literature

The cracking- Chapter five

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Literature Text

The fearsome Rakkida growled angrily when the second booming thunder struck the earth.
This intense noise was hurting its sensitive ears.
It shook its head and then  yawned, opening its heavy drooling jaws impossibly wide, its powerful array of yellowish fangs bared in a bloodfreezing grimace.
 
It had been watching that rift in the wall steadily since that morning.
There was a small, trilling voice in there. Small prey. That one was ocassionally interrupted by a strange whimpering sound and another voice, a harsher one. Bigger, fatter prey.
 
Squinting its shimmering yellow eyes in impatience and anger, the rakkida tilted its head and observed the place where the prey hid, infuriatingly out of reach, emmiting those bothersome articulate noises.
 
This made it feel nervous.
 
It was very hungry, and it had already tasted the delicious coppery-sweet flavour of the bigger prey’s blood.
 
It licked its dark leathery lips remembering the taste.
 
If those sounds continued for a longer time, and the creatures did not come out, it would attack the wall with its claws again.
 
It was not going to allow those two appetizing pieces of meat to escape.
 
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Sitting in front of her Master in a narrow corner between the moldy stone walls, with her legs all bent and her chin resting on her knees, Kaia lowered her eyes timidly and began to talk.
 
She felt a bit embarrased to tell THAT story to the Skeksis, but she also knew that she had been wanting to do it since a very long time.
 
Trying to keep her voice from cracking from the burning thirst that dried her throat, she spoke on, without stopping to think that she was finally doing it, afraid that her own shyness would force her to stop.
 
It was very important for her to let him know her story.
 
With a little bit of luck, her Master would understand.
 
 
-“ I was born on a tent. I never knew exactly where.
 
Every day, never too far from some village, my parents would put up our tent, and there we would sleep during the night.
They were wandering herders, who cared after a herd  of huge, gentle Mounders.
 
We were always traveling, always moving forward, trading with the villagers for whatever we needed in exchange for sheared stacks of red hair from our Mounders, and bottles of their milk.
 
I can still remember how much I loved to ride in the hairy back of our Mounders, even if they stank like spice and rotten wood.
When I was little, my mother would always take me up in her arms and help me climb up their backs, teaching me how to hold on to those branch-like portrusions they have on their shoulders, so I would not fall...
Then she would sing to me some funny, nice songs to make me sleep...And even while sleeping, I would never fall down!”-
 
 
Kaia let out an innocent giggle at that point, and the sulky, pained Chamberlain, huddled among the still-soft layers of powdery ripped silk and tattered velvet of his robes, rolled his eyes with annoyance.
He was beginning to wonder why he had thought it would be a good idea to let the silly young Gelfling tell him some idiotic story about her childhood.
It was better than the overwhelming silence though, so he did not ask her to stop.
 
 
 -“One day, when I was only a small child, three Rakkida came. They were big and horrible, just like the one out there”-  The girl resumed, with a strangely dettached voice.
 
SkekSil thought to perceive that she was attempting to repress some kind of strong feeling.
Perhaps the story would turn out to be more interesting than he expected.
 
 -“ They attacked our Mounders. I was riding one of them, and my mother
tried to climb it, to take me in her arms and help me down.
One of the Rakkidas jumped, and caught her.
I remember that I could hear my father screaming, but I could’t see him. He was probably trying to help my mother.
 
Suddenly, the Mounder I was riding shook hard, and I couldn’t hold on to it any more.

That day was the first and only time I fell...
I never rode a Mounder again after that.”-
 
 
There was some sort of stifled sobbing, and Kaia stopped talking for a moment.
 
When she continued, her voice sounded monotonous, yet filled with intense pain.
 
 
-“I must have fainted when I fell down.
 
When I woke up my wings hurt a whole lot, and I was bleeding.
 
There were other Gelfling there, staring at me, and asking me things I couldn’t understand because I was too scared and stunned.
 
The earth was all dug out, stomped and scratched open, and there was sticky red blood everywhere.
 
An old Spriton woman took me with her.
 
The ones from the village never wanted to tell me what happened to my parents...but I know they both died that day.
Not only because I know that if they had been alive they would have come looking for me, but because I could feel it inside me. Like a missing piece. Like if something inside me had disappeared.
 
I can still feel it here, deep inside my chest, Master, you know?...Like a hole...Or a crack...Just like this crack we’re hiding in right now, only that this one hurts, and it is within me...”-
 
Giving off a faint “Hmmmmm”, The Chamberlain tilted his head to a side with a slight spark of interest.
 
He wondered how could that Gelfling have survived such terrible events, being the minute fragile thing she was.
 
Outside, the huge dark Rakkida yawned once more, and the storm unleashed in all its fury.
 
Finally, chapter five of "The cracking" is here!

Now things are starting to boil when the Rakkida starts to lose it's patience, and the storm begins to rise...
Kaia begins to tell her story...
What will the Chamberlain discover through his little servant's words?

Don't miss the next chapter!


*DISCLAIMER*: I do not own the skeksis, the gelflings or the world of Thra,it's flora and/or fauna. 

Everything related to the Dark Crystal is property of Jim Henson, Brian Froud and Frank Oz.


The events depicted in this fanfiction and the character of Kaia are mine, though.
© 2014 - 2024 SkekLa
Comments23
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ArlenFram's avatar
I wonder if the story touched something deep inside SkekSil. And how the Gelfling survived? I must to read the rest!
I love how you described creature's feelings ^^