Night of Pleasure Turning

Part 18

On the morning the young Skeksis were going to depart from SkekLi's home, Rel asked of Li, "Do you know where we could possibly find SkekSa?"

"It's been so long since I last heard from her or any of them. I wish you luck in finding her though." Li replied.

"Well, we thank you for letting us see your home and letting us stay to rest." Anax said.

"Is there anything we need to know about her?" Vak asked.

"She was known as the Mariner. She lived at the sea with the Sifa Gelflings once. Had for hundreds of trine. She might still be at sea for all I know. Like I say, good luck finding her." Li said.

The young Skeksis were all freshly packed up and they all went on their way. Since they were now closest to Grot, and not going beneath the ground again anytime soon, they were going to head south.

They headed out of the Grot Mountains to the southeast. They ended up on a vast savanna. There was open wilderness for miles around. They all kept their weapons at the ready in case of running into any predators.

When the grass thinned out at a point, the young Skeksis even tried their parts at trying to run down prey. They were just full of energy and vigor. If they didn't catch a thing, it was a disappointment, but the young ones just laughed it off. It was all a game to them. They tried acting like natural predators. Even their parents had done that a long time ago, when they were still active and young when not negotiating with Gelflings.

The Hunter was the only adult Skeksis who had remained true to his roots, of hunting like an animal would live. All other adult Skeksis had mainly turned to the pampered life many trines ago.

They all would manage to catch something sometimes. It all just depended on how fast or sneaky they were to catch their quarry. Some animals just couldn't move fast enough, or others were too fast.
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At the castle, the adults were having a good time without their kids there, but were a bit concerned.

"Sire, must we wait much longer to let young ones be on their own?" Chamberlain pleaded to the Emperor.

"Chamberlain, I'm going to give them a trine to find our lost members. So, stop whining about this. We must let go of them. They are no longer small childlings." the Emperor declared. He didn't dare to coddle the kids like Sil had.

SkekSil couldn't help it that he had coddled them, considering when he had lost the one child at birth. He still remembered it well. His motherly instincts were just on strong worrying about his offspring. None of the other Skeksis had lost their babies at birth.

The Skeklings had been gone for over three unums. It seemed like they sure were taking a lot of sweet time exploring the lands around the castle. Walking made it take longer to get far away tasks accomplished.
...............

The young ones checked all through the wilderness areas and some of the lower lands of the mountains out there too, and no signs of the Mariner. Soon, they were nearing the end of the plains and going near the swamplands.

It was here at the edge of the wilderness that they encountered a creature for the first time that they had only heard about before. It was a large, dangerous animal, known as the Rakkida.

They had disturbed it as it was napping, and it was hungry itself.

"What is that thing?" Yeekt freaked, getting her weapon ready as the snarling animal was advancing on them.

"I think that's a Rakkida." Rel declared.

"It is, you nitwit! I read about them from Mother's library." Vak snapped.