Disclaimer and notes: I don't own C2 or C3 or docking station or etc. I own Neko, Bathsheba, and Axel. I don't really have them on my C2 game but all the other Norns, Like Aka, Addy, Calima, etc. I DO own. Right here on my disk. *Holds up disk*. See? Yes, most of my Norns are emeralds and fox Norns (as I like to call pixies). And a couple words on ownership. I didn't steal the name from Silver Neko, I just thought the name Neko suited this norn and it sounded cool. I don't own docking station or C3 and I probably made countless mistakes on what it's like. I imagined the world Neko came from as a futuristic world where Shee once again keep Norns as pets. It's based on what I know or imagine about docking station. This also isn't set up as "C1 was the first world and years later became C2 which years later became C3 and so forth." I imagine a giant archipelago full of Albias. Each Albia is another person's. Neko just happened to land on mine. At the risk of being unpopular, the hand is NOT me. OK? The lilac Bengals and shagadelic Norns belong to Warfuru.
I also give full credit to the person I know only as "Donell Meadows (Moca)" for the idea of Shee titles. The terms "vur, vurna, and (which I haven't used) vurling." For anyone who doesn't know, Neko uses the term Vur to mean Master. She wrote what I think is the most BRILLIANT Creatures story ever. Go to http://www.creatures.co.uk/library/c1_breeders/lib_fiction_c2_bs_parting.htm to read the first part of her story and on the same page, her second part! Although I don't know much about her, long live Moca for changing the way I think about Shee!
The morning sun was high in the Albian sky. A small boat floated in the sea. Inside was an adolescent lilac Bengal norn. His tail was that of a shagadelic norn. This was Neko. He had traveled a long way. The norn had tried to see if he could find a way to get to someone else's Albia-without the nasty export capsules that Norns were usually put in. For the moment, Neko was sleeping in the little rubber raft. The sun and smell of salt woke him. He rubbed his large blue eyes with a paw and flicked the sea salt from his ears.
Neko opened the box he'd brought with him. Only the faint aroma of food and water was left. Neko moaned and hung his ears low in disappointment. He leaned over the side of the raft and watched some small blue and purple fish flit by. His stomach rumbled and he thought of the fish that swam in his homeland.
"I knew I should have packed more food. Soon I'll have to eat my log book," Neko said to himself. The little blue book was what he'd use to take notes on the Norns. He'd heard that "C2" Norns as they were called, were primitive and wild. They had little machinery and lived off of the land and sea. They were also plain looking. And then Neko saw it. A spot of green off in the distance. He was there.
***
Socrates was confused. The little brown Norn had only seen rubber boats go across the sea to the other side. This boat came from the far sea. And nothing could have surpassed her more then the purple norn in the boat.
"Bosco come!" she shouted. Her emerald mate ran in from his coconut gathering. He also grew surprised at the site of Neko. Neko didn't know this. He steered his boat over to the shore, docked it, and got out.
"Hi," Neko said with a little wave. Socrates and Bosco dove into the brush. The lilac Bengal realized his mistake. He stood still. And after a few minutes, Bosco and Socrates came inching out. The crept over and sniffed. Neko couldn't believe it! Their noses were so long and soft looking. And yet they were so plain and curious! They were like the little animals of his world. Finally, Socrates spoke.
"What be you? Are you Shee or Norn or grendel in disguise?"
"I'm a Norn. I come from another world," Neko explained, trying to keep it simple.
"Norn is color of bad berries. But also color of sweet little berries! Which is you?" Bosco asked. Neko was shocked. For such primitive norns, they were pretty thoughtful. He didn't know what berries they were talking about but he assumed they were purple. He answered "the 2nd one."
"You Norn. You are like us," Socrates mused.
"We take you to other Norns. Show them strange berry norn," Bosco agreed. Neko couldn't have been happier! They were taking him to meet their kind. He followed the two norns as they got into their own boat and headed towards the jungle.
***
Socrates and Bosco took Neko across a bridge and into a small grove. The Bengal felt like a nornling seeing the world for the first time. His mouth hung open in amazement. All of a sudden, norns began emerging from the woods around them. They were different sizes and ages but mostly teens or adults. Bosco spoke.
"This berry norn! He come from place across ocean!"
The norns crowded around. They sniffed Neko and some brave ones ran their hands through his silky purple, striped fur. They chattered to each other. Neko only caught fractions of their words.
"He feel like dooser but smoother."
"Berry norn must come from ocean. He smell salty."
"He not look like us. Be badcritter?"
"Angel tail! Angel tail!"
