Back in the Incubator Room the three norn friends were lazing about, the
mission forgotten, if only temporarily. Nikai was lying back on the tap
stationed on the edge of the Goldfish pond, lazily looking at Isis where
she was holding a doozer in her two hands. "Nikai, what do you reckon this
thing does?" She squeezed it slightly. "Egg!" It yelled in a high-pitched
voice. Isis pulled a face. " I'm more likely to remember this weird sound
than the word." She put it down and it waltzed off with a little air of
indignation, like they always do.
Skyra was babbling incessantly. Her stinger was excitedly writhing in the air as she held up a shiny red tomato. "You know, the Elder Norn told us nornlings once that you actually found.get this.Ugly Tomatoes in Old Albia. Hehehe, imagine that.ugly tomatoes, who would eat that? But then again, he also said that the only norns who ate them were norns who didn't want...you know.." She held her claw over her mouth. ".babies." Who wouldn't want babies?" Nikai interrupted her. "Was the Elder norn a Scorpio?"
She replied: " No, he was an Hebe Norn actually ..but he didn't look like you guys. He was different. He never got angry, or even when he seemed angry, his face was a blank. What else..oh yes.he had brownish fur and you know, everybody made fun about his tail, that was like, stuck to his body! Hehehehe." This sounded familiar to Nikai, but he felt in no condition to think, as he had been racking his brain a lot these past days. "I'm really tired, I think I'm going to take a little nap, if you girls don't mind." He laid back in the mushroom patch and rested his head on his arms.
The two went up the lift to the Desert Area to look if the toy top was still there. It was , but out of reach, at the top of the Big Tree. Isis was about to get into the lift when Skyra slammed the lift button. " No, I want to show you how resilient Scorpios are. I will climb this tree to get the top." Isis looked amused and stepped out of the lift cautiously. She walked past the norn until she was a safe distance - then she stood with crossed arms, waiting for the challenge the Scorpio had issued herself with. Skyra walked a few paces back from the tree and rubbed her paws together. "Are you sure about this Skyra? I have never heard about any norns who could climb a tree."
Skyra looked at her, quite bothered and lowered her upper body - she looked ready to storm. So she did. The blue norn ran as fast as she could then theatrically jumped at the tree with wide open arms and legs. And there, splat onto the tree like a piece of Velcro, she stuck. Isis fell down on the floor and laughed so hard it was almost unnatural that it came from a norn. "Oh hohoho hehehe sweet tomato! This is so hahahaha oh" Skyra's voice piped up. "Eh..um..Isis? Some help?" As the words left her mouth Nikai appeared from the escalating Incubator Lift. Trying to keep a straight face, he said: "Didn't think norn fur would stick to a rough surface like a tree now did you Skyra?" He pulled her off with ease. Isis had finally stopped laughing and was now sitting back on her elbows, watching the rescue attempt and wiping the laughter-tears from her eyes. "Your stupidity is only surpassed by your furriness."
Noticing for the first time that day that the sun had sunk considerably into the horizon, Nikai told the girls that they would have to get a move on , as they already wasted a day. So they set off the next morning.
They went on like that for 5 days, travelling from dawn until dusk, until they came to the green pipes which led to the lab. They stood in the pipes, each one hesitant for the last and final step in their journey to find truth, help and history. "So what is the plan of action?" Isis asked, looking at Nikai. He hadn't really thought of this until now - he certainly couldn't just barge in and corner the first Shee. Maybe they would see him at the entrance and help him. They were so brilliant he was sure they would know everything. They must love norns, they made so many different ones. "I'll go in, and ask a nice-looking Shee to help me. Simple enough."
With that he walked towards the Laboratory. Despite his convictions the fear clung to him like the juice of a berry to fur. He straightened up, more as a show to the females than real confidence. He reached the entrance, which was a big, metal door that apparently opened diagonally. Above the door was a nameplate . Mutantis Genea. He made a mental note to ask someone what that meant. He didn't really understand Shee language. Just then, the doors opened , and before he could take a step further , a appalling stench blew into his face, causing a bout of nausea. A waited a minute, then ran inside.
Inside, he could feel the aftermath of something terrible. The shock still hung in the air and there was an uncomfortable silence. Then one spoke. "So, Dunnefisk how do you explain this?" Netalisys' sharp tone of voice sliced through the laboratory. Nikai ducked under the operating table in the middle of the room. He could see one figure slightly leaning back onto a panel of machinery, the one who just spoke. He turned around. On the other side two pairs of feet were standing there , and he leaned over slightly to see beyond what the view from under the table would allow. One was looking around nervously, biting his lip.
