More and more Gelfling prisoners were brought in over the coming weeks.
With having the twins now, Sil was making sure to stay away from them. Any Gelfling that wasn't drained would see them as a target to use against any of the Skeksis, and what remained of the adults were to protect the young ones, as deemed by the Emperor.
At one point, Sil and La were passing by the newest batch of Gelfling slaves that had been drained already and were being taken to some part of the castle by the Slave Master.
Chamberlain was wanting to pay no mind to them, but there were two in particular that caught his eye.
His eyes widened when he did recognize his old friends of Byron and Wyneth among them. He had wanted them to be his servants if he ever saw them, but like this, they wouldn't even know him. But he still could get them to be his servants if he talked to the Slave Master just right.
"What's wrong, Sil? You look at those Gelfling slaves like there's something wrong?" La spoke up, snapping him out of it.
"I just… saw that two of them were the two that helped me out in the wilderness. I know they won't know me now, but I must get them to work for me." Sil said. "I will say that the young boy, Byron had taught me a lot out there and he was my friend. He got me out of the Gelfling prison when I was treated as a prisoner. And Wyneth did save my life when I was hurt, besides Byron, and she delivered Ka and Lil."
La understood what her mate was talking about. She had had her special share of Gelfling servants too.
Chamberlain had La take the twins and he went to talk to the Slave Master about the two in particular that he wanted.
The Skeksis only used Gelfling servants now only if their essence had been drained. But it was only a matter of time before they might kill all the Gelflings, drained or not. Because they feared the prophecy that had been found out about.
It was a good hard talk with SkekNa, but he did eventually let Sil have the two that he wanted. He returned to his mate with them. He did introduce her to them, though they didn't have a clue what was going on now.
As much as Sil had turned to mostly not liking Gelflings after what they did to him out there, he still held a special place within himself for Wyneth and Byron though.
He had them help out with carrying scrolls and papers around the castle. This was as good as it was going to get to just have them in his life again.
He even used some of his building skills that he had remembered and with their help, they made the twins their own bed. While they were small, they craved each other's body heat. Their crib was next to his bed.
La and Ekt even had certain beds and playpens made for when they watched them. If they were busy doing something where the twins couldn't be held, they needed some place safe to put them. Sil would never leave too long, as he would return within short times to make sure they were fed before he would move on to the next duty.
A good majority of the adult Skeksis did think about what they would want to teach the young ones as they would get older.
The number of them was holding at 15 now. They had lost Mal, Var, and Gra to death. Lach had been kicked out and who knows what would happen to him. They were down five since the beginning. But with Ka and Lil's additions, it made it a little better.
…
Chamberlain got to keep Byron and Wyneth as his servants for two trines (years) before the Emperor officially declared that all Gelfling were dangerous and had to be destroyed.
There wasn't much he could do as he was forced to give them up by the Garthim Master and Ritual Master.
There were only very small collections of Gelfling from the wilderness now. It was clear their numbers were dwindling. But all that were brought in yet were drained and then killed.
It was sad for Sil to not have his old friends anymore, but he would always be grateful for what they had done for him in the past.
Ka and Lil were little bundles of energy now. They would be allowed to walk around outside playpens as long as they were strictly supervised. This castle had some dangerous places in it.
The Emperor had ordered that the Ornamentalist make them some clothes. He was happy to do that.
It had taken about eight months of nursing before they were ready for solid foods. Now Sil was happy that any of the adults could watch the kids now and give them food. He didn't need to be their constant food source. But they were mostly only given food when the adults ate now.
The twins had their own special spots beside La and Sil at the table to eat. But it wasn't always easy trying to get them to eat. They were often fussy eaters. They did like a few kinds of meat and only a small portion of plant food.
As two year olds, they did have hair on their heads and on their backs. Ka had black hair like Sil, while Lil had La's hair color. By now, they also had their permanent eye color too. Ka had La's eye color and Lil had Sil's.
They could do small words and small sentences. Ka and Lil often did not want to go to bed at night, which could put drains on all the adults with testing patience. The adults also didn't have the energy as they once did to keep up with the young ones and would usually let them do their own things as long as they were watched.
SkekEkt definitely found himself busy making clothes for them every few months as they were growing. He also used different colors to see which suited them most.