"Wait! Let me look at Berry Norn," an old voice said. All the Norns attention became focused on a brown female with a fuzzy head. Her fur was patched with age. She carried a stick topped with dooser bones and strange stones. They jingled as she walked. A pixie norn, Neko recalled. He'd read books on breeds. But he'd never seen one up close. The pixie norn who seemed to be the leader of the Norns inspected him and locked eyes with him.
"Why you here?" she asked.
As simply as he could, Neko told his story. It left the C2 Norns chattering again. The old norn raised her hands to quiet them.
"Berry norn come long way. See how thin?" she tapped Neko in the stomach with her cane, making him jump. "We give food. He stay." The norns cheered and some scampered off to find food. "First introduce! Aka," the pixie norn said, pointing to herself. Neko pointed to himself.
"Neko."
***
Never had Neko seen such food. It was a strange feast, all the food set out on the ground. There were blue and purple fish, orange fish, strange fruits, roasted insects, dooser meat, and several things Neko had never seen before. He noticed that some Norns had hollow coconut halves full of cold water to drink. Some had bottles of milk. Neko, Aka, and the elder Norns had goblets. Sniffing his drink, Neko discovered it was blueberry wine. What he didn't know was that this was the national drink of this Albia. Nevertheless, he drank and found it good.
***
Stuffed to the brink, the Norns bedded in the desert. Neko watched as they dug away the sand that was still hot to get to the warm but not hot sand below. They pulled leaves over themselves and most curled up into balls. Neko took the chance to record his findings in his log book. Then he too drifted off to sleep.
***
The next morning, the C2 Norns disbanded and began to wander in separate directions. Neko just stood around the desert watching. Aka soon hobbled over to him, another Norn by her side. Neko only murmured a dazed greeting. He couldn't take his eyes off of the other norn who was about his age. The Bengal had seen female cow Norns and Dale Norns, gentle and delicate fallow does, Bondi Norns and the ever lovely Siamese Norns. But this was the most gorgeous of them all. She had blue fur. It was bluer then the sea, bluer then the sky on a clear summer day. Two butterfly wings jutted out from her back like vails. Neko felt that he wanted to just watch her forever. He stared, hypnotized by her beauty.
"This Bathsheba. Butterfly norn. She show you world," Aka told him. Then she turned to the butterfly norn. "Bathsheba will take good care of strange Norn, yes?" Bathsheba nodded. Aka smiled and walked off.
***
"So Neko, what kind of norn are you exactly? I've never seen anything like you around here," Bathsheba commented. She and Neko had gone up lifts and through tunnels. Surprisingly, Bathsheba could talk in complete sentences!
"Lilac Bengal. Part shagadelic," Neko answered. He saw Bathsheba's confused expression and shook his head. "Never mind. Who runs this place?"
"Well, Aka's the leader. Her mate is Adam, they're the oldest," Bathsheba told him.
"I meant you're masters," Neko said. There was that confused expression again. He changed the subject.
She told him the names of plants and animals. She laughed when Neko screamed like a little girl, scared by the walking vine plant. They headed down the lift in the greenhouse and went left. There were two things there. One was a giant statue of a Shee with stones for eyes. At it's feet was a food vendor. The Shee statue's eyes began to glow purple and it hummed. The butterfly ignored it.
"This is the food vendor. All the Norns won't come near it because their scared of the Shee statue. But I'm not afraid. Hey, whats wrong?"
Neko curled up on the floor, huddling and shaking.
"Please, don't hurt me! Have mercy, Vur Shee!" He begged. Bathsheba led him away and he calmed down. She asked what that was all about. Neko sighed.
"Where I come from, we're pets to the Shee. They have lots of machinery. My vur scared me. A lot. If he ever found out I escaped that Albia to find another..." Neko shuddered.
"He never will," Bathsheba assured the Bengal while putting a paw on his shoulder.
"You don't know Vur Zac," Neko said.
"Neko, you don't have to keep calling him 'vur'. You're free now. You're a wild Norn," Bathsheba told him. But Neko wasn't very comforted.
***
"They have big machines that can make different kinds of Norns. And another that can take you to other dimensions. And one that can make food at the press of a button!"
Neko sat on a flat rock with the young C2 Norns gathered around. They always wanted to hear stories from his strange world run by Shee.
"Shee nice?" One little Mernorn mix that Neko was fond of asked.
"Not all, Patheon. We're their pets. Mine was mean."
"What mean Shee do?" asked Buster, a little grenorn asked. His head was that of a pixie's.
"Well, he'd beat me. Most of the Shee beat their Norns. In fact, I think they all do! You have to obey them without a word."
"Norns hit," Calima, another grenorn baby put in.
