Chamberlain's Struggles

Chapter 3

Chamberlain's stomach gave a loud growl. He was very hungry.

It had been the midday mealtime when his banishment came. But now, he couldn't even go back to eat.

Sil had made it to some grasslands. His feet were tired and a little sore. He looked around. Nothing seemed edible out here. He knew he wasn't a good hunter. That was the Garthim's job, to hunt for food.

He would travel some more. If necessary, he would force himself to eat some plants if no small animal could be caught. He would try his hand at catching some small animal first. But it wouldn't be easy with all this medium sized grass in the way.

He began moving the stalks of grass apart to look for something, but anything he saw scattered into a underground home or just moved too fast for him to grab. But it didn't stop him from trying.

Soon, he came to the middle of the field and he stepped on a loud twig, and the noise alerted some big animals that were out in the field too. They lifted their heads above the grass and they saw something big approaching them. Evidently, they had been resting.

It was a pair of them. They began growling and approaching the intruder.

Chamberlain heard them and now knew he was out of luck. His eyes widened as he recognized these beasts as Rakkidas! Now he knew he was in trouble. He knew how dangerous these creatures could be.

At home, the Garthim or his rivals might have attacked these creatures with weapons, but here he was, out in the wilderness, alone and completely unarmed, with the exception of his own teeth and talons. But with no place to run to to protect himself, he knew this might be the end of him.

He swallowed nervously and looked around, for anything he might be able to use as a weapon or to hide. He began backing up.

The Rakkidas kept on stalking him. Their jaws were drooling with saliva, obviously hungry.

"Please, don't do this." Chamberlain held out his hands, backing away. The creatures didn't listen.

Then, Sil turned and tried to run from the monsters, though he wasn't as fast a runner as when he was younger.

But the Rakkidas were faster. They burst into a run too and caught up with him rather quickly.

Sil had managed to escape Rakkida in the past, but not this time. The first one that caught him caught his left thigh.

Chamberlain screamed in pain and was stopped. He tried using his hands to get the beast's jaws off his leg. But the second one came around and grabbed onto Sil's right arm.

The Skeksis screamed again. He knew this was the end. He tried using his left hand to try to free his other arm, and the Rakkida, using its right foot claws, scratched Sil's other hand, leaving some bad scratch marks, bleeding badly.

Despite the clothes he wore, the beasts had made contact with Sil's skin and blood was soaking everything. And Sil was trying his hardest to get away with struggling and the beast on his right arm even kicked him in his lower chest and upper stomach, knocking the wind out of him at one point. There was even a crack heard. Now it was just a matter of time before the end came for him. He hadn't even been out here a whole day yet.
................

Not too far away from the attack site, there was a shepherd Gelfling boy named Byron. He wore brown clothes and he had dark hair and blue eyes.

He was more of a loner in his home village, so he had the job of looking after this village's Mounders.

The Mounders were grazing peacefully until there was loud screaming and snarling to the west of the field they were in. Byron was alerted by the screaming. The soft voice almost sounded feminine. A female could be in trouble!