Unaware of what was happening at the Skeksis' castle, Jen trudged on over grassy plains, across shallow streams, and finally climbed up a steep, jagged cliff. As he looked for the dome of Aughra, roots and branches of a tree shot out in front of him. They wrapped themselves around him and pulled him up into the air. Frightened, Jen struggled helplessly. Suddenly the branches parted, and an unblinking eye held in a twisted hand was staring at him. Startled, Jen stared back. The eye vanished, then reappeared on the most terrifying face Jen had ever seen, and the face belonged to an even more strange and terrifying being.
"You Gelfling?" she asked in disbelief.
"I am," Jen answered. His voice trembled with fear.
"Can't be. All dead."
"I am not dead. I am Jen the Gelfling," Jen told her. "Are you Aughra, Watcher of the Heavens?"
"Who sent you? What do you want?"
"UrSu my Master showed me a vision of your dome. Then another vision of a crystal shard. I do not understand what he was telling me to do, but if I can find the shard I might-"
"That all?" Aughra crackled. "Why no say so? Follow!"
Aughra gently touched the branches, and they lowered Jen to the ground. He then ran after Aughra, into a dark tunnel that led to her Oberservatory.
Beneath a dome that glowed with a golden light Jen stopped, dazzled by the whirling discs and rods whizzing by him. This was an enormous model of the Three Suns and their planets, all of them turning, spinning, with moons and comets rising anf falling, swooping down and around. Jen had to keep dodging the moving worlds to avoid being knocked over. Aughra knew all the movements and ducked out of the way without even looking. It all made Jen dizzy. Never had he dreamed of anything so wonderful. Never had the urRu told him there were such things.
"Sun, planets, moons," said Aughra. "Everything in the heavens. How else you know about conjunctions? Big one coming up. Better be underground for that one. Whole planet might burn up."
"What's a conjuction?" Jen asked, jumping out of the way of a razor-sharp moon.
"The Great Conjuction. When the Three Suns become one. Soon. The end of the world. Or the beginning," Aughra laughed. "UrRu. They not tell you anything?"
"Oh, many things. But not this." Jen dove to the floor as a great comet whizzed by.
Aughra looked at him for a long time. Then she started to tell him about the Skeksis and Garthim, the shard and the Dark Crystal. But what she told him only made him more confused. And frightened him, too. He guessed that whatever he was supposed to do would be very dangerous.
Aughra opened a cabinet and took out a box full of pieces of crystal. Jen gazed at the shards. How would he know which one to pick? He decided to try to find the one that most looked like the shard he had seen in the magic bowl.
Finally, he was left with three. But they all looked the same. Then he remembered the sound he heard in the cave as the shard disappeared. Jen picked up his flute and sounded that note. As he played, one of the shards began to glow and sounded the same note back. Jen picked up the shard and stared at it, happy that he had found it and curious about what it all meant.
Suddenly, Jen heard a terrible clicking noise. Giant black claws were ripping open a wall of the Observatory. Through that hole the Garthim came, smashing their way toward Jen.
Jen jumped up, terrified. The Garthim were only a few yards away...and there was no escape! Above, a giant metal moon dipped toward him. He did the only thing he could do. He leaped onto the table and rans toward the moon. As it swooped down, Jen hurled himself into the air and wrapped his arms around it. Up, up, up they swung, over the snapping claws of the Garthim, higher and higher, toward the top of the dome. Looking down, Jen saw the table catch fire and the flames begin to spread.
Jen knew that at any moment the moon would begin to descend. Swinging his legs he threw himself against the wall of the dome, hoping to land on the ledge. But the wall cracked open, and Jen sumersaulted through the air, landed, and tumbled head over heels down a steep, rocky hillside. He finally came to a stop at the foot of the hill. He stood up a bid dazed and brushed himhself off. He was buried and cut in several places, but at least he was safe. And so was the shard.
Above him the dome burst into flames with a roar. Jen sighed, thinking of Aughra, then ran into the forest. The only one to see him go was the Chamberlain. He was too far away to catch Jen. But he turned and struggled slowly through the thick, jungly bushes in pursuit of the Gelfling.
