Rasmarvis: First Blood

Where we left off, Lightning Strike was looking to be the most formidable norn this generation. She hasn't changed: she still voluntarily hits the grendel dummy until she tires herself out whenever she's in the area. Pale Flower isn't entirely sure on how to feel about her friend's habits.

I had to snap these three out of eat elevator syndrome, but they seem to be doing fine otherwise. Pigeon Feather is currently the oldest in the whole group, and it shows: he was the first to become an adolescent. Pigeon Heart and Grey Foot have also been kissing a bit.

Thanks to Lark Heart, I had to put a door hider on this door as well. He wouldn't stop messing with it.

Lightning Strike and Grey Foot made a brief foray into the jungle, but I sent them home so we don't lose them too quickly.

It seems Lightning Strike has a new rival: Lightning Cloud, a C1 grendel! In my experience, C1 grendels are a lot less aggressive than Jungle grendels, so it's probably best that their first foe is this guy.

With grendels beginning to be born, I start to give the norns a bit more training with the dummy before they find themselves having to go face to face with actual living grendels. Grey Foot got a lesson before Lark Heart did here.

In any group there's bound to be disagreements, and after a massive slap fight Lark Heart and Grey Foot have very definitive opinions on each other.

Hopefully they can channel their anger into fighting grendels, because a much more serious threat just hatched: Lizard Face, a Jungle grendel. He'll almost certainly be more threatening than his C1 brother.

Finally, the first pregnancy happens: Pale Flower is expecting Grey Foot's child! She will now stay in the learning room until her child reaches adolescence.

Meanwhile, Lightning Strike keeps leading expeditions to the jungle. I'll let her do this at some point, but not at this stage.

Pale Flower lays her egg by the door, then wanders off to play with the ball.

Her egg hatches into a daughter named Fleck Cloud, who is a nice mix of her parents! Apparently, she's slightly bluer than the average norn. Unfortunately, a look at her genetics shows that she probably won't be able to give birth naturally. Which sucks, because she has a bunch of other beneficial genes in there, like being able to safely eat detritus. I've actually had similar norns to her before: remember Curlew Fang and Rook Leaf? They were actually Apple norn crosses as well, I wonder if that has anything to do with it? I looked at another Apple norn cross I had in a different world who I know for a fact can give birth, and she had all the same mutations Fleck Cloud does. She just takes a while to give birth, so Fleck Cloud will probably be fine. The fact that so many 'mutations' have been shared across so many unrelated Apple norn crosses leads me to believe that it might actually be an Apple norn thing, not mutations!

While I was doing that, I failed to notice that Lizard Face had crept into the terrarium, and is now surrounded by norns!

I quickly sent everyone except the two in the nursery to deal with him, and Lark Heart's grendel slaying instincts quickly kicked in. Soon enough, Lizard Face was no more. I'm assuming he got in a scuffle with Lightning Strike, Pigeon Heart and Grey Foot beforehand, because he went down very quickly. I'm assuming Lightning Strike did a lot, because she's the only norn who voluntarily hit the dummy.

The encounter left Lark Heart extremely riled up, and he actually sent Lightning Strike flying before this picture was taken, so I took him back to the dummy so he could let off some steam.

He's feeling much better now! And Lightning Strike seems to be recovering from her run in with his rage as well.

Lightning Cloud soon decides to join the norn hunting party.

This turned out to be a very bad idea for him.

As Lightning Strike and Lark Heart are the only norns who seem to actively participate in grendel fights, I have decided to give them titles! They are now known as Lark Heart the Furied One and Lightning Strike the Storm Guardian! I'll still refer to them mostly by their short names though. If I included the titles every time that'd be a pain.

Of course, no amount of effort can last forever, as a new grendel has been born: Golden Flower may have a non threatening name, but his nature will certainly be a contrast.

If any two norns were bound to get together, it would definitely be the two most dangerous ones. Lightning Strike and Lark Heart are having a baby! That's gonna be a dangerous kid. I even caught Lark Heart saying he loves Lightning Strike. Aww.

Lightning Strike lays her egg, and Pale Flower is clearly happy to see her friend again for the first time in ages!

In the jungle, another first for the world has happened: a female grendel by the name of Swift Wish has been born. This means that we could possibly be having more than two grendels in the world at once. This could be a massive issue, especially with Lightning Strike off duty.

Buzzard Stripe is born, and is immediately coddled by his mother. He inherited the get angry around grendels gene from his father, which is good. He seems to have mutated so that alcohol gets broken down by adrenaline and not dehydrogenase. This probably shouldn't have too much of an effect on him. He actually seems to have gotten most of the Erigizian norn genes from his father, which is great for this particular run!

I'm going to end this here, as the norns have been doing so well! Although, I may have to find a new nursery room. I can see the learning room getting very crowded very quickly.