"Yes, but you mostly do it in play. One time when I was little, I remember I was playing and I saw one of the big machines we have in our world. It was shiny and I'd never seen one before. I touched it. Thats all. I just put a paw on the side and held it there, feeling the machine. Then my Shee came running over with a switch. He hit me and again and again and again and again and again and so on and so forth. He beat me until I cried for mercy and then he left me alone."
"No Shee here. Yes?" A little pink mernorn asked while nervously shredding a piece of grass. Neko smiled at her.
"Don't worry, Cindy. The Shee are a long way away and they'll never come here. I doubt Zac would save me if I was drowning. He definitely wouldn't travel for miles to find me. I'm not worth that to him."
***
Neko learned many things from the norn clan. They taught him how to find food and generally survive in the wild. Soon, he was one of the group. He began to like Bathsheba more and more, and she liked him back. They often spent time running through the jungle together. Then the unthinkable happened.
Neko was down in the swamplands. He had a carrot set out on the ground and he hid behind some shrubs. If he could catch and eat that rabbit...thinking about it made him lick his lips in anticipation. Suddenly, a grendel came running up. Back in his old world, Neko had feared grendels and especially banshee grendels. But since grendels and Norns lived side by side in this world, he had gotten over his instinctive fear. Their English was actually better then a norn's English!
"What is, Brek?" he asked.
"Aka's fallen in the nut room! She's sick!" Brek yelled. Neko leaped up and the two headed toward the room were nutmegs grew. Sure enough, a crowd of Norns hovered around their fallen leader. Neko pushed to the front of the crowd. He felt a pain in his heart at the sight of Aka dying. She was a mix of a grandmother and a president to all the Norns. Even Neko. The grendels liked her too.
"Be Aka needing food, water, medicine?" asked Addy, an emerald.
"No. Not long. Norns will need new leader," Aka said weakly. She turned her eyes to the middle of the crowd and said only six words. "Take good care of family, Neko."
And she never moved again.
That night, the Norns gathered in their cemetery. They passed the graves of several Norns. Neko caught the names Grass, Angel, Smelt, Betty, Barnacles, and Emily. They were all victims of the dreaded Star Disease. Now Aka's grave was added to them. The Norns stood around for a long time. Their ears were lowered and they cried. As evening came, Neko walked to the wooden cemetery gates and all the mourning Norns followed. The lilac Bengal led his clan away.
***
Neko had never been in charge. He had always depended on Zac. What Zac said went. Past generations of Norns had obeyed the Shee or else. Now the Bengal was in charge of the clan and he liked the power. But he didn't let it go to his head like the Shee had. He was a good leader. His duties were tossing out troublemakers, finding new sources of food is they were needed, finding places to sleep for the group, and keeping track of who had gone out into the wilderness and when they returned (if they did) among many other things. But the clan looked up to him. He spent his free time either alone or with Bathsheba.
Then something happened that changed it all once more.
***
As he chewed one of the blue and yellow fruits, he looked at the calendar. Summer. He'd been in C2 Albia for year now. He still felt like a teenager but he also felt like a leader. And with pairing season approaching, he'd soon become Bathsheba's mate. Neko sometimes still felt longing for the machines and civilization of his old homeland. He wondered what his family was doing. Surely they'd forgotten him or at least stopped looking.
No sooner had he thought this then a rumble alerted him that something was coming. He was frightened for a second but he knew that most of the clan was down below the surface in the lower levels. They'd be safe. Except for a small bunch that were on the other side of the bridge.
A spaceship touched down from the sky. It kicked up dust and destroyed the flowers where it landed. When the dust and smoke cleared, the door opened. And a tall something or other stepped out. Neko willed it to not be...
"There you are. I've been looking for you, Neko," said the Shee.
"Zac..."
"Aren't you forgetting something? Has a year on the run made you forget your manners? Do I have to remind you?" The Shee took on a stern look and pulled a thin riding crop from his robes as a warning. Neko growled.
"You're not my vur anymore, you filthy Shee scum. You're actually vurna!" Neko was a little surprised at his boldness. No Norn back in his world would ever dare to call a Shee such a name! But Zac ignored it.
"You will get in the ship. I promise a lenient punishment if you come quietly. Or else I will bend you over just like when you were a child." Zac held up the whip.
"Well guess what, Shee? This kid's grown up," Neko said with a sly smile.
And he bolted. A Shee could catch up to a Norn by jogging or walking fast. But a year in the wild had hardened Neko's muscles and made him adapt. He ran with ease and Zac could not catch him. Neko dashed into a bramble patch. He was able to duck under vines as if he were a rabbit. He chuckled at Zac's sounds of pain from bramble thorns. Neko was free. Or so he thought.
***
"Hand, I demand my Norn back!"
"There isn't anything I can do. If Neko won't come, he won't come. He's a stubborn little Norn," the hand said.
