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The old Albians have disappeared mysteriously. A new generation of Norns has risen, and they must discover what happened to the heroes of old...

-

Casey looked around the jungle area and nervously put her glasses on. She had just been recruited to investigate the mysterious disappearance of all the creatures that used to inhabit the world. Casey took a deep breath, and walked forward, passing through the ancient temple. To calm her nerves, she turned the crank on the player piano just to break the eerie silence, and walked forward onto the bridge.

Something struck her about this place - it was as if she had come this way before, as if she had run across it during a catastrophe.

But she'd never been this far in her life, and there had never been a catastrophe that the New Generation had had to deal with. She shook the feeling off and continued into the garden. The Beelacanth flowers had grown thick , and it was almost impossible to see where the carrots were. If they even still grew. Casey shivered and began looking through the Beelacanths, looking for clues to the fate of the Old Generation.

Moving forward, she tripped on something and swore. She looked down. The shards of a jug lay scattered among the Beelacanths. It was an eerie, lonely sight. Casey shivered and knelt down, examining the shards. Nothing special, just a relic to mark the passing of an old generation of Norns. She shivered again, and then noticed something. She was kneeling inside a circle that had been deliberately etched into the soil. She wondered about the significance of that, then decided to investigate the kitchen.

As she entered the warm, comforting place, she was overwhelmed by a sense of deja vu. She had the feeling she'd been here before, but she knew she hadn't. She could remember all the way back to when she was first hatched and, like all Norns of the New Generation, she had been born in the Grendel tree, the Grendel mother long dead. She had never ventured from the trees, except to go to the island. There was a hypercarrot dispenser and some coconuts - who needed the food in the garden? She had never come this far.

But why did everything seem so familiar, then?

She shrugged it off and began looking for something, anything, that might give her a clue to the disappearance of the Old Generation, but her search went unrewarded. She was just leaving to go and report to Ashnin, when suddenly she heard a soft voice behind her. She whirled around in surprise, to see the ghostly image of a mother norn sitting on the table, crooning softly to her baby, who she cradled in her arms. The words came clearly to Casey's ears:

'Sleep well, my daughter, sleep well, my child
The Grendels are sleeping, and all is right
Rest well, my daughter, rest well, my child
Rest 'til you're wakened by morning light.

Dream well, my daughter, dream well, my child
'Til again to the morning sky you shall gaze
Sleep well, my daughter, sleep well, my child
'Til again come the summersweet Albian days.'

The lullaby put the baby to sleep, and Casey clearly heard its snores. The image faded away, and Casey shook herself out of the daze she had been put in. The mother and the baby had been familiar, as had the words and tune of the lullaby. And the voice...Casey _knew_ she had heard that voice before. She just couldn't place where.

She quickly turned and strode away from the kitchen, wanting desperately to get away. She broke into a run as she crossed the garden, and was almost the the bridge when she noticed something, half-buried in the dirt. It was a small, pure amethyst crystal. Intrigued, she picked it up and then continued back to the Grendel tree.

-

"What do you mean, _nothing?_" Ashnin growled, baring his teeth. "I didn't send you out to find _nothing!_"

Casey glared back, matching the Ron-norn's expression. She and Ashnin had never really liked each other. "Well, I'm sorry. I looked. All I found was some sort of circle, an amethyst, and a broken jug."

Ashnin raised one eyebrow. "Casey, don't try to hide anything from me. You saw something else. What was it?" He growled again. "Are you trying to withold information from me?"

"Well...I saw a mother norn, singing her baby to sleep."

"Bah! No Norns live there any more. Everyone knows that."

"No, no!" Casey insisted. "I saw her. But she wasn't real, she was some sort of vision. I heard her singing a lullaby, and heard the baby snore when it fell asleep."

Ashnin stared at her. "Have you been into hootch? Rotten coconuts? A bong?"

"No!" Casey was mad, now.

"Well, it's obvious you're hallucinating."

"So what if I was? What if I _wasn't?_"

"Oh, all right. Fine. You're going back tomorrow, and you had damned well better _find_ something for me, or you are _fired!_"

Casey glared after the Ron as he stormed down the dock towards the paddle boat. "Fine with me, _Ashini!_"

He turned around and threw her a glare, and if looks could kill. He hated being called 'Ashini'.

"I could fire you right now!"

"Go ahead, Ashini."

