Tuft came to. He took one look at his surroundings and
groaned. He didn't want to be there. When the red grendel
had asked him if he liked kids, he didn't know what she had
had in mind. Those baby grendels were terrors! What did
he do to deserve this?
The white haired norn curled up in a ball. He was sick
and tired of being a punching bag for baby grendels! The
adults had ordered the two norns to stand in place while
they taught the babies "Norn beating 101". Aaron had fought
back after a couple sessions of being a punching bag and
that had gotten him uncountable numbers of bruises and cuts.
Tuft looked back at Aaron. The Purple Mountain norn
looked more black and blue than he did purple. Poor guy,
Tuft thought as he heard Aaron mummble about his kid. He
had to get himself and Aaron out of here, but how?
Grah took a moment to gather her bearings. On the floor and
unconscious was the two norns taken prisoner, Aaron and Tuft.
She carefully looked them over. Both of them were covered with
cuts and bruises and what seemed like bite and claw marks. The
marks matched those of a baby grendel. Had the grendels been
using the norns as punching bags for the babies?!
"Aaron! Tuft! Get up!! I've come to get you guys out of
here!" the black grendel wispered into the norns' ears.
"Hunh? What? Oohh, my back!" the battered norns mummbled.
"Come on, follow me, there's no time to explain!!" Grah said.


Umaumaarg and Oozle created a tention between them so thick that
you could cut it with a knife. Each wanted to throttle the other.
They sat in the "sitting room" glaring at each other from across
the room.
The population of grendels seemed split right down the middle as
to who should be the leader. Some were rabid supporters of Oozle
"dethroning" Umaumaarg. Others wanted to have the stranger in
question, Oozle, killed and be done with him. The tention in the
grendel territory was so thick, that a chain saw probably would not
have cut it.
"I have had it with you, intruder." the orange grendel said in a
growl.
"What are you going to do about, old lizard?" Oozle sneered along
with all of his supporters echoing him.
"You're my own flesh and blood! Is this how you thank me?!" the
orange patriarch grendel said to the crowd who supported Oozle.
Hardly any of the grendels Umaumaarg shouted at seemed abashed.
"Over there, look! The prisoners are escaping with the black
female!!" one of the grendels shouted. Almost all of the grendels
looked where the "tattle tail" had pointed. Sure enough, they saw
their prisoners trying to escape with the visiting black grendel.
However a few did not turn to look. Instead, they decked the
grendel nearest to them. As you can probably guess, this caused a
huge commotion. Soon, all the grendels were preoccupied with beating
each other or defending themselves rather than with the prisoners.
Aaron saw Oozle, the kill frenzy madness returned. Grah and Tuft
had to restrain him from jumping into the fray.
"Aaron! We don't have time for you to go and kill that villian!
Listen to reason! How do you think I would feel if I had to tell
Anabell and Fren that you died in a brawl?!" Tuft shouted.
Reluctantly, Aaron stopped attempting to get to the grendel that
had given him nightmare since that one fateful day as a child. He
saw a sharp stone on the floor, he picked it up and lobbed it at the
villianous grendel. It hit him the head and distracted him from his
fight with the angry grendel leader. That distraction was all Umaumaarg
need. Before Oozle could get his mind back on the fight, Umaumaarg
administered the killing blow.
Aaron had seen one grendel kill the other and thought, 'You're avenged,
Naydene, you can rest peacefully now.' as he ran off with Tuft and Grah.


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See what happens to the breedable grendels in "A Norn's Tale: part
10"!

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