"Oh, he'll come with me. I'll get him to come to me in the desert where he can't hide and then you can use your fancy chemicals," Zac insisted.
"I don't want to use my chemicals to harm!"
"Who says I'll harm him? And anyway, you have no choice. Give me my pet and I'll let you keep the rest of these Norns."
"Why do you want Neko so badly anyway?"
"He's a smart Norn. He will be useful. And he's a rare lilac Bengal combined with a rare shagadelic Norn. His mother was a shagadelic and his father was bengal, he is very good breeding stock. I can get good genes out of him. You must help me get him back."
The poor hand had no choice but to obey.
***
Bathsheba flew low over the swamp. It was eerily quiet. Usually the swamp was full of harvesting Norns. But not today. Had something happened to them? Maybe-
Then a rope flew up and grabbed her around the leg. It pulled her down enough so another rope could get her neck. She was pulled down to the grinning Shee below.
***
Neko ran through the forest, yelling. The swamp had been full of Norns! All he had done was get the purple ball to entertain the babies! He'd only been gone for a little while!
"Addy, Cali, Athena, Bobbie, Bathsheba!" he called. No answer. "Bonnie, Bek, Buster, Calima, Socrates, Bosco!" No answer. He continued running and calling until something tripped him.
Neko stood up and brushed the dirt from his fur quickly. He saw what he'd tripped on. A footprint. A Shee track! There was a heavy Shee scent in the air mingling with the smell of the clan. The scents went to a lift and up into the air. Neko followed. Neko wanted to scream and swear and kick something. Aka had trusted him as leader. He'd let her down. And now he was going to lose his clan...
He gulped and headed up the lift toward the upper levels. He had to get his clan back.
***
Zac looked around the desert. Cages were spread around him, each containing a Norn. He knew his Bengal would arrive soon. The sounds of frightened Norns traveled. The young ones cried and screamed. It would bring Neko straight over. Zac noticed one old brown Norn wasn't making much noise or even moving. He banged the top of her cage with a stick. She just looked up at him with hate.
"I am hoping Shee will be falling into dark ocean and Borland will eat Shee bones slowly," she said. Zac growled and hit her through the bars. She grimaced but didn't cry out.
"You leave Socrates alone. She is an ELDER!" Bathsheba yelled. Zac ignored her, kicked sand at Socrates, and continued watching. He soon heard quiet footfalls. Whirling around, he saw a lilac Bengal with a shagadelic tail.
"Let them go, Zac. It's not their fault I ran away," Neko said.
"You will return with me, yes?"
"If you let them go...I'll go with you."
"Perfect. I'll let them go now. But just to be sure you don't try anything funny..." he looked at the sky. "Please do it now, Hand."
If the hand could have cried, she'd have done it then. She opened Neko's science kit and selected a pink and blue liquid. She filled the syringe and pressed a button.
"I'm so sorry..." she whispered as the fluid drained from the screen.
Neko staggered. He suddenly became tired. His legs gave way beneath them and he was asleep the second he hit the sand.
The Shee walked over and scooped up his unconscious pet. He placed him the last final empty cage and pressed a button, locking it. Then he quickly opened the other cages. He didn't need these "stupid" Norns. They were no use to him. But wait...why were they looking at him like that? Why were they moving so close and growling? And at that second, Shee knew and wished he hadn't freed the Norns. They leapt and tore until the Shee was no more, hey that rhymes and you know it rhymes! OK, getting off topic.
Socrates kicked sand at the dead Shee and all the Norns laughed. Athena, Addy's mate, hit Neko's cage until it opened. They poked him and he didn't move, only groaned. Calima ran down the lift and filled a hollow coconut with water. She went back up and dumped the cold water onto Neko's head, waking him up. He saw the dead Shee and the triumphant Norns and smiled. It was over. He was free again. The other Shee would realize what had happened soon but they had other Albias to get back their old Norns at. Or maybe they'd just let the C2 Norns live free. Maybe they were just too wild to be pets now.
***
"Plant!"
"No, Axel. That's a badplant. It's called Deathcap. You eat it, you'll get very, very sick," Bathsheba scolded the little norn.
"Plant!" Axel insisted.
It was several months after the death of Zac. The Norns were now raising nornlings. Bathsheba and Neko had a son named Axel. Axel was light blue with dark blue stripes and purple wings.
"He'll learn as he grows up," Neko told his mate.
"I hope you're right," Bathsheba said.
She set Axel down and he scampered off to were a toy dog was sitting. The little norn picked it up and chewed it as he rolled on the floor.
"Toy! Toy good!" he squeaked.
His parents looked around the cavern. Norns were raising their babies and teaching them words. The nornlings would grow into children and run with the clan.
