Beneath the Dark Crystal

Chapter 18

Jen's head twists and turns hearing the screams and fighting of his army in and out, along with the sickening hum of skekSil. He is finally woken with a strong shake on his shoulder and the voice of the weak Commander, "Please ... wake up. Y-Your people need you. We can't ... ah ... w-we can't all die here. T-Today."

Jen groans and sits up slowly, looking around at all his fallen soldiers and the many garthim that burned in the lava pools. He looks over to the Commander with squinted eyes. "Commander ...?"

The Commander lays on his side, holding his cut open stomach in pain. "We ... failed you ... Wise Jen ..."

Jen winces, seeing Fizzgig cuddled up next to his arm. He sighs and holds the creature close, looking back over to the Commander. "What happened?"

"The skeksis. The Chamberlain. Garthim are ... nn ... h-his now," The Commander manages to say, his breathing heavy, "Should have never used ... weapons of our enemies. Fear made us blind. F ... Fear of skeksis ... fear of the Dark Crystal ..."

Jen huffs, sitting up a bit more while resting his hand onto the Commander's arm. "Rest, Commander. We'll get you out of--"

"--No. Beyond even ... your help. Others at the Crystal Castle ... need you. Lady Kira needs you."

Jen frowns deeply and shakes his head. "No. I can't just leave! Not without you. Not without Mavra."

The Commander rests his hand onto Jen's arm. "As much as I ... h-hate to say this ... she's safe with that ... f-fireling and the Acolyte. Right now, the castle needs you ..."

Jen's frown deepens and he looks up at the mystics' beast that had returned.

The Commander smiles and points.

"Even broken ... the will of the Crystal ... is with you."

Jen furrows his brows and looks down at the Commander, nodding towards him in respect. "Thank you, Commander." He watches as the Commander smiles and closes his eyes, letting out his final breath.

Jen turns away and slowly stands up, hugging Fizzgig tightly. "Come on, Fizzgig. We have to go home."

He hops onto the creature's back and looks back into the caverns. He smiles and nods, feeling sure with himself that Mavra and her friends would save the day.

~

Thurma huffs while running around the caves in utter confusion, not knowing which path led to where.

"We ... We can make it, Tumby! We're close!" She looks down at the Tumbeloth, watching how he peered his head over her shoulder to try and search for Mavra and Kensho. She sighs sadly, slowing down her pace slightly. "I know. I know. You're angry. You miss them, don't you?" She holds Tumby even closer to bite back the tears welling up in her eyes.

"I do, too. But ... Mavra told me to run away. I ... I didn't want to but ... I can't have them slowing me down, right? If I don't save my people, all of this would've been for nothing. Plus ... Plus Mavra's the one who dragged herself down here with Kensho. What else could I have done? What else could I have said? But ... after we've used the shard, I'll go back and--"

Thurma gasps as Tumby swings out of her grasp and onto a rock, narrowing his eyes at her. She tilts her head in confusion from his actions. "Tumby? Why did you--"

Tumby spits out the shard from his shell while marching on in the opposite direction of Thurma. Thurma's ears drop and she takes a step back in shock. She was completely alone now.

~

"Are the barricades holding?" Kira asks one of the soldiers who nods. "For now, Lady Kira."

She smiles gently saying, "Do whatever it takes to hold them. We must survive the skeksis."

The soldier bows. "Yes, my lady."

The Soldier marches out of the top of the tower to leave Aughra and Kira to themselves.

"Aughra, how does it go with you?"

Aughra watches the stars through her homemade device, grunting in distaste.

"Infuriating! Hm! Exasperating! Lambasticating!" She huffs, bringing her tool for reading the stars down from her eye. "The stars say nothing! Huh! Don't know what's happening. Don't know why or how. Huh. Only one thing I know, gelfling," She turns to Kira with a solemn look, "The world's gone mad."

Kira frowns and looks away, keeping her hands folded on her lap.

~

skekUng growls in frustration, throwing off the boulders and knocking them over. The feathers on his back rose high and his beak twitched from the chanting of the mystics echoing throughout the castle's halls.

"SssssSICK of that chanting! What are the old fools doing?!"

skekZok replies, "They call to something. Maybe everything. All of Thra summoned to the Crystal."

"But why?"

"Why indeed. It is not their way. Never in the history of Thra has there--"

"Boring! We must open a way to the tower!"

"The Crone has collapsed the passages. There are no other ways."

skekUng growls lowly and silences his fellow skeksis, walking over to the Eminence, who was huddled up in a small ball. "You. Shriveled gelfling. 'Crystalline Eminence.' Hah!"

The Eminence shakily stares into the seething eyes of skekUng, shivering in fear from his icy glare. The Skeksis lowers his head, speaking to the frightened Gelfling, "You vermin have lived in our palace for too long. Are there secret tunnels? Creeping ways, unknown to us?"

The Eminence looks down while wringing his shaking hands nervously. "U-Uknown? None are unknown. All are the ways of the Dark Crystal. All bathed in its ... terrible light. Light that penetrates all ... all ... all that is--"

skekUng rolls his eyes and smacks the Gelfling across the face. "Bah. Mad."

skekShod asks, "What is it saying?"

"Nothing. The Crystal has broken this one. Break down the barricade! Those wretched creatures will pay for what they did to us."

skekAyuk glances over at the knocked out Eminence in question. "What of the old gelfling?"

skekUng grins, saying, "Throw it in the cells, where it tries to keep us. We will have a use for it soon."