#skektember

SkekTember, day 2- "Hoarded treasures"

In a dim, dust-mottled corner of the Castle’s Treasury, beneath folds of velvet shadow and high, crumbling vaults, sat skekShod the Treasurer.

Half-lost between a drooping velvet tablecloth and the weight of his own silence, he hunched over his gleaming hoard—his little kingdom of color and cold.

Before him: a spilled constellation of treasure.

Crystals, like raindrops frozen mid-laughter.

Baubles, all whispers and glints.

Delicate filigree loops and forgotten ornaments from lost eras.

Each caught the candlelight like it was a secret it wanted to tell.

With gnarled, fumbling fingers, skekShod sorted them, counted them—not by worth, but by shimmer, by shape, by feel.

He did not speak.

He never did, not really.

His pleasure was in the quiet clinks, the silky slide of gem on gem, the intimate hush of wealth being admired.

Then—ah.

A pendant. Skeksis-made. Old. Twisted gold cradling a large, translucent stone that flickered red, then purple, then something unnamed.

The kind of ornament worn long ago, perhaps during a banquet, or a celebration.

He lifted it gently, reverently, like it might sing if held just so.

His eyes, small and glassy, lit up.

He smiled. Wide. Childlike. Crooked.

To the others—cackling in the grander halls—this would’ve been a portrait of vulgar greed: the Treasurer hunched in shadow, all claws and hunger and hoarded glitter.

But no.

For skekShod, this was something else.

This was joy.

This was beauty.

This was life.

Each gem a star in his small sky. Each ornament a lullaby he could touch.

Here, in this forgotten corner of stone and silence, the world made sense.

He turned the pendant in his hands again.

And again.

The gem caught the light, and for a moment, it was brighter than the suns of Thra.

And skekShod smiled ever wider.

*DISCLAIMER*

This art challenge is not official or sponsored by the JHC. SkekTember is a small, fun thing created by a fan, for fans.

👇

I do not consent to ANY platform to use my artwork, posts, writing or reels to train generative AI tools.

👆

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

Skektember Day 8 - Hairbrush

My small contribution to the event hosted by the amazing SkekLa on DeviantArt! 

Day 07 - Tired

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.

👇

I do not consent to ANY platform to use my artwork, posts, writing or reels to train generative AI tools.

👆

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

SkekTember, day 1- "Morning preening"

(Short A.U story below!)

In a quiet corner of the Castle, just before the halls filled with footsteps and schemes, skekSil sat before his mirror.

He hummed—low and tuneful, a lullaby only he remembered.

Amber light spilled across the blood-red velvet of his robes as he gently combed the wisps of his hair with a jeweled brush—each stroke slow, careful, almost tender.

“Hmmm… yes,” he whispered to his reflection, offering a small smile. “You are clever. Clever and needed. You matter. You do. Even if they don’t say it.”

The comb paused mid-stroke. He tilted his head, studying himself with a softness few would ever be allowed to witness.

There was longing in his gaze—not just for recognition, or the throne… but perhaps also for peace.

For a day when he would not have to twist and scheme just to be heard.

Behind his eyes, a flicker of envy danced—skekUng’s brute strength, skekLach’s noisy confidence—all celebrated, while he, the patient planner, served the Emperor and yet went unseen.

There it was again, that bitter ache: the feeling of being unpraised. Unloved.

No—not unloved, he reminded himself. SkekLa noticed him. She would often offer words of kindness, and saw in him what the others did not.

The Chamberlain wondered what the Illustrator would say if she were here now.

“You are enough,” he told himself softly. “Your time will come. You're not as strong as the Garthim-Master, not loud like the Collector—but wise. They forget. But you mustn’t. You’re on the path. They’ll see, in time.”

He adjusted his robes, smoothing every fold with deliberate care. He stood taller than before.

“Smart… important… worthy.”

The words landed like feathers—soft and solemn.

“Hmmm, yes. One day, the throne. One day, they’ll look up.”

And in the mirror, his dream flickered—just for a moment—like light caught in crystal.

A.N: This story is set on my personal A.U; its canon is based on a combination of elements and character portrayals from The Dark Crystal movie, the Legends of The Dark Crystal manga, and written 80's lore such as movie production notes, the World of The Dark Crystal book, the movie novelization, and further info- any discordance with the canon and events seen in more recent official iterations is due to them not being part of this particular A.U)

*DISCLAIMER*

This art challenge is not official or sponsored by the JHC. SkekTember is a small, fun thing created by a fan, for fans.

👇

I do not consent to ANY platform to use my artwork, posts, writing or reels to train generative AI tools.

👆

Artwork may be reblogged but not used or redistributed elsewhere without written consent.

