Chamberlain's Struggles

Chapter 17

When Sil awoke many hours later, he thought it had all been a dream until he saw the little ones beside him, and he felt his lower body was in extreme discomfort. He didn't want to move. But he raised his head and looked around. He saw both Wyneth and Byron asleep.

Just as he was looking around, the babies began to move again and wake up. They began to get squirmy and fussy.

The noises awoke Wyneth too. She saw that Sil seemed worried.

"They're probably just hungry again, Sil. They will have to be fed several times a day and in the night too, when they do get fussy." Wyneth said.

Now Chamberlain knew this wouldn't be easy. But he was determined to learn how to take care of them. They were also the last link he had to his lover.

Sil knew that La needed to know that she had offspring. He would go back to the castle soon, after he gained some experience in caring for the twins and recovered from the birth. But he would have to be worried about the other adult Skeksis.

He got himself comfortable again on his back and he nursed the twins again. He used his soft voice to make some comforting sounds to them.

From what Wyneth was seeing, though it hadn't been long now, she saw that parenthood did seem to suit the Chamberlain. His wheedling voice was good for comforting babies.

That night, Wyneth made Sil some soup. He wasn't too hungry, but he ate anyway because now, everything he ate and drank affected how well his babies would eat. Even with having given birth, he still needed to take care in good eating.

As the days passed, Sil learned much about caring for his babies from Wyneth. He was so happy to finally have the weight out of his belly too. They didn't hold him down anymore and he could get up normally.

Wyneth was in the process of making two carriers for the twins, so Sil could carry them when he would work or something else.

He had finally finished on coming up with names. The one with a lighter body he would name Lil. The one that looked more like him he named Ka.
.................

For the last few months, Milena had traveled onward to find other Gelflings and she had found a village, only that it soon got attacked too, and this time, her daughter had also been killed in the event. That made her mad with grief. Then she remembered the Skeksis who had been expecting.

If a Skeksis could kill her child, she would go back and prevent that one's baby from growing up to be a killer too. To her, the Skeksis race had to be punished.

She had been gone long enough and surely, the Skeksis had to have had his baby by now. She remembered where the cave was. The Skeksis might have killed the other Gelflings and just lived there by himself now for all she knew.

She traveled back to the cave.

The day she got back there, she waited for nightfall and snuck down to the lit cave. She was at a distance, but what she saw in the cave still dumbfounded her.

Milena saw the adult Skeksis and the two Gelflings eating their dinner. They all seemed to be at peace with each other.

In her eyes, they might be for now, but she was sure that the Skeksis would turn on them in a short time. She was still going to take her revenge.
...............

Chamberlain was still too sore to be up about doing chores, but Wyneth and Byron knew he was well enough to be on his own and he could take care of the twins by himself.

Byron and Wyneth went out to do the daily chores in the fields and animal caring while Sil was left sleeping in the cave with Ka and Lil beside him.