Bathsheba leaned over and kissed the Bengal's cheek. He returned it. He couldn't believe it. The days of playing amongst the machines and obeying the Shee seemed distant as if they were at the end of a long road Neko had traveled. He was a leader, a father, a wild Norn. He had what so many docking station Norns could only dream of-freedom. Neko still remembered the buzzing of machines and the roar of spaceships and the smack of Shee sandals. But he now only heard the buzzing of bees, the roar of the sea, and the babble of C2 Norns. To him, it was the song of the wild.
He was home.
THE END
I also give full credit to the person I know only as "Donell Meadows (Moca)" for the idea of Shee titles. The terms "vur, vurna, and (which I haven't used) vurling." For anyone who doesn't know, Neko uses the term Vur to mean Master. She wrote what I think is the most BRILLIANT Creatures story ever. Go to http://www.creatures.co.uk/library/c1_breeders/lib_fiction_c2_bs_parting.htm to read the first part of her story and on the same page, her second part! Although I don't know much about her, long live Moca for changing the way I think about Shee!
The morning sun was high in the Albian sky. A small boat floated in the sea. Inside was an adolescent lilac Bengal norn. His tail was that of a shagadelic norn. This was Neko. He had traveled a long way. The norn had tried to see if he could find a way to get to someone else's Albia-without the nasty export capsules that Norns were usually put in. For the moment, Neko was sleeping in the little rubber raft. The sun and smell of salt woke him. He rubbed his large blue eyes with a paw and flicked the sea salt from his ears.
Neko opened the box he'd brought with him. Only the faint aroma of food and water was left. Neko moaned and hung his ears low in disappointment. He leaned over the side of the raft and watched some small blue and purple fish flit by. His stomach rumbled and he thought of the fish that swam in his homeland.
"I knew I should have packed more food. Soon I'll have to eat my log book," Neko said to himself. The little blue book was what he'd use to take notes on the Norns. He'd heard that "C2" Norns as they were called, were primitive and wild. They had little machinery and lived off of the land and sea. They were also plain looking. And then Neko saw it. A spot of green off in the distance. He was there.
***
Socrates was confused. The little brown Norn had only seen rubber boats go across the sea to the other side. This boat came from the far sea. And nothing could have surpassed her more then the purple norn in the boat.
"Bosco come!" she shouted. Her emerald mate ran in from his coconut gathering. He also grew surprised at the site of Neko. Neko didn't know this. He steered his boat over to the shore, docked it, and got out.
"Hi," Neko said with a little wave. Socrates and Bosco dove into the brush. The lilac Bengal realized his mistake. He stood still. And after a few minutes, Bosco and Socrates came inching out. The crept over and sniffed. Neko couldn't believe it! Their noses were so long and soft looking. And yet they were so plain and curious! They were like the little animals of his world. Finally, Socrates spoke.
"What be you? Are you Shee or Norn or grendel in disguise?"
"I'm a Norn. I come from another world," Neko explained, trying to keep it simple.
"Norn is color of bad berries. But also color of sweet little berries! Which is you?" Bosco asked. Neko was shocked. For such primitive norns, they were pretty thoughtful. He didn't know what berries they were talking about but he assumed they were purple. He answered "the 2nd one."
"You Norn. You are like us," Socrates mused.
"We take you to other Norns. Show them strange berry norn," Bosco agreed. Neko couldn't have been happier! They were taking him to meet their kind. He followed the two norns as they got into their own boat and headed towards the jungle.
***
Socrates and Bosco took Neko across a bridge and into a small grove. The Bengal felt like a nornling seeing the world for the first time. His mouth hung open in amazement. All of a sudden, norns began emerging from the woods around them. They were different sizes and ages but mostly teens or adults. Bosco spoke.
"This berry norn! He come from place across ocean!"
The norns crowded around. They sniffed Neko and some brave ones ran their hands through his silky purple, striped fur. They chattered to each other. Neko only caught fractions of their words.
"He feel like dooser but smoother."
"Berry norn must come from ocean. He smell salty."
"He not look like us. Be badcritter?"
"Angel tail! Angel tail!"
"Wait! Let me look at Berry Norn," an old voice said. All the Norns attention became focused on a brown female with a fuzzy head. Her fur was patched with age. She carried a stick topped with dooser bones and strange stones. They jingled as she walked. A pixie norn, Neko recalled. He'd read books on breeds. But he'd never seen one up close. The pixie norn who seemed to be the leader of the Norns inspected him and locked eyes with him.
"Why you here?" she asked.
As simply as he could, Neko told his story. It left the C2 Norns chattering again. The old norn raised her hands to quiet them.