Artwork © @skekla_art

All publically recognizeable canon The Dark Crystal characters, designs, settings and situations TM & © Jim Henson / Brian Froud/Universal studios/ The Jim Henson Company

SkekTember 2024, prompt 2: Anxiety 👇(read story below!)

~"Please don't apply so much pressure, Gelfling! Remember you're making ink, not churning butter!", tutted the Illustrator, staring at her assistant who was sitting on a small pillow, using a pestle to grind coal powder, tree-gum and water into a thick, black substance.

~"I'm not pressing it that hard, Master! I promise!", huffed the Gelfling, smashing the pestle into the mortar with even more enthusiasm.

~"Ink-making is a delicate task. It requires a firm yet gentle hand. You will ruin it if you keep doing that." The Illustrator was starting to anxiously wring her hands.

~"It's these pesky crumbs in the coal powder that make it so complicated...I need them to dissolve but they won't...", replied the Gelfling matter-of-factly.

SkekLa's eyes widened.

~"CRUMBS? Wait, are there crumbs in the powder? Let me see that!" said the Skeksis, leaning forward to glare at the mixture as the Gelfling, stubbornly, kept struggling to crush something with the pestle.

~"Kirie, STOP! That's an ORDER!"

The Gelfling's ears perked up at the mention of her name, and she finally stopped working.

~"Why are you so upset, Master?"

SkekLa's eyes were round and crazed, one of her trembling hands pressed to her temple as she replied in dismay; ~"I have work to finish. I needed that ink right now, and it's ruined...Oh well. Strain off the crumbs.That will do, hopefully. That will do."

*DISCLAIMER*

This art challenge is not official or sponsored by the JHC. SkekTember is just a small, fun thing created by a fan, for fans.

Artwork may not be used or redistributed elsewhere without written consent.

Artwork © @skekla

SkekTember challenge created by skekla_art

All publically recognizeable canon The Dark Crystal characters, designs, settings and situations TM & © Jim Henson / Brian Froud/Universal studios/ The Jim Henson Company

SkekTember, prompt 5: "Secret talent"

(✨️Short story below!✨️)

The Chamber of Life was uncharacteristically quiet.

No hiss of protesting creatures, no chittering of wires, no clatter of metal limbs against stone. Only the gentle simmer of a small copper burner, no larger than a clawed hand, and the subtle glip of thick droplets falling one by one into a thimble-sized metal cup.

skekTek, the Scientist, hunched over his workstation—though “work” was perhaps the wrong word. His usually frenetic movements were slowed, precise, almost reverent. His eyepiece—a flare-lens clamped tightly with a latch around his skull—gleamed faintly with each pass of the light above, as he leaned in to examine his concoction.

A bit of glimberberry oil for brightness. Just one grain of firebark resin for warmth. A rare drop of distilled nettle-spit, smuggled in long ago from the swamps near the Crystal Sea, now aged to a velvet-smooth base. He tapped in a fragment of mica leaf, crushed to near-invisibility, for shimmer.

The scent rose like a ghost—first sharp and green, then turning warm, woody, with a curl of something sweet and unknowable that clung to the air like a whispered secret.

He stopped. Lifted the thimble to his hooked beak. Inhaled.

And for a moment—just a flicker—his single visible eye softened.

The stench of chemicals, rust, and caged failures faded. The howling machines behind him fell silent. There was only the perfume—his perfume—rich, strange, utterly beautiful. A composition no other Skeksis could possibly understand.

He held the cup up, turning it thoughtfully.

“Not for vanity,” he muttered aloud. “No. Not like him,”—and here his voice curled with venom at the thought of the Ornamentalist’s silks and powders—“Or the Chamberlain, that preening puff of empty pleasantries…”

He sniffed again, longer this time. A quiet sigh escaped his throat.

“This is chemistry. Olfactory alchemy. For science. Yes. For study. For structure.”

He paused, brow twitching. “Just to catalog… nothing more.”

Still, he cradled the little cup as if it were precious. His talons brushed the edge of his ragged robe, then hovered—hesitating—over his own bony chest. Just once, he dabbed the faintest smear beneath his neck frill.

No one would know.

And if they did? They would not understand.

He straightened, cleared his throat, and began cleaning his tools with the briskness of someone who had absolutely nothing to hide.

In the Chamber of Life, the scent lingered, just a trace—floral, smoky, strange—as the machines began to hum again.

*DISCLAIMER*

This art challenge is not official or sponsored by the JHC. SkekTember is a small, fun thing created by a fan, for fans.

👇

I do not consent to ANY platform to use my artwork, posts, writing or reels to train generative AI tools.

👆

Artwork may be reblogged, but not be 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