Rebellion and New Life

Chapter 16

In the next many days, Chamberlain kept on watching the Scientist in a threatening way to make sure that he wasn't going to blab his secret. The Scientist was also watching him too, to see if Sil would give away who the perpetrator was besides him.

Sil and La knew that when around their clan mates, they couldn't be affectionate. Sil was not about to give her away. He wanted life to go on as much as it had before, but he would be careful. He had many secrets that he knew about here in the castle, and would always keep them until certain times were right. This was just another one, even if one he couldn't keep for long under wraps. The baby would come whether he liked it or not when it was ready. Right now, Sil had a hunch feeling that it wasn't ready yet. And then, there was also dealing with the baby's movements day after day.

When he was wandering the castle doing his chores, or just walking around for something to do, the baby seemed to be sleeping, as it didn't move much. But when he sat down to relax or eat, and lay down to sleep was when it started moving about, and its movements had only gotten stronger.

When he was with La, they would always take the chance to see if the baby was moving. Sil could feel it kicking or punching him. Or when it rolled inside him. The baby seemed to push into him pretty good when he ate. He tried to ignore it at the table. He knew Tek was watching him.

Now that he knew about Sil's condition, as much as Tek wouldn't have minded blackmailing him, Tek knew that Sil could do the same back to him, and worse. But with the draining of more Gelfling came the essence. As curious as he was to see a baby Skeksis, he wondered if the essence was harming it any?

The Skeksis did drink some fine wines and such, they consumed other beverages besides water. Was it harmful to the baby? Tek was sure that there had to be limitations on things like this for the baby. He couldn't help but wonder how much it would look like its parents when it was born. Maybe the baby would look like the other parent and that would draw them out. Right now, Chamberlain was not budging on telling him who the other parent was.

Out of some sort of concern for the baby, as Tek was thinking of it as an experiment already, he did pull Sil to the side one day.

"Chamberlain, if you are concerned for the baby, you must take more into consideration what you ingest." Tek suggested.

"I do, Scientist." Sil replied.

"Drinking wine is not a good idea, and who knows what drinking essence would do to it. I know from observing other creatures that ones that carry babies and when they are born, are much weaker. And we know what the essence does to us after we drink it." Tek explained.

"So, you saying I not drink wines or essence?" Sil asked.

"For the time being." Tek advised.

Sil hated that thought. He didn't mind not drinking wine, but the essence was something he needed too. "I need essence like others. I been drinking it all other times, and baby still moves in me."

"Do you want any more risks to the baby? Might not be born right if you take certain risks with drinking certain things." Tek explained. "I will examine it after it is born."

"You can to see if healthy, but it will not be personal experiment." Sil warned.

"Yes, I know. But until we know otherwise, this advice you should take if you don't want to harm it. The baby is depending on you to take care of it." Tek stated.

This was advice Sil should take under advisement. "Yes, friend Scientist. I take advice. Not want to harm it."

Chamberlain hadn't really thought he was harming his baby at all. He knew the baby had to eat and drink whatever he did at the moment. And no wonder Sil was always more hungry than he usually was before he was pregnant. He waited for Tek to advise against certain foods, but there was none. Water would be the only thing that he would drink until it was finally born.
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Weeks later, the Garthim army was finally ready. It had about twenty Garthim ready to go, and SkekUng was ready to command them, but they would obey any Skeksis. The Scientist had programmed that into them. They would obey no other creature.

The Skeksis were ready to gather more Gelfling for their essence. SkekUng was ready to take his place as the new General, and he commanded ten of the Garthim to follow him on his crusade to a Gelfling village to gather all they could. Some had to be left behind to be the new guards of the castle.

Many Gelfling fled. Some fought back and were killed. And ones that did survive were pushed into a cage. They would be the new quantity to be drained.
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