Chapter Three
The next morning Thurma woke up as soon as the morning sun rising over the tree's touched the skin on her face. She sat up and glanced around at the sleeping group that surrounded her. She then sighed as quietly as she possibly could. She stood up and took quiet steps in patches of ground that lay between the sleeping Gelflings who lays spread out. For some reason the image of a spiders web came to her mind as she weaved her way thru.
She it took her a minutes to get out of that net form that the Gelfings had made, but she did it. She then thought she would go for a walk. Each step she took in the grass was cool and wet against her bare feet. It sent a small chill up the back of her legs, trying to send the sensation to her spine, but it wasn't stong enough to do that. She walked and walked, not really knowing where she was going.
Then she paused and listened to the sound that came out of the forest around her. The birds chirping in the trees that surrounded her. She heard sounds of animals growling and barking in the echo of the trees. Thurma let out a relaxed sigh, this was first time in a long time she was at peace, and felt home.
Suddenly, Thurma heard a small and faint voice calling her name. She recognized the voice of her Gelfling friend, Kiki, and so she then proceeded back to camp. She walked slowly and dreadfully, she didn't really want to go back, but deep down she knew she had to. About three minutes later she found herself looking at the group of Gelflings packing up the camp and pouring water on the smoldering embers.
When Kiki saw Thurma, she shouted and ran to Thurma, wrapping her arms around her. She was excited to see her and Thurma liked this in Kiki. She patted Kiki on the back and as soon as she let go of Thurma, she then began flooding her friend with a million questions. Thurma had a small problem of trying to keep up with the many questions that were being swung in her direction from Kiki's mouth.
Kiki was finally silenced by Mailee cupping her hand over Kiki's mouth and 'shhh' ing her.
"I'm sorry Thurma, in the mornings Kiki is a little hyper." Mailee tried to explain why she was acting this way.
Thurma scoffed at this is replied, "A little hyper?" and then she began to laugh. Mailee was puzzled at the fact that Thurma was laughing, then she began to laugh along with Thurma. The three Gelfling boys then glared at Mailee and Thurma who were practically laughing their heads off. The laughs finally stopped a minute later, when they finally stopped, they were read with from lack of oxygen and embarrassment, this was no laughing matter.
"Sorry boys." Mailee and Thurma said in unison. The boys just stared at them, with a mean glare, which after a minute faded into gentle and caring smiles.
"It's okay,"said robin and the boys dropped there crossed arms and let them dangle at their sides.
"We better get going, we are wasting day light." Mailee said trying not to start laughing again. With that they packed up the last of their supplies and started following the smallest sun once more. Kiki finally calmed down about half an hour after they set out. While there were walking, Thurma was becoming curious and wondering 'Why are these Gelflings out this far away from home?' the thought and similar thoughts ran thru her mind.
"Hey, why are you Gelflings out in this area?" she finally had the nerve to ask them. The group looked at her some with angry glares, but only from Herot and David.
"We are on a journey to get the shard to the Dark Crystal" Kiki said thoughtlessly.
"A group of creatures called the U Muns attacked our home and stole a single shard of the once pure crystal." Mailee said finishing Kiki's thought for her.
"And we have to find the shard and make the crystal whole once more, before the three suns join in one." Robin then said.
Thurma just stood there with wide eyes. She had a secret, and she knew exactly what they were talking about. She thought to herself as they walked thru the forest, 'If they find out who I am, they will hurt me, or hate me, or something. Oh god what to do I do?' She held a calm expression on her face as best she could. But she was somewhat failing, and her eyes held a worried gleam in there gaze. Luckily no one of the group around her really noticed.
"Its offical..." Mailee finally said a few hours later. "...we have walked twelve hours. Now we have to find the entrance to the U Muns kingdom, and it should be in this area." and Mailee looked over the area of trees and bushes.
"It could be anywhere." Kiki said jumping from here and there, looking for the cave. They group started to look for the cave when Thurma finally spoke.
"Wait a minutes, don't we need a plan. I mean what if the U Mun know were coming and plan on killing us before we can steal the shard back."
"She is right..." said a voice. The group was on sudden alert, weapons ready to fight. The two outcast's pulled out there swords, that shined in sunlight. Mailee grabbed her staff that leaned against a old tree. Kiki's hands began to glow a light shade of violet and the look in her eye became angry and violent. And Robin popped his knuckles, and took a pose ready to fight hand to hand.
"Put your weapons away. Mailee, Robin and Kiki, this is no way to treat your father." and out of the bushes, once hidden from there eyes, came the figure of there king and the father of the three Gelfling children, Jen.
The look in everyone's eyes except of Thurma, who had to look of confusion, was of surprise. Then Mailee's staff fell to the ground and Kiki's hands which once glowed faded, and tears of joy began to fall from their eyes.
"Dad!" they shouted and ran to their father and hugged him tight. Jen then wrapped his arms as much as possible around the two girl. They were crying into there fathers chest, they made muffled sobs as they cried. Jen looked up at Robin and smiled.
"Glad your okay dad." said Robin who broke his pose and stood normally. He was smiling, he wasn't going to act as emotional as his sisters were, but he was very happy to see his father alive and well. The two male outcast looked at him with a look of trouble and of surprise.
Jen's attention as he slowly looked at each of the group members suddenly stopped and he stared at Thurma, who stood alone, next to a large tree with dangling branches. He looked tired in Thurma's mind she wondered if he was ok. He then smiled at her, and her eyes popped. 'Does he know something? Does he know who I am?' were all running thru Thurma's mind as she tried to smile back, trying to act innocent as possible, and trying to act clueless about what had happened to the Gelfling group.
"So this is your father, huh?" she asked Kiki, who had released her grip on her father waist. She was now wiping away tears from her eyes and trying to make herself stop crying. She then looked at Thurma with red eyes and nodded. "So what is he doing all they way out here?" Thurma asked, then everyone suddenly looked at her.
"When our home was being attack, dad tried to stop the U Muns from getting to the crystal, unfortunately, he was knocked against the crystal, knocking the shard out, and he almost fell into the shaft of air and fire below the crystal. Since no one could get to him in time, I accidentally teleported him somewhere else." Kiki explained.
"This is the first time we have seen him since. We thought he was dead or injured." Said Robin after Kiki had finished.
"And we all worried about him especially mom." Then Mailee said. Jen had a look of shock on his face. He his expression was panic and it seemed like the small group had brought the thought of his love Kira back to the surface.
"Kira!" He shouted and looked around frantically to find his girl. "Where is she?! Where is my beloved Kira?!" He grabbed Mailee and looked her in the eyes. He was worried and Mailee didn't know what to tell him. Finally little Kiki came forward and grabbed her fathers shirt, tugging on it slightly.
"Dad, mom is with the Gelfling outcast at there hideout." she said and he turned and faced her. The look quickly changed to angry.
"Why did you leave her there?!" He demanded to know.
"She has a broken leg, dad! She was in no condition to go anywhere!" Kiki shouted back at him, she hated when the people around her acted like they were her age. She may have been a young child but she always tried to act older than she was.
"Robin could have carried her!" He yelled back.
"Yeah, for how long? Mom is better of there and we both know that dad!" Screamed Kiki, and after that she began panting for air. Jen couldn't think of a reply to that, he did know she was better of there, he just hated the fact they left her there alone.
