A few days later, after sailing around the southern portion of the first continent, they finally pulled into the Cer-na ship docking area.
Sil wanted off that ship the most. He was so anxious to be off that he just jumped into the water and swam a short distance. He didn't care about his robes anymore, as they were all dirty and tore up anyway.
Jen and Kira went aboard on a life boat with the other Gelflings. Some other Sifa greeted them on their way in to pull them ashore.
Sil had collapsed on the beach so happily, so glad he was home at last. "Not ever planning on leaving land anytime soon." he admitted.
"We can agree there." Jen agreed with him.
"We won't be going back anytime soon." Kira said. "Now that we know where we stand with them."
"You can see their point though." Dhant pointed out.
"Oh well. We did what we went for. At least we know there are some Gelflings still alive over there." Kira stated.
"Our population is rebounding itself, but it will take a long time to rebuild what was taken from us." Dhant declared.
Sil knew his kind had been totally responsible for it, and he was willing to let it happen. But with his kind now gone from this planet, he would do nothing to stop the Gelfling from remaking their population grow.
Kira also spoke to Sil, "You said that I could possibly be called a Maudra, Lord Chamberlain. What about now?" she asked him.
"Hmm. Since you thought to be last Gelflings, and start of putting clans back together, yes, you shall be named a Maudra, Kira. You are known as not only Maudra, but the newest All-Maudra as well." Sil proclaimed to her.
The Sifa, Jen, and the guards all witnessed such the event that the Emperor Chamberlain had bestowed on her, finally.
"Thank you, Emperor Chamberlain." she thanked him. She bowed in return.
"We tell when get back to castle." Sil said.
"We have a long walk yet." Baron said.
"Thanks for everything, Dhant." Jen said.
"No problem. If you ever want to go back, let us know, Lord Jen." Dhant said.
Sil turned.
"Yes, even Jen, as mate of Kira, deserve title." Sil stated.
Jen looked up at the Skeksis. "Like what?" he asked.
"Gelfling usually led by females, but Jen can be Maudra-King too. First male Gelfling to get such title. I give such gift as your emperor." Sil declared.
"Thank you, Chamberlain." Jen smiled. He bowed in respect.
Sil was glad that he was now giving out the blessings of what the Gelfling wanted or needed. He was compromising with the Gelflings. Since he had no one else to rule but them, but then, this was what he was wanting. A more simple people to rule than what the other Skeksis had ever been.
….
Back at the Beta Continent, Seleya was still wanting to move her people back to the land they originally called home, and now that the majority of Skeksis were gone, it might be easier to take the land back from just the one that was currently in charge.
Jen and Kira had said that he was the last one, and he had been wanting to invite Gelfling back into the land, to make things right again. Well, now could be the chance. With no Garthim around to defend the castle, they could go and take the castle of the Crystal back, for the good of Gelfling kind. They had to keep something like this from happening again.
Seleya called a meeting of her clan.
"Our visitors had said that we were allies, and that even though there is one Skeksis left, that he was willing to let us come back and live our lives there freely, are we going to trust their word?" Seleya asked her people.
"Mother, it seems absurd to trust a Skeksis. Especially one from before who was good at being a trickster, as you said." Her oldest daughter questioned her.
"I know it is absurd how they were trusting him too. At least they kept him out of here." One of her sons stated. "He would have been arrested if he had come in here."
"We are no longer the subservient Gelfling servants we once were to the Skeksis. And we will stand up to this one, to make sure that he never treats us like dirt again!" Seleya announced.
"YEAH!" They all shouted.
"So, are we going back?" she asked.
"YEAH!"
"We take everything with us, especially our weapons!" Seleya ordered. "Nothing, not even Rakkida will get in our way!"
"YEAH!"
"We go back to Alpha Continent, and we play it cool. We won't let them know what we're really there for, but you all keep weapons on you. We are taking over that castle, no matter what!" Seleya declared.
More cheers. This clan was clear on their mission.
They weren't necessarily evil, but their hearts were just hardened from so long ago. They just wanted to take a stand that they weren't going to be messed with anymore. Not even from one Skeksis who would likely still have evil in his heart too.