SkekLi the Satirist did teach them about music and writing when they got to be around six years old.
SkekHak the Machinist taught them about machines and small inventions that he created.
SkekSa the Mariner taught them a bit about water, with swimming if ever needed.
Ayuk taught them about the wonders of different foods.
Ekt taught them about the importance of clothes and let Ka and Lil watch when he made the Pod chorus perform, to decide which ones were good enough. With Gelflings now gone, Pod People were the new servants.
Tek tried to teach them the great aspects of science that most of the others didn't always understand. The kids didn't either.
Ung was to teach them about being warriors, since he was technically the main one left that could do it, since all the other physical military ones were dead. But the education from him would wait until they were a little older.
Zok taught of rituals and court dignity.
Ok also had a hand at teaching writing and reading too. And teaching the kids of their kind's past.
Shod didn't really do anything to teach them. He just stayed in his treasure room, making sure the castle's treasure was fine. But the twins watched how their parents interacted with him, which was usually just bribery.
Na taught the importance of having slaves around to do a lot of work.
Their mother, La, taught them about drawing pictures and other artwork.
Sil taught them about pulling pranks, blackmail, and being a diplomat. He was just more than happy to be raising his offspring here at the castle.
The Emperor just ruled with an iron fist and he said that one day, the twins would have to pull their weight around the castle, so they better learn their Skeksis education well.
…
At age eight, they began to get more testy with their parents and each other at times and really wanted their own spaces. The Emperor was ok with granting that for them. They both got to pick their own room, and Lil got Mal's old room, and Ka got Gra's old room.
At age ten, they began getting itchy on their backs and it was the start of the spikes growing in. Their spikes grew slowly for the next three years.
On their 13th birthday, Ekt let them decide what robe colors they wanted permanently.
As both of their biological parents wore red robes, Ka picked black and green instead, to help tell him apart from his parents. Lil liked gold, white, and purple.
It seemed a little strange for Sil and La to think their kids liked those color combinations.
And now that they were older, Ung was trying harder to teach them about fighting ways, but neither Ka or Lil was into it too much.
When they had turned 16, the Machinist had died from a mysterious illness. And at 17, the Satirist was banished for making fun of the Emperor at one point in one of his songs. At age 18, they both had job titles.
The Satirist had though before that time inspired Lil to want to do special writings and songs. He had grown up though knowing better than to make fun of the Emperor. SkekSo allowed him to become the new Satirist.
Ka was just more of a diplomat type. He became a Chancellor. Sil had inspired that in him.
Both Ka and Lil settled into their new roles and it wasn't until they were 20 that the Emperor called them full adult Skeksis.
The Chamberlain and Illustrator couldn't have been more proud of the twins they had created twenty years ago that they had survived this long and now had their places in the Skeksis court.
There would still be plenty of challenges in the twins' lives for years to come, but SkekSil would see to it that they made it through them all, along with SkekLa.
The Emperor saw that the twins were no threat to his leadership and was somewhat more happy to have them serving in his court. But he had made it clear that they would be the only young Skeksis born and be allowed to stay. He might have also allowed it so long ago because Chamberlain was of his political alliance. The kids had nearly turned into like that.
Sil and La still had their secret love affairs, and were more than happy about what it had brought about to their lives, and had added two wonderful new family members to it. They would still watch over them for years to come and still perform their castle duties. And most of all, Chamberlain was glad that he hadn't had to raise Ka and Lil out in the wilderness, alone. But he and La made sure not to have anymore kids either.
This was the happiest time of their lives, if called that for Skeksis life, that there were no more threats from Gelfling either. And also Sil was glad he had gotten rid of his biggest rival so long ago to make it safe in the castle for them too. Life couldn't get better than a 'happy' family.
The End
Beta read by SkekLa.
What had inspired me for so long to write a story like this was a lot of combined other movies, shows and books.
A couple of dog movies/shows, called Lassie, the Miracle, dog movie Bingo, a little bit of the Xena shows, Law and Order, of course the Dark Crystal movie, one DC website, and both of the Legends DC books.
I hope that helped to tell you where I got my inspiration from. So what did you think of this story overall? No flames please.