The other one looked slightly lighter than the first one - he was turning almost white in the face. His fists were clenched and his mouth twisted into an livid line that seemed engraved into his face. He turned around again. On the other side of the room he saw 3 bottles with something in them. He shaded his eyes against the sharp laboratory lights. Three large bottles stood on a table. He felt himself go numb with disbelief. In those three bottles were...norns?
They certainly resembled norns on some level, but they looked.different. They were much smoother and smaller. The norns were drifting in tinted liquid, bubbling from the supply of oxygen from the base of the bottles. His dilated pupils dashed from one bottle to another. One was orange with black stripes, the other had brown spots and the last was a dark brown colour. He tried to control the dizziness and squinted to read the labels on the bottles. Bengal, Civet, Bruin. What was this?
They didn't look like any norn he had ever seen or heard about. Just then the brown one turned slightly in her liquid heaven and although they were not born yet , Nikai could have sworn he had seen an inkling of a smile on the norn's face. He breathed deeply and lowered his head. He had to calm down , he was becoming dangerously irrational. Why would the Shee make norns thát different if they were to adapt to the same weather conditions than the current norns?
Finally Dunnefisk said : "Shouldn't that question be directed to yourself?" He was trying hard to restrain his anger towards the other Shee - his utter indifference to what just happened was infuriating. His tired eyes moved over the surface of the lab - the machine buttons blinking and the familiar bleeping and whirring..the grey floor with the spilt white puddle that stretched out from under the dead Shee..and the half-demonic Grendel, lying on it's side, with a gigantic claw dangling off the side of the operating table..the big sedation injection, the syringe that they left in the creature after it was administered. Dunnefisk looked at Netalisys in a desperation that made his voice break slightly. "Look at your mistake." The other Shee looked sideways, mortified. "I can't. I don't have to." He then suddenly plucked up and pushed his shoulders back in his usual proud stance. "Well it's over anyway, we should get rid of this.this thing." Netalisys' voice was cold and dead - not betraying any emotion, even if he had felt anything, the others would never be able to tell. Atriscemy looked disgusted. He frowned and after a brief pause, said : "Just kill it? Isn't that a bit drastic? Why can't we just set it free by the volcano - nothing ever comes there anyway and we can plant food sources for them."
Netalisys picked up an injection and toyed with it leisurely while trying to create the impression that he was thinking - he had in fact, already decided how he would warp the proposal. Atriscemy watched his colleague with mixed feelings.
He doubted that the Shee would buy into the idea, but then again, it looked like the weather would change between them. Finally Netalisys delivered his ultimatum : "Ok, we set it free.without food sources." Atriscemy blinked hard and looked downward. He knew there had to be a catch. But..maybe he had a point - Albia couldn't afford to let this creature thrive. Without some source of food the genus would obviously die out very quickly and seeing that he had not had the heart to carry out euthanasia, this was the only sensible solution.
He walked to Storage and picked a heavy-duty bag big enough for the animal. He made his way over to the others. Together they heaved the creature into the huge bag and began dragging it down the tunnel leading to the Splicing Machine. When they arrived, they opened a trapdoor that they had installed a few months earlier while doing research about the volcano. In a cave near the volcano they put the bag down- as they did that it slipped open and a limp arm slided out and rested on the rock cave floor. With that the Shee left, without so much as a glance back.
The Shee were now gone and Nikai was still sitting underneath the table , crouching. He was still stunned by what he had seen. It was like a nightmare, creating images, voices and realities in his head. About these different norns. No other norn would ever know what it's like to have seen life like this. The way the Shee would one day blow life into these things floating in a glass jar. Were norns just little things floating in the bottle called Albia, waiting to be given life? Was life a gift to give? His musings were interrupted by a heartbreaking crying next to him. For the first time he saw the little norn next to him.
It was a regular-looking Hebe norn. He was clinging to the deceased Shee's leg and pressed his tear- stained face to the leg when he wasn't shaking it , in a desperate attempt to awaken his master. His little face was wet and his mouth was twisted into a sob. Then Nikai noticed something strange. The little norn wore a wire-rimmed set of glass on his face. Glasses? What did glasses do? He leaned over to the norn slowly and put his hand on the burgundy-brown fur of the sobbing norn's shoulder. This startled the norn, who had clearly been in so an overpowering sadness that he hadn't noticed Nikai.
"I'm Nikai, a Kai norn - I came here to speak to a Shee." The norn replied: "I know what you are. I know everything about your kind - this Shee had taught me everything about everything in Albia - he is...was my master." A genuine loyalty shone through his voice like a ray of sunshine. Nikai helped him up. "Look, it's no use to hang around here drowning your sorrows with tears...come with me - two other norns are travelling with me.OH which reminds me , do you have Feverfew? I need it for my friend."