….
Sure, the Chamberlain still had it in him to be bad, but he didn't want to use it unless he had to. He was trying so hard to change his ways.
Currently, he sat while Kira changed his leg bandage. The Sifa were back on land for now, but were going to be sailing again very soon.
After lunch, Sil and his group of Gelflings set foot on trudging back to the castle. They were glad to be back home again, or at least back on their home continent.
They were glad that they had succeeded in finding more surviving Gelfling over there, but at the same time, disappointed that they hadn't come back with them. Sil, Jen, and Kira and their guards began to make their way back to the castle. Once they were there, they would relay the information to the other Gelflings as best they could. But they could only do things here as they saw fit to do.
Now that they were back on their own land, Chamberlain was ready for some more meat. Meat that he was used to having.
That evening, while camping, Sil went out on his own to catch a prey animal while Jen and Kira stayed and the guards watched over them. Sil's leg was healed enough to handle strong movement.
Soon, there were sounds heard in the woods and the Gelflings assumed it was Sil wrestling with some animal.
They were camped near one of the rivers. It would be crossed tomorrow.
Sil returned after the Gelflings had all had their dinner. He was still a little bloody from the kill, but he went to wash his face and hands in the water. He also got a good long drink of water too. Finding, catching, killing, and eating the prey took so much out of you. Sil could think of how SkekMal had made most of his way like this so long ago.
This had been Sil's first meal that he had hunted in a long time. And especially since his leg injury.
All these adventures trying to find new Gelflings was getting to be exhausting, not to mention annoying when he kept on getting some kind of injury. If and when his friends decided to try again to find more Gelflings, it might be better if he stayed behind next time. Now that Jen and Kira had higher titles, as heroes of Thra, other Gelflings were more likely to respond to their thoughts on joining back up again, as one unity.
The Chamberlain was more than ready to stay at the castle for awhile once they got back. He would do what he could around the castle with tasks and whatever. It was time for a break from all this traveling.
Jen and Kira too were ready to take a break from all the traveling. But they did want to have some time for themselves too when they got back. They hadn't spent much time alone as mates for awhile.
…
The next morning, they were all awakened by a storm that blew into the area and had to hurry and pack up their stuff and find shelter quickly.
By the time a cave was found, they were all soaking wet. Sil shook his head to get the water out of his hair. But everything then just turned into a laughing fest. They all looked so silly, dripping wet. It took Sil a moment to see what they were laughing at.
"What so funny?" he asked.
"Just the mad dash to get in here… and now… we're all… soaking wet!" Baron exclaimed, still laughing so hard.
It did get a giggle out of the Skeksis too. Yeah, the Gelflings did look quite silly all soaked from the rain.
"Have you seen your clothes, Chamberlain?" Kira asked, panting. "They are already ruined from our trip over to the other continent. And now, they're just as wet as ours!" she laughed.
"Hmmm. Yes. Know they are ruined." Sil replied.
"We'll get them fixed up when we return to the castle." Kira said calmly, calming down finally.
It would have been a good idea to have some firewood to start a fire to keep from getting too cold, but most of the landscape was drenched by now. Most wood would be too wet to burn. The group would just have to wait out the storm in the cave. They used each other's body heat to stay warm.
Sil kept his distance from them. His robes were still thick enough to keep some of his body dry. It was just the upper layers that were wet. But they were soaking the lower layers too. Soon, he was shivering.
One of the guards noticed. "If you're cold, you can use our body heat too. It's a survival trait, Lord Chamberlain." he explained.
Sil wasn't too comfortable with sharing body heat quite like that.
Kira took the initiative. She sat down by him and put his right arm around her. "What Kira doing?" he asked.
"Sharing my body heat. Like he said." she replied.
Jen came over next. He sat on the other side. "This is what friends do when they're in need of keeping warm and it's too cold to build a fire when everything else is wet outside." he said.
Sil could feel their warmth coming off of them and into him. He tolerated what they were doing because they were his friends.
