Chapter One
Another time and another place, we have been here once before. A castle stands tall, and shines in the noon suns. The surroundings of this castle is once more green and good, as it should be. It was almost a thousand years ago, when two courageous gelflings, the last two of there race, saved the world from strange and evil creatures called the Skeksis, from having the power to rule over the stars. The two gelflings, with their brave hearts and deep love for one another, did what the Skeksis feared and healed the Dark Crystal.
Inside the castle, inside the crystal chamber, stood two gelflings, a king and queen over their race. Even though many years have passed, the love between the two, never weaken and never will die. The king was named Jen and his queen was named Kira. They just stood before the pure crystal, gazing into its form as it hung over a shaft of air and fire, and sat underneath the opening for the suns to shine upon the crystal, for any of the three suns that shined upon the crystal, gave it the energy to bring peace to their land.
Kira looked at Jen, and Jen looked at Kira. Kira's eyes seem to shine so beautifully as Jen gazed into them. She wrapped her arms around Jen and leaned her head into him. He then wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
"Love is the one thing, more powerful than the crystal." said a voice. They turned, arms still wrapped around, to see the one being that knows all secrets.
"Hello Augra." Jen said with a smile. Ever since Augra's home was destroyed but the Garthim, she had lived with Jen and Kira. She was always good to have around, even if sometimes she had a temper.
"You two are so luck, to be alive and to share a great love." she said, trying to make her wrinkly face smile, but then she stopped trying. It was to hard to make a smile of her face.
Jen and Kira just smiled. "Its almost been a thousand years since you healed the crystal. Soon the three suns will become one and we shall see the guardians will come." The Guardians were the angelic creatures of wisdom and the reason the Crystal cracked, but no one really knows why it happened.
Jen thought back to when he healed the Crystal, and he felt sad at the thought of it, but tried hard to fight the sad expression from appearing on his face. That day, he almost lost Kira when the Skeksis known as Chamberlain stabbed Kira. Jen never wanted to feel that sorrow in his heart again. But the Guardians returned when the Crystal was healed and they healed Kira's fatal wound, bringing his queen back from near death.
He then looked at Kira, a single tear rolled down his cheek and dripped from his chin hitting the floor with a single drip sound. Kira looked at him and asked with a concerned tone, "Jen are you alr..." but she was cut off by Jen grabbing her head and bringing her lips to touch his. Her eyes slowly closed and she enjoyed his kiss. Jen couldn't bear to lose Kira, and he couldn't bear the thought.
Augra then turned and walked out of the crystal chamber, letting the two lovers have the moment alone. Kira then broke the kiss and ask Jen as stern as possible, "Jen, why were you crying?" Jen then looked down at his feet, he never wanted to let Kira know how much suffering and heartbreak he had to go thru in the few minutes that she lay lifeless on the chamber floor.
"It's nothing Kira." he said at last, " Just a sad thought, that will never happen again." as he tried to put on a smile. Kira didn't want to see that sad look on his face anymore, so she decided to drop the subject and looked upon the crystal once more. She really wanted to ask the all knowing crystal, why Jen cried just now, but she respected the fact that he didn't wanted to tell, and it was his secret.
Kira then looked up at the ceiling to see the medium sized sun about to be in the center of the triangle and give power to the crystal. "Oh Mighty Crystal." she began. "When shall the three suns touch?" The crystal then showed six nights and seven days. Kira nodded as the vision faded into pure light, as the sun shined upon the crystal and it glowed bright as the sun itself. Jen came up behind her and grabbed her hand.
"Why did you ask the crystal that Kira?" he asked, his brown eyes glistening in the crystal's glow.
"Something is telling me to ask, we might need that information." She replied honestly. Jen just accepted that answer.
Then, as the sun moved out of alinement with the crystal, a young girl gelfling ran into the room, she had black hair and blue eyes, her name Mailee, the oldest of three children that King Jen and Queen Kira had.
"Mother, father, the animals have told me that something is heading this way. It is under the soil and it is in a large group. We don't know what it is yet." She got out in gasps, she was all out of breath from running from the outside fields to the crystal chamber, and that was quite a distance.
Then a boy gelfling and another girl gelfing ran into the room, both with blond hair, the boy with brown eyes and the youngest girl, who looked just like her mother. The boy was named Robin and the girl was named Kiki. They gasped for air, but finally Robin said "Mother, father, a large group of creatures just appeared out of an underground tunnel, and are heading this way." and Kiki nodded in agreement , basically saying he's telling the truth.