The norn stood up and walked to a metal suitcase. He punched a combination of signs and it clicked open. Inside , it was lined with a cream velvet , and in special hollows there were jars with labels on them. The norn picked the one containing the daisy-like flower, with lilac petals. "Here. It's an analgesic and antibacterial treatment." For a moment Nikai was taken aback with the ease that the norn had changed in the last few minutes. Just a moment ago the norn was sobbing and now he was exchanging information as if he had swallowed the Encyclopedia Nornica. "Thanks. So.do you want to join us then?"
The norn considered it for a moment, looked longingly at the Shee and then nodded. "Ok. I should probably be with my own kind."
With that they walked outside and greeted the females who had sat down behind the Cornucopia bush in the shade, peeling foxfire berries and chatting. The stood up when they saw the males coming towards them, curious about the stranger. He came up to them, extended a hand and said: "I'm Asmo. I am partly based on the original norn but I have a new improved genome - I have a larger brain and modified instincts and lobes. I'm an Akamai Canny." The last part of the sentence had a distinct sound of satisfaction - as if he had waited his whole life to tell somebody this.
Isis shook his hand. " Hi Asmo." Skyra was more vivacious - she pulled him to her and hugged him. "Hey Asmo! It's so good to see a fresh face in the group. You know, we've travelled a pretty long way , and it'll be just great if you'll join us, you know, we grow tired of each other sometimes and it will." she couldn't complete her sentence- Isis had stuck a foxfire berry into her mouth and the red juice was now dripping down her chin. "Shut up - you'll scare him away.oh wait..I think you scared him so much, he can't move." Isis said, slightly amused. Indeed ; Asmo was white around the mouth and stood rigid like a twig, looking straight at Skyra, eyes wide with horror.
"Thi..This is a.a Sc..Sc.Sco.Scorpio!" The words came out of his mouth - barely audible due to tension and fear on his part. Nikai shrugged. "Yeah.so..?" Asmo turned to Nikai. "So..Scorpio's are only the most vicious breed of norn created to date - they were originally used to fend off curious norns from the lab - they're very strong and have a flaring temper. They're definitely dangerous." Nikai pointed at Skyra. "Does that look like a dangerous norn to you?" Skyra was standing with her hands on her hips, chewing impatiently at the foxfire berry and rolling her eyes at the bee that hovered nearby. Asmo thought for a moment. "Well, I'd watch her nonetheless. They're unpredictable too."
Skyra was babbling incessantly. Her stinger was excitedly writhing in the air as she held up a shiny red tomato. "You know, the Elder Norn told us nornlings once that you actually found.get this.Ugly Tomatoes in Old Albia. Hehehe, imagine that.ugly tomatoes, who would eat that? But then again, he also said that the only norns who ate them were norns who didn't want...you know.." She held her claw over her mouth. ".babies." Who wouldn't want babies?" Nikai interrupted her. "Was the Elder norn a Scorpio?"
She replied: " No, he was an Hebe Norn actually ..but he didn't look like you guys. He was different. He never got angry, or even when he seemed angry, his face was a blank. What else..oh yes.he had brownish fur and you know, everybody made fun about his tail, that was like, stuck to his body! Hehehehe." This sounded familiar to Nikai, but he felt in no condition to think, as he had been racking his brain a lot these past days. "I'm really tired, I think I'm going to take a little nap, if you girls don't mind." He laid back in the mushroom patch and rested his head on his arms.
The two went up the lift to the Desert Area to look if the toy top was still there. It was , but out of reach, at the top of the Big Tree. Isis was about to get into the lift when Skyra slammed the lift button. " No, I want to show you how resilient Scorpios are. I will climb this tree to get the top." Isis looked amused and stepped out of the lift cautiously. She walked past the norn until she was a safe distance - then she stood with crossed arms, waiting for the challenge the Scorpio had issued herself with. Skyra walked a few paces back from the tree and rubbed her paws together. "Are you sure about this Skyra? I have never heard about any norns who could climb a tree."
Skyra looked at her, quite bothered and lowered her upper body - she looked ready to storm. So she did. The blue norn ran as fast as she could then theatrically jumped at the tree with wide open arms and legs. And there, splat onto the tree like a piece of Velcro, she stuck. Isis fell down on the floor and laughed so hard it was almost unnatural that it came from a norn. "Oh hohoho hehehe sweet tomato! This is so hahahaha oh" Skyra's voice piped up. "Eh..um..Isis? Some help?" As the words left her mouth Nikai appeared from the escalating Incubator Lift. Trying to keep a straight face, he said: "Didn't think norn fur would stick to a rough surface like a tree now did you Skyra?" He pulled her off with ease. Isis had finally stopped laughing and was now sitting back on her elbows, watching the rescue attempt and wiping the laughter-tears from her eyes. "Your stupidity is only surpassed by your furriness."
