Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal Author Quest Read Online Free PDF Page A

And the giant ansula bugs flew in slow loops, arcing gracefully to the treetops and swooping down to the ground, again and again in a dizzy, perpetual masterpiece. Kairn used to try to catch them on summer evenings in Hallis—never while he was at the Castle of the Crystal, of course. His father, Kiff, would not tolerate that sort of behavior there.
    Parra appeared in the doorway. He slid up to Kairn, who smiled at him, though it took effort. “Kairn, have you ever swallowed an ansula?” Parra asked.
    Kairn laughed. “No. I’ve never even caught one! I used to spend hours trying. It seems so easy. They seem so slow and predictable, but things are never as easy as they look. Do you have a song to call ansulas, too?”
    â€œNo, I think I’m just better at it.” Parra winked. It was funny to see a Podling wink—to squish the cheeks of his already-squishy face. Then he lay down in the lasciva and hummed. The lasciva fell down across him, cloaking him entirely. An ansula glided low to the ground, and Parra burst out of the grass. The ansula
instantly vanished.
    With his hands cupped delicately, Parra walked over to Kairn. “Open your mouth,” he said.
    Kairn obliged reluctantly. Parra put his hands up to Kairn’s mouth and released a still-buzzing ansula.
    Kairn’s eyes opened wide. “Do I chew? Do I chew?” he tried to say with his mouth closed and the ansula bouncing off the insides of his cheeks. Parra rolled on the ground, holding his belly and trying to shout, “Chew! Chew!” between his laughs. Kairn swallowed the bug whole. He burped and felt one of the dainty ansula wings flutter onto his tongue. Parra sat up in the lasciva across from Kairn. Once their laughter subsided, they didn’t speak for some time. Finally, Kairn said, “They hate me.”
    Parra shook his head. “No one hates you. They are very upset. These disappearances have been terrifying Podling villages across Thra for two trines. Now even Gelfling are disappearing. We want truth. We want safety. We want peace. Thra was meant for peace. The Skeksis threaten all that. To hear someone defend them wounds us.”
    Parra’s attempt to reassure Kairn only upset him more. “I wounded you.”
    â€œThat’s not what I meant.”
    â€œI have. I do not blame them for being wrong, but they
are
wrong, Parra. The Skeksis would not do such a thing. I will prove it.”
    â€œMaybe, Kairn. Maybe,” Parra whispered.
    They walked silently home.

Chapter Three
    Kairn had a private ritual. Whenever he departed a village, he would don his armor in seclusion and polish away all the smudges. He would confirm once more that he was alone, and then he would unsheathe his sword and artfully swing his blade, practicing with precision each maneuver taught to him by Kiff and skekVar the General.
    Normally this ritual gave him all the confidence expected of a young, strong, accomplished Gelfling warrior. He would not walk that day; he would march. He assumed that each passing traveler eyed him with envy. But the morning Kairn left Greggan, he did not feel so composed. He was troubled by what Parra and the other Podlings had said. He told himself that the Skeksis could never have committed the atrocities of which they were accused. He knew them too well. He respected them too much.
    Still, regardless of the Skeksis’s innocence, he could feel neither pride nor confidence when he knew how much pain he had caused the Podlings at the banquet. It was the first time in his life that he had been hated. Their manners wouldn’t allow them to speak it, and almost entirely prevented them from showing it, but Kairn’s inexperience in being hated did not prevent him from perceiving it.
    The Podling fields continued for miles. The bright fruits and calm shades undermined the Podlings’ claims of calamity. How could they be facing such a dreadful crisis during such a perfect