The five gelflings ran to the front entrance, Jen grabbing his sword and Kira grabbing her bow and arrows. Mailee grabbing her staff, Robin prepare to fight hand to hand, and little Kiki, using her magic powers, with her hands aglow in a purple aura. The unknown creatures entered the castle, when they saw King Jen and Queen Kira, the dropped to the floor, praising them. This made the gelflings all have a puzzled look on there faces.
"Almighty king and queen. We are the U Muns and we come in peace." said the one the Jen assumed was the leader. Jen then slide his sword back into its sheath, and came forward from the group of gelflings.
"I am King Jen," and grabbing his hand was Kira, she tried to be as brave as her loving husband. "And this is my wife, Queen Kira. And we welcome you to our Kingdom." he said with a polite bow. He was trying to be courteous, but he never let his guard down. When he came up, the leader came forward, and grabbed Kira's hand and kissed ever so softly.
This sight got Jen's blood boiling, he was angry at the sight of it. But he held his anger down like it was a symptom of a upset stomach. Kira noticed the held back anger look on Jen's face and pulled her hand away, walked over to Jen and wrapped her arm around Jen's waist. She smiled at him, and then a sly smile appeared on Jen's once angry face. They then led the group of U Muns to the throne room and King Jen and Queen Kira sat in there silver thrones. Then the U Muns began there reasoning.
"We live in a kingdom, deep underground, and there is a sun like power source that lets out a energy that kept out kingdom alive. Now the sun is dying and if the sun dies out, out people will die. We were once like you, and stayed upon the land, but we were forced underground, and over the many years of being down there, we adapted. We cant stand being in bright light at least for long periods of time." said the Leader of the U Muns.
Jen listened and as the leader finished he asked him, "What do you need us for?" Jen at this point had no clue about the event that were going to occur.
"We were hoping that you would allow us a shard to the Crystal, to bring power back to our sun." The Leader couldn't think of any other way to put it.
Jen then stood up fast. "That is out of the question!" he shouted. Kira grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back to his seat, then she came to the edge of the first step of three that lead to the throne.
"What Jen means is, we have seen what happens when the crystal is not whole. It nearly caused creatures that don't exist anymore to rule this planet. We understand your problem, but we can not help you. I'm sorry that we can not be off any help to you." Kira said as she dropped her head, she wanted to help them, but she didn't want to doom the planet, especially when the suns are so close to be joined into one.
The U Mun leader had a grim look on his face, as he faced the window with golden sunshine flooding in through the opening. He then sighed and made a hand signal, then the U Mun group turned and proceeded towards the door, and were placing hoods over there heads to make sure they weren't blinded by the bright sun.
"I really wish we could help." Kira said as they left their castle. The Leader had a sad look upon his face. And he turned just before he put his hood up, and tried to give a hopeful smile. Then he turned back forward, put his hood up and ran out the door. Kira then sensed that something bad was going to happen, but she shook it off and then walked back over to her husband, grabbed his hand and kissed him on the cheek.
Jen smiled, the anger faded away, and he grabbed Kira's waist and pulled her in, kissing her on the lips, softly and sweetly. The three children in the throne room with the King and Queen smiled at this sight. They then slowly disappeared out the door, to leave the two alone. Kira then pulled away from the kiss, and frowned. She loved it when Jen took her in his arms like that, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, and this distracted Kira greatly.
"Is everything alright Kira?" Jen asked, with a worried expression on his face.
Kira looked at Jen, and smiled, the bad feeling was still there, but she was fighting it from appearing as a expression on her face. "I'm fine. I must go, I need to speak with the animals. I need to find something out." And with that she grabbed her brown cloak and ran from the throne room, leaving Jen standing alone in front of his throne.
Kira ran thru the luscious green fields of grass to the forest beyond. She passed many trees, saying hello to animals as she passed by. Finally she stopped running when she came to a large tree with hanging branches. In the mix of the bark, the swirls and patterns it made as it grew together made a what looked like a face. Kira called this her Hopeful Tree, and this also was the tree her mother hid her in before the Garthim killed her. She felt that since this was the last place she saw her mother alive, maybe her mother's spirit was there. Every time she came to this tree, she could think straight, and feel closer to her people.
She then sat in a little grove of the tree roots on the ground. She thought about the bad feeling that still had a grip on her. She didn't know if this was just fear, of the U Mun or the Skeksis returning is they were to give up the crystal shard. So many thoughts ran thru her mind, but they all mixed together and didn't make sense. She then felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked and no one was there, but the touch of a hand on her shoulder remained.
