One Surprise After Another in Albia

Kaw and Llyan had the honor of being the two oldest Norns in Albia, at around eleven hours old each. The last time I checked Kaw, he was rather withdrawn and had virtually stopped producing testosterone. A pregnancy indication was the last thing I expected! Fortunately, Llyan had been a fairly independent and healthy Norn, so she still had some time left. She happily laid her fifth egg after she traveled across the ocean. Kaw seemed as surprised as I was… He quickly left the scene of the crime like a sneaky criminal!

My world had nearly turned into a retirement community, yet I was completely caught off guard when Rhun shrunk into his little old body! At less than six hours and thirty minutes old, it was a very early life stage change. However, it wasn’t too surprising: I had difficulty getting him to eat more than a carrot every hour or so. He had only been a father twice, and it looked like that was where he would stay. All the same, he had some hope of living out his last hours peacefully.

While I tried to get Orwen to eat, I sent Taran away on the cable car. I noticed that the Observation Kit indicated he was ill, but just for a moment. Shortly thereafter, the notice came up again, and this time it stuck. That cable car needed some serious disinfecting! Not pictured on this graph is a second unknown toxin. Poor Taran had picked up the awful habit of not eating, and his life force began to drop by a percentage point every few seconds. He was the youngest Norn, and probably the only reliably fertile male Norn. I desperately fought with him, and yelled at the screen in my panic. Ellidyr had nearly died from a similar illness: I wasn’t about to lose the youngest member of the Norn population. The graph looked ominous, but still I waged war against the illness. Fight, Taran!

One carrot was enough to save Taran, though it was luck that pulled him through. His antibodies fought off the illness when he was down to a life force of 30%. Without that one carrot, he would have been closer to 15%. The poor little guy laid down with another carrot and shivered his usual shiver. This behavior, triggered by a mutation, was not at all good for a fever: His body continued to heat up, which had to be awfully uncomfortable. Taran survived, though! It seemed like the Albian antigens were very angry and unusually active… Almost like they were working against everyone.

« Previous Post | Next Post »