Snow, Eggs, and an Ambitious Young Norn

One must always celebrate a new home with a nice long nap and an amazed face among the tuba plants. As the last of the seventh generation Norns prepared to end their reign, I was reminded again of how much I had missed them. Newbeau was nearly ready to pass the crown onto one of his sons, but Harpis and Usela had a plan in mind! With the cold weather of Chione to keep them from resting for too long, they soon took to exploring the vast expanse of land. Although seemingly wide open, there were a number of interesting features to experience for the first time.

When the first fuzzy snowflakes began to fall, Harpis had another surprise to share! I remembered to set up the CAOS codes beforehand to allow for my usual multiple births, but this was one of the rarer single pregnancies. Harpis was not one to overuse her alpha status to overpopulate the world… Thankfully! This was only her seventh egg, and most likely her last. Her four sons with Newbeau were enjoying a pleasant life in the Norn Meso, and they had become a pretty happy group of bachelors. Adding a new youngster to the mix seemed like it could be problematic: The two eldest were nearly inseparable, and the two youngest were pretty close. Time would tell!

With the thought of babies in the air, Usela finally caught on! I had feared that she would never have a chance to pass along her genes. In a way, she literally had just one chance: She nestled close to her lone egg to keep it warm. The snow was more along the lines of decoration… But I couldn’t argue with those maternal instincts! In the end, I realized that the slow rate of egg production was mostly due to Newbeau’s indifference towards females. If his sons showed the same tendency, I was determined to introduce an infertile female to the next round of young males.

The first egg to hatch was that of Harpis. In one of the quieter caves, little Pinslee made her way into the world. She had a perfect color scheme for such a wintry world, but alas: She was the wrong gender and would have to find a home elsewhere. At least she got to have a taste of an apple before moving on. The Civet and Zebra Norn body parts matched rather nicely, even if spots and stripes are considered clashing patterns! Pinslee headed off to ponder the very important topic of Norn fashion trends.

Luckily, Usela’s egg also revealed a brand new little lady to rule over the world! Or so it seemed… Little Quinya was a very outgoing Norn from her first steps, and she promptly claimed as many apples as she could! Her arrival was to be the last: Usela had already been exported, and the alpha couple soon joined her. Many of the youngsters were already youths or even adults, but it was all up to little Quinya! I dropped her off with the other young females in the lower caverns of Chione. Everyone was surprised to see another little baby suddenly crawling about! Quinya took the opportunity to try to become the leader, despite her age and size.

In a short while, I had to laugh… Quinya was all alone in the original cavern, and the other four females had moved quite far away! Silly Quinya. Apparently her ambitions had been crushed by this already independent group. She was a little more of a misfit than a queen, though her ultimate fate was still to be decided. At least no one declared any incessant dislike for the littlest member of the group. On a side note, Mayshi underwent a slight change in appearance, as I was unable to reinstall the updated Snow Bengal sprites. So instead of bright green eyes, she was blessed with eyes as dark as midnight. She still stood out against the other females, and would hopefully provide a more diverse base of appearance genes for the future.

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