Noticing for the first time that day that the sun had sunk considerably into the horizon, Nikai told the girls that they would have to get a move on , as they already wasted a day. So they set off the next morning.
They went on like that for 5 days, travelling from dawn until dusk, until they came to the green pipes which led to the lab. They stood in the pipes, each one hesitant for the last and final step in their journey to find truth, help and history. "So what is the plan of action?" Isis asked, looking at Nikai. He hadn't really thought of this until now - he certainly couldn't just barge in and corner the first Shee. Maybe they would see him at the entrance and help him. They were so brilliant he was sure they would know everything. They must love norns, they made so many different ones. "I'll go in, and ask a nice-looking Shee to help me. Simple enough."
With that he walked towards the Laboratory. Despite his convictions the fear clung to him like the juice of a berry to fur. He straightened up, more as a show to the females than real confidence. He reached the entrance, which was a big, metal door that apparently opened diagonally. Above the door was a nameplate . Mutantis Genea. He made a mental note to ask someone what that meant. He didn't really understand Shee language. Just then, the doors opened , and before he could take a step further , a appalling stench blew into his face, causing a bout of nausea. A waited a minute, then ran inside.
Inside, he could feel the aftermath of something terrible. The shock still hung in the air and there was an uncomfortable silence. Then one spoke. "So, Dunnefisk how do you explain this?" Netalisys' sharp tone of voice sliced through the laboratory. Nikai ducked under the operating table in the middle of the room. He could see one figure slightly leaning back onto a panel of machinery, the one who just spoke. He turned around. On the other side two pairs of feet were standing there , and he leaned over slightly to see beyond what the view from under the table would allow. One was looking around nervously, biting his lip.
The other one looked slightly lighter than the first one - he was turning almost white in the face. His fists were clenched and his mouth twisted into an livid line that seemed engraved into his face. He turned around again. On the other side of the room he saw 3 bottles with something in them. He shaded his eyes against the sharp laboratory lights. Three large bottles stood on a table. He felt himself go numb with disbelief. In those three bottles were...norns?
They certainly resembled norns on some level, but they looked.different. They were much smoother and smaller. The norns were drifting in tinted liquid, bubbling from the supply of oxygen from the base of the bottles. His dilated pupils dashed from one bottle to another. One was orange with black stripes, the other had brown spots and the last was a dark brown colour. He tried to control the dizziness and squinted to read the labels on the bottles. Bengal, Civet, Bruin. What was this?
They didn't look like any norn he had ever seen or heard about. Just then the brown one turned slightly in her liquid heaven and although they were not born yet , Nikai could have sworn he had seen an inkling of a smile on the norn's face. He breathed deeply and lowered his head. He had to calm down , he was becoming dangerously irrational. Why would the Shee make norns thát different if they were to adapt to the same weather conditions than the current norns?
Finally Dunnefisk said : "Shouldn't that question be directed to yourself?" He was trying hard to restrain his anger towards the other Shee - his utter indifference to what just happened was infuriating. His tired eyes moved over the surface of the lab - the machine buttons blinking and the familiar bleeping and whirring..the grey floor with the spilt white puddle that stretched out from under the dead Shee..and the half-demonic Grendel, lying on it's side, with a gigantic claw dangling off the side of the operating table..the big sedation injection, the syringe that they left in the creature after it was administered. Dunnefisk looked at Netalisys in a desperation that made his voice break slightly. "Look at your mistake." The other Shee looked sideways, mortified. "I can't. I don't have to." He then suddenly plucked up and pushed his shoulders back in his usual proud stance. "Well it's over anyway, we should get rid of this.this thing." Netalisys' voice was cold and dead - not betraying any emotion, even if he had felt anything, the others would never be able to tell. Atriscemy looked disgusted. He frowned and after a brief pause, said : "Just kill it? Isn't that a bit drastic? Why can't we just set it free by the volcano - nothing ever comes there anyway and we can plant food sources for them."
Netalisys picked up an injection and toyed with it leisurely while trying to create the impression that he was thinking - he had in fact, already decided how he would warp the proposal. Atriscemy watched his colleague with mixed feelings.
