The girl later went down to her special eating area for dinner. She usually ate with the Gelfling guards anymore. They all were still awkward around her. They knew that she had received quite an honor to have been moved to more royal bed chambers. They hoped she was grateful for that. But she wasn't one of them despite similar looks.
Later, she went to SkekEkt's quarters, and he went into a frenzy of 'going all girly' on her, fussing on her hair and clothes. A good portion of the afternoon was spent getting the girl into new robes; new mixed style of colors that the girl chose. She was a big fan of blue itself. Blue and purple were what she chose.
After dinner, she went to go observe the sunsets. The sky was a beautiful mix of colors of blue, purple, red, orange, and yellow. The prettiest part of the day. She had been partly active at night back home too, but this wasn't Earth. Here, she needed to be well rested if she was going to start working again tomorrow after reporting to the Skeksis emperor. She hoped he wasn't mad at her anymore as Sil had said.
Later, after she had gone to her new chamber, she got into her sleeping clothes, then there was a knock on the door. "Come in," she said.
The door was opened up and in stepped the Chamberlain, as he said he would. He also had some scrolls in his hands. He had gotten them from the Historian's library while he had been asleep. They were empty ones. He intended to use them, of course. He also had a container of ink and two feathers for writing with.
"So, we begin lessons." Sil announced.
"Yep. I wondered when you were coming." she replied.
"Chamberlain keep promise of coming, hmmmm." He set the scrolls and ink down on the table in the room. "How about you teach Chamberlain first?" he suggested.
"Okay," she replied. She was nervous doing this, considering how their past had been.
She began to write the alphabet from her former planet. She wrote the letters and numbers. She had been good with mathematics too. It had been a while since she had used them but still remembered, of course.
Sil watched what she was writing down on the scroll and he had no idea what she was writing, but that was going to change soon.
"You could also go ahead and write down your alphabet while waiting." She suggested.
"True." He replied. "Definitely not know what you are writing."
Sil took up his feather and dipped it in the ink and began writing on his scroll. The girl was watching him for a moment and saw that he was writing with his right hand. Skeksis tended to use the left ones more and she had wondered if he was right or left-handed. But she went back to working on her own alphabet.
She wrote the letters down first and then some examples of what they started with. Like food or animals from her planet. Even though her 'student' was an adult, she would have to start with the basics before moving onto bigger, more complicated words. And she was his student.
She was soon done with her part for now. Sil wasn't too far behind her when he put his feather down too.
"How about Human begin?" he suggested.
"Sure. Well, the English language can be complicated to learn and there were humans that lived all over my planet Earth that had various languages and looked different." she began.
"What speak English? We speak in Gelfling." Sil questioned. "But Skeksis have own private language too, one that stays with Skeksis."
"That's fine. And I'm glad to understand Gelfling language as it is like English."
"And what other languages on Earth?" Sil asked.
"Lots. It all depended on where they lived, of course. Countries like Europe have Spanish, French, German, Dutch. A few examples. Asian countries had Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese. Africa had ones like Swahili and Zulu. Like I said, there were LOTS of languages throughout my planet. Seven different continents: North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica. I came from North America. There was also a land mass that connected the two Americas, Central America. Antarctica was the only one that hardly any creatures could live because it was nothing but a snow mass down at the bottom of the world and SO cold. There were no trees or plant life there, and no food, except in the water." It made her shiver just thinking about it.
"With all the different languages that there were on Earth based on where my kind lived, but we all still had hard times understanding our languages and cultures. There were often wars when too many people didn't agree and wanted things out of greedy ways. There are ways to study the languages, but it takes a lot of patience and schooling to know it, depending on what language you want to learn because from the basic listening to language you don't understand, it all sounds like a bunch of gibberish." She giggled. "As English is my language as what I was taught from the time I could talk as a little kid, but when going to school later, there were two major ones that were offered in schools, as they were the most encountered. Spanish and French. Spanish, they say is easier to learn."
"Can you speak this… Spanish?" Sil asked.
"Not very much. A few words. Basics. Hola is hello. Gracias is thank you. Adios is goodbye."
"Hmm, interesting."
"Another one of my favorites is Japanese. Kon'nichiwa is hello. Sayonara is goodbye."
"Definitely weird words." Sil exclaimed.
"Like I said, it can sound like gibberish when you don't understand them."
"Think stick with this English you speak of then."
"Fine by me." she smiled.
She went on to tell him of the first few letters and what they stood for like apple, bat, cat, deer, and elephant from those letters a, b, c, d, and e. She also told him that in the c section that his own title of chamberlain started with a ch sound. Sil found it intriguing. She also told him the rest of the letters but would wait on their words for tomorrow or another evening.
Then it was the Chamberlain's turn. As she looked at the Skeksis' writing, she didn't understand his writing either. As she was learning it though, another question came to her mind. "Do you know how to read Gelfling writing too?"
Sil stopped. "Yes, but more focus on Skeksis writing now."
"Of course. I wouldn't dare say stop what we're doing now, another time."
"Yes, other time." Sil said and continued with his own teaching her.
