A New Grendel and a Terrible Visitor to Albia

With the sad and untimely death of Smoith the Grendel still fresh in my mind, I was determined to hatch another male Grendel who would live longer. This adorable little one is Ellidyr, an Aqua Grendel from Grendel Man! His new genes would grant him resistance to cold, along with a better immune system. Ellidyr took his time emerging from his egg and taking in the world. He was positively startled by his new surroundings, and he curled up on the ground. It almost seemed like he wanted to crawl back in the incubator and huddle in his egg! With a little encouragement and lots of tickles, he was soon on his way. Once I brought him a honeypot, Ellidyr was pretty convinced that Albia had to be a good place! I had only a moment to spend with him, though. Something horrible had crept into Creatures 1…

With the incubator in action, antigen 0 decided that it was about time for it to come to life inside a creature’s body. It brought along some guests, too, including another unknown toxin not pictured in this image. As if this disease-ridden party wasn’t enough, antigen 0 was one of the crueler infections, for its counteracting antibody was doomed to rise at a snail’s pace. Histamine B also had an invitation, and decided to spice things up by making this illness contagious. As horrible as this discovery was, there was one more piece of information which was the worst possible news: The victim. Achren and Ellidyr were young, yet they were taking care of themselves. Angharad, on the other hand, couldn’t care for herself, and was in terrible danger. It was an ominous situation.

This adorable Norn was seriously affected by her genetic mutations. Time and time again, she failed to put a verb into action. As the infection took over her tiny body, all Angharad could do was to look at the honeypot or pick it up. Despite my frantic attempts to get her to have just a taste, she looked at me with pleading eyes. Her life force had only been at about 60% when she became ill, and in no time at all it was hovering around 40%. Her body was fighting as hard as it could, yet she could not find a way to give it the energy it needed.

Ellidyr had quickly wandered into the garden, where he met Achren. They were very affectionate from the start, and since I had to keep Angharad quarantined, Achren became a pretty wonderful teacher. I was happy to see the two Grendels getting along so well and staying in a safe area. I could only devote a moment to checking in on them, though, and mostly because I wanted to make sure that they stayed healthy. A few tickles later, and they saw the last of the hand for the time being.

Against all odds, Angharad’s body managed to fight off the infection and send everything on its merry way. The danger was still enormous, though: Her life force had tumbled to just about 20%, and she showed no signs of improvement. She just had to eat! It was clear that she was very confused, for even when she had a carrot in her hand, her attention would always jump to the honeypot that was far away. Then, just as I was about to give up hope, Angharad ate a carrot! I quickly brought her another, and she devoured it, too! I praised her as much as she could stand, and I hoped that somehow she would learn that eating was a good thing. Her life force was still very low, and certainly not high enough to sustain her for a long time. Things looked very positive, though, and I was hopeful for her!

As I tried to convince her to eat again, she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion on top of a carrot. I had no idea that Angharad was going to need so much extra attention! However, I doubt this translates into a failure for the third generation. Challenges appear in many forms in Creatures: Sometimes, they come about from natural problems like disease or scarce food. Other times, challenges are inherent in a Norn’s DNA. Angharad will certainly require extra time, and even constant care might not help her live longer than a few hours. Still, I chose her, and I intend to keep her in the population. Who knows: It might be a Grendel or Norn friend who breaks through and helps her!

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