Then suddenly her eyes were flooded with a vision, she was in the castle and the U Mun attacked. Kira gasped at this sight, the bad feeling grew into a fear and she knew this was going to happen. While in her vision she looked out the window to see it was nightfall. She then heard a scream as a sound of like glass hit the ground. She also heard Jen calling for help, and suddenly it stopped and she found herself back under the tree.
Kira looked up at the sky, it was going to happen soon. She stood up from her little grove in the tree, and was about to run back to the castle. But then she stopped and turned back facing the tree, bowing her head and whispered, "Thank you mom." and then ran off thru the forest.
She ran thru the forest as fast as her legs could carry her, getting scraped by tree branches as she ran. She made it back to the field and saw the sun was about to set. Then she saw the U Muns come from the ground with spears and swords. Kira Gasped, the vision was coming true, and she had to find Jen. She ran thru the field and down the rocky side of a cliff like place that led to a underground entrance. She ran thru the tunnels, she heard what sounded like a battle going on above her head. When she got to the main hall she ran up the stairs to the balcony that over looked the throne room.
What she saw was the three hundred gelflings that lived in the kingdom, desendents of the hundred that were hidden from the Skeksis, fighting the U Muns, trying as best as they could to keep the away from the Crystal Chamber. Kira scanned the battle, but saw no sight of Jen. She then ran down the stairs and down the hall, on her way to the Chamber, but she was halted by a group of U Muns and Gelflings fighting. She then ran up the near by stairs that lead to the surrounding hallway of the Crystal Chamber. She ran to the edge of the window like hole, to seen Jen standing between the Leader and the Crystal.
"Get out of the way Jen." the leader demanded of the elderly gelfling, who stood there with sword in hand.
"Never! You can't take the shard, or you would be basically giving to order to kill off the Gelfling race." Jen shouted.
The leader smirked and said with a angry tone, "Fine, you're the first to die!" and he moved, kicking Jen in the chest causing him to fly back and hit the crystal. Kira saw the shard go flying thru the air, and then screams filled the air. The Guardians appeared, holding there heads and screaming. The screams seem to echo thru the whole castle, and in a flash of purple light the Guardians disappeared and there stood the Skeksis and the Mystics.
Kira wanted to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. She heard Jen scream as he bounced off the Crystal, catching the ledge before falling into the fire below him. And then she heard the Crystal make a sound like glass clacking on the stone floor. The Leader bend down and held it in his hand, so carefully, like it was more precious anything. Kira saw Jens hand begin to slip, the shouted and all the attention turned to her.
She released her wings from underneath her cloak and leaped off the edge, gliding down the floor below. She ran for Jen, hoping that she would catch him, but she tripped and in a flash of purple, Jen was gone. She looked over the edge and looked at the fire below. She began to cry, then looked at Gelflings that stood there holding there weapons. The U Muns retreated and ran from the castle, with the crystal shard in there possession.
Kira saw the Skeksis summoning there dark forces and the Garthim started to form. Kira shouted, "My Gelfling brothers and sisters! Run and hide! Don't come out till this land is green and good again!" The Gelflings ran from the castle, while Kira sat on the stone floor crying. Mailee and Kiki picked up their mother, Robin got down and Kira was put on his back Piggyback style. She couldn't run, she was too distraught to think about anything, even saving her own life. The four ran into the forest as far as they could, the green fields had turned dark, and it had returned, the power of the Dark Crystal.
The four Gelflings had to rest, after running what felt like half way around the world. They stopped in a place with trees and 3 bushes in the shape of a triangle. Kira was still crying, she thought she had lost her love forever, and didn't want to live anymore. As she weeped, Mailee, Robin and Kiki, watched her cry. Kiki stepped forward and placed her hand on Kira's shoulder.
"Mom, Daddy isnt dead." She said and Kira's head popped up with her eyes red and tears streaming down her cheeks.
She got out thru her sobs, "Then... where.. is... he...?" she hoped that Kiki knew.
Kiki shrugged her shoulders, and frowned, "I don't know. I used a power that I haven't really had much practice on." Kira knew that Kiki had teleporting powers, and at this age she didn't know how to control it.
"So, he's alive...?" Kira asked so hopefully. Kiki nodded, he was alive but she didn't know where. Kira was happy that her true love was alive, but it was being drowned out by the worry that he may be in trouble and where he might be. Kira then grabbed Kiki by the shoulder and pulled her down and hugged her. She whispered into Kiki's ear, "thank you." she was grateful that she had saved Jen's life. And deep down in her heart, she knew Jen and her would meet again.