"What do you have in mind, Nanny Grah?" Annabel asked the black grendel.
"Well, you know how some of the grendels on the island are the same color
as I am...."
"Yeah, what about it?" Annabel asked.
"Well, I was thinking that I could.... that I could..." the grendel studdered.
"You could what?" Annabel asked, courious.
"That I could go over and try to save Aaron and Tuft. I'm already in
disguise. They wouldn't suspect a grendel, now would they? I've GOT to try!"
The thought had never occured to anyone. Nanny Grah would be the *perfect*
spy! But, what if she had to fight to bring the norns back? Would she have
courage to actually harm another creature? Grah was a very pacifistic grendel
and had never hurt anything except for the occasional cave fly. She told the
norns at the meeting later that day that she would just have to deal with it.
With that, Nanny Grah went to her den to get ready and kiss a few of her charges
goodbye with an admonishment to behave while she was away.


Umaumaarg was eyeing the black female with a wary eye, he had never met her
before. He had to admit, she *did* look good. Something about her ebondy
scales just made the orange leader's knees turn to jelly and his heart flutter.
He was what Urgle called, 'twitter-pated'.
"Well? Aren't you going to introduce yourself? My name is Grah." Grah said,
trying her best to sound alluring.
"Umm... umm... My name is... Umaumaarg." the orange male said, surprized a bit.
Grah... her name was Grah.... He thought it sounded like one of the most beautiful
names in the Grendel tougne. He thought he was in love.
"Why... why... why don't I take you to meet the rest of the tribe?" he said,
wanting to impress her.
"There are others? I thought that I was the only grendel. Oh, please DO take
me to meet them!" Grah said. And I can scope the place out to find out where
you're keeping the hostages, she added silently.
He led the black beauty to the lift and took her to the lower parts of the
island to met his many, many children and his small harem. Then, he took to the
nursery, where the eggs were kept. Grah heard suspicous sounds issuing from the
room next door, but Umaumaarg told her that was just the wildlife making the
racket. She didn't like the way the purple female kept looking at her as if she
was plotting on starting a cat fight. A territorial wench, Grah thought to
herself.


Grah made sure that the adult males were all in a drunken sleep and the females
off doing what ever they did when not in the process of getting themselves pregnant
or laying an egg. She wondered how they could stand that Oozle leering at them all
of the time. Well, most of them anyway, the red one seemed to like flirting with
the loony grendel. She silenty gave thanks that she was not a fertile grendel, she
didn't have the time to be interested in impressing males. She had to find Aaron
and Tuft and get them home before they were killed!
She silently crept to the room where Umaumaarg had told her that wildlife rummaged
in. She looked in all possible directions, no one around to hear her, good. She
strained not to be heard as she opened the door. She was horrified at what she saw!


Goddess could have banged her head against the wall until her skull shattered.
She realized what had caused the Grendel Mother to spit out breedable grendels, her
own stupidity. She had looked back at the notes she had taken down while altering
the machine. She had worked out equations for hours and had finally found the
cause of her norns' troubles.
It wasn't a glitch in the program, it was some wires she had mis-connected that
had resulted in the machine making BREEDABLE male and female grendels. She sighed
as she looked at the machine now, it was beyond repair and no longer functioning.
She wondered what she could do about the grendel population now. Murder
was not an option. It would take AGES for her to export every single grendel save
for Nanny Grah. What could she do??

****************************************************************************
What did our heroine, Grah, see? What can Goddess do to help make amends?
Stay tuned for: A Norn's Tale: part 9!

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