“ZzzzzSNK! Wha?” Kalin murmered as he slowly woke up. “Oh, hi Monica,” he said with a grin as he rubbed his eyes. He yawned and exclaimed, “Hey, what—is it noon already? I should have been working hours ago!”

“You sure do love to plant,” Monica noted. “You even dream about planting.”

“How did you know?” Kalin asked, surprised.

“You were sleeptalking again,” Monica informed him.

“I hate it when I do that,” Kalin grimaced. “I never know what I might say.”

“Nothing important,” Monica assured him. She grinned. “But you may as well get used to it—you’ve sleeptalk every single night.”

“And then when I wake up, I don’t even remember what I was dreaming about,” sighed Kalin.

“I always remember my dreams,” said Monica.

“Oh,” said Kalin. He sighed again.

“What’s wrong?” Monica asked.

“I can’t stop thinking about Dark,” Kalin said. “I try not to worry about it, but…”

“I thought you liked Grendels,” Monica said.

“I don’t like Grendels. I just don’t think that everybody should hate them and be so freaked about them. But I’m still worried about Dark. And what that Grendel said about him being evil! Dark may have an awful temper, but he’s nowhere near being evil.”

“Why did your mother name him Dark, anyway? It sounds so…cold.”

“You know,” Kalin said thoughtfully. “I don’t know.”

“Well, try and remember. Oh, my, I have to go! I hafta get to the waterfall and teach some little kids some stuff about the Shee.”

“Well, see you later,” Kalin said, waving.

“Bye Kalin!” Monica replied, flashing him her bright smile as she walked away.

-----

For the rest of the day, Kalin pulled carrots out of the garden. When he saw that there was an overpopulation of Beeclaneeth plants, he picked the caterpillars out of the house and put them on the plants, where they began eating. Satisfied, he went into the house to finish reading his book.

Kalin pulled out his purple book and rested against the incubater. Suddenly, an Albian Carrot Beetle scurried across the floor, bouncing into Kalin and making him loose his page. When it saw Kalin’s annoyed look, it screamed and ran underneath the incubater.

“Now look what you made me do!” Kalin exclaimed. He smiled at the sight of the beetle and reached under the incubater to grab it. Man, nothing like kickin’ around the ole Albian Carrot Beetle on a sunny day. Kalin’s smile faded when he felt what he had grabbed—a green piece of egg shell.

“What’s that, Unkie Kaly?” asked a familier voice.

Kalin turned around. “Oh, hi Marie…. I didn’t hear you come in.” He turned back to the green speckled shell. “Some kind of egg,” he said, scratching his head. “But something about it seems… familier.”

He looked at it more closely. Somebody had scratched a letter onto the shell, but he couldn’t tell if it was a ‘D’ ‘O’ or ‘C’. There was something else, too, but it had faded too much to make out.”

“It’s just a green egg,” Marie said. “What’s so neat about dat?”

Kalin shrugged and put it on the table. He had a feeling he might want to look at it more closely, later.

-----

Dark contemplated what had happened to him that morning. After getting over the surprise at what he had done to Doris, he longed for the chance to test his new found ability. He knew it was a savage, horrible thing to want to do, and he told himself that he had only punched Doris as a last result, and he didn’t want to have to fight anybody. But deep down inside, he knew that a part of him had enjoyed it, and if he got the chance, he would do it again without a second thought.

-----

Nell pushed some leaves aside so she could walk through them. She was holding half of a juicy coconut; the island fruit that she had come to know and love. Then she saw Sally the Grendel waving at her. She was about to wave back when she stumbled over Dark, who was sitting quietly by himself. She tried to regain her balance and fell right on top of him.

“Gruah!” she exclaimed, and Dark said, “Ouch!” He turned around, rubbing his head and glaring. Nell climbed off and apologized in Grendlish. He just looked even more irritated.

Nell was beginning to feel exasperated herself. Who did this dumb guy think he was? She had done it on accident, and she had apologized, besides.

Dark said something in English, which was a language Nell was not familier with. The Grendels had only spoke it around Norns, and since this was the first Norn they had been around in years, Nell hadn’t heard the language enough to remember it. From Dark’s tone of voice, though, she could tell he was saying a rude remark.

Nell frowned and swore loudly in Grendlish.

Dark looked apologetic, and he said something in English. Nell blinked. Dark sighed and murmered something to himself in yet another language. But this language had a familier tingle to it. Nell felt like she had heard it every day of her life, and at the same time, never before. She struggled to remember where she had heard it.

Dark must have seen the look on her face because he got up and repeated it, more slowly. Nell concentrated as hard as she could. Somewhere, something deep within her was recognizing that sentence.

Nothing. Nell simply could not remember. “Maybe I’ve never even heard it before,” she thought to herself. “Maybe I just think it’s familier.”

Feeling extremely frustrated, she sat down and scowled. Her head hurt from concentrating.

Dark sighed and muttered something else in the new language. This time, Nell wasn’t even listening. But suddenly the words sorted themselves out and his sentence was crystal clear to her. Dark had said, “Oh, I was hoping you would understand Nornish.”

Nell jumped up. She glanced at Dark, mouth wide open. He looked at her curiously and shrugged. But Nell was sure she had heard that language now. If she could listen in it, could she speak in it?

Nell closed her eyes, concentrating on what to say.

“Me am ga lorcum Nornish, Dark,” she said.

Dark raised an eyebrow. “What did you just say?” he persisted.

“I said, ‘I can speak in Nornish, Dark,’” Nell repeated.

----

That evening, Kalin showed Monica the egg shell. The two sat in front of the fireplace, and Monica tilted it so the light of the fire spread over the surface of the egg.

“This letter looks like somebody deliberately scratched it in,” she said at last. “But why would somebody want to label an egg? If you touch them too much, they go into hibernation.”

“I know,” agreed Kalin. “It’s strange.” He coughed.

“You okay?” Monica asked, genuinly concerned.

“Yeah, just tired,” Kalin said.

“Yeah, I can tell,” Monica said sourly. “You look like hell.”

“I feel like hell,” Kalin said jokingly.

“You ought to get some sleep,” Monica said seriously. “You’ve been working too hard lately.” She got up. “I’m beat. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, Aries is holding a meeting by the beehives at noon.”

“Sure. At the beehives at noon, sharp.”

“Great! See you then, Monica. ‘Night.”