Beneath the Dark Crystal

Chapter 9

As the early morning breaks into the sky, Thurma and Mavra continue to run, hearing the Skeksis still following them. "W-We can't let him take the shard, okay? Never trust a skeksis!" Mavra tells Thurma seriously.

Thurma nods her head with her ears twisted back. "R-Right. I know. I'm sorry, Mavra ... I--AAAA--!" Thurma screams as she slips down a tall slop.

Mavra tries to stop herself from falling as well, but ends up losing her footing and rolling down the slope with Thurma, the rough ground jutting them around before they finally land on a flat surface. Thurma groans, slowly sitting up and staring off into the dead, gray wood. She stares down at all the black blubbery-water in disgust.

"Oh no ...! I can't cross this! Mavra--" She turns around and gasps when she sees Mavra's twisted wing. "Mavra! Your wing!" She exclaims in worry, picking up the tumbeloth that lay next to her.

Mavra's arms shook as she forced herself to stand up. She carefully lifts up her twisted wing, wincing at the sight of it. "Ah ... i-it's fine. We just need to get you--nn!--g-get you across."

Thurma frowns and shakes her head. "But, Mavra--"

She stops again when the water starts to bubble and pop. The girls yelp, jumping back from the water. "What is it?!" Thurma asks, watching as the blubbers of water form into giant monsters.

"It's the blight! Use your fire! It'll ward them away!" Mavra yells, stepping behind Thurma as she waved her fiery hand in front of the monstrous-blight.

"Get back!" She shouts as the creatures continue to try and move closer to them. "I said get back!" Thurma glances up at Mavra and they start to make a break for it; trying to run around the blight infested waters.

Mavra sighs, her wing aching for her to stop running. "Kensho, where are you?" She mumbles, the blight continuing its chase.

~

"No one leaves until he is found! We must retrieve the shard!" The Commander demands, marching around the rocky side of the cliff Kensho fell from with his guards.

Kensho grunts as he struggles to keep climbing up the rocky side, gripping and pulling himself up. He huffs, stretching his arm up to another rock. "A-Almost ... there!" He says, his hand gripping the large edge of the rock.

A cat-like creature hisses and claws at Kensho's hand, making him let go and start tumbling down the side. "AAAAHHH--Oooff!" He yelps out, grabbing onto a small bush growing out the side. He grips the branch, dangling for dear life. He pants, looking below him and spotting the shard laying on top of another bush a little ways below him. "Oh, no--" He gasps when soldiers use their large animals to fly up next to him.

"There! It's him!" The soldier exclaims.

"Where's the shard-thief gone, traitor? And where has it taken lady Mavra? Tell us!" The other orders, her eyes narrowed.

Kensho huffs, taking a quick glance at the shard below him. "Um ... th-the shard is well-hidden! And Mavra wasn't kidnapped, she ran away! But I'll only tell Lord Jen or Lady Kira about the shard and Mavra's whereabouts! I can't trust anyone e--"

"--Then you're in luck, heretic. Look down, boy," The soldier says, gesturing to Jen, who was showing up to the scene on a Garthim.

"Kensho! We must talk," He says, sitting up on the small throne perched on the garthim.

Kensho eyes Jen with fear, cowering away a bit. He rides the garthim, he thinks, shivering from the thought of the crab-like beasts.

Jen frowns, saying, "Kensho, you must help me find the shard. The skeksis ... they must be destroyed."