In the meantime, Dark began to feel more and more comfortable around the Grendels, and even chatted some in Grendlish, which he was learning more of each day. But he and Nell avoided each other.

One night, though, something was different. It was a full moon, and all the Grendels were anticipating something. Dark could feel the tension. Then, slowly and wordlessly, they all went down the lift and got onto the boat. Dark followed. Whatever was about to happen, it was important. Even Nell was there.

At last the boat paddled over to the shore. The Grendels all got out, including Galywag.

“Oogam Offum Gruah,” he said. ‘Time to fight.’

“Yar,” the Grendels agreed.

Doris kicked Dark in the shin. “Yar,” he said quickly.

All the Grendels stood quietly while the leader looked around them.

“What’s happening?” Dark whispered.

“Shut up!” said Doris in Grendlish. (That was one of the first things Dark learned in Grendlish.)

Nell shoved aside some Grendels to stand by Dark. “He’s picking out two Grendels to fight,” she whispered. “So far, Angles is the best fighter. Besides Galywag, I mean.”

“Oh,” said Dark.

Suddenly, Galywag stopped. “Dark and Angles,” he said.

“Me?!” croaked Dark. Doris grinned and pushed him ahead. Dark gulped and walked over to where Angles was standing confidently.

“Do, um, we get any weapons or anything?” asked Dark.

“No,” said Galywag.

“In the name of Shee!” swore Dark.

“Begin!” shouted Galywag.

Angles began walking closer to Dark, his red eyes flashing. Dark quickly calculated that Angles was bigger, stronger, and more experienced in this sort of thing then he was, and he should be dead in about… oh, about five minutes?

Dark took a step back. What should he do? What COULD he do? Try to punch him?

Dark licked his lips, and quickly jumped up and punched Angles in the arm. Angles didn’t even flinch. He grinned wildly. Oh, how he was enjoying this! Then, so quickly that Dark didn’t even see it coming, Angles punched him so hard he fell backwards.

“Ow!” he exclaimed. He jumped back up again, his face red. Angles laughed shrewdly and his arm shot out. Before Dark knew it, Angles was holding him up in the air! Seething with anger, Dark pounded the Grendel’s head.

Angles ignored the pounding and threw Dark against the coconut tree, laughing. The Grendels cheered.

Dark got back up again. Almost maddened with rage, he raced over to the Grendel and punched him. Angles wasn’t laughing now. “Gruah!” he exclaimed. He picked up Dark, hoisted him up into the air, and began to squeeze his neck.

Dark wriggled and squirmed but he couldn’t move. Angles only choked tighter. Coughing and gasping, Dark kicked the Grendel in the arm, knocking it to the right. Angles dropped him, only to grab him again by the leg. Dark swung quickly up and bit the Grendel’s hand.

Angles cried out and dropped Dark to the ground. “Gruah!” Dark cried out in pain. He was exhausted. But Angles looked like he could fight for quite a bit longer.

Suddenly, Dark had an idea. He jumped onto the coconut tree and shinnied up the trunk. When he reached the top he threw a coconut down onto the Grendel’ s head. Angles shouted, and then Dark threw another. And another. Then he jumped down from the tree and landed right on the Grendel’s head!

“Gruah!” exclaimed Angles. He tried to force the Norn off, but Dark held on as if his life depended on it. (His life DID depend on it.) In spite of himself, he was enjoying himself tremendously.

Suddenly, just as Dark had hoped he would, the Grendel fell backwards onto the paddle boat. It paddled backward. Dark scrambled up, praying that Angles wouldn’t try to throw him overboard.

Angles, his eyes redder then ever, punched Dark on the head. Dark whiped blood from his head and punched back, but he missed. The Grendel grinned and punched again.

Dark groaned. He jumped off of the boat and got onto the lift. Angles followed anxiously. Dark dodged when Angles tried to punch him again, smacking the lift button.

Frustrated, the Grendel tried again. His aim was true and knocked the exhausted Norn over, laughing. But Dark was not to be defeated. He reached over the side of the lift and grabbed a piece of Death Cap Mushroom. Then, quickly, he shoved the poison into the Grendels mouth, just before he passed out.

Angles didn’t seem to realize what had happened until he had already swallowed it. “Gruah!” he exclaimed. He looked around anxiously, and saw that a piece of the mushroom was missing—and he realized what he had swallowed.

By then, the other Grendels had arrived. Nell gasped. It was a pathetic sight. Dark was on the ground, pale as death. Angles was choking and vomiting onto the floor, his skin a very unhealthy green. Then he fell over, still choking, while other the Grendels started at him. He clutched at Nell. “Help me,” he pleaded.

Nell shook her head. “You killed him,” she hissed, shoving him back down. Then Angles fell over, unconcious.

