Grah finally had her dream come true. None of the norns were afraid of her.
Instead of fearing her, all the norns thought she was a HERO. Never again would
she see a norn recoil in fear of her. Her rescuing Aaron and Tuft had seen to
that. The norns on the mainland were celebrating the return of the captives.
It was as if it were Christmas with all the festivities going on!
There was one thing gnawing at the backs of the minds of hand and norn alike,
what was going to be done about the breedable grendels that lived on the island?
Before Oozle had gotten loose from his trap, the grendels had been pretty peaceable.
Like the hand, the norns didn't think that killing all grendels save for Nanny Grah
would be the good solution. No one wanted to bother with that right now, it was
too serious. The norns *needed* to celebrate and the hostages comming back was a
good exculse to.
"DADDY! DADDY!", a little red purple mountian norn shouted upon seeing his dad.
"Fren! I was afraid I wouldn't see you again!!", Aaron said as he ran up to his
son and picked him up.
"AARON! You're safe! You're safe! You're safe!", Annabel bubbled at seeing her
mate.
The two norns tackled him to the ground, saying how they would never let him go
ever again and how they had missed him. Even his father-in-law, general Flib, was
estatic to see him. Aaron just soaked it all in with a big, silly grin.
While Aaron was being smothered by his kith and kin, Tuft looked around with a
small frown on his face, searching for someone. He had gotten into a fight with
her before he had been taken hostage and wanted to make things right. But how
could he make things right when he couldn't find her?? Panic starting to set in,
he scanned the crowd again.
"Tuft!! There you are, you scoundrel! How dare you make me worry like that!!",
a female voice said from behind him.
"Vanessa!! I was looking for you!", Tuft said, startled.
Vanessa gave him a hard stare for a moment with her brown eyes. "Oh, I can't
stay angry at you for long. C'mere, ya big lug." She said.
Wispering, the two white haired norns walked off for some peace and quiet.


"Bring forth the prisoner!", 'queen' Urgle, the purple grendel, said from her
makeshift royal court.
Two burly grendels threw an orange male in change in front of Queen Urgle.
"You stand charged with failing to insure the safty of the island, how do
you plead?", the Queen sneered.
"Urgle!! Why are you doing this?! I'm your mate!!", the orange male whined.
"Silence, traitor!! You do not address the Queen as such!!", one of the burly
'guards' shouted.
"How do you plead? You must answer or it will be assumed that you admit your
guilt!"
The orange grendel just sat there, in stupified silence, not knowing what to do
about his predicament. How could his clan turn on him? They wouldn't find him
guilty, would they?
"The prisoner has not spoken, he admits his guilt!"
"Take him to the dungeons and do not let him see the light of day until he is old
and feeble!" Queen Urgle said. "Are there any others who would oppose my reign?"
None of the grendels in the court raised so much as a hair against her.


The Purple grendel and her escourt guards strod through the jungle with a purpose.
They had to find this "Goddess" and announce their intentions and fast before
another war broke out. They passed the temple and the herb bridge and came in to
the garden. A norn in the garden looked up in surprize at the party of grendels.
"You there! Find 'Goddess' and tell her that Urgle, Queen of the Island, wishes
to speak with her! Stop gawking and go find her!", one of the guards said to the
startled norn. The norn raced of to do what he had been told.
Moments later, with the norn the guard had spoken to, a hand came floating into
the garden.
"Queen of the Island, huh? You have certainly made a name for yourself.", the
hand drawled. "What is it you wanted to talk about?", Goddess said.
"I wish to discuss the recent violence."
"Go on.", the hand said.
"I will declare a truce and order that no grendel may harm a norn without incurring
my wrath if you will do the vice versa for the norns.", the regal grendel said.
"Hmm... What about travelling the island, they love to see the world? What would
happen if they came onto your island when travelling?", the hand said.
"You have my word that they will not be harmed if you will do the same for grendels
'seeing the world'."


And so peace had come to Albia. Of course, when Goddess had mentioned what had
caused all those grendels (her fiddling with the grendel mother), the norns had not
taken it well. Relationships with Goddess were eventually back to normal. Notice
the *eventually*....
One the same day that Fren and his parents were *finally* going on his rite of The
Journey, Tuft and Vanessa had tied the knot.
"I'll lay you 10 to 1 that 'Nessa'll be pregnant before a week goes by!" Nanny Grah
wispered to her new friend, GarhNaarrg, crown prince of the Island. All GrahNaarrg did
was let loose a belly laugh as the crowds wished the newly weds and Fren's family well
on their Journey.

****The End****

Well, that's that for the "A Norn's Tale" series. Keep your eyes peeled for my
next story. =}


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