He growled. "No, no, never mind. Just go back there tomorrow and find something. Or I _will_ fire you."

Casey glared back, her brown eyes flashing. "How about I go back there now?"

-

Casey, combed the kitchen meticulously, ignoring the deja vu. She was determined to find some evidence, some information about the disappearance of the Old Generation.

Something caught her eye. A dust-covered book, between the incubator and the wall. Intrigued and excited, Casey went over to the giant machine and pulled out the book, wiping the dust off its cover. In gold letters on the front, it said 'Photo Album'.

'Yes, yes, yes, yes!' Casey thought. 'This might not tell us about where the Old Generation went, but it's still evidence!'

She opened the book and looked at the pictures inside. The first photo was of a tall fox Norn, with a horse Norn's tail. He wore a blood-red headband to keep his puff of white hair out of his face. The next picture was a female fox Norn with long hair, and a horse Norn tail. She was watching a pure fox Norn girl play tag with a smaller girl, who had the head and legs of a Purple Mountain Norn, the arms of a Forest, and the tail of a horse Norn. The next picture was of...

Casey gasped in shock. It was a male PMN with Forest legs, standing hand in hand with a female horse Norn, with PMN legs. The small girl from the previous picture stood between them. There was something familiar about the horse Norn, something very very very familiar. Casey closed the book and bolted out of the kitchen towards the trees, clutching the book to her chest.

When she got there, Ashnin scrutinized the book. "This is evidence?"

"Well...yeah, I guess."

"Casey, this tells us _nothing whatsoever_ about what happened to the Old Generation. It's just a bunch of pictures of Old Generation Norns."

Casey's spirits fell. "Well, I'm sorry. It's all I found."

Ashnin sighed. "Well, maybe the kitchen isn't the place to look. Try somewhere else, like the cellars."

"The cellars?"

"Yes, the cellars. There a problem with that?"

"No." Casey was suddenly bold. "No problem at all."

"Then go investigate."

-

Casey grumble, shivering in the cold of the cellars. She really shouldn't have been cold - she had the legs and body of a Purple Mountain Norn, as well as the head of a fox Norn. (Her arms were also fox Norn.) The cold shouldn't have bugged her. But it did.

She stepped off the raft and walked towards the still, barely paying attention to the mushrooms growing on the walls around her. As she exited the mushroom zone, she saw an elderly banana Norn, leaning on a gnarled cane, apparently oraganizing books in a bookshelf. Casey's heart leapt. Was this a survivor from the Old Generation? Casey ran forward, eager to question the old Norn woman.

"Excusememadambutwouldyoumindansweringafewquestions?" She was so excited that the entire sentence came out as one word. The elder laughed.

"Calm down, young one," she said kindly. "What questions do you want to ask me?"

"Do you know anything about the disappearance of the Old Generation?"

The elderly woman's face suddenly became solemn. "Yes. I do know."

Casey's heart leapt again. "What happened to them? Where are they now?"

The woman sighed. "Sit down, little one. I have much to tell you. You see, I am the last one of the Old Generation - wait, no, scratch that. There are six others."

"Six?" Casey was surprised.

"Yes, six. Let me tell you what happened. By the way, my name's Tiha."

"Tiha?" The name seemed familiar.

"Yes, Tiha. Let me finish." Tiha took in a deep breath, as if preparing for a long speech. "A long time ago, a dark cloud covered the sun all day for one day, and also covered the moon that night. My *choke* late son, Setter, who was a prophet, saw it five days before it happened, and knew that it meant apocalypse for the Old Generation. The next day, a poison rain fell, killing most all of us. Only I, Eliot, Phoenix, Karr, Karen, Kerra, and Cappie survived." She sighed and stared into nothing, as if looking into the mists of the past. "Eliot and Phoenix were distraught over Sassy's death. Sassy was Eliot's wife, and Phoenix's mother."

Casey gasped. That name! Sassy! What was it that seemed so familiar about it? What did this mean? Tiha noticed Casey's shock, and peered into the youth's brown eyes. Her own blue eyes widened.

"Sassy!" she gasped in recognition. "Sassy, it's you!"

"No! No I'm not! I'm Casey Fleetwood!"

"Casey, this may seem strange, but you truly are Sassy. Your spirit must have been reborn in that body."

Casey was half-believing, half-skeptical. "Can you prove it?"