Suddenly, Dark opened his eyes. “Is he dead yet?” he asked.

The Grendels cheered.

-----

The following morning, Dark was sitting at the island, watching the surf spray onto the sand and recalling the events that had occurred that night. He burned with shame when he thought of how he had acted. A part of him justified his events, saying that he had fought only because he had to. But deep down inside, he knew he had enjoyed the thrill of the fight.

With a gentle paddling of the boat, Galywag joined him. “Dark, you fought very well last night.”

Dark glared and threw a pebble into the ocean. “I never want to have to do that again.”

“Do you?” asked Galywag. He pulled on Dark’s shoulders a little, forcing him to look him in eye. Galywag’s eyes seemed to pierce him, looking through him. Dark dropped his gaze. Galywag knew. He knew he had enjoyed it.

“Do you know why the Grendels had you fight Angles versus someone else?” asked Galywag.

“They were testing me,” said Dark bitterly. “But for what, I have no idea.”

“That’s what I’m telling you right now,” said Galywag, sighing deeply. The Grendel sat down and dipped his feet into the water. “Sit down, Dark, because this might take me a long time to explain.”

“I was born before the Big War," the Grendel began. "You’ve heard about that, haven’t you? Well, of course… Before the war Grendels and Norns shared the same areas, but afterwards Albia was split up into territories. During the war the Norn population dwindled to almost nothing, and the Grendels didn’t fare much better.

“Well, anyway, by the time war struck out I wasn’t quite nearly old enough to fight. But I was determined to do SOMETHING, and as I WAS the Grendel prince, the commander in chief dumped me on this island to care for the Norn hostages.

“The war lasted for a long time, and it got very boring guarding the Norn hostages. Every now and then somebody important would come down to question the Norns, but most of the time I was by myself with them. At first nobody really said anything, but after a little while I tried to talk with the Norns. That’s how bored I was.

“Most of the Norns hated Grendels and just shouted things like, ‘Leave me alone, demon!’ or, ‘your savagery will be your destruction, Grendel.’ But Lily, now, she was different. She was a very nice Norn, and when I started talking to the hostages she asked me what my name was and what I did and all that kind of stuff.

“Well, me and Lily started to talk a lot. In fact, we even left the other hostages in the catacombs just so we could sit in the sea-viewing glass dome and talk in private. If you haven’t already started guessing, we were by then deeply in love.

“Well, time passed pretty quickly, and the next thing I knew a treaty had been written and the few Norn hostages left were being shipped back to the new Norn boundaries. But Lily and I didn’t want to part. I asked my superiors if perhaps we could keep her with us. They said, ‘no,’ it was out of the question.

“But Lily and I pleaded and coaxed and finally they said she could stay temporarily. Lily, you see, was a good nurse, and now that Albian Jungle Disease had broken out, they would need her. They said she had to go as soon as things were under control, but she stayed for much longer. In the meantime, we fell even more in love and we married.

“It sounds kind of sick, doesn’t it? A Grendel marrying a Norn. It’s just not right. It’s like evil joining good. But we were too in love to care. Then we decided to have a child. Lily was unable to have children. That’s where Grendel Knowledge of Genetics comes in.

“Way back in the old, old days, when the Shee lived in the Shee City, they had a very superior and advanced knowledge of genetics. In secret, we Grendels learned that from them and passed it down from generation to generation. At first we only understood some of the basic concepts, but through each generation we improved our skill. We even kidnapped Norns to experiment on them. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyway, I used that knowledge to make a child for us. A Grenorn, if you will.

“But after awhile, Lily began to get restless and said she wanted to go back to the Norns, just for a visit. So I said good-bye to her, and she said she’d be back in a couple of days. But she never returned, and to this day, I do not know what happened.

“As for the egg? Lily left it with me, and it disappeared shortly after our parting. I thought somehow it had slipped into the ocean, because I could see a little bit of shell under some wood deep beneath the water. I told myself I wouldn’t have wanted to raise it without Lily, anyhow, even though I knew that wasn’t true.”

“Time went by, and I got over Lily and the egg. Being the heir of the Grendel throne, when my father got too old to rule, I became the king. I never married and I grew very old, much older then your Bilbo. That meant it was time for the crown prince or princess to step up and take the throne. But I had no heirs, right?

“Then I found out that Lily’s egg had never fallen into the ocean as I had at first thought! The baby had hatched and had been raised by Norns, totally oblivious to the fact that it was half normal Norn, half Grendel royalty.

The day would come when it would return to take it's rightful crown.”

"You mean...." began Dark, his eyes widening.

Galywag turned around suddenly and jumped up. He exclaimed majestically, “That Norn is YOU, Dark! You are the prince of the entire Grendel nation, and we have kept you so you may be crowned King!”