[Yomegami]

The starlight filtering through the glass surrounding the Norn Terrarium on the Shee Ark was certainly noticable, casting a beautiful glow on the trees, the grass, and the water on the pond. Perhaps it was this way because the hand had the light level turned down due to some photosensitive creatures living here. Or maybe it was because it was still early morning. Regardless, the Norn Terrarium was truely a sight to see.

Strangely, the room was empty of its namesake creatures. Maybe they were hiding in the bushes or something, or perhaps in the Learning Room. Then again, it may have been that they were being kept in the Capillata down below. Whatever the reason, it made one creature's plans a lot easier to carry out.

Next to the Weather machine, there was a door that lead to the dreaded Jungle Terrarium, land of mossie flies, pirahnas, and of course grendels. And it was opening now.

Through it came a rather bizarre example of a creature. A pale white all over, its body was made of Zebra and Civet norn, but perched rather precariously on top of all this was the head of a golden-colored jungle grendel. Given the odd proportions, it seemed surprising that the creature didn't lose his balance because of his head.

This creature was, in fact, a grendel (or "grorn," if you wanted to use the technical term for a norn/grendel hybrid) of the kind known as Bianci. Given their ways, it was only obvious what this one was in here for: Norn eggs. Bianci grendels were obsessed with norn eggs, probably because they gained life from them. And when you were a creature with a 5 hour lifespan, you wanted all the life you could get.

The grendel paused, glancing around, taking in the smells of the surrounding area. Hardmen were normally found in the Jungle area, but if any were around here they certainly weren't going to spare him. A grendel was a grendel, and to them all grendels were beasts. Not so this guy, even with his instictive love of eggs.

A few moments later, and he had detirmined the coast was clear. A few minutes later, he approached the elevator, ready to descend to the lower levels in search of those coveted semi-spheres.

((Unless you are a Creatures 3/Docking Station player yourself, you probably won't make much sense of this.
Myself and Fireheart.))

[SpringsSong]

The Bianci's assumption that the coast was clear for now was accurate; however, there was one Norn that was not with her companions, in the Capillata.  The adolescent was perched upon the top of the crypt, sitting as still as a stone--that wasn't hard for her to do; even though she had the furred collar and paws of a Dream Norn, her body was that of a Gargoyle Norn.  Her wings rustled slightly as she continued to look around, her eyes stony and emotionless.

And then, she heard it.

At first, she thought it was just one of the indiginous creatures of the Norn Terrarium, but she realized that the footsteps sounded a bit too heavy to be one of them; and in addition to that, she knew that they would have no interest in the elevator.  So what was it that was heading to the elevator?  Was it an Ettin?  A Grendel?  Another Norn?

[Yomegami]

Oh look, the elevator wasn't on the highest level. Not that the bianci minded that, but it'd mean he'd be a bit longer in getting out of here. He was looking to find an egg, grab it, and then high-tail it out of this place before norns started pouring in here - along with them, possibly, grendel-seeking hardmen.

However, while he waited for it to arrive, the delicious smell of protein CA wafted by him. Looking to his left, he saw the crop of apples that grew on the tree, some of them fully grown. At that moment, his stomach rumbled slightly, reminding him that he was hungry - hungry for protein, in fact.

Ignoring his desire to use the elevator for now, the bianci eagerly approached the nearest apple to him, crouched down on all fours, and attempted to bat the apple off the tree. However, he found his arm was too short to reach it. Thinking of how much more convienient it would be to have big, long arms like his fellow grendels, he tried the next logical option - lean over the edge and try to reach the apple that way.

That did the trick. Upon leaning forwards as much as he could without falling off, he found he could just barely touch the apple. The bad news was that it did jack squat in terms of getting it off the tree. With a snort, he leaned forwards some more.

Bad move. With the reward of being able to grasp his target fully, he had leaned forwards a bit too far and found himself falling off the ledge. In a desperate attempt to avoid this fate, he grabbed the apple firmly and held fast, thereby creating the amusing sight of a full-grown Bianci stretched out between the edge of the platform, which he stood on only on tip-toe, and the tree branch he held on for dear life.

At first, this seemed to work. With a bit of a sigh of relief, he focused on manuvering himself back onto the ledge. But at that exact moment, the apple had apparently grown enough - and it fell off the tree. His look of relief changing to a look of horror, the grendel fell off the ledge and down towards the platform below, still grasping that apple like it was going to fly away.

He hit the platform with a loud bang, landing belly downwards. He lay still, as if dead. Then he got back up, flinched, and started rubbing his sore body like mad, muttering something that sounded like grendelish swearing. In his frustration and pain, he didn't notice the norn sitting next to the crypt. If she hadn't seen him, she certainly had heard him - and if she was hardman, then the poor grendel was either going to have to high-tail it or die.

[SpringsSong]

Luckily for the Bianci, this Norn had not a drop of Hardman blood in her.  However, the Norn had seen that this creature had Grendel blood in him--the head gave that away, as did the muttering that she just barely understood herself.  She, however, remained perfectly still as she watched him.  She might have been a hardier Norn than others, but she was far from fearless of Grendels, like the Hardmans were.

So, she sat still, watching the other carefully.  She figured that her dull grey-purple body blended in enough with the color of the crypt, and that, if she didn't move, the Bianci wouldn't see her, or care that she was there.  It was then, however, that her own stomach started to grumble.

She glanced at the apple that was by the Bianci, but she shook her head slightly at the thought of taking it while he was still down.  Even though it was a fend-for-yourself, take-what-you-can realm there, she wasn't going to chance meeting an end by being slapped to death by anything with Grendel blood.  She continued to sit, staring at the Bianci and the apple, her eyes wide as her stomach growled a little louder.

[Yomegami]

After a few moments of prancing around, the pain from his fall had finally subsided. Shaking his head, he regained his usual happy expression, glanced at the apple in his hand, and then took a bite out of it. Now that hit the spot.

Whilst he was enjoying his meal, however, he caught the smell of something else: Norn. He was going to dismiss it as leftover norn smell from when they were in here earlier, but one cannot be too careful. As a result, he took a glance around the room. A few times, he glanced right towards the norn sitting next to the crypt, but each time he took no notice of her, probably due to her color and the fact that it was still fairly dark in this room. Not that she would have been in much danger if he did - strange egg obsession aside, Bianci grendels were friendly grendels and normally no threat to the life of the average norn.

He turned to another one of the apples laying on the platform, and was about to grab it when the rumbling of the norn's stomach caught his attention. Yep, there was definitely another creature in here. That was a quiet noise, but it still was there.

He turned around, trying to detirmine where this sound was coming from. But alas, what to his wandering eyes should appear but a fleck of white sitting next to the elevator leading down to the incubator area. Upon closer examination, it proved to be exactly what he thought it was - a norn egg, of the kind colored like a chicken egg. Still a smallish egg, meaning that it had been recently layed, which made it ripe for the snatching.

Forgetting about the sound he had heard and about the presence of a norn in this terrarium, he focused entirely on getting that egg. Of course, he wasn't so eager to get it that he'd leap off the edge of the platform to get it. That episode with the apple had taught him a few things. Instead, he turned around and headed for the elevator call button, although his intentions were probably betrayed by his gait, which could be best described as a joyful skip.