"Berry norn come long way. See how thin?" she tapped Neko in the stomach with her cane, making him jump. "We give food. He stay." The norns cheered and some scampered off to find food. "First introduce! Aka," the pixie norn said, pointing to herself. Neko pointed to himself.
"Neko."
***
Never had Neko seen such food. It was a strange feast, all the food set out on the ground. There were blue and purple fish, orange fish, strange fruits, roasted insects, dooser meat, and several things Neko had never seen before. He noticed that some Norns had hollow coconut halves full of cold water to drink. Some had bottles of milk. Neko, Aka, and the elder Norns had goblets. Sniffing his drink, Neko discovered it was blueberry wine. What he didn't know was that this was the national drink of this Albia. Nevertheless, he drank and found it good.
***
Stuffed to the brink, the Norns bedded in the desert. Neko watched as they dug away the sand that was still hot to get to the warm but not hot sand below. They pulled leaves over themselves and most curled up into balls. Neko took the chance to record his findings in his log book. Then he too drifted off to sleep.
***
The next morning, the C2 Norns disbanded and began to wander in separate directions. Neko just stood around the desert watching. Aka soon hobbled over to him, another Norn by her side. Neko only murmured a dazed greeting. He couldn't take his eyes off of the other norn who was about his age. The Bengal had seen female cow Norns and Dale Norns, gentle and delicate fallow does, Bondi Norns and the ever lovely Siamese Norns. But this was the most gorgeous of them all. She had blue fur. It was bluer then the sea, bluer then the sky on a clear summer day. Two butterfly wings jutted out from her back like vails. Neko felt that he wanted to just watch her forever. He stared, hypnotized by her beauty.
"This Bathsheba. Butterfly norn. She show you world," Aka told him. Then she turned to the butterfly norn. "Bathsheba will take good care of strange Norn, yes?" Bathsheba nodded. Aka smiled and walked off.
***
"So Neko, what kind of norn are you exactly? I've never seen anything like you around here," Bathsheba commented. She and Neko had gone up lifts and through tunnels. Surprisingly, Bathsheba could talk in complete sentences!
"Lilac Bengal. Part shagadelic," Neko answered. He saw Bathsheba's confused expression and shook his head. "Never mind. Who runs this place?"
"Well, Aka's the leader. Her mate is Adam, they're the oldest," Bathsheba told him.
"I meant you're masters," Neko said. There was that confused expression again. He changed the subject.
She told him the names of plants and animals. She laughed when Neko screamed like a little girl, scared by the walking vine plant. They headed down the lift in the greenhouse and went left. There were two things there. One was a giant statue of a Shee with stones for eyes. At it's feet was a food vendor. The Shee statue's eyes began to glow purple and it hummed. The butterfly ignored it.
"This is the food vendor. All the Norns won't come near it because their scared of the Shee statue. But I'm not afraid. Hey, whats wrong?"
Neko curled up on the floor, huddling and shaking.
"Please, don't hurt me! Have mercy, Vur Shee!" He begged. Bathsheba led him away and he calmed down. She asked what that was all about. Neko sighed.
"Where I come from, we're pets to the Shee. They have lots of machinery. My vur scared me. A lot. If he ever found out I escaped that Albia to find another..." Neko shuddered.
"He never will," Bathsheba assured the Bengal while putting a paw on his shoulder.
"You don't know Vur Zac," Neko said.
"Neko, you don't have to keep calling him 'vur'. You're free now. You're a wild Norn," Bathsheba told him. But Neko wasn't very comforted.
***
"They have big machines that can make different kinds of Norns. And another that can take you to other dimensions. And one that can make food at the press of a button!"
Neko sat on a flat rock with the young C2 Norns gathered around. They always wanted to hear stories from his strange world run by Shee.
"Shee nice?" One little Mernorn mix that Neko was fond of asked.
"Not all, Patheon. We're their pets. Mine was mean."
"What mean Shee do?" asked Buster, a little grenorn asked. His head was that of a pixie's.
"Well, he'd beat me. Most of the Shee beat their Norns. In fact, I think they all do! You have to obey them without a word."
"Norns hit," Calima, another grenorn baby put in.
"Yes, but you mostly do it in play. One time when I was little, I remember I was playing and I saw one of the big machines we have in our world. It was shiny and I'd never seen one before. I touched it. Thats all. I just put a paw on the side and held it there, feeling the machine. Then my Shee came running over with a switch. He hit me and again and again and again and again and again and so on and so forth. He beat me until I cried for mercy and then he left me alone."
"No Shee here. Yes?" A little pink mernorn asked while nervously shredding a piece of grass. Neko smiled at her.
"Don't worry, Cindy. The Shee are a long way away and they'll never come here. I doubt Zac would save me if I was drowning. He definitely wouldn't travel for miles to find me. I'm not worth that to him."