"I may be able to. Come." Tiha rose, and walked towards the mushroom zone agin. She touched an area of moss on the wall, and six segments of wall rotated, revealing six Norns in transparent, insubstantial-looking cylinders. One of the Norns within grabbed Casey's attention - he was a handsome PMN, with the legs of a Forest. Casey gasped in recognition.

"Eliot! Eliot!" she shrieked, and ran towards his cylinder, attempting to embrace him.

Tiha rather amusedly helped Casey out of the water.

"What the hell was that?" Casey grumbled.

"They're held in stasis fields, Casey," Tiha said. If you get too close to the field, it flings you away."

"Then how can they ever be freed, if nobody can ever get to them?"

"There is a key to unlock the fields, hidden somewhere in Albia. I do not know where."

'A key...' Casey thought, and thought about the amethyst, which she now had braided into her hair. Her hand went up to it, working it out of the braid. She stood, shook some of the water off her fur and gently tapped Eliot's stasis field with one end of the amethyst. There was a sound rather like an electronic sigh, and the field disappeared from around Eliot. He slowly opened his eyes, and focused on the unfamiliar Norn in front of him.

"mmmnnn...who'reyou?"

Casey smiled widely and hugged Eliot. "It's me, Eliot. Sassy."

Eliot squirmed out of Casey's arms and peered at her. "Nah, you can't be. Sassy's a horse norn with PMN legs, you're a fox norn with PMN legs and tail. Besides..." his voice trailed off. He swallowed hard. "Sassy's dead."

"And she was reincarnated in me," Casey said quietly. Eliot did a double-take, and then looked at Tiha.

"She's not being serious, is she?"

"Yes, she is," Tiha said simply. "She really is Sassy."

Eliot stood there in shock for a moment, and turned back to Casey. She was smiling. He smiled back, and embraced her.

-

Casey, now going by her previous name of Sassy, tapped her foot as the lift chugged up the tree. She had decided to confront Ashnin with all the information she had found, and Eliot had offered to accompany her for support.

They didn't have to wait particularly long. The lift reached Ashnin's floor at that moment. The Ron stood up and faced Sassy.

"What have you found for me, Case--who's that?" He pointed to Eliot. Sassy slapped his hand away.

"First of all, it's rude to point. Second of all, I'm not Casey anymore. My name is Sassy. And this is Eliot, my old husband."

"Explain, please," Ashnin growled, rubbing his hand.

"Gladly. Most of the Old Generation Norns were killed by a poison rain. I was among those who died. But then i was reincarnated in the norn you know as Casey. I just now realized who, exactly, I am."

"So...that's how they died. I suppose that renders your job worthless now."

"It's just as well. I was planning to resume my old life with my husband and daughter."

For the first time ever, a smile came across Ashnin's face. "This may sound strange coming from such a snarky Norn as myself, but...I wish you the best."

Sassy grinned.

-

Back in the cellars, Tiha watched enviously as the two sets of parents played with their hyper daughters. Kerra was speed-talking to Karr and Karen about what her stasis had been like, and Phoenix was just sort of watching that with an amused look on her face, and being hugged by her parents. Tiha remembered her own son, Setter. He had been among those to die in the poison rain. Her vision misted over, she blinked the tears away. Sadly, she turned and walked away. A gentle hand was laid on her shoulder from behind.

"Tiha, what's the matter?" The voice was Karen's. Tiha sighed, and leaned heavily on her cane. You couldn't hide things from Karen.

"I'm just remembering Setter," she said quietly. "He was my son, you know."

"I know," Karen said, also quietly. "He died in the poison rain, didn't he?"

"Yes. I miss him. Eliot's lucky - he lost his wife, only to have her reborn and return to him. My Setter is gone forever." She turned around. "Karen, if there is any Norn in Albia who knows about death, it's you and Karr. Is there any way to reverse it?"

"Yes, but I don't know how to perform any of them. Karr was somehow reborn in my egg, Arthur did something to me to resurrect me, but I'm not sure what, and I don't know how to go out-of-body on my own to bring Setter back." She bit her lip. "I'm really, really sorry, Tiha."

"It wasn't your fault." Suddenly, Tiha felt her age, more than ever.

"Tiha, I know a way," a younger voice said. Tiha and Karen both turned to look. It was Phoenix. Tiha smiled.

"Tell us, little one," Karen said. Phoenix grinned, with just a touch of shyness.

