| Some shee worshippers came and glanced at the hand. "What are you doing here?" An Angel norn said. He was clinging to the computer to avoid being blown away by wind that only Angel norns can feel. "Just getting a look at the hand. We heard that the shee created it to look after us. It's not doing it's job by leaving us to our own defenses, is it?" "It's the other way around. We created the shee. And norns, ettins, and grendels that look like them. I see you're a descendant of one of them." Mommy tickled an ettin with very long legs. The ettin said: "And which Hand made us?" "I can't remember. I got a lot of creatures from a lot of Hands. You can't expect me to remember each Hand I got creatures from. I remember Wafaru and Evil Shee because their creations were among my favorite. I think I got some from a Hand named Mummy too. Anyway, the shee never made you guys. We got an idea for a new species just like the norns named shee, who would look like the shee. But they acted no different than the ancient norns." "Our book says the shee were the creators of the norns, grendels and ettins." A norn with a shee head said. "And the hand was made to care for them." They left again. The elderly Kai said:"How about we all go home and think about this. And you tell the aquatic ones what happenned." He told the adolescent mernorns. My family and I went home, We were tired, so we went to sleep. I woke up later, with the feeling that something had awakened me. I looked around, without moving, and saw a norn with shee arms grab Mommy's book. "Stop!" I said, springing up. Others woke up in surprise. "He is taking Mommy's book! Stop him!" I said. "Koo fwib dat, foo dith." The norn said. That was the shee worshippers language. I only understood the word Koo, that was his name. Etnetn said:"No! Stop!" and grabbed him. He was an adult, and her being older than him, she could carry him. She took him to the room with the machines and implements. She asked some other elders to guard him. Then she grabbed the book and went down the lift to return it to it's place. "Koo grah, Koo foo gaa, goo nono" Koo said, angrily. "What's he saying?" I asked. "Something about norns?" My uncle Eoo guessed. I decided to go see if Eema was awake and tell her about this. She was awake, so she came out to meet me. "Guess what? This shee-norn named Koo tried to steal Mommy's book. He's an adult. Etnetn and the other elders decided to keep him prisoner for the moment. They're going to talk to the shee worshippers about this." I told her. "Wow. Can I come, or is it a Swamp ettin thing?" "I think you can come." We went down to the Swamp, and then we all went on the cage swing over to the stone of ancient knowledge. That stone names whoever kisses it as well as teaching them Mommy's language, which explained why many shee worshippers were named things like Alima or Doctor Pepper. "Why are you here?" An ettin that looked just like a shee said. "While we were sleeping, Koo tried to steal our book. What do you say about that?" Etnetn said. "What does that have to do with you, young mernorn?" The ettin-shee said, looking at Eema. "I'm her friend." Eema said, and pointed at me. "Which is your leader, Swamp dwellers?" She asked. "I am. I insist on speaking to your leader." Etnetn said. The ettin-shee stared at her, then said: "I am the guard for the Shee-lovers, the only ones who truly embrace their creators. I am Aemaem. I will take you to our leader, Peppew." Etnetn said: "I am Etnetn, leader of the Swamp Ettins" I muttered to Eema: "Betcha she has kissed the stone, and then tried to rename herself." "Come to the statue, and meet our leader." She said. "Eemeyn, Etn, Eem, Bub and Bubu stay here. The mernorn should also stay, but I am not her leader so it is her choice." Etnetn said. I wasn't mentioned, so me and Eema followed Etnetn. Since Bubu was an elder, she was supposed to care for some of the babies and children who'd come along. A couple irresponsible adolescents were told to stay too. We walked over to the lift, and went down. I got to see a sight I'd never seen before, the water pump's back. When I was a child I'd wondered what it looked like, because we were rarely allowed to go here, only if we had good reason. Someone trying to steal the book that had been in our possesion for many years was good reason. Then we walked by lots of jewels and gold, and arrived at the shee statue. We all stared at it, feeling unable to look away. It's eyes glowed as we looked at it. Something about it's glowing made me uneasy, and I edged away, wondering if the shee really had existed, or if the Hands that made the shee had made the statue magical. "Weird, isn't it?" Eema said, still gazing at it. She was next to me. "I get a bad feeling about all this." "Swamp ettins? Why are they here, at the statue? And a mernorn?" A voice said. I couldn't tell where it came from. Was the statue talking? I shivered, even though this room was quite warm. "Oh wonderous shee, the ettins have captured Koo. They claim he tried to steal their book. The mernorn is a friend of one of the adolescents." "Koo?" The voice said. "This time I was sure it was the statue. "Where is he?" I ran. Eema and an annoying adolescent named Googoo did too. Once we were in the tunnel opposite from the way we came, I stopped, feeling the spell the statue cast leave. Googoo and Eeema ran on. I trembled and looked in the room. There was a flying shee-norn in front of the statue, holding an implement of some sort. She seemed to be the only one not affected by the statue. She was looking at Etnetn and the others. Etnetn said: "Koo is at the swamp, by the splicer control." I was surprised. The splicer was secret. We weren't supposed to mention it to the groups we didn't like. "The splicer?" The norn said. I realised that she'd been speaking earlier, when I thought the statue was. "Yes. If any of us reach senile before we come to an agreement we'll splice him." Good for you! I thought. Etnetn was keeping her head. "WHAT!?" The norn, who I assumed was the shee wsorshipper's leader, said. She pushed a button and the shee statue's eyes glowed more, and lights came from the shee statue's eyes to the eyes of the other Swamp dwellers. "I'm hypnotising them." The leader said to Aemaem. "They won't leave." Aemaem went to the jeweled tunnel. I ran the way Eema and Googoo had gone. Eema and Googoo were in a room with a powerup and a machine. It looked as if no one had been there in ages. Googoo was filling some cups with potion from the machine. "Don't drink it!" I told him. "You don't know what it'll do!" Eema said: "Bubeta! You're here!" to me. And Googoo said: "I'm not stupid enough to drink this, what do you think I am, an idiot? One of those ettins who couldn't handle deathcap and ate it anyway?" I ignored Googoo and kissed Eema. She kissed me back, then I said: "Etnetn and the others are hypnotised. The shee worshippers are going to the splicer control room to free Koo." I said to Eema. "Won't your people stop them?" "They'll try, but norns are stronger than ettins. It won't be pretty." I told her, idly pushing a nature. "Maybe we might be able to get help somehow. I don't know how though, I doubt we'll want to try getting past the statue. They're leader makes it hypnotising. She hypnotises creatures one by one." "One by one. Maybe if we all try, two of us will get through. Those two could rescue the other." "I'm not going out there." Googoo said. "You have to. Otherwise you'll starve in here. We might b e able to get either me or Eema past, but you're only chance of escape is coming with us." |