***
Neko learned many things from the norn clan. They taught him how to find food and generally survive in the wild. Soon, he was one of the group. He began to like Bathsheba more and more, and she liked him back. They often spent time running through the jungle together. Then the unthinkable happened.
Neko was down in the swamplands. He had a carrot set out on the ground and he hid behind some shrubs. If he could catch and eat that rabbit...thinking about it made him lick his lips in anticipation. Suddenly, a grendel came running up. Back in his old world, Neko had feared grendels and especially banshee grendels. But since grendels and Norns lived side by side in this world, he had gotten over his instinctive fear. Their English was actually better then a norn's English!
"What is, Brek?" he asked.
"Aka's fallen in the nut room! She's sick!" Brek yelled. Neko leaped up and the two headed toward the room were nutmegs grew. Sure enough, a crowd of Norns hovered around their fallen leader. Neko pushed to the front of the crowd. He felt a pain in his heart at the sight of Aka dying. She was a mix of a grandmother and a president to all the Norns. Even Neko. The grendels liked her too.
"Be Aka needing food, water, medicine?" asked Addy, an emerald.
"No. Not long. Norns will need new leader," Aka said weakly. She turned her eyes to the middle of the crowd and said only six words. "Take good care of family, Neko."
And she never moved again.
That night, the Norns gathered in their cemetery. They passed the graves of several Norns. Neko caught the names Grass, Angel, Smelt, Betty, Barnacles, and Emily. They were all victims of the dreaded Star Disease. Now Aka's grave was added to them. The Norns stood around for a long time. Their ears were lowered and they cried. As evening came, Neko walked to the wooden cemetery gates and all the mourning Norns followed. The lilac Bengal led his clan away.
***
Neko had never been in charge. He had always depended on Zac. What Zac said went. Past generations of Norns had obeyed the Shee or else. Now the Bengal was in charge of the clan and he liked the power. But he didn't let it go to his head like the Shee had. He was a good leader. His duties were tossing out troublemakers, finding new sources of food is they were needed, finding places to sleep for the group, and keeping track of who had gone out into the wilderness and when they returned (if they did) among many other things. But the clan looked up to him. He spent his free time either alone or with Bathsheba.
Then something happened that changed it all once more.
***
As he chewed one of the blue and yellow fruits, he looked at the calendar. Summer. He'd been in C2 Albia for year now. He still felt like a teenager but he also felt like a leader. And with pairing season approaching, he'd soon become Bathsheba's mate. Neko sometimes still felt longing for the machines and civilization of his old homeland. He wondered what his family was doing. Surely they'd forgotten him or at least stopped looking.
No sooner had he thought this then a rumble alerted him that something was coming. He was frightened for a second but he knew that most of the clan was down below the surface in the lower levels. They'd be safe. Except for a small bunch that were on the other side of the bridge.
A spaceship touched down from the sky. It kicked up dust and destroyed the flowers where it landed. When the dust and smoke cleared, the door opened. And a tall something or other stepped out. Neko willed it to not be...
"There you are. I've been looking for you, Neko," said the Shee.
"Zac..."
"Aren't you forgetting something? Has a year on the run made you forget your manners? Do I have to remind you?" The Shee took on a stern look and pulled a thin riding crop from his robes as a warning. Neko growled.
"You're not my vur anymore, you filthy Shee scum. You're actually vurna!" Neko was a little surprised at his boldness. No Norn back in his world would ever dare to call a Shee such a name! But Zac ignored it.
"You will get in the ship. I promise a lenient punishment if you come quietly. Or else I will bend you over just like when you were a child." Zac held up the whip.
"Well guess what, Shee? This kid's grown up," Neko said with a sly smile.
And he bolted. A Shee could catch up to a Norn by jogging or walking fast. But a year in the wild had hardened Neko's muscles and made him adapt. He ran with ease and Zac could not catch him. Neko dashed into a bramble patch. He was able to duck under vines as if he were a rabbit. He chuckled at Zac's sounds of pain from bramble thorns. Neko was free. Or so he thought.
***
"Hand, I demand my Norn back!"
"There isn't anything I can do. If Neko won't come, he won't come. He's a stubborn little Norn," the hand said.
"Oh, he'll come with me. I'll get him to come to me in the desert where he can't hide and then you can use your fancy chemicals," Zac insisted.
"I don't want to use my chemicals to harm!"
"Who says I'll harm him? And anyway, you have no choice. Give me my pet and I'll let you keep the rest of these Norns."
"Why do you want Neko so badly anyway?"
"He's a smart Norn. He will be useful. And he's a rare lilac Bengal combined with a rare shagadelic Norn. His mother was a shagadelic and his father was bengal, he is very good breeding stock. I can get good genes out of him. You must help me get him back."
