a boy, I looked at his birth certificate. His father was one of my male golden desert norns. The baby looked just like him: a dark brown-yellow colour with brownish red eyes. I educated her son, and he began to take care of himself, but the other norns soon brainwashed him, and he became part of the large crowd of idiots, the same thing would happen to Ginger's daughter later on. Flame tickled Ginger's son sometimes, though, as if he knew ...
Jarvis made friends with Flame and Ginger, but he wasn't as close to them as those two were to each other. Ettins are simple creatures, they are amused and fascinated by small animals, and prefer to play with critters. He was only really seen with them because Ginger went over to Jarvis, and Flame followed, like he'd almost always done.
Something happened to Ginger once. I exported the three of them. I had made another world, a world where only the smart norns would live. Of course, Ginger had a place there, as did Flame, and I let Jervis tag along since Ginger liked him. There was a problem importing her though. Flame and Jarvis were fine, but something happened to Ginger's file. Whenever I imported her, an error message would come up, and a golden desert norn with green legs would come, and her file would still be in the export box so I could download multiple clones with the same name, age, and birth date as Ginger. The problem was fixed though. I exported all the clones and imported her again. I got the real Ginger.
However, while the clones were scattered downstairs, despite them all being female they managed to have a few children. All of them looked like their parents, who were both called Ginger. I exported the kids as well, Flame wasn't interested in them, it was like he knew their mother wasn't the golden desert norn he'd spent most of his life with (by that time Flame was an adult.)
Ginger grew old sooner than Flame and Jarvis. Flame was sad when she died, it was so sudden. She was tired and hungry. I placed a pot of honey in front of her and told her to eat it. Ginger was about to pick it up when she suddenly collapsed, dead. She had been elderly but none of my norns had ever just died like that before. Flame missed her, in the days that followed her death he'd sometimes express his sadness, and he said her name once. I'd tickled him, but he didn't laugh. Jarvis, being the simple ettin that he was, hardly noticed she was gone, he too said her name, but only because it was a word he'd learned off Flame, and ettins like to try out new words.
Flame went next. He grew old, but his death was different. I'd exported him, and when I came to import him again, his file was gone. Jarvis died though, he got quite old, he'd reached senile stage. This stage had never made any of my creatures mad, but even if it did have that effect, an ettin's intelligence is so low, being senile wouldn't make much of a difference, their speech would just be a tiny bit dumber than before.
So, that was the end of their friendship. If you believed grendels on C2 to be evil, I hope that tale has changed your mind. Ginger saw a friend in Flame, and he saw a friend in her. She was kind to him, she'd defended, rescued and virtually raised him, Flame might've even thought of Ginger as his mother, he certainly saw her as his protector when he was still young, and he looked up to her. I still don't know if Flame actually loved Ginger, she liked him, but only as a friend, a close, best friend, and Jarvis ... he enjoyed their friendship while they were there, but being the ettin that he was, critters too were good companions, and very amusing.
Their story is a sweet one, and it really shows the good side to grendels, and the good, bad and smart side to norns. (The bad side to norns is hitting defenseless creatures just because they look different, and you can guess that the good, and smart side is Ginger's life.)