The sanguinary, avian beasts growled and hissed as they advanced menacingly.

"We need to go, now!" Kel cried.

Curdie scanned the view, saw Gyr and Kel not to far from them, and about a foot away on the ground…

"Father!" Irene gasped. The princess ran to her parent, Curdie joining her. Fortunately, Gawain was still alive, albeit having lost consciousness in the confusion. "Can we chance moving him?"

"We may not have much of choice!" Curdie said as the vulture creatures started getting closer. "Gyr, Kel, Kotha! We need help, the king is injured!"

Knowing they would need transport to make it possible, the two gelflings jumped down; Kel holding Gyr as she opened her wings to slow their fall. Once they did so, they called out to Kotha to jump so that they would catch him.

However, Frii-trii, a little animal creature that had accompanied them, urged the podling to follow. Speedily they dashed from between their would-be attackers legs towards an opening outside. It was Kotha's gift of soul-speech that allowed him to understand its intentions.

While Curdie and Irene tried half carrying and half- dragging Gawain down a steep hallway leading to the crystal chamber in hopes of meeting their comrades and escaping, the gelflings has picked up some of the fallen star staffs as weapons.

"I'm sorry I talked you into coming, Gyr!" Kel said as they

"In truth, Kel…I don't regret a moment of it." Gyr confessed, "But I still expect you to get us out of here alive – all of us!"

The humans reached the crystal chamber only to have several of the vulture fiends surround them. Irene shrieked as a lanky olive green one with dark brown mane and poisonous yellow eyes swiped at her, its claws tearing into her skirt.

Curdie picked up a star staff and held as one would a spear. "Keep back! Stay away!"

"What do you want?" Irene wailed as she tried kicking them away.

"To liiiiivvveee!" A cornflower blue one with angry red eyes snarled in a gruff voice, in a way as though it was just remembering how to speak.

On the other side, Gyr and Kel were engaged in a stick fight with two of the other bird creatures.

"Back to back for defense!" Gyr shouted.

Then his opponent grabbed the staff with its second left arm before throwing the male gelfling to the floor with a feral screech.

Kel rushed to Gyr's side and held the star staff angrily. "You want him monsters?! You'll have to go through me!"

"Caaamaaalayaaas!" Kotha called out to the landstriders and horses Frii-trii had lead him to.

Quickly, they climbed on the landstriders, the horses following close and hurried to the aid of the gelflings and humans.

The vulture creatures looked up. "Hr?"

"Frii-trii! Kotha!" The gelflings gasped in relief.

One of the horses neighed and reared up at the sight of the attacking creatures. In return, the avian fiends shrieked and wisely leapt away.

"Princess Irene! Curdie –over here!" Kel called out to them.

They didn't need telling twice, quickly the pulled the unconscious king onto one of the horses before getting on.

"Doshbah! Doshbah!" Kotha urged the animals.

At once they started to leave, as they did, the bipedal wheat colored beasts followed and were catching up.

"The other creatures! They're chasing us!" cried one of the gelflings.

"No, I didn't see any of them attack us." Curdie responded, "Not once."

"Curdie's right, I think they're running with us."

Up on his mount, Gyr nodded. "They want out of this madness as much as we do! The only monsters here are those right behind us." He pointed.

Everyone glanced behind to see that the wingless vultures had by no means given up. They appeared to charge towards the group, hissing viciously. One of the first few to reach the opening was the whimpering one, but the sunlight stopped them in their tracks. They didn't like how bright it was, much like a creature of the night. With calculating gazes, they watched as the small caravan got further away before slinking back into the shadows of the castle.

So the group continued onwards with the warm vanilla colored creatures walking with them. They were certainly no threat, particularly since neither the landstriders nor the horses seemed to mind their presence.

"What I want to know is, exactly where did they-?" Curdie motioned to the beings that had joined their caravan for the time being. "And those vulture beasts come from?"

Irene dropped her gaze sadly. "I just wish we could've done more to help."

"Hhelp…?" A low, somber voice questioned. One of the wheat colored creatures walking alongside her horse raised its head questioningly.