The poor hand had no choice but to obey.
***
Bathsheba flew low over the swamp. It was eerily quiet. Usually the swamp was full of harvesting Norns. But not today. Had something happened to them? Maybe-
Then a rope flew up and grabbed her around the leg. It pulled her down enough so another rope could get her neck. She was pulled down to the grinning Shee below.
***
Neko ran through the forest, yelling. The swamp had been full of Norns! All he had done was get the purple ball to entertain the babies! He'd only been gone for a little while!
"Addy, Cali, Athena, Bobbie, Bathsheba!" he called. No answer. "Bonnie, Bek, Buster, Calima, Socrates, Bosco!" No answer. He continued running and calling until something tripped him.
Neko stood up and brushed the dirt from his fur quickly. He saw what he'd tripped on. A footprint. A Shee track! There was a heavy Shee scent in the air mingling with the smell of the clan. The scents went to a lift and up into the air. Neko followed. Neko wanted to scream and swear and kick something. Aka had trusted him as leader. He'd let her down. And now he was going to lose his clan...
He gulped and headed up the lift toward the upper levels. He had to get his clan back.
***
Zac looked around the desert. Cages were spread around him, each containing a Norn. He knew his Bengal would arrive soon. The sounds of frightened Norns traveled. The young ones cried and screamed. It would bring Neko straight over. Zac noticed one old brown Norn wasn't making much noise or even moving. He banged the top of her cage with a stick. She just looked up at him with hate.
"I am hoping Shee will be falling into dark ocean and Borland will eat Shee bones slowly," she said. Zac growled and hit her through the bars. She grimaced but didn't cry out.
"You leave Socrates alone. She is an ELDER!" Bathsheba yelled. Zac ignored her, kicked sand at Socrates, and continued watching. He soon heard quiet footfalls. Whirling around, he saw a lilac Bengal with a shagadelic tail.
"Let them go, Zac. It's not their fault I ran away," Neko said.
"You will return with me, yes?"
"If you let them go...I'll go with you."
"Perfect. I'll let them go now. But just to be sure you don't try anything funny..." he looked at the sky. "Please do it now, Hand."
If the hand could have cried, she'd have done it then. She opened Neko's science kit and selected a pink and blue liquid. She filled the syringe and pressed a button.
"I'm so sorry..." she whispered as the fluid drained from the screen.
Neko staggered. He suddenly became tired. His legs gave way beneath them and he was asleep the second he hit the sand.
The Shee walked over and scooped up his unconscious pet. He placed him the last final empty cage and pressed a button, locking it. Then he quickly opened the other cages. He didn't need these "stupid" Norns. They were no use to him. But wait...why were they looking at him like that? Why were they moving so close and growling? And at that second, Shee knew and wished he hadn't freed the Norns. They leapt and tore until the Shee was no more, hey that rhymes and you know it rhymes! OK, getting off topic.
Socrates kicked sand at the dead Shee and all the Norns laughed. Athena, Addy's mate, hit Neko's cage until it opened. They poked him and he didn't move, only groaned. Calima ran down the lift and filled a hollow coconut with water. She went back up and dumped the cold water onto Neko's head, waking him up. He saw the dead Shee and the triumphant Norns and smiled. It was over. He was free again. The other Shee would realize what had happened soon but they had other Albias to get back their old Norns at. Or maybe they'd just let the C2 Norns live free. Maybe they were just too wild to be pets now.
***
"Plant!"
"No, Axel. That's a badplant. It's called Deathcap. You eat it, you'll get very, very sick," Bathsheba scolded the little norn.
"Plant!" Axel insisted.
It was several months after the death of Zac. The Norns were now raising nornlings. Bathsheba and Neko had a son named Axel. Axel was light blue with dark blue stripes and purple wings.
"He'll learn as he grows up," Neko told his mate.
"I hope you're right," Bathsheba said.
She set Axel down and he scampered off to were a toy dog was sitting. The little norn picked it up and chewed it as he rolled on the floor.
"Toy! Toy good!" he squeaked.
His parents looked around the cavern. Norns were raising their babies and teaching them words. The nornlings would grow into children and run with the clan.
Bathsheba leaned over and kissed the Bengal's cheek. He returned it. He couldn't believe it. The days of playing amongst the machines and obeying the Shee seemed distant as if they were at the end of a long road Neko had traveled. He was a leader, a father, a wild Norn. He had what so many docking station Norns could only dream of-freedom. Neko still remembered the buzzing of machines and the roar of spaceships and the smack of Shee sandals. But he now only heard the buzzing of bees, the roar of the sea, and the babble of C2 Norns. To him, it was the song of the wild.
He was home.
THE END