But as it was with all fun things that had to come to a halt for a little while until the next time. Soon, they both began to get sleepy though. "Must come to end tonight, Human." Sil declared.
She yawned. "Yes. Getting sleepy too. Until tomorrow night then."
"Or when time permits." Sil declared. "Must leave now." He started to gather up his things when she suggested, "You could leave those here if you want."
"Hmm, intriguing idea. So Chamberlain will not be suspected of taking Scroll Keeper's things."
"You took them without his permission?"
"Our secret, Human. He not need them. Plenty of other scrolls and ink base. He not notice they be gone."
"Okay. Of course." She backed down from his little rougher voice.
"Just hide them." Sil ordered. She bowed to him. "Yes, my lord."
"Good evening, Human." Sil said as he left her room. "Good evening, Lord Chamberlain." She said the same.
The girl then got ready for bed after hiding Sil's scrolls. They were going to be their own little hobby together as friends. At least one of the first.
Her new bed was much better than the other one had been. And it had protection on the sides so that she wouldn't fall off, not that she did before. It was definitely big enough for her to fit in it. There was also some space for a second occupant should one be in there with her at any other point in time.
….
Over the coming days, both Chamberlain and the girl ignored each other during the day while they did their respective jobs unless talking was required of them. But in the evenings when everything lightened up as it was time to calm down for the night, Sil and the girl got together to talk and learn more of each other's writing.
As she was learning from him, the girl could see a different side to SkekSil that she just didn't see quite as much in the other Skeksis. If he came to her room in a slightly bad mood, it was because one of the others ticked him off, and it took quite a bit to push his buttons. But most of the time he kept his cool.
There did come a time though when SkekOk accused SkekSil of stealing from him.
"You stole some scrolls from me, SkekSil!" Ok screeched.
"Not do any such thing, Scroll Keeper." Sil declared back, though he knew he had.
"Then who did it? Huh? No one else wants to come in here but you!"
"Maybe scrolls just misplaced." Sil stated.
"That human better not have snuck in here." Ok growled.
"She not do anything. She's been doing as expected of her since punishment." Sil declared.
"Fine, whatever, Chamberlain. But no other stuff of mine better go missing." Ok screeched.
"I see they don't. Hmmmm." Sil declared.
To Sil, it was amazing Ok even noticed any of his scrolls were missing at all the way he kept on forgetting things anymore. He knew that Ok rewrote their history so much that it had all become an elaborate lie.
The girl was more or less trusted by the emperor and she was free to do what she needed to do around the castle. During the day, he would have her standing by the throne sometimes too, to tell him more stories of her world. Sil was there too, to listen. But it was easier to talk to the emperor when no other Skeksis was around.
One night, while Sil and the girl were in her room getting ready to do their practice alphabet lessons, the girl asked Sil a question. "Do you guys ever play games aside from working all day?"
"Of course, Skeksis play games. Probably not as much as used to. Have parties." Sil replied.
"I mean what do you do for fun?" she asked. "Besides working."
"We do like to challenge one another to see who is strongest. Emperor always wins that part." Sil explained. "Dance parties. Elaborate feasts."
"What about who is the fastest one? Races."
"Not so much. Castle not best place for that."
"There's space outside the castle for something like that." she proclaimed.
"Yes, but just not want to do it. Hunter might be fastest one, me guess. He one agile Skeksis that not live here in castle." Sil explained.
"I've never heard of the Hunter."
"Human best stays away from Hunter. He's very vicious Skeksis. Lives out in wilderness. He visits on occasion." Sil decreed.
"Okay." She replied reluctantly and got on with more writing lessons. She didn't want to get into the scary details.
By now, she was showing the Chamberlain some words in her language. She told him of animals in her world that seemed even beyond incredible, like an animal called the elephant that had the world's longest nose, its trunk, and the giraffe with the world's longest neck. She even compared giraffe legs to the length of a landstrider's. She wasn't much of an artist to draw what these creatures looked like. But she also told him of Earth's largest animal, the blue whale, and even the extinct lizards that once walked the Earth, the dinosaurs.
Eventually, she even mentioned that there were birds on Earth that looked a lot like Skeksis, at least with their heads. They were meat eaters and cleaners of the landscape in places they lived. Not many other predators tolerated them.
"Well, we Skeksis are rulers here. Shame birds not get the same best treatment." Sil replied.
"They're called vultures to be exact."
"Hmm, interesting." Sil said in curiosity.
As the evening wore on, as Sil was watching the girl intently on her doing his writing, from what was brought on earlier gave him an idea. "Does Human want to have dance with Chamberlain?" he asked her suddenly.
It made her jump a bit. It had come out of nowhere. "A dance? Where?"
"Chamberlain take Human to special place tomorrow night." Sil stated. "For now, time for stopping lessons tonight. Take break from writing tomorrow night."
"Okay."
Sil then departed her chamber. She put away the scrolls and ink. That had been so out of the blue it had shocked her. She hoped she would be able to concentrate on sleep and chores tomorrow before the evening.
She got ready for bed. It was a little hard to sleep at first. She hadn't been a big dancer back home, but she remembered a basic dance that couples did. If Sil was willing to be taught, maybe she could teach it to him. It remained to be seen.
