Many days later, the girl went outside the castle grounds to see what it was like away from the castle. It was beautiful to her. She managed to make it to beyond the castle's grounds and nearly at the edge of a forest. She didn't know she had been followed though.
The girl was just so curious about this beautiful landscape. All the Gelflings had been elsewhere in order for her to sneak outside.
Sil smiled and whimpered to himself that she was out here and might have been trying to escape the castle. He still didn't trust her. He would try again to win her over to his side of things. Most of the others already couldn't stand him.
The girl was at the edge of the Endless Forest well away from the castle. She was seeing some flowers and wanting to smell them. Then suddenly, she was startled by leaves creaking and there were footsteps. There was a growl.
From his distance, Sil saw that a predator was stepping out of the woods. It was good-sized one too. A Rakkida! They were scary to deal with.
The girl faced off against the creature. "Now easy there, big guy or girl. I mean you no harm. How about I get away from your home and I'll go back to mine and you to yours." She pleaded gently with it, but it had no effect. It continued to growl menacingly at her.
Chamberlain knew that Rakkida never bargained. He had heard her words and the animal continued to approach her, growling. Hungrily or defensively; one of the two. But it didn't matter at this point. It charged at her, and she began to run. It made it chase her.
She managed to get closer to the castle but then, she tripped and fell. She looked behind her, then out of nowhere, a flash of red came out and pushed himself into the creature, knocking it off balance for a moment. The one Skeksis she wasn't counting on to come to her rescue was there.
The Rakkida was ticked off and angry now that its meal had been reprieved. It growled at the large Skeksis in front of it, hissing and growling at it in return. Sil was trying to look as intimidating as possible. He definitely could look that way at times despite his usual friendly looking demeanor. It was often his cover.
"Human, get to castle!" Sil yelled the order to her.
He didn't need to tell her twice. She got up and headed toward the castle, but she couldn't leave him out there. She got to the entrance and grabbed a dagger there. But by then, she was now hearing the screaming.
"Help! An animal attacked me out there and now it's attacking one of the Lords!" She shouted orders and some Gelfling guards came running. They also had their weapons ready.
The Rakkida was now taking its revenge on the Skeksis who had protected the creature that had disturbed its home and as a meal. It had found Sil's right arm and was clamping down hard on his arm now. Sil was trying his hardest to get out of its grasp. His arm screamed in pain just as his voice was. The claws also scratched about and there was some serious tossing and turning on the ground. The Rakkida wouldn't let go of him.
Sil was soon down on the ground, wore out from the fighting as he wasn't the most warrior type of Skeksis. But there was now a loud group of Gelfling and the human girl coming to his aid. The girl in the lead with her being the tallest.
The Gelflings and human all circled the sight before them. The Rakkida growled at them menacingly. The Skeksis was down. There was a bloody mess on the ground.
The human waved her dagger in front of her. "Leave him alone, you monster!" She yelled at it.
The Gelflings all kept their spears at the ready to keep the Rakkida at a distance. But then, the human took the dagger and threw it into the animal's ribs. It roared in pain. The Gelfling guards were shocked at what they saw her do. Another guard copied her and did the same.
The Rakkida roared in pain again and it began to slink away, knowing it wouldn't get a meal now. But before it got too far, it fell to the ground dead after losing too much blood.
The girl then went to the fallen Skeksis. "Lord Chamberlain, can you hear me?" she asked in concern. Then it dawned on her that he had saved her life. None of the other Skeksis had ever done that for her yet. And she knew she had to repay him for what he had done.
"Is there a way to get him back to the castle?" she asked the lead guard.
"We can use one of their carriages. It is far from the castle for him to walk that far. Rakkidas have a bad bite."
"Yeah, let's use that." She declared.
Some of the guards went back and to tell the Skeksis about what happened out there, and another got the Podlings there to get some Armalings in the wheel area and it was taken out to where Sil lay injured.
The girl had ripped apart Sil's sleeve material and saw that his arm was torn apart. He was almost unconscious. "You have to stay awake, Lord Chamberlain." She coaxed him. Sil whimpered in pain. His arm was bleeding like crazy from the wounds.
The girl went to work using some moss and bandages that a couple of the remaining guards had on them to help her. The carriage was now pulling up. She got his arm bandaged as best she could.
"Come on, Chamberlain. You have to get on your feet. I can't carry you." She said to him.