"Kerra's amethyst," she said. "The one I gave her, that night after we came back from the Purple Mountains. We later found out that it had the ability to resurrect people. Is Setter's body anywhere intact?"

Tiha nodded. "I saved his and Ira's corpse in stasis as well...I couldn't bear to think that Setter was truly and forever gone."

Karen looked puzzled. "Ira died too?"

"Mmm-hmmm." Tiha touched another moss-covered spot on the wall. Two more wall panels opened, revealing the corpses of Setter and Ira, held in stasis, undecaying. Phoenix went over to Kerra.

"I need to borrow you amethyst again, Kerra."

Kerra made a face. "What for this time?"

"Resurrection."

Kerra sighed and removed the amethyst from her hair again (Sassy had returned it to her soon after she had been awakened), handing to to Phoenix. Phoenix took it and walked to the stasis cylinders, closing them both down, and then touched Setter's corpse with the amethyst. There was a pause, and Setter drew in a deep breath and opened his amber eyes. Disoriented, he staggered around for a few seconds, trying to get his bearings. Overjoyed, Tiha embraced him with the energy of a young girl.

"Mom?" he asked dimly, trying to get his tongue to cooperate after years of being frozen in death and stasis.

"Setter," Tiha got out in a choking voice. "Setter, you're alive! Oh, I missed you..."

"Wait a minute...What about Ira?"

Right here, lad," Ira's deep voice assured. Phoenix had not been idle during Setter and Tiha's reunion, and had resurrected Ira. Setter laughed happily.

"This is great!" he yelled. "I'm alive again, so is my teacher, and my mom's still alive!" He looked around and grinned wider, seeing Eliot. "And so is my best friend! Woohoo!"

Laughter filled the cellars. Sassy walked up and gave Setter a friendly hug. "Welcome back, Setter."

Confused, Setter stared at Sassy. "Who're you? I don't remember you."

Sassy grinned. "I'm Sassy," she said. "After I died in the poison rain, I was resurrected in this body. I didn't know I was Sassy until recently." She looked back and Eliot and smiled, going over to him and hugging him, letting out a purr as she did so.

"It seems everything's worked out," Karr mused. "Tiha has her son back, Sassy's resurrected, and we're all revived."

"Let's hope there aren't any more catastrophes," Karen sighed.

"There won't be," Setter said. "The poison rain was the final disaster to happen to Albia."

"Thank Hand," Sassy sighed.

Out of nowhere, a tall young human appeared. She appeared to be in her early adolescence, with stormy blue-gray eyes and long blond hair, with bangs that fell into her eyes. "The beginning of peace," she said cryptically, "but the end of something else."

"What's that?" inquired Eliot.

The girl shook her bangs out of her eyes. "I'm not sure what word to use. Adventure, excitement, series, I don't know."

"Who are you?" Ira asked.

"My name is Alyssa - your creator," the girl said.

"Not my creator," Cappie murmured. She had been very quiet this whole time.

"Well, yeah. Except for Cappie, I'm your creator. And - well - I guess this is goodbye."

"What do you mean? Are we going to cease to exist or something?" Eliot seemed frightened.

"Well, not exactly. What I mean is that this--" she gestured grandly to her surroundings, "--is the last story in the Grenorn series."

All of the present creatures looked frightened.

"Our world's just gonna be gone? Just like that?"

Alyssa appeared thoughtful under her long bangs. After a long pause, she spoke. "No, never mind. This isn't the end. I..." she grinned. "I have too many fans who would lynch me if this story just ended like this. No, this story will continue. I'll leave it an open book, never ending until I finally just can't continue it under any circumstances. The series will live."

The creatures looked relieved. Alyssa motioned for Phoenix to come to her, which she did. Alyssa knelt down and took Phoenix's chin in her hand, gently raising the Norn's line of vision so that they were looking into each other's eyes. "Phoenix, you have powers that haven't developed yet. Like Setter's prophetic abilities, only...not. They will develop, in time."

"What are they?" Phoenix asked, wide-eyed.

"I don't know yet. And when the creator doesn't know..." Alyssa grinned and stood up. "Anyway, goodbye for now. As Methka would say, live well." She waved, turned and walked away, seeming to fade into nothing as she walked. There was a long silence. Finally, Ira cleared his throat.

"Right," he said. "Does this mean we can all say that we've met our maker?"

Laughter echoed through the cellars once more.

-

end