SkekTember, prompt 6: "Midday Power Nap"
(✨️Short story below!✨️)
The Great Library breathed with dust and silence.
Ancient shelves creaked beneath centuries of scrolls—barkskin, landstrider vellum, Nebrie-hide—scattered like relics from forgotten dreams. The air was dense with the scent of ink and age.
At a wide desk, skekOk hunched low, his quill whispering across a yellowish, stretched scroll made from nebrie hide.
“…that the Gelfling emissary did petition—”
A blot. Small, but glaring. He clicked his tongue and dabbed it away. It would do.
Looking up from his work, he spied the opposite side of the chamber.
Across the library, skekLa fussed over a drawing, dappled by the stained-glass light of a tiny triangular window. She was bent over her inks and brushes, the silver claw on her right index shimmering with every stroke of ink. She muttered to herself.
SkekOk winced.
“She’ll screech,” he sighed as silently considered, “but I don't care how busy she might be; I must make her draw the marginalia for this new scroll as soon as I finish…”
He carefully poked at the letters on his scroll with the parched pad of one finger-checking if the ink was already dry. Drawing back a velvet drape, he squinted into the golden light of Second Sun. Dust danced like drifting silvertree seeds. Soon, the Castle would prepare for a new Supper.
He glanced again at skekLa. Still absorbed.
Quietly, he turned back. Adjusted his spectacles. Rested his head on his arm.
“Just a moment…” he murmured, lowering his head into the crook of his arm. “Just… to rest the eyes…”
His body sagged like a draped robe. A low snore fluttered from his throat.
SkekLa looked up, huffing through her nostrils in disapproval.
Of course — the Scrollkeeper had nodded off at his post.
Again.
With a sigh, she gave a dismissive nod and returned to her drawing.
*DISCLAIMER*
This art challenge is not official or sponsored by the JHC. SkekTember is a small, fun thing created by a fan, for fans.
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I do not consent to ANY platform to use my artwork, posts, writing or reels to train generative AI tools.
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Artwork may be reblogged, but not used or redistributed elsewhere without written consent.
Artwork © @skekla
All publically recognizeable canon The Dark Crystal characters, designs, settings and situations TM & © Jim Henson / Brian Froud/Universal studios/ The Jim Henson Company
(No commercial use or copyright infringement are intended)
