Tuffing and Svärta, their two first-borns were conceived with perky rabbit-like ears and whiskers.

And now their newborn daughter, Följa, was born one-eyed.

Ake knew what they did to the Hootles was wrong. And he knew all 3 of his children turned out like they did was all due to his youthful folly. But what else could he have done? And it has been decades ago since that incident, those damn Hootles. They just can't let it go, can they!

Ebba and Ake were utterly dismayed at their children's deformity. The first time when the twins were born like that, they thought it was a fluke. But now that Följa turned out wrong too, they knew it was the damn Hootle's curse.

There was a strict penalty in the alma law against abandoning your kids, no matter how hideous they looked. You could be sentenced to a lifetime of eating only scratchy tree leaves, prickly bark, and dried-up roots. And that possibility is too horrifying for the sausage-eating alma couple to even begin to consider.

So they did any self-preserving alma parents would do. Under the alma constitution, in order to avoid breaking that child abandonment law, all they needed to do is provide food and a suitable roof over the underaged alma child.

It would be too much of a disgrace to let the outside world know of their ill-fortuned deformed children – what would they think? Both of their family ancestries came from elite alma tribes, so there is always a certain pressure to keep up with that status. They had decided to keep the births super low-key so that no one in the world would know that Ebba has given birth. The last thing they would want is for nosey relatives to ask to meet their kids.

As far as they're concerned, they have done their legal duty as parents - providing food and shelter. The alma couple themselves like to stay separately from the children, of course. They cannot even stand to look at the monstrosity for more than a few hours at a time. To ease off some of the parental guilt, they gave their offspring their own spaces - the twins a nice cosy cave at upscale Hecklers Cliffs, and Följa a swanky 2-storey at the thick of Knackers Forest.

They just have to keep them alive, but would rather spend as little time as possible with them.

Of course, all kids love asking questions. When Följa was just a wee little cubby alba, she would ask about how different she looked from her parents. Why is it that she has 1 eye, while the both of them have 2?

Or do all alma children live alone like her? Does she have any brothers or sisters?

Or why those bird-like creatures, (the Hootles?) outside her house always seem to be looking at her?

Or when something strange happens to her, why is it that the creepy Hootles always seem to be around?

Most of the time Ebba and Ake would just give a non-committal grunt as a response. They were there just to drop off her new batch of sausages.

At first when she couldn't get an answer from her parents, Foljä gets frustrated and throws a tantrum. But whenever she did that, nothing good comes out of it (Hootles are watching). She soon learnt by herself to stop asking. She has sausages to eat, and a nice comfortable house to grow up in. And that's all that's supposed to matter to a young alma, isn't it?

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