"What?" Irene raised her head up a little, having understood that they too could speak.

_

While the group fled, Aughra and Raunip were still in the castle. There in the crystal, Raunip sees the truth of his origins: He was not a native of Thra. He arrived on an organic meteorite, which was discovered by Aughra. Sensing life within the rock, she molded it into her own image.

Aughra reassured him that he was a gift of knowledge that made her world more inspiring. However they had bigger problems, for the savagerous avian race were there with them.

"You! Shards of the Urskek! You are products of discord." The wise woman confronted them, "bring back your other halves, the creatures that fled! Appeal to Great Crystal to put you together again! I will do this with your help."

Raunip watched the glaring bird-like beings uneasily. "Mother, this is not safe…"

"Look inside yourselves. Do you not wish to be whole again?" Aughra insisted.

One of the vulture creatures – a periwinkle colored one with grey-blue eyes and platinum mane holding a star staff with a hooked edge- scowled and screeched in a raspy voice: "NNNNEHHVRRR!"

It bounded atop one of the ledges that once held a mirror so that it was level with the crystal then without warning, struck with the star staff. And the seemingly unbreakable… broke. A single shard broke free and fell into a crevice.

For the span of a single breath, there was no sound heard, save for the painful screeching of the crystal. As if it were a living, wounded thing. Then the chamber began to rumble. And all of Thra, from ocean to plain, jungle to desert, began to quake.

_

To the podling and gelflings' bewilderment, Curdie and Irene attempted to get the strange new race to speak – or rather help remember to. The human adolescents started with introducing themselves, though the sixteen creatures simply stared.

For a moment, the duo was afraid they didn't completely understand before one of them spoke. The being moved its first pair of hands to its chest. "UrSu…"

Curdie was confused then he caught on that the being was telling them its name.

However, the well-meaning conversation was stopped short when the ground began to shake. It was all they could do to keep their rides from panicking.

Worse yet, a crack began to open less than five feet from them. In a mysterious manner of tranquility, the beings simply stood tall, moved their hands forward closed their eyes and chanted in unison. It was a gentle, harmonious sound that appeared to reverberate all around them. "OHHHHHMMMMMM…"

Amazingly, the crack started to close and recede.

"They stopped the crack." Kel murmured, "I don't know how, but… they saved our lives."

"We best keep riding." Gyr insisted, "I won't feel safe until we've some distance between us and the palace…"

For nearly an hour they continued, then with only melancholic glances directed towards the travelers, the creatures left for the southeast despite the teenagers' half-hearted protests.

The group lingered near the crystal palace at a reasonable distance; the building itself seemed somehow dimmer now if that were possible. They made camp on the vast cliffs overlooking the Bah-lem valley, where they tended to the wounded king, waiting for Raunip and the Great Aughra to emerge. The gelflings discussed rescue, but the looming structure seemed unreachable now.

Eventually they returned with Kotha to his village… to find that his mother, Clan Elder Hakmeena had tragically perished in the great quake. Her body had been kept preserved with crystalline minerals, plant oils and floral aromas until Kotha's return… when her planting ritual could be performed. After the funeral arrangements, Kotha was chosen as the symbol of leadership and council for his tribe.

Soon Gyr and Kel often speculated what had happened inside the crystal palace but neither they nor their human companions had any answers. For them, it was a day shrouded in confusion, they only thing they knew for certain was what each had seen in the other in that chamber. And both had seen the same thing: A companion worth fighting for. The couple departed for the Sifa coast after bidding the human trio a cordial farewell.

Next, King Gawain, Irene and Curdie left for a human settlement situated near a gelfling village, there they discussed on what had happened on the day of the Great conjunction and what measures ought to be taken.

What they didn't know was that Aughra and Raunip had ventured down into the shaft of the great crystal in search of the lost shard.

_

"So how do the skeksis fit into all this?" asked Izzy.

Kylie read over some sentences quietly then replied, "According to this, no one else in Thra knew that's what they were called until… the skeksis come in peace…"

To be continued...