Sil managed to get to his feet for a short time just long enough to get to the carriage with the girl's and Gelfling guards' help. His arm stung. His vision was blurry now. Then he slipped into unconsciousness.
The girl watched him as he went out cold. He was still breathing though. But he would need some help back at the castle.
Back in the entryway, they were greeted by the General and some other furious Skeksis and guards. "What has been going on here?" Var demanded angrily.
"I was out there checking things out and a Rakkida tried attacking me. Lord Chamberlain got in its way, and he stopped it from attacking me. But it got his arm pretty good." The girl explained as quick as possible.
The General and Gourmand looked at each other in surprise and took a look in the carriage. Sil was on the verge of unconsciousness and his arm and clothes looked torn up and bloody. They reluctantly took the Chamberlain out of the carriage and took him to the Scientist's lab to be looked at. The girl followed them at a distance.
Tek was busy doing something with his machines when the others had to bring in Sil. "Where can we put this snip?" General demanded.
"I don't need him in here. Take him out of here." Tek ordered, then saw the blood on the floor.
"He's been wounded." The girl declared. "That arm." She pointed at his right arm.
Tek saw the torn-up sleeve and bloody arm. "Take him to the exam room." He ordered. Tek saw the clothing and it got torn off with a knife. Sil's whole arm was bloodied even from the bandages from earlier. Tek saw the extent of the wounds.
"Going to require surgery to fix that damage." Tek stated. "I'm going to need some assistance to help hold him down should he wake up again."
"Can't you just keep him asleep?" The girl asked.
"No. Not you in here. Out!" Tek snapped grumpily. She hesitantly left the lab. She was just concerned but it was understood why she was told to leave. Even doctors at home wouldn't allow her to be in with him then either when surgery was concerned.
The General and Gourmand were ordered to stay in there and help in what the Scientist needed to see about the horrendous injuries.
The girl was left to wander the hallways as she could only hope for good news on him later.
As surgery proceeded in the lab, Tek used a knife to cut more of Sil's arm robes off to get to the full extent of the damage. First, the bleeding had to be kept under control. Ayuk was to hold a cloth down sometimes to keep blood from seeping out too much.
"Why even bother stopping it at all? Why not let the fool die?" Var exclaimed.
"You know the Emperor's degree. No Skeksis dies." Tek rasped. "Despite how annoying the Chamberlain is."
The General was still not pleased to be helping take care of his hated rival. But with Sil being Skeksis, there was a slight caring about him in an incident like this. The Skeksis did 'care' for one another when there were horrific injuries caused by outside forces. And Rakkidas were another matter too.
…..
The girl went to the throne room where the emperor was waiting on what to do next. He heard steps and was expecting his advisor to come into the room to discuss what happened next with the Gelfling villages for the next tithing ceremony. Instead, it was the human girl.
"Your Highness." She bowed respectfully.
"What's going on? Where is the Chamberlain?" So demanded. "I hear of some radical news about him."
"Sire, I was out near the forest seeking some new flowers and this creature attacked me. I didn't know that Lord Chamberlain followed me out there, but he was trying to warn me, and it got him instead. He was attacked and injured. He's in the Scientist's lab being treated right now." The girl explained thoroughly.
"And just why were you out of the castle in the first place? We have plenty of flowers right here in the castle you can see." The Emperor was furious. "Were you planning to escape us?"
"We needed new ones. No, that I can assure you. And I also wanted to see more outside the castle, what it is on foot anyway. I wasn't going any further than the edge of the forest. It was too pretty to not go see it, Sire. But Lord Chamberlain did save my life." She explained.
SkekSo knew his advisor was keen to try to make servants their 'friends.' And saving them could make the girl even more subservient. But he had to go see for himself what was going on. He had to see that his Second in Command didn't die. He got up off the throne.
"I will go see what the Scientist has done with him." The Emperor declared.
"What should I do?" she asked.
"Stay here. This is Skeksis business only, Human." So proclaimed. The lead Skeksis left the room to go to the lab.
The girl didn't know what else to do. She could only wait to hear anything else. She went to her quarters for a while. She saw the Gelfling guards looking at her as she came in.
"It'll be alright." One of the females told her. "They can be like that when concerned with one of their own. But then, that's just the lords."
"I can understand. My kind get the same way back home when our friends or family are in danger." She replied. "I'll just wait for news." She then laid down.
