Have you ever heard the expression, "it's what's inside that count?" In Albia, I think we all know who the enemies are. They're the grendals, right? Are you sure? Maybe grendals are not the villains. Maybe there are no enemies. I want to tell the story of two very special creatures I had, Li'l Tree and Joe. Then, you tell me who the villains are.

Li'l Tree was still in her egg. I had gotten the applet so that I could keep my eye on the grendals. I didn't want them beating up my norns. At almost the exact same time Li'l Tree was born, a baby grendal was too. I usually just make sure that they stay away from my norns and try to ignore them. This time, something told me to take in this grendal.

I made a quick choice and decided to export all of my norns exept for the newborn, Li'l Tree. I exported the grendal and gave him a name, Joe. I kept my eye on Joe. You see, I had not love for grendals and I didn't think I ever would! I am very stubborn and when I decide I don't like something, I don't change my mind easily.

Joe didn't know what to make of Li'l Tree, at first. Then she picked a tomato and gave it to him. Joe took a bite out of it and anger flared through me. Why couldn't he pick his own food?! That's when Joe looked at the tomato and back at Li'l Tree. He walked over and gave her the other half. Even as she was eating it, I couldn't believe it.

That's when I decided that grendals were like any other race. You have you good apples and your sour apples. I didn't dislike grendels anymore. How could I after Joe's gift? I still didn't bring in any other norns for awhile because I wanted to watch this friendship blossom. They were truly friends and did everything together. When Li'l Tree was an adolecent, I brought in the other norns.

Unfortunately, one of my norns didn't like Joe. The norn kicked him! I was mad. I was about to spank the norn when Li'l Tree went over there. She kicked him just as hard as the norn kicked Joe. That was when my norns decided that Joe was cool with them. Li'l Tree mated with plenty of norn males, but when she wasn't mating she was hanging around with Joe.

Li'l Tree had many babies. They played with Joe. I really wish that I had something that made grendals able to mate because Joe would have been a great father! He let those kids do anything to him and never seemed to mind. I felt better when Joe was watching the babies than any of the other males. He even taught one of Li'l Tree's daughters how to speak!

Then, one day, the worst thing that could happen to two friends happened. Joe died. He just died. There really was no other explaination for it. Li'l Tree saw what happened and came over. She started kicking him and saying "Li'l Tree push." She did too and nothing happened. She did it again and again. She looked at me and then at him as if to say, "What are you waiting for? Help him!" I tried to tell her he was dead.

I'm not sure she knew what "dead" meant, but she knew that Joe was never coming back. She didn't die like Babs did, but she didn't mate with anyone else. Who would watch her children? Humans can learn a lot from Joe and Li'l Tree. To them, it didn't matter what they looked liked. They were best friends.

When she finally died, I looked at all of her pictures and found the one that I thought was the best. A picture of Joe and Li'l Tree playing together. It was the one I wanted. On her gravestone, it says "Joe and Li'l Tree: Friends Forever."