"Thanks, Gelflings. Feel warmer already." he declared. His shivering was indeed starting to disappear.
The group was stuck in the cave most of the day. They got warm and then spent most of the day just sleeping, to catch up on some much needed sleep. Two were always keeping watch though while the others would sleep.
It wasn't until evening that the storm abated. But by then, it wasn't worth it to travel far. It was just better to settle down and just have a fire. They told stories around the fire that they created from a few dry sticks they had found. Dinner was also made. Just some vegetables.
Sil just ate what the Gelflings did tonight.
…
The Beta continent Gelflings had their own ship that they were going to travel across with.
They were already on the way to the Alpha continent to take back the castle for Gelfling kind. But their landing was on the farthest southeast of the island. Seleya didn't care. She began to lead her people off the ship and they would find the castle, no matter how long it took. They were going to take that castle back for Gelflings.
…..
The next morning, after getting all the needed sleep from so much traveling, and resting their feet, the group was ready to travel again.
They had some breakfast before setting out. They had to cross the river to get back on the right track. It meant some swimming.
There were some rapids in quite a bit of it, but they kept walking to find some place in the river that was slow or not too deep, but from the recent storm, it was a bit flooded. They kept on going upstream to find one smooth, still place among the water.
At one point, they did come to the calmest point in the river, but the water was still high.
Chamberlain was their leader. As the biggest one, he went first. He had to see how deep it really was. What he could do just meant more for the Gelflings because they were shorter than he was.
He entered the water slowly, testing its depth with his feet. The Gelflings waited calmly on the bank.
The water was getting deeper the farther Sil went into the water. When his feet could barely touch the bottom anymore, he knew he would have to take to swimming. Soon, the water was up to his chest and nearly to his chin.
That was then that he let himself become buoyant and began to swim from there. He used his tail a little like a rudder, kicking his legs and his two main arms in a more of an instinctual doggy paddle. His two upper arms weren't much help.
Sil did make it to the other side of the river. Now he was soaking wet once again. He turned around.
"Water smooth. Not strong here. Gelflings cross." Sil called back to them.
"We saw! Thanks." Baron replied back.
Jen and Kira began to lead the way. Their guards followed them. Kira flew over though.
Sil watched for any that might have tried to swim away, but none did. Or if there was any other trouble. You never know what could be lurking in water depths, but it seemed peaceful enough.
The Gelflings had had to start swimming much sooner than Sil had done, but they all made it. Now that they were all wet again, they had to sit out for the rest of the day and let their clothes dry.
A campfire was made and all their outermost clothing was taken off to dry. Even Sil took his heaviest robes off. He had gone off to a private spot and even took his sleep gown off too. Now, he had a blanket around himself.
Even when some of their other stuff had gotten wet too, sitting by the fire would get it dry faster, just not too close. The last thing that was needed was a bush fire.
Stories were told and the Gelflings even sang some songs to help pass the time.
Chamberlain had been a singer long ago, but time had turned him into not much of a singer. Being a former musician in his former self, his voice did though pick up on some tune. He hummed along with some of the tunes when he felt like it.
It took a few hours for their clothes to dry, but by then, the three Brother suns were setting. They all got dressed however. Nights were chilly out here.
Kira seemed to do the best cooking. She liked to cook, when she did. The males could cook too, but the women just seemed to do it better.
Sil stayed behind while two of them went hunting for him.
The hunters caught him a good-sized animal, holding it up.
"Hmm. Looks good." he stated as he got up to go take it away from the camp so they wouldn't see him eat it. That was one thing he was always generous about. The animal should be enough to fill his belly.
The Gelflings were grateful that he went to go eat the animal in private. They may have hunted for him, but they were not going to eat meat.
Sil knew to clean himself up after eating the animals. Given all his traveling lately, he had lost quite a bit of weight. Food had to be rationed quite a bit while out here, at least among so many Gelfling together. That was one thing Sil could be grateful for was that when it came to his meat, he didn't have to share with the others since they weren't meat eaters.
Shortly after dinner, it was bedtime once again. The guards took turns with guard duty and all.
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