He doubted that the Shee would buy into the idea, but then again, it looked like the weather would change between them. Finally Netalisys delivered his ultimatum : "Ok, we set it free.without food sources." Atriscemy blinked hard and looked downward. He knew there had to be a catch. But..maybe he had a point - Albia couldn't afford to let this creature thrive. Without some source of food the genus would obviously die out very quickly and seeing that he had not had the heart to carry out euthanasia, this was the only sensible solution.
He walked to Storage and picked a heavy-duty bag big enough for the animal. He made his way over to the others. Together they heaved the creature into the huge bag and began dragging it down the tunnel leading to the Splicing Machine. When they arrived, they opened a trapdoor that they had installed a few months earlier while doing research about the volcano. In a cave near the volcano they put the bag down- as they did that it slipped open and a limp arm slided out and rested on the rock cave floor. With that the Shee left, without so much as a glance back.
The Shee were now gone and Nikai was still sitting underneath the table , crouching. He was still stunned by what he had seen. It was like a nightmare, creating images, voices and realities in his head. About these different norns. No other norn would ever know what it's like to have seen life like this. The way the Shee would one day blow life into these things floating in a glass jar. Were norns just little things floating in the bottle called Albia, waiting to be given life? Was life a gift to give? His musings were interrupted by a heartbreaking crying next to him. For the first time he saw the little norn next to him.
It was a regular-looking Hebe norn. He was clinging to the deceased Shee's leg and pressed his tear- stained face to the leg when he wasn't shaking it , in a desperate attempt to awaken his master. His little face was wet and his mouth was twisted into a sob. Then Nikai noticed something strange. The little norn wore a wire-rimmed set of glass on his face. Glasses? What did glasses do? He leaned over to the norn slowly and put his hand on the burgundy-brown fur of the sobbing norn's shoulder. This startled the norn, who had clearly been in so an overpowering sadness that he hadn't noticed Nikai.
"I'm Nikai, a Kai norn - I came here to speak to a Shee." The norn replied: "I know what you are. I know everything about your kind - this Shee had taught me everything about everything in Albia - he is...was my master." A genuine loyalty shone through his voice like a ray of sunshine. Nikai helped him up. "Look, it's no use to hang around here drowning your sorrows with tears...come with me - two other norns are travelling with me.OH which reminds me , do you have Feverfew? I need it for my friend."
The norn stood up and walked to a metal suitcase. He punched a combination of signs and it clicked open. Inside , it was lined with a cream velvet , and in special hollows there were jars with labels on them. The norn picked the one containing the daisy-like flower, with lilac petals. "Here. It's an analgesic and antibacterial treatment." For a moment Nikai was taken aback with the ease that the norn had changed in the last few minutes. Just a moment ago the norn was sobbing and now he was exchanging information as if he had swallowed the Encyclopedia Nornica. "Thanks. So.do you want to join us then?"
The norn considered it for a moment, looked longingly at the Shee and then nodded. "Ok. I should probably be with my own kind."
With that they walked outside and greeted the females who had sat down behind the Cornucopia bush in the shade, peeling foxfire berries and chatting. The stood up when they saw the males coming towards them, curious about the stranger. He came up to them, extended a hand and said: "I'm Asmo. I am partly based on the original norn but I have a new improved genome - I have a larger brain and modified instincts and lobes. I'm an Akamai Canny." The last part of the sentence had a distinct sound of satisfaction - as if he had waited his whole life to tell somebody this.
Isis shook his hand. " Hi Asmo." Skyra was more vivacious - she pulled him to her and hugged him. "Hey Asmo! It's so good to see a fresh face in the group. You know, we've travelled a pretty long way , and it'll be just great if you'll join us, you know, we grow tired of each other sometimes and it will." she couldn't complete her sentence- Isis had stuck a foxfire berry into her mouth and the red juice was now dripping down her chin. "Shut up - you'll scare him away.oh wait..I think you scared him so much, he can't move." Isis said, slightly amused. Indeed ; Asmo was white around the mouth and stood rigid like a twig, looking straight at Skyra, eyes wide with horror.
"Thi..This is a.a Sc..Sc.Sco.Scorpio!" The words came out of his mouth - barely audible due to tension and fear on his part. Nikai shrugged. "Yeah.so..?" Asmo turned to Nikai. "So..Scorpio's are only the most vicious breed of norn created to date - they were originally used to fend off curious norns from the lab - they're very strong and have a flaring temper. They're definitely dangerous." Nikai pointed at Skyra. "Does that look like a dangerous norn to you?" Skyra was standing with her hands on her hips, chewing impatiently at the foxfire berry and rolling her eyes at the bee that hovered nearby. Asmo thought for a moment. "Well, I'd watch her nonetheless. They're unpredictable too."